Sources & method
Source basis: Each hosted writing names its date, translator, source link, and manuscript survival notes where available. Sources
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Era
The Apologists
c. AD 120–200
The first Christians to argue the faith to outsiders — defenses addressed to emperors and philosophers rather than to their own churches.
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The Fragment of Quadratus
The oldest Christian apology, to the emperor Hadrian — one sentence, saved by Eusebius.
c. AD 124–125
The Epistle to Diognetus
An anonymous apology to a curious pagan — Christians in the world as the soul in the body — from a manuscript that burned in 1870.
c. AD 130–200 · 12 sections · 13 paragraphs