The Second Apology of Justin for the Christians Addressed to the Roman Senate
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Text edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson and
first published by T&T Clark in Edinburgh in 1867. Additional
introductionary material and notes provided for the American
edition by A. Cleveland Coxe, 1886.
Chapter I. Introduction.
Romans, the things which have recently [1922] happened in your city under
Urbicus, [1923] and the things which are likewise being everywhere
unreasonably done by the governors, have compelled me to frame this
composition for your sakes, who are men of like passions, and brethren,
though ye know it not, and though ye be unwilling to acknowledge it on
account of your glorying in what you esteem dignities. [1924] For
everywhere, whoever is corrected by father, or neighbour, or child, or
friend, or brother, or husband, or wife, for a fault, for being hard to
move, for loving pleasure and being hard to urge to what is right (except
those who have been persuaded that the unjust and intemperate shall be
punished in eternal fire, but that the virtuous and those who lived like
Christ shall dwell with God in a state that is free from suffering, we mean,
those who have become Christians), and the evil demons, who hate us, and who
keep such men as these subject to themselves, and serving them in the
capacity of judges, incite them, as rulers actuated by evil spirits, to put
us to death. But that the cause of all that has taken place under Urbicus
may become quite plain to you, I will relate what has been done.
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[1922] Literally, "both yesterday and the day before."
[1923] [See Grabe's note on the conjecture of Valesius that this prefect was
Lollius Urbicus, the historian (vol. i. p. 1. and notes, p. 1).]
[1924] [He has addressed them as "Romans," because in this they gloried
together, emperor, senate, soldiers, and citizens.]
Chapter II. Urbicus condemns the Christians to death.
A certain woman lived with an intemperate [1925] husband; she herself, too,
having formerly been intemperate. But when she came to the knowledge of the
teachings of Christ she became sober-minded, and endeavoured to persuade her
husband likewise to be temperate, citing the teaching of Christ, and
assuring him that there shall be punishment in eternal fire inflicted upon
those who do not live temperately and conformably to right reason. But he,
continuing in the same excesses, alienated his wife from him by his actions.
For she, considering it wicked to live any longer as a wife with a husband
who sought in every way means of indulging in pleasure contrary to the law
of nature, and in violation of what is right, wished to be divorced from
him. And when she was overpersuaded by her friends, who advised her still to
continue with him, in the idea that some time or other her husband might
give hope of amendment, she did violence to her own feeling and remained
with him. But when her husband had gone into Alexandria, and was reported to
be conducting himself worse than ever, she that she might not, by continuing
in matrimonial connection with him, and by sharing his table and his bed,
become a partaker also in his wickednesses and impieties gave him what you
call a bill of divorce, [1926] and was separated from him. But this noble
husband of hers, while he ought to have been rejoicing that those actions
which formerly she unhesitatingly committed with the servants and hirelings,
when she delighted in drunkenness and every vice, she had now given up, and
desired that he too should give up the same, when she had gone from him
without his desire, brought an accusation against her, affirming that she
was a Christian. And she presented a paper to thee, the Emperor, [1927]
requesting that first she be permitted to arrange her affairs, and
afterwards to make her defence against the accusation, when her affairs were
set in order. And this you granted. And her quondam husband, since he was
now no longer able to prosecute her, directed his assaults against a man,
Ptolemæus, whom Urbicus punished, and who had been her teacher in the
Christian doctrines. And this he did in the following way. He persuaded a
centurion who had cast Ptolemæus into prison, and who was friendly to
himself to take Ptolemæus and interrogate him on this sole point: whether he
were a Christian? And Ptolemæus, being a lover of truth, and not of a
deceitful or false disposition, when he confessed himself to be a Christian,
was bound by the centurion, and for a long time punished in the prison And,
at last, when the man [1928] came to Urbicus, he was asked this one question
only: whether he was a Christian? And again, being conscious of his duty,
and the nobility of it through the teaching of Christ, he confessed his
discipleship in the divine virtue. For he who denies anything either denies
it because he condemns the thing itself, or he shrinks from confession
because he is conscious of his own unworthiness or alienation from it,
neither of which cases is that of the true Christian. And when Urbicus
ordered him to be led away to punishment, one Lucius, who was also himself a
Christian, seeing the unreasonable judgment that had thus been given, said
to Urbicus: "What is the ground of this judgment? Why have you punished this
man, not as an adulterer, nor fornicator, nor murderer, nor thief, nor
robber, nor convicted of any crime at all, but who has only confessed that
he is called by the name of Christian? This judgment of yours, O Urbicus,
does not become the Emperor Pius, nor the philosopher, the son of Cæsar, nor
the sacred senate." [1929] And he said nothing else in answer to Lucius than
this: "You also seem to me to be such an one." And when Lucius answered,
"Most certainly I am," he again ordered him also to be led away. And he
professed his thanks, knowing that he was delivered from such wicked rulers,
and was going to the Father and King of the heavens. And still a third
having come forward, was condemned to be punished.
[1925] akolastainonti, which word includes unchastity, as well as the other
forms of intemperance. [As we say, dissolute.]
[1926] rhepoudion, i.e., "repudium," a bill of repudiation.
[1927] [Rather, "to thee, autocrat:" a very bold apostrophe, like that of
Huss to the Emperor Sigismund, which crimsoned his forehead with a blush of
shame.]
[1928] i.e., Ptolemæus.
[1929] On this passage, see Donaldson's Critical History, etc., vol. ii. p.
79.
Chapter III. Justin accuses Crescens of ignorant prejudice against the
Christians.
I too, therefore, expect to be plotted against and fixed to the stake, by
some of those I have named, or perhaps by Crescens, that lover of bravado
and boasting; [1930] for the man is not worthy of the name of philosopher
who publicly bears witness against us in matters which he does not
understand, saying that the Christians are atheists and impious, and doing
so to win favour with the deluded mob, and to please them. For if he assails
us without having read the teachings of Christ, he is thoroughly depraved,
and far worse than the illiterate, who often refrain from discussing or
bearing false witness about matters they do not understand. Or, if he has
read them and does not understand the majesty that is in them, or,
understanding it, acts thus that he may not be suspected of being such [a
Christian], he is far more base and thoroughly depraved, being conquered by
illiberal and unreasonable opinion and fear. For I would have you to know
that I proposed to him certain questions on this subject, and interrogated
him, and found most convincingly that he, in truth, knows nothing. And to
prove that I speak the truth, I am ready, if these disputations have not
been reported to you, to conduct them again in your presence. And this would
be an act worthy of a prince. But if my questions and his answers have been
made known to you, you are already aware that he is acquainted with none of
our matters; or, if he is acquainted with them, but, through fear of those
who might hear him, does not dare to speak out, like Socrates, he proves
himself, as I said before, no philosopher, but an opinionative man; [1931]
at least he does not regard that Socratic and most admirable saying: "But a
man must in no wise be honoured before the truth." [1932] But it is
impossible for a Cynic, who makes indifference his end, to know any good but
indifference.
[1930] Words resembling "philosopher" in sound, viz. philopsophou kai
philokompou. [This passage is found elsewhere. See note, cap. viii., in the
text preferred by Grabe.]
[1931] philodoxos, which may mean a lover of vainglory.
[1932] See Plato, Rep., p. 595.
Chapter IV. Why the Christians do not kill themselves.
But lest some one say to us, "Go then all of you and kill yourselves, and
pass even now to God, and do not trouble us," I will tell you why we do not
so, but why, when examined, we fearlessly confess. We have been taught that
God did not make the world aimlessly, but for the sake of the human race;
and we have before stated that He takes pleasure in those who imitate His
properties, and is displeased with those that embrace what is worthless
either in word or deed. If, then, we all kill ourselves we shall become the
cause, as far as in us lies, why no one should be born, or instructed in the
divine doctrines, or even why the human race should not exist; and we shall,
if we so act, be ourselves acting in opposition to the will of God. But when
we are examined, we make no denial, because we are not conscious of any
evil, but count it impious not to speak the truth in all things, which also
we know is pleasing to God, and because we are also now very desirous to
deliver you from an unjust prejudice.
Chapter V. How the angels transgressed.
But if this idea take possession of some one, that if we acknowledge God as
our helper, we should not, as we say, be oppressed and persecuted by the
wicked; this, too, I will solve. God, when He had made the whole world, and
subjected things earthly to man, and arranged the heavenly elements for the
increase of fruits and rotation of the seasons, and appointed this divine
law for these things also He evidently made for man committed the care of
men and of all things under heaven to angels whom He appointed over them.
But the angels transgressed this appointment, and were captivated by love of
women, and begat children who are those that are called demons; and besides,
they afterwards subdued the human race to themselves, partly by magical
writings, and partly by fears and the punishments they occasioned, and
partly by teaching them to offer sacrifices, and incense, and libations, of
which things they stood in need after they were enslaved by lustful
passions; and among men they sowed murders, wars, adulteries, intemperate
deeds, and all wickedness. Whence also the poets and mythologists, not
knowing that it was the angels and those demons who had been begotten by
them that did these things to men, and women, and cities, and nations, which
they related, ascribed them to god himself, and to those who were accounted
to be his very offspring, and to the offspring of those who were called his
brothers, Neptune and Pluto, and to the children again of these their
offspring. For whatever name each of the angels had given to himself and his
children, by that name they called them.
Chapter VI. Names of God and of Christ, their meaning and power.
But to the Father of all, who is unbegotten there is no name given. For by
whatever name He be called, He has as His elder the person who gives Him the
name. But these words Father, and God, and Creator, and Lord, and Master,
are not names, but appellations derived from His good deeds and functions.
And His Son, who alone is properly called Son, the Word who also was with
Him and was begotten before the works, when at first He created and arranged
all things by Him, is called Christ, in reference to His being anointed and
God's ordering all things through Him; this name itself also containing an
unknown significance; as also the appellation "God" is not a name, but an
opinion implanted in the nature of men of a thing that can hardly be
explained. But "Jesus," His name as man and Saviour, has also significance.
For He was made man also, as we before said, having been conceived according
to the will of God the Father, for the sake of believing men, and for the
destruction of the demons. And now you can learn this from what is under
your own observation. For numberless demoniacs throughout the whole world,
and in your city, many of our Christian men exorcising them in the name of
Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, have healed and do
heal, rendering helpless and driving the possessing devils out of the men,
though they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, and those who
used incantations and drugs.
Chapter VII. The world preserved for the sake of Christians. Man s
responsibility.
Wherefore God delays causing the confusion and destruction of the whole
world, by which the wicked angels and demons and men shall cease to exist,
because of the seed of the Christians, who know that they are the cause of
preservation in nature. [1933] Since, if it were not so, it would not have
been possible for you to do these things, and to be impelled by evil
spirits; but the fire of judgment would descend and utterly dissolve all
things, even as formerly the flood left no one but him only with his family
who is by us called Noah, and by you Deucalion, from whom again such vast
numbers have sprung, some of them evil and others good. For so we say that
there will be the conflagration, but not as the Stoics, according to their
doctrine of all things being changed into one another, which seems most
degrading. But neither do we affirm that it is by fate that men do what they
do, or suffer what they suffer, but that each man by free choice acts
rightly or sins; and that it is by the influence of the wicked demons that
earnest men, such as Socrates and the like, suffer persecution and are in
bonds, while Sardanapalus, Epicurus, and the like, seem to be blessed in
abundance and glory. The Stoics, not observing this, maintained that all
things take place according to the necessity of fate. But since God in the
beginning made the race of angels and men with free-will, they will justly
suffer in eternal fire the punishment of whatever sins they have committed.
And this is the nature of all that is made, to be capable of vice and
virtue. For neither would any of them be praiseworthy unless there were
power to turn to both [virtue and vice]. And this also is shown by those men
everywhere who have made laws and philosophized according to right reason,
by their prescribing to do some things and refrain from others. Even the
Stoic philosophers, in their doctrine of morals, steadily honour the same
things, so that it is evident that they are not very felicitous in what they
say about principles and incorporeal things. For if they say that human
actions come to pass by fate, they will maintain either that God is nothing
else than the things which are ever turning, and altering, and dissolving
into the same things, and will appear to have had a comprehension only of
things that are destructible, and to have looked on God Himself as emerging
both in part and in whole in every wickedness; [1934] or that neither vice
nor virtue is anything; which is contrary to every sound idea, reason, and
sense.
[1933] This is Dr. Donaldson's rendering of a clause on which the editors
differ both as to reading and rendering.
[1934] Literally, "becoming (ginomenon) both through the parts and through
the whole in every wickedness."
Chapter VIII. All have been hated in whom the Word has dwelt.
And those of the Stoic school since, so far as their moral teaching went,
they were admirable, as were also the poets in some particulars, on account
of the seed of reason [the Logos] implanted in every race of men were, we
know, hated and put to death, Heraclitus for instance, and, among those of
our own time, Musonius and others. For, as we intimated, the devils have
always effected, that all those who anyhow live a reasonable and earnest
life, and shun vice, be hated. And it is nothing wonderful; if the devils
are proved to cause those to be much worse hated who live not according to a
part only of the word diffused [among men] but by the knowledge and
contemplation of the whole Word, which is Christ. And they, having been shut
up in eternal fire, shall suffer their just punishment and penalty. For if
they are even now overthrown by men through the name of Jesus Christ, this
is an intimation of the punishment in eternal fire which is to be inflicted
on themselves and those who serve them. For thus did both all the prophets
foretell, and our own teacher Jesus teach. [1935]
[1935] [Here, in Grabe's text, comes in the passage about Crescens.]
Chapter IX. Eternal punishment not a mere threat.
And that no one may say what is said by those who are deemed philosophers,
that our assertions that the wicked are punished in eternal fire are big
words and bugbears, and that we wish men to live virtuously through fear,
and not because such a life is good and pleasant; I will briefly reply to
this, that if this be not so, God does not exist; or, if He exists, He cares
not for men, and neither virtue nor vice is anything, and, as we said
before, lawgivers unjustly punish those who transgress good commandments.
But since these are not unjust, and their Father teaches them by the word to
do the same things as Himself, they who agree with them are not unjust. And
if one object that the laws of men are diverse, and say that with some, one
thing is considered good, another evil, while with others what seemed bad to
the former is esteemed good, and what seemed good is esteemed bad, let him
listen to what we say to this. We know that the wicked angels appointed laws
conformable to their own wickedness, in which the men who are like them
delight; and the right Reason, [1936] when He came, proved that not all
opinions nor all doctrines are good, but that some are evil, while others
are good. Wherefore, I will declare the same and similar things to such men
as these, and, if need be, they shall be spoken of more at large. But at
present I return to the subject.
[1936] These words can be taken of the Logos as well as of the right reason
diffused among men by Him.
Chapter X. Christ compared with Socrates.
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. For I whatever either lawgivers or philosophers
uttered well, they elaborated by finding and contemplating some part of the
Word. But since they I did not know the whole of the Word, 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 recognised. But he cast out from the state both Homer [1937] 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 to them unknown, by means of the
investigation of reason, saying, "That it is neither easy to find the Father
and Maker of all, nor, having found Him, is it safe to declare Him to
all." [1938] 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 Word 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 a power of the ineffable Father, not
the mere instrument of human reason. [1939]
[1937] Plato, Rep., x. c. i. p. 595.
[1938] Plat., Timæus, p. 28, C. (but "possible," and not "safe," is the word
used by Plato).
[1939] [Certainly the author of this chapter, and others like it, cannot be
accused of a feeble rhetoric.]
Chapter XI. How Christians view death.
But neither should we be put to death, nor would wicked men and devils be
more powerful than we, were not death a debt due by every man that is born.
Wherefore we give thanks when we pay this debt. And we judge it right and
opportune to tell here, for the sake of Crescens and those who rave as he
does, what is related by Xenophon. Hercules, says Xenophon, coming to a
place where three ways met, found Virtue and Vice, who appeared to him in
the form of women: Vice, in a luxurious dress, and with a seductive
expression rendered blooming by such ornaments, and her eyes of a quickly
melting tenderness, [1940] said to Hercules that if he would follow her, she
would always enable him to pass his life in pleasure and adorned with the
most graceful ornaments, such as were then upon her own person; and Virtue,
who was of squalid look and dress, said, But if you obey me, you shall adorn
yourself not with ornament nor beauty that passes away and perishes, but
with everlasting and precious graces. And we are persuaded that every one
who flees those things that seem to be good, and follows hard after what are
reckoned difficult and strange, enters into blessedness. For Vice, when by
imitation of what is incorruptible (for what is really incorruptible she
neither has nor can produce) she has thrown around her own actions, as a
disguise, the properties of virtue, and qualities which are really
excellent, leads captive earthly-minded men, attaching to Virtue her own
evil properties. But those who understood the excellences which belong to
that which is real, are also uncorrupt in virtue. And this every sensible
person ought to think both of Christians and of the athletes, and of those
who did what the poets relate of the so-called gods, concluding as much from
our contempt of death, even when it could be escaped. [1941]
[1940] Another reading is pros tas opseis, referring to the eyes of the
beholder; and which may be rendered, "speedily fascinating to the sight."
[1941] Kai pheuktou thanatou may also be rendered, "even of death which men
flee from."
Chapter XII. Christians proved innocent by their contempt of death.
For I myself, too, when I was delighting in the doctrines of Plato, and
heard the Christians slandered, and saw them fearless of death, and of all
other-things which are counted fearful, perceived that it was impossible
that they could be living in wickedness and pleasure. For what sensual or
intemperate man, or who that counts it good to feast on human flesh, [1942]
could welcome death that he might be deprived of his enjoyments, and would
not rather continue always the present life, and attempt to escape the
observation of the rulers; and much less would he denounce himself when the
consequence would be death? This also the wicked demons have now caused to
be done by evil men. For having put some to death on account of the
accusations falsely brought against us, they also dragged to the torture our
domestics, either children or weak women, and by dreadful torments forced
them to admit those fabulous actions which they themselves openly
perpetrate; about which we are the less concerned, because none of these
actions are really ours, and we have the unbegotten and ineffable God as
witness both of our thoughts and deeds. For why did we not even publicly
profess that these were the things which we esteemed good, and prove that
these are the divine philosophy, saying that the mysteries of Saturn are
performed when we slay a man, and that when we drink our fill of blood, as
it is said we do, we are doing what you do before that idol you honour, and
on which you sprinkle the blood not only of irrational animals, but also of
men, making a libation of the blood of the slain by the hand of the most
illustrious and noble man among you? And imitating Jupiter and the other
gods in sodomy and shameless intercourse with woman, might we not bring as
our apology the writings of Epicurus and the poets? But because we persuade
men to avoid such instruction, and all who practise them and imitate such
examples, as now in this discourse we have striven to persuade you, we are
assailed in every kind of way. But we are not concerned, since we know that
God is a just observer of all. But would that even now some one would mount
a lofty rostrum, and shout with a loud voice; [1943] "Be ashamed, be
ashamed, ye who charge the guiltless with those deeds which yourselves
openly could commit, and ascribe things which apply to yourselves and to
your gods to those who have not even the slightest sympathy with them. Be ye
converted; become wise."
[1942] Alluding to the common accusation against the Christians.
[1943] Literally, "with a tragic voice," the loud voice in which the Greek
tragedies were recited through the mask [persona].
Chapter XIII. How the Word has been in all men.
For I myself, when I discovered tile wicked disguise which the evil spirits
had thrown around the divine doctrines of the Christians, to turn aside
others from joining them, laughed both at those who framed these falsehoods,
and at the disguise itself and at popular opinion and 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 the others, Stoics,
and poets, and historians. For each man spoke well in proportion to the
share he had of the spermatic word, [1944] seeing what was related to it.
But they who contradict themselves on the more important points appear not
to have possessed the heavenly [1945] 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 Word 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 word that was in them. For the seed and imitation
impacted according to capacity 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.
[1944] The word disseminated among men. [St. Jas. i. 21.]
[1945] Literally, dimly seen at a distance.
Chapter XIV. Justin prays that this appeal be published.
And we therefore pray you to publish this little book, appending what you
think right, that our opinions may he known to others, and that these
persons may have a fair chalice of being freed from erroneous notions and
ignorance of good, who by their own fault are become subject to punishment;
that so these things may be published to men, because it is in the nature of
man to know good and evil; and by their condemning us, whom they do not
understand, for actions which they say are wicked, and by delighting in the
gods who did such things, and even now require similar actions from men, and
by inflicting on us death or bonds or some other such punishment, as if we
were guilty of these things, they condemn themselves, so that there is no
need of other judges.
Chapter XV. Conclusion.
And I despised the wicked and deceitful doctrine of Simon [1946] of my own
nation. And if you give this book your authority, we will expose him before
all, that, if possible, they may be converted. For this end alone did we
compose this treatise. And our doctrines are not shameful, according to a
sober judgment, but are indeed more lofty than all human philosophy: and if
not so, they are at least unlike the doctrines of the Sotadists, and
Philænidians, and Dancers, and Epicureans, and such other teachings of the
poets, which all are allowed to acquaint themselves with both as acted and
as written. And 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, [1947] would for your own sakes judge justly!
[1946] [Simon Magus appears to be one with whom Justin is perfectly
familiar, and hence we are not to conclude rashly that he blundered as to
the divine honours rendered to him as the Sabine God.]
[1947] [Another apostrophe, and a home thrust for "Pius the philosopher" and
the emperor.]
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