c. A.D. 100 – c. 165

Justin Martyr

Worth knowing

Born at Flavia Neapolis in Samaria to pagan parents. He studied with a Stoic, a Peripatetic, a Pythagorean and a Platonist before an old man he met by the sea pointed him to the Hebrew prophets, and he became a Christian.
He kept wearing the philosopher's robe after his conversion. It was the ordinary dress of a teacher of philosophy, and he wore it because he taught Christianity as the true philosophy.
He taught in Rome and wrote openly to the emperor. He was tried before the prefect Rusticus and beheaded around A.D. 165. "Martyr" is not his surname: the church added it to his name because he died for the faith.
He taught that Christ, the Word of God, had sown a seed of truth in every human mind. So whatever any philosopher said rightly, in Justin's words, is "the property of us Christians."

In Scholar’s Dream, Justin Martyr has three books

First ApologyJustin Martyr, First ApologyRationality

First & Second ApologyJustin Martyr, First and Second ApologyRationality

J. Martyr’s CorpusThe Works of Justin MartyrRationalityChristology

Justin Martyr’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Justin Martyr that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“Whatever things were rightly said among all men, are the property of us Christians.”
Justin Martyr, Second Apology 13 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Seed of the Word

RationalityArgument · power 50 · 100% accurate

In the gameJustin: whatever is truly said anywhere is ours. Often finds the telling stroke.

Learned byFirst Apology (Lv 1)

Strong against

×2"Why So Late?"an argument · why?

Justin taught that the Word was at work before he came in the flesh. Wherever anyone said something true, they had a share in him. The ages before Christ were not empty of him.

×2Platoa book · why?

Justin’s rule: whatever any philosopher said truly, he said it because the Word who became Christ had already sown it in him. Plato is not the opponent here. He is early evidence.

×2The Declamationan argument · why?

Justin’s rule: whatever is truly said anywhere belongs to Christ. What matters in a sentence is whether it is true, and the church keeps whatever is true, however it is dressed.

×2The True Wordan argument · why?

Justin was a philosopher before he was a Christian. He taught that whatever the philosophers said truly belongs to Christ, so the faith has nothing to fear from an educated room.

“The evil demons, who hate us, and who keep such men as these subject to themselves, and serving them in the capacity of judges, incite them, as rulers actuated by evil spirits, to put us to death.”
Justin Martyr, Second Apology 1 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Evil Is From Demons

PresuppositionArgument · power 55 · 100% accurate

In the gameJustin’s diagnosis of persecution: the pagan gods are demons, and it is they who drive the courts and rulers against the Christians.

Learned byFirst & Second Apology (Lv 11)

“We who formerly… hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 14 (ANF, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Two Ways

EthicsArgument · power 40 · 100% accurate

In the game"There are two ways…" May convict the foe, lowering its Contend.

Learned byFirst & Second Apology (Lv 14)

Strong against

×2"Haters of Mankind"an argument · why?

The Didache’s way of life begins with loving God and your neighbour, and blessing those who curse you. That is what these supposed haters of mankind were taught.

×2"We Are All Religious"an argument · why?

The Didache says there are two ways, one of life and one of death. Being religious is not enough, because not every way leads to life.

×2"What Good Are You?"an argument · why?

The Didache teaches a way of life: love your neighbour, give to anyone who asks, and care for the poor. A city is better off with people like that than with its games.

“But if it lives, it lives not as being life, but as the partaker of life; but that which partakes of anything, is different from that of which it does partake. Now the soul partakes of life, since God wills it to live.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 6 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Plato’s Timaeus

RationalityArgument · power 55 · 100% accurate

In the gameJustin turns the philosophers’ own Timaeus back on them: world and soul alike live only by a life not their own. May leave the foe grasping (accuracy down).

Learned byFirst & Second Apology (Lv 16)

“The mystery, then, of the lamb which God enjoined to be sacrificed as the passover, was a type of Christ; with whose blood, in proportion to their faith in Him, they anoint their houses, i.e., themselves, who believe in Him.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 40 (ANF, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Passover Fulfilled

ChristologyArgument · power 55 · 100% accurate

In the gameMelito: the type in Egypt, the truth in Christ. The Creator’s own attributes read back as the sentence of his execution.

Learned byFirst & Second Apology (Lv 18)

Strong against

×2Alien Godan argument · why?

Melito preached the Passover as the pattern and Christ as what it was patterned on. Cut the pattern and nothing is fulfilled.

×2Letter to Floraan argument · why?

Melito reads the very Law Ptolemy assigns to a lesser god, and finds Christ in it — the lamb, the blood, the firstborn spared.

×2Moses or Jesus?an argument · why?

Melito shows that Moses and Jesus tell one story. The Passover lamb in Egypt pointed ahead to Christ, the Lamb who was killed.

“No one trusted in Socrates so as to die for this doctrine, but in Christ… not only philosophers and scholars believed, but also artisans and people entirely uneducated.”
Justin Martyr, Second Apology 10 (ANF, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move None But One

RationalityArgument · power 88 · 90% accurate

In the gameNo one died for Socrates. They die for Christ — and not the learned only, but laborers and the unschooled. The world’s verdict, not the academy’s.

Learned byFirst & Second Apology (Lv 20)

“For if He to whom Isaiah referred was not to be begotten of a virgin, of whom did the Holy Spirit declare, Behold, the Lord Himself shall give us a sign: behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son?' For if He also were to be begotten of sexual intercourse, like all other first-born sons, why did God say that He would give a sign which is not common to all the first-born sons?”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 84 (trans. Roberts & Donaldson, ANF vol. 1, 1885, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move A Sign Not Common to All

ChristologyArgument · power 80 · 95% accurate

In the gameJustin’s answer to Trypho: an ordinary birth needs no sign, and God said he would give one.

Learned byJ. Martyr’s Corpus (Lv 28)

Strong against

×2.5Irenaeus Frag.a book · why?

Irenaeus makes this same argument on Isaiah 7:14 in Against Heresies 3.21. Elsewhere he names Justin as a teacher he trusts (4.6.2 and 5.26.2).

×2.5Irenaeus’ Corpusa book · why?

Irenaeus makes this same argument on Isaiah 7:14 in Against Heresies 3.21. Elsewhere he names Justin as a teacher he trusts (4.6.2 and 5.26.2).

×2Almah, Not Virginan argument · why?

Justin asked Trypho why God would call an ordinary birth a sign. Young women have babies every day. God promised something nobody could mistake.

“we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies…”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 14 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move We Who Hated One Another

EthicsArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameJustin does not argue that Christians are nice. He lists what the same people used to do and what they do now, in front of an emperor who could check, and lets the change stand as the evidence. The claim is falsifiable by anyone who knows them.

Learned byJ. Martyr’s Corpus (Lv 34)

Strong against

×2.5Known by Its Fruitsan argument · why?

The charge points at the wreckage and does not have to argue. Justin answers in the same currency — not a defence of the record but a list of what the same people stopped doing — handed to an emperor who was free to go and check it.

“But straightway a flame was kindled in my soul; and a love of the prophets, and of those men who are friends of Christ, possessed me; and whilst revolving his words in my mind, I found this philosophy alone to be safe and profitable. Thus, and for this reason, I am a philosopher.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 8 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move A Flame Was Kindled

RationalityArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameJustin had tried the Stoics, the Aristotelians, the Pythagoreans and the Platonists when an old man by the sea pointed him to the prophets. He did not stop being a philosopher. He said this was where philosophy led.

Learned byJ. Martyr’s Corpus (Lv 42)

Strong against

×2.5The Five Common Notionsan argument · why?

Herbert’s five notions are what reason can reach without help, and he thinks religion needs nothing further. Justin had worked through four schools before the prophets, and says the search was not wasted and was not finished either: he calls himself a philosopher in the same breath.

“There were, then, among the Jews certain men who were prophets of God, through whom the prophetic Spirit published beforehand things that were to come to pass, ere ever they happened.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 31 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Published Beforehand

HistoryArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameJustin’s central evidence, and he presses the part that can be checked: the books were written first, kept by the kings of the Jews, and were in hands that had no reason to help him. A story a community invents afterwards does not leave its predictions in the custody of people who dispute it.

Learned byJ. Martyr’s Corpus (Lv 56)

Strong against

×2.5The Life of Jesus Examinedan argument · why?

Strauss has the community writing the story backwards out of its own hopes. Justin points at where the hopes were kept: in books the kings of the Jews preserved, in hands with no reason to help him, written before the events they name.

×2Irenaeus Frag.a book · why?

Irenaeus argues, as Justin did, that the prophets spoke of Christ before he came. He names Justin as a trusted teacher (4.6.2 and 5.26.2).

×2Irenaeus’ Corpusa book · why?

Irenaeus argues, as Justin did, that the prophets spoke of Christ before he came. He names Justin as a trusted teacher (4.6.2 and 5.26.2).

“it is in our power, when we are examined, to deny that we are Christians; but we would not live by telling a lie.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 8 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move We Would Not Live By Telling A Lie

ChristologyArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameJustin’s case, and he was later executed for it. Every Christian on trial could go free by saying one word. The puzzle is not that they believed, but that they would not deny it when denying cost nothing.

Learned byJ. Martyr’s Corpus (Lv 64)

Strong against

×2.5A Uniform Experience Against Itan argument · why?

Hume weighs testimony and asks which is the greater miracle, that the witness is mistaken or that the thing happened. Justin narrows it: every one of them could have said one word and walked out. What needs explaining is the refusal, not the belief.

×2.5An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandinga book · why?

Passages you can read in the game

Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.

“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 67 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First Apology

“Then we all rise together and pray, and… when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each…”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 67 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First Apology

“…and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 67 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First Apology

“…we who formerly delighted in fornication, but now embrace chastity alone… we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and communicate to every one in need; we who hated and destroyed one another… now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 14 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First Apology

“Brief and concise utterances fell from Him, for He was no sophist, but His word was the power of God.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 14 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First Apology

“But you seem to fear lest all men become righteous, and you no longer have any to punish. Such would be the concern of public executioners, but not of good princes.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 12 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First Apology

“For if, when you have learned the truth, you do not what is just, you will be before God without excuse.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 3 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain, lightly modernized).

from First Apology

“For I myself, too, when I was delighting in the doctrines of Plato, and heard the Christians slandered, and saw them fearless of death, and of all other things which are counted fearful, perceived that it was impossible that they could be living in wickedness and pleasure.”
Justin Martyr, Second Apology 12 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First & Second Apology

“For what sensual or intemperate man, or who that counts it good to feast on human flesh, could welcome death that he might be deprived of his enjoyments…?”
Justin Martyr, Second Apology 12 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First & Second Apology

“Whatever things were rightly said among all men, are the property of us Christians… For all the writers were able to see realities darkly through the sowing of the implanted word that was in them. For the seed and imitation imparted according to capacity is one thing, and quite another is the thing itself.”
Justin Martyr, Second Apology 13 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First & Second Apology

“For no one trusted in Socrates so as to die for this doctrine, but in Christ, who was partially known even by Socrates… not only philosophers and scholars believed, but also artisans and people entirely uneducated, despising both glory, and fear, and death; since He is a power of the ineffable Father, not the mere instrument of human reason.”
Justin Martyr, Second Apology 10 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First & Second Apology

“But lest some one say to us, ‘Go then all of you and kill yourselves, and pass even now to God, and do not trouble us,’ I will tell you why we do not so… We have been taught that God did not make the world aimlessly, but for the sake of the human race.”
Justin Martyr, Second Apology 4 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from First & Second Apology

“Being at first desirous of personally conversing with one of these men, I surrendered myself to a certain Stoic; and having spent a considerable time with him, when I had not acquired any further knowledge of God (for he did not know himself, and said such instruction was unnecessary), I left him and betook myself to another, who was called a Peripatetic.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 2 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from J. Martyr’s Corpus

“And this man, after having entertained me for the first few days, requested me to settle the fee, in order that our intercourse might not be unprofitable. Him, too, for this reason I abandoned, believing him to be no philosopher at all.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 2 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from J. Martyr’s Corpus

“But if it lives, it lives not as being life, but as the partaker of life; but that which partakes of anything, is different from that of which it does partake. Now the soul partakes of life, since God wills it to live.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 6 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from J. Martyr’s Corpus

“There existed, long before this time, certain men more ancient than all those who are esteemed philosophers… They are called prophets. These alone both saw and announced the truth to men… For they did not use demonstration in their treatises, seeing that they were witnesses to the truth above all demonstration, and worthy of belief.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 7 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from J. Martyr’s Corpus

“But pray that, above all things, the gates of light may be opened to you; for these things cannot be perceived or understood by all, but only by the man to whom God and His Christ have imparted wisdom.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 7 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from J. Martyr’s Corpus

“But straightway a flame was kindled in my soul; and a love of the prophets, and of those men who are friends of Christ, possessed me; and whilst revolving his words in my mind, I found this philosophy alone to be safe and profitable. Thus, and for this reason, I am a philosopher.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 8 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from J. Martyr’s Corpus

“I shall prove to you as you stand here that we have not believed empty fables, or words without any foundation but words filled with the Spirit of God, and big with power, and flourishing with grace.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 9 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from J. Martyr’s Corpus

“Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judaea, in the times of Tiberius Caesar.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 13 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).

from J. Martyr’s Corpus

Words Justin Martyr’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.”
Proverbs 18:17 (WEB).

How it works in the game: the move Question the Premise

RationalityType shift

In the gameChallenge the foundation of an argument before it can be pressed. Lowers the foe’s Contend.

Learned byFirst Apology (Lv 6)

“For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world—to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked, “What is truth?”
John 18:37–38 (NET) — both verses preserved on Papyrus 52.

How it works in the game: the move What Is Truth?

RationalityStat shift · 100% accurate

In the gamePilate’s question turned back on the questioner. Lowers accuracy.

Learned byFirst Apology (Lv 12)

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byFirst Apology (Lv 16), First & Second Apology (Lv 19), J. Martyr’s Corpus (Lv 27)

“Many things human beings conceptualize as opposites can be overcome when viewed from a biblical perspective that refuses to accept the (humanly constructed) opposition.”
Forrest, Chatraw & McGrath, The History of Apologetics — a short excerpt from a modern work, cited as such; the category is theirs, not a father’s.

How it works in the game: the move Diagonalization

Biblical TheologyArgument · power 85 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe biblical refusal of false opposites: what the world splits in two, Scripture holds together. A method the great books share.

Learned byJ. Martyr’s Corpus (Lv 25)

Who else was alive

Justin Martyr against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 1A.D. 50A.D. 100A.D. 150A.D. 200A.D. 250A.D. 300A.D. 350A.D. 400A.D. 450

Matthew Paul John Mark Pliny the Elder Clement of Rome Ignatius An early Christian community Polycarp Claudius Ptolemy Hermas Justin Martyr Aristides Quadratus Melito Unknown authors writing under borrowed names Irenaeus The author of the Epistle to Diognetus Athenagoras Clement of Alexandria Tertullian Marcus Minucius Felix Origen Cyprian Plotinus Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Eustathius of Sebaste Apollinaris of Laodicea Cyril of Jerusalem Epiphanius of Salamis Gregory of Nazianzus Basil of Caesarea Eunomius of Cyzicus Gregory of Nyssa Ambrose of Milan Jovinian Augustine The Macedonians Helvidius

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate61 authors sit outside this window