Epistle to Diognetus 1

1Most excellent Diognetus, I see that you are exceedingly anxious to understand the religion of the Christians, and that your enquiries concerning them are distinctly and carefully made: as to what God they trust and how they worship him; that they all disregard the world and despise death; that they take no account of those regarded as gods by the Greeks, neither observing the superstition of the Jews; as to the nature of the affection they have for one another; and as to this new development or interest, which has entered into human lives now and not before. I gladly welcome your zeal, and I ask God, who supplies both speaking and hearing to us, that it may be granted to me to speak in such a way that you may be made better by hearing, and to you to listen in such a way that I, the speaker, may not be disappointed.