Also known as:
Letter to Diognetus;
Latin: Ad Diognetum, Epistula ad Diognetum
DIOGNETUS, EPISTLE TO. - Only one manuscript is known (the Strasbourg manuscript, destroyed in 1870, once in the possession of the humanist Reuchlin), which contained the Epistle to D. among the spurious works of Justin.
The work, which was known neither to Eusebius nor to Photius, gives an answer to the questions of why Christians do not follow the pagan or Jewish religion, in what the Christian religion consists, and why it appeared so late in the world. The little work, written in an elegant, homiletic-rhetorical style (for the end of ch. 9, v. Aelius Aristides, 32, 2), has been much admired (especially the description of Christian life in chs. 5 and 6) but has also raised not a few critical problems. In ch. 7, 7 there is a lacuna (perhaps an entire leaf has been lost), and the present chs. 9 and 10 are the ending of another writing (of Hippolytus?). Even from the doctrinal point of view the work is surprising for the systematic character of its doctrine of Grace and justification (almost of a Protestant flavor, ch. 9, 3 ff.). While many are inclined to attribute the Epistle of the Anonymous author (Justin cannot be the author) to the 2nd-3rd century, others have thought of a later period, and A. Donaldson supposed that it is the forgery of a humanist. A definitive judgment is not possible. The attempt of Andriessen to see in the Epistle the lost Apology of Quadratus does not seem successful. The attribution of the Strasbourg manuscript to the 13th-14th century is not assured.
Bibliography10 worksEditions: Patres apostolici, edited by F. X. Funk, I, Tübingen 1891, p. 390 ff.; Der Brief an D., edited by I. Gefken, Heidelberg 1928; G. B
BIBL.: Editions: Patres apostolici, edited by F. X. Funk, I, Tübingen 1891, p. 390 ff.; Der Brief an D., edited by I. Gefken, Heidelberg 1928; G. Bosio, I Padri apostolici, II, Turin 1942, p. 302 ff. Studies: A. Donaldson, A critical history of christian literature, II, London 1866, p. 226 ff.; Fr. Overbeck, Studien zur Geschichte der alten Kirche, I, Chemnitz 1875, p. 1 ff.; A. Harnack, Die Überlieferung der griechischen Apologeten (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, 1, 1-11), Leipzig 1882, pp. 79, 153, 161 ff.; E. Moland, Die literaturund dogmengeschichtliche Stellung des Diognetbriefes, in Zeitschrift f. d. Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 33 (1934), p. 289 ff.; F. Ogara, Aristidis et epistolae ad Diognetum cum Theophilo Antiocheno cognatio, in Gregorianum, 25 (1944), pp. 74-102; P. Andriessen, L'Apologie de Quadratus conservée sous le titre d'Épître à Diognète, in Recherches de théol. anc. et médiévale, 13 (1946), pp. 5-39; id., L'épilogue de l'Épître à Diognète, ibid., 14 (1947), pp. 121-26; C. la Vespa, La Lettera a D. (Raccolta di studi di lett. crist. antica, 7), Catania 1947.
Peterson, Erik. “Diogneto, epistola a.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, col. 1660. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/diogneto-epistola-a.
MLA
Peterson, Erik. “Diogneto, epistola a.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, col. 1660. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/diogneto-epistola-a.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec4_diogneto_epistola_a,
author = {Peterson, Erik},
title = {Diogneto, epistola a},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IV},
pages = {1660},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/diogneto-epistola-a}
}
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