Sophia Scriptura

To Diognetus 10.4

Anonymous · To Diognetus · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · place unknown · Read in context

Summary: Loving God, one becomes an imitator of his kindness.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:372

ἀγαπήσας δὲ μιμητὴς ἔσῃ αὐτοῦ τῆς χρηστότητος. καὶ μὴ θαυμάσῃ εἰ δύναται μιμητὴς ἄνθρωπος γενέσθαι θεοῦ· δύναται θέλοντος αὐτοῦ.

English · Claude translation

And by loving him you will be an imitator of his kindness. And do not be surprised that a man can become an imitator of God; he can, if God wills it.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 25:372 · 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
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.
Scripture
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • “If God wills it” (θέλοντος αὐτοῦ): literally “if he wills”; it may also mean “if the man is willing.”

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (word split); punctuation slip in the digital text): μιμη τὴς ἔσῃ → μιμητὴς ἔσῃ; θεοῦ δύναται θέλοντος → θεοῦ· δύναται θέλοντος.

Cite this passage

Diogn. 10.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/10/4/).

Plain text
Diogn. 10.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/10/4/).

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