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

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 revering the self-begotten King and God. Therefore, since you think you can learn the truth from your oracles, having encountered the histories and the writings about the life of Moses by those outside our religion, and having learned that Moses and the other prophets sprang from the race of the Chaldeans and Hebrews, do not consider it to have been anything paradoxical, if God purposed to honor with this great gift the man who was of a God-fearing race and had lived worthily of his ancestors’ piety, and to reveal him as the first of all the prophets. And I think it necessary also to examine the times in which your philosophers lived, so that you may know that the time which brought them forth to you is very recent and short; for in this way it will be possible for you also to easily recognize the antiquity of Moses. But lest, in going through the chronology, I should seem to be extending my argument by using more proofs, I think it sufficient to show this from these facts as well. For Socrates was the teacher of Plato, and Plato of Aristotle. And these men flourished in the times of Philip and Alexander of Macedon, during which also the Athenian orators lived, as the speeches written by Demosthenes against Philip also clearly show us. And that Aristotle was also with Alexander during the time of his reign, those who have chronicled the deeds of Alexander sufficiently declare. From all this, therefore, it is easy to see that the history of Moses happens to be far more ancient than all the histories from outside. Besides, it is also fitting for you not to be ignorant of this, that nothing was accurately recorded by the Greeks before the Olympiads, nor is there any ancient writing, of Greeks or barbarians, that indicates an event. Only the history of the first prophet, Moses, pre-existed, which Moses wrote by divine inspiration in the letters of the Hebrews. For those of the Greeks did not yet exist, as the teachers of letters themselves also declare, saying that Cadmus first brought them from Phoenicia and gave them to the Greeks. And the first of your philosophers, Plato, testifies that they were discovered later. For he has written in the Timaeus that Solon, the wisest of the wise, having returned from Egypt, said to Critias these things which he had heard from a certain Egyptian priest who was not very old, who said to him: O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, and there is no old Greek. Then again: You are young, he said, all of you in your souls; for you have in them no ancient opinion nor any knowledge ancient with long time. But this has escaped your notice because for many generations you came to an end without letters and without a voice. It is fitting, then, to know that every history happens to have been written in the letters of the Greeks which were discovered later, and whether of any of the ancient poets or lawgivers or historians or philo

συνέβη θεοσεβεῖς ἄνδρας γεγενῆσθαί ποτε, οὕτω τὸ χρηστήριον εἰρηκέναι φατέ· Μοῦνοι Χαλδαῖοι σοφίην λάχον, ἠδ' ἄρ' Ἑβραῖοι, Aὐτογένητον ἄνακτα σεβαζόμενοι θεὸν ἁγνῶς. Oὐκοῦν ἐπειδήπερ οἴεσθε παρὰ τῶν χρηστηρίων ὑμῶν δύνασθαι τἀληθῆ μανθάνειν, ἐντυχόντες ταῖς ἱστορίαις καὶ τοῖς περὶ τοῦ βίου Μωϋσέως γραφεῖσιν ὑπὸ τῶν ἔξωθεν τῆς ἡμετέρας θρησκείας, καὶ γνόντες ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ τῶν Χαλδαίων καὶ Ἑβραίων γένους ὥρμητο Μωϋσῆς καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ προφῆται, μηδὲν παρά δοξον γεγενῆσθαι νομίζητε, εἰ ἐκ γένους ὄντα θεοσεβῶν τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ ἀξίως τῆς τῶν προγόνων θεοσεβείας βεβιωκότα ὁ θεὸς τῇ μεγάλῃ ταύτῃ δωρεᾷ τιμῆσαι προὔθετο καὶ πρῶτον ἁπάντων ἀποφῆναι τῶν προφητῶν. Ἀναγκαῖον δὲ οἶμαι καὶ τοὺς χρόνους σκοπεῖν, καθ' οὓς οἱ καθ' ὑμᾶς γεγόνασι φιλόσοφοι, ὅπως γνῶτε ὅτι σφόδρα νέος καὶ βραχύς ἐστιν ὁ τούτους ὑμῖν ἐνεγκὼν χρόνος· οὕτω γὰρ ὑμῖν ἔσται δυνατὸν καὶ τὴν Μωϋσέως ἀρχαιότητα ·ᾳδίως γνῶναι. Ἵνα δὲ μὴ περὶ τῶν χρόνων διεξιὼν παρέλξειν δόξω, πλείοσιν ἀποδείξεσι χρώμενος, ἀποχρώντως οἶμαι καὶ ἀπὸ τούτων δεικνύναι. Σωκράτης μὲν γὰρ Πλάτωνος, Πλάτων δὲ Ἀριστοτέλους διδάσκαλος γέγονεν. Oὗτοι δὲ κατὰ τοὺς Φι λίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος ἤκμασαν χρόνους, καθ' οὓς καὶ οἱ Ἀθηναίων ῥήτορες, ὡς δηλοῦσιν ἡμῖν σαφῶς καὶ οἱ ∆ημοσθένει κατὰ Φιλίππου γραφέντες λόγοι. Ὅτι δὲ καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης Ἀλεξάνδρῳ συνῆν ἐν τῷ τῆς βασιλείας χρόνῳ, ἱκανῶς δηλοῦσιν οἱ τὰς Ἀλεξάνδρου ἱστορήσαντες πράξεις. Πανταχόθεν οὖν γνῶναι ·ᾴδιον ὅτι πολλῷ ἀρχαιοτάτην πασῶν τῶν ἔξωθεν ἱστοριῶν τὴν Μωϋσέως ἱστορίαν εἶναι συμβαίνει. Ἄλλως τε οὐδὲ τοῦτο ἀγνοεῖν ὑμᾶς προσήκει, ὅτι οὐδὲν Ἕλ λησι πρὸ τῶν ὀλυμπιάδων ἀκριβὲς ἱστόρηται, οὐδ' ἔστι τι σύγγραμμα παλαιόν, Ἑλλήνων ἢ βαρβάρων σημαῖνον πρᾶξιν. Μόνη δὲ ἡ τοῦ πρώτου προφήτου Μωϋσέως προὐπῆρχεν ἱστορία, ἣν ἐκ θείας ἐπιπνοίας Μωϋσῆς γέγραφε τοῖς τῶν Ἑβραίων γράμμασι. Τὰ γὰρ τῶν Ἑλλήνων οὐδέπω ἦν, ὡς δη λοῦσι καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ τῶν γραμμάτων διδάσκαλοι, φάσκοντες Κάδμον πρῶτον ἐκ Φοινίκης αὐτὰ κομίσαντα Ἕλλησι μετα δοῦναι. Καὶ ὁ πρῶτος δὲ τῶν παρ' ὑμῖν φιλοσόφων μαρ τυρεῖ Πλάτων ὕστερον εὑρῆσθαι αὐτά. Γέγραφε γὰρ ἐν τῷ Τιμαίῳ τὸν τῶν σοφῶν σοφώτατον Σόλωνα, ἐκ τῆς Aἰγύπτου ἐπανελθόντα, Κριτίᾳ λέγειν ταῦτα ἅπερ ἀκηκοέναι Aἰ γυπτίου τινὸς ἱερέως οὐ μάλα παλαιοῦ πρὸς αὐτὸν λέγοντος· Ὠ Σόλων Σόλων, Ἕλληνές ἐστε παῖδες ἀεί, γέρων δὲ Ἕλ λην οὐκ ἔστιν. Eἶτ' αὖθις· Νέοι ἐστέ, ἔφη, τὰς ψυχὰς πάντες· οὐδεμίαν γὰρ ἐν αὐταῖς ἔχετε παλαιὰν δόξαν οὐδὲ μακρῷ χρόνῳ παλαιὸν οὐδέν. Ἀλλ' ὑμᾶς λέληθε διὰ τὸ ἐπὶ πολλὰς γενεὰς γράμμασι τελευτᾶν ἀφώνους. Eἰδέναι τοί νυν προσήκει ὅτι πᾶσαν ἱστορίαν τοῖς τῶν Ἑλλήνων ὕστερον εὑρεθεῖσι γράμμασι γεγράφθαι συμβαίνει, καὶ εἴτε ποιητῶν τις ἀρχαίων εἴτε νομοθετῶν εἴτε ἱστοριογράφων εἴτε φιλο