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Justin Martyr
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Introductory Note to the Writings of Justin Martyr
Chapter XVIII.—Proof of immortality and the resurrection.
[1803] ἓρμαιον, a piece of unlooked-for luck, Hermes being the reputed giver of such gifts: vid. Liddell and Scott’s Lex.; see also the Scholiast, quoted by Stallbaum in Plato’s Phæd., p. 107, on a passage singularly analogous to this.
[1804] Boys and girls, or even children prematurely taken from the womb, were slaughtered, and their entrails inspected, in the belief that the souls of the victims (being still conscious, as Justin is arguing) would reveal things hidden and future. Instances are abundantly cited by Otto and Trollope.
[1805] This form of spirit-rapping was familiar to the ancients, and Justin again (Dial. c. Tryph., c. 105) uses the invocation of Samuel by the witch of Endor as a proof of the immortality of the soul.
[1806] Valesius (on Euseb. H. E., iv. 7) states that the magi had two kinds of familiars: the first, who were sent to inspire men with dreams which might give them intimations of things future; and the second, who were sent to watch over men, and protect them from diseases and misfortunes. The first, he says, they called (as here) ὀνειροπομπούς, and the second παρέδρους.
[1807] Justin is not the only author in ancient or recent times who has classed dæmoniacs and maniacs together; neither does he stand alone among the ancients in the opinion that dæmoniacs were possessed by the spirits of departed men. References will be found in Trollope’s note. [See this matter more fully illustrated in Kaye’s Justin Martyr, pp. 105–111.]
[1808] See the Odyssey, book xi. line 25, where Ulysses is described as digging a pit or trench with his sword, and pouring libations, in order to collect around him the souls of the dead.
Chapter XIX.—The resurrection possible.
Chapter XX.—Heathen analogies to Christian doctrine.
[1811] The Sibylline Oracles are now generally regarded as heathen fragments largely interpolated by unscrupulous men during the early ages of the Church. For an interesting account of these somewhat perplexing documents, see Burton’s Lectures on the Ecclesiastical History of the First Three Centuries, Lect. xvii. The prophecies of Hystaspes were also commonly appealed to as genuine by the early Christians. [See (on the Sibyls and Justin M.) Casaubon, Exercitationes, pp. 65 and 80. This work is a most learned and diversified thesaurus, in the form of strictures on Card. Baronius. Geneva, 1663.]
Chapter XXI.—Analogies to the history of Christ.
[1812] i.e., first-born.
[1813] διαφορὰν καὶ προτροπήν. The irony here is so obvious as to make the proposed reading (διαφθορὰν καὶ παρατροπήν, corruption and depravation) unnecessary. Otto prefers the reading adopted above. Trollope, on the other hand, inclines to the latter reading, mainly on the score of the former expressions being unusual. See his very sensible note in loc.
[1814] The Benedictine editor, Maranus, Otto, and Trollope, here note that Justin in this chapter promises to make good three distinct positions: 1st, That Christian doctrines alone are true, and are to be received, not on account of their resemblance to the sentiments of poets and philosophers, but on their own account; 2d, that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God, and our teacher; 3d, that before His incarnation, the demons, having some knowledge of what He would accomplish, enabled the heathen poets and priestis in some points to anticipate, though in a distorted form, the facts of the incarnation. The first he establishes in chap. xxiv-xxix.; the second in chap. xxx.-liii.; and the third in chap. liv. et sq.
[1815] We have here followed the reading and rendering of Trollope. [But see reading of Langus, and Grabe’s note, in the edition already cited, 1. 46.]
Chapter XXIV.—Varieties of heathen worship.
[1816] ἐν γραφαῖς στεφάνους. The only conjecture which seems at all probable is that of the Benedictine editor followed here. [Grabe after Salmasius reads ἐν ῥαφαῖς and quotes Martial, Sutilis aptetur rosa crinibus. Translate, “patch-work garlands.”]
Chapter XXV.—False Gods abandoned by Christians.
[1817] i.e., on account of the assistance gained for him by Thetis, and in return for it.
Chapter XXVI.—Magicians not trusted by Christians.
[1818] It is very generally supposed that Justin was mistaken in understanding this to have been a statue erected to Simon Magus. This supposition rests on the fact that in the year 1574, there was dug up in the island of the Tiber a fragment of marble, with the inscription “Semoni Sanco Deo,” etc., being probably the base of a statue erected to the Sabine deity Semo Sancus. This inscription Justin is supposed to have mistaken for the one he gives above. This has always seemed to us very slight evidence on which to reject so precise a statement as Justin here makes; a statement which he would scarcely have hazarded in an apology addressed to Rome, where every person had the means of ascertaining its accuracy. If, as is supposed, he made a mistake, it must have been at once exposed, and other writers would not have so frequently repeated the story as they have done. See Burton’s Bampton Lectures, p. 374. [See Note in Grabe (1. 51), and also mine, at the end.]
[1819] See chap. vii.
[1820] Which were commonly charged against the Christians.
Chapter XXVII.—Guilt of exposing children.
[1821] Thirlby remarks that the serpent was the symbol specially of eternity, of power, and of wisdom, and that there was scarcely any divine attribute to which the heathen did not find some likeness in this animal. See also Hardwick’s Christ and other Masters, vol. ii. 146 (2d ed.).
[1822] [Note how he retaliates upon the calumny (cap. xxvi.) of the “upsetting of the lamp.”]
Chapter XXVIII.—God’s care for men.
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