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

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 being, and that the intelligible one is different, concerning which the prophet said: The heaven of heaven is the Lord's, but the earth He has given to the sons of men. And concerning man likewise; first Moses mentions the name of man, then after the many created things he made mention of the formation of man, saying thus: And God made man, dust from the earth. He thought, therefore, that the man first named pre-existed the one who came into being, and that the one formed later from the earth came to be according to the pre-existing form. But that man has been formed from earth, Homer also, having learned from the ancient and divine history which says, You are earth and to earth you shall return, calls the lifeless body of Hector mute earth. For he said somewhere against Achilles as he dragged Hector's body after death: For it is mute earth you outrage in your rage. And again, somewhere else, Menelaus, speaking to those who did not readily accept Hector's challenge concerning single combat: But may you all become water and earth! through excessive anger dissolving them into their ancient formation from earth. Having learned these things from the ancient histories in Egypt, Homer and Plato have written them in their own discourses. For from where else, having learned it, does Plato say that Zeus drives a winged chariot in heaven, if not by encountering the histories of the prophets? For he knew from what the prophet said concerning the Cherubim thus: And the glory of the Lord went out from the house and mounted upon the Cherubim, and the Cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them, and the glory of the Lord God of Israel was over them from above. Starting from this, the great-voiced Plato with much boldness exclaims, saying: The great Zeus, indeed, in heaven, driving a winged chariot. For from where else, having learned these things, did he write them, if not from Moses and the prophets? And from where, having taken the occasion, did he say that God is in the fiery substance? Was it not from the history of the third book of Kings, where it is written: The Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice? But it is necessary for the God-fearing to understand those things allegorically with much contemplation; but Plato, not paying attention to the sayings with the proper contemplation, said that God is in the fiery substance. And if one should wish to inquire accurately concerning the gift from above, coming down from God upon the holy men, which the sacred prophets call the Holy Spirit, he would find this also by Plato in his discourse to Meno through another

καὶ περὶ τοῦ γενομένου οὐρανοῦ· τὸν μὲν πεποιημένον οὐρα νόν, ὃν καὶ στερέωμα ὠνόμασεν, τοῦτον εἶναι τὸν γενόμενον αἰσθητόν, ἕτερον δὲ εἶναι τὸν νοητόν, περὶ οὗ ὁ προφήτης ἔφη· Ὁ οὐρανὸς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ, τὴν δὲ γῆν ἔδωκε τοῖς υἱοῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Καὶ περὶ ἀνθρώπου δὲ ὁμοίως· πρό τερον μὲν ὀνόματος ἀνθρώπου μέμνηται Μωϋσῆς, εἶτα μετὰ τὰ πολλὰ τῶν κτισμάτων περὶ πλάσεως ἀνθρώπου πεποίη ται μνήμην, οὕτω λέγων· Καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρω πον, χοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς. Ὠιήθη γοῦν τὸν μὲν πρότερον ὀνο μασθέντα ἄνθρωπον προϋπάρχειν τοῦ γενομένου, τὸν δὲ ἐκ τῆς γῆς πλασθέντα ὕστερον κατὰ τὸ προϋπάρχον εἶδος γεγε νῆσθαι. Ὅτι δὲ ἐκ γῆς ἄνθρωπος πέπλασται, καὶ Ὅμηρος ἀπὸ τῆς παλαιᾶς καὶ θείας ἱστορίας μαθών, τῆς λεγούσης Γῆ εἶ καὶ εἰς γῆν ἀπελεύσῃ, τὸ ἄψυχον τοῦ Ἕκτορος σῶμα κωφὴν ὀνομάζει γῆν. Ἔφη γάρ που κατὰ τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως μετὰ θάνατον τὸ τοῦ Ἕκτορος σύροντος σῶμα· Κωφὴν γὰρ δὴ γαῖαν ἀεικίζεις μενεαίνων. Καὶ αὖθις ἀλλαχοῦ που τὸν Μενέλαον λέγοντα τοῖς μὴ ἑτοίμως δεξαμένοις τὴν τοῦ Ἕκτορος περὶ τῆς μονομαχίας πρόσκλησιν· Ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς μὲν πάντες ὕδωρ καὶ γαῖα γένοισθε! δι' ὑπερβάλλουσαν ὀργὴν εἰς τὴν ἀρχαίαν αὐτοὺς ἐκ γῆς ἀνα λύων πλάσιν. Ταῦτα ἀπὸ τῶν ἀρχαίων ἱστοριῶν ἐν Aἰγύπτῳ μεμαθηκότες Ὅμηρος καὶ Πλάτων ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτῶν γεγράφασι λόγοις. Ἐπεὶ πόθεν ἄλλοθεν μεμαθηκὼς ὁ Πλάτων πτηνὸν ἅρμα ἐλαύνειν τὸν ∆ία ἐν οὐρανῷ λέγει, εἰ μὴ ταῖς τῶν προ φητῶν ἐντυχὼν ἱστορίαις; Ἔγνω γὰρ ἀπὸ τῶν τοῦ προφήτου ·ητῶν περὶ τῶν Χερουβεὶμ οὕτως εἰρημένων· Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν δόξα κυρίου ἀπὸ τοῦ οἴκου καὶ ἐπέβη ἐπὶ Χερουβείμ, καὶ ἀνέ λαβεν τὰ Χερουβεὶμ τὰς πτέρυγας αὐτῶν, καὶ οἱ τροχοὶ ἐχό μενοι αὐτῶν, καὶ δόξα κυρίου θεοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἦν ἐπ' αὐτοῖς ὑπερά νωθεν. Ἔνθεν ὁρμώμενος ὁ μεγαλόφωνος Πλάτων μετὰ πολ λῆς παῤῥησίας βοᾷ λέγων· Ὁ μὲν δὴ μέγας ἐν οὐρανῷ Ζεὺς πτηνὸν ἅρμα ἐλαύνων. Ἐπεὶ πόθεν ἄλλοθεν μεμαθηκὼς ταῦτα γέγραφεν, εἰ μὴ παρὰ Μωϋσέως καὶ τῶν προφητῶν; Πόθεν δὲ τὴν πρόφασιν εἰληφὼς καὶ ἐν τῇ πυρώδει οὐσίᾳ τὸν θεὸν εἶναι ἔφη; Oὐκ ἀπὸ τῆς τρίτης τῶν Βασιλειῶν ἱστορίας, ἔνθα γέγραπται· Oὐκ ἐν τῷ πνεύματι κύριος· καὶ μετὰ τὸ πνεῦμα συσσεισμός, οὐκ ἐν τῷ συσσεισμῷ κύριος· καὶ μετὰ τὸν συσ σεισμὸν πῦρ, οὐκ ἐν τῷ πυρὶ κύριος· καὶ μετὰ τὸ πῦρ φωνὴ αὔρας λεπτῆς; Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνα μὲν κατ' ἀναγωγὴν μετὰ πολλῆς θεωρίας τοῖς θεοσεβέσι νοεῖν ἀναγκαῖον· Πλάτων δέ, οὐ μετὰ τῆς προσηκούσης θεωρίας προσέχων τοῖς ·ητοῖς, ἐν τῇ πυρώδει οὐσίᾳ τὸν θεὸν εἶναι ἔφη. Eἰ δέ τις καὶ περὶ τῆς ἄνωθεν παρὰ θεοῦ κατιούσης ἐπὶ τοὺς ἁγίους ἄνδρας δωρεᾶς, ἣν πνεῦμα ἅγιον ὀνομάζουσιν οἱ ἱεροὶ προφῆται, ἀκριβῶς σκοπεῖν ἐθέλοι, εὕροι ἂν καὶ ταύτην ὑπὸ Πλάτωνος ἐν τῷ πρὸς Μένωνα λόγῳ δι' ἑτέρου