To Diognetus 12.2

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: Not knowledge but disobedience brings death.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:376

ἐν γὰρ τούτῳ τῷ χωρίῳ ξύλον γνώσεως καὶ ξύλον ζωῆς πεφύτευται· ἀλλʼ οὐ τὸ τῆς γνώσεως ἀναιρεῖ, ἀλλʼ ἡ παρακοὴ ἀναιρεῖ.

English · Claude translation

For in this place a tree of knowledge and a tree of life have been planted; but it is not the tree of knowledge that kills; it is disobedience that kills.

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)

Cite this passage

Diogn. 12.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/12/2/).

Plain text

Diogn. 12.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/12/2/).

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