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 For the Christians;
Addressed to the Roman Senate
Introduction.
Romans, the things which have recently happened in your city under Urbicus,
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. 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.
Urbicus Condemns the Christians to Death.
A certain woman lived with an intemperate
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,
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, 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,
Ptolemaeus, 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 Ptolemaeus into prison, and who was friendly to himself-to take
Ptolemaeus and interrogate him on this sole point: whether he were a Christian?
And Ptolemaeus, 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
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 Caesar, nor the
sacred senate." 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.
Justin Accuses Crescens of Ignorrant 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
hears 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; 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.
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 becuase we are
also now very desirous to deliver you from an unjust prejudice.
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 brother), 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.
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, ant Master, are
not names, but appellations derived from His good deeds and functions. And Hi;
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
thing; 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.
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, hut
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 I 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; or that
neither vice nor virtue is anything; which is contrary to every sound idea,
reason, and sense.
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. I
or thus did both all the prophets foretell, and our own teacher Jesus teach.
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 Him self,
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, 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.
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. Put
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 I 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. I But he cast out
from the state troth 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 Me is a power of
the ineffable Father, not the mere instrument of human reason.
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 eves 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
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 d did what the
poets relate of the so-called gods, concluding as much from our contempt of
death, even when it could be escaped.
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 arc counted fearful, Perceived that It was impossible that
they Could be livings 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 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; "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."
How the Word Has Been in All Men.
For I myself, when I discovered tile wicked keel disguise which tile 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, seeing what was related to it. Rut 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 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.
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.
Conclusion.
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!
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