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Justin Martyr, Hortatory Address to the Greeks
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Justin’s Hortatory Address to the Greeks
Chapter I.—Reasons for addressing the Greeks.
Chapter II—The poets are unfit to be religious teachers.
Chapter III.—Opinions of the school of Thales.
Chapter IV.—Opinions of Pythagoras and Epicurus.
Chapter V.—Opinions of Plato and Aristotle.
Chapter VI.—Further disagreements between Plato and Aristotle.
Chapter VII.—Inconsistencies of Plato’s doctrine.
Chapter VIII.—Antiquity, inspiration, and harmony of Christian teachers.
Chapter IX.—The antiquity of Moses proved by Greek writers.
Chapter X—Training and inspiration of Moses.
Chapter XI.—Heathen oracles testify of Moses.
Chapter XII.—Antiquity of Moses proved.
Chapter XIII.—History of the Septuagint.
Chapter XIV.—A warning appeal to the Greeks.
Chapter XV.—Testimony of Orpheus to monotheism.
Chapter XVI.—Testimony of the Sibyl.
Chapter XVII.—Testimony of Homer.
Chapter XVIII.—Testimony of Sophocles.
Chapter XIX.—Testimony of Pythagoras.
Chapter XX.—Testimony of Plato.
Chapter XXI.—The namelessness of God.
Chapter XXII.—Studied ambiguity of Plato.
Chapter XXIII.—Plato’s self-contradiction.
Chapter XXIV.—Agreement of Plato and Homer.
Chapter XXV.—Plato’s knowledge of God’s eternity.
Chapter XXVI.—Plato indebted to the prophets.
Chapter XXVII.—Plato’s knowledge of the judgment.
Chapter XXVIII.—Homer’s obligations to the sacred writers.
Chapter XXIX.—Origin of Plato’s doctrine of form.
Chapter XXX.—Homer’s knowledge of man’s origin.
Chapter XXXI.—Further proof of Plato’s acquaintance with Scripture.
Chapter XXXII.—Plato’s doctrine of the heavenly gift.
Chapter XXXIII.—Plato’s idea of the beginning of time drawn from Moses.
Chapter XXXIV.—Whence men attributed to God human form.
Chapter XXXV.—Appeal to the Greeks.
We must also mention what the ancient and exceedingly remote Sibyl, whom Plato and Aristophanes, and others besides, mention as a prophetess, taught you in her oracular verses concerning one only God. And she speaks thus:—
“There is one only unbegotten God, Omnipotent, invisible, most high, All-seeing, but Himself seen by no flesh.” |
Then elsewhere thus:—
“But we have strayed from the Immortal’s ways, And worship with a dull and senseless mind Idols, the workmanship of our own hands, And images and figures of dead men.” |
And again somewhere else:—
“Blessed shall be those men upon the earth Who shall love the great God before all else, Blessing Him when they eat and when they drink; Trusting in this their piety alone. Who shall abjure all shrines which they may see, All altars and vain figures of dumb stones, Worthless and stained with blood of animals, And sacrifice of the four-footed tribes, Beholding the great glory of One God.” |
These are the Sibyl’s words.
Τίνα δὲ καὶ τὴν ἀρχαίαν καὶ σφόδρα παλαιὰν Σίβυλλαν, ἧς καὶ Πλάτων καὶ Ἀριστοφάνης καὶ ἕτεροι πλείους ὡς χρησμῳδοῦ μέμνηνται, διὰ χρησμῶν ὑμᾶς διδάσκειν περὶ ἑνὸς καὶ μόνου θεοῦ συμβαίνει, ἀναγκαῖον ὑπομνῆσαι. Λέγει δὲ οὕτως: Εἷς δὲ θεὸς μόνος ἔστιν, ὑπερμεγέθης, ἀγένητος, Παντοκράτωρ, ἀόρατος, ὁρώμενος αὐτὸς ἅπαντα, Αὐτὸς δ' οὐ βλέπεται θνητῆς ὑπὸ σαρκὸς ἁπάσης. Εἶτ' ἀλλαχοῦ που οὕτως: Ἡμεῖς δ' ἀθανάτοιο τρίβους πεπλανημένοι εἰμέν, Ἔργα δὲ χειροποίητα γεραίρομεν ἄφρονι θυμῷ, Εἴδωλα ξόανά τε καταφθιμένων ἀνθρώπων. Καὶ πάλιν ἀλλαχοῦ που οὕτως: Ὄλβιοι ἄνθρωποι κεῖνοι κατὰ γαῖαν ἔσονται, Ὅσσοι δὴ στέρξουσι μέγαν θεόν, εὐλογέοντες Πρὶν φαγέειν πιέειν τε, πεποιθότες εὐσεβίῃσιν: Οἳ νηοὺς μὲν ἅπαντας ἀπαρνήσονται ἰδόντες Καὶ βωμούς, εἰκαῖα λίθων ἀφιδρύματα κωφῶν, Αἵμασιν ἐμψύχων μεμιασμένα καὶ θυσίῃσι Τετραπόδων, βλέψουσι δ' ἑνὸς θεοῦ ἐς μέγα κῦδος. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἡ Σίβυλλα.