Thoughts From Aristides and Diognetus

Dear Friends,

I love history. In fact, if God had not called me to be a pastor, I might have ended up teaching history. Therefore, today, I share parts of two historical documents (from the second century) which I ran across while doing research for my sermon this past Sunday. I found each one intriguing and thought I would pass them along to you.

They both have to do with the beliefs and lifestyles of early Christians. The 1st is by a man named Aristides the Philosopher, a man who was given the job of looking into the new “cult” called Christianity and reporting back to the Emperor Titus Hadrianus Antoninus with what he discovered (some believing he became a Christian himself by the time he finished it). The 2nd is by a man named Diognetus and is taken from his “Epistle of Diognetus.” I believe you will find them informative and challenging. Enjoy.




Aristides reports to the Emperor Hadrianus Antoninus.

“As for the Christians, they trace their line from Jesus Christ who is confessed to be the Son of the Most High God who came from heaven… He died and was buried, and they say that after three days He rose and ascended to heaven… They do not commit adultery nor fornication, nor bear false witness, nor refuse to pay a debt that is held in pledge, nor covet what is not theirs. They honor father and mother, and show kindness to those near to them; and whenever they are judges, they judge uprightly.

They do not worship idols; and whatsoever they wish that others should not do unto them, they do not to others. The food which is consecrated to idols they do not eat, for they are pure. They comfort those who do them wrong, and make them their friends. They do good to their enemies; and their women, O King, are as chaste as virgins, and their daughters are modest. Their men keep themselves from all uncleanness and from all unlawful intercourse, in the hope of a recompense to come in the other world.

Further, if one or another of them have bondmen or bondwomen or children, through love towards them they persuade them to become Christians, and when they have done so, they call them brethren without distinction. They do not worship strange gods, and they live in all modesty and cheerfulness. Falsehood is not found among them; and they love one another, and from widows they do not turn away their esteem; and they rescue the orphan from him who treats him harshly.

He, who has, gives to him who has not, without boasting. And when they see a stranger, they take him into their own homes and rejoice over him as a very brother; for they do not call them brethren after the flesh, but brethren after the spirit and in God. And whenever one of their poor passes from the world, each one gives according to his ability to pay the expenses of his burial.

If they hear that one of their number is imprisoned, or afflicted, on account of the name of their Messiah, all of them anxiously minister to his needs, and if it is possible they purchase his freedom. And if there are among them any that are poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast for two or three days in order to supply to the needy their lack of food. They observe the precepts of their Messiah with much care, living justly and soberly as the Lord their God commands them. Every morning and every hour, they give thanks and praise to God for His loving-kindnesses toward them; and for their food and their drink they offer thanksgiving to Him for every blessing…”

The Epistle of Diognetus (chap. 5).
“The Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they do not inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human philosophy.

But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, they follow the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct. They display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, yet endure their slights as if they were foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers.

They marry, as do all others, and breed children; but they do not kill their offspring. They have a shared table, but not a shared bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, yet at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men yet are persecuted by all.

They are unknown and condemned. They are put to death and restored to life. They are poor yet make many rich. They are in lack of all things and yet abound in all. They are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are spoken of as evil and yet are not guilty of such; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted and repay the insult with honor.

They do good yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life. They are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks – yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.”

Good food for thought. Then as opposed to now?

In His Grace, Pastor Jeff