To Polycarp 8.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:276

Ἐπεὶ πάσαις ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις οὐκ ἠδυνήθην γράψαι διὰ τὸ ἐξαίφνης πλεῖν με ἀπὸ Τρωάδος εἰς Νεάπολιν, ὡς τὸ θέλημα προστάσσει, γράψεις ταῖς ἔμπροσθεν ἐκκλησίαις, ὡς θεοῦ γνώμην κεκτημένος, εἰς τὸ καὶ αὐτοὺς τὸ αὐτὸ ποιῆσαι, ʽοἱ μὲν δυνάμενοι πεζοὺς πέμψαι, οἱ δὲ ἐπιστολὰς διὰ τῶν ὑπό σου πεμπομένων. ἵνα δοξασθῆτε αἰωνίῳ ἔργῳ.ʼ ὡς ἄξιος ὤν.

English · Claude translation

Since I have not been able to write to all the churches, because I am sailing suddenly from Troas to Neapolis, as the will commands, you will write to the churches that lie ahead, as one who has the mind of God, so that they too may do the same (those who are able to send messengers on foot, the others letters by those whom you send), so that you may be glorified by an everlasting work, as you are worthy.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:276 · 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 5:728a (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

Notes

Translation notes

“The will”: Ignatius regularly means God's will by this phrase. Some older translations (e.g. the Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1885) take it as the will of the authorities (“the will [of the emperor]”).
“The churches that lie ahead” (ταῖς ἔμπροσθεν ἐκκλησίαις): probably the churches farther along the road toward Antioch.
The mix of singular and plural (“you will write … so that you may be glorified”) is awkward in the Greek. The quotation marks around “those who are able … everlasting work” are Lake's, following Lightfoot's punctuation.

Cite this passage

Ign. Pol. 8.1 (PG 5:728a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-polycarp/8/1/).

Plain text

Ign. Pol. 8.1 (PG 5:728a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-polycarp/8/1/).