The Literary Defence Of Christia


In reply to the attacks made upon Christianity, the apologists defended

their religion along three lines: It was philosophically justified; it was

true; it did not favor immorality, but, on the contrary, inculcated

virtue. The philosophical defence, or justification, of Christianity was

most brilliantly undertaken by Justin Martyr, who employed the current

philosophical conception of the Logos. The general proof of Christianity
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was chiefly based upon the argument from the fulfilment of prophecy. All

apologists undertook to show that the heathen calumnies against the

Christians were false, that the heathen religions were replete with

obscene tales of the gods, and that the worship of idols was absurd.





(a) Aristides, Apology, 2, 13, 15, 16. Ed. J. R. Harris and J. A.

Robinson, Texts and Studies, I, 1, Cambridge, 1891.





The Apology of Aristides was long lost, but was found in a

Syriac version in 1889. It was then found that much of the Greek

original had been incorporated in the Life of Barlaam and

Josaphat, a popular religious romance of the Middle Ages; see the

introduction to the parallel translations by D. H. McKay in ANF,

vol. IX, 259-279. This work of Aristides may be as early as 125;

if so, it disputes with the similar work of Quadratus the honor of

being the first Christian apology. A large part of it is taken up

with a statement of the contradictions and absurdities of the

mythology of the Greeks and Barbarians. Of this statement, ch. 13,

quoted below, is the conclusion. Then, after a short passage

regarding the Jews, the author passes to an exposition of the

faith of Christians and a statement regarding their high morality.





Ch. 2. [Found only in Syriac.] The Christians trace the beginning of their

religion to Jesus the Messiah; and He is named the Son of the most high

God. And it is said that God came down from heaven and from a Hebrew

virgin assumed and clothed Himself with flesh, and that the Son of God

lived in a daughter of man. This is taught in that Gospel which, as is

related among them, was preached among them a short time ago. And you,

also, if you will read therein, may perceive the power that belongs to it.

This Jesus, therefore, was born of the race of the Hebrews. He had twelve

disciples, that His wonderful plan of salvation might be carried out. But

He himself was pierced by the Jews, and He died and He was buried. And

they say that after three days He rose and was raised to heaven. Thereupon

those twelve disciples went forth into the known parts of the world, and

with all modesty and uprightness taught concerning His greatness. And

therefore also those at the present time who now believe that preaching

are called Christians and they are known.



Ch. 13. When the Greeks made laws they did not perceive that by their laws

they condemned their gods. For if their laws are righteous, their gods are

unrighteous, because they committed transgressions of the law in that they

killed one another, practised sorcery, and committed adultery, robbed,

stole, and lay with males, not to mention their other practices. For if

their gods have done right in doing all this, as they write, then the laws

of the Greeks are unrighteous in not being made according to the will of

their gods. And consequently the whole world has gone astray.



Ch. 15. The Christians, O King, in that they go about and seek the truth,

have found it and, as we have understood from their writings, they have

come much nearer to the truth and correct knowledge than have the other

peoples. They know and trust God, the creator of heaven and earth, in whom

are all things and from whom are all things, in Him who has no other God

beside Him, in Him from whom they have received commandments which they

have engraved upon their minds, commandments which they observe in the

faith and expectation of the world to come. Wherefore they do not commit

adultery or fornication, nor bear false witness, nor covet what is held in

pledge, nor covet what is not theirs. They honor father and mother and

show kindness to their neighbors. If they are judges, they judge

uprightly. They do not worship idols made in human form. And whatsoever

they would not that others should do unto them, they do not to others.

They do not eat of food offered to idols, because they are pure. And their

oppressors they appease and they make friends of them; they do good to

their enemies. If they see a stranger, they take him to their dwellings

and rejoice over him as over a real brother. For they do not call

themselves brethren after the flesh, but after the Spirit and in God. But

if one of their poor passes from the world, each one of them who sees him

cares for his burial according to his ability. And if they hear that one

of them is imprisoned or oppressed on account of the name of their

Messiah, all of them care for his necessity, and if it is possible to

redeem him, they set him free. And if any one among them is poor and

needy, and they have no spare food, they fast two or three days in order

to supply him with the needed food.(34) The precepts of their Messiah they

observe with great care. They live justly and soberly, as the Lord their

God commanded them. Every morning and every hour they acknowledge and

praise God for His lovingkindnesses toward them, and for their food and

drink they give thanks to Him. And if any righteous man among them passes

from this world, they rejoice and thank God and they escort his body as if

he were setting out on a journey from one place to another.



Ch. 16. Their words and precepts, O King, and the glory of their worship

and their hope of receiving reward, which they look for in another world,

according to the work of each one, you can learn about from their

writings. It is enough for us to have informed your Majesty in a few words

concerning the conduct and truth of the Christians. For great, indeed, and

wonderful is their doctrine for him who will study it and reflect upon it.

And verily this is a new people, and there is something divine in it.





(b) Justin Martyr, Apologia, I, 46. (MSG, 6:398.)





In the following, Justin Martyr states his argument from the

doctrine of the Logos, which was widely accepted in Greek

philosophy and found its counterpart in Christianity in the

Johannine theology (see below, § 32 A). With Justin should be

compared Clement of Alexandria (see below, § 43 a), who develops

the same idea in showing the relation of Greek philosophy to the

Mosaic dispensation and to the Christian revelation.





We have been taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have

declared above that He is the Word of whom every race of men partake; and

those who lived reasonably were Christians, even though they have been

thought atheists; as among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus and those

like them; and among the Barbarians, Abraham and Ananias, and Azarias, and

Misael, and Elias, and many others whose actions and names we now decline

to recount, because we know it would be tedious.





(c) Justin Martyr, Apologia, II, 10, 13. (MSG, 6:459, 466.)





Ch. 10. Our doctrines, then, appear to be greater than all human teaching;

because Christ who appeared for our sakes, became the whole rational

being,(35) body and reason and soul. For whatever either law-givers or

philosophers uttered well they elaborated by finding and contemplating

some part of the Logos. But since they did not know the whole of the

Logos, which is Christ, they often contradicted themselves. And those who

by human birth were more ancient than Christ, when they attempted to

consider and prove things by reason, were brought before the tribunals as

impious persons and busybodies. And Socrates, who was more zealous in this

direction than all of them, was accused of the very same crimes as

ourselves. For they said that he was introducing new divinities, and did

not consider those to be gods whom the State recognized. But he cast out

from the State both Homer and the rest of the poets, and taught men to

reject the wicked demons and those who did the things which the poets

related; and he exhorted them to become acquainted with the God who was

unknown to them, by means of the investigation of reason, saying, "That it

is not easy to find the Father and Maker of all, nor, having found Him, is

it safe to declare Him to all."(36) But these things our Christ did

through His own power. For no one trusted in Socrates so as to die for

this doctrine, but in Christ, who was partially known even by Socrates

(for He was and is the Logos who is in every man, and who foretold the

things that were to come to pass both through the prophets and in His own

person when He was made of like passions and taught these things), not

only philosophers and scholars believed, but also artisans and people

entirely uneducated, despising both glory and fear and death; since He is

the power of the ineffable Father, and not the mere instrument of human

reason.(37)



Ch. 13. I confess that I both boast and with all my strength strive to

be found a Christian; not because the teachings of Plato are different

from those of Christ, but because they are not in all respects similar, as

neither are those of others, Stoics, poets, and historians. For each man

spoke well in proportion to the share he had of the spermatic divine

Logos, seeing what was related to it. But they who contradict themselves

on the more important points appear not to have possessed the heavenly

wisdom and the knowledge which cannot be spoken against. Whatever things

were rightly said among all men are the property of us Christians. For

next to God we worship and love the Logos, who is from the unbegotten and

ineffable God, since also He became man for our sakes, that, becoming a

partaker of our sufferings, He might also bring us healing. For all the

writers were able to see realities darkly through the sowing of the

implanted Logos that was in them. For the seed of anything and a copy

imparted according to capacity [i.e., to receive] is one thing, and

quite another is the thing itself, of which there is the participation and

imitation according to the grace which is from Him.





(d) Justin Martyr, Apologia, I, 31, 53. (MSG, 6:375, 406.)





The argument from prophecy.





Ch. 31. There were then among the Jews certain men who were prophets of

God, through whom the prophetic Spirit [context shows that the Logos is

here meant] published beforehand things that were to come to pass before

they happened. And their prophecies, as they were spoken and when they

were uttered, the kings who were among the Jews at the several times

carefully preserved in their possession, when they had been arranged by

the prophets themselves in their own Hebrew language. They are also in

possession of all Jews throughout the world. In these books of the

prophets we found Jesus our Christ foretold as coming, born of a virgin,

growing up to manhood, and healing every disease and every sickness, and

raising the dead, and being hated and unrecognized, and crucified, and

dying, and rising again, and ascending into heaven, and both being and

also called the Son of God, and that certain persons should be sent by Him

into every race of men to publish these things, and that rather among the

Gentiles [than among the Jews] men should believe on Him. And He was

predicted before He appeared first 5,000 years before, and again 3,000,

then 2,000 then 1,000, and yet again 800; for according to the succession

of generations prophets after prophets arose.



Ch. 53. Though we have many other prophecies, we forbear to speak, judging

these sufficient for the persuasion of those who have ears capable of

hearing and understanding; and considering also that these persons are

able to see that we do not make assertions, and are unable to produce

proof, like those fables that are told of the reputed sons of Jupiter. For

with what reason should we believe of a crucified man that He is the

first-born of the unbegotten God, and Himself will pass judgment on the

whole human race, unless we found testimonies concerning Him published

before He came and was born as a man, and unless we saw that things had

happened accordingly?



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