To Diognetus

Epistle to Diognetus

Unknown

More about The author of the Epistle to Diognetus →

Anonymous, elegant, unanswerable.

Catch rate: 170 / 255
Base research: 60
Stat total: 222

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina42

Contend54

Defend42

Popularity84

Total222

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 42

Low. No ancient writer mentions the Epistle to Diognetus, and nobody read it for a thousand years.

Contend 54

The letter’s elegant case for the faith is genuinely hard to answer — Contend is Diognetus’ best number.

Defend 42

The ONLY manuscript of Diognetus burned at Strasbourg in 1870; today’s text depends on copies made before the fire, and its last two chapters may come from a different book entirely. An uncertain text means weak Defend.

Cited for this book

Survived antiquity in a single manuscript — Codex Argentoratensis — which burned in the bombardment of Strasbourg, 1870. The text now rests on early-modern transcriptions. No ancient author so much as mentions it.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Soul of the World	Ethics	Argument	50	100%	20
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
6	Steelman	Rationality	Type shift	—	—	10
9	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
12	Martyr’s Witness	History	Argument	65	100%	10
13	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
50	Speak Greek	History	Status	—	100%	5

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“What the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world.”
Epistle to Diognetus 6 (public domain trans.).public domain

Soul of the World

EthicsArgument · power 50 · 100% accurate

In the game"What the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world."

Strong against

×2"Haters of Mankind"an argument · why?

The Epistle to Diognetus says Christians hold the world together the way a soul holds a body together. The world hates them, and they love it anyway.

×2"We Are All Religious"an argument · why?

The Epistle to Diognetus says Christians are to the world what the soul is to the body: in it, but not from it. They can be good neighbours without joining every altar.

×2"What Good Are You?"an argument · why?

The Epistle to Diognetus says Christians are to the world what the soul is to the body. A city is held together by people like that, even when they skip its festivals.

“Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”
James 1:19 (WEB).

Steelman

RationalityType shift

In the gameRestate the foe’s position in its strongest form — exposing its true weak point. Lowers the foe’s Defend. Always fair; never a bad move to use.

“Do you not see them thrown to wild beasts that so they may deny the Lord, and yet not overcome? Do you not see that the more of them are punished, just so many others abound?”
Epistle to Diognetus 7.7–9 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).public domain

“These look not like the works of a man; they are the power of God; they are proofs of His presence.”
Epistle to Diognetus 7.9 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).public domain

“There was Peter, who by reason of unrighteous jealousy endured not one but many labours, and thus having borne his testimony went to his appointed place of glory.”
1 Clement 5.3–4 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).public domain

Martyr’s Witness

HistoryArgument · power 65 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe record of those who died rather than recant. Nobody dies for what they know they made up. No rhetorical fog can blur it.

Strong against

×2A View of the Evidences of Christianitya book · why?

Paley’s first proposition is that the apostles suffered for what they reported. He cites Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp as witnesses.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Read it: The Sweet Exchange

The passages the Scriptorium holds on screen, word for word from a public-domain translation. Written in Koine Greek.

“They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners… Every foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every fatherland is foreign. They marry like all other men and they beget children; but they do not cast away their offspring… Their existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They love all men, and they are persecuted by all.”
Epistle to Diognetus 5.5–11 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).

“In a word, what the soul is in a body, this the Christians are in the world. The soul is spread through all the members of the body, and Christians through the divers cities of the world. The soul has its abode in the body, and yet it is not of the body; so Christians have their abode in the world, and yet they are not of the world.”
Epistle to Diognetus 6.1–3 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).

“The soul is enclosed in the body, and yet itself holds the body together; so Christians are kept in the world as in a prison-house, and yet they themselves hold the world together.”
Epistle to Diognetus 6.7 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).

“He sent him, as sending God; he sent him, as a man unto men; he sent him, as Saviour, as using persuasion, not force: for force is no attribute of God. He sent him, as summoning, not as persecuting; he sent him, as loving, not as judging.”
Epistle to Diognetus 7.4–5 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).

“He himself parted with his own Son as a ransom for us, the holy for the lawless, the guileless for the evil, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. For what else but his righteousness would have covered our sins?”
Epistle to Diognetus 9.2–3 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).

“O the sweet exchange, O the inscrutable creation, O the unexpected benefits: that the iniquity of many should be concealed in One Righteous Man, and the righteousness of One should justify many that are iniquitous!”
Epistle to Diognetus 9.5 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).

Notes

Anonymous. The author calls himself only Mathetes — "a disciple." Written to an inquiring pagan of rank named Diognetus, whom nobody has ever identified. Dated anywhere from c. A.D. 130 to c. 220.

"O the sweet exchange" — ὢ τῆς γλυκείας ἀνταλλαγῆς. The sins of many hidden in one righteous man; the righteousness of one counted to many unrighteous. That is imputation, stated in the second or third century.

Not one ancient or medieval writer mentions this letter. It survived in a single manuscript at Strasbourg, which burned in the bombardment of 1870. Every copy since rests on transcriptions made before the fire.