The similarities that we find in the pagan worship and philosophy come from the devils liv-lx. Description of Christian worship : baptism lxi ; the Eucharist lxv-lxvi ; Sunday-observance lxvii.
Why it is that God permits these evils: Providence, human liberty, last judgement iv-xii. The "Dialogue" is much longer than the two apologies taken together "Apol. The following points are noteworthy: i-ix.
Introduction: Justin gives the story of his philosophic education and of this conversion. One may know God only through the Holy Ghost; the soul is not immortal by its nature; to know truth it is necessary to study the Prophets. Tryphon reproaches the Christians for not observing the law. Justin replies that according to the Prophets themselves the law should be abrogated, it had only been given to the Jews on account of their hardness. Superiority of the Christian circumcision , necessary even for the Jews.
The eternal law laid down by Christ. The conversion of the nations foretold by the Prophets cix sqq. The "Dialogue" concludes with wishes for the conversion of the Jews.
Besides these authentic works we possess others under Justin's name that are doubtful or apocryphal. The treatise from which these fragments are taken was attributed to St.
Justin by St. Methodius early fourth century and was quoted by St. The chief interest of these fragments consists in the introduction, where is explained with much force the transcendent nature of faith and the proper nature of its motives. Later it was altered and enlarged in Syriac: text and English translation by Cureton, "Spicileg. It is quoted for the first time by Leontius of Byzantium d. The "Answers to the Orthodox" was re-edited in a different and more primitive form by Papadopoulos-Kerameus St.
Petersburg, , from a Constantinople manuscript which ascribed the work to Theodoret. Though this ascription was adopted by the editor, it has not been generally accepted.
Harnack has studied profoundly these four books and maintains, not without probability, that they are the work of Diodorus of Tarsus Harnack, "Diodor von Tarsus. His philosophic development has been well estimated by Purves "The Testimony of Justin Martyr to early Christianity", London, , : "He appears to have been a man of moderate culture.
He was certainly not a genius nor an original thinker. In I Apol. However, he condemns their Fatalism II Apol. His sympathies are above all with Platonism.
He likes to compare it with Christanity; apropos of the last judgment, he remarks, however I Apol. However, his acquaintance with Plato was superficial; like his contemporaries Philo, Plutarch, St.
To appreciate fairly this influence it is necessary to remember that in his "Apology" Justin is seeking above all the points of contact between Hellenism and Christianity. In many passages, however, Justin tries to trace a real bond between philosophy and Christianity : according to him both the one and the other have a part in the Logos , partially disseminated among men and wholly manifest in Jesus Christ I, v, 4; I, xlvi; II, viii; II, xiii, 5, 6.
The idea developed in all these passages is given in the Stoic form, but this gives to its expression a greater worth. For the Stoics the seminal Word logos spermatikos is the form of every being; here it is the reason inasmuch as it partakes of God.
In Justin thought and expression are antithetic, and this lends a certain incoherence to the theory; the relation established between the integral Word, i. Jesus Christ , and the partial Word disseminated in the world, is more specious than profound.
Side by side with this theory, and quite different in its origin and scope, we find in Justin, as in most of his contemporaries, the conviction that Greek philosophy borrowed from the Bible : it was by stealing from Moses and the Prophets that Plato and the other philosophers developed their doctrines I, xliv, lix, ls. Despite the obscurities and incoherences of this thought, he affirms clearly and positively the transcendent character of Christianity : "Our doctrine surpasses all human doctrine because the real Word became Christ who manifested himself for us, body, word and soul.
This Divine origin assures Christianity an absolute truth II, xiii, 2 and gives to the Christians complete confidence; they die for Christ's doctrine ; no one died for that of Socrates II, x, 8.
The first chapters of the "Dialogue" complete and correct these ideas. In them the rather complaisant syncretism of the "Apology" disappears, and the Christian thought is stronger. Justin's chief reproach to the philosophers is their mutual divisions; he attributes this to the pride of the heads of sects and the servile acquiescence of their adherents; he also says a little later on vi : "I care neither for Plato nor for Pythagoras. For Platonism he retained a kindly feeling as for a study dear in childhood or in youth.
Yet he attacks it on two essential points: the relation between God and man, and the nature of the soul Dialogue with Trypho 3, 6. Nevertheless he still seems influenced by it in his conception of the Divine transcendency and the interpretation that he gives to the aforesaid theophanies.
Justin and Christian revelation That which Justin despairs of attaining through philosophy he is now sure of possessing through Jewish and Christian revelation. He admits that the soul can naturally comprehend that God is, just as it understands that virtue is beautiful Dialogue with Trypho 4 but he denies that the soul without the assistance of the Holy Ghost can see God or contemplate Him directly through ecstasy , as the Platonic philosophers contended. And yet this knowledge of God is necessary for us: "We cannot know God as we know music, arithmetic or astronomy " iii ; it is necessary for us to know God not with an abstract knowledge but as we know any person with whom we have relations.
Thr problem which it seems impossible to solve is settled by revelation; God has spoken directly to the Prophets, who in their turn have made Him known to us viii. It is the first time in Christian theology that we find so concise an explanation of the difference which separates Christian revelation from human speculation. It does away with the confusion that might arise from the theory, taken from the "Apology", of the partial Logos and the Logos absolute or entire.
In keeping with the difference of his purpose, Justin has other preferences. The Books of Wisdom are seldom quoted, the historical books still less. It has been noticed, too St. John Thackeray in "Journ. Study", IV, , , n. Of these omissions the most noteworthy is that of Wisdom, precisely on account of the similarity of ideas. It is to be noted, moreover, that this book, surely used in the New Testament , cited by St.
Clement of Rome xxvii, 5 and later by St. On the other hand one finds in Justin some apocryphal texts: pseudo-Esdras Dialogue with Trypho 72 , pseudo-Jeremias ibid. The New Testament The testimony of Justin is here of still greater importance, especially for the Gospels, and has been more often discussed.
The historical side of the question is given by W. The books quoted by Justin are called by him "Memoirs of the Apostles". This term, otherwise very rare, appears in Justin quite probably as an analogy with the "Memorabilia" of Xenophon quoted in "II Apol. At any rate it seems that henceforth the word "gospels" was in current usage; it is in Justin that we find it for the first time used in the plural, "the Apostles in their memoirs that are called gospels" I Apol.
These memoirs have authority, not only because they relate the words of Our Lord as Bossuet contends, op. This opinion of Justin is upheld, moreover, by the Church who, in her public service reads the memoirs of the Apostles as well as the writings of the prophets I Apol. These memoirs were composed by the Apostles and by those who followed them Dialogue with Trypho ; he refers in all probability to the four Evangelists , i.
In his view, philosophy was a pedagogue of Christ, an educator that was to lead one to Christ. Justin is known as an apologist, one who defends in writing the Christian religion against the attacks and misunderstandings of the pagans.
Two of his so-called apologies have come down to us; they are addressed to the Roman emperor and to the Senate. As patron of philosophers, Justin may inspire us to use our natural powers—especially our power to know and understand—in the service of Christ, and to build up the Christian life within us.
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