The Apologists · AD 130–180
The Epistle to Diognetus (anonymous)
treatise c. 130 – 200 · Anonymous apologetic letter · Unknown (Greek East)
The Apologists
Who The Epistle to Diognetus (anonymous) was
An anonymous apology addressed to an inquiring pagan named Diognetus, and one of the most beautiful things the early church produced — “Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind by country, language, or customs… they dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners… every foreign land is to them a fatherland, and every fatherland foreign.” The author, date, and provenance are all unknown; the sole manuscript, a thirteenth-century codex at Strasbourg, perished in the fire of the 1870 siege, so that the text survives only through copies made before its destruction. It receives, per the archive’s rule for anonymous works, its own profile mapped to the earliest edge of its estimated composition.
No ancient writer cites it; sole witness was Codex Argentoratensis (13th c., burned 1870).
Common questions
When did The Epistle to Diognetus live?
The Epistle to Diognetus (anonymous) is dated treatise c. 130 – 200 in the archive, which places The Epistle to Diognetus in the Apologists (AD 130–180). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
What did The Epistle to Diognetus write?
The Epistle to Diognetus (anonymous) has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: The Epistle to Diognetus.
Which early sources mention The Epistle to Diognetus?
The Epistle to Diognetus (anonymous) is named in 1 primary-source passage catalogued here, drawn from Epistle to Diognetus (anonymous). Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was The Epistle to Diognetus from?
The archive associates The Epistle to Diognetus (anonymous) with Unknown (Greek East).
Writings (1)
The Epistle to Diognetus
c. 130–200 (trad. dating)They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners; they bear their share in all things as citizens, and endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign land is to them a fatherland, and every fatherland foreign.Read the interlinear source text →
Primary-source mentions (1)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
The Epistle to Diognetus
c. AD 180For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. …They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. …Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. [The letter's author, date, and addressee remain unresolved; estimates run c. 130–200.]Epistle to Diognetus (anonymous) · source text
Names proposed by later tradition
Quadratus of Athens
P. Andriessen and others argued the letter is the lost Apology of Quadratus to Hadrian, on grounds of style and the ‘disciple of the apostles’ self-description.
Pantaenus of Alexandria
An old conjecture matching the letter’s catechetical polish to the head of the Alexandrian school.
An unknown Greek apologist, late 2nd c.
The cautious consensus (Lightfoot, Meecham): a highly cultivated but unidentifiable author writing in the apologists’ generation.
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 95 · Domitian’s reprisals, AD 95
- AD 96 · Rome writes to Corinth: 1 Clement, AD 96
- AD 112 · Pliny writes Trajan, AD 112
- AD 117 · Symeon and Ignatius martyred, AD 117
- AD 135 · Bar Kokhba crushed; Aelia Capitolina, AD 135
- AD 144 · Marcion expelled at Rome, AD 144