Apologies

The martyr Justin the Philosopher wrote two apologies in defense of Christians. The first of them was written around 150 and was addressed to Emperor Antoninus Pius and his co-rulers, the Senate and the Roman people. It consists of 68 chapters, its contents can be divided into three main parts. In the first part, the apologist shows the injustice of the trial of Christians and the groundlessness of the accusations brought against them. Christians were condemned and executed for the mere name of “Christian” without any further investigation. Mch. Justin responds to the three main accusations that the pagans brought against Christians: atheism (atheism), disturbance of state peace and order, devotion to all kinds of indecency (chapters 4–15). In the second part, the apologist proves the divinity of the Christian faith. He cites the words of Christ about love for enemies, about mercy, chastity and kindness, and compares Christian teachings with the philosophical teachings and beliefs of the pagans. He confirms the divinity of Christ and the religion He founded by the exact fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. In the third part, in order to refute the absurd rumors about Christian meetings, the rites of Christian worship and mainly the way of performing the sacraments of Baptism and Communion are described in some detail. According to St. Justin, Jesus Christ is the only Son of God, or Logos, who gives Revelation. The apologist asserts the Divine glory of Christ against Jews and Gentiles. For him the cross is a sign of the strength and victory of his Lord. *Title of the work in Greek – ᾿Απολογία δευτέρα ὑπὲρ Χριστιανῶν πρὸς ᾿Αντωνῖνον τὸν εὐσεβῆ. The second apology consists of 15 chapters and was presumably written in 161. The reason for its writing was the execution of three Christians in Rome. Saint Justin speaks about the inadmissibility of condemnation for one confession and considers two more questions: 1) why Christians condemn suicide, but do not avoid martyrdom; 2) why God allows persecution of those who worship Him. Answering questions, the author writes that suicide is contrary to the will of God. God does not at all want the end of the human race; on the contrary, He created the world for people. If Christians do not give up their names during interrogations, they do so out of love for the truth. Persecution is proof of the innocence of Christians, since it is initiated by the machinations of demons, who have always persecuted virtuous people. Zealous activity of the martyr. Justina cost him his life in the fight against the enemies of Christianity. He himself foresaw this and wrote in chapter 3 of the second apology: “I expect to be caught in a net by one of those I have mentioned (i.e. false philosophers) and hanged on a tree, maybe even Crescent.” *The title of the work in Greek is ᾿Απολογία ὑπὲρ Χριστιανῶν πρὸς τὴν ῾Ρωμαίων σύγκλητον. First Apology * Second Apology About Saint Justin the Philosopher Martyr and His Apologies Archpriest Peter Preobrazhensky Justin was born in Flavius ​​Naples, the ancient city of Samaria Shechem (now Naplous), probably at the beginning of the second century A.D. Shechem, devastated during the Jewish war, was restored by the emperor Flavius ​​Vespasian, which is why it was called the “new city of Flavia (Flavia Neapolis)”, and like other Palestinian cities was settled by Greek and Roman colonists. From one of the families belonging to the Greek colony, St. Justin. His father was called Priscus, his grandfather Bacchius. Justin himself speaks about such an origin at the beginning of the 1st apology (chapter 1), and in another work he points to his pagan origin and definitely calls himself uncircumcised (Dial. p. Tryph. p. 28.41). His parents were so rich that they could provide him with the full education of that time. From an early age, Justin aroused an ardent desire for truth, seeking primarily solutions to higher questions about God and the final fate of man. Paganism in the then state of its disintegration - with its own opinions that had lost their meaning, with immoral rites of worship of God and mysteries that revealed little to the human spirit - could not satisfy the thirst for knowledge of the Divine. Justin turned to philosophy, and here he moved from one system to another, until he found in Christianity what his soul was looking for, languishing with a thirst for truth and inner peace. He himself talks about these vain searches, about the paths he took to achieve knowledge of GOD at the beginning of his “Conversation with Tryphon the Jew.” At first Justin turned to one Stoic; Having spent quite some time with him, he became convinced that his knowledge of GOD had not increased at all. The Stoic teacher, as Justin noted, not only did not himself have knowledge of GOD, but also did not regard him as a necessary subject of philosophical study. Justin went over to the Peripatetic; but this one turned philosophy into an instrument of his own selfish interests: a few days later he demanded conditions for payment for his lessons. With the same trust, with untiring hope, Justin turned to the Pythagorean, who was in great glory and himself had a high opinion of his wisdom. This philosopher immediately asked Justin if he knew music, astronomy and geometry, which in the schools of Pythagoras were considered necessary preparatory sciences for philosophy, and he extended his praises to them; since they distract the soul from the sensory and make it capable of perceiving the spiritual, of contemplating beauty and goodness in their very essence. Justin revealed his ignorance of those sciences and was not accepted as a disciple. In the midst of his desperation to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, Justin remembered the Platonists, who were also in great veneration. One of the most famous among them had just arrived at Justin's place of residence. Conversations with him, apparently, satisfied Justin: his success in philosophy increased every day. “Reflection on the supersensible,” says Justin, elevated me more and more, and the doctrine of ideas inspired my mind; in a short time I dreamed of becoming a sage and in my recklessness hoped to achieve the contemplation of God - this is the ultimate goal of Plato’s philosophy.” But an unexpected circumstance shattered the self-satisfied dreams of the philosophizing mind and gave a different direction to Justin’s thoughts. Plato's philosophy, which alone of all the systems of pagan antiquity still satisfied the ideal mind, was only the last preparatory step to the highest wisdom - in the Christian Faith. In a calm mood, Justin, wanting to freely indulge in reflection in deep solitude, away from meeting people, one day went to a deserted place not far from the sea. Approaching the place that he had chosen for his self-absorption, he saw at a short distance behind him an old man of meek, respectable appearance. The unexpected meeting amazed Justin and drew him into a conversation, which from the first ordinary questions and answers turned into a thoughtful philosophical conversation that had a decisive significance in Justin’s life. The elder said that he came to the seashore for the sake of absent relatives, whose return he was eagerly awaiting. When Justin, in turn, explained what brought him here, to a secluded place so convenient for mental pursuits, the stranger objected to him: “So you are a lover of speculation, and not of action and truth? and do you no longer care to be an active sage and not a sophist? To such a remark regarding his philosophical studies, Justin enthusiastically exclaimed: “What occupation could be more important than to prove that reason rules over everything, and with its help to understand the falsity of the aspirations of other people who do nothing healthy and pleasing to God? Without philosophy there can be no prudence. Therefore, everyone should philosophize and consider this the most important thing, and everything else - second and third.” “Does philosophy,” the elder asked, “lead to a happy life? And what is philosophy and what kind of happiness does it bring? - “Philosophy,” answered Justin, is the science of things and the knowledge of truth, but happiness is the reward for such knowledge and wisdom.” This is how Justin answered according to the principles of Platonic philosophy. Then the elder began to prove to the philosopher the insufficiency of this system in solving the most important issues and the need for a different, more perfect leadership. He first drew attention to the fact that knowledge about God is different from knowledge of music, arithmetic, astronomy, and medicine; the latter is acquired through experimental study or logical thinking, and the former through direct contemplation or indirectly through the testimony of others who have achieved such contemplation. “How can philosophers think correctly or speak the truth about God when they have no knowledge, have not seen Him, have not heard of Him?” Justin referred to the mind inherent in man, which, according to the teachings of Plato, has the power to rise to the contemplation of God: but the elder objected that this position has no basis, that it is refuted by another opinion of Plato, that not every person by himself, according to his inherent power of mind, is capable of contemplating the being of God, but only those purified virtuously, and that, consistently proceeding from Plato’s positions, it would be necessary to attribute this ability to animals, since their souls do not have significant difference from human souls. Here the elder touched upon Plato’s doctrine of the transmigration of souls. The inconsistency of this teaching is exposed by the fact that human souls, sent into the bodies of animals as punishment for their sins, have no consciousness of their previous sins, nor a sense of their temporary humiliation, and thus their imprisonment in the bodies of animals does not achieve the goal - moral retribution. Plato's very teaching about the immortality of the human spirit is unfounded in the sense that he considers this immortality to be unconditional, having a basis in the very essence of the soul. This is inconsistent with the temporal origin that she has together with the world, and would place her on an equal basis with a single, beginningless, original Being. The human soul does not die for the implementation of the moral law of truth, not on its own, but according to the will and power of Him who gave it existence. Such reasoning of the elder greatly shook the pillars on which Justin’s self-satisfied confidence in the perfection of Platonic philosophy and human wisdom in general was established. “What teacher can one trust, where can one expect help, if even those philosophers do not have the truth”? Justin exclaimed with a mournful feeling of disappointment. It was a decisive moment in which, together with the feeling of futility and infidelity of purely philosophical research, the unquenched thirst for new, satisfying knowledge was even more pronounced. The elder took advantage of this moment to point the seeker of wisdom to the only source of undoubted truth. “In times remote from us,” he said, “more ancient than all those revered by philosophers, there lived people called prophets, blessed, righteous and pleasing to God: they spoke by the Holy Spirit and predicted the future, which is now coming true. And they alone saw and proclaimed the truth to people; knowing no fear of anyone, not seeking glory for themselves, they spoke only what they heard and saw when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Their writings exist to this day, and whoever reads them receives much benefit for knowing the beginning and end of things and everything that a philosopher should know, if only he believes them. In their speeches they did not indulge in evidence, being above all evidence, as reliable witnesses of the truth, because past and present events force one to believe their words. Also, according to the miracles that they performed, they were worthy of faith, especially when they glorified the Creator of all, God and the Father, and proclaimed Christ His Son sent from Him... But you, first of all,” the elder concluded, “pray so that the doors of light will be opened for you: for no one can see or comprehend this unless God and His Christ give him understanding.” Having said this and much more, the elder left with instructions to think about it. Justin never saw him again; but his conversation made an indelible impression on the philosopher’s soul. “Suddenly,” says Justin, “a fire kindled in me, and love for the prophets and for those people who are friends of Christ consumed me; and, reflecting within myself on the words of the elder, I found only here true and useful philosophy.” This is how Justin talks about his conversion to Christianity. The internal truth of the matter already shows that Justin’s story is not just a literary shell for an apology for Christian teaching in the form of a conversation, but a real life event. Moreover, Justin himself clearly says in another place that he once admired the teachings of Plato (Apol. II. c. 12). According to the legend of the martyrdom of Justin, during interrogation before the prefect he answered that he once tried to study all systems of philosophy. This is completely consistent with analogous phenomena in the history of that time. Let us recall the story of the Roman patrician Clement, set out in Clementines, who, troubled by questions about the beginning and end of all things, went through all the schools of philosophy and, in the struggle of opposing opinions and dialectical debates, having lost all support, was already thinking about the spells of Egyptian magic, when unexpectedly the word of Christian Revelation enlightened and pacified his troubled soul. The rhetorician Tatian, from his youth filled with a desire for religious knowledge, traveled a significant part of the vast Roman empire, experienced all types of pagan worship, mysteries, systems, and was not satisfied with anything until the books of the Old Testament that accidentally fell into his hands threw the first ray of light into the darkness of his hopeless heart. Others, for example, turned to Christianity the same way. Theophilus of Antioch, Gregory the Wonderworker. Who the unknown elder was who talked with Justin is unknown: the ancients (Eusebius and Photius) thought that he was one of the apostolic men, and some of the newest (Fabricius) saw in him a saint. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna; but there is no doubt that he belonged to the number of highly educated and mature Christians in the spiritual life. Where this conversation took place is also not directly clear from Justin’s writings. One cannot think of his home city of Naples: it was five miles from the Mediterranean Sea and was hardly so significant that it had wonderful teachers of philosophical systems. Moreover, Justin, when he says that a teacher of the Platonic school arrived “in our city,” includes Tryphon here; and the conversation with him took place in Ephesus. Like other contemporaries (for example, Tatian), Justin probably tried to get acquainted with philosophical schools outside his homeland. In addition to the conversation with the elder, which favored Justin in favor of the Gospel as the most perfect teaching of truth, Christianity had previously produced a beneficial influence on him with its moral strength, destroying prejudices against the followers of Christ, so widespread at that time. “I myself,” he says in the second apology (chapter 12), “when I was still enjoying the teachings of Plato, I heard how Christians were slandered, but seeing with what fearlessness they face death and everything considered terrible, I came to the thought: it is impossible for them to be immoral and devoted to sensuality. For what kind of sensualist, or depraved person who reveres human flesh as a pleasure, can willingly accept death in order to be deprived of his goods? Wouldn’t such a person try in every possible way to continue his real life and hide from the authorities, rather than announce himself in order to be put to death? This firmness and courage of Christians in confessing their faith, this fearlessness and joy in the midst of torment and death convinced Justin of the injustice of various accusations of immorality against Christians. To this we must add Justin’s deliberate delving into the prophetic Scriptures, everywhere imbued with sublimity of spirit and simplicity, unity and foresight of the future, - treatment with the “friends” of Christ, who clarified and confirmed the high aspirations of Justin’s soul and mainly the greatness and sweetness of the word of Christ: and for us the story of Justin’s conversion to Christianity becomes clear and reliable. The baptism of Justin is dated to 133 (Mohler) or 137 (Tschirner) or generally to the 4th decade of the second century (Otto). With the adoption of Christianity, a vast field of activity opened up for Justin. After a long and painful search, having found in Christianity the light of divine truth and the source of spiritual peace, Justin, at the inspiration of the Holy Faith and natural sympathy for his fellow men, devoted all his strength and knowledge to making the teachings of Christ known and accessible to others. “I wanted,” he says, “for everyone to think the same way with me and not to turn away from the teachings of the Savior, for... it brings the sweetest peace to those who study it.” (Conversation with Trif. Chapter 8). “Out of my heartfelt compassion for you, I am making every effort so that you understand our teaching, which is so alien to you; if not, at least I will be innocent on the day of judgment” (ibid., chapter 38). “Everyone,” he says in another place, “who can proclaim the truth and does not proclaim it, will be condemned by God. Fearing this, I consider it my duty to seek interviews with you, and this is not out of greed or vanity" ... (ibid., Chapter 82). In like manner, Justin expresses in many places in his apologies that he would be guilty of the ignorance of the pagans and their crimes, which they commit out of mental blindness, if he had not tried by all means to dispel their ignorance and prejudices. But, having devoted himself to the Gospel with all the strength of his soul, Justin, however, did not cease to respect philosophy, nor did he change his external way of life. Like other Christians of that time, even after his baptism he did not throw off his philosophical mantle - not because, of course, he wanted to hide through this from the reproach to which the disciples of the Gospel were subjected. “I have despised, he says, the prejudices of the crowd, and, I confess, I consider it my glory to be a Christian and try with all my might to appear so before everyone” (2 Apol. 13). But the philosophical robe, like the well-known clothing of wise men, aroused attention and made it easier for others to gain access to Justin for religious interviews; at the same time, she showed that, having become a Christian, he did not abandon the love of wisdom, but, on the contrary, found a new higher wisdom in Christianity. Thus, in appearance a Hellenic, in conviction and activity a fiery Christian, Justin wandered from East to West throughout the Roman state in order to spread and establish the Christian Faith everywhere. Without a church position, without a permanent residence, in the free service of the Word, he preached His teachings as a traveling evangelist. So we see him in Ephesus, where he had a theological conversation with the Jew Tryphon and his fellow believers. He was in Rome twice and for a considerable period of time: here he founded a Christian school, perhaps for the education of ministers of the Church. One of his students was Tatian, and the enthusiastic respect with which he treated Justin after his death (contra graec, p. 18) testifies to the attractiveness and strength of the teacher’s personal influence. But the main calling and historical significance of Justin consisted, according to the needs of that time, in apologetics or defense of Christianity, which he led orally and in writing against the enemies of the Church - Jews, pagans and heretics. The Jews, the age-old enemies of Christians, zealously spread slander about their immorality and wickedness, set fire to the pagan mob, and, whenever possible, launched open persecution against them. (Discussed with Trif. Ch. 16. 95. and Apol. 31). Justin tried to show them the folly of their behavior in relation to Christians and from the prophetic books to reveal the abolition of the Old Testament and the divinity of Christ and His New Testament. Such was his conversation with Tryphon the Jew, which was later recounted in writing. The stronger enemies of Christianity were the pagans, among whom it was necessary to fight the unjust policies of the government, the false prejudices of the people, the pride and mental corruption of educated people. In Rome itself, Justin fearlessly entered into public competitions about the Faith and refuted the slander and ridicule against Christianity of non-believers: of these, the philosopher of the Cynic school Crescentus is especially famous, whose ignorance and immorality Justin more than once exposed to the people. He extended his word of defense even to the throne of the Caesars and gave them two apologies in favor of Christians. Finally, in the midst of Christian society, Justin acted against heretical gnosis, which not only brought division into the church, but also instilled in the pagans prejudice against Christians due to the immorality of his followers. He wrote an essay against all the heresies that existed before him, and against Marcion, whom he had the opportunity to meet in Rome (1 Apol. Ch. 26.58). Such zealous activity of Justin in the fight against the enemies of Christianity cost him his life. He himself foresaw this and wrote in his 2nd apology: “I expect that I will be caught in a net by one of those I mentioned (i.e., false philosophers) and hanged on a tree, maybe even Crescent” (2 ap. ch. 3). That Justin testified to his faith in Christ by martyrdom is confirmed by the testimony of the most ancient teachers (for example, the almost contemporary apologist St. Irenaeus) and church historians, and the very name of the martyr given to him by Christian antiquity. A detailed account of the death of Justin is contained in the acts of his martyrdom, preserved by Simeon Metaphrastus. These acts do not mention anything about Crescentus, as the culprit of Justin’s death, or in general about the immediate or remote reason for Justin’s imprisonment: they directly introduce us to Rome, where Justin arrived for the second time and where he zealously labored in preaching the truth, and present to us the feat of his martyrdom and the interrogation that preceded it. Here we see Justin and with him five other confessors of the Faith (Chariton, Evelpist, Hierax, Paeon and Liberian) before the city prefect Rusticus. When the latter asked Justin about his beliefs, he replied: “I tried to get acquainted with all systems of philosophy, but finally I leaned toward the true teaching of Christians, although it does not enjoy the approval of people infected with false opinions.” When asked about the essence of Christian teaching, Justin expressed it in simple but powerful words. “We believe in one God, who is from the beginning the Creator and Creator of all creation, visible and invisible, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, about whom the prophets foretold that He would come to people as a messenger of salvation and a teacher of truth. I, as a person, cannot speak satisfactorily about His infinite deity: for this, I confess, prophetic power is needed...” To the prefect’s question about where Christians gather for worship, Justin answered: “Where anyone wants and can: do you think that we all gather in just one place? No. The God of Christians is not limited to any place, but invisible, He fills heaven and earth and everywhere receives worship and glory from believers. “And I,” continued Justin, “live in the house of a certain Martin, near the Timotin bathhouse; whoever wanted to come to me, I imparted to him the teaching of the truth.” - So are you a Christian? asked the prefect. “Yes, Christian,” was Justin’s decisive answer. After his other comrades courageously confessed themselves to be Christians, the prefect again turned to Justin with mocking words. “Listen, you who call yourself a scientist and think that you know the true teaching: if after scourging your head is cut off; Are you sure that you will ascend to heaven?” “I hope,” answered Justin, “to receive this gift if I endure all this.” “So you think that you will ascend to heaven and receive a reward there?” Rustic asked again. “I don’t just think, but I know and am quite sure of it,” Justin answered firmly. That was enough for Rustik. Not wanting to waste time; he ordered the defendants to make a sacrifice to the gods together. He responded to their refusal by threatening to punish them mercilessly. “Our ardent desire,” said Justin, “is to suffer for our Lord Jesus Christ, for this will grant us salvation and boldness at the terrible and universal judgment of our Lord and Savior.” “Do what you want,” added the other confessors, “we are Christians and do not offer sacrifices to idols.” Then a sentence followed: for their refusal to sacrifice to the gods and disobedience to the autocrat’s order to beat them and cut off their heads. Thus Justin “crowned his holy life with holy martyrdom.” (Evs. IV, 16). Eusebius in his chronicle of the death of St. he believes the martyr to be in the year 150, but in his later work, in church history, he dates it to the time of the general reign of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus (161-169), and moreover says that Justin died around the same time as Polycarp of Smyrna - during the persecution of Christians in Asia Minor under Marcus Aurelius. Junius Rusticus, a Stoic philosopher and one of the teachers of Marcus Aurelius, was elevated by him to prefect of the city of Rome. Finally, the Alexandrian chronicle testifies that Justin died in 166 A.D. Glorious in life and death, philosopher and martyr, “left us many very useful monuments of an educated mind and zealously occupied with divine subjects.” (Eve. IY, 18). How highly his works were valued is shown by reviews of him and often literal borrowings from him by subsequent church writers. Eusebius invites the curious to carefully study his writings. But the very respect that Justin enjoyed in the church did not save many of his works from destruction. Thus, of the works listed by Eusebius, some are now known only by name or a little more. This includes: a philosophical treatise on the soul, two works of polemic-apologetic content, namely a book against the Hellenes, in which Justin (according to Eusebius) extensively discusses many controversial subjects between us and the Greek philosophers and speaks about the nature of demons, and against all heresies and Marcion in particular; and, finally, Justin’s work entitled “The Singer,” which probably had Christian chants as its subject. On the other hand, the celebrity of the name of Justin was the reason that in later times the works of unknown authors, intentionally or unintentionally, at least without strict criticism, were attributed to Justin and distributed or published under his name. Some of them bear obvious signs of fraud; others, belonging to extreme antiquity and going back to the time of Justin or even more ancient, in their style, content or other features, represent, however, grounds to doubt their origin from Justin, and their authenticity is subject to dispute and controversy. All the more important for us are those works of his that have reached us with undoubted signs of their authenticity and generally belong to the most important works of Justin. These are: two Apologies and a conversation with Tryphon the Jew. The literary monuments of Justin's apologetic activity against paganism are his two now well-known apologies, large and small, both of which are unanimously recognized by all scientists as the authentic works of Justin. Such recognition is based both on the content of the apologies themselves, and on the testimony of Eusebius and the passages he provides, which are also found in the apologies that have come down to us. (Ts. Ist. IY, 8–17). The first or greater apology refers to the reign of Emperor Antoninus the Pious (138–161). The reason for its writing was the executions to which Christians were subjected in different regions of the Roman Empire without any guilt, for the name of Christians. With all the meekness and love of mankind, which historians testify to and the very name of the pious (Pius), Antoninus could not prevent cruel persecutions against Christians from being carried out locally by rulers or fanatical mobs. Such persecutions happened more than once during the time of Justin; he himself, even before converting to Christianity, witnessed the torture and execution of the preachers of Christ, and then the spectacle of innocent but courageous sufferers touched the soul of Justin and inclined him in favor of Christianity. Having become his follower, he, with all fearlessness and zeal for the truth, stood for the innocently persecuted society of Christians. While he was in Rome, he wrote his apology in order to show the injustice of the trial and persecution of Christians for one name and to reveal that the accusations against them are unfounded and false, that their way of life is blameless, their teaching, as well as their worship of God, is very pure and reasonable. This apology consists of 68 chapters. As can be seen from the writing (chapter 1), it is addressed “to the Emperor Titus Aelius Hadrian, Antonin the Pious, Augustus Caesar, to his son Veressimus the philosopher (i.e., Marcus Aurelius Verus, whom Hadrian loved very much and called Veressimus) and to Lucius, the natural son of Caesar the philosopher and the adopted son of the Pious, a lover of learning, and to to the honorable Senate and to all the Roman people." Here Justin fearlessly calls himself and, having confessed his Christianity, directly addresses his speech to the rulers of the empire, presents them with their titles - pious and philosopher, and what they demand. “You are called pious and philosophers and are known everywhere as guardians of the truth and lovers of science: now it will turn out whether you really are like that. We have turned to you not to flatter you or to speak for your pleasure, but to demand that you judge us by strict and thorough research, and not be guided by prejudice or servility to superstitious people, not carried away by an unreasonable impulse or the bad rumor that has long been established in you; - through this you would only pronounce a sentence against yourself. As for us, we are convinced that we cannot suffer harm from anyone unless we are exposed to a bad deed... you can kill us, but you cannot do harm. But so that these words do not seem reckless and impudent to anyone, we ask you to investigate what Christians are accused of; and if the accusations turn out to be true, let them be punished as they should be. If no one can convict you of anything, then common sense does not dictate, just because of bad rumors, to insult innocent people, or better than yourself, when you think to conduct business not according to reasoning, but according to passion. Every sensible person will say that the best and only condition of justice is that subordinates present an irreproachable account of their lives and teachings, and that superiors, on the other hand, give judgment not through violence and autocracy, but guided by piety and wisdom. Thus, both rulers and subjects would enjoy happiness... And so it is our duty to present our life and teaching to everyone, so that instead of those who do not know anything of ours, we ourselves will not be punished for those crimes that others commit out of their blindness. And your job, as reason demands, is to listen to us and appear as good judges; for after that you will be unforgivable before God if, having learned the truth, you do not do what is right” (chap. 2, 3). After such a bold and strong consciousness of the correctness of the introduction, Justin turns to the presentation and disclosure of his subject. The content of the first apology, with all the abundance of digressions and repetitions in it, can be divided into three main parts. In the first, the apologist shows the injustice of the trial of Christians and the groundlessness of the accusations brought against them. Christians were condemned and executed for one name, “Christian,” without any further investigation. Against this, Justin says that the name alone, in addition to actions, does not provide a reasonable basis for either approval or condemnation, and that justice requires examining the actions of the accused and judging by them, regardless of whether someone confesses himself to be a Christian or renounces. Three main accusations were leveled against Christians in the opinion of the pagans. They were represented as atheists, disturbers of state peace and order, people devoted to all kinds of obscenities. Christians were accused of atheism because they did not worship any of the pagan gods, did not make sacrifices, and did not have idols. “We confess,” says Justin, that we are atheists in relation to these imaginary gods, but not in relation to the true God, the Father of chastity and all virtue, Who does not require material sacrifices, and Whom we honor with the word of prayer and thanksgiving; We also honor Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who appeared in the flesh, and the Prophetic Spirit, who taught us the true knowledge of God. And for this, evil demons inspire us to persecute us, because we have fallen behind in worshiping them; Likewise, they persecuted Socrates, who taught the truth through the action of the same Word, which took on a visible form and was called Jesus Christ.” To the second accusation, Justin says: “You hear that we are waiting for the kingdom, but in vain you believe that we are talking about the kingdom of man; Meanwhile, we are talking about the spiritual, about reigning with God, otherwise we would renounce, so as not to lose life and receive what we expect. We, even more than anyone, contribute to public peace, for according to our teaching, neither a virtuous person nor a villain can hide from the All-Seeing God, and each, according to his deeds, will receive eternal torment or salvation. And human laws are powerless to curb criminals, because you can always hide from human eyes.” Justin contrasts accusations of immorality with a picture of the amazing change that the teaching of Christ produces in the morals of the people who believed him (4-15). In the second part (15–53) Justin proves the divinity of the Christian Faith, firstly, by the dignity of its teaching. To do this, he cites the sayings of Christ the Savior about love for enemies, about mercy, chastity and kindness, and compares Christian teaching with the philosophical teachings and beliefs of the pagans, with which it is similar in some points. “However,” he adds, “let it be known to you that only what we say is true, having learned from Christ and from the prophets who preceded Him, who are older than all your former writers. And we must believe our words, not because we say something similar to him, but because we speak the truth, as Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God, the firstborn and power, who by the will of God became man, taught us this.” Further, he confirms the divinity of Christ and the religion He founded by the exact fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. Finally, in the third part (chap. 54 - 68), to refute the absurd rumors about Christian meetings, Justin sets out in some detail the rituals of Christian worship and mainly the way of performing the sacraments of baptism and communion. Justin ends his apology by repeating his request to the rulers for justice. “If everything I have said seems to you to agree with reason and truth, then respect it; if it seems like idle talk to you, then leave it as idle talk, but do not inflict the death penalty on people who are innocent of anything, as enemies. We tell you in advance that you will not escape the future judgment of God if you do not give up untruth, and we will exclaim: whatever God pleases, let it be.” To support his petition, he appends (chapter 69) a decree from Emperor Hadrian regarding Christians to Minucius Fundanus, prohibiting condemning them based on denunciations alone. Later scribes added two more decrees to it: the Emperor Antoninus to the Asian society, and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius to the Senate, in which the victory over the Marcomanni is attributed to the prayer of Christians (chap. 70 and 71). When this apology was written and presented, scientists answer this question with great disagreement among themselves. From the inscription to her, in which Marcus Aurelius (Verissimus) is not yet called a co-ruler or Caesar, they concluded. that she appeared soon after the accession to the throne of Emperor Antoninus the Pious, but before the declaration of Marcus Aurelius as Caesar, which followed in 139: thus, the time of origin of the first apology was attributed to the end of 138 or the beginning of 139. But such a conclusion does not agree with the following circumstances: 1) Marcus Aurelius, mentioned by Justin among the royal persons to whom the apology addresses, at the indicated time was a young man of 18 years old, who had not yet enjoyed fame and government power; Meanwhile, in the apology, the matter is presented in such a way that not only piety in the person of Emperor Antoninus, but also wisdom in the person of Marcus Aurelius, nicknamed the philosopher, sat on the throne of the rulers of the Roman Empire. Thus, addressing them at the very beginning of the apology, Justin says: you are called pious and philosophers (chapter 2, demolished. 3), - and takes us back to the time when both of them were famous everywhere as pious and philosophers. And Marcus Aurelius was made co-ruler with Antonin in 147. The omission of the name Caesar in the title of Marcus Aurelius could have occurred either from a copyist error or from Justin himself, who did not care about diplomatic subtleties. 2) In this apology there is a remark that, according to the legend of Christians, Christ was born 150 years before this at Cyrene, and taught under Pontius Pilate (1 Apol. Ch. 46): to weaken this testimony with the assumption that Justin here wanted only to indicate with an approximate and round number the time that had passed since the appearance of the Founder of Christianity, and especially to reduce this number, there is no sufficient reason. 3) Justin speaks of Marcion as his contemporary, presenting him as a false teacher who has already deceived many everywhere (1 St. Chapters 26 and 58). Although the testimony about the time of Marcion’s activity among ancient writers is rather vague; but in this case the testimony of Irenaeus deserves preference (adv. haer. 3, 4): he says that Marcion, a student of Cerdon, strengthened under the Roman bishop Anicetus, who, according to Eusebius (Church. Ist. IV, 19), ruled the church from 158 to 169 - 4). Finally, Eusebius, speaking about the glorious activity of Justin in defense of the Faith against heretics and pagans, when he was in Rome, dates it back to the time of Bishop Anicetas (Church Ist. IV, 11). All this speaks against the opinion of writers who attribute the 1st Apology of Justin to the year 139, and points to a much later time for its origin. Therefore, the opinion of other scientists who attribute it to the 150th is more likely. The reason for writing the second or minor apology was the lawless execution of three Christians, which took place in the very capital of the Roman emperors. One Roman woman converted to Christianity from an unclean life in paganism, and tried to persuade her depraved husband to do the same. Her efforts were in vain: her husband increasingly indulged in debauchery and with his actions brought her to the point that she, not wanting to be a participant in his lewdness and misfortune, legally divorced him. In revenge, he denounced her that she was a Christian; but she petitioned the “autocrat” and received permission to put her household affairs in order before answering the accusation. Then the pagan husband turned his vengeance on Ptolemy, who was her mentor in Christian teaching. Ptolemy, summoned to the city prefect of Urbic, confessed himself to be a Christian and was immediately sentenced to death. At this time, another Christian, amazed at the condemnation of an innocent man, turned to Urbik with a question. “Why did you condemn to death this man who is innocent of fornication or adultery, not a murderer, not a robber or thief, and not convicted of any crime, but only confessed that he is a Christian? You, Urbicus, judge how indecent it is neither for a pious autocrat, nor for a philosopher, the son of Caesar, nor for the sacred Senate! Urbik only objected to this: “And you, it seems to me, are just as Christian?” - “Yes,” said Lucius,” and was also taken to execution. The same fate befell the third Christian who approached this matter. A similar pattern of action towards Christians, repeated even more in other places of the Roman Empire, caused Justin to take up his pen again, especially since the pagans added ridicule to these officially legal, but contrary to conscience, cruelties. Seeing that Christians, in view of death itself, were firm in their confession, they mockingly asked: why don’t Christians kill themselves in order to go to their God? And why does God allow them to torment His worshipers? The answer to these objections forms the main content of the second apology, consisting of 15 chapters; Moreover, Justin reveals the superiority of Christian teaching over the teachings of pagan sages, however, for the most part referring to what was said in the 1st apology. To the first objection, Justin says that suicide is a criminal death and a rebellion against the law of God. And the fact that we do not deny during interrogations is because we do not recognize anything bad in ourselves, but we consider it wicked not to be faithful in everything to the truth, which - we know - is pleasing to God; Moreover, we want to save you from unfair beliefs about us (chapter 4). To another objection, the apologist replies that if the world still survives, it is for the sake of Christians, who are its seed: otherwise the fire of judgment would come down and destroy everything without distinction; but the time will come when evil spirits and their followers will be punished in eternal fire, and Christians will be crowned with glory and bliss for their innocent suffering. The real persecution of Christians is the action of evil demons, through whose inspiration people who were always of good disposition were hated and killed: for example, Socrates and Heraclitus; Moreover, they persecute Christians. No one believed Socrates to the point that they were ready to die for his teaching; but for Christ, whom Socrates only partially knew, wise men, artisans, and completely unlearned people die every day, despite human opinions and fear. - Justin concludes the apology with a request to make an ordinary inscription on it and make it public, “so that others will know about our work and can be freed from error and ignorance about what is truly dear. We, for our part, have done everything we could and only wish that all people everywhere would be worthy to know the truth. Oh, that you too would judge correctly for your own sake; as piety and philosophy require.” Eusebius says that around the time of the persecution of Christians in Asia Minor, when St. died. Polycarp, Justin presented the second apology in defense of the Christian faith to the emperors (Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus) and accepted the crown of martyrdom through the machinations of Crescent (Church Ist. IV, 16.18). On this basis, the time of origin of this apology is postulated after the year 161, when, after the death of Antoninus the Pious, the general reign of the two mentioned emperors began; and thus between the first and second apology a distance of 10 or 20 years is allowed (depending on whether the year 139 or 150 is assigned for the 1st apology). But this opinion about the time of writing of the second apology is contradicted by the instructions contained in it itself. 1) The words of Lucius: “you judge, Urbicus, how indecent it is to judge either the Emperor the Pious or the Philosopher, son of Caesar” (chapter 2) indicate the well-known nature of the persons who own the titles of “pious” and “philosopher”, and are most naturally applied to the Emperor Antoninus the Pious and co-emperor Marcus Aurelius the Philosopher. Justin’s final appeal: “if only you would judge fairly for your own sake, as required by “piety and philosophy”” is a literal repetition of allusions to the titles of Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius, which appeared more than once in the first apology. 2) Justin mentions the filing of a petition from a Christian woman accused by her husband to the “autocrat” (“you, emperor”): this makes sense only during a reign when one was actually an autocratic emperor, and the heir to the throne (this time Marcus Aurelius) was only a co-ruler, and does not go back to the time of the general rule of two emperors, as was the case after the death of Antoninus. 3) Even more indicative of the simultaneity of the origin of both apologies are the frequent references to the 1st apology found in the second: they consist of a short expression: “as we said before,” and are completely inexplicable unless one assumes that the 2nd apology followed immediately after the first. 4) In the last chapter of the 2nd Apology, Justin says: “I treated with contempt the wicked and false teaching of Simon; but if you order, then I will expose it to everyone, so that if possible, they can change their minds.” Previously, in the same apology, nothing was said either about Simon or about his teaching: why did the author decide to say these words? This can be explained again only in the case when the 2nd apology was written shortly after the 1st, in which Justin speaks more than once about Simon the Magus and is very unflattering for the Romans (chap. 26 and 56). Therefore, if one cannot agree with the opinion that recognizes both apologies as one, subsequently accidentally torn into two parts - since each has its own integrity and completeness: then it is fair to believe that the second apology was written to the same persons and in direct connection with the first, which was already ready for submission or had just been submitted, and constitutes an addition and explanation to it, caused by the mentioned events in Rome. As for Eusebius, he was misled by the fact that after the decree of Hadrian, placed at the end of the 1st apology by Justin himself, subsequent scribes and collectors of written acts inserted two more decrees of Antoninus the Pious and Marcus Aurelius. 1. To the Emperor Titus Aelius Hadrian Antoninus the Pious, Augustus Caesar, his son Verissimus the philosopher, and Lucius the philosopher, the natural son of Caesar and the adopted son of the Pious, lover of science and to the sacred Senate and the entire Roman people, addressing my word and petition for their people, all nations unjustly hated and persecuted, I am one of them, Justin, son Prisca, grandson of Bacchius, natives of Flavia Naples in Palestine Syria. 2. People who are truly pious and wise must respect and love only the truth and refuse to follow the opinions of their ancestors when they are bad: this is the duty inspired by reason. And not only does common sense require not to follow those who acted or taught unjustly: a lover of truth must try in every possible way and more than his own life to observe the truth in his words and deeds, even if death threatens him. You are called pious and philosophers, and are known everywhere as guardians of the sciences: now it will turn out whether you really are like that. We have turned to you not to flatter you with this note, or to speak for your pleasure, but to demand that you judge us according to strict and thorough research, and not be guided by prejudices or servility to superstitious people, not carried away by an unreasonable impulse or a long-standing bad rumor that has become established in you; through this you would only pronounce a sentence against yourself. As for us, we are convinced that we cannot suffer harm from anyone unless they expose us to a bad deed and prove that we are worthless people: you can kill us, but you cannot do harm. 3. But so that these words do not seem reckless and impudent to anyone, we ask you to investigate what they are accused of; and if the accusations turn out to be true, let them be punished as they should be. If no one can convict you of anything, then common sense does not command, according to one bad rumor, to insult innocent people, or better yet, yourself, when you think to conduct business not according to reasoning, but according to passion. Every sane person will say that the best and only condition of justice is for subordinates to present a non-reproachful account of their lives and teachings, and for superiors, on the other hand, to give judgment not through violence and autocracy, but guided by piety and wisdom. In this way, both rulers and subjects would enjoy happiness. For one of the ancients said somewhere: “if rulers and peoples do not philosophize, then civil societies cannot prosper.” And so it is our duty to present our life and teaching to everyone, so that instead of those who do not know anything of ours, we ourselves will not be punished for the crimes that others commit out of their blindness. And your job, as reason demands, is to listen to us and appear as good judges, for after that you will not be forgiven before God if, having learned the truth, you do not do what is fair. 4. By one name, in addition to the actions that are associated with the name, one cannot judge whether something is good or bad. Although, however, as for our name, which is blamed on us, we are the kindest people. But just as we do not consider it fair, in the case where we are convicted of a crime, to ask for forgiveness for the sake of one name, so on the other hand, if we are not guilty either by name or by way of life, then your business is to take care not to unjustly punish innocent people, and for that you yourself will not be justly punished. The name alone cannot provide a reasonable basis for either praise or punishment, unless something praiseworthy or bad is revealed from the deeds themselves. And you do not punish any of the accused until they are exposed; but with us you take one name as proof of guilt, although, however, if you judge by name, you should punish our accusers more quickly. We are accused of being Christians; but it is unfair to hate what is good. Also, if one of the accused renounces and only says that he is not a Christian, then you release him, as if you no longer have any proof of his guilt; If someone declares himself a Christian, then you punish him for this one confession, whereas it would be necessary to examine the life of both the one who declared himself a Christian and the one who renounced, so that from the very deeds it turns out what kind of one and the other. For just as some, having accepted the commandment not to renounce from the teacher Christ, serve as an encouraging example for others with their firmness during torture, in the same way others who live poorly may give reason to prejudiced people to accuse all Christians of wickedness and lawlessness. But it's not fair. And among those who bear the name and clothing of philosophers, there are also people who do nothing in accordance with their title, and you know that the ancient teachers, despite all the contrast of their thoughts and teachings, are called by the same name of philosophers; and some of them taught atheism. And the poets tell of the debauchery of Zeus and his children, and you do not impose silence on those who indulge in their fables; on the contrary, you still give rewards and honors to those who skillfully ridicule your gods. 5. What does this mean? We declare that we are not doing anything criminal and do not adhere to such ungodly teachings, and you are not making a judicial investigation, but at the behest of reckless passion and at the instigation of evil demons, execute us - without reasoning or care. But the truth must be told. Even in ancient times, evil demons, openly appearing, desecrated women and youths and brought amazing horrors to people, so that those who did not reason with their minds about their actions, being overwhelmed by fear, and not knowing that they were evil demons, called them gods and gave them the name that one of the demons chose for himself. But when Socrates decided to discover this, guided by true reason and research, and to lead people away from demons, then the demons themselves took advantage of people living in evil, and through them Socrates was condemned to death as an atheist and impious, under the pretext that he was introducing new deities. Likewise, they do the same against us. For not only among the Hellenes was this revealed by the Word through Socrates, but also among the barbarian peoples by the Word itself, Who took on a visible form, became a man and was called Jesus Christ. Believing this Word, we say that the spirits who did such things are not only not good, but evil and wicked demons, who in their deeds cannot be equal even to people who love virtue. 6. That is why we are called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists in relation to such imaginary gods, but not in relation to the truest God, the Father of truth and chastity and other virtues, and pure from all evil. But we honor and worship both Him and the Son who came from Him and conveyed this teaching to us, together with the host of other good angels who follow and resemble Him, and we also honor and worship the Spirit of the Prophets, giving honor in word and truth, and openly teaching this to everyone who wants to learn as we ourselves have been taught. 7. But they will say: some of those taken for interrogation actually turned out to be criminals. It is true that you condemn many and often, just as quickly as you examine the lives of the accused; but you do not condemn because others were exposed before them. In general, we confess that just as among the Hellenes those who taught, each in his own way, are called by one name, philosopher, even if their teachings were not in agreement: so among the barbarians one common name is applied to both those who are truly wise men and those who only pretend to be such: all are called Christians. Therefore we ask that those who are reported to you be judged according to their deeds, so that whoever is found guilty will be punished as a criminal, and not as a Christian; if anyone turns out to be innocent, let him be freed as a Christian who has done nothing wrong. We no longer ask you to punish the accusers, for for them the punishment of their own untruth and ignorance of the truth is sufficient. 8. Take heed, we say this for your good, for it is our will to recant during interrogation; only we don’t want to live by deception. We desire eternal and pure life, we strive to be with God, the Father and creator of the whole world, and we hasten to confess our faith, being convinced and believing that such a reward can be achieved by those who, by their deeds, have testified before God to faithfulness in serving Him and love for life with Him, inaccessible to evil. Here, in a nutshell, is what we expect, what we learn from Christ, and what we teach. Plato also said that sinners would come to trial before Rhadamanthus and Minos and be punished by them; and we affirm the same thing, but in our opinion, Christ will be the judge and their souls will be united with the same bodies and will be given over to eternal torment, and not only for thousands of years, as Plato says. If someone tells us that this is incredible and impossible, then at least this is a delusion without any special consequences, as long as we are not convicted of any crime. 9. We do not make many sacrifices, we do not make wreaths of flowers in honor of those whom people made and, placing in churches, called gods: for we know that they are soulless and dead, and do not have the image of God (we do not think that God resembles such images in which, some say, they presented Him for veneration); but they have the names and types of evil demons that appeared to people. And is it really necessary to tell you, when you yourself know how artists shape matter, trim and carve, melt and forge, and often from worthless vessels, by means of art changing only the appearance and giving them an image, they make what they call gods? This is what we consider not only contrary to reason, but also offensive to God, Who has ineffable glory and image, while His name is appropriated to things that are perishable and require constant care. You also know very well that their artists are obscene people and - not to list in detail - given over to all vices; they even molest their own maids who help them in their work. And what madness! Dissolute people make and remake gods for worship; and the same people are appointed as guards to the churches where the gods are located, despite the fact that it is wicked to think and say that people should be the guards of the gods. 10. And we are taught that God has no need for material offerings from people, He, who, as we see, Himself gives us everything. We are taught and convinced and believe that He is pleased only with those who imitate Him in His perfections - in chastity, truth and love for mankind, and in everything that is worthy of God, Who is not called by any specific name. We are also taught that in His goodness in the beginning He created everything out of ugly matter for people, and that if they prove worthy of His appointment in their deeds, they will be worthy to live with Him and reign with Him, becoming free from corruption and suffering. For just as He created us in the beginning, when we did not exist, in the same way, we think, those who chose what was pleasing to Him will be honored for this choice with incorruption and cohabitation with Himself. That we were created in the beginning was not our business; but in order for us to choose to follow what is pleasing to Him, He, through the rational abilities given to us, convinces us and leads us to faith. And it seems to me that it is important for all people that they are not prevented from learning this teaching, but that their attention is also drawn to it. For what human laws could not do, the Word of God would have done, if the evil demons, with the assistance of the manifold inclination to evil found in every person, had not scattered so many false and godless accusations, not one of which comes to us. 11. When you hear that we are expecting a kingdom, it is in vain to assume that we are talking about some kind of human kingdom, while we are talking about a reign with God: this is clear from the fact that when you interrogate us, we ourselves admit that we are Christians, although we know that anyone who admits this is subject to the death penalty. If we expected the human kingdom, we would renounce in order to avoid destruction, or we would try to hide in order to achieve what we expected. But since our hopes are not directed towards the present, we do not worry when we are killed, knowing that everyone must certainly die. 12. As for public peace, we assist you and contribute in this more than all people, for we adhere to the teaching that it is impossible for an evildoer, nor for a covetous person, nor for a criminal, nor for a virtuous one to hide from God, and that everyone, according to the quality of his deeds, will receive eternal torment or salvation. If all people knew this, then no one would choose evil for a short time in life, knowing that he is heading for eternal fiery damnation, but would restrain himself in every possible way and would be adorned with virtue in order to receive the blessings of God and avoid punishment. For it is not out of fear of the laws and punishments established by you that people try to hide their crimes; but they commit crimes, knowing that they can hide from you, as people. And if they knew and were sure that nothing can be hidden from God, not only any deed, but also intentions, then, at least, out of fear of punishment, they would try in every possible way to behave well - you will agree on this. Meanwhile, it seems as if you are afraid that everyone will begin to live virtuously, and you will no longer have anyone to punish: but this would be fitting for executioners, and not for good rulers. I am, however, sure that this, as I said before, is the work of evil demons who demand sacrifice and service from those who live contrary to reason. But you, I think, who love piety and philosophy, will not do anything contrary to reason. If you, like the senseless, prefer customs to truth, then do what you can. Rulers who prefer opinion to truth are no more powerful than robbers in a vacuum. And you will not succeed in your affairs - this is declared by the Word itself, that Word which, after God the Father, is the most powerful and just ruler of all. For just as everyone refuses to inherit poverty or suffering or the disgrace of their father, so a reasonable person will not choose what the Word forbids to choose. That all this will happen was predicted - I say - by Our Teacher, the Son and together the messenger of the Father of all and the Master of God, Jesus Christ, from Him we received the name Christians. That is why we are firm in everything that we have learned from Him, for in fact what He previously predicted to happen comes true: and this is the work of God, to predict, as He did, any event, and for it to happen exactly as predicted. So I could stop here and not add anything more, in the thought that we ask for what is fair and true. But since I know that it is not easy to make a sudden change in a soul obsessed with ignorance, then, to convince those who love the truth, I decided to add a few more words, knowing that it is not impossible to disperse ignorance when the truth is offered. 13. Who among the sensible does not recognize that we are not atheists when we honor the Creator of the whole world, and in accordance with what we have been taught, we say that He does not require blood, libations and incense, but glorify Him, to the best of our ability, with the word of prayer and thanksgiving in all our offerings? We are taught that the only form of reverence worthy of Him is that what He has given for our nourishment should not be destroyed by fire, but should be brought for our own use and for those in need, and to Him, in a feeling of gratitude, to offer through words the solemn acts of service and song for the fact that we are created, for all the means to our well-being, for various kinds of works, for the changes of times; and send petitions that we may be resurrected to incorruption, according to our faith in Him. Our teacher in this is Jesus Christ, who was born for this purpose and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, the former ruler of Judea, during the time of Tiberius Caesar; and we know that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and we place Him in second place, and the Spirit of the Prophet in third. That we rightly honor Him, I will prove to you. We are accused of madness because, after the unchangeable and eternal God and Father of all, we give second place to crucified man, and do not know the mystery contained in this. I will present it to you, and I ask you to carefully delve into it. 14. But I warn you - beware lest the demons to whom I have already pointed out deceive you and prevent you from even accepting and understanding our words. (For they try to keep you in slavery and service, and either through dreams or through magical enchantments they captivate everyone who does not try the least for their salvation). We also fell behind them as soon as we believed the Word, and now through the Son we follow the One God, the unbegotten; We formerly found pleasure in fornication, now we love only chastity; formerly they used the tricks of magic, but now they have given themselves over to the good and unborn God; Previously, we were most concerned about acquiring wealth and property, now we bring what we have into society and share with everyone in need; Previously, we hated and killed each other, and did not want to share the same hearth with foreigners, due to the difference in customs, - now, after the appearance of Christ, we live together: and we pray for our enemies, and we try to convince those who unjustly hate us, so that they, living according to the glorious rules of Christ, would truly hope to receive with us the same benefits from the God who rules over all. But so that you don’t think that I am deceiving you with my wisdom, I deigned, before presenting my evidence, to give several extracts from the teachings of Christ himself: and you, as strong sovereigns, should investigate whether we have truly been taught and teach this. His teachings were brief and not extensive: for He was not a sophist, but His word was the power of God. 15. About chastity He said this: “Whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart before God.” And: “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out: for it is better for you to enter the kingdom of heaven with one eye, than with two eyes to be cast into eternal fire.” And: “Whoever marries one who has been divorced from another husband commits adultery” (Matthew 5.28–32). And again: “There are some who became eunuchs from men. and there are those who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, but not everyone can bear this” (Matthew 19.12). Just as those who, according to human law, enter into a second marriage are considered by our Teacher to be sinners, so are those who look at a woman with lust. For not only is he rejected by Him who commits fornication by deed, but also he who wants to commit fornication, since God knows not only deeds, but also desires. And there are many men and women, sixty and seventy years old, who, having become disciples of Christ from childhood, live in virginity; and I am ready to point out such people from every nation. Do I need to talk about the countless number of those who turned from debauchery and learned chastity? Christ did not call the righteous and chaste to repentance, but the wicked, intemperate and unrighteous. So He Himself said: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9.13). For the Heavenly Father wants the sinner’s repentance, and not his torment. He taught about love for everyone: “If you love those who love you, what new things are you doing? For even fornicators do this. But I say to you: pray for your enemies, and love those who hate you, and bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you” (Matthew 5.46; Luke 6.28). And about sharing with those in need and not doing anything to boast, He said this: “Give to everyone who asks, and do not turn away from anyone who wants to borrow” (Matthew 5.42). “For if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what new thing are you doing? And the publicans do this" (Luke 6.30, 34). “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys” (Matthew 6.19–20). “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? And what will be the ransom for her? (Matthew 16.26)? “Lay up therefore treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroyeth” (Matthew 6.20). And: “Be good and merciful, just as your Father is good and merciful” (Luke 6.36). “And he commands his sun to rise on the sinful and the righteous and the evil” (Matthew 5.45). “Do not worry about what you will eat or what you will wear: are you not better than the birds and beasts, and God feeds them too. So, do not worry about what you eat or what you wear. Because your heavenly Father knows that you need this. But seek the kingdom of heaven, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6.25–26). “For where a man’s treasure is, there is a man’s understanding” (Matthew 6.21). “And do not do this for men to see; Otherwise you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6.1). 16. And about being unforgiving, helpful to everyone and not angry, these are His words: “Offer the other to the one who hits you on the cheek, and do not hinder whoever takes your shirt or clothing. Whoever gets angry is guilty of fire. Whoever forces you to walk a mile, walk two with him. Let your good works shine before men, so that when they see them they glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:39–41, 16). We must not cause quarrels, and He does not want us to be followers of evil people; but He exhorted us with patience and meekness to lead everyone away from shameful deeds and addiction to evil. I can show this in many of our people who changed from being arrogant and ferocious, having been defeated either because they had seen enough of the severity of the lives of their neighbors, or because they saw in their companions wonderful patience in enduring insults, or from experience they learned the morals of those people with whom they came into contact on business. About not swearing at all, but speaking the truth, He commanded: “Do not swear at all. But let your word be: yes, yes; and no, no. And anything beyond this is from the evil one” (Matthew 5.34, 37). And that God alone must be worshiped, He so convinces: “The greatest commandment is this: You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him alone with all your heart and with all your strength, the Lord God who created you” (Mark 12.30). When someone approached Him and said: “Good Teacher!” He answered: “No one is good except God alone, who created all things” (Matthew 19.16–17). If there are those who do not live as Christ taught, those - let it be known - are not Christians, although they pronounce the teachings of Christ with their tongues: for He taught that not those who only speak will be saved, but those who do deeds. He said this: “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. For whoever listens to Me and does what I say listens to him who sent Me. Many will say to me: Lord, Lord, did we not eat and drink in Your name and perform miracles? And then I will say to them: Depart from Me, you who practice iniquity” (Matthew 7.21–23). “Then there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when the righteous will shine like the sun,” and the unrighteous will be sent into eternal fire. (Matthew 13.42–43). “Many will come in My name, outwardly clothed in sheep’s skins, but within ravening wolves. But you will know them by their deeds. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 7:15–16, 19–20). And we ask that those who do not live in accordance with His teaching, but are only called Christians, be punished by you too. 17. Everywhere we try first of all to pay taxes and duties to the officials appointed by you, for this is His commandment. At one time some came up and asked Him: Should Caesar be paid taxes? He answered: “Tell me: whose image is on this coin? They said: Caesar's. He answered them: “Render therefore the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar, and the things that are God’s to God” (Matthew 22.17–21). Therefore, although we worship one God, in other respects we willingly serve you, recognizing you as kings and rulers of people, and praying that you, under royal power, will be gifted with sound judgment. If you do not pay attention to our prayers and open explanations, then we will not suffer any harm, because we believe, or, better yet, are fully convinced that everyone according to his deeds will be punished with eternal fire, and according to the strength that anyone has received from God, an account will be required from him, as Christ said: “to whom God has given more, more will be required of him” (Luke 12.48). Look at the death of each of the former sovereigns: they died a death common to all. If death led to a state of insensibility, then this would be beneficial for all villains. But since everyone who has lived has a feeling, and everyone faces eternal torment, do not hesitate to make sure and believe that what I say is true. In fact, even if necromancy and predictions through undefiled boys, and the evocation of human souls, and the so-called dream guides and guardian geniuses among magicians, with all the actions of people involved in this, let them convince you that souls retain feelings even after death. Let people who are possessed by the souls of the dead and throw themselves down, whom everyone calls possessed and mad, assure you of this - and the so-called oracles of Amphilochus, Dodona and Pythia and others like them, and the teaching of the writers Empedocles and Pythagoras, Plato and Socrates, and Homer's ditch, and the descent of Ulysses to see the dead, and the opinions of others who said the same. Listen to us, at least on an equal basis with them, we believe in God no less than they do, and even more, because we hope to again receive our dead and returned to the earth bodies, affirming that nothing is impossible for God. 18. If we did not exist in the body, and someone began to tell us that from a small drop of human seed bones and veins and flesh can be formed, as we see it: then what could seem more incredible than this to a reflective person? Let's talk speculatively. Suppose you did not exist in your present form and were not born from such parents as yours: if someone showed you the seed of a man and an image of the human species, and began to claim that such a creature came from that very thing, would you believe it without actually seeing it? No one, I think, would dare to deny (that he would not believe). In the same way, your unbelief stems from the fact that you have not yet seen the risen dead. But just as before you would not have believed that from a small drop you could become like you, and yet you see that this is being done: in the same way, judge that human bodies, destroyed and turned into the earth in the likeness of seeds, can, by God’s command, in due time be resurrected and put on incorruption. I cannot say what kind of power worthy of God is attributed to Him by those who say that every thing turns into that from which it came, and that beyond this God Himself cannot do anything more: but I see that they would not believe that it would ever be possible for them to become such as they see themselves and the whole world, and from such substances. Therefore, we consider it better to believe what is impossible for our nature and for people, than to be unbelievers like others: for we know that our teacher Jesus Christ said: “What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Matthew 19.26) and also said: “Do not be afraid of those who kill you and are then unable to do anything more; but fear him who, by killing, is able to cast both soul and body into Gehenna” (Matthew 10.28). Gehenna is a place where those who lived unrighteously and did not want to believe that what God taught through Christ will come true will be tormented. 20. Both the Sibyl and Istaspes said that perishable things would be destroyed by fire. And the so-called Stoic philosophers claim that God Himself will be resolved into fire, and after such a change, they say, peace will happen again. We think that God, the Creator of everything, is superior to changeable things. So, if we affirm something else in accordance with your respected poets and philosophers, and another is more complete and more worthy of God than they, and moreover, we alone have proof: then why do they hate us so unjustly more than everyone else? When we say that everything was arranged and created by God, it turns out that we are expressing Plato’s teaching; when we affirm that the world will burn, we speak in accordance with the opinion of the Stoics; and when we teach that the souls of evildoers, even having feelings after death, will be punished, and the souls of good people, free from punishment, will live in bliss, then we are saying the same thing as philosophers. Arguing that we should not worship the work of human hands, we also say that Menander is a comedian and others of similar thoughts: they said that the artist is higher than the work. 21. And if we say that the Word, who is the firstborn Son of God, Jesus Christ our Teacher, was born without confusion, and that he was crucified, died and, having risen, ascended into heaven, then we are not introducing anything different from what you say about the so-called sons of Zeus among you. You know how many sons of Zeus there were, according to the legends of your respected writers: Hermes, interpreter and teacher of all; Aesculapius, who was also a physician, was struck by lightning and ascended to heaven; also Dionysus torn to pieces; Hercules, who threw himself into the fire to avoid labor; Dioscuri, born from Leda, and Perseus from Danae, and Bellerophon, born from people, ascended on the horse Pegasus. What can we say about Ariadne and others who, like her, are placed between the stars? And why do you always want to immortalize your dying emperors and present some person who would swear with an oath that he saw the burned Caesar ascend from the fire to heaven? And what deeds of the so-called sons of Zeus are told, I do not need to tell those who know: except to say that they were written to corrupt morals and to the detriment of your youth, because everyone thinks that it is a good thing to imitate the gods. Let such a thought about the gods be removed from the chaste soul - to believe that the most important and, according to them, the father of all, Zeus, was a parricide and the son of the same parricide, and being carried away by an addiction to vicious and vile pleasures, he went to Ganymede and to many women with whom he committed fornication, and that his sons committed the same deeds. This, as I said before, was done by evil demons. And we have been taught that those who approach God through holiness of life and virtue will only achieve immortality; we believe that those who live unrighteously and do not repent will suffer in eternal fire. 22. But the Son of God, who is called Jesus, even though he was simply only a man, in his wisdom is worthy to be called the Son of God: for all your writers call God the Father of both men and gods. If we say that He, the Word of God, was born from God in a special way and above ordinary birth, then, as we said before, let this be something we have in common with you, who call Hermes the Word - a messenger from God. And if anyone objects that Christ was crucified, then this is also in common with the above-mentioned sons of Zeus, in your opinion, who suffered. Of course, their sufferings, which led to death, as is said, were not the same, but different, so that He, and in the particularity of His suffering, seems to be in no way inferior to them, but I will even prove, as I undertook to do in the preliminary part of my apology, or have already proven that He is superior to them in this regard: for from deeds it turns out who is better. - If we say that He was born of a Virgin, then consider this to be common with Perseus. When we declare that he healed the lame, the paralytic and the blind from birth, and raised the dead, then in this case we must imagine that we are saying something similar to what they say about the acts of Aesculapius. 23. However, let it be known to you that only that is true that we affirm, taught from Christ and from the prophets who preceded Him; and this is older than all your former writers. And we must believe our words, not because we say something similar to them, but because we speak the truth. This teaching was taught to us by Jesus Christ, the only actual Son, born of God, His Word and firstborn and power, who by His will became man - for the change and restoration of the human race. And finally, before He became a man among men, some - I mean the evil demons mentioned above - through the mediation of poets, previously told as reality what the latter described in their fictitious tales; in the same way as they invented those vicious and wicked cases that are brought against us, but for which there is no witness or evidence. Let us present the following arguments for these provisions. 24. Firstly, despite the fact that we speak like the Hellenes, we alone are hated for the name of Christ, and without any guilt, like criminals, are put to death. Meanwhile, others, in other places, worship trees and rivers, mice, cats and crocodiles and many other dumb animals; and, moreover, not the same objects are held in reverence by everyone, but different peoples have different objects of veneration, so that all are godless in the eyes of others: because they do not venerate the same things. And this is the only fault that you can attribute to us, namely, that we do not honor your gods, we do not bring libations and incense to the dead, nor wreaths on their statues, nor sacrifices. You yourself know very well that the same objects are revered by some as gods, by others they are considered simple animals, and by others they are used for legal sacrifices. 25. Secondly, we, people from every nation, formerly also worshiped Dionysus, the son of Semele, and Apollo, the son of Latona, whose amorous actions it is shameful to even talk about, as well as Proserpina and Aphrodite, who went into a frenzy because of Adonis, whom you also administer the sacraments, or Aesculapius or any of the other so-called gods. And now, even if death threatened for this, we, through Jesus Christ, despised all of them and dedicated ourselves to the unborn and impassive God, who - we are convinced - did not descend through unclean passion to Antiope and other women, or to Ganymede, did not need to liberate himself with the help received through Themis from the hundred-handed giant, and did not try for this, so that her son Achilles in revenge for his mistress Briseis killed many Hellenes. We feel sorry for those who believe these fables; we recognize them as the work of demons. 26. Thirdly, after the ascension of Christ into heaven, the demons set up certain people who called themselves gods: and they not only were not persecuted by you, but were also honored. Such was a certain Simon the Samaritan, from a village called Gitto: he, by the power of demons acting through him, during the time of Claudius Caesar, performed magical miracles in your royal city of Rome, and for this he is recognized as a god, and, like a god, is honored by you with a statue. This statue was erected on the Tiber River between two bridges, with the following inscription in Roman: To Simon, Holy God. And almost all the Samaritans, and some from other nations, recognize him as the first god and worship him; and some Elena, who went everywhere with him at that time, and before lived in a prodigal house, is called the first thought that came from him. I also know that a certain Melanders, another Samaritan from the village of Capparetea and a disciple of Simon, was under the influence of demons and while he was in Antioch he deceived many with magical art, even assuring his followers that they would not die: and now there are some of his disciples who hold this opinion. Another certain Marcion from Pontus, who even now still teaches his believers, recognizes some other god who is higher than the Creator. He, with the assistance of demons, forced many of every nation to speak blasphemy and reject God, the Creator of the whole world, and confess some other god who is higher than Him and has created more than He. All those who come from such people, as I said, are called Christians, just as among philosophers those who disagree in their teachings bear a common name taken from philosophy. Whether they do those vile deeds that are rumored among the people, such as extinguishing lamps, mutual copulation and eating human flesh, I don’t know; but I know that you do not persecute them or kill them, at least for their teaching. However, I have an essay written against all former heresies; if you want to have it, I will deliver it to you. 27. In order not to bother anyone and not to sin ourselves, we adhere to such thoughts that throwing newborn babies is the work of bad people; firstly, because almost all of them - we see - not only girls, but also boys are used for fornication, and just as the ancients, they say, kept herds of bulls or goats or sheep or grazing horses, so now children are used only for this shameful act; and there are also in every nation a multitude of hermaphrodite and libertine women who serve for this abomination. From them you take salaries, gifts and taxes, when you should eradicate them from your land; and one of those who use them, beyond the godless, wicked and shameless confusion, copulates, if it happens, with his son, or relative or brother; There are also those who give their children and wives to this work; even some openly corrupt themselves into unnatural debauchery, and such sacraments they attribute to the mother of the gods. Moreover, each of the gods you worship depicts a snake as a great and mysterious symbol. And these obscenities that you openly commit and honor, you attribute to us, as if we do them when the divine light fades and disappears. But such slander does not harm us, who are completely innocent of those crimes; rather, they harm those who make them and falsely accuse us of them. 28. With us, the leader of evil spirits is called the serpent and Satan and the devil, as you can learn this from the study of our books. He will be sent into the fire with all his army and the people who follow him to suffer for an endless age, as Christ predicted. And that God hesitates to bring this to fruition, this is done for the sake of the human race; for He foresees that some will be saved through repentance, some even, perhaps, not yet born. And in the beginning He created the human race intelligent and capable of choosing what is true and doing what is good, so that no person would have any excuse before God; for all were created intelligent and capable of contemplation. If anyone does not believe that God cares about this, he, although not directly, denies His existence, or will have to say that although He exists, He delights in evil and exists like a stone, and that neither virtue nor vice exists, but in the opinion of only people one is considered good and the other evil: this is the greatest wickedness and lawlessness. 29. There is another reason why we turn away from abandoning children - so that one of those abandoned does not die if he is not quickly taken, and so that we do not become murderers. But we either get married for no other reason than to raise children, or, refusing marriage, we constantly live in abstinence. And to prove to you that shameful copulation does not constitute any sacrament among us, one of ours submitted a petition to the Alexandrian prefect Felix to allow the doctor to castrate him, for the doctors there said that they could not do this without the prefect’s permission. When Felix did not want to sign the petition, the young man remained a virgin and was content with his own consciousness and the consciousness of those who agreed with him. Here, I think, it would be appropriate to also mention the recently deceased Antinous, whom everyone began to fearfully honor as God, although they knew who he was and where he came from. 30. Lest anyone object to us: what prevents Christ, who is called among us, from being a man of men, who performed what we call miracles through magic, and therefore appeared to be the Son of God, I will now present the proof, not relying on verbal assurances, but of necessity being convinced by those who predicted the future before it came true, since we see with our own eyes that events have happened and are happening as predicted: such a proof, I think it will seem greatest and truest to you too. 31. There were some people among the Jews - prophets of God, through whom the prophetic Spirit foretold future events before they came to pass. Their prophecies, which were from time to time in Judea, were collected by the kings and carefully preserved as they were spoken when they were spoken by the prophets and written by them themselves in books in their own Hebrew language. But when Ptolemy, the Egyptian king, built a library and tried to collect the works of all people, then, having heard about those prophecies, he sent to Herod, who was then reigning among the Jews, and asked to send the books of prophecies to him. King Herod sent these books, written in Hebrew, as stated above. But since the Egyptians did not know what was written in them, Ptolemy again sent and asked to send people to translate them into Greek. This was fulfilled: and thus those books became the property of the Egyptians to this day, and they are also found everywhere among all the Jews. However, the latter read them, but do not understand what is said in them; we are considered enemies and adversaries and, like you, they kill and torture us whenever they can; You can verify this for yourself. And in the former last Jewish war, Varhokheva, the leader of the Jewish indignation, ordered only Christians to be subjected to terrible torment if they did not renounce Jesus Christ and blaspheme Him. – In these books of the prophets we find predictions that Jesus, our Christ, will come, be born of a Virgin and grow, will heal every disease and every infirmity and raise the dead, will be envied, and will be unrecognized, and will be crucified, will die and rise again, and will ascend into heaven, and will be called the Son of God; also that some will be sent by Him to preach this to the entire human race, and more of the pagans will believe in Him. This was predicted before His appearance, first five thousand years, then three thousand, then two, then a thousand, and then eight hundred; because, in accordance with the succession of clans, first one or the other prophets existed. 32. Moses, the first of the prophets, said word for word like this: “The prince of Judah will not fail, nor the ruler from his feet, until He for whom it is reserved comes; and he will be the hope of the nations; he will tie his colt to the vine and wash his clothes in the blood of the grapes” (Gen. 49.10). You are now left to carefully examine and find out before what time did the Jews have their own prince and king? Until the appearance of Jesus Christ, our teacher and interpreter of unknown prophecies, as predicted through Moses by the divine Holy Prophetic Spirit: the prince of Judah will not fail until He comes to whom the kingdom has been assigned. Judas is the forefather of the Jews, from whom they received the name Jews. After the appearance of Christ, you reigned over the Jews and took possession of all their land. And with the words: “He will be the hope of the nations,” it is indicated that people from all nations will expect His second coming, as you yourself can see and be convinced by the very fact. For out of all the tribes of men they are looking for the One who was crucified in Judea, after whose death the land of Judea was immediately handed over to you as the spoils of war. The words: “He will tie his colt to the vine and wash his clothing in the blood of the grapes” were a symbol pointing to the events that were to happen to Christ, and to the deeds that were to be accomplished by Him. A donkey foal was then standing at the entrance to one village, tied to a vine; Christ ordered His disciples to bring him to Himself, and when he was brought, He sat on him and entered Jerusalem, where there was the main church of the Jews, which was later destroyed by you. Then He was crucified so that the rest of the words of the prophecy would be fulfilled. For the words: “He will wash his clothes in the blood of the grapes” foreshadowed the suffering that He had to endure, cleansing those who believed Him with His blood; since what the Spirit of God through the prophet called a garment are people who believe in Him, in whom lives the seed from God, the Word. In the words “blood of a cluster” it is hinted that the one who has to appear will have blood, but not from human seed, but from God’s power. The first Power and Son, according to the Father of all and the Lord God, is the Word, Who took flesh and became man - how, we will talk about this later. As the blood of the vine was not made by man, but by God; it is thus hinted that this blood will not come from human seed, but from the power of God, as we said above. And Isaiah, another prophet, prophesying the same thing in other words, said: “A star will shine from Jacob, and a flower will come up from the root of Jesse, and the nations will trust in His hand.” The bright star that shone and the flower that sprang up from the root of Jesse is Christ. For He was born by the power of God from a Virgin, descended from the seed of Jacob, the father of Judah, who was, as we said above, the forefather of the Jews, and Jesse, according to the prophetic word, was His forefather, and the son of Jacob and Judah, according to the succession of generations. 33. And listen again to how Isaiah predicted in clear words that Christ would be born of a Virgin. It is said this way: “Behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son; and they will call His name" (Isaiah 7.14). What, according to the concept of people, is incredible and impossible, God foretold by the prophetic Spirit, so that when it comes true, they would not remain in unbelief, but would believe because it was predicted. But so that some, not understanding the above prophecy, do not reproach us for the same thing that we reproach the poets for who say that Zeus went to women for sensual pleasures, I will try to explain those expressions. The words: “behold, the virgin will conceive in her womb” mean that the virgin will conceive without copulation. For if she had copulated with someone, she would no longer be a virgin, but the Power of God, having come upon the virgin, overshadowed her and did what she conceived while a virgin. And the Angel of God sent to the Virgin at that time informed her with these words: “Behold, you will conceive in your womb by the Holy Spirit and give birth to a Son, and He will be called the Son of the Most High. And you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Luke 1.30–31). This is what those who described everything concerning our Savior Jesus Christ say, and we believe them, because through the aforementioned Isaiah the prophetic Spirit foretold that Christ would be born, as I stated above. By the name of Spirit and Power from God we must understand nothing other than the Word, which is also the first-born of God, as the above-mentioned prophet Moses indicated; and this Spirit, who descended on the Virgin and overshadowed her, not by copulation, but by power made her pregnant. The name Jesus, if translated from Hebrew into Greek, means Σωτήρ (Savior); why the Angel said to the Virgin: “And you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). And that those who prophesy are inspired by nothing other than the Word of God, I think you will agree with this. 34. Listen to how another prophet, Micah, predicted the place where He was to be born. He said this: “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are no less among the rulers of Judah; For from you will come a ruler who will shepherd My people” (Micah 5.2). In the land of Judea there is one village, thirty-five stadia distant from Jerusalem, in which Jesus Christ was born, as you can learn from the census tables that took place under Quirinus, your first ruler in Judea. 35. And that Christ at birth will not be known to other people until they reach manhood - as it was - listen to the predictions about this. These are: “A child was born to us, and a young man was given to us, whose authority is on His shoulder” (Isaiah 9.6). These words foreshadowed the power of the cross, to which the crucified man attached his shoulders, as will be more clearly shown in my further speech. And again the same prophet Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Prophetic Spirit, said: “I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and disobedient people, to people who walked in an evil way; They now demand judgment from Me and dare to approach the Lord” (Isaiah 65.2, 58.2). And again in other words through another prophet it is said: “They pierced My feet and hands, and cast lots for My clothing” (Ps 21.17, 19). Nothing of the kind happened to David, the king and prophet who said this: but Jesus Christ was stretched out with his hands and crucified by the Jews, who contradicted Him and said that He was not the Christ. And moreover, as the prophet said, “mocking him, they sat him on the judgment seat and said: judge us.” And the words: “They pierced My hands and feet” were an indication of the nails that were driven into His hands and feet on the cross. And after His crucifixion, those who had crucified cast lots for His clothes and divided them among themselves. And what it really was, you can find out from the acts drawn up under Pontius Pilate. I will also cite the prophetic words of another prophet, Zephaniah, in which he clearly predicted that Christ would ride on a donkey’s foal and enter Jerusalem. These words are as follows: “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, preach, daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your King comes to you meek, sitting on a donkey, and, moreover, on a young one, born from a donkey.” 36. When you hear the words of the prophets, spoken as if on someone’s behalf, do not think that they are spoken from those inspired men themselves, but from the Word of God moving them. It sometimes foretells what will happen, sometimes it speaks as on behalf of the Lord of all and the Father of God, sometimes as on behalf of Christ, sometimes as on behalf of people responding to the Lord or His Father: this same thing can be seen in your writers, where although one writes everything, he introduces the speaking persons. Not understanding this, the Jews, who have the books of the prophets, did not recognize Christ when He came, and they also hate us when we say that He came and prove that He was crucified by them, as was predicted. 37. So that this too may be clear to you, these are the words spoken on behalf of the Father by the aforementioned prophet Isaiah: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger: but Israel does not know Me, My people have not understood. Alas, a sinful people, a people filled with sins, an evil seed, wicked children, you have forsaken the Lord” (Isaiah 1:1-4). And in another place the same prophet also speaks on behalf of the Father: “What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord. Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool" (Isaiah 66.1). And in another place: “My soul hates your new moon and Saturdays, and I do not tolerate the great day of fasting and idleness. And when you come to appear to Me, I will not hear you; your hands are full of blood. And if you bring Me wheat flour or incense, it is an abomination to Me; I do not want the fat of rams or the blood of oxen. For who demanded this at your hands (Isaiah 1.11–15). But destroy every alliance of untruth, break the networks of violent agreements; cover the bloodless and the naked; break your bread for the hungry” (Isaiah 58.6). Now you can judge what the teaching is that is offered by the prophets on behalf of God. 38. When the prophetic Spirit speaks on behalf of Christ, he says: “I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and disobedient people, to people who walk in evil ways” (Isaiah 65.2). And again: “I gave My back to be scourged, and My cheeks to be slaughtered; My face was not turned away from the shame of spitting. And the Lord was my helper; Therefore I was not troubled, but set My face like a hard stone; I knew that I would not be put to shame, for he who justified me is near” (Isaiah 50.6–8). And again he says: “They cast lots for My clothing and pierced My feet and hands. But I rested and slept, and then I arose, for the Lord supported Me” (Ps 21:17,19, 3:6). And again he says: “they spoke with their lips, nodded their heads, saying: let him save himself” (Ps 21.8-9). All this was done by the Jews over Christ, as you yourself can find out. For when He was crucified, they, moving their lips and nodding their heads, said: “Let him who raised the dead save himself” (Matthew 27.40). 39. And when the prophetic Spirit speaks as one who predicts the future, then he says this: “The law will go out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and He will judge among the nations and will expose many people; That this was so, you can verify for yourself. From Jerusalem, twelve people in number went out into the world, and, moreover, unlearned people who did not know how to speak, but by the power of God they announced to the entire human race that they had been sent by Christ to teach everyone the word of God. And we, who previously killed one another, not only do not quarrel with our enemies, but, in order not to lie and deceive those conducting interrogations, we joyfully confess Christ and die. Of course, we could use the words in this case: the tongue swore, but the mind did not swear. But it would be funny - while the soldiers who swear allegiance to you and enlisted in the service adhere to their given word, and prefer this to their own lives, and to their parents, and to their homeland, and to everyone at home, despite the fact that you cannot give them an incorruptible reward - if we, desiring incorruptibility, did not endure everything to receive what we want from Him who can give. 40. Hear how it was foretold about those who preached His teaching and announced His appearance. The above-mentioned prophet and king, by the prophetic Spirit, said this: “Day speaks word to day, and night speaks to night understanding. There is no speech or language in which their voices are not heard. Their broadcast went to the whole earth and their words to the ends of the universe. He has appointed his dwelling place in the sun, and He, like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, will rejoice like a giant as he goes on his way” (Ps 18.3-6). In addition to this, I consider it useful and appropriate to mention other predictions of the same David. From them you can learn how the prophetic Spirit commands people to live, and how it proclaims that Herod, the king of the Jews, and the Jews themselves, and Pilate, their former ruler, with their soldiers will rise up against Christ, that people from every nation will believe in Him, that God calls Him His Son, and promised to subdue all enemies to Him - also that demons are trying to avoid, as much as they can, the power of the Father of all and the Master of God, and the power of Christ, and how God calls everyone to repentance before the day of judgment comes. It is said: “Blessed is the man who did not follow the counsel of the wicked, and did not stand in the way of sinners, and did not sit on the seat of the destroyers, but whose will is in the law of the Lord, and who will learn in His law day and night. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season; its leaf will not fall away; and whatever he does will be successful. Not so wicked, not so, but they are like dust that the wind drives away from the face of the earth. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (Ps. 1). “Why were the nations indignant, and why did people conceive futile ideas? The kings of the earth appeared, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ, saying: “Let us break their bonds, and cast off their yoke from us.” He who dwells in heaven will laugh at them, and the Lord will mock them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and will shake them in His wrath. And I have been made king by Him over Zion, His holy mountain; I will proclaim the commandment of the Lord. The Lord said to me: “You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thy inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession: Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt break them in pieces like clay vessels.” So, be wise kings, all you judges of the earth have understanding. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling. Accept the instruction, so that the Lord will not be angry someday, and you will perish from the path of righteousness when His wrath suddenly kindles; Blessed are all who trust in Him” (Ps. 2). 41. And again in another prophecy, the prophetic Spirit, through the same David, proclaiming that Christ would reign after his crucifixion, said: “Sing to the Lord all the earth, and proclaim His salvation day by day; for the Lord is great and greatly praised. He is terrible over all gods, for the gods of the nations are idols of demons, and God created the heavens. Glory and praise are before Him, strength and glorification in the place of His holiness. Give glory to the Lord, the Father of ages. Receive grace, come before His face, and worship in His holy courts. Let the whole earth fear before His face, and let it be corrected, and let it not be moved. Let there be joy among the nations: the Lord reigns from the tree" (Ps. 95). 42. But when the prophetic Spirit speaks of the future as if it had already happened, as can be seen in the above words, so that this circumstance does not serve as an excuse for the readers in their misunderstanding, I will explain it too. Since the future is fully known to Him, He speaks in advance as if it had already happened. And what really should be accepted, delve into the following with your mind. David spoke the above words one thousand five hundred years before Christ, having become a man, was crucified, and none of those who were before Him by His crucifixion brought joy to the nations, and no one after Him. But our Jesus Christ, having been crucified and died, rose again and reigned, ascending into heaven; and what He proclaimed through the apostles to all nations serves as joy to those who await the incorruptibility promised from Him. 43. But lest anyone, from what I have said above, conclude that we are saying that events happen according to the necessity of fate, since they were predicted by foreknowledge, I will allow this too. We have been taught by the prophets that everyone is given punishments and torments or rewards according to the merits of their deeds, and we declare this to be the truth. For if it is not so, but everything happens from fate, then there is absolutely no freedom in us. If fate determined one to be good and the other vicious, then one would not be worthy of approval and the other of blame. Again, if the human race did not have the ability to run away from the vicious and choose the good with free will, then it would not be guilty of anything, no matter what it did. But that he either acts well or sins with free will, we prove this in this way: we see that the same person goes over to opposite things; and if fate had determined for him to be either vicious or honest, then he would not be capable of such opposites and would not be able to change many times. And some would not be good and others bad. For then we would argue that fate is the cause of vices, and at the same time does the opposite to itself; or it would be necessary to recognize as true the above statement that there is neither virtue nor vice, but only in opinion good or bad is distinguished; and this, as true reason shows, is the greatest wickedness and lawlessness. We accept the inevitable fate that those who choose good will receive a worthy reward, just as those who choose the opposite will receive appropriate punishments! For God did not create man like other creatures, such as trees and four-legged animals, which cannot act with freedom. Otherwise he would not have been worthy of reward or praise, unless he had freely chosen what was good, but had been created that way; and could not, if he were bad, be justly punished, when he was such not in himself, but because he could not be other than what he was born. 44. This was taught to us by the Holy Spirit of prophecy, who testifies through Moses that God said to the first created man in this way: “Behold, good and evil are before you; choose what is good” (Deut. 30.15, 19). And through Isaiah, another prophet, as if on behalf of the Father of all and the Lord God, it is said this way: “Wash yourself, become clean, take away wickedness from your souls, learn to do good, show justice to the fatherless and justify the widow; And come and let us reason together, says the Lord: and though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them as white as wool, and if they are as scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. And if you are willing and listen to Me, you will eat the good things of the land, but if you do not listen to Me, then the sword will devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this” (Isaiah 1.16-20). The words: “the sword will devour you” do not mean that the disobedient will be killed with swords; but the sword of God is fire, the food of which is for those who decide to do evil. That is why it is said: “The sword will devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this.” If the prophet had spoken of a sword that cuts and immediately ceases, he would not have said “devour.” And Plato, saying that “guilt is in man who chooses, but God is not guilty,” borrowed this from the prophet Moses. For Moses is more ancient than all the Greek writers. And in everything that philosophers and poets spoke about the immortality of the soul, about punishments after death, about the contemplation of heavenly things and about similar subjects, they used the prophets - through them they could understand and express it. Therefore, everyone seems to have the seeds of truth: but they have not clearly understood them, which they are convicted of by contradicting themselves. Thus, when we say that future events have been predicted, we are not saying that they happen according to the necessity of fate, but that God, knowing in advance the future deeds of all people, and determining in himself that each person should receive a reward according to the merit of his deeds, predicts through the prophetic Spirit what they will receive from Him in accordance with the merit of their deeds: through this He always calls the human race to new attention and tension and shows His care and providence for them. But according to the action of evil demons, the death penalty has been determined for those who begin to read the books of Istasp or the Sibyl or the prophets, in order to turn the reading people away from learning good things through fear, and to keep them in their slavery; which, however, they could not do forever; because not only do we ourselves fearlessly read those books, but also, as you can see, we present them to you at your discretion, being confident that everyone will like them. And even if we convince only a few of this, we will gain a lot of benefit; for as good workers we will receive a reward from the Lord. 45. That the father of all, God, will raise Christ, after His resurrection from the dead, to heaven and will hold Him until He defeats the demons who are hostile to Him, and until the number of the righteous and virtuous, whom He foretold, and for whom He has not yet brought to fulfillment of His decree, is fulfilled - listen to the words of the prophet David. They are as follows: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord will send you a rod of strength from Jerusalem; and rule in the midst of Your enemies. You have the power in the day of Your power and in the lordships of Your saints. I gave birth to You from the womb before the morning star” (Ps 109.1–3). The words “he will send you a rod of power from Jerusalem” foreshadow the powerful teaching that His apostles, having left Jerusalem, preached everywhere, and although death is determined for those who teach or generally profess the name of Christ, we ourselves accept it everywhere and teach it to others. If you read these words with a hostile disposition, then, as I said above, you cannot do anything more than kill: this does not harm us in the least, but prepares for you and all those who unjustly persecute us and do not repent, eternal torment in fire. 46. ​​But lest anyone, in order to turn people away from our teaching, makes an unreasonable objection that, according to us, Christ was born 150 years ago under Quirinus, and taught the teaching that we attribute to Him a little later, under Pontius Pilate, and concludes from this that all people born before Him are in no way innocent, I will first resolve this difficulty. We have been taught that Christ is the firstborn of God, and we have declared above that He is the Word in whom the whole human race participates. Those who lived in accordance with the Word are Christians, even if they were considered atheists: such among the Hellenes are Socrates and Heraclitus and the like, and among the barbarians - Abraham, Ananias, Azariah and Mishael, and Elijah and many others: to recount their actions or names would, I know, be tiresome, and at the present time I will refrain from doing so. Thus, those who formerly lived contrary to the Word were dishonest, hostile to Christ and murderers of people who lived in accordance with the Word, but those who lived and now live in accordance with it are Christians, fearless and calm. For what reason, by the power of the Word, according to the will of the Father of all and the Lord God, He was born as a man through a virgin and was called Jesus, was crucified, died and rose again, and ascended into heaven - this a reflective person can understand from what I have previously said in such detail; and since there is now no need to disclose this subject, I will move on in the present case to evidence that is more necessary. 47. Listen to what is said by the prophetic Spirit about the devastation of the land of Judea. His words were spoken as if on behalf of the people surprised at what had happened. They are as follows: “Zion became desolate, just as Jerusalem became a desert; the house, our sanctuary, is cursed, and the glory which our fathers blessed is burned with fire, and all His glory is fallen. And You endured all this and remained silent, and humbled us cruelly” (Isaiah 64.10–12). And that Jerusalem is devastated, as foretold, you know this. The prophet Isaiah said about its desolation and the fact that none of the Jews would be allowed to live there: “their land is desolate, their enemies are devouring it in their sight, and none of them will live in it” (Isaiah 1.7). And you know well that it is observed by you that no one should be in it, and that the death penalty is prescribed for the Jew who is captured upon entering it. 48. Listen in what words it was predicted about our Christ that He would heal all kinds of diseases and raise the dead. They are as follows: “at His coming the lame will leap like a deer, the tongue of the dumb will be clear, the blind will see, lepers will be cleansed, and the dead will be raised and walk” (Isaiah 35.4–6). And you can find out that he did this from the acts drawn up under Pontius Pilate. How it was foretold by the prophetic Spirit that he would be killed together with those who trusted in Him, listen to what Isaiah said. It is said: “This is how the righteous perished, and no one accepts this with their hearts; and righteous people are destroyed, and no one will think about it. The righteous is taken from the presence of unrighteousness, and his grave will be in peace: he is taken from among us” (Isaiah 57.1–2). 49. And again listen to how it is said through the same Isaiah that the pagan nations who did not expect Him will worship Him, and the Jews, who are always waiting, will not recognize Him when He comes. These words are spoken as if on behalf of Christ himself, and are as follows: “I was revealed to those who did not ask about Me, and found by those who did not look for Me. I said, Behold, I am among the nations that did not call on My name. I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and disobedient people, to people who did not follow the good path, but followed their sins. This people makes Me angry before My face” (Isaiah 65.1-3). And indeed, the Jews, who had prophecies in their hands and were always expecting the coming of Christ, did not recognize Him, and not only did not recognize Him, but also rejected Him, and the pagans, who had never heard of Christ before until His apostles came from Jerusalem, did not announce Him, and did not communicate the prophecies - with joy and faith abandoned idols and surrendered through Christ to the unborn God. That the slander that would be spread against those who confess Christ was known in advance, and how pitiful are those who blaspheme Him and consider it wonderful to observe the ancient rites. Listen to how Isaiah speaks about this in brief words. It is said this way: “Woe to those who call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet” (Isaiah 5.2). 50. Listen to the prophecy that He, having become a man for us, endured suffering and dishonor, and that He will come again with glory. Here they are: “Because they gave up His soul to death and He was numbered with the wicked, He took away the sins of many and had mercy on the wicked. Behold, My Child will understand, and will be exalted and greatly glorified. Just as many will be horrified at You, so Your appearance will be dishonored from men and Your glory from men, so many nations will be amazed, and kings will stop their mouths, because those to whom He was not told and who have not heard will understand. Lord, who believed our hearing, and to whom was the hand of the Lord revealed? We declared before Him, like a little child, like a root in a thirsty land: He has neither form nor glory; and we saw Him, and He had neither form nor beauty, but His appearance was dishonorable, more humiliating than the appearance of men. He is a man with a plague, able to bear the disease, because His face was turned away - it was mocked and despised. He bears our sins, and suffers for us, and we imputed to Him that He is in sickness, in ulcers and in torment. But He was wounded for our iniquities, and He was tormented for our sins, the punishment of the world was upon Him; through His wound we were healed. We, like sheep, have all gone astray; every man has gone astray on his way, and the Lord gave Him up for our sins. And He does not open His mouth because of torment: like a sheep was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before His shearers is silent, so He does not open His mouth. Because of His humility, judgment was removed from Him” (Isaiah 53.12, 52:13–53:8). After His crucifixion, His sincere ones abandoned everything and denied Him; but later, when He rose from the dead, He appeared to them and taught them to read the prophecies in which all this was predicted, and when they saw Him ascending into heaven and believed and received the power sent to them from Him from there, they went throughout the entire human race, began to teach this, and received the name of the apostles. 51. Further, to show us that he who suffers in this way is of an indescribable generation, and will reign over his enemies, the prophetic Spirit thus said: “Who will tell His generation? For His life is taken from the earth; for their iniquities He was led to death. And I will give the wicked for His grave, and the rich for His death, for He committed no iniquity, and no deceit was found in His mouth. And the Lord is pleased to cleanse Him from the plague. If you give Him as a sacrifice for sin, then your soul will see a long-lasting seed. And the Lord wants to save His soul from suffering, to show Him the light, and to form Him with reason, to justify the righteous, who has beneficially served many. And He will bear our sins, therefore He will possess many and will divide the spoils of the mighty, because His soul was delivered up to death, and was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sins of many and was handed over for their iniquities” (Isaiah 53.8-12). That He will also ascend to heaven, as was prophesied, listen. It is said: “Lift up the gates of heaven, open for the King of glory to enter. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord is mighty and the Lord is mighty” (Ps 23.7–8). And how He will come from heaven with glory, listen to what the prophet Jeremiah said about this. His words are as follows: “Behold, like the son of man, He comes on the clouds of heaven, and His angels with Him.” 52. So, when we prove that everything that has already come true was foretold by the prophets before it happened, then it is necessary to believe that what was similarly predicted, but still has no time to happen, will certainly come true. For just as the events that were previously predicted and unknown were fulfilled, in the same way the rest will also come true, although they do not know it and do not believe it. The prophets predicted two comings of Christ: one, which had already happened, in the form of an unglorious and suffering man; another, when He, as announced, will come with glory from heaven, surrounded by His angelic army, and when He will resurrect the bodies of all former people, and clothe the bodies of the worthy in incorruption, and send the bodies of the wicked, capable of eternal feeling, along with evil demons into eternal fire. That this too was predicted, I will prove. The prophet Ezekiel said this: “Compound to composition, and bone to bone, and flesh will grow again” (Ezekiel 37.7), and: “every tribe will worship the Lord, and every tongue will glorify Him” (Isaiah 45.23). How the wicked will feel and how the wicked will suffer, listen to what is also said about this. It is said this way: “Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched. And they will repent when there is no benefit from it” (Isaiah 66.24). What the Jewish people will say and do when they see Him coming in glory, the prophet Zechariah prophetically said this: “I will command the four winds to gather the scattered children; I will command the north to bring it and not to restrain the south” (Zechariah 2.6). And then there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, not the mourning of the lips and lips, but the mourning of the heart, and they will not rend their clothes, but their thoughts. They will weep knee by knee, and then “they will look at Him whom they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:10–12), and they will say: “Why have You, O Lord, allowed us to stray from Your path? The glory that our fathers blessed has become a reproach to us" (Isaiah 63.17, 64.11). 53. I could cite many other prophecies, but I hold back, considering these to be sufficient to convince those who have ears capable of listening and understanding: such, I think, themselves can understand that we are not like in the fables about the imaginary sons of Jupiter - we only say, but cannot prove our words. How would we have believed the Crucified Man, that He was the Firstborn of the unborn God and would execute judgment on the entire human race, if we had not found the testimonies predicted about Him before He came and became man, and if we had not seen that exactly this had come true, that is, that the land of Judea was desolate, that people from every nation believed in Him through the teaching of His apostles, and abandoned the ancient customs in which They lived in error - since we see this in ourselves, and know that Christians from the pagans are more numerous and zealous than Christians from Jews and Samaritans? The prophetic Spirit calls all other nations pagans, and the Jewish and Samaritan tribes are called Israel and the house of Jacob. And I will give a prophecy in which it is predicted that there will be more believers from the pagans than from the Jews and Samaritans. It is said about it this way: “Rejoice, the barren one, who did not give birth; open up and shout, you who were not sick with stomach, for the lonely one has many more children than the one who has a husband” (Isaiah 54.1). For all the nations were far from the true God, and served the works of hands, and the Jews and Samaritans, having the Word of God delivered to them through the prophets and always waiting for Christ, did not recognize Him when He came, except for a few, about whom the prophetic Holy Spirit foretold through Isaiah that they would be saved. He, as if on behalf of them, said: “If the Lord had not left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1.9). Sodom and Gomorrah, according to the legend of Moses, were cities of wicked people, which God destroyed, burning them with fire and brimstone, so that none of their inhabitants were saved, except for one foreigner, a Chaldean by birth, named Lot, with whom his daughters were saved. Those who wish can now see their entire country, empty, burned and remaining barren. And that the believers from the pagans were foreknown as the most zealous and firm in the faith, I will quote what was said by the prophet Isaiah. He said this: “Israel is not circumcised in heart, and the nations are not circumcised in the flesh.” 1 So many clear testimonies can justly produce conviction and faith in those who love the truth, and do not follow empty opinions and are not governed by passions. 54. Those who teach the fabulous tales of poets do not present any proof to the young students; and I say that all this was said to deceive and corrupt the human race, through the action of evil demons. Having heard the predictions of the prophets that Christ would come and wicked people would be punished with fire, they did what many called themselves sons descended from Zeus, thinking thereby to produce such an effect that people would regard the stories about Christ as wonderful tales, similar to those told by poets. This was common among the Greeks and all other peoples, where, as they heard from the predictions of the prophets, there were more believers in Christ. And I will prove that, having heard the words of the prophets, they misunderstood them, and, as erring ones, they counterfeited only what was said about our Christ. The Prophet Moses, as I said, was older than all the writers, and through him, as I mentioned before, the following prophecy was uttered: “The prince from Judah will not fail, nor the leader from his feet, until He for whom it is reserved comes, and He will be the hope of the nations; He will tie his colt to the vine 2 and wash his clothing in the blood of the grapes” (Gen. 49:10-11). The demons, having heard these prophetic words, said that Dionysus was born of Zeus, and they said that he was the inventor of the grape, and the donkey was placed in his sacraments, and they taught that he was torn to pieces and ascended to heaven. And since in the prophecy of Moses it is not clear whether the Son of God is the one who is to come, and riding on a foal, whether he will remain on earth or ascend to heaven on it; and since the name foal 3 could mean a foal from a donkey and from a horse; then, not knowing whether the one who was predicted would represent a young donkey or a horse as a symbol of his coming, and whether he was the Son of God, as I have already said, or a human one, they announced about Bellerophon that he, being a man of men, ascended to heaven on the horse Pegasus. And when they heard from another prophet, Isaiah, that Christ would be born of a Virgin and would ascend into heaven by himself, they said the same thing about Perseus. And when they learned that He, as predicted in the above prophecies, was “strong as a giant, ready to go on a journey,” they said that Hercules was strong and walked around the whole earth. When they again heard prophecies about Him, that He would heal every disease and raise the dead, they presented Aesculapius. 55. But nowhere did they present a crucifixion on any of the so-called sons of Zeus, for this did not even occur to them, because everything that was said regarding this was said symbolically, as noted above. The cross, as the prophet predicted, is the greatest symbol of the power and authority of Christ, as can be seen from the objects subject to our observation. For consider all the things in the world, is anything organized without this form, and can there be mutual connection without it? You cannot sail on the sea if the trophy on the ship, which is called a sail, is not intact; the earth cannot be dug without a cruciform shape: those who dig the earth, as well as artisans, do their work in no other way than through tools that have this shape. And the external appearance of a person differs from the appearance of irrational animals only in that he is erect and has the ability to stretch out his arms, and on his face he has a so-called nose extending from his forehead, through which the animal breathes, and which represents nothing else but the figure of a cross. The prophet said about this: “Christ the Lord is breath before our face” (Lamentations 4.20). And your symbols represent the power of the cross shape. I mean the banners and trophies with which you carry out your solemn processions everywhere, displaying in them signs of your power and strength, although you do this without even thinking about it. And you place the images of your dying emperors on the same figure, and in the inscriptions you call them gods. So, having convinced you as much as possible in word and visually, we know that we will no longer be guilty, although you will not believe it, for on our part everything that should be done and fulfilled. 56. Before the appearance of Christ, it was not enough for the evil demons to say that Zeus had so-called sons: but even after He appeared and lived among people, when they learned how the prophets had predicted about Him, and saw that every nation believed in Him and expected Him, then again, as I said above, they sent out others, Simon and Menander from Samaria, who with their magical miracles deceived many and now hold still in seduction. Simon, as I have already said, was in your capital Rome, under Claudius Caesar, and so surprised the sacred Senate and the people of Rome that he was recognized as God and a statue was erected in his honor, like other gods revered by you. Therefore, I ask that the sacred senate and your people, together with you, take note of this defense of mine, so that if anyone adheres to the teachings of Simon, he can learn the truth and avoid error; and you, if it pleases you, destroy his statue. 57. Evil demons cannot assure that there is no fiery torment to punish the wicked, just as they could not ensure that Christ, when He came, remained unknown. The only thing they can do is so that those who live unreasonably, brought up in passions and bad customs and committed to empty opinions, destroy and hate us; while we not only do not hate them, but, as said above, we feel sorry for them and want to convince them to change. We are not afraid of death, since it is known that we must certainly die, and there is nothing new, but everything the same happens in the present state of affairs; if enjoying it can keep those enjoying it for at least a year, then they should turn to our teaching in order to get rid of suffering and need forever. But if they do not believe that there is anything after death, but believe that the dying pass into a state of insensibility, then they do us a service by freeing us from the suffering and needs of this world, and they show themselves to be evil, misanthropes and followers of empty opinions, because they do not kill in order to give us freedom, but kill in order to deprive us of life and pleasure. 58. And Marcion from Pontus, as I said above, was exposed by evil demons: even now he teaches not to recognize God the Creator of all things in heaven and earth, nor Christ, His Son, who was foretold by the prophets; but he preaches some other God, beyond the Creator of all, as well as another Son. And many believe this man as the only one who knows the truth, and laugh at us; Meanwhile, they do not have any evidence for their opinion, but recklessly, carried away like lambs by a wolf, they become food for godless teachings and demons. For the so-called demons only try to lead people away from God the Creator and His Firstborn Christ God, and they nailed and nailed those who cannot rise from the earth to earthly and man-made things, and imperceptibly seduce those who strive to contemplate the Divine, and if they do not have a sound mind and do not lead a pure and dispassionate life, they plunge them into wickedness. 59. And so that you call that Plato borrowed from our teachers, that is, from the legend taught by the prophets, when he said that God changed the ugly substance and created the world - listen to how the same thing was literally said by Moses, who was previously mentioned as the first prophet and more ancient than the Hellenic writers; through him the prophetic Spirit, declaring how and from what in the beginning God formed the world, said this: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth, the earth was invisible, and darkness was over the deep, and the spirit of God hovered over the waters. And God said: let there be light! And it became so” (Genesis 1.1–3). Thus, Plato and others who say the same thing, and we ourselves have learned, and you too can be convinced that by the word of God the whole world was created from the substance depicted above by Moses. Even what your poets call Erev, we know, was first mentioned by Moses. 60. And what Plato says in the Timaeus in physiological terms about the Son of God, when it is said that He (God) placed Him in the universe like the letter X, he also borrowed from Moses. For in the writings of Moses it is related that while the Israelites came out of Egypt and were in the wilderness, poisonous animals, vipers and asps and every kind of snake attacked them and destroyed the people; and Moses, by the inspiration and action of God, took brass and made an image of the cross and set it in the holy tabernacle and said to the people: if you look at this image and believe, you will be saved through it. As a result, the snakes, as Moses wrote, began to die, and the people escaped death through this means. Plato read this, and, not knowing exactly and not realizing that it was the image of a cross, but seeing only the figure of the letter X, said that the power closest to the first God was in the universe like the letter X. And his mention of the third came, as I have already said, from reading the words of Moses, that the spirit of God hovered over the waters; for he gives the second place to the Word of God, which, according to him, is placed in the universe in the likeness of the letter X, and the third place to the Spirit, about which it is said that he hovered over the waters, saying: the third is near the third. Listen to how the prophetic Spirit announced through Moses the future burning; he said this: “eternal fire will descend and consume to the deepest abyss” (Deut. 32.22). So, we do not hold the same opinions as others, but everyone imitates and repeats our teaching. With us you can listen and learn this from those who do not even know the letters, from people who are uneducated and speak a barbaric language, but who are wise and full of faith in the spirit, despite the fact that some are even blind and deprived of sight. From this it can be understood that this teaching did not come from human wisdom, but was spoken by the power of God. 61. Now I will explain how we dedicated ourselves to God, being renewed through Christ, so that if I omit this, they will not think of me as being cunning in my explanation. Those who are convinced and believe that this teaching and our words are true, and are promised that they can live in accordance with it, are taught that with prayer and fasting they ask God for forgiveness of past sins, and we pray and fast with them. Then we bring them to where there is water, and they are reborn in the same way as we ourselves were reborn, that is, they are then washed with water in the name of God the Father and the Lord of all, and our Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. For Christ said: “unless you are born again, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (John 3.3–5). And everyone knows that once born it is impossible to enter the womb of those who gave birth. And the prophet Isaiah, as I mentioned before, announced how those who have sinned and repentant can be freed from their sins. It is said this way: “Wash yourselves, become pure, take away wickedness from your souls..., learn to do good, show justice to the orphan, justify the widow; come and let us judge, says the Lord. And if your sins are like scarlet, I will be as white as wool, and if they are like scarlet, I will be as white as snow... but if you do not listen to Me, the sword will devour you, for the mouth of the Lord said this" (Is. 1:16-20). And we received from the apostles the following reason for such an action, since we do not know our first birth and were born of a wet seed through the mutual copulation of parents and grew up in bad morals and a bad way of life: so that we do not remain children of necessity and ignorance, but children of freedom and knowledge and so that we may receive remission of past sins - in water it is called na. who wants to be reborn and repents of sins, the name of the Father of all and the Master of God. This one name is pronounced by the one who leads the one receiving ablution to the font, because no one can say the name of the ineffable God; if anyone dared to say that it exists, he would show terrible madness. And this ablution is called enlightenment, because those who know it are enlightened in their minds. And in the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who through the prophets foretold everything pertaining to Jesus, the enlightened one is washed. 62. And the demons, having heard about this washing, which was announced by the prophet, did that those who entered their churches and those who wished to approach them to pour libations and incense sprinkle themselves, and even do that people go and completely wash themselves before entering the churches dedicated to them. And the fact that the priests command those who enter the churches and wish to perform their prayers to take off their shoes was done by the demons as an imitation, having adopted them from the incidents that happened to the above-mentioned prophet Moses. While Moses was commanded to go to Egypt and lead out the people of Israel who were there, one day, when he was tending his mother’s sheep in the land of Arabia, our Christ spoke to him in the form of fire from a thorn bush and said: “Take off your boots, and come closer and listen” (Exodus 3.5). He, taking off his shoes, approached and heard the command to go to Egypt and bring out the people of Israel who were there, and received powerful power from Christ, who spoke to him in the form of fire; and he went and brought out the people, doing great and wonderful things, which, if you want to know, you can learn in detail from his writings. 63. The Jews still teach that the nameless God spoke to Moses. Why did the prophetic Spirit convict them through the above-mentioned prophet Isaiah, and said, as I mentioned before: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey the manger of its master; But Israel does not know Me, and the people have not understood Me” (Isaiah 1.3). In the same way, Jesus Christ, denouncing the Jews for not knowing what the Father is and what the Son is, said this: “No one knows the Father, only the Son, nor the Son, only the Father and those to whom the Son will reveal it” (Matthew 11.27). The Word of God is the Son of God, as I said above. He is called both an angel and an apostle, for He proclaims everything that needs to be known, and is sent to reveal what is being proclaimed, just as the Lord himself told you: “He who listens to me listens to him who sent me” (Matthew 10.40; Luke 10.16). And this will be clear from the Mosaic writings. They say this: “And the Angel of God spoke to Moses in the flame of fire from the thorn bush and said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of your fathers. Go to Egypt and bring out my people” (Exodus 3.2, 14–15). What followed you can, if you wish, find out from them: it is impossible to rewrite everything here. And these words were spoken to prove that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Apostle, who was formerly the Word and appeared sometimes in the form of fire, sometimes in the form of incorporeal things, but now, by the will of God, having become a man for the human race, he endured the suffering to which he was subjected by the action of demons to the insane Jews. The Jews, despite what is directly stated in the writings of Moses: “And the angel of God spoke to Moses in the fire that burned in the thorn bush, and said: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” claim that the Father of all and the Creator spoke thus. Therefore, the prophetic Spirit, in rebuking them, said: “Israel does not know Me, the people have not understood Me.” And also Jesus, as I noted above, being between them, said: “No one knows the Father, only the Son; neither the Son, only the Father and those to whom the Son will reveal.” And so the Jews, who always thought that the Father of all always spoke to Moses, while the one who spoke to him was the Son of God, Who was called both an angel and an apostle, are rightly convicted by the prophetic Spirit and by Christ Himself that they know neither the Father nor the Son. For those who call the Son Father clearly show that they do not know the Father, and also do not know that the Father of all has a Son, who, being the firstborn Word of God, is also God. And He previously appeared in the form of fire and in an incorporeal form to Moses and other prophets, and now, during the time of your dominion, as I said above, He became man from the Virgin, according to the will of the Father, for the salvation of those who believe Him, and endured humiliation and suffering in order to conquer death by death and resurrection. What was said from the bush to Moses: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and the God of your fathers,” means that they remain after death and are people of the same Christ. For they were the first of all people to search for God. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac of Jacob, as Moses also wrote. 64. That the demons also induced to place an image of the so-called Proserpina at the sources of water, passing her off as the daughter of Zeus, in imitation of the words of Moses, you can see from what is said above. For Moses said, as I wrote before: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; the earth was invisible and unsettled, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.” So, in imitation of the Spirit of God, which is said to hover over the waters, they declared that Proserpina was the daughter of Zeus. With similar intent they also called Minerva the daughter of Zeus, not from copulation, but because they learned that God conceived and created the world by His Word, and presented Minerva as the first thought; and we consider it very funny to use the female form as a way of thinking. Likewise, the other so-called sons of Zeus are exposed by their own actions. 65. After the one who has believed and given his consent has been washed in this way, we lead him to the so-called brothers in a general meeting in order to with all diligence perform common prayers both for ourselves and for the enlightened one and for all others everywhere, so that we, who have come to know the truth, may be worthy to appear in deeds as good citizens and doers of the commandments, in order to receive eternal salvation. At the end of our prayers, we greet each other with a kiss. Then bread and a cup of water and wine are brought to the head of the brethren: he, having taken this, sends up praise and glory to the Father of all in the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit and gives thanks in detail for the fact that He has honored us with this. After he has offered prayers and thanksgiving, all the people present respond: Amen. Amen is a Hebrew word meaning: let it be. After the thanksgiving of the primate and the proclamation of all the people, the so-called deacons give each of those present to partake of the bread on which thanksgiving was made, and wine and water, and refer them to those who are missing. 66. We call this food the Eucharist (thanksgiving), and no one else is allowed to participate in it except the one who believes in the truth of our teaching and has been washed for the remission of sins and for rebirth, and lives as Christ committed. For we accept this, not as ordinary bread or ordinary drink: but as Christ, our Savior, was incarnate by the Word of God and had flesh and blood for our salvation, in the same way this food, over which thanksgiving is made through the prayer of His word, and from which through likeness your blood and flesh receives nourishment, is - as we are taught - the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus. For the apostles, in the stories they wrote, which are called the Gospels, betrayed that they were thus commanded: Jesus took bread and gave thanks and said: do this in remembrance of Me, this is My body; in like manner He took the cup and gave thanks and said, “This is My blood,” and He gave it to them alone. The evil demons learned to do the same thing from imitation in the sacraments of Mithra; for, as you know or can find out, at the initiation of one entering the sacraments, bread and a cup of water are offered there. 67. Since that time, we have always made a memory of this among ourselves. And those of us who are sufficient help all the poor, and we always live for one another. For all the blessings we receive, we glorify the Creator of all things, through His Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit. On the so-called day of the sun, we have a gathering in one place of all those living in cities or villages; and read, as much as time permits, the sayings of the apostles or the writings of the prophets. Then, when the reader stops, the primate through the word gives instructions and exhortations to imitate those wonderful things. Then we all get up and say prayers. When he finished the prayer, then, as I said above, bread, and wine, and water are brought; and the primate also offers prayers and thanksgivings as much as he can. The people express their agreement with the word - Amen, and there is a distribution to everyone and the communion of gifts, over which thanksgiving is made, and to those who have not been given they are sent through the deacons. Those who are sufficient and willing, each according to his own free will, give what they want, and what is collected is kept by the primate: and he has care for orphans and widows, for all those in need due to illness or for any other reason, for those in chains, for strangers from afar, and in general takes care of all those in need. On the day of the sun, we all generally hold a meeting, because this is the first day on which God, having changed darkness and matter, created the world, and Jesus Christ, our Savior, rose from the dead on the same day. They crucified Him on the eve of Saturn's day, and on the day after Saturn's day, i.e. on the day of the sun, He appeared to His apostles and disciples and taught them what we presented at your discretion. 68. And if this seems to you to be in agreement with reason and truth, then respect it; if it seems like trifles to you, then leave them in contempt as trifles, and do not condemn innocent people to death as enemies. We tell you in advance that you will not escape the future judgment of God if you continue in your unrighteousness, and we exclaim: let it be what pleases God. And although we could, on the basis of a letter from His Majesty the Most Serene Caesar Hadrian, your father, ask you to order that we be judged in accordance with our request, we decided to ask better not because Adrian decreed so, but we wrote a request and a statement of our case because we are confident that we are asking for what is fair. However, I am enclosing a list from Adrianov’s letter so that you can see that in this case we are telling the truth. Here is the list. 69. Adrian Minucius Fundanu. I received a letter written to me by your predecessor, the famous Serenius Granian; and I do not want to leave the matter reported to me without investigation, so that the innocent will not be worried, and the slanderers will have no reason to engage in vile craft. So, if our subjects in the provinces can firmly support their demand against Christians, so that they can prove it before the court, then I do not forbid them to do so; I just don’t allow them to resort to loud demands and screams. It is much fairer that if someone wants to inform, you make an inquiry about the matter. And then if someone reports and proves that the above-mentioned people are doing something against the laws, then you determine punishments in accordance with their crimes. Make special efforts, for the sake of Hercules, to ensure that if anyone accuses any of the Christians for slander, you deal with such a person in the strictest manner, commensurate with his vile crime. 70. Letter from Antonin to the Asian society. The autocrat Caesar, Titus Elius Adrian Antoninus, Augustus, the pious great high priest, in the 15th year of tribunician power, for the third time consul, father of the fatherland, wishes joy to the Asian society. – I thought that the gods would make sure that such people (Christians) could not hide; Moreover, if they could, they would punish them for not wanting to worship them: but you persecute such people, and condemn the way of thinking they have as godless, and charge them with other things, which, however, we cannot prove. But it is useful for them to think that they are going to death for what they are accused of, and they will gain victory over you by giving up their lives to death rather than agreeing to what you demand of them. You shouldn’t even mention the earthquakes that have happened in the past and the present, because in the event of them you become cowardly if you compare yourself with them, because they are more committed to God than you. You, it seems, did not even know the gods at that time, you neglected the churches, and did not recognize the service of God. Therefore, you hate those who serve God and persecute them even to death. Other regional rulers also wrote about these people to my most divine father; and he answered them not to disturb such people unless it turned out that they were doing something against the Roman government. And many reported to me about them, and I also answered them, in accordance with the opinion of my father. If anyone begins to denounce one of these to the court simply because he is such and such, the one who is denounced will be free from accusation, even if it turns out that he is one of these, and the informer will be punished. 71. Letter from Emperor Mark to the Senate, in which he testifies that Christians were the reason for the victory. The autocrat Caesar, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Germanic, Parthian, Sarmatian, wishes joy to the Roman people and the sacred Senate. “I informed you of the importance of my goal and the results I achieved on the borders of Germany, after, weary and tired, I was surrounded at Carnut by seventy-four battalions at a distance of nine miles. When they became close to you, the spies let us know, and Pompeian, your general, confirmed what we knew (for I was surrounded by an innumerable multitude, and had with me a limited detachment of the first, tenth and double legion of our troops), that is, that before us there was a mixed army, numbering 977,000 people. So, having compared myself and my army with many barbarians and enemies, I resorted with prayer to the domestic gods. Left unattended by them, and meanwhile, seeing the predicament of my army, I called the so-called Christians among you, and after searching I found a great number of them: and I expressed my anger at them, which, however, should not have been done, since I subsequently learned their strength. They set to work without preparing arrows, weapons and trumpets: this is contrary to their respect for God, whom they carry in their conscience; for we must admit that those whom we consider atheists have the living God in their conscience. Having thrown themselves to the ground, they began to pray not only for me, but also for the entire former army, so that God would comfort you in your present thirst and hunger; for we have not drunk water for the fifth day, for lack of it; because we were in the middle of Germany and within the borders of the enemy. As soon as the Christians threw themselves to the ground and began to pray to God, whom I did not know, rain immediately appeared from the sky, for you it was the coolest, but for the enemies of Rome it was hail of fire. And we immediately recognized in prayer itself the close presence of God, as irresistible and invincible. For this reason, from now on we will allow such people to be Christians, so that through their prayer they will not receive any weapons against us. In regard to such a thing, I decree that he shall not be accused of being a Christian. If it turns out that someone accuses a Christian of being a Christian, then I want it to be clear in relation to the Christian who is accused and himself admits that he is not accused of anything else, except that he is a Christian; and whoever presents it must be burned alive. If a Christian declares himself, and this is confirmed, then the governor of the region should not force him to retreat or deprive him of his freedom. I want this to be confirmed by a Senate resolution, and I command that this order of mine be displayed on Trajan Square so that everyone can read it. Prefect Vitrasius Pollio will take care to send him to all regions; and whoever wishes to take advantage of and have this command, do not forbid him to copy from what we have promulgated. Second Apology, presented in favor of Christians to the Roman Senate 1. The events that took place yesterday and yesterday in your city at Urbica, Romans, and what is being similarly recklessly done by your rulers everywhere, forced me to write this speech in defense of us, who are of the same nature with you and your brothers, although you do not recognize it and do not want to recognize it because of the glory of your imaginary merits. For everywhere, excluding those who believe that the lawless and intemperate will be punished with eternal fire, and the virtuous and those who lived like Christ will live with God in a state alien to suffering - I mean those who have become Christians - everyone who will be corrected from some vice by a father or a neighbor, or a son, or a friend, or a brother, or a husband, or a wife, all such according to the stubbornness of the will, attachment to pleasure and inflexibility to goodness, and evil demons, always at enmity against us and having such judges (like Urbicus) as their slaves and admirers, incite such rulers, as if going berserk, to subject us to death. But in order to explain to you the whole affair that happened under Urbic, I will tell you what happened. 2. One woman had a dissolute husband, and she herself was formerly dissolute. When she learned the teachings of Christ, she herself turned to a good life and tried to convince her husband to do the same, setting out the teaching and instilling in him that for those who do not live chastely and in accordance with sound reason, there will be torment in eternal fire. But the husband continued the same debauchery and by his actions alienated his wife from himself. And she, considering it impious to continue to share a bed with such a husband, who, against the law of nature and justice, sought in every possible way to satisfy his lust, wanted to divorce him: but, respecting her advice, which urged her to endure a little longer, in the hope that her husband would someday change, she forced herself to stay. When her husband went to Alexandria, and it became known that there he indulged in even worse things; then she, so that while remaining married and sharing the table and bed with him, would not become a participant in his lewdness and wickedness, she gave him the so-called divorce and left him. But her good and kind husband, who should have rejoiced that she herself had abandoned such affairs, which she had previously unbridledly indulged in with servants and hired servants, finding pleasure in drunkenness and all lewdness, and wanted to keep him from them - when she left him against his will, he brought an accusation against her, declaring that she was a Christian. She submitted a petition to you, the autocrat, so that she would be allowed to first manage her household affairs, and after putting her affairs in order, defend herself on the subject of the accusation; and you allowed it. And her ex-husband, who could no longer conduct a case against her, turned to a certain Ptolemy, who was punished by Urbic, and who was her mentor in Christian teaching. He did this: he convinced the centurion, his friend who had imprisoned Ptolemy, to take Ptolemy and ask only whether he was a Christian. Ptolemy, being of a truth-loving disposition, alien to lies and deception, confessed himself to be a Christian, and for this the centurion left him in bonds and tortured him in prison for a long time. Finally, when this man was brought to Urbicus; then he was also asked only whether he was a Christian. He again, knowing the good in himself, which he owed to Christ’s teaching, confessed the school of Divine virtue. For whoever denies something, denies it either because he condemns this matter, or because he recognizes himself as unworthy and alien to it, and therefore avoids recognition; but neither one nor the other condition suits a true Christian. Urbik ordered to be taken to execution. At this time, a certain Lucius, also a Christian, seeing the illegal condemnation that had taken place, said to Urbicus: “Why did you condemn to death this man who is not guilty of fornication or adultery, is not a murderer, not a robber or a thief, and has not been convicted of any crime at all, but has only confessed himself to be a Christian? You Urbicus judge how indecent it is to judge either a pious autocrat, or a philosopher, the son of Caesar, or the sacred Senate.” And Urbik, without answering anything, said only to Lucius: “and you, it seems to me, are the same”; and when Lukiy answered “exactly,” he also ordered to be taken to execution. Lukiy even thanked him for this, knowing that he was getting rid of such evil rulers and was going to the Father and King of Heaven. A third person also came up and was also sentenced to death. 3. Therefore, I also expect that I will be caught in a net by one of those whom I have mentioned, and hanged on a tree, at least by Crescent, a lover of noise and vain splendor. For this man is not worth calling him a philosopher (lover of wisdom), since he publicly accuses us of something he does not know - that Christians are atheists and wicked; and he does this for the sake and pleasure of the seduced crowd. If he attacks us without studying the teachings of Christ, then he is an extremely evil person and much worse than common people, who are often careful not to speak about what they do not know and to bear false testimony; and if he studied it and did not understand its greatness, or understood it, but did so so that they would not suspect him that he was a Christian, then he turns out to be even more base and evil, because he is a slave of popular and unreflective opinion and fear. And I want you to know that, having asked him several questions, I made sure and proved that he knows nothing at all. And if these competitions with him did not reach you, then, as proof of the truth of my words, I am ready to repeat the competition with him in front of you: and this would be a royal matter. And if you know both my questions and his answers, then it is clear to you that he does not know anything of yours, or, if he does know, then, fearing his listeners, he does not dare to speak like Socrates, and through this it is exposed that he, as I said, is not a philosopher, but a lover of fame, who does not respect that worthy of all love, Socrates’ rule: “one should not be preferred to the truth.” And it is impossible for a cynic, having chosen indifference (between good and evil) as his last goal, to recognize any good other than indifference. 4. But lest anyone tell us: “Then kill yourselves and go to God, and save us from troubles”: then I will tell you why we don’t do this and why during interrogations we are fearlessly called upon. We are taught that God did not create the world in vain, but for the human race, and, as I said before, He delights in those who imitate His characteristic virtues, and hates those who, in word or deed, prefer evil. So, if we all begin to kill ourselves, then we will be guilty of the fact that, as much as depends on us, no one will be born, will not learn the Divine teaching, and the human race will cease to exist, and if we do this, then we ourselves will act contrary to the will of God. When we are interrogated, we do not deny, because we do not recognize anything bad in ourselves, but we consider it wickedness not to be faithful in everything to the truth, which, we know, is pleasing to God; Moreover, we now want to save you from unfair prejudice about us. 5. But if anyone comes up with the idea that if we recognize God as our patron, then the lawless, as we say, would not rule over us and would not torment us: I will allow this too. God, who created the whole world, subjugated earthly things to man and arranged the heavenly bodies for the growth of fruits and for bringing about changes of time, establishing the Divine law for them (which He obviously did for people), entrusted the care of people and about the heavenly things to the angels assigned to this. But the angels transgressed this purpose: they had intercourse with wives and gave birth to sons of the so-called demons; and then finally they enslaved the human race partly through magical writings, partly through the fears and torments they inflicted, and partly through teaching sacrifices, incense and libations, which they themselves needed, having enslaved themselves to passions and lusts; and they sowed among the people murder, war, fornication, debauchery and all kinds of evil. Therefore, poets and mythologists, not knowing that everything they described was done to men and women, cities and peoples, angels and demons born from them, attributed this to God himself and to the sons born, both from His seed, and from His so-called brothers Poseidon and Pluto, as well as from their children. That’s why they called everyone by the name that one of the angels gave to himself and his sons. 6. On the contrary, the Father of all, the unbegotten, has no specific name. For if He were called by any name, He would have had someone older than Himself who gave Him a name. As for the words: Father, God, Creator, Lord and Master, these are not names, but names taken from His good deeds and deeds. And His Son, Who alone is truly called the Son, the Word, existed before the creatures with Him and was born of Him, when in the beginning He created and arranged everything - although He is called Christ because He is anointed and because through Him God created everything, but this very name contains an unknown meaning, just like the name: God is not a name, but a thought implanted in human nature about something inexplicable. But Jesus has a name and a meaning and a person, Savior; for He became man, as I have already said, and was born according to the will of God and the Father for the sake of people who believe in Him and for the destruction of demons. This you can now learn from what is happening before your eyes. For many of your Christians have healed and are still healing many of those possessed by demons all over the world and in your city, conjuring in the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, while they were not healed by all other exorcists, conspirators and sorcerers - and thereby defeat and drive out the demons that have possessed people. 7. Therefore, for the sake of the seed of Christians, which He recognizes as the reason for the preservation of the world, God hesitates to bring about the confusion and destruction of the universe, so that there will be no more evil angels, demons and people. And if it weren’t for this, then it would be impossible for you to do this to us anymore and be aroused by evil demons; but the fire of judgment would come down and destroy everything indiscriminately, as before the waters of the flood left no one except one with his family, who is called Noah by us, and Deucalion by you, and from whom so many people again came - evil and good. This is how, we affirm, there will be a burning of the world, and not as the Stoics think, on the basis of their teaching about the transformation of all things one into another; which is obviously quite ridiculous. And it is not according to fate that people act or suffer what happens to them, but - we think - everyone does good or sins according to his own choice; and that the good, like Socrates and others like him, are persecuted and imprisoned, and Sardanapalus, Epicurus and others like them apparently prosper in abundance and glory, this happens through the action of evil demons: but the Stoics, not understanding this, taught that everything happens according to the necessity of fate. But since God at the beginning created the race of both angels and men with free will, then in justice they will be punished in eternal fire for their sins. For such is the nature of every creature - to be capable of vice and virtue, and none of them would be worthy of praise if it did not have the opportunity to incline in one direction or the other. This is also confirmed by all former sensible legislators and philosophers anywhere by the fact that they prescribed to do something else, and to leave another. And the Stoic philosophers, in their teaching on morality, greatly approve of this same thing, so that this reveals the inconsistency of their teaching about principles and incorporeal things. For if they say that the actions of people occur as a result of fate, they will have to say either that God is nothing other than that which rotates, changes and always resolves into the same thing, and thus it will turn out that they have an understanding only of the corruptible and that God himself, both in parts and as a whole, participates in all evil; or that both vice and virtue are nothing: but this is contrary to every sound concept, reason and intelligence. 8. And the followers of the Stoic teachings, because they were beautiful in their moral system, as well as the poets in some respects because of the seed of the Word planted in the entire human race, were, we know, hated and killed: such, as we know, was Heraclitus, as I said before, and among our contemporary Musovius and others. For the demons, as I have shown, always brought about the fact that everyone who tried to live somewhat in accordance with reason and avoid evil was hated. Therefore, it is not the least surprising if, due to the action of denounced demons, those who try to live in accordance not with any part of the Word sown in them, but guided by the knowledge and contemplation of the whole Word, which is Christ, are subjected to even greater hatred. Demons, however, will suffer worthy punishment and torment: they will be imprisoned in eternal fire. For if they are now being conquered by men in the name of Jesus Christ, then this serves as evidence of the punishment that is being prepared for them and for those who serve them in eternal fire. Thus all the prophets foretold, and Jesus our Teacher taught us. 9. But lest anyone say the same thing as those who are considered philosophers say, i.e. that everything we say about punishing unrighteous people in eternal fire is only empty words and scarecrows, and that we inspire people to live virtuously only out of fear, and not because it is good and beautiful - to this I will answer briefly, that if this is not so, then there is no God, or, if there is, then He does not care about people, that both virtue and vice are nothing, and that, as I said before, legislators unjustly punish those who transgress their good precepts. But since they are not unjust, and their Father through the Word teaches them to do the same as He Himself does, then those who conform to them do not act unjustly. If someone contrasts with us different laws between people and says that for some this is considered good, and for another bad, but for others, what is considered bad by others is considered good, and, on the contrary, what is considered good by others is considered bad: let him listen to what I say to this. We know that the evil angels also established laws corresponding to their depravity, and in such laws people who became like them find pleasure. But the true Word, when It came, showed that not all opinions and not all teachings are good, but some are bad and others are good. I will answer the same and similar things to such people, and, if necessary, I will reveal in more detail, but now I return to my subject. 10. So, our teaching is obviously more sublime than any human teaching, because Christ who appeared for us was in all respects the Word, i.e. both in body, and in Word, and in soul. And everything that has ever been said and revealed that is good by philosophers and legislators, all this was done by them according to the extent of their finding and contemplation of the Word, and since they did not know all the properties of the Word, Who is Christ, they often said even the opposite to themselves. But those of those who lived before Christ, according to His humanity, attempted to investigate and refute anything with the Word, they were handed over to judgment as wicked and impudent. The most firm of all of them in this matter, Socrates, was accused of the same crimes as we; for they said that he introduced new deities and did not recognize those whom the citizens revered as gods. And he, expelling Homer and other poets from the state, taught people to turn away from evil demons - evil and doing what the poets described, and exhorted them to acquire knowledge of the unknown God through the study of the mind, saying this: “The Father and Creator of everything is not easy to find, and... Having found it, it is not safe to announce Him to everyone.” However, our Christ did this by his own strength. For no one believed Socrates so much that he decided to die for this teaching; on the contrary, Christ, Whom Socrates also knew in part - for He was and is the Word, Who is in everything and foreshadowed the future, sometimes through the prophets, sometimes through Himself, when He became servile to us and taught this - not only philosophers and scientists believed, but also artisans, and the completely uneducated, despising glory, and fear, and death, because all this is produced by the power of the ineffable Father, and not the means of the human mind. 11. But we would not be killed, and unrighteous people and demons would not be stronger than us, if every born person did not have to die; That is why we repay this debt with thanksgiving. And here - I think - it is good and decent to quote a story from Xenophon for the benefit of Crescent and those who are foolish just like him. Xenophon says that Hercules, having come to the place where three roads met, found virtue and vice, which appeared to him in the form of women; and that Vice, in a luxurious outfit, with a charming and blooming face and with an instantly captivating look, said to Hercules: “If you follow me, then I will make sure that you will always live cheerfully and be adorned with the most brilliant decoration, similar to the one I am wearing”; and virtue with a rough face and clothes said: “But if you follow me, you will be adorned not with fleeting and perishable decoration and beauty, but with eternal and beautiful decorations.” So, we are absolutely sure that everyone who moves away from what seems beautiful and strives for what is considered difficult and strange receives bliss. For vice, to cover up its own actions, takes on properties that belong to virtue and which are truly beautiful, through imitation of the incorruptible (for it has nothing incorruptible and cannot do anything), and thereby enslaves elderly people to itself, and transfers the bad properties that belong to it to virtue. But those who understand the truly good are incorruptible in virtue: which every reasonable person must assume about Christians, and about athletes, and about those who did similar things to what the poets said about imaginary gods - drawing such a conclusion from the fact that we despise death, which we should flee. 12. And I myself, when I was still enjoying the teachings of Plato, heard how Christians were surrounded, but seeing how they fearlessly face death and everything that is considered terrible, I considered it impossible that they should be given over to vice and debauchery. For what dissolute and intemperate person, who considers human flesh a pleasure, can willingly accept death in order to be deprived of his pleasures? Won't he, on the contrary, try in every possible way to continue his real life and hide from the authorities, rather than announce himself for condemnation to death? Meanwhile, evil demons aroused some bad people to do such a thing: having killed some of us on false accusations brought against us, they dragged our servants, or children, or women to torture, and with terrible torture forced them to say about us those fabulous actions that they themselves are clearly doing. And since there is nothing like that behind us, we do not worry, having God, unborn and ineffable, as a witness of thoughts and actions. For why shouldn’t we publicly recognize such deeds as good, and prove that they are the essence of divine wisdom, saying that by killing people, we perform the sacraments of Kronos: reveling, as they say, in blood, we imitate what you do to the idol you reverence, which you sprinkle with the blood of not only dumb animals, but also people, making this libation of the blood of slain victims through the most famous and noble of you; and by committing sodomy and lawlessly copulating with women, we imitate Jupiter and other gods, finding protection for ourselves in this in the writings of Epicurus and the poets? But since we urge you to move away from such decrees, and from those who fulfill them and imitate them - as I am doing now on these very pages, otherwise you will be attacked in every possible way; however, we do not care about that, for we know that the Just God sees everything. And what if, even now, someone ascended to some elevated place and exclaimed in a tragic voice: “Be ashamed, be ashamed to attribute to the innocent what you yourself are doing openly, and what it is natural for you and your gods to ascribe to those who have no part in it: stop, come to your senses!” 13. And so I, when I discovered that wicked veil that evil demons threw over the divine teaching of Christians to turn other people away from it, I will laugh at the perpetrators of these false inventions and at their veil, and at the people’s opinion and, I confess, I set myself to glory and try with all my might to actually be a Christian; and this is not because Plato’s teaching is completely different from Christ’s, but because it is not similar to it in everything, just like the teaching of others, such as the Stoics, poets and historians. For each of them spoke beautifully precisely because he recognized something akin to the sown Word of God. And those who contradicted themselves on the most important subjects obviously did not have firm knowledge and irrefutable knowledge. So, everything that is said by anyone that is good belongs to us Christians. For we, after God, honor and love the Word of the unborn and ineffable God, because He also became man for our sake, in order to become involved in our suffering and bring us healing. All those writers through the innate seed of the Word could see the truth, but it was dark. For the seed and some semblance of something, given according to the measure of acceptability, are a different matter; and the other is the very thing of which the participation and likeness is given by His grace. 14. So, I ask you, be kind enough to inscribe on this work whatever you please, and make it public, so that others may learn about our deeds and can be freed from false opinions and ignorance of good; they, through their own fault, are subject to punishment: because in human nature there is the ability to distinguish between good and bad, and because, accusing us, whom they do not know, of such actions that are called shameful, they themselves find pleasure in the gods, who committed such deeds and now still demand the same from people; Thus, by condemning us, as if we had done this, to death, or chains, or some other punishment, they pronounce the sentence on themselves, therefore no other judges are needed to condemn them. 15. As for the wicked and false teaching of Simon among my compatriots; then I ignored him. If you put an inscription on this essay of mine, then I will make it known to everyone, so that, if possible, they will change their thoughts: for this sole purpose I wrote this essay. And our teaching, according to a sound judgment, is not shameful, but above all human philosophy. At least it does not resemble the Sotadian, Philenidian, Orchistic, Epicurean and other instructions of the same kind from poets, which everyone is allowed to see in performances and read in the scriptures. I will finally conclude, having done everything I can on my part, and wanting all people everywhere to be worthy of the truth. Oh, if only you would judge correctly for your own sake, as piety and wisdom require! Jer.9:26. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” “his foal” - glory. “stallion’s donkey” – τὸν πῶλον τῆς ὄνου αὐτοῦ. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” More precisely, it would be “since the word “stallion” ...” – Editorial Board of “ABC of Faith” "his father-in-law". – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” In the 1892 text, transmitted in modern reprints, Art. 19 is missing, after 18 immediately comes 20. This is probably a mistake by the compositors of that time. – Approx. ed. You might be interested in: