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

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 beginning and end and middle of all things. Here Plato clearly and manifestly calls the ancient account the law of Moses, fearing to mention the name of Moses for fear of the hemlock; for he knew that the man's teaching was hostile to the Greeks; but through the antiquity of the account he clearly indicates Moses. That the law of Moses is ancient and first has been sufficiently demonstrated to us in the preceding sections from Diodorus and the other histories; for Diodorus says that he was the first lawgiver of all, when not even the letters used by the Greeks had yet been invented, with which they wrote their own histories. And let no one be amazed if Plato, persuaded by Moses, wrote thus concerning the eternity of God. For you will find that he mystically refers the true knowledge of things that exist to the prophets, after the truly existing God. For thus in the Timaeus, discoursing about certain principles, he has written: The principle of fire and of the other bodies we assume, following a course of argument that combines probability with necessity; but the principles still more remote than these God knows, and that man who is dear to God. And what other men does he consider to be friends of God, if not Moses and the other prophets? Having encountered their prophecies and learned from them the account concerning judgment, in the first book of the Republic he thus proclaims, saying: When a man thinks he is going to die, he is beset by fear and concern for things that previously did not trouble him. The tales told about the things in Hades—that the man who has done wrong here must pay the penalty there—which he had laughed at till then, now torment his soul with the thought that they may be true. And he, either because of the weakness of old age, or because he is now closer to the things in that world, has a clearer view of them. So he becomes full of suspicion and fear, and begins to reckon up and consider whether he has wronged anyone. So the man who finds many wrongdoings in his life often wakes from his sleep in a fright, as children do, and lives in a state of evil expectation; but to the one who is conscious of no wrongdoing, sweet hope is ever-present and a good nurse of old age, as Pindar also says. For charmingly indeed, O Socrates, he said this, that whoever lives his life piously and justly, ‘Sweet hope, the nurse of old age, accompanies him, cherishing his heart, Hope, which most of all pilots the ever-turning mind of mortals.’ And these things he has written in the first book of the Republic. But in the tenth book, clearly and openly, what he learned from the prophets about judgment—this he does not relate as learned from them, because of his fear of the Greeks, but as if from someone who, as he saw fit to invent, was killed in war and, about to be buried on the twelfth day, was lying on the pyre,

τῆς μετοχῆς εἰρημένον βουλόμενος, ὁ Πλάτων αὐταῖς λέξεσιν οὕτω γέγραφεν· Ὁ μὲν δὴ θεός, ὥσπερ καὶ ὁ παλαιὸς λόγος, ἀρχὴν καὶ τελευτὴν καὶ μέσα τῶν πάντων ἔχων. Ἐν ταῦθα ὁ Πλάτων σαφῶς καὶ φανερῶς τὸν παλαιὸν λόγον Μωϋσέως ὀνομάζει νόμον, τοῦ μὲν ὀνόματος Μωϋσέως φόβῳ τοῦ κωνείου μεμνῆσθαι δεδιώς· ἠπίστατο γὰρ τὴν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς διδασκαλίαν ἐχθρὰν Ἑλλήνων οὖσαν· διὰ δὲ τῆς τοῦ λόγου παλαιότητος τὸν Μωϋσέα σημαίνει σαφῶς. Ὅτι δὲ παλαιὸς καὶ πρῶτος ὁ Μωϋσέως νόμος, καὶ ἐκ τῆς ∆ιοδώρου καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἱστοριῶν ἱκανῶς ἡμῖν ἐν τοῖς προάγουσιν ἀποδέδει κται· πρῶτον γὰρ ἁπάντων νομοθέτην αὐτὸν ∆ιόδωρος γεγε νῆσθαι λέγει, μηδέπω μηδὲ τῶν τοῖς Ἕλλησι διαφερόντων εὑρεθέντων γραμμάτων, οἷς χρώμενοι τὰς ἑαυτῶν γεγράφασιν ἱστορίας. Θαυμαζέτω δὲ μηδείς, εἰ Μωϋσεῖ πεισθεὶς ὁ Πλά των περὶ τῆς ἀϊδιότητος τοῦ θεοῦ οὕτως γέγραφεν. Eὑρήσεις γὰρ αὐτὸν μυστικῶς μετὰ τὸν ὄντως ὄντα θεὸν καὶ τοῖς προ φήταις τὴν ἀληθῆ περὶ τῶν ὄντων ἀναφέροντα γνῶσιν. Oὕτω γὰρ ἐν τῷ Τιμαίῳ περί τινων ἀρχῶν διαλεγόμενος γέγραφε· Τὴν δὲ πυρὸς ἀρχὴν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων σωμάτων ὑποτιθέμεθα, κατὰ τὸν μετ' ἀνάγκης εἰκότα λόγον πορευόμενοι· τὰς δὲ ἔτι τούτων ἀρχὰς ὁ θεὸς οἶδεν ἄνωθεν καὶ ἀνδρῶν ὃς ἂν ἐκείνῳ φίλος ᾖ. Ἄνδρας δὲ τίνας ἑτέρους θεοῦ φίλους εἶναι νομίζει, εἰ μὴ Μωϋσέα καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς προφήτας; Ὧν ταῖς προφη τείαις ἐντυχὼν καὶ τὸν περὶ κρίσεως παρ' αὐτῶν μεμαθηκὼς λόγον ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ τῆς Πολιτείας λόγῳ οὕτω προαναφωνεῖ λέγων· Ἐπειδάν τις ἐγγὺς ᾖ τοῦ οἴεσθαι τελευτήσειν, εἰσέρ χεται αὐτῷ δέος καὶ φροντὶς περὶ ὧν ἐν τῷ πρόσθεν οὐκ εἰσῄει. Oἵ τε γὰρ λεγόμενοι μῦθοι περὶ τῶν ἐν ᾅδου, ὡς τὸν ἐνθάδε ἀδικήσαντα δέοι ἐκεῖ διδόναι δίκην, καταγελώμενοι τέως, τότε δὴ στρέφουσιν αὐτοῦ τὴν ψυχὴν μὴ ἀληθεῖς ὦσι, καὶ αὐτὸς ἤτοι ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ γήρως ἀσθενείας ἢ καὶ ὥσπερ ἐγγυτέρω ὢν τῶν ἐκεῖ μᾶλλον καθορᾷ αὐτά. Ὑποψίας γοῦν καὶ δείματος μεστὸς γίνεται, καὶ ἀναλογίζεται ἤδη καὶ σκοπεῖ εἴ τινά τι ἠδίκησεν. Ὁ μὲν οὖν τις εὑρίσκων ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τῷ βίῳ πολλὰ ἀδικήματα καὶ ἐκ τῶν ὕπνων, ὥσπερ οἱ παῖ δες, θαμὰ ἐγειρόμενος δειμαίνει καὶ ζῇ μετὰ κακῆς τῆς ἐλ πίδος· τῷ δὲ μηδὲν ἄδικον ἑαυτῷ ξυνειδότι γλυκεῖα ἐλπὶς ἀεὶ πάρεστι καὶ ἀγαθὴ γηροτρόφος, ὥσπερ καὶ Πίνδαρος λέγει. Χαριέντως γάρ τοι, ὦ Σώκρατες, τοῦτ' ἐκεῖνος εἶπεν, ὅτι ὃς ἂν ὁσίως καὶ δικαίως τὸν βίον διαγάγῃ, Γλυκεῖά οἱ καρδίαν ἀτιτάλλοισα γηροτρόφος ξυναορεῖ Ἐλπίς, ἃ μάλιστα θνατῶν πολύστροφον γνώμαν κυβερνᾷ. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ τῆς Πολιτείας γέγραφε λόγῳ. Ἐν δὲ τῷ δεκάτῳ σαφῶς καὶ φανερῶς ἃ παρὰ τῶν προφητῶν περὶ κρίσεως μεμάθηκε, ταῦτα οὐχ ὡς παρ' αὐτῶν μεμαθηκώς, διὰ τὸ πρὸς Ἕλληνας δέος, ἀλλ' ὡς παρά τινος, ὡς αὐτῷ πλάττειν ἐδόκει, ἐν πολέμῳ ἀναιρεθέντος καὶ δω δεκαταίου μέλλοντος θάπτεσθαι καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς πυρᾶς κειμένου,