Church History, Volume 1 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Religion
Church History, Volume 1 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
witness for Christ and Christianity, where he takes as his basis
not the LXX. but the Hebrew canon (§ 36, 1).[67]
§ 30.9. =Extant Writings of Apologists of the Post-Apostolic Age.=
a. The earliest and most celebrated of these is =Justin
Martyr=.[68] Born at Shechem (Flavia Neapolis) of Greek
parents, he was drawn to the Platonic doctrine of God and to
the Stoical theory of ethics, more than to any of the other
philosophical systems to which, as a pagan, he turned in
the search after truth. But full satisfaction he first found
in the prophets and apostles, to whom he was directed by an
unknown venerable old man, whom he once met by the sea-side.
He now in his thirtieth year cast off his philosopher’s
cloak and adopted Christianity, of which he became a
zealous defender, but thereby called down upon himself
the passionate hatred of the pagan sages. His bitterest
enemy was the Cynic Crescens in Rome, who after a public
disputation with him, did all he could to compass his
destruction. In A.D. 165, under Marcus Aurelius, Justin
was condemned at Rome to be scourged and beheaded.--His two
Apologies, addressed to Antoninus Pius and his son Marcus
Aurelius are certainly genuine. Of these, however, the
shorter one, the so-called second Apology is probably only
a sort of appendix to the first. His _Dialogus cum Tryphone
Judæo_ is probably a free rendering of a disputation which
actually occurred. Except a few fragments, his Σύνταγμα κατὰ
Μαρκίωνος have been lost. It is disputed whether that was an
integral part of the Σύνταγμα κατὰ πασῶν αἱρέσεων of which
he himself makes mention, or a later independent work. The
following are of more than doubtful authenticity: the Λόγος
παραινετικὸς πρὸς Ἕλληνας (_Cohortatio ad Græcos_), which
seeks to prove that not by the poets nor by the philosophers,
but only by Moses and the prophets can the true knowledge
of God be found, and that whatever truth is spoken by
the former, they had borrowed from the latter; also, the
shorter Λόγος πρὸς Ἕλληνας (_Oratio ad Græcos_), on the
irrationality and immorality of the pagan mythology; further,
the short treatise Περὶ μοναρχίας, which proves the vanity
of polytheism from the admissions of heathen poets and
philosophers; and a fragment Περὶ ἀναστάσεως.--Justin’s
theology is of the Gentile Christian type, quite free from
any Ebionitic taint, inclining rather to the speculation and
ethics of Greek philosophy and to an Alexandrian-Hellenistic
conception and exposition of scripture. To these sources
everything may be traced in which he unconsciously departs
from biblical Paulinism and Catholic orthodoxy. Then in
his idea of God and creation, he has not quite overcome the
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