Writings of Justin Martyr

by Justin Martyr, Paul A. Böer Sr. (Editor), Alexander Roberts (Translator)

St. Justin Martyr was a Christian apologist, born at Flavia Neapolis, about A.D. 100, converted to Christianity about A.D. 130, taught and defended the Christian religion in Asia Minor and at Rome, where he suffered martyrdom about the year 165. Two "Apologies" bearing his name and his "Dialogue with the Jew Tryphon" have come down to us. Leo XIII had a Mass and an Office composed in his honour and set his feast for 14 April. He is regarded as the foremost interpreter of the theory of the Logos in the 2nd century. He was martyred, alongside some of his students, and is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue did survive. The First Apology, his most well known text, passionately defends the morality of the Christian life, and provides various ethical and philosophical arguments to convince the Roman emperor, Antoninus, to abandon the persecution of the fledgling sect. Further, he also makes the theologically-innovative suggestion that the "seeds of Christianity" (manifestations of the Logos acting in history) actually predated Christ's incarnation. This notion allows him to claim many historical Greek philosophers (including Socrates and Plato), in whose works he was well studied, as unknowing Christians The role of St. Justin may be summed up in one it is that of a witness. We behold in him one of the highest and purest pagan souls of his time in contact with Christianity, compelled to accept its irrefragable truth, its pure moral teaching, and to admire its superhuman constancy. He is also a witness of the second-century Church which he describes for us in its faith, its life, its worship, at a time when Christianity yet lacked the firm organization that it was soon to develop, but the larger outlines of whose constitution and doctrine are already luminously drawn by Justin. Finally, Justin was a witness for Christ unto death.

Genres: Christianity, Theology, Philosophy, Church History, Nonfiction, History, Religion

514 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Justin Martyr, also known as Saint Justin (c. 100–165 CE), was an early Christian apologist, and is regarded as the foremost interpreter of the theory of the Logos in the 2nd century. He was martyred, alongside some of his students, and is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue did survive. The First Apology, his most well known text, passionately defends the morality of the Christian life, and provides various ethical and philosophical arguments to convince the Roman emperor, Antoninus, to abandon the persecution of the fledgling sect. Further, he also makes the theologically-innovative suggestion that the "seeds of Christianity" (manifestations of the Logos acting in history) actually predated Christ's incarnation. This notion allows him to claim many historical Greek philosophers (including Socrates and Plato), in whose works he was well studied, as unknowing Christians. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Coyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Rather Boring Note on the Edition: The version of the Works of Justin Martyr I read is that found in the 19th century collection: Ante-Nicene Fathers 1: Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus (recently reprinted by Hendrickson), except Dialogue with Trypho, which I read in this edition put out by Catholic University Press. Consequently, my review of the Dialogue will be of the other edition, while my reviews of Justin's other works will be of the Ante-Nicene Fathers edition. A totally uninteresting note to any but the academics out there, no doubt...

The edition of the works of Justin Martyr I read (see above) included the following:
-The First Apology
-The Second Apology
-Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew
-The Discourse to the Greeks
-Hortatory Address to the Greeks
-On the Sole Government of God
-On the Resurrection, Fragments
-Other Fragments
-Martyrdom
As the editor points out, it is very likely that only the first three are genuinely the writings of Justin Martyr, so I'll keep the bulk of my reviews focused on those.

The First Apology
There are really two streams of argument that run parallel (and occasionally cross each other) in this discourse. The first is that Christians are not the lawbreaking atheists that they are often called by the government, and consequently they should not be executed. Christians, after all, regularly encourage each other to obey the civil law ("whence to God alone we render worship, but in other things we gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men", 168) and refuse kill children (172). In fact, if the Roman government was really honest, it would see that Christians in fact are quite law-abiding and virtuous, and that their persecution is at heart deeply irrational.
This leads into the second point of the Apology: that Christianity is the true religion because it alone embodies true Reason. Justin defends this in two ways. First, he points to Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Thus, Jesus is the summation of the Jewish religion, the promised Messiah and Saviour. Second, Jesus is the fulfillment of all that is true in Greek philosophy (which was really lifted from the Jews in any case).
Justin ends with a description of the Christian worship service (reading of Scripture, the sermon, prayer, the Lord's Supper, and the offering), including the sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper).

Justin's conclusion:

If these things seem to you to be reasonable and true, honour them; but if they seem nonsensical, despise them as nonsense, and do not decree death against those who have done no wrong, as you would against enemies. For we forewarn you, that you shall not escape the coming judgment of God, if you continue in your injustice; and we ourselves will invite you to do that which is pleasing to God. (186)

The Second Apology
In this Apology, Justin again notes the injustice of persecuting Christians, specifically the persecution in the city of Rome itself. This time, he argues that it is wrong to persecute Christians not only because they are obedient to the law, but because they cling to Christ, who is Reason embodied.

Our doctrines, then, appear to be greater than all human teaching; because Christ, who appeared for our sakes, became the whole rational being, both body, and reason, and soul. (191)

Everyone agrees that it was wrong to kill Socrates (who had a little bit of the truth), how wrong then must it have been to kill Jesus, who was Truth itself? And further how wrong must it be to kill Christians, who bear the word of this Truth within themselves?
Not that Christians are afraid of death- quite the contrary. Christians are so unafraid of death that the threat of it cannot force them to give up their allegiance to the Word of God.
Justin's conclusion:

Henceforth we shall be silent, having done as much as we could, and having added the prayer that all men everywhere may be counted worthy of the truth. and would that you also, in a manner becoming piety and philosophy, would for your own sakes judge justly! (193)

Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew
This work is written in the Platonic style (which is appropriate, given that Justin started out as a Platonist) as a letter to a friend of his relating a dialogue he had with a Jew named Trypho. In the course of the dialogue, we see

1) Justin's conversion narrative (which is one of the best from the ancient world).
2) Justin's thoughts on philosophy and the relationship between faith and reason.
3) The early church's apologetic attempt to reach out to the Jews.
4) The early church's doctrine of Scripture.
5) The early church's Christology.
6) And probably several other things that I'm missing, since I read it fairly quickly.

Most important, however, is the theme that runs through the dialogue: Christianity is truth. That is why philosophy provides the context for the dialogue, then, as well as now, philosophy has been the primary place of the search for truth. As Justin says (echoing Plato)

But what greater deed... could one perform than to prove that reason rules all, and that one who rules reason and is sustained by it can look down upon the errors and undertakings of others, and see that they do nothing reasonable or pleasing to God. Man cannot have prudence without philosophy and straight thinking. Thus, every man should be devoted to philosophy and should consider it the greatest and most noble pursuit; all other pursuits are only of second- or third-rate value, unless they are connected with philosophy. Then they are of some value and should be approved; if they are devoid of philosophy and not connected with it in any way, they then become base and coarse pursuits to those who practice them."

Dialogue with Trypho is Justin's attempt to prove to the Jews that Christ is the truth, just as his Apologies are his attempts to prove the same to the Greeks. Thus, Justin concludes the dialogue
I can wish you no greater blessing than this, gentlemen, that, realizing that wisdom is given to every man through this way [the Gospel], you also may one day come to believe entirely as we do that Jesus is the Christ of God.
The Discourse to the Greeks/Hortatory Address to the Greeks/On the Sole Government of God
Since these three works are probably spurious (maybe even post-Nicene documents), I'll quickly summarize them and move on:

In the Discourse and Address, Justin highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the pagan writers. Their strengths are that they have bits and pieces of the truth (probably mostly stolen from Moses, when Homer and Plato visited Egypt and met with Jews living there). In pagan writings, Justin argues, you can see shadows and glimmers of the truth of the coming Messiah.
The weaknesses of pagan writings are that 1) they are contradictory and inconsistent, including by mixing monotheism and polytheism; 2) they encourage wickedness and idolatry.
So, the long and the short of it is that the pagan writers have some truth and some value, but only a limited amount of each. They work best as signposts pointing to Jesus, which, once used, are left behind (my example, not Justin's).

In On the Sole Government of God, Justin argues that once all men were monotheists, until through forgetfulness and the trickery of the demons men have become polytheists. The bulk of the short work is spent citing pagan writers as evidence that there are echos of monotheism in man's past. Justin ends with a challenge to return to the worship of the one true God.

Fragments of the Lost Work of Justin on the Resurrection/Other Fragments
Most of these are probably not really by Justin, which is unfortunate since there's some good material here.


On The Resurrection is especially interesting, as it hints that Justin included the following topics in the whole treatise:

1) The power of Truth as its own evidence ("The word of truth is free, and carries its own authority... it would be believed for its own nobility, and for the confidence due to Him who sends it." 294);
2) Challenges to the doctrine of resurrection;
3) The nature of the resurrection body (will it eat, sleep, have sex, etc?);
4) What about people with physical deformities? (To this challenge, Justin replies: "How truly blinded are they [who deny the resurrection] in the eyes of their hearts! For they have not seen on the earth the blind men seeing again, and the lame walking by His word... For if on earth He healed the sicknesses of the flesh, and made the body whole, much more will He do this in the resurrection", 295);
5) The value of the physical body to God;
6) The physical flesh is not the source of sin;
7) The resurrection of Christ is the evidence of the coming general resurrection.

It's very sad that we've missed the rest of this treatise.

The Other Fragments are mostly bits and pieces drawn from either other ancient writers or marginalia (notes by ancient editors left in the margins of editions of Justin's works). They cover a variety of topics, and it's impossible to tell which is truly Justin's and which is spurious. The best of them, in my opinion: "We shall not injure God by remaining ignorant of Him, but shall deprive ourselves of His friendship." (300)

Martyrdom of Justin Martyr
The selection of writings ends with an anonymous account of the execution of Justin Martyr following his besting of the Cynic philosopher Crescens in a public debate. While some of the details are historically suspect, overall it's a wonderful (and brief!) picture of both martyrdom in the ancient world and the legal process by which Christians were subjected to the law. What we see in this document is the repeated offer of amnesty if only the Christians will renounce Christ and make a token sacrifice to "the gods" (the Romans didn't really care which gods you sacrificed to, nor did they care if you actually believed when you did so). The Christians refused and were put to death. Left out of this account is the appendix that suggests that while the other Christians present were beheaded, Justin was forced to drink hemlock (in the good philosophical tradition).

Overall, these readings are a fascinating look at the early church, and how it really is a preview of the coming debates within Christianity. What is the relationship between reason and conversion? Can people be argued into faith? What is the relationship between "pagan" (today we'd say "secular") thought and Christian thought? Can we as Christians read Plato with good conscience, pulling what is good out of it and attributing it to common grace? Or is this a spiritually fruitless endeavor?
Through all these questions, I was repeatedly impressed by the depth of Justin's faith. He relentlessly pursued Christ in his scholarship, bending all the tools of his philosophical training for the service of God. He had such a God-entranced vision of the world (to steal a Piper phrase) that he saw the hand of Divinity at work in all things, and called on us all to see the world through Christ-colored glasses. Whether discussing nature, philosophy, or Scripture, Christ was the center of Justin's worldview. Consequently, these writings are worth the effort and attention necessary to getting through the dense prose.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's amazing to read the early church father's writings. It's also highly insightful about how they thought of the other supposed gods of the time. His defense is to the emperor himself and he lays out clearly how the Roman gods are absurd but that Jesus was specifically different.

Truly a great read and will stay in my collection for years to come.

[Guillaume Dohmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early Christians

This is a fascinating book containing vary early arguments in defence of Christianity . It is easy to read and although some translations are a bit old the language is not difficult to follow.

[Trey Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rating only applies to his First Apology and Second Apology. It is fascinating to hear what the early Church Fathers thought on matters of the faith, and it is very clear that certain Protestant positions are entirely untenable if early Christian sources are considered. I began to read his Dialogue with Trypho, but I could only get a quarter of the way through; it was overall unimpressive, and his arguments were not very applicable to modern objections to Christ. I will give his Dialogue with Trypho two stars as compared to the four of his First Apology and his Second Apology.

[Walter · Rating 5 out of 5]

St. Justin Martyr was a Palestinian Greek philosopher who embraced Christianity in the 2nd Century and was martyred toward the end of the century. He was one of the greatest of the post-apostolic Christian writers and as such he is worth reading. In his extant works, St. Justin defends the Christian faith against the Romans, the Greek and the Jews.

In his two apologies addressed to the Roman emperor himself, St. Justin lays out the case for tolerating the Christian faith and ending the persecutions. It is said that St. Justin's writings actually stayed the persecutions until the emperor Decius renewed them in 250 AD. St. Justin reminds the Romans that they should value justice, and there is no justice in the persecution of the Christians. They are not atheists, they do not practice human sacrifice and cannibalism and they are not secretly plotting the overthrow of Rome. The Christians embrace virtues that make for better citizens, so that if more Roman citizens were Christians then the Roman state would actually be stronger.

In his works against the Greeks, St. Justin addresses the two sources that Greek civilization valued most, the poets like Homer and Hesiod, and the philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. He pointed out that, while the Greeks valued virtue, their religion glorified barbaric behavior. He also made several interesting theories about how the Greek laws were actually derived from Moses through Egypt and how the most noble aspects of Greek civilization were actually owed to the Hebrews. Those aspects of Greek civilization that do not derive from the Jews were actually self-contradictory.

In his most famous work, his Dialogue against Trypho, he narrates for the reader a dialogue that Justin had with a prominent Jewish Rabbi, presumably the Rabbi Typhon of Ephesus. This dialogue is valuable because it show the objections that the Jews of Justin's day had to the Christian religion. The most interesting part of this dialogue is that the objections related by Trypho are actually still held by the Jews against Christianity today. Justin's responses to Trypho are an excellent apologetic of the Christian faith.

I would highly recommend the works of St. Justin Martyr for any Christian who wants to better understand how to defend the Christian faith against secular and cultural objections.

[Matt Villa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Justin’s works are an impressive yet largely inconsistent exegetical tour de force.

His arguments largely rely upon scriptural prophecy. He makes it very clear why to him it’s the most reliable source and basis for his arguments. For Justin, divine revelation trumps fallible human reason. He uses differences and disagreements between philosophers as an extended example of human reason not being a good basis for truth. Secondly, he argues that Christianity’s antiquity (through its Jewish roots) gives it a leg-up on other beliefs (especially his fact that Moses pre-dates Greek language as a whole, much less Greek theogeny and philosophy) a fairly popular argument of his time. So nearly all of his arguments are only utilizing prophecy, no other evidence or reasoning. If you find prophecy to be something worth your time to study, I’d highly recommend this book.

However, there is one quote that just about undercuts Justin’s entire lengthy argument-from-Prophecy. When speaking to Trypho the Jew, Justin states: “But you (Trypho and Jews in general) deceive yourselves by the ambiguous forms of speech [of prophecy].” That’s Justin’s issue, his endless prophetic quotes he twists to meet his agenda are all ambiguous. He finds himself claiming that the text is clear and Jews are too hard-hearted to see how clearly the prophecies predict Jesus, but then admits the ambiguouity of the text can lead to misinterpretation. In this one case, I agree completely. This is why there are endless denominations of Christianity and why there’s even a split between Judaism and Christianity to begin with. The text is simply too ambiguous, one can interpret it to say whatever one would like.

One stunningly dramatic moment that stood out to me to be the endpoint of this divide between different interpretations of the Scriptures is Justin’s quote speaking to Trypho: “They (referring to prophecies) are contained in your Scriptures, or rather not yours, but ours.” Justin no longer is sharing the Scriptures with Judaism, rather Christianity for him has ultimately and completely usurped Jews’ rights to even call the Scriptures their own.

One interesting issue is where Justin multiple times paints Christian prophecy in the light that it’s uniquely clear in comparison with secular philosophy’s internal endless disagreements. Justin says this without a hint of irony, though all of Christianity is full of innumerable denominations/theologies due to theological differences, and Christianity had to break from Judaism and Judaism’s entire interpretation of all prophecy due to differences. I just can not see how his examples of Greek philosopher arguments among eachother bolsters his uniquely reliable and divinely inspired and clear picture of Christianity.

I must give major props for how early these works are and how many prophesies Justin can tie into Christianity. But wow, most of these examples he gives are so thin and such a stretch, he should’ve shortened his work and went with quality over quantity. The amount of exegetical nonsense he went into was Philonic in character. Very interesting to read but not convincing in any way. However it gives a fantastic picture of how detailed early Christianity already was by the mid 2nd century.

One disappointment was how little Trypho pushed back or gave any clear fight for his religion and tradition. Not that I agree with Trypho but this work could’ve been titled “Monologue to Trypho” instead of “Dialogue With Trypho.” The work was pretty pitiful of an argument, eons away from how fair and dynamic dialogues are in Plato’s writings.

Another common topic was Justin’s explanation of how Greek philosophers seemed to get a lot of things right despite not being Christian. He argues for both Logos inspiring them and then has another argument that they (somehow??) learned the truth of God by travelling to Egypt and learning about Moses. Justin took two major theories and messily conflated them, probably should’ve been more clear they’re separate theories instead of combining them. The Egypt theory undermines his theory of Logos (and Logos in my opinion is a stronger and more unique support of the Judeo-Christian God than the wild story of these Greek Philosophers discovering Moses and being inspired by him without any historical or written evidence of this at all).

However, I am (exceedlingly!!) glad to finally read a clearly written account of how logos can work within a Judeo-Christian framework, Philo’s writing was too inpenetrable to get a clear understanding and Justin’s writing on the logos was very clear and precise and thought-provoking. It’s a very fun and unique theory.

Random final thoughts:

Justin’s argument against persecution was very well written, phenomenal few pages in defense of freedom of thought and religion.

His Treatise for Bodily Resurrection was best written/argued, unfortunately much of it has been lost. It was much more classic philosophy and had no reliance on prophecy, which in my opinion makes it a more timeless and universal argument than his Apologies and Dialogue.

Overall worth the read! Three stars for a good explanation of logos, some inconsistency, overreliance on Prophecy, and a wonderful picture of second century Christianity.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of writings presents a tour de force of early apologetics, namely that of Justin Martyr. Appearing to have the world’s itellectual traditions at his fingertips, Justin effortlessly appeals both to the learned Romans and traditional Jews of his time, providing ample evidence of Christ’s divinity, prophecy in the Old Testament, and the truth of monotheism tailor-made for each audience. Perhaps the greatest apologist of the 2nd century.

[Bryce Eickholt · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a lot of good stuff in here. Its a shame more of his stuff isn't still available today. It's the writings a witness to the times approximately 100 years after Jesus' time on earth. This is before any of the church splits so any Christian denomination could find use in it.

[Luis Melendez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love to read the writings of the early church fathers really enjoyed this book.

[Nathan Calhoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Justin was on that timing fr. The OG yapper.