THE SECOND APOLOGY OF JUSTIN FOR THE CHRISTIANS. ADDRESSED TO THE ROMAN
SENATE.
CHAP. 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 ; 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 couvincingly 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; at least he does not regard that Socratic and most admirable saying:
" But a man must in no wise be honoured before the truth." But it is impossible
for a Cynic, who makes indifference his end, to know any good but indifference…
CHAP. 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.
CHAP. 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 apellations 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 Savior, has also significance.
For He was made man also, as we before said, having been coneived 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 exorcisng 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.
CHAP. 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. 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 philosophised 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 or that neither
vice nor virtue is anything; which is contrary to every sound idea, reason,
and sense.
CHAP. 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…
CHAP. 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 whatever either lawgivers or philosophers
uttered well, they elaborated by finding and contemplating some part of
the Word. But since they 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 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." 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, and not the mere instrument
of human reason.
CHAP. 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, 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
exellent lends captive earthly-minded men, attaching to Virtue her own
evil properties. But those who understand the exellences 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.
CHAP. 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
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 amd shameless intercourse with women, might we
not bring as our apology the writings of Epicurus and the poets? But because
we persuade men to avoid such instructions 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, "Be ashamed
be ashamed, ye who charge the guiltless with those deeds which yourselves
openly 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."
CHAP. XIII. -- HOW THE WORD HAS BEEN IN ALL MEN
For I myself, when I discovered the
wicked disguise which the evil spirits had thrown around the divine doctrines
of the Christiams, 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, 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 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 imparted 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.
CHAP. 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 be known to others, and that
these persons may have a fair chance 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 condemnmg 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 indicting 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.
CHAP. XV - CONCLUSIONS.
And I despised the wicked and deceitful doctrine of Simon 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 Philaenidians, 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, would for your own sakes judge justly!