Sophia Scriptura

To Diognetus 5.6

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

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:360

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

English · Claude translation

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

About this passage

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
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)
Topics
Marriage, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

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

Cite this passage

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/).

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