Justin Martyr

c. 100 - c. 165 CE · Greek-speaking native of Flavia Neapolis in Samaria; taught at Rome · Patristics, Greek Apologetics, Logos Theology, Christian-Jewish Controversy

Whatever things were rightly said among all men, are the property of us Christians.

Justin (c. 100 – c. 165) was born in Flavia Neapolis in Samaria, of a family with Greek names, and went looking for God in the philosophical schools. A Stoic told him the question was unnecessary, a Peripatetic asked for his fee, a Pythagorean sent him away to learn geometry first, and a Platonist gave him wings until an old man by the sea asked him how a soul could see God by its own power, and pointed him to the prophets. A flame was kindled in his soul, he says, and he found the one philosophy that is safe and profitable. He kept the philosopher's cloak, and taught the Christian philosophy…

Topics Justin Martyr addresses

• the seminal Logos (logos spermatikos)
• Christians before Christ
• Socrates and Heraclitus as Christians
• Plato's borrowing from Moses
• the old man by the sea
• Justin's search through the philosophical schools
• the Christian philosophy and the philosopher's cloak
• proof from prophecy
• antiquity of Moses as proof of Christianity
• the new covenant and the new law
• the true spiritual Israel
• the Law given for hardness of heart
• circumcision as a sign of suffering
• natural and eternal righteousness
• the second God and the theophanies
• the God of Mamre, Jacob and the burning bush
• the Word as God's first-begotten
• Christ as the Wisdom and the Angel of the Lord
• the fallen angels and the demons
• demonic imitation of prophecy
• myths of the sons of Jupiter
• Mithraic bread and cup as demonic imitation
• the charge of atheism against Christians
• a name decides nothing

Questions to put to Justin Martyr

Christianity as the True Philosophy

• Why did you keep wearing the philosopher's cloak after you became a Christian?
• What happened during your walk by the sea that made you abandon Platonism?
• How does the gospel improve on what the philosophical schools got right?
• What do you mean when you say Christianity is the one philosophy that is safe and profitable?

The Seminal Word and Christians Before Christ

• What do you mean by the seed of the Word that was sown in every race of men?
• How could Socrates and Heraclitus have been Christians if they never heard of Christ?
• Did Plato actually borrow his ideas from Moses, and how do you argue for that?
• If every philosopher shared in the Word, why did the schools contradict one another so badly?
• What belongs to Christians from what the philosophers said well, and what does not?

Proof from Prophecy and the New Covenant

• Why do you treat the age of Moses as a key argument for the truth of Christianity?
• How do fulfilled prophecies prove that Jesus is the one the Jewish scriptures foretold?
• What's the argument that the ceremonial Law was given because of the hardness of the people's heart?
• How do you understand circumcision as a sign connected to the suffering of the Jewish people?
• In what sense are Christians the true spiritual Israel rather than the Jewish people?

The Second God and the Divine Word

• Who exactly appeared to Abraham at Mamre, to Jacob, and to Moses at the burning bush?
• How can you call the Word a second God while still insisting there is only one God?
• What do you mean when you say the Son was begotten as fire is kindled from fire?
• How is the Word distinct from the Father in number but not in will?
• Why do you worship the Son in the second place and the prophetic Spirit in the third?

Demons, Imitation, and the Charge of Atheism

• How do the demons fit into your account of where the gods of the nations came from?
• Why do you say the bread and cup in the rites of Mithras were a deliberate copy of the Eucharist?
• What's the connection between the demons and the execution of Socrates?
• How do you answer the charge that Christians are atheists when they refuse to honour the Roman gods?
• If demons cannot compel the will, how do they manage to stir up so much persecution?

The Apology to Rome: Name, Loyalty, and Justice

• What do you mean when you say a name decides nothing and that Christians should be tried for crimes, not for what they are called?
• How can a Christian be a loyal subject of the emperor while refusing to worship the emperor's gods?
• What is your argument that killing Christians for confessing the name is irrational rather than just illegal?
• Why do you say the rulers can kill Christians but cannot actually hurt them?
• How do you describe the Sunday assembly and the meal of bread and wine to readers who know nothing about them?

Converse with Justin Martyr on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Justin Martyr's own writing, cited to the page.