The Christian Community in the 2nd Century

          Every once in a while, you read something that simply makes you excited about your Christian faith - whether it's a great sermon, an insightful blog post, or - as in this case - an ancient document. The Epistle to Diognetus is an apologetic treatise written by an anonymous author who was apparently well versed in elegant Greek. Likely penned between 120 and 200 AD, it was not well circulated, as neither Eusebius nor any other early church Father mentions it. The writer addresses himself in chapter 11, stating, "Although I am an instructor of the Gentiles now, I was a pupil of the Apostles once; and what was delivered to me then, I now minister faithfully to students of the truth." (Realistically however, anyone who believed the creed and adhered to the traditional early Christian lifestyle could call oneself a 'pupil of the Apostles'.) The fact that the author refers to Jesus Christ as "the Word" [Logos] reveals that he may have been a Johannine Christian. The epistle's contents hint that the author may have been Justin Martyr.

          The letter opens with a greeting to "my lord Diognetus", likely a nobleman, who is stated to have professed a "deep interest... in Christianity." (While unlikely to be the same man, the private tutor/teacher to Marcus Aurelius was named Diognetus.) The short chapters that follow involve the author detailing the superstitious follies of Paganism, the rigid scrupulousness of Judaism, the characteristics of a true Christian community, the reasons behind the persecution of Believers, the supernatural nature of the Christian revelation and mysterious incarnation, and a list of practical conclusions and a call for an inward reception of Christ the Word [Logos].

          It was chapter 5's detailing of the characteristics of a Christian community that caught my eye. I would hope that these words, written centuries ago to a unbeliever very much interested in the beliefs of Christianity, would echo true of today's community of Believers:

          "The difference between Christians and the rest of mankind is not a matter of nationality, or language, or customs. Christians do not live apart in separate cities of their own, speak any special dialect, nor practise any eccentric way of life. The doctrine they profess is not the invention of busy human minds and brains, nor are they, like some, adherents to this or that school of human thought. They pass their lives in whatever township - Greek or foreign - each man's lot has determined; and conform to ordinary local usage in their clothing, diet, and other habits."
 
          "Nevertheless the organisation of their community does exhibit some features that are remarkable, and even surprising. For instance, thought they are residents at home in their own countries, their behaviour is more like that of transients; they take their full part as citizens, but they also submit to anything and everything as if they were aliens. For them, any foreign country is a motherland, and any motherland is a foreign country. Like other men, they marry and beget children, though they do not expose their infants. Any Christian is free to share his neighbour's table, but never his marriage bed."
 
          "Though destiny has placed them here in the flesh, they do not live after the flesh; their days are passed on the earth, but their citizenship is above in the heavens. They obey the prescribed laws, but in their own private lives they transcend the laws. They show love to all men - and all men persecute them. They are misunderstood, and condemned, yet by suffering and death they are quickened to life. They are poor, yet making many rich; lacking all things, yet having all things in abundance. They are dishonoured, yet made glorious in their very dishonour; slandered yet vindicated. They repay calumny with blessings, and abuse with courtesy. For the good they do, they suffer stripes as evildoers; and under the strokes they rejoice like men given new life. Jews assail them as heretics, and Greeks harass them with persecutions; and yet of all their ill-wishers there is not one who can produce good grounds for his hostility."

This text is from the 1987 Penguin Classics edition of Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers, translated by Maxwell Staniforth, edited by Andrew Louth.