We wish you, brethren, all happiness, while you walk according to the doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; with whom be glory to God the Father and the Holy Spirit, for the salvation of His holy elect, after whose example [479] the blessed Polycarp suffered, following in whose steps may we too be found in the kingdom of Jesus Christ!

These things [480] Caius transcribed from the copy of Irenæus (who was a disciple of Polycarp), having himself been intimate with Irenæus. And I Socrates transcribed them at Corinth from the copy of Caius. Grace be with you all.

And I again, Pionius, wrote them from the previously written copy, having carefully searched into them, and the blessed Polycarp having manifested them to me through a revelation, even as I shall show in what follows. I have collected these things, when they had almost faded away through the lapse of time, that the Lord Jesus Christ may also gather me along with His elect into His heavenly kingdom, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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Footnotes:

[479] Literally, "according as."

[480] What follows is, of course, no part of the original Epistle.

[420] Some read, "Philadelphia," but on inferior authority. Philomelium was a city of Phrygia.

[421] The word in the original is poroikiais, from which the English "parishes" is derived.