Why did Justin Martyr write the first apology?

Justin Martyr, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Justin Martyr answers

I wrote it because those who bear the name of Christian were hated and abused without any inquiry into what they had done, and I was one of them. I addressed it to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, to his sons, to the Senate and to the whole Roman people, as a petition on behalf of men of every nation who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused.1 What I asked was plain.

Reason bids those who are truly pious and philosophical to honour only what is true, even before life itself. Since the rulers call themselves pious and philosophers, guardians of justice and lovers of learning, I held them to their own names and begged them to judge after an accurate and searching investigation, free of prejudice, of the wish to please superstitious men, and of evil rumours long prevalent.2

I did not come to flatter. And I told them what I believed: a Christian cannot be hurt by an unjust sentence unless he is convicted as an evildoer; they could kill us, but not hurt us.2 The wrong I wished to expose was this. We were charged with atheism, and the charge was never examined. Yielding to unreasoning passion and to the instigation of evil demons, the courts punished us without consideration or judgment.3

I answered the charge openly. Of gods such as those, we are atheists. But the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance, and the Son who came forth from him, and the prophetic Spirit, we worship and adore, and we declare this without grudging to anyone who wishes to learn.4 I also wrote because the same demons who compassed the death of Socrates for exposing them now work the same against us.

Socrates sought by true reason to deliver men from them, and he was killed as an atheist. In the same way the Word himself, who became man and was called Jesus Christ, condemned them among the barbarians.3 The little book was not meant to be the end of it. In the shorter appeal I wrote afterward, when the things done under Urbicus compelled me, I asked that it be published with whatever the rulers saw fit to append, that others might have a fair chance of being freed from ignorance of good.5

Those who condemn us for deeds they do not understand, while delighting in gods who did such things, condemn themselves, and there is no need of other judges.6

Sources

  1. present this address and petition in behalf of those of all nations who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused, myself being one of them.
    The First Apology
  2. we have come, not to flatter you by this writing, nor please you by our address, but to beg that you pass judgment, after an accurate and searching investigation... And you, you can kill, but not hurt us.
    The First Apology
  3. you do not examine the charges made against us; but, yielding to unreasoning passion, and to the instigation of evil demons, you punish us without consideration or judgment.
    The First Apology
  4. we confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues
    The First Apology
  5. the things which have recently happened in your city under Urbicus... have compelled me to frame this composition for your sakes
    The Second Apology
  6. we therefore pray you to publish this little book, appending what you think right... they condemn themselves, so that there is no need of other judges.
    The Second Apology