Sophia Scriptura

To the Romans 6.2

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

Summary: For Ignatius, martyrdom is true life, and being saved from it would be death.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:232–234

σύγγνωτέ μοι, ἀδελφοί· μὴ ἐμποδίσητέ μοι ζῆσαι, μὴ θελήσητέ με ἀποθανεῖν· τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ θέλοντα εἶναι κόσμῳ μὴ χαρίσησθε, μηδὲ ὕλῃ ἐξαπατήσητε· ἄφετέ με καθαρὸν φῶς λαβεῖν· ἐκεῖ παραγενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ἔσομαι.

English · Claude translation

Bear with me, brothers: do not hinder me from living; do not wish me to die. Do not give to the world one who wants to be God's, nor deceive him with material things. Let me receive the pure light; when I arrive there, I shall be a human being.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:232–234 · 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 5:692b (found by text match)
Text
As printed in Lake, LCL 24. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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)
Topics
Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Living … die”: a reversal; to “live” is to be martyred and so reach God, to “die” is to be kept alive in this world.
  • “I shall be a human being”: truly and fully human.
  • Other manuscripts read “a man of God”; the Ante-Nicene Fathers translation (1885) follows them.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (missing accent)): θελήσητε με → θελήσητέ με.

Cite this passage

Ign. Rom. 6.2 (PG 5:692b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-romans/6/2/).

Plain text
Ign. Rom. 6.2 (PG 5:692b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-romans/6/2/).

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