The Marcionite Church is pleased to present the Homily to Diognetus, an ancient work of Christian apologetics received by the Church as a homily composed and delivered by Marcion of Sinope.
The work has conventionally been called the Epistle to Diognetus, although neither its authorship nor its precise date is identified within the surviving text. It is especially renowned for its fifth chapter, which offers a moving description of the Christian manner of life: Christians dwell among the nations without belonging to the world, endure persecution without retaliation, share with those in need, and bear witness to the heavenly kingdom while living upon the earth.
The Marcionite Church traditionally dates the homily to 132 C.E. This places its composition seven years before Marcion completed the Antitheses in 139 C.E. and twelve years before his final separation from the Roman church in 144 C.E. The homily therefore belongs to an early and formative period in the development of Marcionite Christianity.
A distinct line of scholarly interpretation, represented by Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen, Ernesto Buonaiuti, and others, has associated the work with Marcion of Sinope or with a member of his circle, such as Apelles. The Marcionite Church receives the stronger attribution to Marcion himself.
The homily’s theological character is deeply Pauline and proto-Marcionite. It proclaims salvation through faith and divine grace, rejects idolatry and Jewish ritual observance, distinguishes Christians from the world, describes God the Father as good and without wrath, and presents Jesus Christ as the heavenly Word sent in gentleness, love, and persuasion rather than coercion.
The work contains no appeal to the Hebrew Bible as an authority for Christian doctrine. Its arguments concerning the vanity of sacrifice, circumcision, sabbath observance, ritual distinctions among foods, fasting, new moons, and Jewish festivals closely anticipate the antithetical form that Marcion would later develop more fully.
Nevertheless, the theology of the homily should not be treated as a completely systematized statement of mature Marcionite doctrine. Its traditional date of 132 C.E. places it before the Antitheses, when Marcion’s distinctions concerning God the Father, the lower spiritual order, matter, the formation of the world, the Law, and the two covenants had not yet received their later polemical precision.
The homily is therefore properly described as proto-Marcionite. It preserves the Pauline theological foundation from which Marcion’s more developed teaching emerged, but it does not express every distinction with the terminology or systematic clarity that followed the Antitheses. Expressions within the work must be read within this earlier stage of theological development rather than forced into the exact formulations of later Marcionite doctrine.
This formative character also helps explain how the text could continue to circulate beyond the Marcionite Church. Its proclamation of grace, faith, Christian charity, separation from the world, and the goodness of God the Father remained intelligible to a wider Christian audience even after the distinctions between Marcionite and Catholic theology became more pronounced.
The received text contains twelve chapters, but many scholars judge Chapters Eleven and Twelve to be a later or separate addition. A break occurs in the manuscript tradition after Chapter Ten, and the final two chapters differ in literary style, vocabulary, theological emphasis, and mode of address. The Homileticon therefore preserves the coherent ten-chapter form of the homily without Chapters Eleven and Twelve.
Tertullian, one of Marcion’s most determined opponents, appealed to a letter written by Marcion as evidence that Marcion’s faith had once agreed with that of the Roman church (Against Marcion IV.4). Tertullian did not state that the work had been widely praised by Catholic leaders. The Marcionite Church identifies this otherwise unspecified letter with the Homily to Diognetus.
Although conventionally called an epistle, the work does not possess the ordinary structure of a letter. It contains no opening salutation naming a sender, no personal correspondence, no concluding greeting, and no signature. Instead, it presents a sustained theological discourse addressed directly to a hearer whose questions provide the occasion for instruction. Its literary structure is therefore more consistent with a public homily or apologetic discourse that was subsequently transcribed and circulated.
The Church’s historical reconstruction identifies the recipient with a Diognetus attested among the aristocratic inhabitants of Smyrna during the period associated with Polycarp. Smyrna was an important center of early Christianity and of Marcionite activity. It was also the episcopal see of Metrodorus, the Marcionite bishop who was later martyred alongside Polycarp in 156 C.E.
According to this reconstruction, Diognetus was a pagan inquirer who visited a congregation at Smyrna and asked Marcion to explain the religion, worship, conduct, and hope of the Christians. Marcion’s response was delivered as a public discourse and subsequently preserved in written form. This setting accords with the opening of the homily, in which the speaker welcomes Diognetus’ careful inquiries and proceeds systematically to answer them.
The first two chapters reject the worship of material idols. Chapters Three and Four contrast Christian worship with Jewish sacrifices, circumcision, sabbath observance, dietary restrictions, fasts, new moons, and festivals. Chapter Five describes the manner of life of Christians among the nations. Chapter Six compares the place of Christians in the world to the presence of the soul within the body.
Chapter Seven proclaims the descent and manifestation of the divine Word. Chapter Eight teaches that God remained unknown until He revealed Himself through His Son. Chapter Nine explains why the Son was manifested only after humanity had been permitted to recognize its inability to attain life through its own power. Chapter Ten exhorts Diognetus to receive the knowledge of God the Father and to imitate His goodness through mercy, charity, and care for those in need.
At some point in the transmission of the work, its original attribution was lost or removed. The homily thereafter circulated anonymously under the conventional title To Diognetus. The surviving manuscript was later lost in destruction, but not before scholars had produced copies and editions from which the text could continue to be transmitted.
The edition included in the Homileticon was prepared through comparison of the surviving Greek text with several established English translations. J. B. Lightfoot’s rendering in The Apostolic Fathers supplied the principal base text. The Roberts–Donaldson translation in the Ante-Nicene Fathers and H. G. Meecham’s critical edition and translation were used alongside the Greek to evaluate disputed or flexible words, phrases, and clauses. Kirsopp Lake’s translation was consulted as a supplementary witness.
The Marcionite edition does not simply reproduce any one of these English translations. Where the Greek permits more than one philologically defensible rendering, preference has been given to language that coheres more closely with Marcionite theology without departing from the underlying text.
Particular attention was given to preserving Pauline vocabulary, distinguishing God the Father from the Word as the mediating Artificer, emphasizing that the Father is gracious, good, and without wrath, and avoiding unnecessarily creation-centered renderings where the Greek allows alternatives such as “operation,” “fashioner,” or “dispensation.”
The resulting translation was conformed to the language, rhythm, and cadence of the King James Version so that it may be read naturally alongside the other books of the Testamentum. These adjustments remain translation-based and do not introduce theological paraphrases unsupported by the Greek text.
The Homily to Diognetus is contained in the Homileticon, the ecclesiastical sermon book of the Marcionite Church. The name Homileticon is derived from the Greek homilia, meaning a sermon or discourse, joined to the book-title ending -ikon, Latinized as -icon. It therefore signifies “the sermon book.”
The Homileticon is included within the Testamentum, the complete codex of Marcionite books. The Homily to Diognetus is not Scripture because it is neither Canonical nor Deuterocanonical. It is received instead as an ecclesiastical and patristic work valuable for apologetics, theology, liturgy, moral instruction, historical remembrance, and the spiritual formation of the faithful.
The homily remains subordinate to the Evangelicon and Apostolicon and must be interpreted in conformity with the Gospel revealed by Jesus Christ and preached by the Apostle Paul. Its ecclesiastical status allows the Church to receive its ancient witness without confusing it with the supreme written authority of the Canon.
The Homily to Diognetus is appointed to be read as the homily during the Divine Liturgy on the Feast of Marcion. Its proclamation of the hidden Father revealed through His Son, salvation through divine goodness rather than human merit, the rejection of legalism and worldly superstition, and the charitable life required of Christians makes it especially appropriate for the commemoration of Marcion’s ministry and martyrdom.
Through the Homileticon, the Marcionite Church preserves this work as an early testimony to the Pauline and proto-Marcionite faith. It bears witness to the formative theological period preceding the Antitheses and preserves an ancient proclamation of God the Father’s goodness, the manifestation of Jesus Christ, the salvation of the unworthy by grace, and the life of love to which the faithful are called.
