Ignatius of Antioch, Theophorus: EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS Complete

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Shorter and Longer Versions)

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Chapter II. — Do not save me from martyrdom.

For it is not my desire to act towards you as a man-pleaser, [831] but as pleasing God, even as also ye please Him. For neither shall I ever have such [another] opportunity of attaining to God; nor will ye, if ye shall now be silent, ever be entitled to [832] the honour of a better work. For if ye are silent concerning me, I shall become God's; but if you show your love to my flesh, I shall again have to run my race. Pray, then, do not seek to confer any greater favour upon me than that I be sacrificed to God while the altar is still prepared; that, being gathered together in love, ye may sing praise to the Father, through Christ Jesus, that God has deemed me, the bishop of Syria, worthy to be sent for [833] from the east unto the west. It is good to set from the world unto God, that I may rise again to Him.

For it is not my desire that ye should please men, but God, even as also ye do please Him. For neither shall I ever hereafter have such an opportunity of attaining to God; nor will ye, if ye shall now be silent, ever be entitled to [834] the honour of a better work. For if ye are silent concerning me, I shall become God's; but if ye show your love to my flesh, I shall again have to run my race. Pray, then, do not seek to confer any greater favour upon me than that I be sacrificed to God, while the altar is still prepared; that, being gathered together in love, ye may sing praise to the Father, through Christ Jesus, that God has deemed me, the bishop of Syria, worthy to be sent for [835] from the east unto the west, and to become a martyr [836] in behalf of His own precious [837] sufferings, so as to pass from the world to God, that I may rise again unto Him.


[831] Some translate as in longer recension, but there is in the one case humin, and in the other humas.

[832] Literally, "have to be inscribed to."

[833] Literally, "to be found and sent for."

[834] Literally, "have to be inscribed to."

[835] Literally, "to be found and sent for."

[836] The text is here in great confusion.

[837] Literally, "beautiful." Some read, "it is good," etc.

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