J ustin Martyr, non-Jewish native of Palestine, was born early in the second century and died a martyr's death in Rome around 165. Before converting to Christianity and becoming an outspoken apologist or defender of the Christian faith, he studied philosophy with a Stoic, an Aristotelian, a Pythagorean, and finally a Platonist. About 153 he wrote his First Apology to which he later attached an appendix, (commonly called his Second Apology) to defend Christianity from government persecution as well as religious and philosophical criticism. Probably about 160 he composed his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew to defend it similarly against Jewish objections. Central to Justin's project is the idea of Christ as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, and as the source and completion of all that is true in Greek philosophy. He thus avoided Marcion's disparagement of the Hebrew Scriptures and answered a widespread Christian concern that philosophy might lead inevitably to heresy. The Reason or Word (Logos) of God, the mediator between the transcendent Father and the material world, who, as a divine sower, has scattered the good seed of reason and moral wisdom throughout creation from the beginning, has in the fulness of time become incarnate in Christ to teach the truth and save humanity from the power of demons. Thus no matter when they live, those who do so according to Reason are "Christians even though they were called godless." Christianity, therefore, is no threat to the Empire; it embodies all the noblest ideas and virtues of antiquity and so ought to have extended to it the same tolerance permitted to other religious philosophies and practices. Notes prepared by Kevin Dodd, PhD Sample Text Wisdom is Begotten of the Father, as Fire from Fire "I shall give you another testimony, my friends," said I, "from the Scriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning, [who was] a certain rational power [proceeding] from Himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos; and on another occasion He calls Himself Captain, when He appeared in human form to Joshua the son of Nave (Nun). For He can be called by all those names, since He ministers to the Father's will, and since He was begotten of the Father by an act of will; just as we see happening among ourselves: for when we give out some word, we beget the word; yet not by abscission, so as to lessen the word [which remains] in us, when we give it out: and just as we see also happening in the case of a fire, which is not lessened when it has kindled [another], but remains the same; and that which has been kindled by it likewise appears to exist by itself, not diminishing that from which it was kindled. The Word of Wisdom, who is Himself this God begotten of the Father of all things, and Word, and Wisdom, and Power, and the Glory of the Begetter, will bear evidence to me, when He speaks by Solomon the following: 'If I shall declare to you what happens daily, I shall call to mind events from everlasting, and review them. The Lord made me the beginning of His ways for His works. From everlasting He established me in the beginning, before He had made the earth, and before He had made the deeps, before the springs of the waters had issued forth, before the mountains had been established. Before all the hills He begets me. God made the country, and the desert, and the highest inhabited places under the sky. When He made ready the heavens, I was along with Him, and when He set up His throne on the winds: when He made the high clouds strong, and the springs of the deep safe, when He made the foundations of the earth, I was with Him arranging. I was that in which He rejoiced; daily and at all times I delighted in His countenance, because He delighted in the finishing of the habitable world, and delighted in the sons of men. Now, therefore, O son, hear me. Blessed is the man who shall listen to me, and the mortal who shall keep my ways, watching daily at my doors, observing the posts of my ingoings. For my outgoings are the outgoings of life, and[my] will has been prepared by the Lord. But they who sin against me, trespass against their own souls; and they who hate me love death.'

[Segen|ECF|Page Top|Place Order]