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In Diognetus, the hatred of the world for Christians is compared to the flesh hating the soul, echoing the language of Jesus in John 15, where the world hates his followers because he chose them out of the world and they no longer belong to it.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
John 15:19
New Testament
18 “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name because they do not know the one who sent me.
Epistle to Diognetus 6:5
Early Christian
5 The flesh hates the soul and wages war with it, though it receives no wrong, because it is forbidden to indulge in pleasures; so the world hates Christians, though it receives no wrong from them, because they set themselves against its pleasures. 6 The soul loves the flesh which hates it, and the members: so Christians love those that hate them. 7 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. 8 The soul though itself immortal dwells in a mortal tabernacle; so Christians sojourn among perishable things, while they look for the imperishability which is in the heavens.
Date: 150-250 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... The apologist for Christianity in Diogn. 6. 5 says, ‘The flesh hates the soul and wages war against it . . . also the world hates the Christians’; Jesus in John 15: 18–19 says, ‘If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.’ In his appropriation of the ‘typiquement johannique’ theme of the hatred of the world for Christians (see also 2. 6; 5. 11, 17) this author foreshadows the Epistle of Vienne and Lyons (HE 5. 1. 16). ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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