Sophia Scriptura

To the Philippians 11.2

Polycarp of Smyrna · To the Philippians · ca. 110–135 · Smyrna · Read in context

Summary: A leader who cannot control his own greed cannot teach others, for greed is idolatry and the saints will judge the world.

Latin text · Lake, LCL 24:296

Qui autem non potest se in his gubernare, quomodo alii pronuntiat hoc? Si quis non se abstinuerit ab avaritia, ab idololatria coinquinabitur et tamquam inter gentes iudicabitur, qui ignorant iudicium domini. Aut nescimus, quia sancti mundum iudicabunt? sicut Paulus docet.

English · Claude translation

But how can someone who cannot govern himself in these matters preach this to another? If anyone does not keep away from greed, he will be defiled by idolatry and judged as one of the Gentiles, “who do not know the judgment of the Lord.” Or do we not know that “the saints will judge the world,” as Paul teaches?

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:296 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 282–301 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Latin version (the Greek of this passage is lost), text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912).
Scripture
  • Col 3:5 · allusion, medium confidence
  • Eph 5:5 · allusion, medium confidence
  • Jer 5:4 · allusion, low confidence
  • 1 Cor 6:2 · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Church office, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The text followed here makes “who do not know the judgment of the Lord” describe the Gentiles (echoing Jer 5:4). Some editions punctuate it as a separate question, “But which of us is ignorant of the judgment of the Lord?” (so the Ante-Nicene Fathers translation).

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR error in the digitized Latin; capitals lost in the digitization restored): hoe → hoc; paulus → Paulus.

Cite this passage

Pol. Phil. 11.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/pol-philippians/11/2/).

Plain text
Pol. Phil. 11.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/pol-philippians/11/2/).

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