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

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 having a strange mind, and you have practiced the rule of many rather than the rule of one, as if thinking you follow powerful demons. For just as the plunderer, being inhuman, is accustomed to prevail over his fellows by daring, so also the demons, having run aground into much evil, have deceived the isolated souls among you through ignorances and apparitions. They do not die easily, for they are without flesh; but while living they practice the deeds of death, dying themselves as many times as they teach sins to their followers, so that what is an advantage for them now, not to die like men, this, when they are about to be punished, will be bitter for them *** they will not partake of eternal life, receiving immortality as a substitute for death. And just as we, for whom it is now easy to die, hereafter receive either immortality with enjoyment or pain with immortality, so also the demons, abusing their present life for sinning and through their very living constantly dying, will hereafter have the same immortality, of a quality like the life they lived, and in its constitution like that of men who willingly practiced what they legislated for them during their lifetime. And yet for their followers the forms of sin that blossom are lesser, because they do not live a long time, but for the aforementioned demons sinning has become greater on account of the endlessness of their life. And so it is necessary for us now to seek that which we once had and have lost, and to yoke the soul to the Holy Spirit and to strive for the union which is according to God. The soul of men, then, is of many parts and not of one part. For it is composite, so that it is manifest through the body; for it could never appear by itself without a body, nor does the flesh rise without the soul. For man is not, as the crow-voiced dogmatists say, a rational animal receptive of intelligence and knowledge; for according to them it will be shown that even irrational creatures are receptive of intelligence and knowledge; but man alone is the image and likeness of God, and I mean by man not one who does things like the animals, but one who has advanced far from humanity towards God Himself. And concerning this it has been more accurately composed by us in the work On Animals, but now we must seek what pertains to the matter at hand, of what sort is the image and likeness according to God. The incomparable is nothing other than being itself, while the comparable is nothing other than that which is similar. The perfect God, then, is without flesh, but man is flesh; and the bond of the flesh is the soul, and the flesh is what contains the soul. But this kind of constitution, if it should be as a temple, God desires to dwell in it through the one who acts as envoy

πεπονθότος θεοῦ παραιτούμεναι θεομάχοι μᾶλλον ἤπερ θεοσε βεῖς ἀνεφαίνοντο. Τοιοῦτοί τινές ἐστε καὶ ὑμεῖς, ὦ Ἕλληνες, ῥήμασι μὲν στωμύλοι, γνώμην δὲ ἔχοντες ἀλλόκοτον, καὶ τὴν πολυκοι ρανίην μᾶλλον ἤπερ τὴν μοναρχίαν ἐξησκήσατε καθάπερ ἰσχυ ροῖς νομίζοντες τοῖς δαίμοσι κατακολουθεῖν. ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ λῃστεύων ἀπάνθρωπος ὢν διὰ τόλμης τῶν ὁμοίων ἐπικρατεῖν εἴωθεν, οὕτω καὶ οἱ δαίμονες εἰς πολλὴν κακίαν ἐξοκείλαντες τὰς μεμονωμένας παρ' ὑμῖν ψυχὰς δι' ἀγνοιῶν καὶ φαντασιῶν ἐξηπατήκασιν. οἳ θνήσκουσι μὲν οὐ ·ᾳδίως, σαρκὸς γὰρ ἀμοι ροῦσι· ζῶντες δὲ θανάτου πράττουσιν ἐπιτηδεύματα τοσαυτά κις καὶ αὐτοὶ θνήσκοντες ὁσάκις ἂν τοὺς ἑπομένους αὐτοῖς τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἐκπαιδεύσωσιν, ὥσθ' ὅπερ ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς περιττὸν ἐν τῷ νῦν, μὴ ὁμοίως τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἀποθνήσκειν, τοῦθ' ὁπόταν μέλλωσι κολάζεσθαι πικρὸν αὐτοῖς *** οὐ μεθέ ξουσιν ἀιδίου ζωῆς ἀντὶ θανάτου ἐν ἀθανάτῳ μεταλαμβάνοντες. ὥσπερ δὲ ἡμεῖς, οἷς τὸ θνήσκειν ·ᾴδιον ἀποβαίνει νῦν, εἰσαῦθις ἢ μετὰ ἀπολαύσεως τὸ ἀθάνατον ἢ τὸ λυπηρὸν μετὰ ἀθανα σίας προσλαμβάνομεν, οὕτω καὶ οἱ δαίμονες τῇ νῦν ζωῇ πρὸς τὸ πλημμελεῖν καταχρώμενοι διὰ παντὸς καὶ διὰ τοῦ ζῆν ἀποθνήσκοντες εἰσαῦθις ἕξουσιν τὴν αὐτὴν ἀθανασίαν ὁμοίαν τῆς παρ' ὃν ἔζων χρόνον κατὰ μὲν τὴν σύστασιν ὁμοίαν ἀνθρώποις τοῖς κατὰ γνώμην διαπραξαμένοις ἅπερ αὐτοῖς παρ' ὃν ἔζων χρόνον νενομοθετήκασι. καὶ μήτι γε τοῖς μὲν ἑπομένοις αὐτοῖς ἐλάττονα τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐξανθοῦσι τὰ εἴδη διὰ τὸ μὴ πολυχρονίως βιοῦν, τοῖς δὲ προειρημένοις δαίμοσιν τὸ πλημμελεῖν μεῖζον ἀποβέβηκεν διὰ τὸ ἄπειρον τῆς βιότητος. Καὶ χρὴ λοιπὸν ἡμᾶς ὅπερ ἔχοντες ἀπολωλέκαμεν τοῦτο νῦν ἀναζητεῖν ζευγνύναι τε τὴν ψυχὴν τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ καὶ τὴν κατὰ θεὸν συζυγίαν πραγματεύεσθαι. ψυχὴ μὲν οὖν ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων πολυμερής ἐστι καὶ οὐ μονομερής. συν θετὴ γάρ ἐστιν ὡς εἶναι φανερὰν αὐτὴν διὰ σώματος· οὔτε γὰρ ἂν αὐτὴ φανείη ποτὲ χωρὶς σώματος οὔτε ἀνίσταται ἡ σὰρξ χωρὶς ψυχῆς. ἔστι γὰρ ἄνθρωπος οὐχ, ὥσπερ οἱ κορακόφωνοι δογματίζουσι, ζῶον λογικὸν νοῦ καὶ ἐπιστήμης δεκτικόν· δειχ θήσεται γὰρ κατ' αὐτοὺς καὶ τὰ ἄλογα νοῦ καὶ ἐπιστήμης δεκ τικά· μόνος δὲ ὁ ἄνθρωπος εἰκὼν καὶ ὁμοίωσις τοῦ θεοῦ, λέγω δὲ ἄνθρωπον οὐχὶ τὸν ὅμοια τοῖς ζώοις πράττοντα, ἀλλὰ τὸν πόρρω μὲν τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος πρὸς αὐτὸν δὲ τὸν θεὸν κεχωρηκότα. καὶ περὶ μὲν τούτου ἐν τῷ Περὶ ζώων ἀκρι βέστερον ἡμῖν συντέτακται, τὸ δὲ νῦν συνέχον ·ητέον ποταπή τίς ἐστιν ἡ κατὰ θεὸν εἰκὼν καὶ ὁμοίωσις. τὸ μὲν ἀσύγκριτον οὐδέν ἐστιν ἕτερον ἢ αὐτὸ τὸ ὄν, τὸ δὲ συγκρινόμενον οὔτι ἕτερον ἢ τὸ παρόμοιον. ἄσαρκος μὲν οὖν ὁ τέλειος θεός, ἄν θρωπος δὲ σάρξ· δεσμὸς δὲ τῆς σαρκὸς ψυχή, σχετικὴ δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς ἡ σάρξ. τὸ δὲ τοιοῦτον τῆς συστάσεως εἶδος εἰ μὲν ὡς ναὸς εἴη, κατοικεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ θεὸς βούλεται διὰ τοῦ πρεσβεύοντος