Chapter XXII.—Salutation.
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 example143 the blessed Polycarp suffered, following
in whose steps may we too be found in the kingdom of Jesus Christ!
These things144 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
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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.
143 Literally, “according as.”
144 What follows is, of course, no part of the original Epistle.
Chapter XXII.—Salutation.
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Chapter XXII.—Salutation.