On Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter our Church invites us to first read and reflect on a passage from the book of Revelation (21:1-8) entitled “The new Jerusalem”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a letter to Diognetus.

The Letter to Diognetus is a clear and succinct explanation of what it means to follow Jesus and that there is no other life worth living. The letter to Diognetus is an example of Christian apologetics, writings defending Christianity against the charges of its critics. The writer and recipient of the letter are not otherwise known. Based on language and other textual evidence it is believed to have been written in the late second century, which would make it one of the earliest examples of apologetic literature.

The Apocalypse, or Revelation to John, the last book of the Bible, is one of the most difficult to understand because it abounds in unfamiliar and extravagant symbolism, which at best appears unusual to the modern reader. Symbolic language, however, is one of the chief characteristics of apocalyptic literature, of which this book is an outstanding example. Such literature enjoyed wide popularity in both Jewish and Christian circles from ca. 200 B.C. to A.D. 200.

This book contains an account of visions in symbolic and allegorical language borrowed extensively from the Old Testament, especially Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel. Whether or not these visions were real experiences of the author or simply literary conventions employed by him is an open question.