To Diognetus 2.3

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: Idols are made by craftsmen from ordinary material.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:352

οὐ φθαρτῆς ὕλης ταῦτα πάντα; οὐχ ὑπὸ σιδήρου καὶ πυρὸς κεχαλκευμένα; οὐχ ὃ μὲν αὐτῶν λιθοξόος, ὃ δὲ χαλκεύς, ὃ δὲ ἀργυροκόπος, ὃ δὲ κεραμεὺς ἔπλασεν; οὐ πρὶν ἢ ταῖς τέχναις τούτων εἰς τὴν μορφὴν τούτων ἐκτυπωθῆναι, ἦν ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ἑκάστῳ, ἔτι καὶ νῦν, μεταμεμορφωμένον; οὐ τὰ νῦν ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ὕλης ὄντα σκεύη γένοιτʼ ἄν, εἰ τύχοι τῶν αὐτῶν τεχνιτῶν, ὅμοια τοιούτοις;

English · Claude translation

Are not all these of perishable matter? Were they not forged by iron and fire? Did not a stonecutter shape one, a smith another, a silversmith another, a potter another? Before they were molded into their shape by the skills of these men, was not each of them, and is it not still now, capable of being changed into anything else? Could not the vessels now made from the same material become like these, if they met the same craftsmen?

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:352 · 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)

Cite this passage

Diogn. 2.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/2/3/).

Plain text

Diogn. 2.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/2/3/).