Sophia Scriptura

To Diognetus 7.4

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 sent his Son as God and as man, in gentleness, to save.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:364

οὐ μὲν οὖν· ἀλλʼ ἐν ἐπιεικείᾳ καὶ πραΰτητι ὡς βασιλεὺς πέμπων υἱὸν βασιλέα ἔπεμψεν, ὡς θεὸν ἔπεμψεν, ὡς ἄνθρωπον πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἔπεμψεν, ὡς σώζων ἔπεμψεν, ὡς πείθων, οὐ βιαζόμενος· βία γὰρ οὐ πρόσεστι τῷ θεῷ.

English · Claude translation

Not at all; but in gentleness and meekness, as a king sending his son who is a king, he sent him; as God he sent him; as man to men he sent him; as saving he sent him, as persuading, not compelling; for compulsion is not an attribute of God.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 25:364 · 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
Topics
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • “As God… as man”: an early statement of Christ as both divine and human.

Cite this passage

Diogn. 7.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/7/4/).

Plain text
Diogn. 7.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/7/4/).

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