First Apology

Justin Martyr, First Apology

Justin Martyr

Justin kept wearing the philosopher’s robe after he became a Christian, and argued for the faith as the true philosophy.

Catch rate: 120 / 255
Base research: 72
Stat total: 238

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina60

Contend66

Defend48

Popularity64

Total238

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Contend 66

Justin carried the argument into the philosophers’ own arena and made the case on their terms — the First Apology attacks with real force.

Defend 48

Here is the surprise: for all its fame, the First Apology hangs on essentially ONE manuscript, copied in A.D. 1364 — over a thousand years after Justin died for the faith. A text with one late witness cannot defend confidently.

Popularity 64

Justin was famous in his own century and is famous now — quickly recalled, quick to the floor.

Cited for this book

The text depends on essentially one manuscript: Parisinus graecus 450, copied in A.D. 1364 — more than a millennium after Justin’s martyrdom.

Development

A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.

First Apology→
Lv 11

First & Second Apology→
Lv 25

J. Martyr’s Corpus

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Seed of the Word	Rationality	Argument	50	100%	20
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
6	Question the Premise	Rationality	Type shift	—	—	10
9	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
12	What Is Truth?	Rationality	Stat shift	—	100%	15
16	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“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

Seed of the Word

RationalityArgument · power 50 · 100% accurate

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

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.

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

Question the Premise

RationalityType shift

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

“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.

What Is Truth?

RationalityStat shift · 100% accurate

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

“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.

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.

Read it: On the Day Called Sunday

The passages the Scriptorium holds on screen, word for word from a public-domain translation. Written in Koine Greek.

“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).

“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).

“…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).

“…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).

“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).

“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).

“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).

Notes

Justin, philosopher and martyr, born at Flavia Neapolis in Samaria c. A.D. 100. This is addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, his sons, and the Roman Senate, c. A.D. 155–157. Justin was executed at Rome about ten years later.

Chapter 67 is the earliest detailed description of Christian Sunday worship anyone has. Scripture read, a sermon, prayers, the Supper, a collection for the poor — the shape of the service is already there, and it is already recognizable.

Notice who Justin is writing to. He tells the emperor that a ruler who fears an outbreak of righteousness is thinking like an executioner. He was not writing from safety.

Every copy of the Apologies descends from one manuscript: Parisinus graecus 450, copied in A.D. 1364 — twelve centuries after Justin died.