To the Smyrnaeans 8.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:260

Πάντες τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ ἀκολουθεῖτε, ὡς Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς τῷ πατρί, καὶ τῷ πρεσβυτερίῳ ὡς τοῖς ἀποστόλοις. τοὺς δὲ διακόνους ἐντρέπεσθε ὡς θεοῦ ἐντολήν. μηδεὶς χωρὶς τοῦ ἐπισκόπου τι πρασσέτω τῶν ἀνηκόντων εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν. ἐκείνη βεβαία εὐχαριστία ἡγείσθω, ἡ ὑπὸ ἐπίσκοπον οὖσα ἢ ᾧ ἂν αὐτὸς ἐπιτρέψῃ.

English · Claude translation

All of you, follow the bishop as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and the council of presbyters as the apostles; and respect the deacons as the commandment of God. Let no one do anything that concerns the church without the bishop. Let that Eucharist be considered valid which is held under the bishop or someone to whom he entrusts it.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:260 · 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 5:713a–713b (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.

Topics

Church office, Eucharist

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong accent)): ᾧ ἄν αὐτὸς → ᾧ ἂν αὐτὸς.

Cite this passage

Ign. Smyrn. 8.1 (PG 5:713a–713b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-smyrnaeans/8/1/).

Plain text

Ign. Smyrn. 8.1 (PG 5:713a–713b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-smyrnaeans/8/1/).