The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians (Short Version)

I HAVE BECOME ACQUAINTED WITH YOUR NAME: beloved in God, which you have acquired by the habit of righteousness, according to the faith and love in Jesus Christ our Savior. Being the followers of God, and motivating yourselves by the blood of God, you have perfectly accomplished the work which was fitting for you. For, on hearing that I came bound from Syria for the common name and hope, trusting through your prayers to be permitted to fight with beasts at Rome, that so by martyrdom I may indeed become the disciple of Him “who gave Himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God,” [you hastened to see me]. I received, therefore, your whole multitude in the name of God, through Onesimus, a man of inexpressible love, and your bishop in the flesh, whom I urge you by Jesus Christ to love, and that you would all seek to be like him. And blessed be He who has granted to you, being worthy, to obtain such an excellent bishop.

TO MY FELLOW SERVANT BURRHUS: your deacon in regard to God and blessed in all things, I ask that he may remain longer, for your honor and that of your bishop. And Crocus also, worthy of both God and you, whom I have received as the manifestation of your love, has in all things refreshed me, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ shall also refresh him; together with Onesimus, Burrhus, Euplus, and Fronto, through whom I have, in terms of love, seen all of you. May I always have joy in you, if indeed I am worthy of it. It is therefore fitting that you should in every way glorify Jesus Christ, who has glorified you, so that by unanimous obedience you may be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment, and may all speak the same thing concerning the same thing, and that, being subject to the bishop and the presbytery, you may in all respects be sanctified.

I DO NOT GIVE YOU ORDERS AS IF I WERE SOME GREAT PERSON: For though I am dedicated to the name [of Christ], I am not yet perfect in Jesus Christ. For now I begin to be a disciple, and I speak to you as fellow disciples with me. It was necessary for me to be inspired by you in faith, encouragement, patience, and perseverance. But since love prevents me from being silent about you, I have therefore taken it upon myself to first encourage you all to run together according to the will of God. For even Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the [manifested] will of the Father; and bishops, established everywhere to the farthest bounds [of the earth], are so by the will of Jesus Christ.

THEREFORE: it is fitting that you run together in accordance with the will of your bishop, which you already do. For your justly renowned presbytery, worthy of God, is fitted as perfectly to the bishop as strings are to a harp. Therefore, in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung. And do you, each individually, become a choir, so that being harmonious in love, and taking up the song of God in unison, you may with one voice sing to the Father through Jesus Christ. This way, He may both hear you, and perceive by your works that you are indeed members of His Son. It is profitable, therefore, that you live in an unblameable unity, so that you may always enjoy communion with God.

FOR IF I: in this brief time, have enjoyed such fellowship with your bishop—not merely on a human level, but spiritually—how much more fortunate are you, who are so united with him as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is to the Father, so that all things may agree in unity! Let no one deceive themselves: if anyone is not within the altar, they are deprived of the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two has such power, how much more that of the bishop and the whole Church! He, therefore, who does not assemble with the Church has shown his pride and condemned himself. For it is written, “God resists the proud.” Let us be careful, then, not to oppose the bishop, so that we may be subject to God.

THE MORE SOMEONE SEES THE BISHOP KEEPING SILENT: the more they should respect him. For we should receive anyone whom the Master of the house sends to be over His household, as we would receive Him who sent them. It is clear, therefore, that we should regard the bishop as we would the Lord Himself. And indeed, Onesimus himself greatly praises your good order in God, that you all live according to the truth, and that no sect has any place among you. Nor do you listen to anyone other than Jesus Christ speaking in truth.

For some are in the habit of carrying around the name [of Jesus Christ] in wicked guile, while yet they practice things unworthy of God, whom you must flee from as you would wild beasts. For they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly, against whom you must be on your guard, inasmuch as they are men who can scarcely be cured. There is one Physician who possesses both flesh and spirit; both made and not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death; both of Mary and of God; first possible and then impossible,—even Jesus Christ our Lord.

LET NO ONE DECEIVE YOU: as indeed you are not deceived, since you are wholly devoted to God. For since there is no strife among you that might distress you, you are certainly living in accordance with God’s will. I am far inferior to you and need to be sanctified by your Church of Ephesus, renowned throughout the world. Those who are carnal cannot do things that are spiritual, nor can those who are spiritual do things that are carnal, just as faith cannot do the works of unbelief, nor unbelief the works of faith. But even the things you do according to the flesh are spiritual, for you do all things in Jesus Christ.

NEVERTHELESS: I have heard of some who have come to you with false doctrine. You did not allow them to spread it among you but blocked your ears so that you wouldn't accept what they were trying to plant, as if you were stones of the temple of the Father, prepared for the building of God the Father, and lifted on high by the instrument of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, using the Holy Spirit as a rope, with your faith being the means by which you ascended, and your love the path that led to God. You, therefore, along with all your companions, are God-bearers, temple-bearers, Christ-bearers, bearers of holiness, adorned in every way with the commandments of Jesus Christ, in whom I also rejoice that I have been deemed worthy, through this letter, to converse and rejoice with you, because concerning your Christian life you love nothing but God alone.

AND PRAY WITHOUT CEASING ON BEHALF OF OTHER PEOPLE: For there is hope of repentance in them that they may attain to God. See, then, that they are instructed by your works, if in no other way. Be meek in response to their wrath, humble in opposition to their boasting; return your prayers for their blasphemies; be steadfast in the faith in contrast to their error; and manifest your gentleness for their cruelty. While we take care not to imitate their conduct, let us be found their brethren in all true kindness; and let us seek to be followers of the Lord (who was ever more unjustly treated, more destitute, more condemned?), so that no plant of the devil may be found in you, but you may remain in all holiness and sobriety in Jesus Christ, both with respect to the flesh and spirit.

THE LAST TIMES HAVE COME UPON US: Let us therefore have a reverent spirit and fear the patience of God, so it does not lead to our condemnation. Let us either stand in awe of the wrath to come or show regard for the grace currently displayed—choose one or the other. Only in one way or another, let us be found in Christ Jesus for true life. Apart from Him, let nothing attract you, for whom I carry these bonds, these spiritual jewels, with which I may arise through your prayers, of which I earnestly ask to always be a partaker, so that I may be found among the Christians of Ephesus, who have always been of the same mind as the apostles through the power of Jesus Christ.

I KNOW BOTH WHO I AM AND TO WHOM I WRITE: I am a condemned man; you have been the objects of mercy. I am subject to danger; you are established in safety. You are the ones through whom those pass that are cut off for the sake of God. You are initiated into the mysteries of the Gospel with Paul, the holy, the martyred, the deservedly most happy, at whose feet may I be found when I shall attain to God, who in all his Epistles makes mention of you in Christ Jesus.

BE CAREFUL: then, to come together often to give thanks to God and proclaim His praise. For when you gather frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and his intended destruction is prevented by the unity of your faith. Nothing is more valuable than peace, which ends all war, both in heaven and on earth.

NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE HIDDEN FROM YOU: if you perfectly possess that faith and love towards Christ Jesus which are the beginning and the end of life. For the beginning is faith, and the end is love. Now these two, being inseparably connected, are of God, while all other things necessary for a holy life follow after them. No man truly professing faith sins; nor does he who possesses love hate anyone. The tree is made manifest by its fruit; so those who profess to be Christians shall be recognized by their conduct. For there is not now a demand for mere profession, but that a man be found continuing in the power of faith to the end.

It is better for a man to be silent and be [a Christian], than to talk and not be one. It is good to teach if the speaker also acts. There is one Teacher, who spoke and it was done; even the things He did in silence are worthy of the Father. He who possesses the word of Jesus is truly able to hear even His silence, that he may be perfect, acting as he speaks, and be recognized by his silence. Nothing is hidden from God, for even our secrets are near to Him. Therefore, let us do all things as those who have Him dwelling in us, that we may be His temples, and He may be in us as our God, which indeed He is, and will manifest Himself before us. Therefore, we justly love Him.

DO NOT ERR: my brothers. Those who corrupt families will not inherit the kingdom of God. If those who do this in regard to the flesh have suffered death, how much more will this be the case for anyone who corrupts the faith of God with wicked doctrine, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such a person, becoming defiled in this way, will go into everlasting fire, and so will everyone who listens to him.

FOR THIS PURPOSE DID THE LORD ALLOW THE OINTMENT TO BE POURED UPON HIS HEAD: that He might impart immortality to His Church. Do not be anointed with the foul odor of the doctrine of the prince of this world; let him not lead you away captive from the life that is set before you. And why are we not all wise, since we have received the knowledge of God, which is Jesus Christ? Why do we foolishly perish, not recognizing the gift that the Lord has truly sent to us?

LET MY SPIRIT BE CONSIDERED AS NOTHING FOR THE SAKE OF THE CROSS: which is a stumbling-block to those who do not believe, but to us, it is salvation and eternal life. "Where is the wise man? Where the disputer?" Where is the boasting of those who are called prudent? For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to God's appointment, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water.

THE VIRGINITY OF MARY WAS HIDDEN FROM THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD: as was also her offspring, and the death of the Lord; three renowned mysteries, which were carried out in silence by God. How, then, was He revealed to the world? A star shone in heaven above all other stars, its light inexpressible, while its novelty astonished people. All the other stars, along with the sun and moon, joined in a chorus to this star, and its light was exceedingly greater than them all. There was a stir about where this new spectacle came from, so unlike anything else in the heavens. As a result, every kind of magic was destroyed, and every bond of wickedness vanished; ignorance was removed, and the old kingdom was abolished, with God Himself manifested in human form for the renewal of eternal life. And now what took place had been prepared by God. From then on, all things were in a state of tumult, because He intended the abolition of death.

IF JESUS CHRIST GRACIOUSLY PERMITS ME THROUGH YOUR PRAYERS: and if it is His will, I will, in a second little work which I will write to you, further reveal to you the nature of the dispensation I have begun to address, with respect to the new man, Jesus Christ, in His faith and love, in His suffering and resurrection. I will especially do this if the Lord makes known to me that you come together, individually, in common through grace, in one faith, and in Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David according to the flesh, being both the Son of man and the Son of God, so that you obey the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying, but causes us to live forever in Jesus Christ.

STAND FIRM: brothers, in the faith of Jesus Christ, and in His love, in His passion, and in His resurrection. Come together both collectively and individually, through grace, in one faith of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ His only-begotten Son, and “the first-born of every creature,” but of the seed of David according to the flesh, being under the guidance of the Comforter, in obedience to the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote which prevents us from dying, but a cleansing remedy driving away evil, resulting in us living in God through Jesus Christ.

MY SOUL IS FOR YOURS AND THEIRS WHOM: for the honor of God, you have sent to Smyrna; from where I also write to you, giving thanks to the Lord and loving Polycarp just as I love you. Remember me, as Jesus Christ also remembered you. Pray for the Church which is in Syria, from where I am led bound to Rome, being the last of the faithful who are there, just as I have been deemed worthy to be chosen to show forth the honor of God. Farewell in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, our common hope.