To Diognetus 9.2

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.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:368–370

ἐπεὶ δὲ πεπλήρωτο μὲν ἡ ἡμετέρα ἀδικία καὶ τελείως πεφανέρωτο, ὅτι ὁ μισθὸς αὐτῆς κόλασις καὶ θάνατος προσεδοκᾶτο, ἦλθε δὲ ὁ καιρός, ὃν θεὸς προέθετο λοιπὸν φανερῶσαι τὴν ἑαυτοῦ χρηστότητα καὶ δύναμιν ʽὢ τῆς ὑπερβαλλούσης φιλανθρωπίας καὶ ἀγάπης τοῦ θεοῦʼ, οὐκ ἐμίσησεν ἡμᾶς οὐδὲ ἀπώσατο οὐδὲ ἐμνησικάκησεν, ἀλλὰ ἐμακροθύμησεν, ἠνέσχετο, ἐλεῶν αὐτὸς τὰς ἡμετέρας ἁμαρτίας ἀνεδέξατο, αὐτὸς τὸν ἴδιον υἱὸν ἀπέδοτο λύτρον ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, τὸν ἅγιον ὑπὲρ ἀνόμων, τὸν ἄκακον ὑπὲρ τῶν κακῶν, τὸν δίκαιον ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδίκων, τὸν ἄφθαρτον ὑπὲρ τῶν φθαρτῶν, τὸν ἀθάνατον ὑπὲρ τῶν θνητῶν.

English · Claude translation

But when our unrighteousness had been fulfilled, and it had been made fully plain that its wages, punishment and death, were to be expected, and the time came that God had appointed to reveal at last his own kindness and power (oh, the surpassing love for mankind and the love of God!), he did not hate us or reject us or bear a grudge against us, but was long-suffering and forbearing; in mercy he himself took up our sins; he himself gave his own Son as a ransom for us: the holy for the lawless, the innocent for the wicked, the righteous for the unrighteous, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:368–370 · 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

Rom 6:23 · echo, medium confidence
Titus 3:4 · echo, medium confidence
Mark 10:45 · allusion, medium confidence
1 Pet 3:18 · allusion, medium confidence
Rom 8:32 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Christology

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip: a closing parenthesis mark rendered as an accent): τοῦ θεοὖ → τοῦ θεοῦʼ.

Cite this passage

Diogn. 9.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/9/2/).

Plain text

Diogn. 9.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/diognetus/9/2/).