To Polycarp 6.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:274

ἀρέσκετε ᾧ στρατεύεσθε, ἀφʼ οὗ καὶ τὰ ὀψώνια κομίζεσθε· μή τις ὑμῶν δεσέρτωρ εὑρεθῇ. τὸ βάπτισμα ὑμῶν μενέτω ὡς ὅπλα, ἡ πίστις ὡς περικεφαλαία, ἡ ἀγάπη ὡς δόρυ. ἡ ὑπομονὴ ὡς πανοπλία. τὰ δεπόσιτα ὑμῶν τὰ ἔργα ὑμῶν, ἵνα τὰ ἄκκεπτα ὑμῶν ἄξια κομίσησθε. μακροθυμήσατε οὖν μετʼ ἀλλήλων ἐν πραότητι, ὡς ὁ θεὸς μεθʼ ὑμῶν, ὀναίμην ὑμῶν διὰ παντός.

English · Claude translation

Please the one under whom you serve as soldiers, from whom you also receive your wages. Let none of you be found a deserter. Let your baptism remain as your weapons, faith as a helmet, love as a spear, endurance as full armor. Let your works be your deposits, so that you may receive the back pay that is due to you. Be patient, then, with one another in gentleness, as God is with you. May I have joy of you always.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:274 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 172–277 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Also in

PG 5:724b–725a (found by text match)

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.

Scripture

2 Tim 2:4 · allusion, high confidence
Eph 6:11 · allusion, medium confidence
1 Thess 5:8 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Baptism, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

Ignatius uses Latin army words in Greek letters: δεσέρτωρ (desertor, “deserter”), δεπόσιτα (deposita, a soldier's savings held by the army), and ἄκκεπτα (accepta, the savings paid out at discharge).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong accent)): ἀφʼ οὖ → ἀφʼ οὗ.

Cite this passage

Ign. Pol. 6.2 (PG 5:724b–725a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-polycarp/6/2/).

Plain text

Ign. Pol. 6.2 (PG 5:724b–725a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-polycarp/6/2/).