1:1 \p Since I see, most excellent Diognetus, that you are exceedingly eager to learn the godliness of the Christians, and are inquiring concerning them very clearly and diligently: In what God do they trust, and in what way do they worship him, that they all scorn the world and despise death? Why do they neither esteem those gods regarded by the Greeks, nor keep the superstition of the Jews? What tender affection do they bear to one another, and why did this new race or practice enter into life now and not before?
1:2 I welcome your readiness. I ask of God, who supplies to us both speaking and hearing, that it may be granted to me to speak so that you may become better for having heard, and to you to hear so that he who speaks may not be grieved.
2:1 \p Come, then: cleanse yourself from all the reasonings that preoccupy your mind, cast off the custom that deceives you, and be born, as it were, a new man all over again — as one about to hear a new word, just as you yourself confessed. Look, not merely with the eyes but with prudence, what is the substance or form of those which you⁺ call and think gods.
2:2 Is not one a stone, like what we tread on, and one bronze, no better than the vessels forged for our use, and one wood, already decayed, and one silver, needing a man to guard it from being stolen, and one iron, corroded, and one earthen, no more fitting than what is prepared for the most shameful service?
2:3 Are not all these of corruptible matter? Are they not all made by iron and fire? Did not the sculptor form one, the coppersmith another, the silversmith a third, and the potter a fourth? Before they were fashioned into these forms by the arts of those men, was not each of them transformed, and that even now, by its respective craftsman? Could not the vessels which now are of the same matter, if they met with the same craftsmen, be made like such as these?
2:4 And again, these [objects] which are now worshiped by you⁺, could they not be made by men into vessels like the rest? Are they not all deaf? All blind? All without life? All without touch? All motionless? All rotting? All decaying?
2:5 \p These [objects] you⁺ call gods, these you⁺ serve as slaves, these you⁺ worship; and you⁺ become altogether like them.
2:6 For this cause you⁺ hate the Christians, because they do not count these gods.
2:7 \p For you⁺, who regard and worship them, do you⁺ not despise them even more? Do you⁺ not much more mock and shamefully treat them, worshiping without a guard those of stone and earth, but shutting up the gold and silver ones at night, and by day setting guards, lest they should be stolen?
2:8 When you⁺ worship them with blood and fat, you⁺ think you⁺ are honoring them. But if they have touch, you⁺ are actually punishing them. And if they are without touch, [they cannot even respond] — proving [it].
2:9 Let any one of you⁺ endure this! Let any one tolerate having these things done to himself! But not even one man would willingly tolerate such punishment, for he has touch and reasoning; but the stone tolerates it, for it is without touch. Therefore you⁺ prove it [to be] without touch.
2:10 \p In regard then, to the freedom of Christians from being enslaved to such gods, I would have many other things to say; but if, to any, these do not seem sufficient, I count it superfluous to say more.
3:1 \p Next, I suppose you especially desire to hear concerning how [Christian] godliness differs from that of the Jews.
3:2 The Jews then, if they abstain from this previously described service, rightly choose to worship the one God over all and esteem him Master; yet if they offer him this worship in the same manner as those previously described, they err.
3:3 For the Greeks exhibit an example of folly by offering to those without touch and the deaf [objects]. And the Jews, reckoning they offer the same to God as though he were in need, should rather count it foolishness, not godliness.
3:4 For he who made the heaven and the earth and all things in them, and supplies us all with whatever we need, himself needs none of those things — the very things he supplies to the ones who think they are giving to him.
3:5 But those who think to offer him sacrifices of blood and fat and whole burnt-offerings, and to honor him with such honors, seem to me no different from those who show the same devotion to the deaf [objects]. The [Greeks] offer to things unable to partake of the honor; the [Jews] think they give to the one who needs nothing.
4:1 \p And moreover, their anxiety about meats, and their superstition about Sabbaths, and their vainglory about circumcision, and their pretense about fasting and new moon: these are laughable, and worthy of no account. I do not think you need to learn about them from me.
4:2 For among those things created by God for the use of men, they accept some as well created, and refuse others as unprofitable and superfluous. How is it not unlawful?
4:3 Then they misrepresent God, as if he forbids to do good on the Sabbath. How is it not ungodly?
4:4 Then they boast of a reduction of the flesh as a testimony of election, as though on that account they were especially loved by God. How is it not worthy of ridicule?
4:5 And then they attend to stars and moon, observing months and days. They distribute God's dispensations and the changes of seasons according to their own impulses, allotting some days to feasts and others to mourning. Who would count this as an example of godliness? Is it not much more [an example] of folly?
4:6 \p I think, therefore, that you have sufficiently learned that the Christians rightly abstain from the frivolity and deceit common [to both], and from the meddling and vainglory of the Jews. But do not expect to be able to learn the mystery of their own godliness from man.
5:1 \p For the Christians are distinguished from the rest of men neither by country, nor by language, nor by customs.
5:2 For they neither dwell in cities of their own, nor use any unusual dialect, nor lead a conspicuous life.
5:3 Nor was this instruction of theirs found by any speculation or concern of curious men; nor do they maintain an ordinance of men, as some.
5:4 \p But, dwelling in Greek and barbarian cities, as the lot fell to each, and following the customs of the land, in clothing, diet, and the remaining manner of life, they display the marvelous and admittedly strange character of their own citizenship.
5:5 They dwell in their own countries, but as sojourners; they partake of all things as citizens, and endure all things as strangers; every foreign land is their country, and every country a foreign land.
5:6 They marry, as do all. They do not throw away what is born, but acknowledge the children.
5:7 They eat together, but do not sleep together.
5:8 They are in the flesh, but do not live after the flesh.
5:9 They dwell on earth, but have citizenship in heaven.
5:10 They obey the public laws, and in their lives go even further than the laws [require].
5:11 \p They love all, and are persecuted by all.
5:12 They are unknown and are condemned; they are put to death, and made alive.
5:13 They are poor, yet make many rich; are in want of all things, yet abound in all.
5:14 They are dishonored, and glorified in their dishonor; they are spoken evil of, and yet justified.
5:15 They are reviled, and bless; they are shamefully treated, and render honor.
5:16 Doing good, they are punished as evil; being punished, they rejoice as being made alive.
5:17 By the Jews they are warred against as aliens, and by the Greeks they are persecuted; and those who hate them can give no reason of their enmity.
6:1 \p But to speak simply: what the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world.
6:2 For the soul is sown through all the members of the body; and Christians through the cities of the world.
6:3 The soul dwells indeed in the body, but is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world.
6:4 The invisible soul is guarded in a visible body; and Christians are known to be in the world, but their godliness remains invisible.
6:5 \p The flesh hates the soul, and without having been wronged wars against it, because the flesh is prevented from enjoying pleasures. And the world, without having been wronged, hates Christians, because they resist its pleasures.
6:6 Though the flesh hates the soul, the soul loves the flesh and all its members; and Christians love those who hate them.
6:7 The soul is locked up in the body, but holds the body together; and Christians are kept in the world, as it were in ward, yet hold the world together.
6:8 The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians sojourn among corruptible things, looking for incorruption in the heavens.
6:9 The soul when ill-treated in meats and drinks is made better; and Christians when punished increase the more day by day.
6:10 God has assigned them to such an order, as it is not lawful for them to refuse.
7:1 \p \q1 For, as I said, \q2 it is not an earthly discovery that was delivered to them, \q2 nor a mortal speculation that they count worthy to keep so diligently, \q2 nor are they entrusted with a dispensation of the mysteries of man.
7:2 \p \q1 But he himself — truly the Almighty, the Creator of all, and the invisible God — \q2 he himself from heaven implanted among men \q2 and firmly fixed in their hearts \q2 the truth and the holy and incomprehensible word. \p \q1 He did not, as one might suppose, send to men \q2 some attendant, or angel, or ruler, \q2 or one of those who govern earthly affairs, \q2 or one of those entrusted with the heavenly provinces. \p \q1 Rather, he sent the very craftsman and builder of all things — \q2 by whom he created the heavens, \q2 by whom he shut the sea within its own bounds, \q2 whose mysteries all the elements faithfully keep, \p \q2 from whom the sun has received the measures of its daily course to keep, \q2 whom the moon obeys when he bids her shine by night, \q2 whom the stars obey, following the moon in her course, \p \q2 by whom all things have been ordered and circumscribed and made subject: \q3 the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, the sea and all that is in it; \q3 fire, air, the abyss; \q3 the heights, the depths, and all that lies between. \q1 — this one he sent to them.
7:3 \p Was this, as some among men might reckon, for tyranny and fear and terror?
7:4 By no means; but in gentleness and meekness. As a king sending his son, a king, he sent him; sent him as God; sent him as to men; sent him as one saving, as one persuading, not forcing. For violence is not with God.
7:5 He sent him as calling, not pursuing; sent him as loving, not judging.
7:6 \p For he will send him judging; and who will endure his coming?
7:7 Do you not see those thrown to the wild beasts, that they might deny the Lord, and not overcome?
7:8 Do you not see that the more they are punished, the more others multiply?
7:9 These things do not seem [to be] works of man; these things are the power of God; these things are examples of his coming.
8:1 \p For who among men could at all know what God is, before he came?
8:2 Or do you approve the vain and foolish words of those credible philosophers? Some of them say God is fire (to which they themselves shall go — this they call God), and some say water, and some other elements created by God.
8:3 But, indeed, if any one of these words were acceptable, each one of the other creatures might likewise announce itself as God.
8:4 But these are absurdities, and error of impostors.
8:5 \p No one among men has seen him, or made him known; but he has showed himself.
8:6 He has showed himself through faith, through which alone it is granted to see God.
8:7 For God, the Master and builder of all things, he who made all things and set them in order, was not only loving toward man, but also long-suffering.
8:8 But this God was, and is, and ever will be kind and good, and not given to anger, and true, and the only good;
8:9 \p and when he had conceived a great and ineffable thought, he communicated it to his Child alone.
8:10 For so long a time, therefore, as he retained in mystery and reserved his wise counsel, he seemed to us to neglect us, and to be indifferent;
8:11 but after he revealed by his beloved Child, and manifested the things prepared from the beginning, he at one and the same time bestowed on us all things, both to take part in his benefits, and to see and understand. Who of us could ever have expected these things?
9:1 \p Having already arranged all things within himself along with his Child, during the former time he allowed us to be borne along as we wished by irregular motions, led away by pleasures and desires. Not that he took pleasure in our sins — he bore with them. He did not approve the former period of unrighteousness, but was bringing into existence the present period of righteousness. He intended that we, who had been convicted in the former time as unworthy of life by our own works, might now be counted worthy by the kindness of God. And that we, who had made it plain that by ourselves it was impossible to enter the kingdom of God, might be made able by the power of God.
9:2 \p But when our unrighteousness was made complete, and it was fully revealed that its wages — punishment and death — were to be expected, then came the time which God had foreordained finally to manifest his own kindness and power. O the surpassing love toward man, the love of God! He did not hate us, nor reject us, nor remember the evil, but was long-suffering. He bore with us. Having mercy, he himself took upon himself our sins. He himself gave his own Son a ransom for us — the holy for the lawless, the harmless for the evil, the righteous for the unrighteous, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal.
9:3 For what other [thing] was able to cover our sins but his righteousness?
9:4 In whom was it possible for us, the lawless and ungodly, to be justified other than in the only Son of God?
9:5 \p O sweet exchange! O unsearchable workmanship! O unexpected benefits! That the iniquity of many should be hidden in one righteous; that the righteousness of one should justify many lawless!
9:6 He convicted us in the preceding period that our own nature could not obtain life, and has now shown us a Savior able to save even the impossible. By both of these he willed for us to put faith in his kindness; and count him our nourisher, father, teacher, counselor, physician, mind, light, honor, glory, might, life; and not be anxious about clothing and food.
10:1 \p Once you also desire this faith, then the knowledge of the Father will be received by you.
10:2 For God loved men, for whom he made the world, to whom he subjected all things in the earth, to whom he gave reason, to whom mind, whom alone he permitted to look upward to himself, whom he formed in his own image. To them he sent his only begotten Son, to them he has promised the kingdom in heaven, and will give it to those who have loved him.
10:3 And when you have known him, with what joy do you think you will be filled? Or how will you love him who first so loved you?
10:4 \p And when you have loved, you will become an imitator of his kindness. And do not marvel that man can become an imitator of God. He can, God willing.
10:5 For to be happy, is not to lord it over neighbors, or to wish to have more than the weaker, or to be rich and use violence to the needy; nor can any one in such things be an imitator of God. For these things are outside of his majesty.
10:6 But he who takes his neighbor's burden on himself; he who, where he is superior, wishes to benefit another who is inferior; he who supplies to others in need those things which he has received from God, becomes as a god to those who receive. This man is the imitator of God.
10:7 \p Then, while on earth, you will see that God governs in heaven. Then you will begin to speak the mysteries of God. Then you will love and marvel at those who are punished because they will not deny God. Then you will condemn the deceit and error of the world, when you have learned to live truly in heaven, when you have come to despise what is here considered death, when you have come to dread what is truly death. For that death is reserved for those who will be condemned to eternal fire, which will punish to the end those delivered to it.
10:8 Then you will marvel at those who for righteousness' sake endure the temporal fire, and will call them blessed, when you have known that fire.
