Sophia Scriptura

To the Magnesians

Ad Magnesios · Μαγνησιεῦσιν

Contents

  1. 0Ignatius greets the church at Magnesia.
  2. 1.1Ignatius has heard of the Magnesians' well-ordered love and writes to them gladly.
  3. 1.2Ignatius prays that the churches be united with Christ in body and spirit, in faith and love.
  4. 2.1Ignatius has met the Magnesian delegates: bishop Damas, two presbyters, and the deacon Zotion.
  5. 3.1The young bishop deserves full respect, since in obeying him the church obeys God.
  6. 3.2Deceiving the bishop means deceiving the unseen God.
  7. 4.1Those who acknowledge the bishop but act without him are Christians in name only.
  8. 5.1Life and death lie before everyone, and each goes to his own place.
  9. 5.2Like coins, people bear the stamp of either the world or God; Christ's life is in those willing to share his death.
  10. 6.1The bishop presides in God's place, the presbyters as the apostles' council, and the deacons serve Christ.
  11. 6.2Respect and love one another, united with the bishop and leaders.
  12. 7.1As Christ did nothing without the Father, the church should do nothing without its bishop and presbyters.
  13. 7.2Gather as to one temple and one altar, to the one Christ who came from the one Father.
  14. 8.1Do not go back to Jewish practice, as if grace had not come.
  15. 8.2The prophets already lived by Christ, God's Word who came forth from silence.
  16. 9.1Christians keep the Lord's day, when our life rose through Christ's death, rather than the Sabbath.
  17. 9.2The prophets awaited Christ as their teacher, and he raised them from the dead.
  18. 10.1As Christ's disciples, Christians must live by Christianity alone.
  19. 10.2Throw out the old leaven and be salted in Christ.
  20. 10.3It is absurd to confess Christ and live as a Jew; Judaism has found its fulfillment in Christianity.
  21. 11.1Hold firmly to the real birth, death, and resurrection of Christ under Pontius Pilate.
  22. 12.1Ignatius praises the Magnesians' humility.
  23. 13.1Stand firm in the teaching of the Lord and the apostles, with the bishop, presbyters, and deacons.
  24. 13.2Submit to the bishop and to one another, as Christ did to the Father.
  25. 14.1Ignatius asks prayer for himself and for the church in Syria.
  26. 15.1Greetings from the Ephesians and Polycarp; farewell.

About this work

Author
Ignatius of Antioch
Attribution
authentic · One of the seven letters of the 'middle recension', accepted as genuine by most scholars since the work of Zahn and Lightfoot. A minority dates them later or doubts their authenticity; longer, interpolated versions and further spurious letters also circulated.
Date
ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) (disputed) · Traditionally dated to the reign of Trajan (98–117), from Eusebius; some scholars place the letters in the 120s or 130s.
Written at
Smyrna, Asia (western Asia Minor) (probable)
Addressed to
The church at Magnesia on the Maeander
Language
Greek
Genre
letter
Recension
middle recension (seven letters)
Reference system
chapter.section (Funk's divisions, as printed by Lake)
SBL abbreviation
Ign. Magn.
Clavis
CPG 1025 (unverified)
Text from
Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 172–277 (Printed edition in the public domain; digital text CC BY-SA 4.0)
Critical editions
Michael W. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007); Bart D. Ehrman, The Apostolic Fathers, LCL 24-25 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003) (cited, not reproduced)
CTS URN
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg1443.tlg001