The Epistle to Diognetus is presented here in full - as one of the first ever Christian apologetic texts, it carries significant historical importance for those interested in early Christianity. Comprising twelve chapters, this text is among the earliest examples of a defense of Christianity. Dating between the early and late 2nd century AD, the letter offers a robust justification for Christian beliefs. At the time, adherents to the faith suffered violent persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire; this suppression motivated the author, whose exact denomination is uncertain but assumed to be Johannine. Christ is not referred to directly, but his teachings are instead deemed to be 'the Word'. Diognetus was an important tutor of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, although it is unlikely that the title of this Epistle refers to the same man. At the time it was written, the Roman Empire's official policy on Christianity was that it was a heretical faith worthy only of suppression. Furthermore, persecutions and murder of Christians increased during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The text itself has a storied past. It narrowly avoided being lost to time when the only surviving copy, dating to the 14th century, was incinerated during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Luckily a Renaissance era reprint of the text survived, with all but two lines of the Epistle intact. It is this copy of which this edition's translator made use of. The translation to English is by Reverend L. B. Radford, an author and historian who spent years in study of Biblical history and the New Testament apocrypha.