To Diognetus 12.1

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: Those who love God become a paradise bearing every fruit.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:376

Οἷς ἐντυχόντες καὶ ἀκούσαντες μετὰ σπουδῆς εἴσεσθε, ὅσα παρέχει ὁ θεὸς τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν ὀρθῶς, οἱ γενόμενοι παράδεισος τρυφῆς, πάγκαρπον ξύλον εὐθαλοῦν ἀνατείλαντες ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, ποικίλοις καρποῖς κεκοσμημένοι.

English · Claude translation

When you have read and listened to these things with eagerness, you will know what God provides for those who love him rightly, who become a paradise of delight, raising up within themselves a flourishing tree bearing every fruit, adorned with various fruits.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 25:376 · 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

Cite this passage

Diogn. 12.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/12/1/).

Plain text
Diogn. 12.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/12/1/).

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