First and Second Apology (First Apology – Second Apology)
First and Second Apology
continued
Chapter 58
And Raise Up Heretics.
As we said before, the wicked demons also put forward Marcion of Pontus. He still teaches people today to deny that God is the maker of all things in heaven and on earth, and to deny that the Christ proclaimed by the prophets is his Son. He announces some other god besides the Creator of all things, and likewise another son. Many have believed him, as though he alone knew the truth, and they laugh at us. Yet they have no proof for what they say. Without reason they are snatched away like lambs by a wolf, and become food for godless doctrines and for demons. For these so-called demons struggle for nothing else than to draw people away from God who made them and from Christ, his firstborn. Those who cannot lift themselves above the earth, the demons have nailed down, and still nail down, to earthly things and to things made by hands. Those who set out to contemplate divine things they trip up on the way, and they drive them into ungodliness, unless they have sober and pure reasoning and a life free from the passions.[92]
Chapter 59
Plato's Obligation to Moses.
You should also learn that Plato took from our teachers, that is, from the word given through the prophets, his statement that God transformed formless matter and made the world. So hear the very words spoken through Moses, whom we showed earlier to be the first prophet, and older than the Greek writers. Through him the Spirit of prophecy showed how and from what God first made the world. He spoke like this: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. The earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the deep. And the Spirit of God was moving over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And it was so.” So the whole world came into being by the word of God, out of the underlying matter that Moses had described. Plato and those who say the same things learned this, and so did we, and you too can be persuaded. We also know that what the poets call Erebus was spoken of earlier by Moses.[93] [Genesis 1:1-3]
Chapter 60
Plato's Doctrine of the Cross.
60a In his discussion of nature in the Timaeus, Plato speaks about the Son of God when he says, “He placed him crosswise in the universe.” He likewise took this from Moses. For it is written in the writings of Moses that when the Israelites came out of Egypt and were in the wilderness, they met poisonous beasts, vipers and asps and every kind of snake, which were killing the people. By God’s inspiration and working, Moses took bronze and made it into the shape of a cross. He set it up by the holy tent and said to the people, “If you look at this figure and believe, you will be saved by it.” Moses wrote that when this was done the snakes died, and he handed down that in this way the people escaped death.[94] [Numbers 21:6-9] 60b Plato read this but did not understand it accurately. He did not grasp that it was the figure of a cross. He took it to be a crosswise placing, and so he said that the power next to the first God was placed crosswise in the universe. And he spoke of a third because, as we said before, he read in Moses that the Spirit of God was moving over the waters. He gives the second place to the Word who comes from God, whom he said was placed crosswise in the universe. He gives the third place to the Spirit said to be moving over the water, when he says, “The third things around the third.” Now hear how the Spirit of prophecy showed through Moses that there will be a burning of the world. He said this: “An ever-living fire will come down and will devour down to the depths below.” So it is not that we hold the same opinions as others. Rather, all of them say what they say in imitation of ours.[95] [Genesis 1:2; Deuteronomy 32:22]
60c So among us you can hear and learn these things from people who do not even know the shapes of the letters. They are untrained and uncultured in speech, yet wise and faithful in mind, and some of them are even maimed in their eyes and blind. From this you can understand that these things did not come about through human wisdom but are spoken by the power of God.[96] [1 Corinthians 2:5]
Chapter 61
Christian Baptism.
61a I will also explain how we dedicated ourselves to God when we were made new through Christ. If I left this out, I might seem to be acting dishonestly in my explanation. Those who are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and who promise that they can live accordingly, are taught to pray and to ask God, with fasting, for the forgiveness of their past sins. We pray and fast along with them. Then they are led by us to a place where there is water, and they are born again in the same way that we ourselves were born again. For they are then washed in the water in the name of God, the Father and Master of all things, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. For Christ said, “Unless you are born again, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And it is plain to everyone that those who have once been born cannot go back into their mothers’ wombs.[97] [John 3:3-5; Matthew 28:19]
61b Isaiah the prophet also told how those who have sinned and repent will escape their sins, as we wrote earlier. It was said this way: “Wash yourselves, become clean. Remove the evils from your souls. Learn to do good. Give justice to the orphan and vindicate the widow. Come, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Even if your sins are like purple, I will make them white like wool, and if they are like scarlet, I will make them white like snow. But if you do not listen to me, the sword will devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this.” And we have learned from the apostles this reason for the rite. At our first birth we were born without knowing it and by necessity, from moist seed, through our parents’ union with each other, and we grew up in bad customs and wicked ways of living. But we should not remain children of necessity and ignorance. We should become children of choice and knowledge, and obtain forgiveness of the sins we committed before. So in the water, the name of God, the Father and Master of all things, is spoken over the one who has chosen to be born again and has repented of his sins. The one who leads the person to be washed to the bath calls on this name alone.[98] [Isaiah 1:16-20]
61c For no one can give a name to the God who cannot be spoken of. If anyone dares to say there is such a name, he is raving with hopeless madness. This washing is called “illumination,” because the minds of those who learn these things are enlightened. The person being enlightened is also washed in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who through the prophets announced beforehand everything about Jesus.
Chapter 62
Its Imitation by Demons.
When the demons heard that this washing had been proclaimed by the prophet, they worked to have people sprinkle themselves when they enter their temples and are about to approach them with drink offerings and the smoke of sacrifices. They also bring it about that worshipers wash themselves completely when they come, before they go to the temples where the demons are enshrined. The priests order those who enter the temples and worship there to take off their shoes. The demons imitated this too, after learning it from what happened to the prophet Moses, mentioned above. At that time Moses was commanded to go down to Egypt and lead out the people of Israel who were there. He was tending the sheep of his mother’s brother in the land of Arabia, and our Christ spoke to him in the form of fire from a bush. He said, “Take off your sandals, and come near and listen.” Moses took off his sandals and came near, and he heard that he was to go down to Egypt and lead out the people of Israel there. He received mighty power from Christ, who spoke to him in the form of fire. He went down and led the people out, doing great and marvelous things. If you wish to learn about these, you will find them accurately in his writings.[99] [Exodus 3:2; Exodus 3:5; Exodus 3:10]
Chapter 63
How God Appeared to Moses.
63a Even now all the Jews teach that it was the God who has no name who spoke to Moses. So the Spirit of prophecy, rebuking them through the prophet Isaiah mentioned above, said, as we wrote earlier: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel has not known me, and my people have not understood.” And Jesus the Christ rebuked them in the same way, because the Jews did not know what the Father is and what the Son is. He himself said: “No one has known the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father, and those to whom the Son reveals him.” The Word of God is his Son, as we said before. He is also called Angel and Apostle, for he announces whatever needs to be known, and he is sent to make known whatever is announced. As our Lord himself said: “He who hears me hears the one who sent me.”[100] [Isaiah 1:3; Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:16]
63b This will also be clear from the writings of Moses. In them it is written this way: “And an angel of God spoke to Moses in a flame of fire out of the bush and said, I am the One who is, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of your fathers. Go down to Egypt and bring out my people.” If you want to learn what follows, you can do so from those writings, for it is not possible to write everything down here. But these words have been given as proof that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God and his Apostle. He existed before as the Word. At one time he appeared in the form of fire, and at another in a bodiless likeness. But now, by the will of God, he became man for the human race, and he endured all the sufferings that the demons caused the senseless Jews to inflict on him.[101] [Exodus 3:2; Exodus 3:6; Exodus 3:14; Exodus 3:10]
63c Though they have it plainly stated in the writings of Moses, “And an angel of God spoke to Moses in a fire of flame in a bush and said, I am the One who is, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob,” they claim that the one who said this was the Father and Creator of the universe. That is why the Spirit of prophecy rebuked them and said: “Israel has not known me, and the people have not understood me.” And again Jesus, as we showed, said while he was among them: “No one has known the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father and those to whom the Son reveals him.” The Jews, then, always supposed that the Father of the universe had spoken to Moses. But the one who spoke to him was the Son of God, who is called both Angel and Apostle. So they are justly rebuked both by the Spirit of prophecy and by Christ himself, because they knew neither the Father nor the Son.[102] [Exodus 3:2; Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 1:3; Matthew 11:27]
63d For those who say that the Son is the Father are shown to know neither the Father nor that the Father of the universe has a Son. Being the Word and firstborn of God, he is also God. In earlier times he appeared to Moses and the other prophets in the form of fire and in a bodiless image. But now, in the time of your rule, as we said before, he became man through a virgin according to the Father’s plan, for the salvation of those who believe in him. He endured being despised and suffering, so that by dying and rising again he might conquer death. What was said to Moses out of the bush was: “I am the One who is, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and the God of your fathers.” This signified that those men, though dead, still remain and belong to Christ himself. For they were the first of all people to devote themselves to the search for God: Abraham, the father of Isaac, and Isaac, the father of Jacob, as Moses also wrote.[103] [Exodus 3:14; Exodus 3:15; Matthew 22:32]
Chapter 64
Further Misrepresentations of the Truth.
From what has already been said, you can understand that the demons were behind the setting up of the image of the one called Kore (the Maiden) at springs of water. They said she was the daughter of Zeus, imitating what was said through Moses. For Moses said, as we quoted above: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and unformed, and the Spirit of God was moving over the waters.” So, in imitation of what is said about the Spirit of God moving over the water, they called Kore the daughter of Zeus. In the same wicked way they said that Athena was the daughter of Zeus. They did not say she came from a union. Instead, because they knew that God conceived the world in his mind and made it through the Word, they called Athena the first thought. We think this utterly ridiculous: to present the image of a thought in a female form. In the same way, the deeds of the others who are called sons of Zeus condemn them.[104] [Genesis 1:1-2]
Chapter 65
Administration of the Sacraments.
After we have washed the one who has been persuaded and has agreed with us, we bring him to those who are called brothers, where they are gathered. We earnestly offer common prayers for ourselves, for the newly enlightened person, and for all others everywhere. We pray that, having learned the truth, we may be counted worthy to be found good citizens in our deeds as well, and keepers of the commandments, so that we may be saved with eternal salvation. When the prayers are finished we greet one another with a kiss. Then bread and a cup of water and mixed wine are brought to the one presiding over the brothers. He takes them and sends up praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He gives thanks at length that we have been counted worthy of these things from him. When he has finished the prayers and the thanksgiving, all the people present call out their agreement, saying, “Amen.” “Amen” in the Hebrew language means “So be it.” When the one presiding has given thanks and all the people have responded, those we call deacons give each of those present a share of the bread and wine and water over which thanks have been given, and they carry some to those who are absent.[105]
Chapter 66
Of the Eucharist.
This food is called among us the Eucharist (thanksgiving). No one may share in it except the person who believes that what we teach is true, who has been washed in the washing for the forgiveness of sins and for new birth, and who lives as Christ handed down. We do not receive these as common bread or common drink. Jesus Christ our Savior was made flesh through the Word of God and had flesh and blood for our salvation. In the same way we have been taught that the food over which thanks have been given through the prayer of the word that comes from him is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. This food nourishes our blood and flesh by being changed into them. For the apostles, in the records they composed, which are called Gospels, handed down that Jesus gave them this command. He took bread, gave thanks, and said, “Do this in remembrance of me; this is my body.” In the same way he took the cup, gave thanks, and said, “This is my blood.” And he gave it to them alone. The wicked demons imitated this in the mysteries of Mithras and handed down that it should be done there too. For you either know or can find out that bread and a cup of water are set out, with certain words spoken over them, in the rites of the one being initiated.[106] [Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25; Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24]
Chapter 67
Weekly Worship of the Christians.
67a After this we keep reminding one another of these things. Those of us who have means help all who are in need, and we are always together. For everything we are given, we bless the Maker of all through his Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit. On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather in one place. The records of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time allows. When the reader has finished, the one presiding speaks, urging us and calling us to imitate these good things. Then we all stand together and offer prayers. As we said before, when the prayer is finished, bread and wine and water are brought. The one presiding likewise offers prayers and thanksgivings, as well as he is able, and the people call out their agreement, saying “Amen.” Then each person receives a share of what has been given thanks for, and it is sent through the deacons to those who are absent.[107]
67b Those who are well off and willing give, each as he chooses, whatever he wishes. What is collected is placed with the one presiding, and he helps orphans and widows, those who are in need because of sickness or any other cause, those in prison, and foreigners staying among us. In short, he looks after everyone in need. We all hold our common gathering on the day of the Sun. It is the first day, on which God changed the darkness and matter and made the world. It is also the day on which Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead. For they crucified him on the day before Saturn’s day. On the day after Saturn’s day, which is the day of the Sun, he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them these things, which we have also handed on to you for your consideration.[108]
Chapter 68
Conclusion.
68a If these things seem to you reasonable and true, honor them. But if they seem to you nonsense, then despise them as nonsense. Do not decree death, as against enemies, for people who have done no wrong. For we warn you in advance that you will not escape the coming judgment of God if you persist in injustice. And we will cry out, “Let what is pleasing to God be done!” We could demand, on the strength of the letter of the greatest and most illustrious Caesar Hadrian, your father, that you order trials to be held as we have asked. But we have made this address and explanation not because Hadrian decided it, but because we know that what we ask is just. We have also added a copy of Hadrian’s letter, so that you may know we are telling the truth about this as well.[109] 68b This is the copy: “To Minucius Fundanus. I have received a letter written to me by Serenius Granianus, a most distinguished man, whom you have succeeded. It does not seem right to me to leave the matter uninvestigated, so that people are not harassed and informers are not given room for their mischief. So if the people of the province can clearly support this petition against the Christians, so that they can make their case before a tribunal, let them turn to that course only. But they must not use petitions or mere shouting. For it is much more fitting, if anyone wishes to bring an accusation, that you examine it. So if someone accuses them and shows that they are doing something contrary to the laws, decide the case according to the seriousness of the offense. But, by Hercules, if anyone brings this up merely to slander them, determine how serious that is, and take care to punish him.”[110]
Second Apology
Chapter 1
Introduction.
Romans, what happened yesterday and the day before in your city under Urbicus, and what is being done in the same unreasonable way by governors everywhere, has forced me to write this account for your sake. You are human beings like us, and our brothers, even if you do not know it and do not want to admit it because of the glory of what you consider your high offices. Everywhere, people who are corrected for some failing by a father, a neighbor, a child, a friend, a brother, a husband or a wife are stirred up against those who correct them. This happens because they are hard to change, love pleasure and are slow to move toward what is good. The only exceptions are those who have been persuaded that the unjust and undisciplined will be punished in eternal fire, and that the virtuous and those who have lived like Christ will be with God, free from suffering. I mean those who have become Christians. And the wicked demons hate us. They hold judges like these in their power and have them as their servants. So these rulers are driven by demons, and the demons prepare them to put us to death. But so that the cause of everything that happened under Urbicus may be clear to you, I will tell you what was done.[111]
Chapter 2
Urbicus Condemns the Christians to Death.
2a A certain woman lived with a husband who was licentious, and she herself had formerly been licentious too. But when she learned the teachings of Christ, she became self-controlled. She tried to persuade her husband to be self-controlled as well. She set before him the teachings, and told him of the punishment in eternal fire that awaits those who do not live with self-control and right reason. But he kept on in the same debauchery, and by his actions he made his wife a stranger to him. She now thought it ungodly to share a bed with a husband who sought by every means ways of finding pleasure, against the law of nature and against what is right. So she wanted to be separated from the marriage. Her family, however, urged her to stay a while longer, in the hope that her husband might one day change. Their pleading overcame her, and she forced herself to remain. But then her husband went to Alexandria and was reported to be behaving even worse. So that she might not become a partner in his wrongdoing and ungodliness by staying in the marriage and sharing his table and his bed, she gave him what you call a *repudium* (a notice of divorce) and left him.
2b But this fine gentleman of a husband should have been glad. His wife had given up the things she used to do so readily with the servants and hired men, when she delighted in drunkenness and every kind of vice. She wanted him to give them up too. Instead, since she had left him against his wishes, he brought a charge against her, saying that she was a Christian. She submitted a petition to you, the emperor, asking first to be allowed to settle her affairs, and then to answer the charge once her affairs were in order. You granted this. Her former husband could no longer speak against her, so he turned against a man named Ptolemaeus, whom Urbicus had summoned, and who had been her teacher in the Christian lessons. He did it this way. He persuaded a centurion, a friend of his who had thrown Ptolemaeus in chains, to take hold of Ptolemaeus and ask him just one thing: whether he was a Christian.[112]
2c Ptolemaeus loved the truth and was not a deceitful or lying man. He confessed that he was a Christian, and the centurion had him put in chains. For a long time the centurion punished him in the prison. Finally the man was brought before Urbicus, and again he was asked only this: whether he was a Christian. Once more he knew in himself that his life was good because of Christ’s teaching, and he confessed the school of divine virtue. For anyone who denies a thing either denies it because he condemns it, or he avoids confessing it because he knows he is unworthy of it and a stranger to it. Neither is true of a real Christian. Urbicus ordered Ptolemaeus to be led away. Then a man named Lucius, who was also a Christian, saw how senseless this judgment was. He said to Urbicus, “What is the reason for this? You have punished this man, though he has not been convicted of adultery, fornication, murder, theft, robbery, or any wrongdoing at all. He has only confessed that he bears the name of Christian.
2d “This judgment of yours, Urbicus, is not fitting for the Emperor Pius, nor for the philosopher, the son of Caesar, nor for the sacred senate.” Urbicus gave him no other answer, but said to Lucius, “You seem to me to be one of them too.” When Lucius said, “Certainly I am,” Urbicus ordered him to be led away as well. Lucius declared that he was grateful. He knew he was being freed from such wicked masters and was going to the Father and King of the heavens. Then a third man came forward and was sentenced to be punished.[113]
Chapter 3
Justin Accuses Crescens of Ignorrant Prejudice Against the Christians.
Someone may say, “Then kill yourselves, all of you, and go to God right now, and stop causing us trouble.” I will explain why we do not do this, and why we confess without fear when we are questioned. We have been taught that God did not make the world without purpose, but only for the sake of the human race. We declared earlier that he is pleased with those who imitate what belongs to him, and displeased with those who embrace what is worthless, in word or deed. So if we all killed ourselves, we would be responsible, as far as it depends on us, for no one being born and taught the divine teachings, or even for the human race ceasing to exist. If we did this, we ourselves would be acting against the will of God. When we are questioned, we do not deny it, because we know of nothing evil in ourselves. We consider it ungodly not to tell the truth in everything, which we know is also dear to God. And we also want, by confessing, to free you now from your unjust prejudice.[114]
Chapter 4
Why the Christians Do Not Kill Themselves.
4a Someone may also think, “If you confessed God as your helper, then, as you claim, you would not be overpowered and punished by unjust men.” I will answer this too. God made the whole world and put earthly things under human control. He arranged the heavenly bodies to make crops grow and seasons change, and he set a divine law over them. All these things he evidently made for the sake of people. But he handed over the care of human beings, and of everything under heaven, to angels whom he appointed for this. These angels broke that appointment. They were overcome by intercourse with women and had children, who are the so-called demons. After that they enslaved the human race to themselves. They did it partly through magical writings, partly through fear and the punishments they brought, and partly by teaching people to offer sacrifices, incense and drink offerings. They came to need these after they themselves were enslaved by their passions and desires. Among people they sowed murders, wars, adultery, licentiousness and every kind of evil.[115] [Genesis 6:2]
4b So it was that the poets and myth-writers did not know that it was the angels, and the demons born from them, who did these things to men and women, to cities and nations. They wrote about these things, but they attributed them to god himself and to those thought to be his sons by his seed. They also attributed them to the sons of his so-called brothers, Poseidon and Pluto, and likewise to their descendants. For they called each one by the name that each of the angels had given to himself and to his children.[116]
Chapter 5
How the Angels Transgressed.
5a But there is no name set upon the Father of all, since he is unbegotten. For anyone addressed by a name has someone older who gave him that name. “Father,” “God,” “Creator,” “Lord” and “Master” are not names. They are titles drawn from his good deeds and his works. His Son is the only one properly called Son. He is the Word, who was with the Father before the created things and was begotten when, in the beginning, God made and ordered all things through him. He is called Christ because God anointed him and ordered all things through him. This name too has a meaning we do not know, just as the title “God” is not a name. It is an opinion, planted in human nature, about something hard to explain.[117] [John 1:1-3] 5b “Jesus,” however, is the name of a man and of a Savior, and it has a meaning in both ways. For he did become man, as we said before. He was born according to the will of God the Father, for the sake of believing people and for the destruction of the demons. You can learn this even now from what happens before your eyes. Throughout the whole world, and in your own city, many of our people, the Christians, have healed many demon-possessed people, and they still heal them. These people could not be healed by all the other exorcists, enchanters and sorcerers. The Christians call on the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and so they overpower the demons that hold people and drive them out.[118]
Chapter 6
Names of God and of Christ, Their Meaning and Power.
6a This is why God holds back from bringing confusion and destruction on the whole world, the destruction that would put an end to the wicked angels, demons and people. He holds back because of the seed of the Christians, which he knows is the cause of the world’s preservation. Otherwise it would not even be possible for you to go on doing these things, driven by the wicked demons. Instead the fire of judgment would have come down unchecked and judged everything. In the same way the flood long ago left no one except the one man called Noah among us and Deucalion among you, together with his own household. From him so many people have come again, some wicked and some good. This is how we say the burning of the world will happen. It will not be as the Stoics say, by the principle that all things change into one another, which is plainly shameful. Nor do we say that people do what they do, or suffer what happens to them, by fate. Rather, each person acts rightly or sins by his own choice. And it is by the working of the wicked demons that good men like Socrates and others like him are persecuted and put in chains, while Sardanapalus, Epicurus and their like seem to be happy in plenty and glory.[119]
6b The Stoics did not understand this, and so they declared that everything happens by the necessity of fate. But from the beginning God made the race of angels and of people free to choose. So they will justly receive in eternal fire the punishment for whatever wrongs they commit. This is the nature of everything that has been made: it is capable of both vice and virtue. For none of them would be praiseworthy if it did not have the power to turn either way. People everywhere who have made laws or practiced philosophy according to right reason show this too. They instruct us to do some things and to avoid others. Even the Stoic philosophers firmly honor these same things in their teaching on morals. This makes it plain that they are on the wrong track in their teaching on first principles and on incorporeal things.[120] 6c For suppose they say that what people do happens by fate, or that God is nothing apart from things that turn, change and dissolve again and again into the same things. Then they will be shown to have grasped only perishable things. They will also be making God himself, both in his parts and as a whole, present in every kind of wickedness. Or else they must say that there is no such thing as vice or virtue. That goes against all sound thought, reason and sense.[121]
Chapter 7
The World Preserved for the Sake of Christians. Man's Responsibility.
We know that followers of the Stoic teachings have also been hated and murdered. They were well-ordered, at least in their moral teaching, as the poets also were in some matters, because of the seed of the Word that is planted in every race of people. Heraclitus is one example, as we said before. Among people of our own time we know of Musonius and others. As we pointed out, the demons have always worked to make people hate everyone who strives in any way to live by reason and to flee evil. It is no surprise, then, that the demons, when they are exposed, work all the more to make people hate those who live not by a part of the seed-sown Word but by the knowledge and contemplation of the whole Word, who is Christ. The demons will receive the punishment and penalty they deserve, shut up in eternal fire. For if they are already being defeated by men through the name of Jesus Christ, that is a sign of the punishment in eternal fire that will come on them and on those who serve them. All the prophets proclaimed that it would be so, and Jesus our teacher taught it.[122] [Matthew 25:41]
Chapter 8
All Have Been Hated in Whom the Word Has Dwelt.
8a So I too expect to be plotted against by one of those I have named and to be fixed to a stake. Perhaps it will be Crescens, that lover of noise and boasting. He does not deserve to be called a philosopher, since he publicly testifies against us about things he does not understand. He says that Christians are godless and impious, and he does this to please and gratify the many who are led astray. If he attacks us without ever having read the teachings of Christ, he is thoroughly wicked. He is much worse than ordinary uneducated people, who often take care not to discuss or give false testimony about things they do not understand. Suppose instead he has read them but did not grasp their greatness. Or suppose he grasped it but acts like this so that no one will suspect him of being a Christian. Then he is far more base and thoroughly wicked, giving way to the ignorant, unreasoning opinion and fear of the crowd. I want you to know that I put some questions of this kind to him and cross-examined him. I learned, and proved, that he truly knows nothing.[123]
8b To show that I am telling the truth: if the reports of our discussions have not reached you, I am ready to hold the same questioning again in your presence. That too would be a task worthy of an emperor. But if my questions and his answers have been made known to you, it is plain to you that he knows nothing of our teachings. Or, if he does know them but does not dare to speak out as Socrates did because of those who are listening, then, as I said before, he shows himself to be not a philosopher but a lover of glory. He does not even honor that saying of Socrates which is so well worth loving: “But a man must not be honored above the truth.” But it is impossible for a Cynic, who has set indifference as his goal, to know any good except indifference.[124]
Chapter 9
Eternal Punishment Not a Mere Threat.
9a Some who are thought to be philosophers may say that our claim that the unjust are punished in eternal fire is mere boasting and scare tactics. They may say that we urge people to live virtuously out of fear, and not because living virtuously is good and pleasing. I will answer this briefly. If this is not so, then either there is no God, or, if there is, he does not care about people. Then virtue and vice are nothing, and, as we said before, lawgivers are unjust when they punish those who break the good commands laid down. But those lawgivers are not unjust, and neither is their Father, who through the Word teaches people to do the same things he does. Since that is so, those who agree with them are not unjust either. Someone may bring up the differing laws of men. He may say that among some peoples certain things are considered good and others shameful, while among others what the first consider shameful is considered good, and what they consider good is considered shameful. Let him hear what we say to this as well.[125]
9b We know that the wicked angels laid down laws that match their own wickedness, and people who have become like them take pleasure in those laws. But right reason, when it came, showed that not all opinions or all teachings are good. Some are bad and some are good. So I will say the same and similar things to people like these, and I will say more if there is need. For now I return to the matter before us.[126]
Chapter 10
Christ Compared with Socrates.
10a Our teachings, then, show themselves to be greater than any human teaching, because Christ, who appeared for our sake, became the whole rational being: body, reason, and soul. Whatever the philosophers or lawgivers ever said or discovered well, they worked out by searching and reflecting, through a portion of the Word. But they did not know all that belongs to the Word, who is Christ, and so they often contradicted themselves. Those who lived before Christ tried, as far as human ability allowed, to examine and test things by reason, and they were brought into the courts as godless and meddlesome men. Socrates, the most determined of them all in this, was charged with the same things as we are. They said he was bringing in new divinities and did not acknowledge the gods the city recognized.[127] 10b Socrates drove Homer and the other poets out of the state. He taught people to turn away from the wicked demons and from those who did the things the poets told of. And he urged them to seek, by reasoned inquiry, to know the God who was unknown to them. He said: “It is not easy to find the Father and Maker of all, and once you have found him, it is not safe to declare him to everyone.” Our Christ did these things through his own power. No one believed Socrates enough to die for this teaching. But Christ was known in part even by Socrates. For he was and is the Word who is in everything. He foretold what was to come through the prophets, and then he himself became a man like us, subject to the same sufferings, and taught these things. And Christ was believed not only by philosophers and scholars but also by craftsmen and completely uneducated people, who despised glory, fear and death. For he is a power of the ineffable Father, and not a vessel of human reason.[128]
Chapter 11
How Christians View Death.
11a We would not be killed, and unjust men and demons would not be stronger than we are, if death were not a debt that every person born must pay. So we give thanks as we pay the debt. We also think it right and timely to tell Crescens, and those who rave as he does, the well-known story from Xenophon. Xenophon says that Heracles, walking to a place where three roads met, came upon Virtue and Vice, who appeared in the form of women. Vice wore a luxurious dress, and her face was made seductive and blooming by such arts. She was alluring at first sight, and she told Heracles that if he followed her, she would make him always live in pleasure, adorned with the most splendid ornaments, like those she wore herself.[129] 11b And Virtue, he says, came with an unkempt face and rough clothing, and said: “But if you obey me, you will adorn yourself not with ornament or beauty that flows away and perishes, but with ornaments that are eternal and beautiful.” We are convinced that everyone who flees what only seems good, and pursues what is thought harsh and senseless, will receive happiness. For Vice has nothing imperishable and cannot make anything imperishable. So she imitates the imperishable and throws around her own deeds, as a screen, the qualities that belong to Virtue and are truly good. In this way she enslaves the earthbound among men, and she pins her own bad qualities on Virtue. But those who have understood what is truly good are also incorruptible in virtue. Every sensible person must think this about Christians, about “those from the contest,” and about those who did the kinds of things the poets told of their so-called gods. He should draw his conclusion from the fact that we despise even death, the thing everyone flees.[130]
Chapter 12
Christians Proved Innocent by Their Contempt of Death.
12a I myself used to delight in the teachings of Plato. When I heard Christians slandered, and saw that they were fearless in the face of death and everything else thought terrifying, I concluded that it was impossible for them to be living in vice and love of pleasure. What pleasure-loving or self-indulgent person, who thought feasting on human flesh a good thing, could welcome death and so be deprived of his own enjoyments? Would he not rather try by every means to go on living this present life forever, and to escape the notice of the rulers? Would he ever turn himself in to be put to death? The wicked demons have already caused this kind of thing to be done through certain evil men. These men put some people to death on the false charges against us. They also dragged our household slaves, or children, or poor women to the torture. By terrible torments they forced them to accuse us of those fabled deeds which these men themselves openly practice. We do not worry about these charges, because none of them is true of us, and we have the unbegotten and ineffable God as witness of our thoughts and our actions.
12b If we did these things, why would we not openly admit that they are good and present them as divine philosophy? We could say that we perform the mysteries of Kronos when we murder men. We could say that when we gorge ourselves with blood, as people claim we do, we are only doing what the idol you honor does. You sprinkle that idol not only with the blood of irrational animals but also with human blood, and the blood of the slain is poured out by the most distinguished and noble man among you. We could say that we imitate Zeus and the other gods by having intercourse with males and by sleeping with women without restraint. We could bring the writings of Epicurus and the poets as our defense. But we persuade people to flee these teachings, and to flee those who practice and imitate them, as we have also striven to do in this present discourse. For this we are attacked in every kind of way. But we do not care, since we know that God is the just overseer of all things. If only someone would even now climb up on some high platform and cry out in a tragic voice: “Be ashamed, be ashamed! You openly do these things yourselves, yet you charge them to the innocent. You take what belongs to yourselves and your gods and pin it on people who have no share in it, not even a little. Change your ways. Come to your senses.”[131]
Chapter 13
How the Word Has Been in All Men.
For I too, when I learned that the evil demons had thrown a wicked disguise over the divine teachings of the Christians to turn other people away, laughed at those who spread these lies, at the disguise itself, and at the opinion of the crowd. I confess that I pray and strive with all my strength to be found a Christian. This is not because Plato’s teachings are foreign to Christ’s, but because they are not in every respect the same, any more than the teachings of the others are: the Stoics, the poets and the prose writers. Each of them spoke well, through his share of the seminal divine Word, when he saw what was akin to it. But those who contradicted themselves on the more important points appear not to have had knowledge that cannot fail or understanding that cannot be refuted. So whatever has been said well by anyone belongs to us Christians. For after God we worship and love the Word who comes from the unbegotten and unspeakable God, since he also became man for our sake, so that by sharing in our sufferings he might also bring us healing. All the writers were able to see reality only dimly, through the seed of the Word implanted in them. A seed or likeness given according to a person’s capacity is one thing. The thing itself is another, and sharing in it and imitating it come through the grace that is from him.[132]
Chapter 14
Justin Prays that This Appeal Be Published.
We ask you, then, to add whatever you think right and to publish this little book, so that others too may come to know our teachings. Then they may be able to be freed from false opinion and from ignorance of what is good. By their own fault they become liable to punishment. This is so for three reasons. First, the ability to tell good from shameful is part of human nature. Second, they condemn us, though they do not know that we do the shameful things they speak of. Third, they take delight in gods who did such things and who even now demand similar things from people. And so, by sentencing us to death or chains or some other such penalty, as if we were doing these things, they condemn themselves, so that there is no need of other judges.[133]
Chapter 15
Conclusion.
If you post this publicly, we will make it known to everyone, so that, if they are able, they may change their minds. For this reason alone we have composed these words. Our teachings, judged soberly, are not shameful. They are higher than all human philosophy. If you will not grant that, they are at least not like the writings of Sotades, Philaenis, Archestratus and Epicurus, and other such poetic teachings. Everyone is permitted to read these, whether spoken or written. We will stop now, having done what we could, and having added a prayer that all people everywhere may be counted worthy of the truth. May you also judge justly on your own behalf, in a way worthy of piety and philosophy.[134]
Notes
[92] Justin first mentioned Marcion in chapter 26. Marcion came from Pontus on the Black Sea. He taught that the God of the Old Testament, the Creator, was a different and lesser god than the Father of Jesus Christ.
[93] In Greek poetry, Erebus was the primeval darkness and the dark region beneath the earth. Justin probably links it with the “darkness over the deep.”
[94] In the Timaeus (36b-c), Plato describes the world-soul as two bands crossed in the shape of the Greek letter chi (X). Justin applies the phrase to the Son of God.
[95] Plato’s line “the third things around the third” comes from the Second Letter attributed to him.
[96] The Greek says these people are “barbarians” in speech. This means they spoke Greek poorly or not at all. It is not a harsh insult here.
[97] Justin’s wording of Christ’s saying differs from the Gospel text. John 3:3-5 speaks of being born again (or “from above”) to see or enter “the kingdom of God.” Justin’s phrase “you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” is close to Matthew 18:3. He appears to be quoting loosely or from a variant tradition. I have translated what he wrote.
[98] Isaiah 1:16-20, which Justin also quoted in chapter 44. His wording is shorter than the standard Greek (Septuagint) text and reverses “snow” and “wool.” The Septuagint has “like snow” first and “like wool” second. The translation follows Justin’s wording.
[99] Justin departs from Exodus here in two ways. Exodus says Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, in Midian (Exodus 3:1), but Justin says “his mother’s brother” in “Arabia.” Also, in Exodus God tells Moses not to come near (Exodus 3:5), but Justin’s wording says “come near and listen.”
[100] Justin is playing on words. “Angel” (angelos) means messenger and goes with “announces” (apangellei). “Apostle” (apostolos) means one sent and goes with “is sent” (apostelletai). Hebrews 3:1 also calls Jesus “the apostle.”
[101] The Greek printed here says he appeared “in a bodiless likeness”; the older translation reads “in the likeness of angels,” apparently following a different reading.
[102] Jesus’ saying is from Matthew 11:27 and Luke 10:22, quoted freely. In the Gospels the Son is mentioned before the Father.
[103] That the patriarchs were “the first of all people” to seek God is Justin’s own claim. Genesis speaks of earlier men who walked with God, such as Enoch and Noah (Genesis 5:24; 6:9).
[104] In the best-known Greek myth Athena sprang fully grown from the head of Zeus, which fits Justin’s point that she was not born from a union.
[105] The Greek word for “thanksgiving” here is eucharistia. In the next chapter Justin says this food is called the Eucharist.
[106] Justin’s wording recalls Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24-25, where “Do this in remembrance of me” appears. Justin, however, puts that command before “this is my body,” which is the reverse of the order in those passages.
[107] “Those who have means” is the Greek “those who have”; the older English says “the wealthy.” In the Greek, “as well as he is able” can also be read as “with all his strength.”
[108] “Saturn’s day” is Saturday and “the day of the Sun” is Sunday; these are the names of the planetary week, which was in common use in the Roman world, and Justin uses them for his pagan readers.
[109] The older translation says “we ourselves will invite you to do that which is pleasing to God.” The Greek says they will cry out (to God), “Let what is pleasing to God be done!”
[110] Eusebius (Church History 4.8-9) says Justin attached the letter in its original Latin, and that he himself translated it into Greek. The Greek printed here is very likely Eusebius’s translation. Minucius Fundanus was proconsul of the province of Asia.
[111] Urbicus is Quintus Lollius Urbicus, prefect of the city of Rome at this time.
[112] The older translation reads “whom Urbicus punished,” following the variant ekolasato; the Greek printed here reads ekalesato, “summoned.”
[113] “Pius” is the emperor Antoninus Pius. Scholars are not sure who “the philosopher, the son of Caesar” is. It may be Marcus Aurelius or Lucius Verus, Pius’s adopted sons, both of whom Justin addresses in the First Apology.
[114] The older translation printed with this section is a different passage, Justin’s attack on the Cynic philosopher Crescens. The 1885 translation of this section is the one printed with the next section. This version follows the Greek.
[115] The story of angels who fathered children by women echoes Genesis 6:1–4 as later Jewish tradition developed it, for example in 1 Enoch. Justin goes beyond the biblical text, which does not call these children demons.
[116] “God himself” is Justin’s phrase. From the sons and brothers he lists, he evidently means Zeus, the chief god of the myths. The older translation uses “Neptune,” the Roman name for Poseidon.
[117] “Christ” means “Anointed One.” Justin ties it to God’s anointing the Son and ordering all things through him.
[118] Unlike “Christ,” the name “Jesus” has a clear meaning. It comes from the Hebrew Yeshua, “the LORD saves,” which fits Matthew 1:21: “he will save his people from their sins.” “Your own city” is Rome.
[119] Deucalion is the survivor of the great flood in Greek myth. The Stoics taught that the universe is periodically consumed by fire and then renewed. Sardanapalus was a legendary Assyrian king famous for luxury.
[120] Justin’s point is that Stoic ethics, which praises and blames people’s choices, does not fit with Stoic physics, which holds that everything happens by fate.
[121] The Stoics identified God with the universe itself, which is why Justin says their view puts God, “in his parts and as a whole,” into every wickedness.
[122] Heraclitus was not himself a Stoic, though the Stoics drew on him. Justin had already named him in First Apology 46. Musonius Rufus, a Stoic teacher, was exiled under Nero. Ancient sources do not clearly say that either man was put to death, so Justin’s statement may be loose.
[123] Crescens was a Cynic philosopher in Rome. Justin’s pupil Tatian later wrote that Crescens schemed to bring about Justin’s death.
[124] The saying is spoken by Socrates in Plato’s Republic, book 10 (595c).
[125] The Greek says only “those.” We have taken it to mean the lawgivers, the nearest group named, and “their Father” as God. The sentence is obscure, and some scholars suspect the text is damaged. The older translation also leaves it vague (“these”).
[126] The Greek has no capital letters, so “right reason” (orthos logos) could mean reason in general or Christ the Word; “when it came” may point to Christ’s coming, since Justin elsewhere calls Christ the Logos.
[127] The phrase rendered “as far as human ability allowed” can also be taken with “lived before Christ,” meaning “born before Christ’s human birth.” The older translation reads it that way.
[128] “In everything” may also be read “in everyone.” The older translation has “in every man.”
[129] The story is in Xenophon’s Memorabilia (2.1), where Socrates tells it as the work of the teacher Prodicus.
[130] The last sentence is obscure in the Greek, and the text may be damaged. The phrase “those from the contest” is uncertain. The Greek word can mean either an athletic contest or a labour. So it may mean athletes, or it may refer to followers of Heracles’ labours.
[131] Justin does not name the idol. Other early Christian writers, such as Tatian and Tertullian, say that human blood was offered at Rome to Jupiter Latiaris, and Justin may have this rite in mind.
[132] “Seminal” (spermatikos) means “of the seed.” Justin pictures the Word sowing seeds of truth in all people.
[133] The older translation loosens the logic here. In the Greek, the “because” clauses give the reasons why these people are answerable for their own punishment. It also adds the words “that so these things may be published to men,” which are not in this Greek text.
[134] The older translation begins with a sentence about despising the teaching of Simon, which is not in this Greek text. It also reads “Dancers” for Archestratus. Sotades and Philaenis were known for obscene verse and a sex manual. Archestratus wrote a poem on fine eating.