#98 Epistle to Diognetus - Part 1

The following is a short letter from an early Christian — who calls himself only "a disciple" — to a pagan inquirer named Diognetus, who has been asking serious questions about the Christian faith. In twelve brief chapters the author explains why Christians reject both Greek idolatry and Jewish ritual, describes the strikingly counter-cultural way Christians live in the world ("what the soul is in the body, that is what Christians are in the world"), and unfolds the heart of the gospel: the Father sending His Son as a ransom for sinners — "O sweet exchange!"

The letter is widely regarded as one of the earliest surviving works of Christian apologetics, written when Christianity was still a young, persecuted, and largely misunderstood movement. The author writes as if the faith is still new in the world, and his tone of reasoned persuasion toward an educated friend places him squarely at the dawn of the apologetic tradition that would soon flower in Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and Tertullian.

The author calls himself in chapter 11 "a disciple of the Apostles" — which the editor of the 1885 Ante-Nicene Fathers edition, Philip Schaff, adopted as a kind of name (Greek Mathetes, "disciple").

The most probable (but unprovable) guess as to the recipient, made by Christian Bunsen in the 19th century, identifies him with the Diognetus who served as tutor to the future emperor Marcus Aurelius — which would fit the second-century date and the cultured pagan addressee. But this remains conjecture.

Chapter 1. — Occasion of the epistle

Most excellent Diognetus, I see that you are eager to learn about the Christian way of worshipping God. You ask carefully: What God do they trust in? What form of religion do they keep, that lets them look down on the world and despise death? Why do they reject the gods of the Greeks and also refuse the superstitions of the Jews? What is this love they have for one another? And why has this new way of life only now appeared in the world, instead of long ago?

I gladly welcome your interest. I pray that God, who enables both speaker and hearer, will grant me to speak in such a way that you will be edified, and you to hear in such a way that I will not regret having spoken.

Chapter 2. — The vanity of idols

Come, then. Free your mind of its old prejudices. Lay aside the customs you inherited, since they only deceive you. Become, as it were, a new man — for you are about to hear a new teaching.

Now look honestly at the things you call gods, not just with your eyes but with your understanding. What are they made of? One is stone, no different from the stone you walk on. Another is brass, no better than your kitchen vessels. A third is rotten wood. A fourth is silver — and needs a man to guard it from thieves. A fifth is iron, eaten by rust. A sixth is clay, the same stuff used for the lowest household ware.

All are made of perishable matter. All are shaped by fire and tools. The sculptor made one, the smith another, the silversmith a third, the potter a fourth. Before the artisan worked them, each was just raw material — and any of them could just as easily have been made into a common pot instead of a god. Could not these very gods, if reworked, become ordinary vessels again?

They are deaf, blind, lifeless, senseless, motionless, and rotting. These you call gods. These you serve. These you worship. And you become like them.

You hate the Christians for refusing to call these things gods. But do you not insult your own gods more than the Christians do? You leave the stone and clay ones unguarded, but lock up the silver and gold ones at night with watchmen, afraid of thieves. The honors you offer them — if the gods can feel, you torment them; if they cannot, you only prove their lifelessness by smearing them with blood and burnt offerings. No human being would tolerate such treatment, unless forced. A stone bears it only because it cannot feel.

I could say much more, but if this is not enough, more would be wasted.

Chapter 3. — Superstitions of the Jews

Next you will want to hear why Christians do not worship as the Jews do. The Jews are right insofar as they reject idols and worship one God as Lord of all. But they err greatly in how they worship Him.

The Gentiles, by giving offerings to senseless idols, show madness. The Jews, by offering the same kinds of things to God as if He needed them, show folly. For the One who made heaven and earth, and gives us all that we need, has no need of anything we could give Him. To imagine that God is honored by the blood and smoke of sacrifices — as if He depended on us for anything — is not so different from what the idol-worshipers do.

Chapter 4. — The other observances of the Jews

As for Jewish scruples about food, their superstition about the Sabbath, their boasting about circumcision, and their fancies about fasts and new moons — I do not think you need me to explain how absurd these are.

To accept some foods that God made for human use, and reject others as unclean — by what right? To pretend God forbids doing good on the Sabbath — how is that not impious? To glory in circumcision as proof of being especially beloved by God — how is that not ridiculous? To watch the stars and the moon to mark out months and days, sorting God's seasons into times of feasting and times of mourning according to their own preferences (Galatians 4:10) — who would call this divine worship rather than folly?

So I trust you are convinced that Christians are right to abstain both from the common error of pagans and from the busy meddling and empty boasting of the Jews. But the actual mystery of Christian worship — that you must not hope to learn from any mortal teacher.