To the Philadelphians 7.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Ignatius's call to unity came from the Spirit, not from human reports.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:246

οἱ δὲ ὑποπτεύσαντές με ὡς προειδότα τὸν μερισμόν τινων λέγειν ταῦτα· μάρτυς δέ μοι, ἐν ᾧ δέδεμαι, ὅτι ἀπὸ σαρκὸς ἀνθρωπίνης οὐκ ἔγνων. τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ἐκήρυσσεν λέγον τάδε· Χωρὶς τοῦ ἐπισκόπου μηδὲν ποιεῖτε, τὴν σάρκα ὑμῶν ὡς ναὸν θεοῦ τηρεῖτε, τὴν ἕνωσιν ἀγαπᾶτε, τοὺς μερισμοὺς φεύγετε, μιμηταὶ γίνεσθε Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὡς καὶ αὐτὸς τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ.

English · Claude translation

But some suspected that I said this because I knew in advance of the division caused by certain people. But he for whom I am in chains is my witness that I did not learn it from any human being. It was the Spirit who was preaching, saying this: “Do nothing without the bishop; keep your flesh as the temple of God; love unity; flee divisions; be imitators of Jesus Christ, as he is of his Father.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:246 · 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 5:704a (found by text match)

Text

As printed in Lake, LCL 24. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

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.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Scripture

1 Cor 6:19 · allusion, medium confidence
1 Cor 11:1 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Church office

Cite this passage

Ign. Phld. 7.2 (PG 5:704a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-philadelphians/7/2/).

Plain text

Ign. Phld. 7.2 (PG 5:704a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-philadelphians/7/2/).