Editing Epistle to Diognetus (section)

== Author and audience ==
Sometimes the epistle is assigned the title 'Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus'. The text itself does not identify the author. The word "mathetes" is the Greek word for "student" or "disciple," and it appears only once in the text, when the author calls himself a "student of the Apostles" (ἀποστόλων γενομένος μαθητής). Hence it is not a proper name at all, and its use in the title is strictly conventional. The writer, whoever he or she was, sounds to many like a [[Johannine Christianity|Johannine Christian]], inasmuch as he uses the word "Logos" as a substitute for "Christ" or "Jesus."<ref>{{Citation | title = Diognetus | url = http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/diognetus.html | work = Early Christian Writings}}.</ref> 

Scholars have suggested individuals who could be the addressee of the Letter to Diognetus, one implausible (one of the emperor [[Marcus Aurelius]]' tutors),<ref>{{Citation | work = Classics | publisher = MIT | url = http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.1.one.html | last = Antoninus | first = Marcus Aurelius | title = Meditations | at = 1.6}}.</ref> the other quite possible (an Alexandrian procurator, Tiberios Claudios Diognetos, c.200). Charles E. Hill cites an inscription from Smyrna, probably from the second century, by ‘Diognetos, son of Apollonius, son of Diognetos, archon’. This is evidence of an aristocratic family in Smyrna during the time of [[Polycarp]], of which at least two members bore the name Diognetos. At least one of these two was a member of the city council, a status that would make the term κράτιστος, used of the addressee of the Letter to Diognetus, very appropriate.<ref> Richard Bauckham. (2009). [Review of] Charles E. Hill, From the Lost Teaching of Polycarp: Identifying Irenaeus’ Apostolic Presbyter and the Author of Ad Diognetum. The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 60, Issue 2, October 2009, Pages 674–676, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flp055.</ref>  It is entirely possible, without verification of the author, that we have a fictitious character, since the name "Diognetus," means "God-born" in Greek.<ref>{{Citation | encyclopedia = Britannica | title = Letter to Diognetus | url = https://www.britannica.com/topic/Letter-to-Diognetus}}.</ref>