To the Romans 4.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:230

Ἐγὼ γράφω πάσαις ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις, καὶ ἐντέλλομαι πᾶσιν, ὅτι ἐγὼ ἑκὼν ὑπὲρ θεοῦ ἀποθνήσκω, ἐάνπερ ὑμεῖς μὴ κωλύσητε. παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς, μὴ εὔνοια ἄκαιρος γένησθέ μοι. ἄφετέ με θηρίων εἶναι βοράν, διʼ ὧν ἔνεστιν θεοῦ ἐπιτυχεῖν. σῖτός εἰμι θεοῦ καὶ διʼ ὀδόντων θηρίων ἀλήθομαι, ἵνα καθαρὸς ἄρτος εὑρεθῶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ.

English · Claude translation

I am writing to all the churches and charging them all that I am dying for God of my own free will, unless you hinder me. I urge you: do not become an untimely kindness to me. Let me be food for the wild beasts, through whom I can attain to God. I am God's wheat, and I am being ground by the teeth of wild beasts, so that I may be found pure bread of Christ.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:230 · 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 5:689a (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

Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

“An untimely kindness” (εὔνοια ἄκαιρος): a proverbial expression.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong breathing)): διʼ ὦν ἔνεστιν → διʼ ὧν ἔνεστιν.

Cite this passage

Ign. Rom. 4.1 (PG 5:689a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-romans/4/1/).

Plain text

Ign. Rom. 4.1 (PG 5:689a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-romans/4/1/).