To Diognetus 5.6

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

Summary: They marry and have children, but do not abandon infants.

BothGreekEnglish

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:360

γαμοῦσιν ὡς πάντες, τεκνογονοῦσιν· ἀλλʼ οὐ ῥίπτουσι τὰ γεννώμενα.

They marry like everyone; they have children; but they do not expose their offspring.

Source: Lake, LCL 25:360 · 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.
Topics: Marriage, Ethics

“Expose” (ῥίπτουσι): abandon newborns to die, a common practice in the Roman world; compare Did. 2.2; Barn. 19.5.

Diogn. 5.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/5/6/).

Plain text

Diogn. 5.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/5/6/).