To the Ephesians 15.1

Ignatius of Antioch · To the Ephesians · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Smyrna · Read in context

Summary: Better to be a Christian in silence than to talk without being one; Christ the one Teacher spoke and acted.

BothGreekEnglish

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:188

Ἄμεινόν ἐστιν σιωπᾶν καὶ εἶναι, ἢ λαλοῦντα μὴ εἶναι. καλὸν τὸ διδάσκειν, ἐὰν ὁ λέγων ποιῇ. εἷς οὖν διδάσκαλος, ὃς εἶπεν, καὶ ἐγένετο· καὶ ἃ σιγῶν δὲ πεποίηκεν ἄξια τοῦ πατρός ἐστιν.

English · Claude translation

It is better to be silent and to be than to speak and not to be. It is good to teach, if the one who speaks also does. There is, then, one Teacher, who spoke and it came to be; and even the things he has done in silence are worthy of the Father.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:188 · 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 5:657a (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

Ps 33:9 (32:9 LXX) · allusion, high confidence
Matt 23:8 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Christology

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong breathing and accent); digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong breathing)): ἦ λαλοῦντα → ἢ λαλοῦντα; εἶς οὖν → εἷς οὖν.

Cite this passage

Ign. Eph. 15.1 (PG 5:657a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-ephesians/15/1/).

Plain text

Ign. Eph. 15.1 (PG 5:657a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-ephesians/15/1/).

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