To Diognetus 2.8

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: Sacrifices either torment the gods or prove them senseless.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:354

αἷς δὲ δοκεῖτε τιμαῖς προσφέρειν, εἰ μὲν αἰσθάνονται, κολάζετε μᾶλλον αὐτούς· εἰ δὲ ἀναισθητοῦσιν, ἐλέγχοντες αἵματι καὶ κνίσαις αὐτοὺς θρησκεύετε.

English · Claude translation

And with the honors you think you offer them, if they have sense, you rather punish them; but if they are senseless, you expose them when you worship them with blood and the smoke of fat.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:354 · 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. 2.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/2/8/).

Plain text

Diogn. 2.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/2/8/).

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