Sources & method
Source basis: Each hosted writing names its date, translator, source link, and manuscript survival notes where available. Sources
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.
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