First Apology

Contents

1. 1Justin addresses his petition to the emperor Antoninus Pius, his sons, the Senate, and the Roman people.
2. 2Justin asks the rulers, who claim to be philosophers, to judge by reason, not rumor; they can kill Christians but not harm them.
3. 3Examine the charges; if unproven, do not punish the innocent. Christians will give an account of their life and teaching.
4. 4Christians are punished for the name alone, not for proven crimes; the rulers should judge conduct, not the name.
5. 5The pagan gods are evil demons, exposed by Socrates among the Greeks and by the Word made man, Jesus Christ, among the barbarians.
6. 6Christians are “atheists” only toward false gods; they worship the true God, his Son, and the prophetic Spirit.
7. 7Judge each accused by his deeds; punish wrongdoers as wrongdoers, not as Christians.
8. 8Christians refuse to lie to save themselves; they expect Christ's judgment, with eternal punishment of body and soul.
9. 9Christians do not worship idols, which are made by immoral craftsmen and bear the names of demons.
10. 10God needs no sacrifices; he accepts those who imitate his goodness and will make them incorruptible.
11. 11Christians expect God's kingdom, not a human one; that is why they confess even at the cost of death.
12. 12Christians, believing God sees all and judges all, are the best citizens; Christ foretold what is now happening.
13. 13Christians worship the Creator with prayer and thanksgiving, and honor Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, in the second place and the prophetic Spirit in the third.
14. 14Converted from immorality, magic, greed, and hatred, Christians now live in self-control, share their goods, and pray for enemies.
15. 15Christ's teaching on purity, divorce, celibacy, repentance, love of enemies, generosity, and trust in God.
16. 16Christ taught patience, truthfulness without oaths, worship of God alone, and that only those who do his will are true Christians.
17. 17Christians pay taxes and pray for the emperors, worshiping God alone; everyone will answer to God.
18. 18Pagan practices and writers show souls survive death; Christians go further and expect the resurrection of the body.
19. 19The resurrection of the body is no harder to believe than human birth from a small seed.
20. 20Christian teachings resemble Plato, the Stoics, and the poets; why then are Christians alone hated?
21. 21The virgin birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ are no stranger than the myths told of Zeus's sons.
22. 22Even by pagan standards, Jesus's divine sonship, crucifixion, virgin birth, and miracles have parallels; yet he is superior.
23. 23Justin will prove that Christian teaching alone is true and older than the poets, and that the demons imitated it beforehand in myths.
24. 24Christians alone are persecuted, though every people worships different gods.
25. 25Christians have abandoned the immoral gods of myth for the impassible God.
26. 26Simon Magus, Menander, and Marcion, inspired by demons, are honored or tolerated, while true Christians are persecuted.
27. 27Christians do not expose infants, who are often raised for prostitution; the pagans do the vices they falsely charge to Christians.
28. 28Satan and his followers will be punished eternally; God delays judgment so that more may repent; humans are free and responsible.
29. 29Christians marry only to raise children or remain continent; one young man even sought castration to prove Christian chastity.
30. 30Justin will prove Christ is not a magician but the Son of God from prophecies fulfilled.
31. 31The Hebrew prophets foretold Christ's birth, miracles, death, resurrection, and the mission to the Gentiles; the Scriptures were translated into Greek for Ptolemy.
32. 32Moses' prophecy of Judah's ruler and the foal bound to the vine, and Isaiah's star and flower from Jesse, point to Christ.
33. 33Isaiah foretold the virgin birth; the power of God, the Word, overshadowed the virgin without intercourse.
34. 34Micah foretold his birth in Bethlehem, as the census under Quirinius shows.
35. 35Isaiah and the Psalms foretold Christ's crucifixion; Zechariah his entry into Jerusalem.
36. 36The divine Word speaks through the prophets in different persons: as God, as Christ, or as the people.
37. 37Examples of prophecy spoken in the person of the Father.
38. 38Examples of prophecy spoken in the person of Christ, fulfilled in his passion and resurrection.
39. 39Isaiah's prophecy of swords into plowshares is fulfilled: the twelve apostles went out, and Christians now die rather than lie or fight.
40. 40Psalm 19 foretells the apostles' preaching; Psalms 1 and 2 teach how to live and foretell the conspiracy against Christ, God's Son.
41. 41A psalm foretells that the Lord will reign from the tree of the cross.
42. 42Prophecy speaks of certain future events as already past; only Christ, crucified and risen, fulfilled David's words.
43. 43Prophecy does not mean fate; humans have free choice, so reward and punishment are just.
44. 44God gave humans free choice; the philosophers borrowed from Moses, so there are “seeds of truth” among all.
45. 45Psalm 110 foretells Christ's ascension and the preaching of the apostles from Jerusalem.
46. 46All people share in the Word; those who lived by the Word before Christ, like Socrates and Abraham, were in a sense Christians.
47. 47The prophets foretold the desolation of Jerusalem, now forbidden to Jews by Roman law.
48. 48Isaiah foretold Christ's healings and his death along with those who hope in him.
49. 49The Gentiles, who did not expect Christ, received him; the Jews, who expected him, did not.
50. 50Isaiah's suffering Servant (Isa 52–53) foretold Christ's passion; after his resurrection the apostles understood and preached.
51. 51Isaiah foretold that the sufferer's generation is beyond telling; Psalm 24 his ascension; Daniel his coming on the clouds.
52. 52The prophets foretold two comings of Christ: the first in suffering, the second in glory, with the resurrection and judgment.
53. 53Fulfilled prophecies, above all the conversion of the Gentiles, prove Christ's claims.
54. 54The demons, hearing the prophecies of Christ without understanding them, invented Dionysus, Bellerophon, Perseus, Heracles, and Asclepius as imitations.
55. 55The demons never imitated the cross, whose shape appears everywhere: in sails, plows, tools, the human body, and Rome's own standards.
56. 56After Christ came, the demons raised up Simon Magus and Menander; Justin asks that Simon's statue in Rome be taken down.
57. 57The demons can only stir up hatred; Christians do not fear death, and if their persecutors think death is the end, killing Christians only frees them from this life's troubles.
58. 58Marcion, prompted by demons, teaches another god than the Creator; the demons' whole aim is to draw people from God.
59. 59Plato's teaching that God made the world from formless matter was taken from Genesis 1.
60. 60Plato's “world soul set crosswise” and his threefold order came from Moses' bronze serpent and Genesis; even the unlettered among Christians know these things.
61. 61Justin describes baptism: instruction, prayer and fasting, then washing in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, called “illumination.”
62. 62Pagan purifications and the custom of removing shoes in temples imitate baptism and Moses at the burning bush, where Christ spoke with him.
63. 63The one who spoke to Moses from the bush was the Son, the Word, who is also God; the Jews wrongly think it was the Father.
64. 64Kore at the springs and Athena as Zeus's “first thought” imitate the Spirit over the waters and the Word.
65. 65After baptism the new Christian joins the prayers; bread and wine mixed with water are brought, thanks are given, and deacons distribute them, also to those absent.
66. 66The Eucharist is for the baptized only; it is not common bread and drink, but the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus, as the Gospels record.
67. 67Justin describes Sunday worship: Scripture reading, sermon, prayer, the Eucharist, and a collection for the needy, held on the day of creation and of the resurrection.
68. 68Justin closes with a warning of God's judgment and appends Hadrian's letter to Minucius Fundanus requiring proper trials of Christians.