ANONYMOUS APOSTOLIC LETTER TO DIOGNETUS
A That illustrious men of the same name have existed is clear from ancient monuments, as may be seen in Fabricius; to whom two others might also be added, Athenian Archons noted by the distinguished Corsonius. But it has not been possible to discover one anywhere as yet to whom the times and other details noted above might be seen to correspond. Furthermore, this Epistle should be accounted of the greatest value, because its author, whoever he may, in the end, have been, brings forward many places most worthy of all observation, by which he hands down, illustrates, and confirms not a few of the chief articles of the Christian faith; as has been remarked by learned men, chief among them Nourry and Bull.
ANONYMOUS APOSTOLIC MAN'S LETTER TO DIOGNETUS.
CAP. I. Occasio Epistolæ. Diogneti quæstiones proponuntur: 1. In quo Deo scilicet fiduciam habentes Christiani, mundum et mortem contemnant. 2. Cur Græcorum et Judæorum sacris abjectis, novam religionem sectentur. 3. Unde ille amor, quo se mutuo prosequuntur. 4. Cur tam sero in orbem terrarum inductum sit hoc institutum.
B Since I see, most excellent Diognetus, that you are possessed by a most keen desire to learn about the religion of the Christians, and are questioning them very clearly and diligently as to which God they trust in, and how they worship Him, and why all of them disregard the world and despise death; and why they neither consider those to be gods whom the Greeks suppose to be such, nor observe the superstition of the Jews; and what this affection is that they have for one another; and why this new race or practice has entered into life now and not before; I welcome this zeal of yours, and I pray to God, who grants us the power both to speak and to hear, that it may be given to me to speak in such a way that you may become better after hearing, and to you so to hear that the one who speaks may not be distressed.
CHAPTER II. The author of the letter explains why Christians do not worship idols, as the Greeks do.
Come then, after you have purified yourself from all the thoughts that preoccupy your mind, and have laid aside the custom which has deceived you, as though you were becoming, like one from the beginning, a new man, as you are about to hear, and also, as it were, a disciple of a new discourse—
A see not only with your eyes, but also with your reason, of what substance or of what form are those whom you call and consider gods. Is not one of them a stone, similar to that which is trodden underfoot? Another is bronze, no better than the vessels that are forged for our use? Another is wood, which has already rotted? Another is silver, which needs a man to guard it, lest it be stolen; another is iron, corroded by rust; another is pottery, no more attractive than that which is made for the most menial service? Are not all these of corruptible material? Are they not forged by iron and fire? Did not one sculptor fashion the stone, a bronzesmith the bronze, a silversmith the silver, and a potter the pottery? B Was not each of them, before they were molded by the arts of these men into their present forms, not yet transformed into what they now are? Could not the vessels now made of the same material, if they fell into the hands of the same craftsmen, be made similar to these? If these things which are now worshiped by you could, by the hands of men, be turned into vessels similar to the rest, are they not all deaf? Are they not blind? Are they not inanimate? Are they not insensible? Are they not immovable? Do they not all rot? Do they not all decay? These you call gods; to these you are enslaved; these you worship; and you become completely C like them. It is for this reason that you hate the Christians, because they do not consider these to be gods. But you, who now think and believe them to be gods, do you not despise them much more than they do? Do you not ridicule and insult them much more? You worship the stone and earthenware ones without guards, but the silver and gold ones you lock up at night, and during the day you set guards over them, so that they might not be stolen. And the honors with which you think you are treating them, if they have any sense, you are rather inflicting upon them as a punishment; but if they are devoid of sense, you are proving them to be so by paying them honor with blood and fat. Which of you would endure this? D Who would suffer such things to be done to himself? For not even a single man will willingly endure such treatment (since he possesses sense and reason), but the stone endures it, for it is without sense. Therefore, as for the fact that [Christians] are not enslaved—
Regarding the fact that they are not enslaved, I shall speak.
I might have many more things to say; but if to anyone even these do not seem sufficient, I consider it superfluous to say more.
Cap. III. He denies that even the Jews are free from superstition, since they think that God needs those things which the heathens offered to things lacking sense.
A Furthermore, regarding the fact that their divine worship is not the same as that of the Jews, I think you are most eager to hear. The Jews, then, if they abstain from the aforementioned cult, and wish to honor one God and think of Him as the Lord of all, they do well; but if they offer to Him their religious service in the same way as those about whom I have spoken, they are mistaken. For the things which the Greeks offer to senseless and deaf [idols], providing proof of their folly, these men—thinking that they are offering them to God as if He were in need of them—one would reasonably consider to be B folly rather than divine worship. For He who made the heaven and the earth and all that is in them, and who provides to us all the things of which we have need, could not Himself be in need of those things which He provides to those who think they are giving them to Him. But those who imagine that they are performing sacrifices to Him with blood and fat and burnt offerings, and that they are honoring Him with these marks of respect—they, it seems to me, differ in no way from those who zealously pursue the same honor toward senseless things, which are unable to share in such honor—thinking that they are bestowing something C upon One who is in need of nothing.
Cap. IV. He proves that the other customs of the Jews are no more suitable for the worship of God.
But regarding their meticulous caution about foods, and their superstition about the Sabbaths, and their boasting about circumcision, and their hypocrisy regarding fasting and the new moons, which are ridiculous and unworthy of mention, I believe you need to learn from me. For regarding things created by God for the use of men, how is it right to accept some as well-created, but to reject others as useless and superfluous? And how is it not impious to lie about God, as if He forbids some good deed to be done on the Sabbath day? And as for the mutilation of the flesh as testimony of one's selection
A to boast of, and as if for this reason they are loved by God in an extraordinary way, how is this not worthy of derision? Moreover, as for their observing the stars and the moon, and making the observation of months (57) and of days, and splitting up the economies of God and the variations of the seasons according B to their own inclinations—some for festivals, and others for times of mourning—who would consider this an indication of religious worship, and not much rather of folly? That Christians, therefore, rightly abstain from the common vanity and deception, and from the meddlesomeness and arrogance of the Jews, I believe you have sufficiently learned. But the mystery of their own religious worship do not hope to be able to learn from any man.
CAP. V. The lifestyle of the Christians depicted graphically.
Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind by region, nor by speech, nor by customs. B For they do not live in cities of their own, nor do they use a different dialect, nor do they practice a singular lifestyle. Nor, indeed, was this doctrine of theirs conceived by any caprice or meddlesome thought of curious men; nor do they champion any human dogma, as some do. But while they inhabit both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one is allotted his share, and follow the customs of the inhabitants C in clothing and diet and the rest of their lifestyle, they display the wonderful and admittedly paradoxical condition of their own commonwealth. They inhabit their own fatherlands, yet as tenants; they share in everything as citizens, and suffer everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and every fatherland is a foreign land. They marry as everyone does, and beget children; but they do not abandon the newborns. They share a common table, but D not common beds. They exist in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. They spend their time on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, and in their own lives they surpass the laws. They love all, and are persecuted by all. They are ignored, and they are condemned; they are put to death, and are brought to life; they are poor, and make many rich; they lack everything, and in all things they abound.
A They are dishonored, and in their dishonors they are glorified; they are reviled, and are justified; they are cursed, and they bless; they are insulted, and they offer honor. Doing good, they are punished as evil-doers; being punished, they rejoice as if they were made alive. By the Jews they are warred against as aliens, and by the Greeks they are persecuted; yet those who hate them cannot state the reason for their enmity.
CHAPTER VI. He proves that Christians are in the world as the soul is in the body.
And that I may sum up all things at once, what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed B through all the members of the body, and Christians are dispersed through the cities of the world. The soul indeed dwells in the body, but is not from the body; and Christians dwell in the world, but they are not of the world. The soul is invisible and is kept within the visible body; and Christians are known to be [remaining] in the world, but their religion remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wages war against it, having suffered no wrong, because it is prevented from enjoying its pleasures; and the world hates Christians, having suffered no wrong from them, because they set themselves against its pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and the members, and Christians love those that hate them. The soul is enclosed indeed within the body, but it is the soul that holds the body together; and Christians are detained in the world as in a prison, but they themselves hold the world together. C The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians dwell in the midst of corruptible things, waiting for the incorruptibility in the heavens. When the soul is maltreated with foods and drinks, it becomes better; and Christians, being punished day by day, increase all the more. Such a rank has God assigned to them, which it is not lawful for them to shirk.
CHAPTER VII. This religion was instituted by God, who sent not a created thing, but His own Son to save men. Manifest signs of the coming of the Son.
For this was not a terrestrial discovery that was handed over to them, as I said; nor do they deem it worth their while to guard so carefully some mortal invention; nor have they been entrusted with the administration of human D mysteries; but truly the Almighty and all-creating and invisible God Himself, from heaven, planted among men the Truth and the Holy and incomprehensible Word and established it in their hearts; not, as one might conjecture, by sending to men some minister, or angel, or ruler, or one of those who manage earthly things,
A but the very Artificer and Creator of all things, by whom He created the heavens, by whom He enclosed the sea within its own boundaries—whose mysteries all the elements faithfully guard, from whom the stars have received the measures of the daily courses to keep; B to whom the moon obeys, and whom she serves at His command for the night, whom the stars obey, following in the path of the moon. All things have been arranged, and determined, and subjected: the heavens and the things in the heavens, the earth and the things on the earth, the sea and the things in the sea—fire, air, the abyss—the things in the heights, the things in the depths, the things in the expanse between. This One He sent to them. Did He send Him, as any man might conjecture, in the exercise of tyranny, fear, and terror? By no means; but in clemency and gentleness, as a king might send a king—His Son—He sent Him; as God He sent Him; as to men He sent Him; as a Savior He sent Him, as persuading and not compelling; for violence is not present with God. He sent Him as calling, not as pursuing; He sent Him as loving, not as judging. For He shall send Him as Judge, and who shall stand before His presence? C ... are they thrown to wild beasts, that they might deny the Lord, and are they not overcome? Do you not see those who are punished, the more they abound, the more others multiply? These things do not appear to be the works of a man; these are the power of God; these are the evidences of His presence.
CAP. VIII. How miserable the state of man before the coming of the Word.
For who at all among men understood what God is, before He Himself came? Or do you accept those empty and futile doctrines of those so-called philosophers, of whom some said that fire is God (that into which they themselves are to pass, they call God), and others water, and others some other of the elements created by God? And yet, if any one of these doctrines is acceptable, one could with equal reason declare any one of the other created things to be God. But these discourses are the prodigies and deception of impostors; and no man has ever seen or known Him, D but He manifested Himself. He manifested Himself through faith,
A to which alone it is permitted to see God. For the Lord and Creator of all, God, who made all things and ordered them in their proper place, was not only man-loving, but also long-suffering. But He was always such, as He is and will be, kind and good B and free from wrath and truthful; and He is the only good. And having conceived a great and ineffable thought, which He shared only with His Son, for as long as He kept His wise counsel in a mystery and guarded it, He seemed to neglect us and show no care for us; but when He revealed it through His beloved Son, and manifested what had been prepared from the beginning, He provided all things for us at once, both to share in His benefits and to see. Who of us could have expected this? He therefore knew all things economically with Himself, along with the Son.
CAP. IX. The Son was sent late, because it was necessary that men should recognize that they were unworthy of life through their own sins, and that they could be justified by no one other than the Son of God.
For the rest, up to the previous time He allowed us to be carried away by B uncontrolled impulses as we wished, led by pleasures and desires; not at all delighting in our sins, but tolerating them; not approving of that time of injustice, but creating the mind of justice, so that, being convicted in that time of being unworthy of life by our own works, we might now be deemed worthy by the goodness of God; and having made it manifest that we were unable to enter into the kingdom of God by that which is in us, we might be made capable by the power of God. When, however, our wickedness had reached its fullness, and it was fully manifest that the reward C of sin was punishment and death, the time arrived which God had preordained to henceforth manifest His kindness and power, how the one love of God, by reason of its surpassing D love for mankind, neither hated us, nor turned away from us, nor bore us malice. But He was long-suffering, He held His peace; He Himself, as He says, took upon Himself our sins; He Himself gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy for the lawless, the innocent for the wicked, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. For what else could have covered our sins than His righteousness? In whom was it possible for us, the lawless and ungodly, to be justified, save in the Son of God alone? O sweet exchange, O inscrutable operation, O surpassing benefits, that the wickedness of many should be hidden in one Just One, and the righteousness of one should justify many that are wicked!
A Having therefore in the former time demonstrated the impossibility of our nature to attain life, and having now shown the Savior who is able to save even what was impossible to be saved, He willed that we should believe in His goodness, and should deem Him our nourisher, father, teacher, counselor, physician, mind, light, honor, glory, strength, and life; and that we should not be anxious about clothing and food.
Chap. X. To Diognetus the author shows how many and how great are the blessings that will come to him, if he receives the faith.
B If thou also desirest this faith and attainest it, thou shalt first gain the knowledge of the Father. For God loved men, for whose sake He made the world, to whom He subjected all things that are in the world, to whom He gave reason and mind, and to whom alone He permitted to look up to Him; whom He formed after His own image, to whom He sent His only-begotten Son, and to whom He promised the kingdom in heaven, and will give it to those who have loved Him. When thou hast known Him, with how great joy dost thou think thou shalt be filled? Or how wilt thou love Him who so loved thee before? C And having loved Him, thou shalt be an imitator of His goodness. And do not marvel that a man can become an imitator of God. He can, if God so will. For it is not in exercising dominion over one's neighbors, nor in wanting to have more than the weaker ones, nor in being rich and forcing those who are inferior, that blessedness resides; nor can anyone in these things imitate God; but these are outside His majesty. But he who takes upon himself the burden of his neighbor, who, in whatever respect he is superior, is willing to benefit another who is in a deficient state, and who, by providing to the needy those things which he has received from God and possesses, becomes a god to those who receive them—this man is an imitator of God. Then, as thou dwellest on earth, thou shalt behold that God in the heavens D governs the universe; then thou shalt begin to speak the mysteries of God; then thou shalt both love and admire those who are punished for not wishing to deny God; then thou shalt condemn the imposture of the world and the error of the age, when thou hast learned what it is truly to live in heaven; when thou hast learned to despise that which here is deemed death; when thou hast learned to fear that which is truly
A eternal fire, which will punish those who are delivered over to it unto the end. Then wilt thou marvel at those who endure fire for the sake of justice; then wilt thou call them blessed, when thou attainest the knowledge of that fire.
Chapter XI. Of the great importance of knowing those things which the incarnate Word has taught.
I am not speaking of strange things, nor do I pursue what is discordant with reason; but, having become a disciple of the apostles, I become a teacher of the Gentiles. I minister the things handed down to those who become disciples B worthy of the truth. For who that has been rightly instructed and born of a friendly Word does not seek to learn clearly those things which were openly manifested by the Word to the disciples, to whom the Word, appearing, spoke plainly, though not understood by the unbelieving, but interpreting them to the disciples? Those who were esteemed faithful by Him knew the mysteries of the Father. For which cause He sent the Word, that He might appear to the world, who, being despised by the people, was proclaimed by the apostles and believed by the Gentiles. He who was from the beginning, who appeared as new C and was found old, and is ever born young in the hearts of the saints. He who is always, was accounted a Son today; by whom the Church is enriched, and grace, being expanded, is multiplied among the saints, providing understanding, revealing mysteries, announcing times, rejoicing over the faithful, giving to those who seek; by whom the boundaries of faith are not broken, nor are the limits of the fathers passed over. Then the fear of the Law is sung, and the grace of the Prophets is known, and the faith of the Gospels is established, and the tradition of the apostles D is guarded, and the grace of the Church leaps for joy. If you do not grieve this grace, you shall know what the Word speaks, through whom He wills, and when He wills. For whatever we have been moved to declare by the will of the commanding Word, we, after much labor, become sharers with you, out of love for the things revealed to us.
Chapter XII. It is of great importance to men to gain true knowledge, which is acquired in the Church not without life and love.
When you have read and heard these things with diligence, you shall know what things God provides for those who love Him rightly, having become a paradise of delights, a tree bearing all manner of fruit.
A blooming beautifully, springing up within yourselves, adorned with diverse fruits. For in this place the tree of knowledge and the tree of life were planted; but it is not the tree of knowledge that kills, rather it is disobedience that kills. For the things written are not obscure, that God from the beginning planted the tree of life in the midst of the paradise, displaying life through knowledge; because those who were from the beginning did not use it purely, they were stripped naked by the imposture of the serpent. For neither is there life without knowledge, nor is knowledge safe without true life. Therefore, both were planted near each other. Understanding this power, the Apostle B—finding fault with that knowledge which is exercised unto life without the truth of the commandment—says: "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." For he who thinks he knows anything without true knowledge, which is witnessed to by life, does not know it; he is deceived by the serpent, because he did not love life. But he who, with fear, has attained knowledge and seeks life, plants in hope, expecting fruit. Let your heart be knowledge, and life be the true word which is received. Bearing the tree of which, and the fruit, you shall always pluck the things desired by God—which the serpent does not touch, nor does error mingle with them, nor is Eve corrupted C, but she is believed to be a virgin, and the Salvation is shown, and the apostles are given understanding, and the Lord's passover advances, and the choirs are gathered, and they are ordered with decency; and the word, teaching the saints, rejoices; through whom the Father is glorified. To whom be glory forever. Amen.