Sophia Scriptura

To the Philippians 4.1

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

Summary: Love of money is the root of every trouble, so believers should arm themselves with righteousness and first learn to keep the Lord's commandment themselves.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:286

Ἀρχὴ δὲ πάντων χαλεπῶν φιλαργυρία. εἰδότες οὖν ὅτι οὐδὲν εἰσηνέγκαμεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ ἐξενεγκεῖν τι ἔχομεν, ὁπλισώμεθα τοῖς ὅπλοις τῆς δικαιοσύνης καὶ διδάξωμεν ἑαυτοὺς πρῶτον πορεύεσθαι ἐν τῇ ἐντολῇ τοῦ κυρίου·

English · Claude translation

“But the love of money is the beginning of all troubles.” Knowing therefore that “we brought nothing into the world, and neither can we take anything out,” let us arm ourselves with “the weapons of righteousness,” and let us teach ourselves first to walk in the commandment of the Lord;

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:286 · 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
Also in
PG 5:1008c–1008d (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
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • 1 Timothy 6:10 has “root of all evils”; Polycarp has “beginning of all troubles” (ἀρχὴ … χαλεπῶν).

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text): κυριοῦ → κυρίου.

Cite this passage

Pol. Phil. 4.1 (PG 5:1008c–1008d; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/pol-philippians/4/1/).

Plain text
Pol. Phil. 4.1 (PG 5:1008c–1008d; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/pol-philippians/4/1/).

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