1.2.2 The Mechanism of Prayer
Justin Martyr and the Pneumatology of the Mid-Second Century
1 Apol 63, however, he does not limit his use of the word to the Holy Spirit, for he also attributes this activity to Jesus.22
(1 Apol 63.2–3) Wherefore the prophetic Spirit through Isaiah, the prophet mentioned before, rebuked (Kº ªå ) them . . . And Jesus Christ, because the Jews did not know what is the Father and what the Son, rebuking (Kº ªåø) them likewise even said himself . . .
(1 Apol 63.12–13) Wherefore the prophetic Spirit also rebuked (Kº ªå ) them saying . . . and Jesus again, as we have shown, in their presence said . . .
(1 Apol 63.14) Therefore the Jews having always supposed that the Father of the universe had spoken to Moses, though the one who spoke to him was the Son of God, who is called both Angel and Apostle, are rightly rebuked (Kº ªå ÆØ) by the prophetic Spirit and by Christ himself, since they knew neither the Father nor the Son.
As the chapter progresses, Justin intensifies the rebuke of the Jews by piling up ever more evidence for their guilt and by presenting the Spirit and Jesus as increasingly united in their confrontation of the Hebrew position. The rebuke of the Spirit in 1 Apol 63.2 is followed by Jesus' rebuke in 63.3, which Justin qualifies with › ø ('likewise') to accentuate their engagement in the same activity. Justin repeats the shared rebuke in 1 Apol
63.12–13, where the phrase 'and Jesus again, as we have shown' returns the reader to the earlier description of Jesus' activity in 1 Apol 63.3, thereby continuing to call attention to the joint nature of that activity. At the height of his argument against the Jews, Justin presents their activity as the most united: the Jews 'are rebuked by the prophetic Spirit and by Christ himself.'
The deliberate manner in which Justin uses language to relate the Spirit and the Incarnate Word in their activity indicates that his presentation of their unity in the activity of the rebuke is not coincidental. Though Justin differentiates the Spirit and Christ throughout this passage, he intends to ascribe to them the same activity.
1.2.2 The Mechanism of Prayer Justin does not discriminate between the roles of the Spirit and the Son in one of the most common features of the Christian life when he writes that believers pray through the Spirit and the Son, without distinguishing the function of 22 Cf. Stanton (2004: 328). As Stanton points out, when Justin uses the term Kº ªåø, the subject is the 'prophetic Spirit,' but Stanton has not noted that when he uses the term OØ ø
(Dial 37.2 and 124.4) to refer to a parallel activity, the subject is the 'holy Spirit.' Though this observation is worth making, its significance remains unclear.