He is not my favorite Church Father, nor do I really consider him as a Church Father…but that is another story. Coming from Palestine, his take on this matter is still of some importance.
Dec 18 2009
Justin Martyr on the Eucharist
Doing a little study on this, for a reason, but found this interesting -
Oct 28 2009
Justin Martyr: Prophetic Gifts as Proof of Christianity
“For the prophetical gifts remain with us, even to the present time. And hence you ought to understand that [the gifts] formerly among your nation have been transferred to us. And just as there were false prophets contemporaneous with your holy prophets, so are there now many false teachers amongst us, of whom our Lord forewarned us to beware; so that in no respect are we deficient, since we know that He foreknew all that would happen to us after His resurrection from the dead and ascension to heaven. For He said we would be put to death, and hated for His name’s sake; and that many false prophets and false Christs would appear in His name, and deceive many: and so has it come about. For many have taught godless, blasphemous, and unholy doctrines, forging them in His name; have taught, too, and even yet are teaching, those things which proceed from the unclean spirit of the devil, and which were put into their hearts. Therefore we are most anxious that you be persuaded not to be misled by such persons, since we know that every one who can speak the truth, and yet speaks it not, shall be judged by God, as God testified by Ezekiel, when He said, ‘I have made thee a watchman to the house of Judah. If the sinner sin, and thou warn him not, he himself shall die in his sin; but his blood will I require at thine hand. But if thou warn him, thou shalt be innocent.’4 And on this account we are, through fear, very earnest in desiring to converse [with men] according to the Scriptures, but not from love of money, or of glory, or of pleasure. For no man can convict us of any of these [vices]. No more do we wish to live like the rulers of your people, whom God reproaches when He says, ‘Your rulers are companions of thieves, lovers of bribes, followers of the rewards.’5 Now, if you know certain amongst us to be of this sort, do not for their sakes blaspheme the Scriptures and Christ, and do not assiduously strive to give falsified interpretations. (Dialogue, 82)
Sep 29 2009
What do Mormons think about Islam?
While I am sure the good folks at Defending. Contending. mean well, they ignore Christianity’s own history. They point to various statements by Mormons, past and present, in defense of Islam as ’sort of’ connected to the LDS. These statements seem to show that the LDS believe that Muslims and Mormons share a common spiritual brotherhood.
Sep 28 2009
How Emergent Was the Ancient Church?
Thanks to Fr. Stephen for this tip, which has helped to provide fodder for a few other posts this week. Blame him if you don’t like them.
Nathan Busenitz has posted on the growing trend among some in the Emergent Church to ‘get back to the roots of Christianity.’ I have to wonder if they would feel the same way if they read either Justin or Pliny the Younger’s account of the early Christian worship service:
Jun 08 2009
The Trinity: Comparing Numenius and Justin
Justin Martyrin the Philosopher's Pallium
Justin was one of the most learned men to ever take upon himself the name of Christian, of that there is no doubt – yet Justin has not fared well in later scholarship, due to his drive to combine Christianity with Platonist thought.
In the West he is known as the Martyr; in the East, he is known as the Philosopher – indeed, in his icons, he is always pictured with his philosopher’s pallium. In Rome, during the last years of his life, he opened up his own philosopher’s school, akin to those around him in learning the Greek Sophists.
There is little doubt that Justin had made himself known to the philosophers around him of his day – indeed, he progressed through each school before finding the Church. One of those he no doubt had some sort of contact with was Numenius of Apamea, who was a forefunner of the Neoplatonists.Origen as well as , Theodoret and Eusebius of Caesarea preserves his interaction with Christianity. Each of these can trace their doctrine of the Godhead directly to Justin, and perhaps past him to Valens. Numenius sought to restore the doctrines of Plato and to show that Plato did not stand at odds with Brahmins, Jews, Magi and Egyptians. He regularly called Plato the ‘Hellenized Moses.’ He even ventured an interpretation of Genesis.
Numenius stands as a forerunner to the semi-Arian trinity more fully developed by the Eusebian Party. But, how does Numenius and Justin compare? (For a brief analysis of G. Reale’s connection, see here.)
Numenius and Justin used the language of the philosopher’s – God was a Triad. In the Neoplatonic Writings of Numenius (Selene Books, 1917), we find language shared among Justin and the Neoplatonists of his day, including Justin’s ‘True God’ (which for both groups was transcendental that He had to create another, the Logos) and the ‘Another God’ which just used the hospitality of Abraham to demonstrate.
Justin did not use Numenius alone – but spoke of Philo (three times in his dialogues with Trypho) and can be associated with Xenocrates of Chalcedon (d.314 b.c.), Plato’s successor. It was Numenius, however, who had the most direct influence on Justin, and thus on Christianity. It was Numenius who had invented, rather redefined and introduced into the theological system, such terms as One, Demiurge, Father, Logos, World Soul. It seems that the first and major breaking point between Justin and Numenius was that Justin declared Christ to be the Second God and the Incarnation, the Logos.
Attached is a chart of the comparisons between Justin and Numenius. I have had a difficult time in attaching a table – so it is in pdf format.
Mar 17 2009
Creeds: Second Century
We are continuing our week of examining early Church creeds with two creedal statements from the 2nd Century. The below creed is from Justin Martyr (Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldon, New York: The Christian Literature Company). We know that Justin generally referred to Christ as ‘another God’ (Trypho, 56).
We worship the God of the Christians, whom we consider One from the beginning, the creator and maker of all creation, visible and invisible.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, the Servant of God, who had also been proclaimed beforehand by the prophets as about to be present with race of men, the herald of salvation and teacher of good instructions.
Justin forcefully distinguishes the Servant of God from the God of the Christians.
During Hippolytus’ schism with the Church at Rome, during the trouble Modalism, he enlisted the aid of past Elders who seemingly issued a creedal statement against Noetus
We also know in truth one God, we know Christ, we know the Son, suffering as he suffered, dying as he died, and risen on the third day, and abiding at the right hand of the Father, and coming to judge the living and the dead. And in saying this we say what has been handed down to us.
According to Hippolytus, Noetus had stated,
“When indeed, then, the Father had not been born, He yet was justly styled Father; and when it pleased Him to undergo generation, having been begotten, He Himself became His own Son, not another’s.” (Book IX Refutation of All Heresies)
It should be remembered that while Justin had proclaimed Heraclitus as a ‘Christian’ although he lived some 600 years before Christ, Hippolytus accused the same deceased as being the progenitor of the heresy of Noetus. The heresy of Noetus is that the Father produced the Son and declared the Son the Father, creating a paradox and troublesome thought of patripassianism.
Unlike Justin in Europe, the Asians carried from God to Christ to the Son without removing Christ from God, but assigning the suffering to the Son.
