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BOOK 8  (from: _Apostolic Fathers,_ Kirsopp Lake, 1912 (Loeb Classical Library))

                           IGNATIUS to the Romans

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CHAPTER 0
 0:0  Greeting
 0:1  |Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to her
who has obtained mercy in the greatness of the Most High
Father, and of Jesus Christ his only Son; to the Church
beloved and enlightened by the will of him who has
willed all things which are, according to the love of
Jesus Christ, our God, which also has the presidency in
the country of the land of the Romans, worthy of God,
worthy of honour, worthy of blessing, worthy of praise,
worthy of success, worthy in its holiness, and
preeminent in love, named after Christ, named after the
Father, which also I greet in the name of Jesus Christ,
the Son of the Father; to those who are united in flesh
and spirit in every one of his commandments, filled
with the grace of God without wavering, and filtered
clear from every foreign stain, abundant greeting in
Jesus Christ, our God, in blamelessness.

CHAPTER 1
 1:0  Hope of seeing the Romans
 1:1  |Forasmuch as I have gained my prayer to God to
see your godly faces, so that I have obtained more than
I asked, -- for in bondage in Christ Jesus I hope to
greet you if it be his will that I be found worthy to
the end.
 1:2  For the beginning has been well ordered, if I may
obtain grace to come unhindered to my lot. For I am
afraid of your love, lest even that do me wrong. For it
is easy for you to do what you will, but it is
difficult for me to attain to God, if you do not spare
me.

CHAPTER 2
 2:0  His desire not to be saved from the beasts
 2:1  |For I would not have you "men-pleasers" but
"God-pleasers," even as you do indeed please him. For
neither shall I ever have such an opportunity of
attaining to God, nor can you, if you be but silent,
have any better deed ascribed to you. For if you are
silent concerning me, I am a word of God; but if you
love my flesh, I shall again be only a cry.
 2:2  Grant me nothing more than that I be poured out
to God, while an altar is still ready, that forming
yourselves into a chorus ^1 of love, you may sing to
the Father in Christ Jesus, that God has vouchsafed
that the bishop of Syria shall be found at the setting
of the sun, having fetched him from the sun's rising.
It is good to set to the world towards God, that I may
rise to him.

== small type on ==
 ^1  Cf. note on _Ignatius to the Ephesians_ 19:2.
== small type off ==

CHAPTER 3
 3:0  Request that they should pray for him
 3:1  |You never have envied anyone; you taught others.
But I desire that those things may stand fast which you
enjoin in your instructions.
 3:2  Only pray for me for strength, both inward and
outward, that I may not merely speak, but also have the
will, that I may not only be called a Christian, but
may also be found to be one. For if I be found to be
one, I can also be called one, and then be deemed
faithful when I no longer am visible in the world.
 3:3  Nothing visible is good, for our God, Jesus
Christ, being now in the Father, is the more plainly
visible. ^1 Christianity is not the work of
persuasiveness, but of greatness, when it is hated by
the world.

== small type on ==
 ^1  The sentence is clumsily expressed: apparently Ignatius means
"nothing directly visible is good, and Jesus Christ, who is no
longer visible, being in the Father, is more clearly perceived by
the eye of faith," but he has sacrificed clearness to a paradoxical
playing with the words.
== small type off ==

CHAPTER 4
 4:0  His desire to suffer
 4:1  |I am writing to all the Churches, and I give
injunctions to all men, that I am dying willingly for
God's sake, if you do not hinder it. I beseech you, be
not "an unseasonable kindness" ^1 to me. Suffer me to
be eaten by the beasts, through whom I can attain to
God. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of
wild beasts that I may be found pure bread of Christ.
 4:2  Rather entice the wild beasts that they may
become my tomb, and leave no trace of my body, that
when I fall asleep I be not burdensome to any. Then
shall I be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the
world shall not even see my body. Beseech Christ on my
behalf, that I may be found a sacrifice through these
instruments. ^2
 4:3  I do not order you as did Peter and Paul; they
were Apostles, I am a convict; they were free, I am even
until now a slave. But if I suffer I shall be Jesus
Christ's freedman, and in him I shall rise free. Now I
am learning in my bonds to give up all desires.

== small type on ==
 ^1  Apparently a partial quotation from the proverb preserved by
Zenobius _akairos eunoi ouden echthras diapherei_ "an unseasonable
kindness is nothing different from hostility."
 ^2  i.e. the wild beasts.
== small type off ==

CHAPTER 5
 5:0  His journey, and expectation of martyrdom
 5:1  |From Syria to Rome I am fighting with wild
beasts, by land and sea, by night and day, bound to ten
"leopards" (that is, a company of soldiers ^1), and
they become worse for kind treatment. Now I become the
more a disciple for their ill deeds, "but not by this
am I justified."
 5:2  I long for the beasts that are prepared for me;
and I pray that they may be found prompt for me; I will
even entice them to devour me promptly; not as has
happened to some whom they have not touched from fear;
even if they be unwilling of themselves, I will force
them to it.
 5:3  Grant me this favour. I know what is expedient
for me; now I am beginning to be a disciple. May
nothing of things seen or unseen envy me my attaining
to Jesus Christ. Let there come on me fire, and cross,
and struggles with wild beasts, cutting, and tearing
asunder, rackings of bones, mangling of limbs, crushing
of my whole body, cruel tortures of the devil, may I
but attain to Jesus Christ!

== small type on ==
 ^1  The first impression made by this passage is that "leopards"
was the name of some regiment, and that the following words are an
explanatory gloss; but there is no evidence for this use of
"leopard." _Tagma_ is perhaps the equivalent of "manipulus" in the
later sense of "ten men." The whole passage is rendered stranger
still by the fact that it is the first instance of the word
"leopard" in Greek or Latin literature.
== small type off ==

CHAPTER 6
 6:0  The glory of martyrdom
 6:1  |The ends of the earth and the kingdoms of this
world shall profit me nothing. It is better for me to
die in Christ Jesus than to be king over the ends of
the earth. I seek Him who died for our sake. I desire
Him who rose for us. The pains of birth are upon me.
 6:2  Suffer me, my brethren; hinder me not from
living, do not wish me to die. Do not give to the world
one who desires to belong to God, nor deceive him with
material things. Suffer me to receive the pure light;
when I have come thither I shall become a man.
 6:3  Suffer me to follow the example of the Passion of
my God. If any man have him within himself, let him
understand what I wish, and let him sympathise with me,
knowing the things which constrain me.

CHAPTER 7
 7:0  The temptations of the devil, and his own feelings
 7:1  |The Prince of this world wishes to tear me in
pieces, and to corrupt my mind towards God. Let none of
you who are present help him. Be rather on my side,
that is on God's. Do not speak of Jesus Christ, and yet
desire the world.
 7:2  Let no envy dwell among you. Even though when I
come I beseech you myself, do not be persuaded by me,
but rather obey this, which I write to you: for in the
midst of life I write to you desiring death. My lust
has been crucified, and there is in me no fire of love
for material things; but only water living and speaking
in me, and saying to me from within, "Come to the
Father."
 7:3  I have no pleasure in the food of corruption or
in the delights of this life. I desire the "bread of
God," which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was "of
the seed of David," and for drink I desire his blood,
which is incorruptible love. ^1

== small type on ==
 ^1  There is here perhaps a play on the words: the word translated
"love" was also used either as a synonym for the Eucharist, or, as
some think, as the name of a religious meal originally connected
with the Eucharist.
== small type off ==

CHAPTER 8
 8:0  Desire of martyrdom
 8:1  |I no longer desire to live after the manner of
men, and this shall be, if you desire it. Desire it, in
order that you also may be desired.
 8:2  I beg you by this short letter; believe me. And
Jesus Christ shall make this plain to you, that I am
speaking the truth. He is the mouth which cannot lie,
by which the Father has spoken truly.
 8:3  Pray for me that I may attain. I write to you not
according to the flesh, but according to the mind of
God. If I suffer, it was your favour: if I be rejected,
it was your hatred.

CHAPTER 9
 9:0  The Church in Syria
 9:1  |Remember in your prayers the Church in Syria
which has God for its Shepherd in my room. Its bishop
shall be Jesus Christ alone, -- and your love.
 9:2  But for myself I am ashamed to be called one of
them, for I am not worthy; for I am the least of them,
and "born out of time;" but I have obtained mercy to be
someone, if I may attain to God.
 9:3  My spirit greets you, and the love of the
Churches which have received me in the Name of Jesus
Christ, not as a mere passer by, for even those which
did not lie on my road according to the flesh went
before me from city to city.

CHAPTER 10
 10:0  Final greetings
 10:1  |Now I am writing these things to you from
Smyrna by the blessed Ephesians, and Crocus, a name
very dear to me, is also with me, and many others.
 10:2  Concerning those who have preceded me from Syria
to Rome to the glory of God, I believe that you have
received information; tell them that I am close at
hand; for they are all worthy of God and of you, and it
is right for you to refresh them in every way.
 10:3  I write this to you on the 24th of August.
Farewell unto the end, in the endurance of Jesus
Christ.