Loading...Next in this nutshell series on the Apostolic Fathers is one of the least known and studied/discussed, even among scholars, even though it is interesting and significant. Among other things, it is the only “apologetic” work of the Apostolic Fathers outside of that one fragment of Quadratus (I blogged about earlier, if you want to look it up, and therefore one of the earliest Christian apologies known to exist–there are not any in the New Testament). What I say here is based on what say about it in my edition in The Apostolic Fathers Vol II, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press, 2004), My favorite bits of this are at the end.
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The Letter to Diognetus: An Unknown Gem among the Apostolic Fathers (in a Nutshell)
March 19, 2026
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Fascinating. Thank you Dr Ehrman. Could the first ten chapters have been written by Marcion? I can see why some people might have thought so.
I suppose they could have been written by any Christian with sufficient writing skills at the time. I can’t think of any reason that it would be Marcion in particular. And the kinds of things it discusses are for the most part unrelated to marcion’s principle concerns.
So the epistle to Diognetus was a fish wrapper! Whodathunkit?
But seriously, one question I have about early Christian apologetics is, what effect did any of these works have on the pagans to whom they supposedly appealed? Did this author, or Justin Martyr, or any other early apologists convert a lot of folks to Christianity through their writings? Or despite their content, did these works appeal mostly to existing Christians, as if it to alleviate any doubts they may have had about their decision to convert, rather than convincing pagans and Jews and others to convert?
Just wondering out loud, am not sure there’d even be an answer to that question.
Yup! It’s pretty amazing.
It’s usually thought — and I’ve agreed with this in roughly forever — that even though the apologies were *addressed* to Roman authorities, they were actually written for Christians, not to convince them but to give them ammunition for their views for discussing them with outsiders — just like most Christian apologies today. Conservative Christians read them for their own information/edification, but rarely does anyone else.