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Ignatius of Antioch

Epistle to the Ephesians

Chapter 18

The glory of the cross.

Let my spirit be counted as nothing1 for the sake of the cross, which is a stumbling-block2 to those that do not believe, but to us salvation and life eternal. “Where is the wise man? where the disputer?”3 Where is the boasting of those who are styled prudent? For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment4 of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water.

Notes

  1. Again περίψημα, translated “offscouring,” 1 Cor. iv. 13.↩
  2. Comp. 1 Cor. i. 18.↩
  3. 1 Cor. i. 20.↩
  4. Or “economy,” or “dispensation.” Comp. Col. i. 25; 1 Tim. i. 4.↩

Translation by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and Frederick Crombie: The Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. 1: The Apostolic Fathers (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1870).
Text from Project Gutenberg eBook #77576, proofread by Distributed Proofreaders from Internet Archive scans. Public domain.