OF SAINT JUSTIN PHILOSOPHER AND MARTYR, AN OVERTHROW OF CERTAIN ARISTOTELIAN DOGMAS.

 And concerning these things, all the prophets sent from God to all men continued to think the same things, and there was no disagreement among them b

 posited, must necessarily come to be by composition but if the mode of generation by composition fits every generation, it has been superfluously dis

 is another thing besides the destruction of all that is, but if matter has this, how is its being matter not also destroyed? Further, if when the form

 by its presence and absence, then the principles will be both generated and destroyed by each other, and not eternal for the eternal does not need th

 ·having been said concerning the philosophers among the Greeks, how they did not make their arguments concerning beings according to demonstrative sci

 animal, but in the generation of the animal simply the substrate was not seed, how is the animal coming to be from not-animal not contrary to nature?

 and matter is deprived of being the matter of something, but it is not deprived of being matter itself, therefore matter will be being and not-being,

 Saying If, when the form is present, then the privation does not remain, it is clear that when the form is not present, the privation remains. How th

 The eternally uncreated has this same [quality] with respect to something coming to be from it by nature and by art. How then was God able to make som

 and of change, but in another way the form and the shape according to reason. For just as art is said to be that which is according to art and the art

 he subjected to generation not only to the spontaneous one, but also to that through intellect and nature which is manifestly absurd, that the one wh

 sible, but it is among the impossible things for that which is going to be to be ungenerated, both without beginning and without end, both having and

 And that, if the infinite in no way exists, many impossibilities occur, is clear: for time will have a beginning and an end, and magnitudes will not b

 is in potentiality, but not in actuality but the amount taken always exceeds any definite quantity. But this number is not definite, nor does infinit

 second to providence but if place is ungeneratedly and without beginning what it is and has what it has, then place is ungenerated and first of all t

 Where is that which is in a place? And if not every being is in a place, how will some beings not be the same as non-being, if indeed not being in a p

 to have come into being. For those things to which belong the generable and having come into being, from these of necessity the eternal and the unorig

 38. From the same discourse. Whatever neither moves nor is at rest, is not in time for to be in time is to be measured by time, and time is the measu

 time to be, so also has the past been. But the future time, just as it has a future coming-into-being, so also it has a beginning and just as there i

 to be straight. The principles of things that always come to be according to nature cannot be eternal. For if they transmit the nature they have to th

 And this is the case for any single one of the things that come to be, but it is necessary for something else to be moved previously among the things

 according to which some things have come to be above nature, and others according to nature. If before and after is ungenerated, then there will b

 we say, of which there is no demonstration. But God and nature do nothing in vain. If there were contrary motions in the locomotion of bodies, either

 worlds to come into being from it, but having been used up for the genesis of one world, did it stop the unwilling god from making more worlds? 51. Fr

 and an enmattered principle in matter, through which 'for heaven to be' is different from 'for this particular heaven to be'? If heaven cannot do by w

 each other. But now this much is clear, for what reason there are more circular bodies: that it is necessary for there to be generation, and generatio

 and the outcome in things that happen by choice is secondary to the choice), how does it exist in eternal things that this particular thing is because

 chance can exist in eternal things, but the heaven is eternal and its circular motion, for what reason then does it move in one direction, and not in

 to suffer it. These things, therefore, are heated because they are carried through the air, which through the striking by the motion becomes fire but

 it was moved by nature the motion by which it is now moved, how was it not bound to the sphere in vain? But if it was not moved this way according to

 always? If to things that are always in motion the spherical shape was given as suitable, how is it that of the things having a spherical shape, one i

 and have what they have? If the stars ought not to move, why do they move at all by means of others? But if they ought to move, why do they not move b

 of an element besides the things here, but at other times from the same elements, how is he not speaking falsely in one of the two ways? 63. From the

 and the bricks. Therefore, since matter is not substance, who is it that has made from it the things that have come from it, since both nature and art

 change, but into the opposite in the same genus, for instance in quality a change does not occur from white to large but to black, in what way then do

OF SAINT JUSTIN PHILOSOPHER AND MARTYR, AN OVERTHROW OF CERTAIN ARISTOTELIAN DOGMAS.

Of the good things done by men for the service of God according to human diligence, nothing is so acceptable to God as striving according to one's ability to make men better. Seeing, therefore, this zeal in you, O most honored presbyter Paul, to be exceedingly ardent, I readily obeyed you concerning what you commanded me: to make a certain brief selection of the Greek dogmas concerning God and creation, not that you might know anything true from them (for how could one who has from above the teaching concerning these things through the prophets from God himself who made creation?), but that you might know that they have not done this according to the demonstrative knowledge by which the Greeks profess to make their arguments concerning God and creation, but have determined what seems right by conjecture. Of the men who have made arguments concerning God and creation, some received the teaching concerning God and creation from God himself who made creation, through the prophets who ministered to God for this purpose, whom he first showed to be worthy of belief by the divine works done through them, and then thus provided the teaching concerning things unknown to those being taught; but others, having disbelieved the words spoken through the prophets, entrusted the discovery of the knowledge of God to their own reasonings. And according to those who have known the difference between God and creation from teaching, God is one, being unbegotten in each manner of unbegottenness, having had neither a god nor gods before himself or after himself, having no co-eternal subject or object, having an incorruptible substance and an unimpeded energy, being the creator of the entire cosmos, which has his will as the beginning of its being, and of what it is, and of how it endures. For the parts of the cosmos endure either in incorruptibility, such as the heaven and the heavenly bodies and the invisible powers, or in coming to be and passing away, such as the animals and plants on earth. And just as that which has come to be would not have come to be had he not commanded, "Let it be," so also would it not have endured had he not established the command, for the incorruptible things, "to stand for ever and ever," but for those in generation and corruption, "Increase and multiply and fill the earth." And for a demonstration of his divine power and that he does not serve the law of nature, but works what seems good by the authority of his will, in the beginning he made the things of a nature of generation and corruption from the earth and the waters, commanding: "Let the earth bring forth the living soul after its kind," and "plants having seed in themselves," and "trees bearing fruit;" and again: "Let the waters bring forth the living soul after its kind;" but the things generated from progenitors he ordained to come to be from the casting of seed.

ΤOΥ AΓIOΥ IOΥΣΤIΝOΥ ΦIΛOΣOΦOΥ ΚAI ΜAΡΤΥΡOΣ AΝAΤΡOΠH ∆OΓΜAΤΩΝ ΤIΝΩΝ AΡIΣΤOΤEΛIΚΩΝ.

Τῶν κατὰ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην σπουδὴν εἰς θεραπείαν τοῦ θεοῦ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γινομένων καλῶν οὐδὲν οὕτως ἐστὶ δεκτὸν τῷ θεῷ, ὡς τὸ κατὰ δύναμιν σπουδάζειν βελτίους ποιεῖν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους. Ταύτην οὖν τὴν προθυμίαν ἐν ὑμῖν, ὦ τιμιώτατε πρεσβύτερε Παῦλε, σφόδρα οὖσαν διάπυρον ὁρῶν, ἑτοίμως ὑμῖν ὑπήκουσα περὶ ὧν ἐνετείλασθέ μοι βραχεῖάν τινα ποιήσασθαι τὴν ἐκλογὴν τῶν ἑλληνικῶν περὶ θεοῦ καὶ κτίσεως δογμάτων, οὐχ ἵνα τι γνῷς ἀληθὲς ἐξ αὐτῶν (πῶς γὰρ ἂν ὁ ἄνωθεν ἔχων τὴν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν περὶ τούτων διδασκαλίαν παρ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ τὴν κτίσιν πεποιηκότος θεοῦ;), ἀλλ' ἵνα γνῷς μὴ κατὰ τὴν ἀποδεικτικὴν ἐπιστήμην, καθ' ἣν ἐπαγγέλλον ται Ἕλληνες περὶ θεοῦ τε καὶ κτίσεως τοὺς λόγους ποιεῖν, τοῦτο πεποιηκότας, ἀλλ' εἰκασμῷ τὸ δοκοῦν διορισαμένους. Τῶν περὶ θεοῦ καὶ κτίσεως τοὺς λόγους πεποιημένων ἀνθρώ πων οἱ μὲν παρ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ τὴν κτίσιν πεποιηκότος θεοῦ τὴν διδασκαλίαν ἐδέξαντο περὶ θεοῦ καὶ κτίσεως διὰ τῶν προφη τῶν, τῶν πρὸς τοῦτο ὑπουργησάντων τῷ θεῷ, οὓς πρῶτον θείοις ἔργοις τοῖς δι' αὐτῶν γιγνομένοις ἀξίους τοῦ πιστεύε σθαι ἀνέδειξεν, εἶθ' οὕτως περὶ τῶν τοῖς διδασκομένοις ἀδήλων τὴν διδασκαλίαν παρέσχεν· οἱ δέ, τοῖς διὰ τῶν προ φητῶν ἀπιστήσαντες λόγοις, τοῖς οἰκείοις αὑτῶν λογισμοῖς ἐπέτρεψαν θεογνωσίας τὴν εὕρεσιν. Καὶ κατ' ἐκείνους μὲν τοὺς ἐκ διδασκαλίας θεοῦ καὶ κτίσεως ἐγνωκότας τὴν διαφο ρὰν εἷς ἐστιν ὁ θεός, καθ' ἑκάτερον τὸν τῆς ἀγενεσίας τρό πον ἀγένητος ὤν, θεὸν δὲ ἢ θεοὺς οὔτε πρὸ αὑτοῦ οὔτε μεθ' αὑτὸν ἐσχηκώς, συναΐδιον οὐκ ἔχων οὔτε ὑποκείμενον οὔτε ἀντι κείμενον, ἄφθαρτον ἔχων τὴν οὐσίαν καὶ ἀνεμπόδιστον τὴν ἐνέργειαν, δημιουργὸς ὢν τοῦ κόσμου παντός, ἀρχὴν ἔχοντος τοῦ εἶναι καὶ τοῦ τὶ εἶναι καὶ τοῦ πῶς διαμένειν τὴν ἐκείνου θέλησιν. Ἢ γὰρ ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ διαμένει τὰ μέρη τοῦ κόσμου, ὡς ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ τὰ οὐράνια καὶ αἱ ἀόρατοι δυνάμεις, ἢ ἐν τῷ γίνεσθαί τε καὶ φθείρεσθαι, ὡς τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς ζῶά τε καὶ φυτά. Καὶ ὥσπερ τὸ γεγονὸς οὐκ ἂν ἐγένετο μὴ ἐκείνου προσ τάξαντος Γενηθήτω, οὕτως οὐδ' ἂν διέμεινε μὴ ἐκείνου θε μένου τὸ πρόσταγμα, τοῖς μὲν ἀφθάρτοις τοῦ ἑστάναι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος, τοῖς δὲ ἐν γενέσει καὶ φθορᾷ τοῦ Aὐ ξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν γῆν. Πρὸς ἔν δειξιν δὲ τῆς θείας αὐτοῦ δυνάμεως καὶ τοῦ μὴ νόμῳ φύσεως αὐτὸν δουλεύειν, ἀλλ' αὐθεντίᾳ βουλήσεως τὸ δοκοῦν ἐρ γάζεσθαι, τὰ μὲν ἐν ἀρχῇ τῶν ἐν γενέσει καὶ φθορᾷ φύσεως ἐκ τῆς γῆς καὶ τῶν ὑδάτων ἐποίησε, προστάξας· Ἐξαγαγέτω ἡ γῆ ψυχὴν ζῶσαν κατὰ γένος καὶ φυτὰ ἔχοντα ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τὸ σπέρμα καὶ ξύλα ποιοῦντα καρπούς· καὶ πάλιν· Ἐξαγαγέτω τὰ ὕδατα ψυχὴν ζῶσαν κατὰ γένος· τὰ δὲ ἐκ τῶν γεναρχῶν γεγενημένα ἐκ τῆς καταβολῆς τοῦ σπέρματος γενέσθαι ὡρίσατο.