Justin Martyr

Justin was born around the year AD 100, in Flavia Neapolis, a Roman city in Samaria, which stood near the site of ancient Shechem. His parents were pagans, probably Greek or Roman settlers, and the family was well off. He had a good education, and as a young man he went in search of truth. He studied the schools of philosophy one after another. He first went to a Stoic teacher, who could tell him nothing about God. He then tried a Peripatetic, who was more concerned about his fee than about wisdom. He went to a Pythagorean, who demanded that he first study music, astronomy and geometry, and he gave up. Finally, he joined a Platonist, and he was filled with delight at the study of the immaterial and the vision of God.

One day, as he walked by the seashore, thinking on these matters, he met an old man, who engaged him in conversation. The old man was a Christian. He asked Justin how a philosopher could know the truth of God by his own reason. He pointed him to the Hebrew prophets, who had spoken long before the Greek philosophers, and who had foretold the coming of Christ. He said that the prophets had seen the truth because they were inspired by the Spirit of God. Justin was moved. He said that a fire was kindled in his soul. He turned to the Scriptures, and he came to believe that he had found the only sure and profitable philosophy. He was converted around the year 130.

He continued to wear the philosopher's cloak and to teach as a philosopher, but now he taught Christianity. He traveled to a number of cities, including Ephesus, where he held a famous debate with a Jew named Trypho. He settled in Rome, where he opened a school to teach the faith. He was a lay teacher, not a bishop or a priest. He wrote a number of books, but only three survive. The First Apology, written around 155, was addressed to the emperor Antoninus Pius and his sons. It was a defense of the Christians against the charges laid against them, and it also set out the beliefs and practices of the church. It contains one of the earliest descriptions of Christian worship, with the reading of Scripture, the sermon, prayers and the Lord's Supper. The Second Apology is a shorter work, written in answer to an injustice done to Christians in Rome. The Dialogue with Trypho is an account of his debate with a Jewish man, in which he sought to show that Jesus is the Messiah foretold by the prophets.

He was one of the first to try to explain Christianity to the educated pagan world in its own terms. He said that the Word, or Logos, of God was at work in all people and that the best of the philosophers had some share in the truth. They were Christians before Christ, he said, in so far as they lived according to reason. But the Word in its fullness has become flesh in Jesus. This idea had a deep influence on later theology. It also drew criticism, as some think that he gave too much credit to philosophy.

He lived in a time of danger. The Christians were hated and were liable to arrest. He had a rival in Rome, a Cynic philosopher named Crescens, whom he had bested in public debate. Crescens is said to have informed against him. Around 165, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, he was arrested with several companions. They were brought before the prefect Junius Rusticus, who ordered them to sacrifice to the gods. They refused. He told the prefect that it was the wish of Christians to be punished for the sake of their Lord Jesus. They were scourged and beheaded.

The account of his trial and death has survived. He is known as Justin Martyr. His life shows that a mind may be given to the search for truth and that it may find it in Christ. He was a philosopher who was willing to die for the faith that he had found.