To the Philippians 4.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:288

τὰς χήρας σωφρονούσας περὶ τὴν τοῦ κυρίου πίστιν, ἐντυγχανούσας ἀδιαλείπτως περὶ πάντων, μακρὰν οὔσας πάσης διαβολῆς, καταλαλιᾶς, ψευδομαρτυρίας, φιλαργυρίας καὶ παντὸς κακοῦ, γινωσκούσας ὅτι εἰσὶ θυσιαστήριον θεοῦ καὶ ὅτι πάντα μωμοσκοπεῖται, καὶ λέληθεν αὐτὸν οὐδὲν οὔτε λογισμῶν οὔτε ἐννοιῶν οὔτε τι τῶν κρυπτῶν τῆς καρδίας.

English · Claude translation

[let us teach] the widows to be sensible about the faith of the Lord, to pray unceasingly for everyone, to be far from all slander, evil-speaking, false witness, love of money, and every evil, knowing that they are God's altar, and that everything is inspected for blemishes, and that nothing escapes him, whether of thoughts or intentions or any of the secrets of the heart.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:288 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 282–301 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Also in

PG 5:1009a (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 Tim 5:5 · allusion, medium confidence
1 Cor 14:25 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Prayer, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

“God's altar”: the widows' prayers and the gifts they receive are offered to God, so their life must be without blemish.
“Inspected for blemishes” (μωμοσκοπεῖται) is a technical term for examining sacrificial animals.

Cite this passage

Pol. Phil. 4.3 (PG 5:1009a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/pol-philippians/4/3/).

Plain text

Pol. Phil. 4.3 (PG 5:1009a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/pol-philippians/4/3/).