First Apology 58

Summary: Marcion, prompted by demons, teaches another god than the Creator; the demons' whole aim is to draw people from God.

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Greek text · Rauschen, 94

Καὶ Μαρκίωνα δὲ τὸν ἀπὸ Πόντου, ὡς προέφημεν, προεβάλλοντο οἱ φαῦλοι δαίμονες, ὃς ἀρνεῖσθαι μὲν τὸν ποιητὴν τῶν οὐρανίων καὶ γηΐνων ἁπάντων θεὸν καὶ τὸν προκηρυχθέντα διὰ τῶν προφητῶν Χριστὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ νῦν διδάσκει, ἄλλον δέ τινα καταγγέλλει παρὰ τὸν δημιουργὸν τῶν πάντων θεὸν καὶ ὁμοίως ἕτερον υἱόν· ᾧ πολλοὶ πεισθέντες ὡς μόνῳ τἀληθῆ ἐπισταμένῳ ἡμῶν καταγελῶσιν, ἀπόδειξιν μηδεμίαν περὶ ὧν λέγουσιν ἔχοντες, ἀλλὰ ἀλόγως ὡς ὑπὸ λύκου ἄρνες συνηρπασμένοι βορὰ τῶν ἀθέων δογμάτων καὶ δαιμόνων γίνονται. Οὐ γὰρ ἄλλο τι ἀγωνίζονται οἱ λεγόμενοι δαίμονες, ἢ ἀπάγειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀπὸ τοῦ ποιήσαντος θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ πρωτογόνου αὐτοῦ Χριστοῦ· καὶ τοὺς μὲν τῆς γῆς μὴ ἐπαίρεσθαι δυναμένους τοῖς γηΐνοις καὶ χειροποιήτοις προσήλωσαν καὶ προσηλοῦσι, τοὺς δὲ ἐπὶ θεωρίαν θείων ὁρμῶντας ὑπεκκρούοντες, ἢν μὴ λογισμὸν σώφρονα καὶ καθαρὸν καὶ ἀπαθῆ βίον ἔχωσιν, εἰς ἀσέβειαν ἐμβάλλουσιν.

English · Claude translation

And, as we said before, the evil demons put forward Marcion of Pontus, who even now teaches people to deny God, the Maker of all things in heaven and on earth, and Christ his Son, foretold through the prophets, and proclaims some other god besides the Creator of all, and likewise another son. Persuaded by him, many laugh at us, as though he alone knew the truth, though they have no proof of what they say, but are carried off irrationally, like lambs by a wolf, and become the prey of godless teachings and of demons. For the so-called demons strive for nothing else than to lead people away from God who made them and from Christ his first-begotten; and those who cannot raise themselves from the earth they have nailed, and still nail, to earthly things and things made by hands; while those who set out to contemplate divine things they trip up, and unless they have a sober mind and a pure and passionless life, they throw them into ungodliness.

About this passage

Source
Rauschen, 94 · Gerhard Rauschen, ed., S. Iustini Apologiae duae, Florilegium Patristicum 2 (Bonn: Hanstein, 1911), 8–114 · Greek text: G. Rauschen, S. Iustini Apologiae duae (Florilegium Patristicum 2, 1911), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Rauschen (Florilegium Patristicum 2, 1911); made independently of existing English translations.
Scripture
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (digitization slip (ὡς garbled)): ἁ ς προέφημεν → ὡς προέφημεν; ὁ ς μόνῳ → ὡς μόνῳ.

Cite this passage

Justin, 1 Apol. 58 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-1-apology/58/).

Plain text
Justin, 1 Apol. 58 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-1-apology/58/).

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