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

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 fate, do you stay awake on account of avarice? And why, I ask, according to fate, do you, desiring many things, die many times? Die to the world, renouncing the madness in it; live to God, through the comprehension of him, renouncing the old generation. We were not born to die, but we die because of ourselves. Our free will destroyed us; we who were free have become slaves, we were sold because of sin. Nothing evil has been made by God, we ourselves have produced wickedness; and those who have produced it are able again to renounce it. We know of two different kinds of spirits, one of which is called soul, but the other is greater than the soul, an image and likeness of God; and both existed in the first men, so that they might be partly material, and partly superior to matter. And it is thus. It is possible to see the entire constitution of the world and all of creation having come from matter, and matter itself having been brought forth by God, so that one part of it might be considered difficult and unformed before receiving distinction, but the other part adorned and well-ordered after the division within it. Therefore, in it, the heaven is from matter and the stars in it; and the earth and every living thing from it has a similar constitution, so that there is a common origin for all things. But since these things exist in this way, there are certain differences among things from matter, such that one thing is more beautiful, and another is itself beautiful, yet diminished by something better. For just as the constitution of the body is of one economy, but about it is the cause of its having come to be, and these things being so, there are certain differences of glory in it, and one part is an eye, another an ear, another the arrangement of the hair and the economy of the inward parts and the framework of marrow and bones and sinews, and the one being different from the other according to economy is a harmony of symphony; similarly also the world, according to the power of him who made it, possessing some things that are brighter, and some unlike these, has by the will of the creating Spirit partaken of a material spirit. But it is possible for one who does not vaingloriously reject the most divine interpretations to understand the details, which, being proved over time through writing, have made very dear to God those who attend to them. Nevertheless, then, the demons also, whom you call so, having received their composition from matter and having acquired the spirit from it, have become profligate and gluttonous, some of them having turned to what is purer, but others having chosen the inferior part of matter and living in a manner similar to it. And these, men of Greece, you worship, though they are made from matter and found far from good order. For the aforementioned, having been turned by their own stupidity toward vainglory and having become unruly, robbers of divinity

πιστίας μετὰ τῆς δόξης γίνονται πένης δὲ καὶ ὁ μετριώτατος τῶν καθ' ἑαυτὸν ἐφιέμενος εὐμαρέστερον περιγίνεται. τί μοι καθ' εἱμαρμένην ἀγρυπνεῖς διὰ φιλαργυρίαν; τί δέ μοι καθ' εἱμαρμένην πολλάκις ὀρεγόμενος πολλάκις ἀποθνήσκεις; ἀπό θνησκε τῷ κόσμῳ παραιτούμενος τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ μανίαν· ζῆθι τῷ θεῷ διὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ καταλήψεως τὴν παλαιὰν γένεσιν πα ραιτούμενος. οὐκ ἐγενόμεθα πρὸς τὸ ἀποθνήσκειν, ἀποθνήσκομεν δὲ δι' ἑαυτούς. ἀπώλεσεν ἡμᾶς τὸ αὐτεξούσιον· δοῦλοι γεγό ναμεν οἱ ἐλεύθεροι, διὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐπράθημεν. οὐδὲν φαῦ λον ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ πεποίηται, τὴν πονηρίαν ἡμεῖς ἀνεδείξαμεν· οἱ δὲ ἀναδείξαντες δυνατοὶ πάλιν παραιτήσασθαι. ∆ύο πνευμάτων διαφορὰς ἴσμεν ἡμεῖς, ὧν τὸ μὲν καλεῖται ψυχή, τὸ δὲ μεῖζον μὲν τῆς ψυχῆς, θεοῦ δὲ εἰκὼν καὶ ὁμοίωσις· ἑκάτερα δὲ παρὰ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τοῖς πρώτοις ὑπῆρ χεν, ἵνα τὸ μέν τι ὦσιν ὑλικοί, τὸ δὲ ἀνώτεροι τῆς ὕλης. ἔχει δὲ οὕτω. πᾶσαν ἔστιν ἰδεῖν τοῦ κόσμου τὴν κατασκευὴν σύμ πασάν τε τὴν ποίησιν γεγονυῖαν ἐξ ὕλης καὶ τὴν ὕλην δὲ αὐ τὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ προβεβλημένην, ἵνα τὸ μέν τι αὐτῆς ἄπορον καὶ ἀσχημάτιστον νοῆται πρὸ τοῦ διάκρισιν λαβεῖν, τὸ δὲ κε κοσμημένον καὶ εὔτακτον μετὰ τὴν ἐν αὐτῇ διαίρεσιν. ἔστιν οὖν ἐν αὐτῇ ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐξ ὕλης καὶ τὰ ἄστρα τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ· καὶ ἡ γῆ δὲ καὶ πᾶν τὸ ἀπ' αὐτῆς ζωογονούμενον τὴν ὁμοίαν ἔχει σύστασιν ὡς εἶναι κοινὴν πάντων γένεσιν. τούτων δὲ οὕτως ὑπαρχόντων διαφοραί τινες τῶν ἐξ ὕλης εἰσὶν ὡς εἶναι τὸ μέν τι κάλλιον, τὸ δὲ καὶ αὐτὸ μὲν καλόν, πλὴν ὑπό τινος κρείττονος ἐλαττούμενον. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἡ μὲν τοῦ σώματος σύ στασις μιᾶς ἐστιν οἰκονομίας, περὶ δὲ αὐτῷ ἐστι τοῦ γεγενῆσθαι τὸ αἴτιον, καὶ τούτων οὕτως ὄντων διαφοραί τινές εἰσι δόξης ἐν αὐτῷ, καὶ τὸ μέν τι ὀφθαλμός ἐστιν, τὸ δὲ οὖς, τὸ δὲ τρι χῶν διακόσμησις καὶ ἐντοσθίων οἰκονομία μυελῶν τε καὶ ὀστέων καὶ νεύρων σύμπηξις, θάτερον δὲ θατέρου ὂν διάφορον κατ' οἰκονομίαν συμφωνίας ἐστὶν ἁρμονία· παραπλησίως καὶ ὁ κόσ μος κατὰ τὴν τοῦ πεποιηκότος αὐτὸν δύναμιν τὰ μέν τινα φαιδρότερα, τὰ δέ τινα τούτοις ἀνόμοια κεκτημένος θελήματι τοῦ δημιουργήσαντος πνεύματος μετείληφεν ὑλικοῦ. τὰ δὲ καθ' ἕκαστα δυνατὸν κατανοῆσαι τῷ μὴ κενοδόξως ἀποσκορακίζοντι τὰς θειοτάτας ἑρμηνείας, αἳ κατὰ χρόνον διὰ γραφῆς ἐξελη λεγμέναι πάνυ θεοφιλεῖς τοὺς προσέχοντας αὐταῖς πεποιήκασιν. ὅμως δ' οὖν καὶ οἱ δαίμονες, οὓς ὑμεῖς οὕτω φατέ, σύμπηξιν ἐξ ὕλης λαβόντες κτησάμενοί τε πνεῦμα τὸ ἀπ' αὐτῆς ἄσωτοι καὶ λίχνοι γεγόνασιν, οἱ μέν τινες αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὸ καθαρώτερον τραπέντες, οἱ δὲ τῆς ὕλης ἐπιλεξάμενοι τὸ ἔλαττον καὶ κατὰ τὸ ὅμοιον αὐτῇ πολιτευόμενοι. τούτους δέ, ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες, προσκυνεῖτε γεγονότας μὲν ἐξ ὕλης, μακρὰν δὲ τῆς εὐταξίας εὑρεθέντας. οἱ γὰρ προειρημένοι τῇ σφῶν ἀβελτερίᾳ πρὸς τὸ κενοδοξεῖν τραπέντες καὶ ἀφηνιάσαντες λῃσταὶ θεότητος γε