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

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 might be accessible. And similarly also concerning the enemy of humanity who was cast down from heaven, whom the divine scriptures call the devil, having received this designation from his first slander against man; and if anyone should wish to examine accurately, he would find that the poet makes no mention of the name 'devil', but has made the designation from his most wicked deed. For the poet, calling him Ate, says that he was cast down from heaven by the god according to them, as if accurately mindful of the things spoken about him by Isaiah the prophet. Thus he has written in his own poetry: Straightway he seized Ate by her shining-tressed head, angered in his heart, and swore a mighty oath that never again to Olympus and the starry heaven should Ate come, she who deludes all. So saying, he hurled her from the starry heaven, whirling her with his hand; and quickly she came to the works of men. And Plato also, saying that the form is a third principle after God and matter, appears to have taken the pretext from nowhere else but from Moses, having learned the name of 'form' from the words of Moses, but not having been taught at that time by those who knew that it is not possible to know clearly any of the things spoken by Moses apart from mystical contemplation. For Moses wrote that God spoke to him thus concerning the tabernacle: And you shall make for me according to all that I show you on the mountain, the pattern of the tabernacle. And again: And you shall set up the tabernacle according to the pattern of all its furnishings, and so you shall make it. And again a little later thus: See that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. Plato, therefore, having encountered these and not having received the written sayings with the proper contemplation, thought that some separate form pre-existed the sensible one, which he also often calls the pattern of things that have come to be, since the writing of Moses concerning the tabernacle signifies this: According to the form shown to you on the mountain, so you shall make it. And similarly he seems to have been mistaken concerning the earth and the heaven and man; for he thinks that there are ideas of these also. For since Moses has written thus: In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth, then he immediately adds, saying: But the earth was invisible and unfinished, he thought that this, about which he said "But the earth was," was said of the pre-existing earth, since Moses said, "But the earth was invisible and unfinished"; but this, about which he says "God made the heaven and the earth," he thought him to mean the sensible one that was made by God according to a pre-existing form. And similarly

Φυλόπιδα στήσειν πολυάϊκος πολέμοιο· Ὄσσαν ἐπ' Oὐλύμπῳ μέμασαν θέμεν, αὐτὰρ ἐπ' Ὄσσῃ Πήλιον εἰνοσίφυλλον, ἵν' οὐρανὸς ἀμβατὸς εἴη. Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ περὶ τοῦ ἀπ' οὐρανῶν κατενεχθέντος ἐχθροῦ τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος, ὃν διάβολον αἱ θεῖαι γραφαὶ καλοῦσιν, ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον διαβολῆς ταύτης τῆς προσηγορίας τυχόντα· καὶ εἴ τις ἀκριβῶς σκοπεῖν ἐθέλοι, εὕροι ἂν τὸν ποιητὴν τοῦ μὲν διαβόλου ὀνόματος οὐδαμῶς μεμνημένον, ἐκ δὲ τῆς κακίστης αὐτοῦ πράξεως τὴν ὀνομασίαν πεποιημένον· Ἄτην γὰρ αὐτὸν ὁ ποιητὴς ὀνομάζων ὑπὸ τοῦ κατ' αὐτοὺς θεοῦ καθῃρῆσθαι αὐτὸν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ λέγει, ὥσπερ ἀκριβῶς τῶν ὑπὸ Ἡσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου περὶ αὐτοῦ εἰρημένων μεμνημένος ·ητῶν. Oὕτως ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ποιήσει γέγραφεν· Aὐτίκα δ' εἷλ' Ἄτην κεφαλῆς λιπαροπλοκάμοιο, Χωόμενος φρεσὶν ᾗσι, καὶ ὤμοσε καρτερὸν ὅρκον Μήποτ' ἐς Oὔλυμπόν τε καὶ οὐρανὸν ἀστερόεντα Aὖτις ἐλεύσεσθαι Ἄτην, ἣ πάντας ἀᾶται. Ὣς εἰπὼν ἔῤῥιψεν ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ ἀστερόεντος, Χειρὶ περιστρέψας· τάχα δ' ἵκετο ἔργ' ἀνθρώπων. Καὶ Πλάτων δέ, μετὰ τὸν θεὸν καὶ τὴν ὕλην τὸ εἶδος τρίτην ἀρχὴν εἶναι λέγων, οὐκ ἄλλοθέν ποθεν ἀλλὰ παρὰ Μωϋσέως τὴν πρόφασιν εἰληφὼς φαίνεται, τὸ μὲν τοῦ εἴδους ὄνομα ἀπὸ τῶν Μωϋσέως μεμαθηκὼς ·ητῶν, οὐ δι δαχθεὶς δὲ τηνικαῦτα παρὰ τῶν εἰδότων ὅτι οὐδὲν ἐκτὸς μυ στικῆς θεωρίας τῶν ὑπὸ Μωϋσέως εἰρημένων σαφῶς γινώσκειν ἐστὶ δυνατόν. Γέγραφε γὰρ Μωϋσῆς ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ περὶ τῆς σκηνῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν εἰρηκότος οὕτως· Καὶ ποιήσεις μοι κατὰ πάντα, ὅσα ἐγὼ δεικνύω σοι ἐν τῷ ὄρει, τὸ παράδειγμα τῆς σκηνῆς. Καὶ πάλιν· Καὶ ἀναστήσεις τὴν σκηνὴν κατὰ τὸ παράδειγμα πάντων τῶν σκευῶν αὐτῆς, καὶ οὕτως ποιήσεις. Καὶ αὖθις μικρὸν ὕστερον οὕτως· Ὅρα, ποιήσεις κατὰ τὸν τύπον τὸν δεδειγμένον σοι ἐν τῷ ὄρει. Τούτοις οὖν ἐν τυχὼν ὁ Πλάτων καὶ οὐ μετὰ τῆς προσηκούσης θεωρίας δεξά μενος τὰ γεγραμμένα ῥητά, ᾠήθη εἶδός τι χωριστὸν προϋπάρ χειν τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ, ὃ καὶ παράδειγμα τῶν γενομένων ὀνομάζει πολλάκις, ἐπειδὴ τὸ Μωϋσέως οὕτω περὶ τῆς σκηνῆς σημαίνει γράμμα· Κατὰ τὸ εἶδος τὸ δειχθέν σοι ἐν τῷ ὄρει, οὕτως ποιήσεις αὐτό. Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς καὶ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σφαλεὶς φαίνεται· καὶ τούτων γὰρ εἰδέας εἶναι οἴεται. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ Μωϋσῆς οὕτω γέγραφεν· Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίη σεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν, εἶτα παραυτὰ συνάπτει λέγων· Ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος, ᾠήθη ὅτι ταύτην μὲν περὶ ἧς ἔφη Ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν τὴν προϋπάρχουσαν εἰ ρῆσθαι γῆν, ἐπειδὴ Μωϋσῆς ἔφη· Ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος· ταύτην δὲ περὶ ἧς λέγει Ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν ᾠήθη ταύτην λέγειν αὐτὸν τὴν κατὰ προϋ πάρχον εἶδος ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ γενομένην αἰσθητήν. Ὁμοίως δὲ