Beyond this, much about this document remains a mystery. The author is anonymous, the identity of the recipient is uncertain, the date is unknown, the ending is missing, and, rather surprisingly, no ancient or medieval writer is known to have mentioned it.
Notwithstanding the lack of any adequate means of determining the authorship of this document, numerous suggestions have been made; the names of Hippolytus of Rome, Theophilus of Antioch, and Pantaenus of Alexandria are among the less improbable of those proposed. More intriguing, however, is the suggestion that this document is the lost apology by Quadratus.[1] Eusebius (Church History 4.3.1–2) preserves all that is known about him:
When Trajan had reigned for nineteen and a half years, Aelius Hadrianus succeeded to the imperial authority. To him Quadratus addressed a treatise, composing an apology for our religion because some evil men were trying to trouble the Christians. It is still extant among many of the brothers, and we ourselves have a copy. From it can be seen the clear proof of his intellect and apostolic orthodoxy. He reveals his early date by what he says in his own words as follows:
“But the works of our Savior were always present, for they were true; those who were healed and those who rose from the dead were seen not only when they were healed and when they were raised, but were constantly present, and not only while the Savior was living, but even after he had gone they were alive for a long time, so that some of them survived to our own time.”
While it is true that this sentence does not occur in The Epistle to Diognetus, there is a gap between 7.6 and 7.7 into which it would fit very well. Also intriguing is the proposal that Polycarp of Smyrna is the author of this document.[2] The evidence supporting these hypotheses, however, is entirely circumstantial, and in the end the question of authorship must be left open.
Nothing is known about the addressee. If Quadratus is the author, then the recipient is to be identified with Hadrian; others suggest he was one of the teachers of Marcus Aurelius. It may be, however, that “Diognetus” is only a fictional character, created to ask the questions that the anonymous author wished to address.
The date of the document is a matter of conjecture as well. Reasonable suggestions range from 117 to after 313. Between 150 and 225 seems the most likely; Lightfoot, Meecham, and Frend favor the earlier of these dates,[3] while R. M. Grant places it somewhat later.[4]
What has been said thus far about authorship and date applies only to sections 1–10, for there is a major break in the text at that point (see the note at 10.8), and the two sections that follow almost certainly belong to some other work. Apparently the manuscript from which the scribe was copying was missing the leaves containing the end of The Epistle to Diognetus and the beginning of this other document. It is not likely, however, that much of the epistle is missing, for the author has essentially covered the points raised in the opening lines.
Even more than in the case of The Epistle to Diognetus, the authorship and date of this second document is entirely a matter of conjecture. Hippolytus of Rome (ca. 170–236) is frequently suggested; Lightfoot hazards the conjecture that it was Pantaenus (d. ca. 190), who preceded Clement of Alexandria as head of the catechetical school in that city.[5]
Text
The text of The Epistle to Diognetus was preserved in a single manuscript dating from the thirteenth or fourteenth century, Codex Argentoratensis Graecus ix, which ultimately found a home in Strasbourg. But even this manuscript is no longer extant, for it was lost to fire in 1870 when Strasbourg was shelled during the Franco-German War. Fortunately, competent scholars had made a number of copies and issued printed editions of the manuscript prior to its destruction, so the text of this unique document has been preserved. Unfortunately, the exemplar from which Codex Argentoratensis was copied appears to have been defective at a number of points, so that scholars have had to resort to conjecture more often than usual to make sense of the text.
Bibliography
Commentary
Meecham, Henry G. The Epistle to Diognetus: The Greek Text with Introduction, Translation and Notes. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1949.
Studies
Andriessen, P. “The Authorship of the Epistula ad Diognetum.” Vigiliae Christianae 1 (1947): 129–36.
Barnard, L. W. “The Epistle ad Diognetum: Two Units from One Author?” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 56 (1965): 130–37.
Bockmuehl, Markus. Jewish Law in Gentile Churches: Halakhah and the Beginning of Christian Public Ethics, 215–22. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003.
Connolly, R. H. “Ad Diognetum xi–xxi.” Journal of Theological Studies 37 (1936): 2–15.
———. “The Date and Authorship of the Epistle to Diognetus.” Journal of Theological Studies 36 (1935): 347–53.
Foster, Paul. “The Epistle to Diognetus.” Expository Times 118, no. 4 (2007).
Grant, R. M. Greek Apologists of the Second Century. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1988.
Hill, Charles E. From the Lost Teaching of Polycarp: Identifying Irenaeus’ Apostolic Presbyter and the Author of Ad Diognetum. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006.
Lienhard, J. T. “The Christology of the Epistle to Diognetus.” Vigiliae Christianae 24 (1970): 280–89.
O’Neill, J. G. “The Epistle to Diognetus.” Irish Ecclesiastical Record 85 (1956): 92–106.
Tanner, R. G. “The Epistle to Diognetus and Contemporary Greek Thought.” In Studia Patristica 15, edited by E. Livingstone, 1:495–508. Berlin: Akademie, 1984.,
Thierry, J. J. “The Logos as Teacher in Ad Diognetum XI, I.” Vigiliae Christianae 20 (1966): 146–49.
Townsley, A. L. “Notes for an Interpretation of the Epistle to Diognetus.” Rivista di studi classici 24 (1976): 5–20.
Young, Frances. “Greek Apologists of the Second Century.” In Apologetics in the Roman Empire: Pagans, Jews, and Christians, edited by Mark Edwards, Martin Goodman, and Simon Price, 81–104. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
On Quadratus
Foster, Paul. “The Apology of Quadratus.” Expository Times 117, no. 9 (2006): 353–59.
Grant, Robert M. “Quadratus, The First Christian Apologist.” In A Tribute to Arthur Vööbus, edited by Robert H. Fischer, 177–83. Chicago: Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 1977.
THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS
Introduction: Three Key Questions
1 Since I see, most excellent Diognetus, that you are extremely interested in learning about the religion of the Christians and are asking very clear and careful questions about them—specifically, what God they believe in and how they worship him, so that they all disregard the world and despise death, neither recognizing those who are considered to be gods by the Greeks nor observing the superstition of the Jews; what is the nature of the heartfelt love they have for one another; and why this new race or way of life has come into the world we live in now and not before—I gladly welcome this interest of yours, and I ask God, who empowers us both to speak and to listen, that I may be enabled to speak in such a way that you will derive the greatest possible benefit from listening, and that you may listen in such a way that the speaker will have no regrets.
The Folly of Pagan Idolatry
2 Come, then, clear your mind of all its prejudices and cast aside the custom that deceives you, and become a new person, as it were, from the beginning, as if you were about to hear a new message, even as you yourself admit. See not only with your eyes but also with your intellect what substance or what form those happen to have whom you call and regard as gods. 2 Is not one of them stone, like that upon which we walk, and another bronze, no better than the utensils that have been forged for our use, and another wood, already rotted away, and another silver, which needs a watchman to guard it lest it be stolen, and another iron, corroded by rust, and another pottery, not a bit more attractive than that made for the most unmentionable use? 3 Are not all these made of perishable matter? Are they not forged by iron and fire? Did the sculptor not make one of them, and th
e coppersmith another, the silversmith another, and the potter yet another? Before they were shaped by the skills of these craftsmen into the form they have, was it not possible—indeed, is it not possible even now—for each of them to have been given a different form? Might not the ordinary utensils now formed out of the same material be made similar to such images as these, if the same craftsmen were available? 4 Again, could not these things that are now worshiped by you be made by human hands into utensils like the rest? Are they not all deaf and blind, without souls, without feelings, without movement? Do they not all rot, do they not all decay? 5 These are the things you call gods; you serve them, you worship them, and in the end you become like them. 6 This is why you hate the Christians: because they do not consider these objects to be gods. 7 For do not you yourselves, who now regard and worship them as gods, in fact much more despise them? Are you not mocking and insulting them much more when you leave unguarded the stone or pottery gods you worship but lock up the silver and gold ones at night and post guards by them during the day, lest they be stolen? 8 And as for the honors that you think you are offering them: if they are aware of them, then you are in fact insulting them; but if they are not aware, then you are exposing them by worshiping them with the blood and fat of victims. 9 Let one of you undergo this treatment! Allow these things to be done to you! Why, there is not a single individual who would willingly submit to such punishment, for a human being has feelings and reason; but the stone does submit, for it has no feeling. Therefore you disprove its ability to feel. 10 Well, I could say many other things about the fact that Christians are not enslaved to such gods, but if these arguments should seem insufficient to anyone, then I think it is useless to say more.
The Folly of Jewish Worship and Customs
3 And next I suppose that you are especially anxious to hear why Christians do not worship in the same way as the Jews. 2 The Jews indeed, insofar as they abstain from the kind of worship described above, rightly claim to worship the one God of the universe and to think of him as Master; but insofar as they offer this worship to him in the same way as those already described, they are altogether mistaken. 3 For whereas the Greeks provide an example of their stupidity by offering things to senseless and deaf images, the Jews, thinking that they are offering these things to God as if he were in need of them, could rightly consider it folly rather than worship. 4 For the one who made the heaven and the earth and all that is in them, and provides us all with what we need, cannot himself need any of the things that he himself provides to those who imagine that they are giving to him. 5 In any case, those who imagine that they are offering sacrifices to him by means of blood and fat and whole burnt offerings and are honoring him with these tokens of respect do not seem to me to be the least bit different from those who show the same respect to deaf images: the latter make offerings to things unable to receive the honor, while the former think they offer something to the one who is in need of nothing.
2.3 the form they have An editor emends to this form. • possible . . . form An editor emends to possible for each of them to have been changed in form to represent something else. 2.7 who . . . gods Some editors emend to who think and suppose that you are praising them. 2.9 Therefore . . . feel Or Do you not, therefore, disprove its ability to feel?
4 But with regard to their qualms about meats, and superstition concerning the sabbath, and pride in circumcision, and hypocrisy about fasting and new moons, I doubt that you need to learn from me that they are ridiculous and not worth discussing. 2 For is it not unlawful to accept some of the things created by God for human use as created good but to refuse others as useless and superfluous? 3 And is it not impious to slander God by alleging that he forbids us to do any good thing on the sabbath day? 4 And is it not also ridiculous to take pride in the mutilation of the flesh as a sign of election, as though they were especially beloved by God because of this? 5 And as for the way they watch the stars and the moon so as to observe months and days, and to make distinctions between the changing seasons ordained by God, making some into feasts and others into times of mourning according to their own inclinations, who would regard this as an example of godliness and not much more of a lack of understanding? 6 So then, I think you have been sufficiently instructed to realize that the Christians are right to keep their distance from the common silliness and deception and fussiness and pride of the Jews. But as for the mystery of the Christian’s own religion, do not expect to be able to learn this from a human being.
The Distinctiveness of Christians
5 For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. 2 For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric way of life. 3 This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and refection of ingenious people, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do. 4 But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. 5 They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. 6 They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring. 7 They share their food but not their wives. 8 They are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. 9 They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. 10 They obey the established laws; indeed in their private lives they transcend the laws. 11 They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted. 12 They are unknown, yet they are condemned; they are put to death, yet they are brought to life. 13 They are poor, yet they make many rich; they are in need of everything, yet they abound in everything. 14 They are dishonored, yet they are glorified in their dishonor; they are slandered, yet they are vindicated. 15 They are cursed, yet they bless; they are insulted, yet they offer respect. 16 When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; when they are punished, they rejoice as though brought to life. 17 By the Jews they are assaulted as foreigners, and by the Greeks they are persecuted, yet those who hate them are unable to give a reason for their hostility.
6 In a word, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world. 2 The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians throughout the cities of the world. 3 The soul dwells in the body, but is not of the body; likewise Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world. 4 The soul, which is invisible, is confined in the body, which is visible; in the same way, Christians are recognized as being in the world, and yet their religion remains invisible. 5 The flesh hates the soul and wages war against it, even though it has suffered no wrong, because it is hindered from indulging in its pleasures; so also the world hates the Christians, even though it has suffered no wrong, because they set themselves against its pleasures. 6 The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and its members, and Christians love those who hate them. 7 The soul is locked up in the body, but it holds the body together; and though Christians are detained in the world as if in a prison, they in fact hold the world together. 8 The soul, which is immortal, lives in a mortal dwelling; similarly Christians live as strangers amid perishable things, while waiting for the imperishable in heaven. 9 The soul, when poorly treated with respect to food and drink, becomes all the better; and so Christians when punished daily increase more and more. 10 Such is the important position to which God has appointed them, and it is not right for them to decline it.
7 For this is, as I said, no earthly discovery that was committed to them, nor some mortal idea that they consider to be worth guarding so carefully, nor have they been entrusted with the administration of merely human mysteries. 2 On the contrary, the omnipotent Creator of all, the invisible God himself, established among humans the truth and the holy, incomprehensible word from heaven and fixed it firmly in thei
r hearts, not, as one might imagine, by sending them some subordinate, or angel or ruler or one of those who manage earthly matters, or one of those entrusted with the administration of things in heaven, but the Designer and Creator of the universe himself, by whom he created the heavens, by whom he enclosed the sea within its proper bounds, whose mysteries all the elements faithfully observe, from whom the sun has received the measure of the daily courses to keep, whom the moon obeys as he commands it to shine by night, whom the stars obey as they follow the course of the moon, by whom all things have been ordered and determined and placed in subjection, including the heavens and the things in the heavens, the earth and the things in the earth, the sea and the things in the sea, fire, air, abyss, the things in the heights, the things in the depths, the things in between—this one he sent to them! 3 But perhaps he sent him, as one might suppose, to rule by tyranny, fear, and terror? 4 Certainly not! On the contrary, he sent him in gentleness and meekness, as a king might send his son who is a king; he sent him as God; he sent him as a human to humans. When he sent him, he did so as one who saves by persuasion, not compulsion, for compulsion is no attribute of God. 5 When he sent him, he did so as one calling, not pursuing; when he sent him, he did so as one loving, not judging. 6 For he will send him as judge, and who will endure his coming? . . . 7 [Do you not see] how they are thrown to wild beasts to make them deny the Lord, and yet they are not conquered? 8 Do you not see that as more of them are punished, the more others increase? 9 These things do not look like human works; they are the power of God, they are proofs of his presence.
God’s Son as Revealer and Savior
8 For what person had any knowledge at all of what God was before he came? 2 Or do you accept the empty and nonsensical statements of those pretentious philosophers, some of whom said that God was fire (the very thing they are headed for, they call God!), and others, water, and still others some other one of the elements created by God. 3 And yet, if any of these statements is worthy of acceptance, then every one of the other created things might just as well be declared to be God. 4 No, these things are merely the illusions and deceit of the magicians. 5 No one has either seen or known him, but he has revealed himself. 6 And he revealed himself through faith, which is the only means by which one is permitted to see God. 7 For God, the Master and Creator of the universe, who made all things and arranged them in order, was not only tenderhearted but also very patient. 8 Indeed, so he always was and is and will be, kind, good, without anger, and true, and he alone is good. 9 And after conceiving a great and marvelous plan, he communicated it to his child alone. 10 Now as long as he kept it a secret and guarded his wise design, he seemed to neglect and be unconcerned about us, 11 but when he revealed it through his beloved child and made known the things prepared from the beginning, he gave us everything at once, both to share in his benefits and to see and understand things that none of us ever would have expected.
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