HORTATORY ADDRESS TO THE GREEKS BY SAINT JUSTIN, PHILOSOPHER AND MARTYR.

 Alas, with my own eyes I see a dear man pursued around the wall and my heart grieves for him. And what he says about the other gods conspiring agains

 Artemis the archer, sister of the far-shooter. And against Leto stood the strong, helpful Hermes. These and such things Homer taught you about the god

 ...s of you you say have become of piety, some declaring water to be the beginning of all things, others air, others fire, others some other of the af

 Of all of them who had spoken, Thales, the eldest of them all, says that the principle of existing things is water for he says that all things are fr

 having denied it, later says in his conceptions that it is this very thing. Moreover, having formerly declared that everything that has come into bein

 having established for I do not attempt to prove these things from the divine histories among us alone, which you are not yet willing to believe beca

 to organize affairs in Egypt, but also to establish the warrior class with laws. And fourth, they say that Bocchoris the king became a lawgiver, a wis

 it happened that there were once God-fearing men, as you say the oracle declared: Only the Chaldeans obtained wisdom, and also the Hebrews, purely rev

 of wise men or orators, should one wish to make mention, he will find that they have written their own compositions in the letters of the Greeks. But

 it is fitting that it should appear clearly and manifestly. It is necessary, therefore, for you, O men of Greece, foreseeing the things to come and lo

 And in the Oracles it is thus: I adjure you, Heaven, the wise work of the great God, I adjure you, Voice of the Father, which He first uttered, When H

 the poem to fall from its meter, lest he should seem not to have first mentioned the name of the gods. But a little later he sets forth clearly and pl

 he should cause Meletus to be against himself, accusing him before the Athenians and saying: Plato does wrong and is a busybody, not believing in the

 that only disobedience was cast out, but not knowing that they were also persuaded that non-existent gods existed, they passed on the name of the gods

 light, constructs that which comes to be. But perhaps some, not wishing to abandon the doctrines of polytheism, will say that the demiurge himself sai

 having. For it does not seem to me that what was said by Phoenix was said simply: Not even if the god himself should promise me, scraping off old age,

 wishing to confirm what has been said of participation, Plato has written thus in these very words: God, then, as the old saying has it, holding the b

 having heard from one who had come back to life and was relating the things there, has written thus in his very words: For he said that he was present

 poetry, Diodorus, the most renowned of the historians, sufficiently teaches us. For he said that he, having been in Egypt, had learned that Nepenthes,

 to set up the battle-cry of much-lamented war They were eager to place Ossa upon Olympus, but upon Ossa Pelion with its shaking leaves, that heaven m

 and concerning the heaven that came into being that the created heaven, which he also named the firmament, this is the perceptible one that came into

 proclaimed by the name. For, fearing to call the gift of God Holy Spirit, lest he should seem to be an enemy of the Greeks by following the teaching

 supposed them to have the forms of men, you will find that they learned this also from the divine history. For since the history of Moses says, from t

 to you Socrates, the wisest of the wise, to whom even your oracle, as you yourselves say, testifies, saying: Of all men Socrates is the wisest, confes

 It will be easy for you to learn in part the true worship of God from the ancient Sibyl, who teaches you by oracles from some powerful inspiration, th

 it is clear that he said this about the oracle-givers, looking to the oracles of the Sibyl. For he spoke thus: When they succeed in saying many and gr

 Tatian's Address to the Greeks. Do not be so very hostile towards the barbarians, O men of Greece, nor be envious of their doctrines. For what pursuit

 very savagely, having imprisoned his own friend for not wanting to worship him, carried him around like a bear or a leopard. Indeed, he completely fol

 selecting places for their covetousness *** the prominent. But one ought not flatter the leaders with the prospect of kingship, but to wait until the

 I have chosen to order the unordered matter in you, and just as the Word, having been begotten in the beginning, in turn begot our creation for himsel

 not according to fate, but by the free will of those who choose, he foretold the outcomes of future events and he became a hinderer of wickedness thro

 with baubles of the earth he deceived the motherless and orphaned girl. Poseidon sails, Ares delights in wars, Apollo is a cithara player, Dionysus is

 of a kingdom, *** were turned into constellations by the shaping of letters? And how is Kronos, who was fettered and cast out of his kingdom, appointe

 of faith with glory become but the poor man and the most moderate, desiring the things that are his own, more easily gets by. Why, I ask, according to

 were zealous to be but the Lord of all allowed them to luxuriate until the world, having reached its end, should be dissolved, and the judge should a

 refusing a suffering god, they were shown to be fighters against God rather than God-fearing. You too are such men, O Greeks, talkative in words, but

 of the spirit But when the tabernacle is not of such a kind, man excels the beasts only in articulate speech, but in other respects his way of life i

 causes, when they happen, they ascribe to themselves, attacking whenever weariness overtakes them. But there are times when they themselves by a tempe

 For if it were so, much more would he ward off his own enemy from himself for being able to help others also, he will much more become his own avenge

 you? Therefore if you say that one ought not to fear death, sharing our doctrines, die not because of human vainglory, as Anaxarchus did, but for the

 Unable to explain those things, because of the impossibility of their theory, they have blamed the tides, and of the seas, one being weedy and the oth

 For what sort are your teachings? Who would not mock your public festivals, which, being celebrated under the pretext of wicked demons, turn men to di

 providing it, feeding it with the most ungodly bloodshed. For the robber kills for the sake of taking, but the rich man buys gladiators for the sake o

 dedications, and those who read are as with the jar of the Danaids. Why do you divide time for me, saying that one part of it is past, another present

 the conception which I have concerning all things, this I do not hide. Why do you advise me to deceive the state? Why, while saying to despise death,

 but again it will be dissolved, if we obey the word of God and do not scatter ourselves. For he has gained control of our possessions through a certai

 Archilochus flourished around the twenty-third Olympiad, in the time of Gyges the Lydian, five hundred years after the Trojan War. And concerning the

 the nonsense of affairs for the Greeks. For the pursuits of your customs are rather foolish through great glory and behave disgracefully through the w

 seeing the figures of the strife and of Eteocles, and not having thrown them into a pit with Pythagoras who made them, do you destroy along with them

 For what is difficult about men who have been shown to be ignorant being now refuted by a man of like passions? And what is strange, according to your

 maios. The time from Inachus until the capture of Ilium completes twenty generations and the proof is in this manner. The kings of the Argives were th

 our laws, and what the learned men among the Greeks have said, and how many and who they are who have mentioned them, will be shown in the treatise A

 God and what is the creation according to him, I present myself ready to you for the examination of the doctrines, while my way of life according to G

Of all of them who had spoken, Thales, the eldest of them all, says that the principle of existing things is water; for he says that all things are from water and all things are resolved into water. He conjectures this, first, from the fact that the seed of all animals, which is their beginning, is moist; second, that all plants are nourished by moisture and bear fruit, but when deprived of moisture they dry up. Then, as if not content with his conjectures, he also calls Homer to witness as reliable, who says thus: Ocean, which is the genesis for all. How then would Thales not reasonably say to him: For what reason, O Aristotle, when you wish to refute the opinions of Plato, do you pay attention to Homer as one who speaks the truth, but when you declare our opinion to be the contrary, you think Homer does not speak the truth? That, therefore, the wise men so greatly admired among you are not found to agree even in other matters, is easy to know also from these things. For while Plato says there are three principles of the universe, God and matter and form (God as the maker of all things, matter as that which underlies the first generation of things that have come to be and which provides Him the occasion for creation, and form as the model for each of the things that come to be), Aristotle makes no mention of form as a principle, but says there are two principles, God and matter. And again, while Plato says that in the first, non-wandering sphere of the highest heaven are both the first God and the ideas, Aristotle says that after the first God there are not the ideas but certain intelligible gods. Thus, then, do they differ with one another concerning matters in the heavens. So it is fitting to know that those who have not even been able to know the things here among us, but have also disagreed with one another about these, will not seem reliable when they discourse on the things in the heavens. That, therefore, their account concerning the human soul here will not agree either, is clear from the things said by each of them about it. For Plato says that it is tripartite, and says that one part of it is the rational, another the spirited, and another the appetitive; but Aristotle says that the soul is not a more general thing, in which the corruptible parts are also included, but only the rational part. And Plato cries out, saying, 'Every soul is immortal'; but Aristotle, calling it an entelechy, wishes it to be not immortal but mortal. And the one says it is ever-moving; but Aristotle says it is unmoved, preceding all motion. But in these things they are convicted of holding opinions contrary to one another. But if someone should wish to examine their positions accurately, they have not chosen to abide even by their own opinions. Plato, at any rate, at one time says there are three principles of the universe, God and matter and form, and at another time four; for he adds also the universal soul. And again, having previously said that matter is uncreated, he later says it is created; and having previously given to form its own principle, and that it has its substance in itself

τῶν πάντων εἰρηκότος ὁ πρεσβύτατος τῶν κατ' αὐτοὺς ἁπάν των Θαλῆς ἀρχὴν τῶν ὄντων ὕδωρ εἶναι λέγει· ἐξ ὕδατος γάρ φησι τὰ πάντα εἶναι καὶ εἰς ὕδωρ ἀναλύεσθαι τὰ πάντα. Στοχάζεται δὲ πρῶτον μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ πάντων τῶν ζώων τὴν γο νήν, ἀρχὴν οὖσαν, ὑγρὰν εἶναι· δεύτερον δὲ ὅτι πάντα τὰ φυτὰ ὑγρῷ τρέφεται καὶ καρποφορεῖ, ἀμοιροῦντα δὲ τοῦ ὑγροῦ ξηραίνεται. Eἶθ', ὥσπερ μὴ ἀρκούμενος οἷς στοχάζεται, καὶ τὸν Ὅμηρον ὡς ἀξιόπιστον μαρτύρεται οὕτως λέγοντα· Ὠκεανός, ὅσπερ γένεσις πάντεσσι τέτυκται. Πῶς οὖν οὐκ εἰκότως ὁ Θαλῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν φήσει· ∆ι' ἣν αἰτίαν, ὦ Ἀριστότελες, τὰς μὲν Πλάτωνος ἀναιρεῖν ἐθέ λων δόξας, ὡς ἀληθεύοντι προσέχεις Ὁμήρῳ, ἡμῶν δὲ τὴν ἐναντίαν ἀποφηνάμενος δόξαν οὐκ ἀληθεύειν Ὅμηρον οἴει; Ὅτι τοίνυν οἱ σφόδρα θαυμαστοὶ καθ' ὑμᾶς σοφοὶ οὐδ' ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις συμφωνοῦντες φαίνονται, καὶ ἀπὸ τούτων γνῶναι ·ᾴδιον. Τοῦ γὰρ Πλάτωνος τρεῖς ἀρχὰς τοῦ παντὸς εἶναι λέγοντος, θεὸν καὶ ὕλην καὶ εἶδος (θεὸν μὲν τὸν πάν των ποιητήν, ὕλην δὲ τὴν ὑποκειμένην τῇ πρώτῃ τῶν γενο μένων γενέσει καὶ τὴν πρόφασιν αὐτῷ τῆς δημιουργίας παρέ χουσαν, εἶδος δὲ τὸ ἑκάστου τῶν γινομένων παράδειγμα), Ἀρι στοτέλης τοῦ μὲν εἴδους ὡς ἀρχῆς οὐδαμῶς μέμνηται, δύο δὲ ἀρχάς, θεὸν καὶ ὕλην, εἶναί φησι. Καὶ αὖθις τοῦ Πλάτωνος ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ τοῦ ἀνωτάτω οὐρανοῦ ἀπλανεῖ σφαίρᾳ τόν τε πρῶτον θεὸν καὶ τὰς εἰδέας εἶναι λέγοντος, Ἀριστοτέλης μετὰ τὸν πρῶτον θεὸν οὐ τὰς εἰδέας ἀλλά τινας νοητοὺς θεοὺς εἶναι λέγει. Oὕτω μὲν οὖν περὶ τῶν ἐν οὐρανοῖς πρὸς ἀλλή λους διαφέρονται πραγμάτων. Ὥστε εἰδέναι προσήκει ὅτι οἱ μηδὲ τὰ παρ' ἡμῖν ἐνταῦθα γνῶναι δυνηθέντες, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τούτων πρὸς ἀλλήλους διενεχθέντες, οὐκ ἀξιόπιστοι φα νήσονται περὶ τῶν ἐν οὐρανοῖς διηγούμενοι. Ὅτι τοίνυν οὐδὲ ὁ περὶ τῆς ἐνταῦθα ἀνθρωπίνης ψυχῆς αὐτοῖς συμφωνήσει λό γος, δῆλον ἀπὸ τῶν ὑφ' ἑκατέρου αὐτῶν περὶ αὐτῆς λεχθέντων. Πλάτων μὲν γὰρ τριμερῆ αὐτὴν εἶναί φησι, καὶ τὸ μὲν λογι κὸν αὐτῆς, τὸ δὲ θυμικόν, τὸ δὲ ἐπιθυμητικὸν εἶναι λέγει· Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ οὐ κοινοτέραν τὴν ψυχὴν εἶναί φησιν, ἐν ᾧ περιείληπται καὶ τὰ φθαρτὰ μόρια, ἀλλὰ τὸ λογικὸν μόνον. Καὶ ὁ μὲν Πλάτων Ψυχὴ πᾶσα ἀθάνατος κέκραγε λέγων· Ἀριστοτέλης δέ, ἐντελέχειαν αὐτὴν ὀνομάζων, οὐκ ἀθάνατον ἀλλὰ θνητὴν αὐτὴν εἶναι βούλεται. Καὶ ὁ μὲν ἀεικίνητον αὐτὴν εἶναι λέγει· Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ ἀκίνητον αὐτὴν εἶναί φησιν, ἁπάσης κινήσεως προηγουμένην. Ἀλλ' ἐν τούτοις μὲν ὑπεναντία φρονοῦντες ἀλλήλοις ἐλέγχονται. Eἰ δέ τις ἀκριβῶς τὰ κατ' αὐτοὺς σκοπεῖν ἐθέ λοι, οὐδὲ ταῖς ἑαυτῶν δόξαις ἐμμένειν προῄρηνται. Ὁ γοῦν Πλάτων ποτὲ μὲν τρεῖς ἀρχὰς τοῦ παντὸς εἶναι λέγει, θεὸν καὶ ὕλην καὶ εἶδος, ποτὲ δὲ τέσσαρας· προστίθησι γὰρ καὶ τὴν καθόλου ψυχήν. Καὶ αὖθις τὴν ὕλην ἀγένητον πρότερον εἰρηκὼς ὕστερον γενητὴν αὐτὴν εἶναι λέγει· καὶ τῷ εἴδει δὲ ἀρχὴν ἰδίαν πρότερον δεδωκώς, καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὸ οὐσιῶσθαι