Part 2
* For a sufficient account of the infamous historyhere alluded to and the extravagant grief of Hadrian, and the servility of the people,
see Smith's Dictionary of liiography : "Antinous." [Note, '"all were prompt, throng/: fear," etc. Thus we may measure the defiant
this animal. See also Hardwick's Christ and other Masters, vol.
ji. 146 (2d ed.).
intrepidity of this stinging sarcasm addressed to the " philosophers,"
^ [Note how he retaliates upon the calumny (cap. xxvi.) of the " upsetting of the lamp."]
with whose sounding titles this Apology begins.]
THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN. 173
spoke in these very words : " The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until He come for whom it is reserved ; and He shall be the desire of the na-
they were predicted ; and this will, we think, appear even to you the strongest and truest evidence.
CHAP. XXXI. — OF THE HEBREW PROPHETS.
tions, binding His foal to the vine, washing His robe in the blood of the grape." ^ It is yours to make accurate inquiry, and ascertain up to whose time the Jews had a lawgiver and king of their own. Up to the time of Jesus Christ, who taught
There were, then, among the Jews certain men who were prophets of God, through whom the prophetic Spirit published beforehand things that were to come to pass, ere ever they happened. And their prophecies, as they were spoken and when they were uttered, the kings who happened
us, and interpreted the prophecies which were not yet understood, [they had a lawgiver] as was
to be reigning among the Jews at the several times carefully preserved in their possession, when they had been arranged in books by
foretold by the holy and divine Spirit of prophecy through Moses, " that a ruler would not fail the Jews until He should come for whom the kingdom was reserved " (for Judah was the forefather of the Jews, from whom also they have their name of Jews) ; and after He (i.e., Christ) appeared, you began to rule the Jews, and gained possession of all their territory. And the proph-
the prophets themselves in their own Hebrew language. And when Ptolemy king of Egypt formed a library, and endeavoured to collect the writings of all men, he heard also of these proph-
ets, and sent to Herod, who was at that time
ecy, " He shall be the expectation of the nations,"
king, of the Jews,' requesting that the books of the prophets be sent to him. And Herod the king did indeed send them, written, as they were,
signified that there would be some of all nations who should look for Him to come again. And
in the foresaid Hebrew language. And when
this indeed you can see for yourselves, and be convinced of by fact. For of all races of men
their contents were found to be unintelligible to the I|]gyptians, he again sent and reejuested that men be commissioned to translate them into the (Ireek language. And when this was done, the books remained with the Egyptians, where they are until now. They are also in the possession of all Jews throughout the world ; but they, though they read, do not understand what is said, but count us foes and enemies ; and, like your-
there are some who look for Him who was cruci-
fied in Judcea, and after whose crucifixion the land was straightway surrendered to you as spoil of war. And the prophecy, " binding His foal
to the vine, and washing His robe in the blood of
the grape," was a significant symbol of the things
that were to happen to Christ, and of what He was to do. For the foal of an ass stood bound to a vine at the entrance of a village, and He ordered His acquaintances to bring it to Him then ; and when it was brought, He mounted and
selves, they kill and punish us whenever they have the power, as you can well believe. For
in the Jewish war which lately raged, Barchochebas, the leader of the revolt of the Jews, gave orders that Christians alone should be led
sat upon it, and entered Jerusalem, where was
the vast temple of the Jews which was afterwards destroyed by you. And after this He was cruci-
to cruel punishments, unless they would deny Jesus Christ and utter blasphemy. In these books, then, of the prophets we found Jesus our Christ foretold as coming, born of a virgin, growing up ij man's estate, and healing every disease and every sickness, and raising the dead, and being hated, and unrecognised, and crucified, and dying, and rising again, and ascending into heaven, and being, and being called, the Son of (jod. We find it also predicted that certain persons should be sent by Him into every nation to publish these things, and that rather among the Gentiles [than among the Jews] men should believe on Him. And He was predicted before He appeared, first 5000 years before, and again 3000, then 2000, then 1000, and yet again 800
fied, that the rest of the prophecy might be ful-
filled. For this "washing His robe in the blood
of the grape " was predictive of the passion He was to endure, cleansing by His blood those who believe on Him. For what is called by the Divine Spirit through the prophet " His robe,"
are those men who believe in Him in whom abideth the seed ^ of God, the Word. And what
is spoken of as " the blood of the grape," signi-
fies that He who should appear would have blood, though not of the seed of man, but of the power
of God. And the first power after God the Father and Lord of all is the ^^'ord, who is also
the Son ; and of Him we will, in what follows,
relate how He took flesh and became man. For
as man did not make the blood of the vine, but God, so it was hereby intimated that the blood should not be of human seed, but of divi-ne
for in the succession of generations prophets after prophets arose.
CHAP. XXXII. CHRIST PREDICTED BV MOSES.
Moses then, who was the first of 1«he prophets,
* Gen. xlix. lo.
3 Grabc would here read, not airepua, but -nvevtia, the spirit: but the Benedictine, Otto, and TroUope all think that no change should b« made.
' Some attribute this blunder in chronology to Justin, others to his transcribers: it was Eleazar the high priest to whom Ptolemy applied.
174 THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN.
power, as we have said above. And Isaiah, another prophet, foretelling the same things in other words, sjwke thus : " A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a flower shall spring from the root of Jesse ; and His arm shall the nations trust."
(Saviour) in the Greek tongue. Wherefore, too, the angel said to the virgin, " Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins." And that the prophets are inspired * by no other than the Divine Word, even you, as
' And a star of light has arisen, and a flower has sprung from the root of Jesse — this Christ. For by the power of God He was conceived by a virgin of the seed of Jacob, who was the father of Judah, who, as we have shown, was the father of the Jews ; and Jesse was His forefather according to the oracle, and He was the son of Jacob and Judah according to lineal descent.
I fancy, will grant.
CHAP. XXXIV. — PLACE OF CHRIST'S BIRTH FORETOLD. And hear what part of earth He was to be born in, as another prophet, Micah, foretold. He spoke thus : " And thou, Bethlehem, the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah ; for out of thee shall come forth a Governor, who shall feed My people." s Now there
CHAP. XXXIII. MANNER OF CHRIST'S BIRTH PREDICTED. And hear again how Isaiah in express words
is a village in the land of the Jews, thirty-five
stadia from Jerusalem, in which Jesus Christ was born, as you can ascertain also from the
foretold that He should be born of a virgin ; for he spoke thus : " Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a son, and they shall say for His name, ' God with us.' " ^ For things which were
registers of the taxing made under Cyrenius, your first procurator in Judaea,
CHAP. XXXV. OTHER FULFILLED PROPHECIES. And how Christ after He was born was to escape the notice of other men until He grew to man's estate, which also came to pass, hear what was foretold regarding this. There are the following predictions : ^ — " Unto us a child is born, and unto us a young man is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders ;" ' which is significant of the power of the cross,
incredible and seemed impossible with men, these God predicted by the Spirit of prophecy
as about to come to pass, in order that, when they came to pass, there might be no unbelief, but faith, because of their prediction. But lest some, not understanding the prophecy now
cited, should charge us with the very things we have been laying to the charge of the poets who say that Jupiter went in to women through lust,
for to it, when He was crucified. He applied His shoulders, as shall be more clearly made out in the ensuing discourse. And again the same prophet Isaiah, being inspired by the prophetic Spirit, said, " I have spread out my hands
let us try to explain the words. This, then, " Behold, a virgin shall conceive," signifies that a
virgin should conceive without intercourse. For
if she had had intercourse with any one what-
ever, she was no longer a virgin ; but the power of God having come upon the virgin, overshadowed her, and caused her while yet a virgin
to a disobedient and gainsaying people, to those who walk in a way that is not good. They now ask of me judgment, and dare to draw near
to conceive. And the angel of God who was sent to the same virgin at that time brought her good news, saying, " Behold, thou shalt conceive of the Holy Ghost, and shalt bear a Son, and He shall be called the Son of the Highest, and thou shalt call His name Jesus ; for He shall save His people from their sins," ^ — as they who have recorded all that concerns our Saviour Jesus Christ have taught, whom we believed, since by Isaiah also, whom we have now adduced, the Spirit of prophecy declared that He should be born as we intimated before. It is wrong, therefore, to understand the Spirit and the power of God as anything else than the Word, who is also the first-born of God, as the
to God."** And again in other words, through another prophet, He says, " They pierced My hands and ^ly feet, and for My vesture they
cast lots." 9 And indeed David, the king and prophet, who uttered these things, suffered none of them ; but Jesus Christ stretched forth His hands, being crucified by the Jews speaking
against Him, and denying that He was the Christ. And as the prophet spoke, they tormented Him, and set Him on the judgment-seat, and said. Judge us. And the expression, " They pierced my hands and my feet," was used in reference
to the nails of the cross which were fixed in His hands and feet. And after He was cruci-
foresaid prophet Moses declared ; and it was
fied they cast lots upon His vesture, and they
this which, when it came upon the virgin and overshadowed her, caused her to conceive, not by intercourse, but by power. And the name Jesus in the Hebrew language means ^(DTr'jp
* 0«o<(>opoucToi, lit. are borne by a god — a word used ol those who were supposed to be wholly under the influence of a deity.
5 Micah V. 2. * These predictions have so little reference to the point Justin intends to make out, that some editors have supposed that a passage has here been lost. Others think the irrelevancy an insufficient ground for such a supposition. [See below, cap. xl.J
' Isa. xi. I. * Isa. vii. 14. * Luke i. 32; Matt. i. 2i.
7 Isa. ix. 6. 8 Isa. Ixv. 2, Iviii. 2. 9 Ps. xxii. 16.
THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN. 175
that crucified Him parted it among them. And
away with ; nor, if ye come to be seen of Me,
will I hear you : your hands are full of blood
that these things did happen, you can ascertain from the Acts of Pontius Pilate. ' And we will
and if ye bring fine flour, incense, it is abomina-
tion unto Me : the fat of lambs and the blood of
cite the prophetic utterances of another prophet, Zephaniah, ^ to the effect that He was foretold
bulls I do not desire. For who hath required
this at your hands? But loose every bond of wickedness, tear asunder the tight knots of vio-
expressly as to sit upon the foal of an ass and to enter Jerusalem. The words are these : " Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion ; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem : behold, thy King cometh unto thee ; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt
lent contracts, cover the houseless and naked, deal thy bread to the hungry."^ What kind of things are taught through the prophets from [the person of] God, you can now perceive.
the foal of an ass." ^
CHAP. XXXVI. — DIFFERENT MODES OF PROPHECY.
CHAP. XXXVIII. UlTERANCES OF THE SON. And when the Spirit of prophecy speaks from the person of Christ, the utterances are of this
But when you hear the utterances of the prophets spoken as it were personally, you must not suppose that they are spoken by the inspired themselves, but by the Divine Word who moves them. For sometimes He declares things that
sort : " I have spread out My hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, to those who walk
in a way that is not good." 7 And again : " I gave My back to the scourges, and My cheeks
are to come to pass, in the manner of one who
to the buffetings ; I turned not away My face from the shame of spittings ; and the Lord was My helper : therefore was I not confounded : but I set My face as a firm rock ; and I knew
foretells the future ; sometimes He speaks as from the person of God the Lord and Father of
all ; sometimes as from the person of Christ
sometimes as from the person of the people answering the Lord or His Father, just as you can see even in your own writers, one man being the
that I should not be ashamed, for He is near
*^ And again, when He says, " They cast lots upon My vesture, and pierced My hands and My feet. And I lay down and
that justifieth Me."
writer of the whole, but introducing the persons who converse. And this the Jews who possessed the books of the prophets did not understand, and therefore did not recognise Christ even when He came, but even hate us who say that He has come, and who prove that, as was predicted, He was crucified by them.
slept, and rose again, because the Lord sustained Me." 9 And again, when He says, "They spake with their lips, they wagged the head, saying. Let Him dehver Himself" '° And that all these
things happened to Christ at the hands of the
Jews, you can ascertain. For when He was cru-
CHAP. XXXVII. UTTERANCES OF THE FATHER. And that this too may be clear to you, there were spoken from the person of the Father, through Isaiah the prophet, the following words : "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know, and My people hath not understood. Woe, sinful nation, a people full of sins, a wicked seed, children that are transgressors, ye have forsaken the Lord." 4 And again elsewhere, when the same prophet speaks in like manner from the person of the Father, " What is the house that ye will build for Me ? saith the Lord. The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool." s And again, in another place, " Your new moons and your sabbaths My soul hateth ; and the great day of the fast and of ceasing from labour I cannot
cified, they did shoot out the lip, and wagged
their heads, saying, " Let Him who raised the dead save Himself" "
CHAP. XXXIX. DIRECT PREDICTIONS BY THE
SPIRIT.
And when the Spirit of prophecy speaks as predicting things that are to come to pass. He speaks in this way : " For out of Zion shall go
forth the law, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the na-
tions, and shall rebuke many people ; and they
shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and
their spears into pruning-hooks : nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they
learn war any more." '^ And that it did so come
to pass, we can convince you. For from Jerusalem there went out into the world, men, twelve
' aKTtoi'. These Acts of Pontius Pilate, or regular accounts of his procedure sent by Pilate to the Emperor Tiberius, are supposed to have been destroyed at an early period, possibly in consecjuence of the unanswerable appeals which the Christians constantly made to them. There exists a forgery in imitation of these Acts. See Trollope.
in number, and these illiterate, of no ability in speaking : but by the power of God they proclaimed to every race of men that they were sent
•< 2 The reader \yill notice that these are not the words of Zephaniah, butof Zechariah (ix. g), to whom also Justin himself refers them in the Dial. Tryfih., c. 53. [Might be corrected in the text, therefore, as a clerical slip of the pen.]
6 Isa. i 14, xviii. 6. ' Isa. Ixv. 2. 8 Isa. 1. 6. 9 Ps. xxii. i8, iii. 5. '° Ps. xxii. 7. " Comp. Matt, xxvii. 39. 12 Isa. ii, 3.
3 2ech. IX. 9.
•* Isa. i. 3. This quotation varies only in one word from tirat of theLXX. '
^ Isa. Ixvi. I.
176 THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN.
by Christ to teach to all the word of God ; and we who formerly used to murder one another do not only now refrain from making war upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie nor de-
which the wind driveth away from the face of the earth. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand
in the judgment, nor sinners in the council of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous ; but the way of the ungodly
ceive our examiners, willingly die confessing
Christ. For that saying, " The tongue has sworn, but the mind is unsworn," ' might be imitated by us in this matter. But if the soldiers enrolled by you, and who have taken the military oath,
shall perish. Why do the heathen rage, antl the people imagine new things? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their yoke from us. He that dvvelleth in the heavens shall laugh at them, and the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak to them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. Yet have I been set by Him a King on Zion His holy hill, declaring the decree of the Lord. The Lord said to Me, Thou art My Son ; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost
prefer their allegiance to their own life, and par-
ents, and country, and all kindred, though you can offer them nothing incorruptible, it were
verily ridiculous if we, who earnestly long for
incorruption, should not endure all things, in
ortler to obtain what we desire from Him who is able to grant it.
CHAP. XL. — CHRIST'S ADVENT FORETOLD.
And hear how it was foretold concerning those who published His doctrine and proclaimed His appearance, the above-mentioned prophet and king speaking thus by the Spirit of prophecy : " Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto
parts of the earth as Thy possession. Ihou
shalt herd them with a rod of iron ; as the ves-
sels of a potter shalt Thou dash them in pieces. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings ; be in-
night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and
structed, all ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Embrace instruction, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and ye perish from the right way, when
their words to the ends of the world. In the sun hath He set His tabernacle, and he as a bridegroom going out of his chamber shall re-
His wrath has been suddenly kindled. Blessed
joice as a giant to run his. course." ^ And we have thought it right and relevant to mention some other prophetic utterances of David be-
are all they that put their trust in Him." ^
CHAP. XLL — THE CRUCIFIXION PREDICTED. And again, in another prophecy, the Spirit of prophecy, through the same David, intimated
sides these ; from which you may learn how the
Spirit of prophecy exhorts men to live, and how He foretold the conspiracy which was formed
that Christ, after He had been crucified, should
reign, and spoke as follows : " Sing to the Lord,
against Christ by Herod the king of the Jews, and
the Jews themselves, and Pilate, who was your governor among them, with his soldiers ; and how He should be believed on by men of every race ; and how God calls Him His Son, and has declared that He will subdue all His enemies under Him ; and how the devils, as much as they can, strive to escape the power of God the Father and Lord of all, and the power of Christ Himself; and how God calls all to repentance before the day of judgment comes. These things were uttered thus : " Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the
all the earth, and day by day declare His salva-
tion. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be
praised, to be feared above all the gods. For
all the gods of the nations are idols of devils
but God made the heavens. Glory and praise
are before His face, strength and glorying are in
the habitation of His holiness. Give Glory to
the Lord, the Father everlasting. Receive grace, and enter His presence, and worship in His holy
courts. Let all the earth fear before His face ;
let it be established, and not shaken. Let them
rejoice among the nations. The Lord hath reigned from the tree.""*
seat of the scornful : but his delight is in the law of the Lord ; and in His law will he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters, which shall give
CHAP. XLII. PROPHECY USING THE PAST TENSE.
But when the Spirit of prophecy speaks of
things that are about to come to pass as if they had already taken place,— as may be observed even in the passages already cited by me, — that
his fruit in his season ; and his leaf shall not
wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff
3 Ps. i. ii. * Ps. xcvi. I, etc. This last clause, which is not extant in our
' Eurip., Hif'/>.,boZ. * Ps. xix. 2, etc. [Note how J. excuses himself for the apparent irrelevancy of some of his citations (cap. xxxv., note), though quite
copies, either of the LXX. or of the Hebrew, Justin charged the Jews with erasing. See Dial. Tryph., c. 73. [Concerning the eighteen Jewish alterations, see Pearson on the Creed, art. iv. p. 335. Ed. London, 182^.3
in the manner of Plato himself. These Scriptures were of novel in-
tere:>t, and he was stimulating his readers to study the Septuagint.j
THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN. 177
this circumstance may afford no excuse to read-
end ; ^ nor, if he were evil, would he be worthy of punishment, not being evil of himself, but being able to be nothing else than what he was made.
ers [for misinterpreting them], we will make even this also quite plain. The things which He
absolutely knows will take place, He predicts as
if already they had taken place. And that the
CHAP. XLIV. NOT NULLIFIED BY PROPHECY.
utterances must be thus received, you will per-
And the holy Spirit of prophecy taught us this,
ceive, if you give your attention to them. The words cited above, David uttered 1500 ' years
telling us by Moses that God spoke thus to the man first created : " Behold, before thy face are good and evil : choose the good." ^ And again, by the other prophet Isaiah, that the following utterance was made as if from God the Father and Lord of all : " Wash you, make you clean ; put away evils from your souls ; learn to do well
before Christ became a man and was crucified ; and no one of those who lived before Him, nor
yet of His contemporaries, afforded joy to the
Gentiles by being crucified. But our Jesus
Christ, being crucified and dead, rose again, and having ascended to heaven, reigned ; and by
those things which were published in His name among all nations by the apostles, there is joy afforded to those who expect the immortality promised by Him.
judge the orphan, and plead for the widow : and come and let us reason together, saith the Lord : And if your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool ; and if they be red like as crimson,
I will make them white as snow. And if ye be
CHAP. XLIII. RESPONSIBILITY ASSERTED.
willing and obey Me, ye shall eat the good of the land ; but if ye do not obey Me, the sword shall devour you : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." And that expression, " The sword
But lest some suppose, from what has been
said by us, that we say that whatever happens, happens by a fatal necessity, because it is fore-
shall devour you," does not mean that the disobedient shall be slain by the sword, but the sword of God is fire, of which they who choose
told as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned from the prophets, and we hold
it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man's actions. Since if it be not
to do wickedly become the fuel. Wherefore He
says, " The sword shall devour you : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." And if He had spoken concerning a sword that cuts and at once despatches. He would not have said, shall
so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated
that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter
devour. And so, too, Plato, when he says, " The blame is his who chooses, and God is blameless," 5
to be blamed. And again, unless the human race have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable
took this from the prophet Moses and uttered it. For Moses is more ancient than all the Greek
writers. And whatever both philosophers and
for their actions, of whatever kind they be. But that it is by free choice they both walk uprightly and stumble, we thus demonstrate. We see the same man making a transition to opposite things. Now, if it had been fated that he were to be either good or bad, he could never have been capable of both the opposites, nor of
poets have said concerning the immortality of the
soul, or punishments after death, or contemplation
of things heavenly, or doctrines of the like kind, they have received such suggestions from the prophets as have enabled them to understand and interpret these things. And hence there seem to be seeds of truth among all men ; but they are charged with not accurately understand-
so many transitions. But not even would some be good and others bad, since we thus make fate the cause of evil, and exhiljit her as acting in opposition to herself; or that which has been already stated would seem to be true, that neither
ing [the truth] when they assert contradictories. So that what we say about future events being
foretold, we do not say it as if they came about by a fatal necessity; but God foreknowing all
virtue nor vice is anything, but that things are only reckoned good or evil by opinion ; which,
that shall be done by all men, and it being His decree that the future actions of men shall all be recompensed according to their several value, He foretells by the Spirit of prophecy that He
as the true word shows, is the greatest impiety and wickedness. But this we assert is inevitable
fate, that they who choose the good have worthy rewards, and they who choose the opposite have their merited awards. For not like other things, as trees and quadrupeds, which cannot act by choice, did Ciod make man : for neither would he be worthy of reward or praise did he not of him-
will bestow meet rewards according to the merit of the actions done, always urging the human
^ Or, "but were made so," Thewordsare, aAAa toiJto y€K)/jici'09 and the meaning of Justin is sufficiently clear.
^ Ueut. xxx. 15, 19. 4 Isa. i. 16, etc.
self choose the good, but were created for this
s Plato, Rep. .\. [On this remarkable passage refer to.Biog. Note above. See. also, brilliant note of the sophist De Maistre, lEuvres,
' A ctironoloi;i(;;il error, wlietlier of the copyist or of Justin himself cannot be known.
ii. p. loj. Ed. Paris, 1853.]
178 THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN.
race to effort and recollection, showing that He
He taught ; and should cry out against us as though all men who were born before Him were irresponsible — let us anticipate and solve the
c-arcs and ijro\ides for men. But by the agency of the devils death has been decreed against those who read the books of Hystaspes, or of the Sibyl," or of the prophets, that through fear they may prev-ent men who read them from receiving the knowledge of the good, and may
difficulty. We have been taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have declared above that He is the Word of whom every race of men were partakers ; and those who lived reasonably 5 are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists ; as, among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like them ; and among the barbarians, Abraham, and Ananias, and Azarias, and Misael, and Elias, and many others whose actions and names we now decline to recount, because we know it would be tedious. So that even they who lived before
retain them in slavery to themselves ; which, how-
ever, they could not always effect. For not only do we fearlessly read them, but, as you see, bring them for your inspection, knowing that their con-
tents will be pleasing to all. And if we persuade even a few, our gain will be very great ; for, as good husbandmen, we shall receive the reward from the Master.
CHAP. XLv. — Christ's session in heaven FORETOLD. And that God the Father of all would bring Christ to heaven after He had raised Him from the dead, and would keep Him there ^ until He has subdued His enemies the devils, and until the number of those who are foreknown by Him
Christ, and lived without reason, were wicked and hostile to Christ, and slew those who lived reasonably. But who, through the power of the Word, according to the will of Ciod the Father and Lord of all, He was born of a virgin as a man, and was named Jesus, and was crucified, and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, an intelligent man will be able to comprehend from what has been already so largely
as good and virtuous is complete, on whose account He has still delayed the consummation —
said. And we, since the proof of this subject is
hear what was said by the prophet David. These
less needful now, will pass for the present to the proof of those things which are urgent.
are his words : " The Lord said unto My Lord,
Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. The Lord shall send to Thee the rod of power out of 'Jerusalem ; and rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies. With Thee
CHAP. XLVII.— DESOLATION OF JUDyEA FORETOLD.
That the land of the Jews, then, was to be laid waste, hear what was said by the Spirit of proph-
ecy. And the words were spoken as if from the person of the people wondering at what had happened. They are these : " Sion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. The house of our sanc-
is the government in the day of Thy power, in the beauties of Thy saints : from the womb of morning 3 have I begotten Thee." '^ That which he
says, " He shall send to Thee the rod of power out of Jerusalem," is predictive of the mighty word, which His apostles, going forth from Jerusalem, preached everywhere ; and though death
tuary has become a curse, and the glory which our fathers blessed is burned up with fire, and
all its glorious things are laid wa.ste : and Thou
is decreed against those who teach or at all con-
refrainest Thyself at these things, and hast held Thy peace, and hast humbled us very sore."*^ And ye are convinced that Jerusalem has been
fess the name of Christ, we everywhere both embrace and teach it. And if you also read these words in a hostile spirit, ye can do no more, as
laid waste, as was predicted. And concerning
its desolation, and that no one should be permitted to inhabit it, there was the following prophecy by Isaiah : " Their land is desolate,
I said before, than kill us ; which indeed does no harm to us, but to you and all who unjustly hate us, and do not repent, brings eternal punishment by fire.
their enemies consume it before them, and none of them shall dwell therein." ^ And that it is guarded by you lest any one dwell in it, and
CHAP. XLVI. THE WORD IN THE WORLD BEFORE CHRIST.
that death is decreed against a Jew apprehended entering it, you know very well.**
But lest some should, without reason, and for the perversion of what we teach, maintain that we say that Christ was born one hundred and
CHAP. XLviii.— Christ's work and death fore-
told. And that it was predicted that our Christ
fifty years ago under Cyrenius, and subsequently,
in the time of Pontius Pilate, taught what we say
5 /ifTix A070U, " with reason," or " the Word." [This remarkable passage on the salvability and accountability of the heathen is noteworthy. See, on St. Matt. xxv. 32, Morsels cf Crilicism by the eccentric but thoughtful Ed. King, p. 341. London, 1788].
' [On the Orphica and Sibyllina, see Bull, Works, vol. vi. pp. 291-298.] ^ So Thirlby, Otto, and Trollope seem all to understand the word
KaTex(i-i/; yet it seems worth considering whether Justin has not borrowed both the sense and the word from 2 Thess. ii. 6, 7. 3 Or, " before the morning star. "
f" isa. Ixiv. 10-12.
' Isa. i. 7. ^ \Ad kominetn, referring to the cruel decree of Hadrian, which the philosophic Antonines did not annul.]
* Ps. ex. I, etc.
THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN. 179
" Because they delivered His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, He has borne the sin of many, and shall make
should heal all diseases and raise the dead, hear what was said. There are these words : " At His coming the lame shall leap as an hart, and
the tongue of the stammerer shall be clear speak-
intercession for the transgressors. For, behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, and shall be
ing : the blind shall see, and the lepers shall be
exalted, and shall be greatly extolled. As many were astonished at Thee, so marred shall Thy form be before men, and so hidden from them Thy glory ; so shall many nations wonder, and
cleansed ; and the dead shall rise, and walk
' And that He did those things, you can learn from the Acts of Pontius Pilate. And how it was predicted by the Spirit of prophecy
about."
that He and those who hoped in Him should be
the kings shall shut their mouths at Him. For they to whom it was not told concerning Him, and they who have not heard, shall understand. O Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have declared before Him as a child, as a root
slain, hear what was said by Isaiah. These are
the words : " Behold now the righteous perish-
eth, and no man layeth it to heart ; and just men are taken away, and no man considereth. From the presence of wickedness is the righteous man taken, and his burial shall be in peace : he
in a dry ground. He had no form, nor glory
and we saw Him, and there was no form nor comeliness : but His form was dishonoured and marred more than the sons of men. A man under the stroke, and knowing how to bear
is taken from our midst." ^
CH.\P. XLIX.— HIS REJECTION BY THE JEWS FORE-
TOLD. And again, how it was said by the same Isaiah,
infirmity, because His face was turned away : He was despised, and of no reputation. It is He who bears our sins, and is afflicted for us
that the Gentile nations who were not looking
for Him should worship Him, but the Jews who always expected Him should not recognize Him when He came. And the words are spoken as from the person of Christ ; and they are these : " I was manifest to them that asked not for Me ;
yet we did esteem Him smitten, stricken, and
afflicted. But He was wounded for our trans-
gressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of peace was upon Him, by His
I was found of them that sought Me not : I said, Behold Me, to a nation that called not on My name. I spread out My hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, to those who walked in a way that is not good, but follow after their own
stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray ; every man has wandered in his own way. And He delivered Him for our sins ; and He opened not His mouth for; all His affliction. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and
sins ; a people that provoketh Me to anger to My face." ^ For the Jews having the prophecies, and being always in expectation of the Christ to come, did not recognise Him ; and not only so, but even treated Him shamefully. But the Gen-
as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. In His humiliation, His judgment was taken away." s Accordingly,
after He was crucified, even all His acquaintances forsook Him, having denied Him ; and
afterwards, when He had risen from the dead and appeared to them, and had taught them to read the prophecies in which all these things were
tiles, who had never heard anything about Christ,
until the apostles set out from Jerusalem and preached concerning Him, and gave them the prophecies, were filled with joy and faith, and cast away their idols, and dedicated themselves to the Unbegotten God through Christ. And that it was foreknown that these infamous things should be uttered against those who confessed Christ,
foretold as coming to pass, and when they had seen Him ascending into heaven, and had be-
lieved, and had received power sent thence by Him upon them, and went to every race of men, they taught these things, and were called apostles.
CHAP. LI. — THE MAJESTY OF CHRIST. And that the Spirit of prophecy might signify
antl that those who slandered Him, and said
that it was well to preserve the ancient customs, should be miserable, hear what was briefly said by Isaiah ; it is this : " Woe unto them that call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet." *
to us that He who suffers these things has an
ineffable origin, and rules His enemies. He spake thus: "His generation who shall declare? because His life is cut off from the earth : for their
CHAP. L. — HIS HUMILIATION PREDICTED.
transgressions He comes to death. And I will
But that, having become man for our sakes, He endured to suffer and to be dishonoured, and that He shall come again with glory, hear the prophecies which relate to this ; they are these :
give the wicked for His burial, and the rich for His death ; because He did no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. And the Lord is pleased to cleanse Him from the stripe. If He be given for sin, your soul shall see His seed
' Isa. XXXV. 6. 2 Isa. Ivii. I.
' Isa. Ixv. 1-3. * Isa. V. 20.
S Isa. lii. 13-15, liii. 1-8.
i8o THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN.
prolonged in days. And the Lord is pleased to
the people of the Jews shall say and do, when they see Him coming in glory, has been thus predicted by Zechariah the prophet : " I will command the four winds to gather the scattered children ; I will command the north wind to bring them, and the south wind, that it keep not back. And then in Jerusalem there shall be great lamentation, not the lamentation of mouths or of lips, but the lamentation of the heart ; and they shall rend not their garments, but their
deliver His soul from grief, to show Him light, and to form Him with knowledge, to justify the
righteous who richly serveth many. And He
shall bear our iniquities. Therefore He shall
inherit many, and He shall divide the spoil of
the strong ; because His soul was delivered to death : and He was numbered with the trans-
gressors ; and He bare the sins of many, and He was delivered up for their transgressions."
Hear, too, how He was to ascend into heaven according to prophecy. It was thus spoken : " Lift up the gates of heaven ; be ye opened,
hearts. Tribe by tribe they shall mourn, and then they shall look on Him whom they ha\'e pierced ; and they shall say. Why, O Lord, hast Thou made us to err from Thy way ? The glory which our fathers blessed, has for us been turned
that the King of glory may come in. \\'ho is this King of glory ? The Lord, strong and mighty."
^ And how also He should come again out of heaven with glory, hear what was spoken in reference to this by the prophet Jeremiah. ^ His words are : " Behold, as the Son of man He cometh in the clouds of heaven, and His angels with Him."
into shame." ^
CH.\P. LIII. SUMMARY OF THE PROPHECIES.
Though we could bring forward many other prophecies, we forbear, judging these sufficient
for the persuasion of those who have ears to hear and understand ; and considering also that those persons are able to see that we do not make mere assertions without being able to produce
CHAP. LII.— CERTAIN FULFIL.MENT OF PROPHECY.
Since, then, we prove that all things which have already happened had been predicted by
proof, like those fables that are told of the so-
the prophets before they came to pass, we must
called sons of Jupiter. For with what reason should we beheve of a crucified man that He is
necessarily believe also that those things which
are in like manner predicted, but are yet to come
the first-born of the unbegotten God, and Him-
self will pass judgment on the whole human race,
to pass, shall certainly happen. For as the things which have already taken place came to pass when foretold, and even though unknown, so
unless we had found testimonies concerning Him published before He came and was born as man, and unless we saw that things had happened accordingly— the devastation of the land of the
shall the things that remain, even though they be unknown and disbelieved, yet come to pass. For the prophets have proclaimed two advents
Jews, and men of every race persuaded by His teaching through the apostles, and rejecting
of His : the one, that which is already past, when He came as a dishonoured and suffering Man ; but the second, when, according to proph-
their old habits, in which, being deceived, they had had their conversation ; yea, seeing ourselves
ecy, He shall come from heaven with glory, accompanied by His angelic host, when also He
too, and knowing that the Christians from among
the Gentiles are both more numerous and more
shall raise the bodies of all men who have lived, and shall clothe those of the worthy with immor-
true than those from among the Jews and Samar-
itans? For all the other human races are called
tality, and shall send those of the wicked, endued with eternal sensibility, into everlasting fire with
Gentiles by the Spirit of prophecy ; but the Jew-
ish and Samaritan races are called the tribe of
the wicked devils. And that these things also have been foretold as yet to be, we will prove. By Ezekiel the prophet it was said : " Joint shall be joined to joint, and bone to bone, and flesh
Israel, and the house of Jacob. And the prophecy
in which it was predicted that there should be more believers from the Gentiles than from the Jews and Samaritans, we will produce : it ran
thus : " Rejoice, O barren, thou that dost not bear ; break forth and shout, thou that dost not
shall grow again ; and every knee shall bow to
the Lord, and every tongue shall confess Him." 5 And in what kind of sensation and punishment
travail, because many more are the children of
the desolate than of her that hath an husband."
the wicked are to be, hear from what was said
For all the Gentiles were " desolate " of the true God, serving the works of their hands ; but the Jews and Samaritans, having the word of God
in like manner with reference to this ; it is as
follows : " Their worm shall not rest, and their
fire shall not be quenched;"^ and then shall they repent, when it profits them not. And what
delivered to them by the prophets, and always expecting the Christ, did not recognise Him when He came, except some few, of whom the
' Isa. liii 8-12. * Ps. xxiv. 7. 3 This prophecy occurs not in Jeremiah, but in Dan. vii. 13. * Dan. vii. 13. s Ezck. xxxvii. 7, 8; Isa. xlv. 34. * Isa. Ixvi. 24.
Spirit of prophecy by Isaiah had predicted that
"! Zech. xii. 3-14; Isa. IxiiL 17, Ixiv. 11.
^ Isa. liv. 1.
THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN. i8i
they should be saved. He spoke as from their person : " Except the Lord had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodom and Gomorrah."
"^ [or, the ass] among
vine, and they number wine
his mysteries ; and they taught that, having been torn in pieces, he ascended into heaven. And because in the prophecy of Moses it had not been expressly intimated whether He who was
For Sodom and Gomorrah are related by Moses
to have been cities of ungodly men, which God burned with fire and brimstone, and overthrew, no one of their inhabitants being saved except a certain stranger, a Chaldaean by birth, whose name was Lot ; with whom also his daughters were rescued. And those who care may yet see
to come was the Son of God, and whether He would, riding on the foal, remain on earth or ascend into heaven, and because the name of " foal " could mean either the 'foal of an ass or
the foal of a horse, they, not knowing whether He who was foretold would bring the foal of an
their whole country desolate and burned, and remaining barren. And to show how those from among the Gentiles were foretold as more true and more believing, we will cite what was said by Isaiah ^ the prophet ; for he spoke as follows : " Israel is uncircumcised in heart, but the Gen-
ass or of a horse as the sign of His commg, nor whether He was the Son of God, as we said above, or of man, gave out that Bellerophon, a man born of man, himself ascended to heaven on his horse Pegasus. And when they heard it
said by the other prophet Isaiah, that He should be born of a virgin, and by His own means ascend into heaven, they pretended that Perseus was spoken of. And when they knew what was
tiles are uncircumcised in the flesh." So many
things therefore, as these, when they are seen with the eye, are enough to produce conviction and belief in those who embrace the truth, and are not bigoted in their opinions, nor are governed by their passions.
said, as has been cited above, in the prophecies
written aforetime, " Strong as a giant to run his course," 5 they said that Hercules was strong, and had journeyed over the whole earth. And when, again, they learned that it had been fore-
CHAP. LIV. ORIGIN OF HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY.
But those who hand down the myths which the poets have made, adduce no proof to the youths who learn them ; and we proceed to demon-
told that He should heal every sickness, and
raise the dead, they produced ^sculapius.
CHAP. LV.— SYMBOLS OF THE CROSS.
strate that they have been uttered by the influence of the wicked demons, to deceive and lead
astray the human race. For having heard it proclaimed through the prophets that the Christ was to come, and that the ungodly among men were to be punished by fire, they put forward many to be called sons of Jupiter, under the impression that they would be able to produce in men the idea that the things which were said with regard to Christ were mere marvellous tales,
But in no instance, not even in any of those
called sons of Jupiter, did they imitate the being crucified ; for it was not understood by them,
all the things said of it having been put symboli-
cally. And this, as the prophet foretold, is the
greatest symbol of His power and rule ; as is also proved by the things which fall under our obser-
vation. For consider all the things in the world, whether without this form they could be admin-
like the things which were said by the poets. And these things were said both among the Greeks and among all nations where they [the demons] heard the prophets foretelling that Christ would specially be believed in ; but that in hearing what was said by the prophets they did not accurately understand it, but imitated what was said of our Christ, like men who are in
istered or have any community. For the sea is not traversed except that trophy which is called
a sail abide safe in the ship ; and the earth is not ploughed without it : diggers and mechanics do not their work, except with tools which have
this shape. And the human form differs from
that of the irrational animals in nothing else than
error, we will make plain. The prophet Moses, then, was, as we have already said, older than
in its being erect and having the hands extended, and having on the face extending from the forehead what is called the nose, through which
all writers ; and by him, as we have also said be-
fore, it was thus predicted: "There shall not
there is respiration for the living creature ;, and
fail a prince from judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until He come for whom it is reserved ; and He shall be the desire of the Gen-
this shows no other form than that of the cross. And so it was said by the prophet, " The breatli
before our face is the Lord Christ." ^ And the power of this form is shown by your own sym-
tiles, binding His foal to the vine, washing His robe in the blood of the grape." ^ The devils, accordingly, when they heard these prophetic words, said that Bacchus was the son of Jupiter, and gave out that he was the discoverer of the
bols on what are called " vexilla " [banners] and
* In the MS. the reading is oliov (wine) ; but as Justin's argument seems to rcqviire oroi' (an ass), Sylburg inserted this latter word in
his edition; and this reading is approved by Grabc and Thirlby, and
adopted by Otto and Trollope. It may be added, that ii/oYpd^oi/o-i
is much more suitable to oi'ov than to oli'ov.
' Istx. 1. 9 ' The following words are found, not in Isaiah, but in Jer. ix. 26. 3 Gen. xlix. 10.
5 Ps xix. 5.
*> From Lam. iv. 20 (Sept.).
l82 THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN.
want. But if they believe that there is nothing
trophies, with wliich all your state possessions are made, using these as the insignia of your power and government, e\'en though you do so unwit-
after death, but declare that those who die pass
into insensibility, then they become our benefac-
tingly.' And with this form you consecrate the images of your emperors when they die, and you name them gods by inscriptions. Since, there-
tors when they set us free from sufferings and
necessities of this life, and prove themselves to be wicked, and inhuman, and bigoted. For they
fore, we liave urged you both by reason and by an evident form, and to the utmost of our ability, we know that now we are blameless even though you disbelieve ; for our part is done and fin-
kill us with no intention of delivering us, but cut us off that we may be deprived of life and
pleasure.
CHAP. LVIII. AND RAISE UP HERETICS.
ished.
CHAP. LVI. — THE DEMONS STILL MISLEAD MEN.
And, as we said before, the devils put forward Marcion of Pontus, who is even now teaching men to deny that God is the maker of all things
But the evil spirits were not satisfied with say-
ing, before Christ's appearance, that those who were said to be sons of Jupiter were born of him ; but after He had appeared and been born among men, and when they learned how He had been foretold by the prophets, and knew that He should be believed on and looked for by evqry nation, they again, as was said above, put forward other men, the Samaritans Simon and Menander, who did many mighty works by magic, and deceived many, and still keep them de-
in heaven and on earth, and that the Christ predicted by the prophets is His Son, and preaches another god besides the Creator of all, and likewise another son. And this man many have
believed, as if he alone knew the truth, and laugh at us, though they have no proof of what they say, but are carried away irrationally as lambs by a wolf, and become the prey of atheis-
tical doctrines, and of devils. For they who are
called devils attempt nothing else than to seduce men from God who made them, and from Christ His first-begotten ; and those who are unable to
ceived. For even among yourselves, as we said
before,^ Simon was in the royal city Rome in the reign of Claudius CcEsar, and so greatly astonished the sacred senate and people of the Romans, that he was considered a god, and honoured, like the others whom you honour as
raise themselves above the earth they have riveted, and do now rivet, to things earthly, and to the works of their own hands ; but those who devote themselves to the contemplation of things
gods, with a statue. Wherefore we pray that the sacred senate and your people may, along whh
divine, they secretly beat back ; and if they have not a wise sober-mindedness, and a pure and
passionless life, they drive them into godless-
yourselves, be arbiters of this our memorial, in order that if any one be entangled by that man's
ness.
doctrines, he may learn the truth, and so be able
CHAP. LIX. — PLATO'S OBLIGATION TO MOSES.
to escape error ; and as for the statue, if you
And that you may learn that it was from our
please, destroy it.
teachers — we mean the account given through
CHAP. LVII. — AND CAUSE PERSECUTION.
the prophets— that Plato borrowed his statement that God, having altered matter which was
Nor can the devils persuade men that there
shapeless, made the world, hear the very words spoken through Moses, who, as above shown, was the first prophet, and of greater antiquity than the Greek writers ; and through whom the
will be no conflagration for the punishment of the wicked ; as they were unable to effect that Christ should be hidden after He came. But
this only can they effect, that they who live irra-
Spirit of prophecy, signifying how and from what
tionally, and were brought up licentiously in wicked customs, and are prejudiced in their own opinions, should kill and hate us ; whom
materials God at first formed the world, spake
thus : " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and
w^e not only do not hate, but, as is proved, pity and ©ndeavour to lead to repentance. For we do not fear death, since it is acknowledged we must surely die ; and there is nothing new, but
unfurnished, and darkness was upon the face of
the deep ; and the Spirit of God moved over
the waters. And God said. Let there be light
and it was so." So that both Plato and they who agree with him, and we ourselves, have
all things continue the same in this administra-
tion of things ; and if satiety overtakes those who enjoy even one year of these things, they ought
learned, and you also can be convinced, that by
the word of God the whole Avorld was made out
to give heed to our doctrines, that they may
of the substance spoken of before by Moses. And that which the poets call Erebus, we know was spoken of formerly by Moses.^
live eternally free both from suffering and from
' (The Orientals delight in such refinements, but the " scandal of the cross " led the early Christians thus to retort upon the heathen
and the Labarum may have been the fruit of this very suggestion.]
3 Comp. Deut. xxxii. 22.
'^ |[3ee cap. xxvi. above, and note p. 187, below.]
THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN. 1S3
CHAP. LX. — PLATO'S DOCTRINE OF THE CROSS.
making. As many as are persuaded and believe
that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed
And the physiological discussion ' concerning
the Son of God in the Titnceus of Plato, where he says, " He placed him crosswise ^ in the uni-
to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated
verse," he borrowed in like manner from Moses ;
for in the writings of Moses it is related how at
that time, when the Israelites went out of Egypt and were in the wilderness, they fell in with poisonous beasts, both vipers and asps, and every kind of serpent, which slew the people ; and
in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water. For Christ also said, " Except ye be born again, ye
that Moses, by the inspiration and intiuence of God, took brass, and made it into the figure of a cross, and set it in the holy tabernacle, and
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."^ Now, that it is impossible for those who have once been born to enter into their mothers' wombs, is manifest to all. And how those who have sinned and repent shall escape their sins,
said to the people, " If ye look to this figure, and believe, ye shall be saved thereby." ^ And when this was done, it is recorded that the ser-
pents died, and it is handed down that the people thus escaped death. Which things Plato
is declared by Esaias the prophet, as I wrote above ; ' he thus speaks : " Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from your souls ; learn to do well ; judge the father-
reading, and not accurately understanding, and not apprehending that it was the figure of the
cross, but taking it to be a placing crosswise, he said that the power next to the first God was placed crosswise in the universe. And as to
less, and plead for the widow : and come and
let us reason together, saith the Lord. And though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white like wool ; and though they be as crimson,
his speaking of a third, he did this because he
read, as we said above, that which was spoken by Moses, " that the Spirit of God moved over
I will make them white as snow. But if ye re-
the waters." For he gives the second place to
fuse and rebel, the sword shall devour you : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." ^ And for this [rile] we have learned from the apostles this reason. Since at our birth we were born without our own knowledge or choice, by our parents coming together, and were brought up in bad habits and wicked training ; in order
the Logos which is with (iod, who he said was placed crosswise in the universe ; and the third
place to the Spirit who was said to be borne upon the water, saying, " And the third around
the third." * And hear how the Spirit of prophecy signified through Moses that there should be a conllagration. He spoke thus : " Everlasting
that we may not remain the children of necessity and of ignorance, but may become the children of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the remission of sins formerly committed, there is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of (jod the Father and Lord of the universe ; he who leads to the laver the person that
fire shall descend, and shall devour to the pit beneath." ^ It is not, then, that we hold the same opinions as others, but that all speak in imitation of ours. Among us these things can be heard and learned from persons who do not even know the forms of the letters, who are uneducated and barbarous in speech, though wise and believing
in mind ; some, indeed, even maimed and deprived of eyesight ; so tliat you may understand
is to be washed calling him by this name alone. For no one can utter the name of the ineffable God ; and if any one dare to say that there is a name, he raves with a hopeless madness. And
that these things are not the effect of human wisdom, but arc uttered by the power of God.
CHAP. LXI. — CHRISTIAN BAPTISM.
this washing is called illumination, because they who learn these things are illuminated in their understandings. And in the name of Jesus
I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated ourselves to (Jod when we had been made new through Christ ; lest, if we omit this, we seem to be unfair in the explanation we are
Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Ghost, who through the prophets foretold all things about Jesus, he who is illuminated is washed.
Literally, " ihat which is treated physiologically."
:— ITS IMITATION BY DEMONS. And the dc\ils, indeed, having heard this washing published by the prophet, instigated
- He iiiiiircsscd him as n ;i(taaMa, i.e., in the form of the letter ,x uiiriii the universe." Plato is speaking of the soul of the universe. [Tiinxus, Opp., vol. ix. p. 314. And see note of Lanjjus (p 37) on p. ii3ofGrabe. Here crops out the Platonic philosopher speaking after the fashion of his contemporaries, perhaps to conciliate his sovereign. See Professor Jowett's liuroductioii to the Tiimeus, which will aid the students.]
CHAP. LXII.
^ Num. xxi. 8. * Ti 6e TpiTa irepl tov Tplrov, S Deut. .Y.\xii. 22. J
* John iii. $. ^ Chap. xliv. ' Isa. i. 16-20.
1 84 THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN.
those who enter their temples, and are about to approach them with libations and burnt-offerings,
from the same writings ; for it is impossible to
relate the whole here. But so much is written
also to sprinkle themselves ; and they cause them
for the sake of proving that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God and His Apostle, being of old the Word, and appearing sometimes in the form of fire, and sometimes in the likeness of angels ; but now, by the will of God, having become man for the human race. He endured all the
also to wash themselves entirely, as they depart [from the sacrifice], before they enter into the
shrines in which their images are set. And the command, too, given by the priests to those who
enter and worship in the temples, that they take
off their shoes, the devils, learning what happened to the above-mentioned prophet Moses, have given in imitation of these things. For at
sufferings which the devils instigated the sense-
less Jews to inflict upon Him ; who, though they have it expressly affirmed in the writings of Moses, " And the angel of God spake to Moses
that juncture, when Moses was ordered to go down into Fgypt and lead out the people of the
in a flame of fire in a bush, and said, I am that
I am, the God of Abraham, and the God of
Israelites who were there, and while he was tend-
Isaac, and the God of Jacob," yet maintain that He who said this was the Father and Creator of the universe. Whence also the Spirit of prophecy rebukes them, and says, " Israel doth not know Me, my people have not understood Me." ^ And again, Jesus, as we have already shown, while
ing the flocks of his maternal uncle ' in the land
of Arabia, our Christ conversed with him under
the appearance of fire from a bush, and said, " Put off thy shoes, and draw near and hear." And he, when he had put off his shoes and drawn
near, heard that he was to go down into Egypt and lead out the people of the Israelites there ; and he received mighty power from Christ, who spoke to him in the appearance of fire, and went down and led out the people, having done
He was with them, said, " No one knoweth the Father, but the Son ; nor the Son but the Father, and those to whom the Son will reveal Him." ^ The Jev/s, accordingly, being throughout of opinion that it was the Father of the universe who spake to Moses, though He who spake to him was indeed the Son of God, who is called both Angel and Apostle, are justly charged, both by the Spirit of prophecy and by Christ Himself, with knowing neither the Father nor the Son. For they who affirm that the Son is the Father,
great and marvellous things ; which, if you desire
to know, you will learn them accurately from his
writings.
CHAP. LXIII. — HOW GOD APPEARED TO MOSES. And all the Jews even now teach that the nameless God spake to Moses ; whence the
are proved neither to have become acquainted with the Father, nor to know that the Father of
Spirit of prophecy, accusing them by Isaiah
the prophet mentioned above, said " The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know Me, and My people do not understand." ^ And Jesus the Christ, because the Jews knew not wiiat the Father was, and what the Son, in like manner accused them ; and Himself said, " No one knoweth the Father, but the Son ; nor the Son, but the Father, and they to whom the Son revealeth Him." ^ Now