Epistle to the Smyrnaeans

Chapter 7

Let us stand aloof from such heretics.

They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer,¹ because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death² in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect,³ that they also might rise again. It is fitting, therefore, that ye should keep aloof from such persons, and not to speak of⁴ them either in private or in public, but to give heed to the prophets, and above all, to the gospel, in which the passion [of Christ] has been revealed to us, and the resurrection has been fully proved.⁵ But avoid all divisions, as the beginning of evils.

Notes

Theodoret, in quoting this passage, reads προσφορὰς, “offering.”↩
Literally, “die disputing.”↩
Literally, “to love.” Some think there is a reference to the agapæ, or love-feasts.↩
The reading is περὶ in the one case, and μετά in the other, though the latter meaning seems preferable. Most of the MSS. of the longer recension read περί, as in the shorter.↩
Literally, “perfected.”↩

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.