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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.
And if it is needful that we add testimonies concerning one God, even from the dramatists, hear even Sophocles speaking thus:—
“There is one God, in truth there is but one, Who made the heavens and the broad earth beneath, The glancing waves of ocean and the winds But many of us mortals err in heart, And set up for a solace in our woes Images of the gods in stone and wood, Or figures carved in brass or ivory, And, furnishing for these our handiworks, Both sacrifice and rite magnificent, We think that thus we do a pious work.” |
Thus, then, Sophocles.
Εἰ δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς σκηνῆς περὶ ἑνὸς θεοῦ μαρτυρίας ἡμᾶς προσθεῖναι δέοι, ἀκούσατε καὶ Σοφοκλέους οὕτω λέγοντος: Εἷς ταῖς ἀληθείαισιν, εἷς ἔστιν θεός, Ὃς οὐρανὸν τέτευχε καὶ γαῖαν μακράν, Πόντου τε χαροπὸν οἶδμα κἀνέμων βίας. Θνητοὶ δὲ πολλοὶ καρδίᾳ πλανώμενοι Ἱδρυσάμεσθα πημάτων παραψυχήν, Θεῶν ἀγάλματ' ἐκ λίθων τε καὶ ξύλων, Ἢ χρυσοτεύκτων ἢ ἐλεφαντίνων τύπους: Θυσίας τε τούτοις καὶ καλὰς πανηγύρεις Τεύχοντες, οὕτως εὐσεβεῖν νομίζομεν. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ὁ Σοφοκλῆς.