To Diognetus 10.2

Anonymous · To Diognetus · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · place unknown · Read in context

Traditional ascription rejected: The author is unknown. The only manuscript (destroyed in 1870) placed it among works of Justin Martyr, but the style is not Justin's. The name “Mathetes” sometimes used for the author comes from “a disciple of apostles” in 11.1. Chapters 11–12 probably come from a different work.

Summary: God loved mankind, made the world for them, and sent his only Son.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:370

ὁ γὰρ θεὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἠγάπησε, διʼ οὓς ἐποίησε τὸν κόσμον, οἷς ὑπέταξε πάντα τὰ ἐν τῇ γῇ, οἷς λόγον ἔδωκεν, οἷς νοῦν, οἷς μόνοις ἄνω πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁρᾶν ἐπέτρεψεν, οὓς ἐκ τῆς ἰδίας εἰκόνος ἔπλασε, πρὸς οὓς ἀπέστειλε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ, οἷς τὴν ἐν οὐρανῷ βασιλείαν ἐπηγγείλατο, καὶ δώσει τοῖς ἀγαπήσασιν αὐτόν.

English · Claude translation

For God loved mankind, for whose sake he made the world, to whom he subjected everything on earth, to whom he gave reason, to whom he gave mind, whom alone he allowed to look up to him, whom he formed from his own image, to whom he sent his only-begotten Son, to whom he promised the kingdom in heaven, and will give it to those who have loved him.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:370 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 350–379 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Lake, LCL 25. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 25, 1913); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Scripture

John 3:16 · allusion, medium confidence
Gen 1:26 · echo, medium confidence
Gen 1:28 · echo, medium confidence
Jas 2:5 · echo, low confidence

Topics

Christology

Cite this passage

Diogn. 10.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/10/2/).

Plain text

Diogn. 10.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/10/2/).