Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/661

 JUSTIN

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JUSTIN

I'ancienne litterature chretienne sur I'authenticit^ d'un traite sur la resurrection attribue k Justin I'Apol- ogiste" in "Revue cie Philologie", XXIX, 1905, 73-93). The chief interest of these fragments con- sists in the introduction, where is explained with much force the transcendent nature of faith and the proper nature of its motives. (2) " A Discourse to the Greeks" (Otto, op. cit.. Ill, 1, 2, IS), an apocryphal tract, dated by Harnack (Sitzungsberichte der k. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berhn, 1896, 627-46), about A. D. 180-240. Later it was altered and enlarged in SjTiac: text and English translation by Cureton, "Spicileg. Syr.", London, 1855, 38-42, 61-69. (3) "Exhortation to the Greeks" (Otto, op. cit., 18-126). The authenticity of this has been defended without success by Widman ("Die Echtheit der Mahnrede Justins an die Heideu", Mainz, 1902); Puech, "Sur le X470S TrapaiveriKds attribue a Justin" in "Melanges Weil", Paris, 1898, 395-406, dates it about 260-300, but most critics say, with more probability, a. d. 180- 240 (Gaul, " Die Abfassungsverhaltnisse der pseutlo- justinischen Cohortatio ad Grsecos", Potsdam, 1902). (4) "On Monarchy" (Otto, op. cit., 126-158), tract of uncertain date, in which are freely quoted Greek poets altered by some Jew. (5) "Exposition of the Faith" (Otto, op. cit., IV, 2-66), a dogmatic treatise on the Trinity and the Incarnation preserved in two copies the longer of which seems the more ancient. It is quoted for the first time by Leontius of Byzan- tium (d. 543) and refers to the Christological discus- sions of the fifth century; it seems, therefore, to date from the second half of that century. (6) " Iietter to Zenas and Serenus" (Otto, op. cit., 66-98), attributed by Batiffol in "Revue Biblique", VI, 1896, 114-22, to Sisinnios, the Novatian Bishop of Constantinople about A. D. 400. (7) " Answers to the Orthodo.x." (8) "The Christian's Questions to the Greeks." (9) "The Greek's Questions to the Christians." (10) " Refutation of certain Aristotelean theses " (Otto, op. cit., TV, 100-222; V, 4-366). The "Answers to the Orthodox " was re-edited in a different and more primi- tive form by Papadopoulos-Kerameus (St. Petersburg, 1895), from a Constantinople manuscript which ascribed the work to Theodoret. Though this ascrip- tion was adopted by the editor, it has not been gener- ally accepted. Harnack has studied profoundly these four books and maintains, not without probability, that they are the work of Diodorus of Tarsus (Har- nack, " Diodor von Tarsus., vier pseudojustinische Schriften als Eigentum Diodors nachgewiesen " in "Texte und Untersuch. ", XII, 4, new series, VI, 4, Leipzig, 1901).

Doctrine. — Justin and Philosophy. — The only pa- gan quotations to be found in Justin's works are from Homer, Euripides, Xenophon, Menander, and espe- cially Plato (Otto, II, .593 sq.). His philosophic de- velopment has been well estimated by Purves ("The Testimony of Justin Martyr to early Christianity", London, 1882, 132) : "He appears to have been a man of moderate culture. He was certainly not a genius nor an original thinker." A true eclectic, he draws in- spiration from different systems, especially from Stoic- ism and Platonism. Weizsacker (Jahrbiicher f. Pro- test. Theol., XII, 1867, 75) thought he recognized a Peripatetic idea, or inspiration, in his conception of God as immovable above the heavens (Dial., cxxvii); it is much more likely an idea borrowed from Alex- andrian Judaism, and one which furnished a very efficacious argument to Justin in his anti-Jewish po- lemic. In the Stoics Justin admires especially their ethics (II Apol., viii, 1); he willinglv adopts their theory of a universal conflagration (iKir6pu<ns). In I Apol., XX, Ix; II, vii, he adopts, but at the same time transforms, their concept of the seminal Word (X670S aTrfpiMiTiK6s). However, he condemns their Fatal- ism (II .\pol., vii) and their Atheism (Dial., ii). His sympathies are above all with Platonism. He likes to

compare it with Christianity; apropos of the last judg- ment, he remarks, however (I .-Vpol., viii, 4), that ac- cording to Plato the punishment will last a thousand years, whereas according to the Christians it will be eternal; speaking of creation (I Apol., x.x, 4; lix), he says that Plato borrowed from Moses his theory of formless matter; similarly he compares Plato and Christianity apropos of human responsibility (I Apol., xliv, 8) and the Word and the Spirit (I Apol., 1.x). However, his acquaintance with Plato was superficial; like his contemporaries (Philo, Plutarch, St. Hippo- lytus), he founcl his chief inspiration in the Tima;us. Some historians have pretended that pagan philosophy entirely dominated Justin's Christianity (Aube, "S. Justin", Paris, 1861), or at least weakened it (Engel- hardt, "Das Christentura Justins des Miirtyrers ", Er- langen, 1878). To appreciate fairly this influence it is necessary to remember that in his "Apology" Jus- tin is seeking above all the points of contact l)etween Hellenism and Christianity. It would certainly be wrong to conclude from the fir.st "Apology" (xxii) that Justin actually likens Christ to the pagan heroes or semi-heroes, Hermes, Perseus, or jEsculapius; neither can we conclude from his first "Apology" (iv, 8 or vii, 3, 4) that philosophy played among the Greeks the same role that Christianity did among the barbarians, but only that their position and their repu- tation were analogous.

In many passages, however, Justin tries to trace a real bond between philosophy and Christianity: ac- cording to him both the one and the other have a part in the Logos, partially disseminated among men and wholly manifest in Jesus Christ (I, v, 4; I, xlvi; II, viii: II, xiii, 5, 6). The idea developed in all these passages is given in the Stoic form, but this gives to its expression a greater worth. For the Stoics the seminal Word (X670S mepixaTiKdi) is the form of every being; here it is the reason inasmuch as it partakes of God. This theory of the full participation in the Divine Word (Logos) by the sage has its full value only in Stoicism (see Logos). In Justin thought and expression are antithetic, and this lends a certain in- coherence to the theory; the relation established be- tween the mtegral Word, i. e. Jesus Christ, and the partial Word disseminated in the world, is more spe- cious thanprofound. Side by side with this theory, and quite different in its origin and scope, we find in Justin, as in most of his contemporaries, the conviction that Greek philosophy borrowed from the Bible: it was by stealing from Moses and the Prophets that Plato and the other philosophers developed their doctrines (I, xliv, lix, Ix). Despite the obscurities and inco- herences of this thought, he affirms clearly and posi- tively the transcendent character of Christianity: "Our doctrme surpasses all human doctrine because the real Word became Christ who manifested himself for us, body, word and soul." (II, Apol., x, 1.) This Divine origin as.sures Christianitjr an absolute truth (II, xiii, 2) and gives to the Christians complete confi- dence; they die for Christ's doctrine; no one died for that of Socrates (II, x, 8). The first chapters of the "Dialogue" complete and correct these ideas. In them the rather complaisant syncretism of the "Apol- ogy " disappears, and the Christian thought is stronger.

Justin's chief reproach to the philosophers is their mutual divisions; he attributes this to the pride of the heads of sects and the servile acquiescence of their adherents: he also saj's a little later on (vi): "I care neither for Plato nor for Pythagoras." From it all he concludes that for the pagans philosophy is not a se- rious or profound thing; life does not depend on it, nor action: "Thou art a friend of discourse ", says the old man to him before his conversion, "but not of action nor of truth" (iv). For Platonism he retained a kindly feeling as for a study dear in childhood or in youth. Yet he attacks it on two essential points: the relation between God and man, and the nature of the