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DIOGNETUS, EPISTLE TO
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See also:DIOGNETUS, See also:EPISTLE TO , one of the See also:early See also:Christian apologies. Diognetus, of whom nothing is really known, has expressed a See also:desire to know what See also:Christianity really means—" What is this new See also:race " of men who are neither pagans nor See also:Jews? " What is this new See also:interest which has entered into men's lives now and not before?" The See also:anonymous See also:answer begins with a refutation of the folly of worshipping idols, fashioned by human hands and needing to be guarded if of See also:precious material. The repulsive See also:smell of See also:animal sacrifices is enough to show their monstrous absurdity. Next Judaism is attacked. Jews abstain from See also:idolatry and See also:worship one See also:God, but they fall into the same See also:error of repulsive See also:sacrifice, and have absurd superstitions about meats and sabbaths, See also:circumcision and new moons. So far the task is easy; but the See also:mystery of the Christian See also:religion " think not to learn from See also:man." A passage of See also:great eloquence follows, showing that Christians have no obvious peculiarities that See also:mark them off as a See also:separate race. In spite of blameless lives they are hated. Their See also:home is in See also:heaven, while they live on See also:earth. " In a word, what the soul is in a See also:body, this the Christians are in the See also:world. . . . The soul is enclosed in the body, and yet itself holdeth the body together: so Christians are kept in the world as in a See also:prison-See also:house, and yet they themselves hold the world together." This See also:strange See also:life is inspired in them by the almighty and invisible God, who sent,llo See also:angel or subordinate messenger to See also:teach them, but His own Son by whom He created the universe. No man could have known God, had He not thus declared Himself. " If See also:thou too wouldst have this faith, learn first the knowledge of the See also:Father. For God loved men, for whose See also:sake He made the world.... Knowing Him, thou wilt love Him and imitate His goodness; and marvel not if a man can imitate God: he can, if God will." By kindness to the needy, by giving them what God has given to him, a man can become " a god of them that receive, an imitator of God." "TI :n shalt thou on earth behold God's life in heaven; then shalt thou begin to speak the mysteries of God." A few lines after this the See also:letter suddenly breaks off. Even this rapid See also:summary may show that the writer was a man of no See also:ordinary See also:power, and there is no other early Christian See also:writing outside the New Testament which appeals so strongly to See also:modern readers. The letter has been often classed with the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, and in some ways it seems to mark the transition from the sub-apostolic See also:age to that of the Apologists. See also:Bishop See also:Lightfoot, who speaks of the letter as " one of the noblest and most impressive of early Christian apologies," places it c. A.D. 150, and inclines to identify Diognetus with the See also:tutor of See also:Marcus Aurelius. See also:Harnack and others would See also:place it later, perhaps in the 3rd See also:century. There are some striking See also:parallels in method and See also:language to the See also:Apology of See also:Aristides (q.v.), and also to the early " See also:Preaching of See also:Peter." The one See also:manuscript which contained this letter perished by See also:fire at See also:Strassburg in 1870, but happily it had been accurately collated by See also:Reuss nine years before. It formed See also:part of a collection of See also:works supposed to be by See also:Justin See also:Martyr, and to this mistaken attribution its preservation is no doubt due. Both thought and language mark the author off entirely from Justin. The end of the letter is lost, but there followed in the codex the end of a See also:homily,' which was attached without a break to the epistle: this points to the loss in some earlier codex of pages containing the end of the letter and the beginning of the homily. The Epistle may be read in J. B. Lightfoot's Apostolic Fathers (ed. See also:min.), where there is also a See also:translation into See also:English. (J. A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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