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The Apostolic Age · c. 108
The Seven Letters
Ignatius of Antioch · c. 35–c. 108
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What it is
Written under armed guard on the road to execution in Rome. Ignatius urges the churches he passes to hold to their bishops and to the reality of Christ's flesh, and begs the Roman Christians not to intervene to save him.
Why it lasted
The most vivid first-person voice from the sub-apostolic church, and the earliest sustained argument for the threefold ministry of bishop, presbyter, and deacon.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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