To Diognetus 4.6

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

Summary: The mystery of Christian faith cannot be learned from a human being.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:358

τῆς μὲν οὖν κοινῆς εἰκαιότητος καὶ ἀπάτης καὶ τῆς Ἰουδαίων πολυπραγμοσύνης καὶ ἀλαζονείας ὡς ὀρθῶς ἀπέχονται Χριστιανοί, ἀρκούντως σε νομίζω μεμαθηκέναι· τὸ δὲ τῆς ἰδίας αὐτῶν θεοσεβείας μυστήριον μὴ προσδοκήσῃς δύνασθαι παρὰ ἀνθρώπου μαθεῖν.

English · Claude translation

That the Christians rightly abstain from the general foolishness and deceit, and from the fussiness and pride of the Jews, I think you have learned sufficiently; but do not expect to be able to learn the mystery of their own religion from a man.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:358 · 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.

Cite this passage

Diogn. 4.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/4/6/).

Plain text

Diogn. 4.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/4/6/).

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