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Ignatius of Antioch

Epistle to the Ephesians

Chapter 5

The praise of unity.

For if I, in this brief space of time, have enjoyed such fellowship with your bishop—I mean not of a mere human, but of a spiritual nature—how much more do I reckon you happy who are so joined to him as the church is to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is to the Father, that so all things may agree in unity! Let no man deceive himself: if any one be not within the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two possesses1 such power, how much more that of the bishop and the whole church! He, therefore, that does not assemble with the church, has even2 by this manifested his pride, and condemned himself. For it is written, “God resisteth the proud.”3 Let us be careful, then, not to set ourselves in opposition to the bishop, in order that we may be subject to God.

Notes

  1. Matt. xviii. 19.↩
  2. Or, “already.”↩
  3. Prov. iii. 34; James iv. 6; 1 Pet. v. 5.↩

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.