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Saint Justin Martyr
CHRISTIAN APOLOGIST
WRITTEN
BY:
Saint
Justin Martyr
CHRISTIAN
APOLOGIST
Saint
Justin Martyr, (born c. 100, Flavia
Neapolis, Palestine [now Nāblus]—died c. 165, Rome [Italy];
feast day June 1), one of the most important of the Greek philosopher-Apologists in
the early Christian church. His writings represent the first
positive encounter of Christian revelation with Greek philosophy and
laid the basis for a theology of history.
A pagan reared in a
Jewish environment, Justin studied Stoic, Platonic,
and other pagan philosophies and then became a Christian in 132, possibly at Ephesus,
near modern Selçuk, Turkey. Soon after 135 he began wandering from place to
place proclaiming his newfound Christian philosophy in the hope of converting
educated pagans to it. He spent a considerable time in Rome. Some years later,
after debating with the cynic Crescens, Justin was denounced to the Roman
prefect as subversive and condemned to death. Authentic records of his
martyrdom survive.
Of the works bearing
Justin’s authorship and still deemed genuine are two Apologies and the Dialogue
with Trypho. The first, or “Major Apology,” was addressed about 150
to the Roman emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. In the first part of the First Apology, Justin defends
his fellow Christians against the charges of atheism and hostility to the Roman
state. He then goes on to express the core of his Christian philosophy: the
highest aspiration of both Christianity and Platonic philosophy is a transcendent and unchangeable God;
consequently, an intellectual articulation of the Christian
faith would demonstrate its harmony with reason. Such a convergence is rooted
in the relationship between human reason and the divine mind, both identified
by the same term, logos (Greek:
“intellect,” “word”), which enables man to understand basic truths regarding
the world, time, creation, freedom, the human soul’s affinity with the divine spirit, and the recognition
of good and evil.
Justin asserts that Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the entire
divine logos and thus of these basic truths, whereas only
traces of truth were found in the great works of the pagan philosophers. The
purpose of Christ’s coming into the world was to teach men the truth and save
them from the power of demons. In the third part of the First Apology, Justin vividly describes the early
Christians’ method of celebrating the Eucharist and
of administering Baptism.
The Dialogue with Trypho is a
discussion in which Justin tries to prove the truth of Christianity to a
learned Jew named Trypho. Justin attempts to demonstrate that a new covenant has superseded the old covenant of
God with the Jewish people; that Jesus is both the messiah announced by the Old
Testament prophets and the preexisting logos through whom God revealed himself in the
Scriptures; and that the gentiles have been chosen to replace Israel as God’s
chosen people. In his brief Second Apology Justin
argues that the Christians are being unjustly persecuted by Rome.
BRITANNICA
STORIES
Justin’s distinctive
contribution to Christian theology is his conceptionof a divine plan in history, a process
of salvation structured by God, wherein the various
historical epochs have been integrated into an organic unity directed
toward a supernatural end; the Old Testament and Greek philosophy met to form
the single stream of Christianity.
Justin’s concrete
description of the sacramental celebrations of Baptism and the Eucharist remain
a principal source for the history of the primitive church. Justin serves,
moreover, as a crucial witness to the status of the 2nd-century New Testament corpus, mentioning the first three Gospels and quoting and paraphrasing the letters
of Paul and 1 Peter; he was the first known writer to quote from the Acts of the Apostles.
CITE
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Title: Saint Justin Martyr
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Name: Encyclopædia Britannica
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URL:https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Justin-Martyr
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Access
Date: June 01, 2017
