Reading for Day 12 of Lent The Epistle to Diognetus Second or third century. — EDITION : J. B. Lightfoot in The Apostolic Fathers (ed. J. R. Harmer, 1891). (a) The Tliree Questions of Diognetus Right honourable Diognetus, I see that you are exceedingly eager to know about the religion of the Christians, and are inquiring about them clearly and carefully: you ask who is the God in whom they trust, and in what manner they worship him, so that they disdain the world and despise death, and do not count as gods those whom the Greeks regard as gods, nor observe the superstition of the Jews; and you ask what is the intimate affection they have for one another; and why it is that this new race or new culture has come into human life now and not before this. I welcome this eager interest. Ep. to Diognetus, i (b) The Mistaken Worship of Pagans and Jews . . . See of what substance or form they are whom you declare and consider to be gods. . . [There follows a conventional diatribe against idolatry on the lines of ISA. xl. 19-20, xliv. 9-20; Ps. cxv. 4-8.] Ibid, ii Next I suppose that you are particularly desirous of hearing why Christians do not worship in the same fashion as Jews. Now seeing that the Jews abstain from the above-mentioned kind of worship and claim to worship one God as ruler of the universe, they lay claim to the right conception; but in that they offer this observance in a manner like those above-mentioned, they are completely in error: for the Greeks present an example of folly in offering to things without sense or hearing; if the Jews considered that in making their offerings to God they imply his need of them they would probably deem their activity to be stupidity rather than piety. For ‘he who made the heaven and the earth and all that is in theml and supplies us all with what we need could not himself need any of the things which he himself provides for those who suppose themselves to be giving. [(iv) The absurdity and impiety of Jewish dietary laws, sabbath, circumcision, &c.] Ibid, iii, iv. 1 Acts xiv. 15. (c) The Christian Way of Life — in the World but not of it Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind by country or language or customs. . . . This doctrine has not been discovered by them through any inventive faculty or the careful thought of pretentious men;1 they are not champions of a man-made principle,2 as some are. While they live in cities both Greek and oriental, as falls to the lot of each, and follow the customs of the country in dress, food, and general manner of life, they display the remarkable and confessedly surprising status of their citizenship. They live in countries of their own, but as sojourners. They share all things as citizens; they suffer all things as foreigners. Every foreign land is their native place, every native place is foreign. . . . They pass their life on earth; but they are citizens in heaven. They obey the established laws, but they out-do the laws in their own lives. They love all men;3 and are persecuted by all. They are not understood, and condemned. They are put to death, and yet made alive . . . [&c.t on the lines of 2 Cor. vi]. Ep. to Diognetus, ν (d) Christians are ‘the Soul of the World In general, we may say that Christians are in the world what the soul is in the body. The soul is dispersed throughout the parts of the body, Christians throughout the cities of the world. The soul inhabits the body, but does not belong to the body: Christians inhabit the world, but ‘do not belong to the world.’ The soul is invisible and is kept in custody in the visible body;5 Christians are observed, since they arc in the world, but their religion remains unseen. The flesh hates the soul and though it suffers no wrong it fights against it, because it is hindered from indulging in its pleasure: so too the world hates Christians, though suffering no wrong from them, because they oppose its pleasures. The soul loves the body which hates it: Christians love those that hate them. The soul is locked up by the body,5 but it sustains the body: Christians are detained as it were in the custody of the world: but they sustain6 the world. The immortal soul inhabits a mortal tenement; Christians sojourn among things doomed to corruption, awaiting the incorruption which is in heaven. When the soul is ill treated in respect of food and drink it is improved: Christians under daily punishment flourish all the more.1 This is the high rank to which God has appointed them; and it is not permitted to seek exemption. (e) The Incarnation of the Word As I said, it was no worldly discovery which was committed to them, nor is it a human invention which they claim to preserve with such care; nor have they been entrusted with the administration of mysteries devised by man. No, it was in truth God himself, the all-ruling, all-creating, invisible God who himself from heaven established among man the truth, and the holy and incomprehensible word,2 and fixed it in their hearts, not, as one might guess, by sending to men some subordinate, some messenger or ruler, one of those who administer the affairs of earth or of those entrusted with the management in heaven; but he sent the very artificer and craftsman of the universe, by whom he created the heavens, by whom he shut the sea within its bounds; whose secret designs all the elements faithfully observe, from whom the sun has received the measures of its daily courses to observe, whom the moon obeys when he bids her shine by night, whom the stars obey as they follow the course of the moon; by whom all things have been disposed and defined and subjected ... he it was whom he sent to them. . . . Well, did he send him, as a man might suppose, to rule as tyrant, to inspire terror and astonishment? No, he did not. No, he sent him in gentleness and mildness: as a king sending his royal son, he sent him as God: but he sent him as to men, as saving them; as persuading, not exercising force (for force is no attribute of God). He sent him as summoning men, not prosecuting them; as loving, not judging. For he will send him as judge; and ‘who shall stand at his appearing?’ . . . [a lacuna in the MS.] thrown to wild beasts, that they may deny the Lord, and yet not overcome. Do you not see that as more of them are punished, so others abound the more? These things do not seem to be the works of man: they are the power of God; they are the proofs of his presence. (viii) What man had any knowledge at all of the character of God, before Christ came? Or do you accept the empty nonsense talked by plausible philosophers, some of whom said that God was fire (giving the name of God to their future destruction!), others said he was water, others some other of the elements created by God. . . . No man has seen him or recognized him; but God revealed himself: and he revealed himself through faith, by which alone it is granted to see God. For God, the master and creator of the universe . . . was shown to be not only loving to men but also long-suffering. Yes, such as he always was and is and will be: kind, and good, and free from anger, and true; and he alone is good. And when he had conceived a great and unutterable scheme he communicated it only to his Son. Well then, all the time that he kept and guarded his wise counsel in a mystery he seemed to have no care or thought for us. But when he revealed it through his only Son, and made clear what he had prepared from the beginning, he offered us all things at once — to partake of his benefits, and to see and understand1 things which none of us would ever have expected. Ep. to Diognetus, vii-viii The Atonement In time past he allowed us to be carried along by our inordinate impulses . . . not because he was pleased with our sins, but because of his forbearance; not because he approved of the season of wickedness, but because he was creating the present season of righteousness, so that we who in the past had been convicted as unworthy of life on the basis of our own works might now be made worthy of the agency of Gods kindness; and now that we had shown clearly that of ourselves it was impossible for us to enter into the kingdom of God, we might be made able by Gods power ... he himself took upon him our sins, himself gave his own Son as a ransom for us. ... For what could cover our sins but his righteousness? In whom was it possible for us, lawless and impious as we were, to be justified, save only in the Son of God? Oh, sweet exchange and unsearchable act of creation . . . that the lawlessness of many should be hidden in the one righteous, and the righteousness of one should justify many who were lawless. Ibid, ix (g) The Imitation of Gods Love Having this knowledge [of Gods nature] with what joy do you suppose you will be filled? How will you love him who so loved you first? Why, in loving him you will be an imitator of his kindness. And do not marvel that a man can imitate God. By the will of God he can. True happiness consists not in exercise of power over ones neighbors, nor in wishing to get the better of ones weaker fellows, nor in riches, nor in using force on ones inferiors. It is not in such things that a man can imitate God. No, such things are outside Gods magnificence. But any man who takes upon himself his neighbor’s load, who is willing to use his superiority to benefit one who is worse off, who supplies to the needy the possessions he has as a gift from God and thus becomes a god to his beneficiaries — such a man is an imitator of God. Then though actually on earth you will see that God has his commonwealth in heaven; then you will begin to speak the mysteries of God; then you will love and admire those who are being punished for their refusal to deny God; then you will condemn the deceit and error of this world, when you know what is the true life in heaven, when you despise the apparent death in this world, and fear the real death, which is reserved for those who shall be condemned to the eternal fire.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 11:05:08 +0000
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