![]() Would any of you stand for such indignities? Let any one of you tolerate having that done to yourself! ![]() But don't you, who think and suppose these articles to be gods, treat them with much greater contempt than the Christians? Don't you mock and insult them ever more when you worship things that are made of stone and clay without appointing anyone to guard them, but the ones made of silver and gold you lock up at night and appoint guards for them during the day so that they won't be stolen?Īnd when you attempt to present gifts to them, then if they are possessed of sense, don't you punish rather than honor them? On the other hand, if they have no sense, you prove it by worshipping them with blood and the smoke of sacrifices. It's for this reason you hate the Christians, because they do not consider these to be gods. You call these things gods! You serve them! You worship them! And you become exactly like them. Wouldn't those things which are now containers, formed from the same materials, become just like the gods if they had run into the artisans who made your gods? Couldn't these, which are now worshipped by you, be made by men into containers similar to the others?Īre they not all deaf? Are they not all blind? Are they not without life? Are they not destitute of feeling? Are they not incapable of motion? Are they not all liable to rot? Are they not all perishable? Isn't one a stone like the ones we walk on? isn't a second brass, no better than containers which are made for everyday use? Isn't a third wood and already rotting at that? Isn't a fourth silver, which needs a man to watch it so that it's not stolen? Isn't a fifth iron, consumed by rust? Isn't a sixth clay, no more valuable than what's made for the humblest uses?Īren't all of these corruptible matter? Aren't they all made with fire and with iron tools? Didn't the sculptor fashion one of them, the brazier a second, the silversmith a third, and the potter a fourth? Wasn't every one of them, in its own way, subject to change before they were formed by the skills of these workmen into the shape they're in? ![]() I have to admit I find these attacks on idolatry interesting as well as powerful. The early Christians were not afraid to take on the foolishness of idol worship, as the Letter to Diognetus does here. Come and contemplate, not only with your eyes but also with your understanding,the substance and form of those whom you declare and deem to be gods. After all, by your own admission, you are going to be listening to a new teaching. So come, after you have freed yourself from all the prejudices that possess your mind, laid aside what you're accustomed to as something prone to deceive you, and been made a new man all over again. ![]() And I ask him to enable you to hear in such a way that I, the one speaking, may have no reason to regret doing so. I welcome this desire of yours, and I implore God, who enable us both to speak and to hear, to let me speak in such a way that, more than anything, I may hear that you have been built up. I hear you asking how they have the kind of affection that is cherished among them and why this new type or practice of religion has only now and so recently come into the world. You inquire about them with great care and sincerity, seeking to determine what God they trust in and what type of religion they observe that allows them to look down upon the world and to despise death, all the while rejecting both those that are esteemed gods by the Greeks and the superstitions of the Jews. I see, most excellent Diognetus, the exceptional desire you have to learn the method of worshipping God that prevails among the Christians. Our books consistently maintain 4-star and better ratings despite the occasional 1- and 2-star ratings from people angry about my kicking over sacred cows.
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