Sophia Scriptura

To Diognetus 10.6

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: Whoever carries others' burdens and gives to the needy imitates God.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:372

ἀλλʼ ὅστις τὸ τοῦ πλησίον ἀναδέχεται βάρος, ὃς ἐν ᾧ κρείσσων ἐστὶν ἕτερον τὸν ἐλαττούμενον εὐεργετεῖν ἐθέλει, ὃς ἃ παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ λαβὼν ἔχει, ταῦτα τοῖς ἐπιδεομένοις χορηγῶν θεὸς γίνεται τῶν λαμβανόντων, οὗτος μιμητής ἐστι θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

But whoever takes up his neighbor's burden, whoever wishes to benefit another who is worse off in that in which he himself is better off, whoever supplies to those in need what he has received from God, and so becomes a god to those who receive it: this one is an imitator of God.

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
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
  • Gal 6:2 · allusion, medium confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Becomes a god to those who receive”: a bold phrase meaning that the giver acts toward the needy as God acts; it is not a claim to divinity.

Cite this passage

Diogn. 10.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/10/6/).

Plain text
Diogn. 10.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/10/6/).

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