Sophia Scriptura

To Diognetus 10.5

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: Imitating God is not domination or wealth.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:372

οὐ γὰρ τὸ καταδυναστεύειν τῶν πλησίον οὐδὲ τὸ πλέον ἔχειν βούλεσθαι τῶν ἀσθενεστέρων οὐδὲ τὸ πλουτεῖν καὶ βιάζεσθαι τοὺς ὑποδεεστέρους εὐδαιμονεῖν ἐστιν, οὐδὲ ἐν τούτοις δύναταί τις μιμήσασθαι θεόν, ἀλλὰ ταῦτα ἐκτὸς τῆς ἐκείνου μεγαλειότητος.

English · Claude translation

For happiness is not in lording it over one's neighbors, nor in wishing to have more than the weaker, nor in being rich and using force against those who are poorer; nor can anyone imitate God in these things; rather, these things are foreign to his majesty.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 25:372 · 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)
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (damaged spot in the digital text (garbled letters and question marks); restored from the sense and Lake's printed text): καταδυν̔??ʼ στεύειν → καταδυναστεύειν; βούλεσθ̔??ʼ → βούλεσθαι; βιάζεσθἁ??ʼ → βιάζεσθαι.

Cite this passage

Diogn. 10.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/10/5/).

Plain text
Diogn. 10.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/10/5/).

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