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

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 also to the men who came from them after these things. This, then, is the first false imagination concerning gods, having its origin from the father of lies. God, therefore, knowing that the false opinion of polytheism was troubling the soul of men like a certain disease, and wishing to destroy and overthrow it, first appeared to Moses and said to him: I am who I am. For it was necessary, I think, that he who was to be the ruler and general of the race of the Hebrews should first of all know the existing God. Therefore, appearing first to him, as it was possible for God to appear to a man, he said to him: I am who I am. Then, when he was about to send him to the Hebrews, he commanded him to say the same things to them: The one who is has sent me to you. Plato, then, having learned these things in Egypt, and being very pleased with what was said about one God, did not think it safe to mention the name of Moses among the Athenians, because he taught one and only God, fearing the Areopagus; but what was well said by him, he set forth not as having learned it from him, but as his own opinion, in his earnest discourse, the Timaeus, in which he also attempts to discourse on theology, the same thing which Moses also wrote concerning God. For he said: In my opinion, then, we must first distinguish what is that which is always, and has no becoming, and what is that which is always becoming, but never is. Does this not seem to be one and the same thing, O men of Greece, to those who are able to understand, differing only in the article? For Moses said 'He who is', but Plato 'that which is'. And each of these expressions appears to pertain to the ever-existing God; for He alone is the one who is always, and has no becoming. What, then, is the other thing which is set in contrast to that which always is, concerning which he himself said: And what is that which is always becoming, but never is, it is proper to examine accurately. For we shall find him clearly and manifestly saying that the ungenerated is eternal, but the generated or created things (as he himself said concerning them: 'Gods of gods, of whom I am the demiurge') come into being and perish. For so he himself says this: In my opinion, then, we must first distinguish what is that which is always, and has no becoming, and what is that which is becoming, but never is. Now that which is apprehended by intelligence with reason is always in the same state; but that which is conceived by opinion with unreasoning sensation is coming to be and passing away, and never really is. These words, to those who are able to understand correctly, proclaim the destruction and ruin of the gods that have come into being. And I think it is necessary to pay attention to this, that Plato calls him not a poet [maker] but a demiurge [craftsman] of gods, although there is a great difference between these things according to Plato's own opinion; for the poet [maker], needing nothing else, makes what is made from his own power and authority, but the demiurge [craftsman], having received the power of creation from matter

τὴν παρακοὴν ἐκβεβλῆσθαι μόνην, οὐ μὴν εἰδότες διότι καὶ θεοὺς μὴ ὄντας ἐπείσθησαν εἶναι, τὸ τῶν θεῶν ὄνομα καὶ τοῖς μετὰ ταῦτα ἐξ αὐτῶν γενομένοις ἀνθρώποις παρέδοσαν. Aὕτη τοίνυν πρώτη περὶ θεῶν ψευδὴς φαντασία, ἀπὸ τοῦ ψεύ στου πατρὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐσχηκυῖα. Eἰδὼς τοίνυν ὁ θεὸς τὴν τῆς πολυθεότητος μὴ ἀληθῆ δόξαν ὥσπερ τινὰ νόσον τῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐνοχλοῦσαν ψυχῇ, ἀνελεῖν καὶ ἀνατρέψαι βουλόμε νος, πρῶτον μὲν τῷ Μωϋσεῖ φανεὶς ἔφη πρὸς αὐτόν· Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν. Ἔδει γάρ, οἶμαι, τὸν ἄρχοντα καὶ στρατηγὸν τοῦ τῶν Ἑβραίων γένους ἔσεσθαι μέλλοντα πρῶτον ἁπάντων τὸν ὄντα γινώσκειν θεόν. ∆ιὸ καὶ τούτῳ πρώτῳ φανείς, ὡς ἦν δυνατὸν ἀνθρώπῳ φανῆναι θεόν, ἔφη πρὸς αὐτόν· Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν. Eἶτα, ἀποστέλλειν αὐτὸν πρὸς τοὺς Ἑβραίους μέλλων, κἀκείνοις αὐτὸν τὰ αὐτὰ προστάττει λέγειν· Ὁ ὢν ἀπέ σταλκέ με πρὸς ὑμᾶς. Ταῦτα τοίνυν ἐν Aἰγύπτῳ μαθὼν ὁ Πλάτων, καὶ σφόδρα ἀρεσθεὶς τοῖς περὶ ἑνὸς θεοῦ εἰρημένοις, τοῦ μὲν ὀνόματος Μωϋσέως, διὰ τὸ ἕνα καὶ μόνον διδάσκειν θεόν, μνη μονεῦσαι παρ' Ἀθηναίοις οὐκ ἀσφαλὲς ἡγεῖτο, δεδιὼς τὸν Ἄρειον πάγον, τὸ δὲ καλῶς εἰρημένον ὑπ' αὐτοῦ οὐχ ὡς παρ' ἐκείνου μαθών, ἀλλ' ὡς ἑαυτοῦ ἐκτιθέμενος δόξαν ἐν τῷ ἐσπου δασμένῳ αὐτοῦ λόγῳ Τιμαίῳ, ἐν ᾧ καὶ θεολογεῖν ἐπιχείρει, τὸ αὐτὸ ὃ καὶ περὶ θεοῦ Μωϋσῆς γέγραφεν. Ἔφη γάρ· Ἔστιν οὖν κατ' ἐμὴν δόξαν διαιρετέον πρῶτον, τί τὸ ὂν ἀεί, γένεσιν δὲ οὐκ ἔχον, καὶ τί τὸ γινόμενον μὲν ἀεί, ὂν δὲ οὐδέποτε. Τοῦτο, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες, τοῖς νοεῖν δυναμένοις οὐ δοκεῖ ἓν καὶ ταὐτὸν εἶναι, τῷ ἄρθρῳ μόνῳ διαλλάττον; Ὁ μὲν γὰρ Μωϋσῆς ὁ ὢν ἔφη, ὁ δὲ Πλάτων τὸ ὄν. Ἑκάτερον δὲ τῶν εἰρημένων τῷ ἀεὶ ὄντι θεῷ προσήκειν φαίνεται· αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστι μόνος ὁ ἀεὶ ὤν, γένεσιν δὲ μὴ ἔχων. Τί τοίνυν ἐστὶν ἕτε ρον τὸ τῷ ἀεὶ ὄντι ἀντιδιαστελλόμενον, περὶ οὗ αὐτὸς ἔφη· Καὶ τί τὸ γινόμενον μὲν ἀεί, ὂν δὲ οὐδέποτε, ἀκριβῶς σκο πεῖν προσήκει. Eὑρήσομεν γὰρ αὐτὸν σαφῶς καὶ φανερῶς τὸν μὲν ἀγένητον ἀΐδιον εἶναι λέγοντα, τοὺς δὲ γενητοὺς ἢ δη μιουργητοὺς (ὡς αὐτὸς περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν εἰρῆσθαι ἔφη· Θεοὶ θεῶν, ὧν ἐγὼ δημιουργός) γινομένους καὶ ἀπολλυμένους. Oὕτω τοῦτο γὰρ αὐτὸς λέγει· Ἔστιν οὖν κατ' ἐμὴν δόξαν πρῶτον διαιρετέον, τί τὸ ὂν ἀεί, γένεσιν δὲ οὐκ ἔχον, καὶ τί τὸ γινόμενον, ὂν δὲ οὐδέποτε. Τὸ μὲν οὖν νοήσει μετὰ τοῦ λόγου περιληπτόν, ἀεὶ κατὰ ταὐτὰ ὄν, τὸ δ' αὖ δόξῃ μετ' αἰσθήσεως ἀλόγου δοξαστόν, γινόμενον καὶ ἀπολλύμενον, ὂν δὲ οὐδέποτε. Ταῦτα τὰ ·ητὰ τοῖς ὀρθῶς νοεῖν δυναμένοις ἀναίρεσιν καὶ ἀπώλειαν τῶν γενομένων κηρύττει θεῶν. Ἀναγ καῖον δὲ οἶμαι καὶ τούτῳ προσέχειν τὸν νοῦν, ὅτι οὐδὲ ποιητὴν αὐτὸν ὁ Πλάτων ἀλλὰ δημιουργὸν ὀνομάζει θεῶν, καίτοι πολλῆς διαφορᾶς ἐν τούτοις οὔσης κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ Πλάτωνος δόξαν· ὁ μὲν γὰρ ποιητής, οὐδενὸς ἑτέρου προσδεόμενος, ἐκ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ δυνάμεως καὶ ἐξουσίας ποιεῖ τὸ ποιούμενον, ὁ δὲ δημιουργός, τὴν τῆς δημιουργίας δύναμιν ἐκ τῆς ὕλης εἰλη