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Ignatius of Antioch

Epistle to the Romans

Chapter 9

Pray for the church in Syria.

Remember in your prayers the church in Syria, which now has God for its shepherd, instead of me. Jesus Christ alone will oversee it, and your love [will also regard it]. But as for me, I am ashamed to be counted one of them; for indeed I am not worthy, as being the very last of them, and one born out of due time.1 But I have obtained mercy to be somebody, if I shall attain to God. My spirit salutes you, and the love of the churches that have received me in the name of Jesus Christ, and not as a mere passer-by. For even those churches which were not2 near to me in the way, I mean according to the flesh,3 have gone before me,4 city by city, [to meet me.]

Notes

  1. Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 8, 9.↩
  2. Some refer this to the jurisdiction of Ignatius.↩
  3. i.e. the outward road he had to travel.↩
  4. Or, “have sent me forward;” comp. Tit. iii. 13.↩

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.