First Apology

Justin Martyr · a new plain-English translation from the Greek

To the Emperor Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius Caesar Augustus, and to Verissimus his son, a philosopher, and to Lucius, by nature son of a philosopher Caesar and by adoption the son of the Pious emperor, a devotee of learning, and to the sacred Senate and to the whole People of the Romans, on behalf of those of every race of men who are unjustly hated and mistreated, I, Justin, son of Priscus, son of Bacchius, one of those from Flavia Neapolis in Syria Palestine, being myself one of them,

have composed this address and petition. Reason dictates that those who are truly pious and philosophers should honor and cherish only the truth, refusing to follow the opinions of the ancients if they are worthless; for sound reason dictates not only that one should not follow those who have acted or taught unjustly, but that the lover of truth must, in every way and even before his own life, though death be threatened,

choose to say and to do what is just. You, then, are called pious and philosophers and guardians of justice and lovers of learning — this is heard everywhere; but whether you actually are so will be shown. For we have come forward through this writing not to flatter you, nor to speak so as to please you, but to demand that you render judgment according to careful and searching reason, not held fast by prejudgment

nor by a desire to please superstitious men, nor casting your vote against yourselves through irrational impulse or through evil report that has long prevailed. For we have reckoned that we can suffer no evil at anyone's hands, unless we are convicted as workers of wickedness or are found to be evil; you can kill us, but you cannot harm us. But so that this may not seem to be an irrational and rash statement,

we ask that the charges brought against them be examined, and, if they are shown to be true, that they be punished as it is fitting to punish those convicted; but if anyone has nothing to prove, true reason does not dictate that innocent men be wronged because of an evil report — rather, that you wrong yourselves, who resolve to bring matters about not by judgment but by passion. And this challenge every sensible person will declare to be good and the only just one,

that those who are ruled render an account of their own life and conduct that is beyond reproach, and likewise that those who rule cast their vote not by force nor by tyranny but in accordance with piety and philosophy; for thus both the rulers and the ruled would enjoy what is good. For one of the ancients said somewhere: 'Unless the rulers become philosophers

and those who are ruled, it is not possible for cities to be happy.' It is our task, then, to offer to all an examination of our life and our teachings, so that we may not, on behalf of those who think themselves ignorant of what concerns us, bring upon ourselves the punishment for whatever they commit while blind; and it is your task, as reason requires, to be found good judges once you have heard us. For once you have learned this, you will be left without excuse, if you do not act justly,

before God. Now by the mere designation of a name, nothing is judged either good or bad, apart from the actions that fall under that name; since, so far as the name we are accused of goes, we are most excellent. But since we would not think it just that, if we are convicted of being evil, we should ask to be released on account of the name, so again, if nothing is found against us either on account of the appellation of the name or on account of our conduct,

we are found to be wronging anyone, it is for you to be anxious lest, in punishing without justice those whom no court has found guilty, you bring judgment down upon yourselves. For neither praise nor punishment could reasonably be based on a name, unless something virtuous or base can be demonstrated through deeds. Indeed, you do not punish everyone brought before you as accused prior to a verdict; yet with us, you treat the mere name as proof,

though, strictly on the basis of the name alone, it is the accusers you ought to be punishing instead. We are charged with being Christians; but it is not right that what is good should be hated. And again: if one among the accused denies it outright, claiming he is not one, you set him free, since you have nothing to prove against him as wrongdoing; but if someone admits to being one, you punish him for that admission — although you ought also to

examine the life of the one who confesses and of the one who denies, so that each may be shown, through his deeds, for what he is. For in the way that some, having received from their teacher Christ the command not to deny him when examined, encourage others not to deny — in the same way, living badly, they perhaps give occasions to those who choose to charge all Christians generally with impiety and injustice. But this too is not done rightly; for indeed

some assume the name and guise of philosophy who do nothing worthy of that profession; and you know that even those of the ancients who held and taught opposite opinions are called by the one name 'philosophers.' And some of these taught atheism, and the poets who arose proclaim Zeus to be licentious along with his own children; and those who follow after their teachings are not restrained by you,

rather, you set up prizes and honors for those who insult the gods eloquently. What, then, could this be? In our case, though we promise to do no wrong and not to hold these godless opinions, you do not examine our arguments, but, driven by irrational passion and by the scourge of wicked demons, you punish us without judgment, giving it no thought. Let the truth be told plainly: long ago, evil demons, appearing in various forms, both seduced women and corrupted

boys, and showed terrifying apparitions to men, so that those who did not judge by reason the things that were happening were struck with terror; and being seized by fear, and not knowing that they were wicked demons, they called them gods, and addressed each by the name that each of the demons had assigned to himself. And when Socrates, by true and searching reason, tried to bring these things to light and to lead men away from the demons, and

the demons worked through men who delighted in wickedness, so that he was put to death as godless and impious, they saying that he was introducing new divinities; and they do the very same thing in our case as well. For these things were exposed by reason not only among the Greeks through Socrates, but also among non-Greek peoples by the Word itself, once it had taken shape, been made human, and received the name Jesus Christ, in whom

we, having been persuaded, say that the demons who did these things are not only not upright, but are wicked and unholy demons, whose deeds do not even resemble those of men who desire virtue. This is exactly why people brand us atheists: toward gods of that so-called sort, we openly admit the charge—yet not toward the God who is truly real, the Father of justice, self-control, and every other virtue, one unmixed with

evil; but him we worship, together with the Son who proceeded from him and instructed us in these matters, the army of good angels who accompany and resemble him, and the prophetic Spirit—these we revere and adore, giving them honor in speech and in truth, and passing this on freely to anyone eager to learn, just as we ourselves were instructed. But, someone will object, some have already been seized and proven guilty as criminals. True—for you too, often,

examine the life of each of the accused individually, and you do not condemn on account of those who have already been convicted. In general, then, we admit this as well: just as Greek teachers who set forth doctrines agreeable to their own taste get grouped together under the single label 'philosophy,' even though their teachings contradict one another, so too among non-Greek peoples, those who emerged and gained a reputation for wisdom fall under one shared name by which they now stand accused;

for everyone is called a Christian. That is why we request that the conduct of all those brought before you be judged on its own merits, so that anyone proven guilty is punished as a criminal, not as a Christian; and if someone is shown to be innocent, let him go free, since being a Christian carries no guilt in itself. We will not even ask that you punish our accusers; their own wickedness and ignorance of the good already punish them enough. And consider that it is on your behalf

that we have said these things, when it was in our power, being examined, to deny. But we do not wish to live by speaking falsely; for, desiring the eternal and pure life, we lay claim to a manner of life together with God, the Father and maker of all, and we hasten to confess it, persuaded and believing that those who have persuaded God through their deeds that they followed him and desired

the manner of life with him, where evil does not resist, are able to attain these things. So then, to speak briefly, these are the things we look forward to, and have learned through Christ, and teach. Plato likewise said that Rhadamanthus and Minos would punish the unjust who come before them; but we say that the same thing will happen, only through Christ, and in the same bodies, joined again with

their souls, and being punished with eternal punishment, and not merely for a period of a thousand years, as he said. If then anyone will say this is unbelievable or impossible, this error is our own concern and no one else's, so long as we are not convicted of doing any wrong in deed. But neither do we honor with many sacrifices and wreaths of flowers those whom men, having shaped them and set them up in temples, call gods

they attached these names, since we recognize that such objects are lifeless, dead things with no divine shape at all (we do not hold that God possesses whatever shape some claim was copied to honor him), but instead that they bear the titles and outward shapes of those evil spirits who formerly made themselves seen. Why should we spell out for you, who already know it, what craftsmen do to raw material—planing, cutting, and casting

and hammering it? And often, from dishonorable vessels, merely by changing the shape through their craft and giving it form, they call the results gods. This we consider not only irrational but also an outrage committed against God, who, possessing an ineffable glory and form, is named over perishable things that stand in need of tending. And that the craftsmen of these images are licentious and possess every vice — not to enumerate them all —

you know for certain; and they even corrupt their own slave-girls who work alongside them. Oh, what madness — to fashion licentious men to be worshiped as gods, and to say and remake them so, and to appoint such men as guardians of the temples where they are set up, not realizing that it is impious even to imagine or claim that men could be guardians of gods! But we have received that God has no need of material offering from men, since he himself provides

all things, as we can see. Rather we have been taught and are persuaded and believe that he receives only those who imitate the good things that belong to him — temperance, justice, love of humanity, and whatever else is proper to God, who is called by no name that has been assigned him. And we have been taught that, being good from the beginning, he fashioned all things out of formless matter for the sake of human beings; and that those who by their deeds show themselves worthy of his purpose

we have received will be deemed worthy to dwell together with him, reigning as fellow kings, having become incorruptible and free from suffering. For just as at the beginning he made them when they did not exist, so in the same way we hold that, by choosing what pleases him, those who so choose will be counted worthy of incorruption and union with him. Coming into being at the beginning was not, after all, up to us; but to follow what is dear to him, choosing it by means of

the rational powers he himself has granted, is what persuades us and leads us into belief. And we hold that it is for the good of all humanity that people not be barred from learning these things, but rather urged toward them. For what human laws were unable to accomplish, the divine word would have accomplished, had not the wicked demons scattered abroad many false and godless accusations, taking as their ally

the desire present in each person, evil toward everything and by nature manifold — none of which has any place in us. And you, on hearing that we look for a kingdom, have rashly supposed that we mean a human one, when in fact we speak of one that is with God — as is clear also from the fact that, when examined by you, we confess to being Christians, knowing that death lies as the penalty for the one who so confesses. For if we were looking for a human kingdom, we would also have denied it,

so as not to be put to death, and would have tried to escape notice, so as to obtain what we were looking for. But since we do not fix our hopes on the present life, we have no concern for those who kill us, since death is in any case owed by us. We are, more than all other people, your helpers and allies toward peace, we who hold these convictions: that it is impossible for an evildoer, or a greedy man, or a schemer, or a virtuous man, to escape God's notice, and that each one

goes on to eternal punishment or salvation according to the worth of his deeds. For if all people knew this, no one would choose vice even for a short while, knowing that he goes on to eternal condemnation by fire, but would in every way restrain and adorn himself with virtue, so that he might obtain the good things that come from God and be delivered from the places of punishment. For those who,

on account of the laws and punishments laid down by you, try to escape notice while doing wrong, do wrong because they know it is possible for men to escape your notice — but if they had learned and been persuaded that it is impossible for anything, not only a deed but even a plan, to escape God's notice, they would in every way be well-behaved out of fear of what threatens them, as you yourselves would agree. But you seem to be afraid that everyone might act justly and that you

would then have no one left to punish; that would be the work of executioners, not of good rulers. We are persuaded that it is by evil demons — who even demand sacrifices and acts of service from those who live irrationally — that such things are brought about, as we have said before; but we do not suppose that you, who aspire to piety and philosophy, would do anything irrational. But if you too, like the

senseless, honor custom above truth, then do what you are able to do — rulers who honor reputation above truth have just as much power as bandits do in the wilderness. That you will not obtain favorable omens, reason itself demonstrates, since we know of no ruler more kingly and more just than him who comes after God, his begetter. For just as everyone shuns poverty, or sufferings, or inherited paternal disgraces,

so too the sensible man will not choose whatever reason dictates should not be chosen. That all these things would happen, I say, our teacher foretold — Jesus Christ, who is Son and apostle of God, Father of all and Master, from whom also we have come to be called Christians. For this reason too we grow confident regarding everything declared by him, since in fact

it appears in actual fact that the things he foretold, before they came to pass, are indeed coming to pass — which is the work of God: to speak of something before it happens, and thus to have it shown coming to pass just as it was foretold. It would have been possible, resting even on these points alone, to stop and add nothing more, reasoning that what we ask for is both just and true; but since we recognize that it is not easy for a soul held fast by ignorance to change quickly, we have been eager to include a little more, hoping to win over those devoted to truth,

knowing that it is not impossible to escape ignorance once the truth has been set before it. That we are not atheists, then — we who worship the maker of this universe, who has no need of blood and libations and incense, as we have been taught, declaring this by a word of prayer and thanksgiving over everything we offer, praising him with all the power we have, having received that the only honor worthy of him is this: not to consume by fire the things he has made for our sustenance,

but to offer them instead to ourselves and to those in need, and to send up to him, in gratitude, processions and hymns through the word, for our having come into being and for all the resources that make for well-being — for the properties of the various sorts of things and for the seasons' shifting patterns — while also sending up petitions for coming to be again in incorruption through faith in him — who, being of sound mind, will not acknowledge this? And him who became the teacher of these things

to us, having been begotten for this very purpose — Jesus Christ, executed on the cross under Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea during the reign of Tiberius Caesar — having learned him to be the Son of the true God, and holding him in second place, and the prophetic Spirit, whom we honor in third rank because it accords with reason, we will demonstrate. For at this point they show us to be mad, on the grounds that we give second place, after the unchangeable and

ever-existing God, begetter of all things, to a man who was crucified — not knowing the mystery contained in this, to which we urge you to attend as we explain it. For we forewarn you to be on guard, lest the demons we have already exposed deceive you and turn you away from paying any attention at all to and understanding what is said — for they strive to keep you as slaves and servants, at one time through

appearances in dreams, and at another through magical tricks, overpowering all those who do not in any way strive for their own salvation — in the same way that we too, once we were persuaded by the word, departed from them and follow God alone, the unbegotten one, through his Son — we who once delighted in acts of fornication now embrace chastity alone; and we who also practiced magical arts,

have now dedicated ourselves to the good and unbegotten God; and we who cherished the means of acquiring money and property above all else now bring even what we have into a common store and share it with everyone in need; and we who hated one another and killed one another, and would not share a hearth with those not of our own race because of custom, now, after the appearing of Christ, live together with them, and pray

for our enemies, and try to persuade those who hate us unjustly, so that those who have lived according to Christ's good precepts may be of good hope, together with us, of obtaining the same things from God who rules over all. And so that we may not seem to you to be arguing with mere cleverness, we thought it good, before the demonstration, to call to mind a few of the teachings given by Christ himself — and let it be for you, as befits

powerful kings, to examine whether we have truly been taught, and do teach, these things. His words were brief and concise; he had no training as a rhetorician, yet his speech carried the very power of God. Concerning temperance, then, he said only this: 'Whoever looks at a woman so as to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart before God.' And: 'If your eye

"...right [eye] causes you to stumble, tear it out; for it is better for you to enter God's kingdom having just one eye than to be thrown, with both, into the everlasting fire." And: "Whoever marries a woman divorced from another man commits adultery." And: "There are some who were made eunuchs by men, and there are some who were born eunuchs, and there are some who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven;

but not all can accept this." Just as those who under human law practice bigamy are sinners before our Teacher, so too are those who look at a woman with desire for her; for not only is the man who commits adultery in deed cast out by him, but also the man who wishes to commit adultery, since not only the deeds that are visible to God matter, but also the thoughts. And many men

and many women, sixty and seventy years old, who were made disciples of Christ from childhood, remain uncorrupted; and I pray to show such people from every race of mankind. Why, indeed, should we even mention the vast, uncountable number of people who turned away from licentiousness and learned these things? For Christ called to repentance not the righteous nor the temperate, but the impious and licentious and unjust. He said

as follows: "I did not come to summon the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance." For the heavenly Father wills the repentance of the sinner rather than his punishment. And concerning loving all men he taught this: "If you love those who love you, what new thing do you do? For even the 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." And concerning sharing with those in need and doing nothing for the sake of glory he said this: "Give to everyone who asks, and do not turn away the one who wishes to borrow. For if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what new thing do you do? Even the tax collectors do this. But you,"

"do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and where thieves break in; but store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys. For what does a man gain, if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? Or what will he give in exchange for it? So lay up your treasure in heaven instead, where neither moth nor decay"

"destroys." And: "Be kind and compassionate, as your Father also is kind and compassionate, and makes his sun rise upon sinners and the righteous and the wicked. Do not be anxious about what you will eat or what you will wear. Do you not surpass the birds and the beasts? And God feeds them. Do not, then, be anxious about what you will eat or what"

"you will wear; for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things. But seek the heavenly kingdom, and everything else will be given to you besides. For wherever a person's treasure lies, that is where his mind is fixed." And: "Do not do these things in order to be seen by men; otherwise you have no reward from your Father"

"who is in heaven." And concerning being patient under wrong, and serving all, and being free of anger, these are the things he said: "To the one who strikes your cheek offer also the other, and do not hinder the one who takes your tunic or your cloak. Whoever is angry is liable to the fire. Go with anyone who compels you to go one mile, go two."

"Let your good works shine before men, so that seeing them they may marvel at your Father who is in heaven." For he did not wish us to retaliate, nor to imitate the base, but through endurance and gentleness to lead all men away from shame and from desire for evil things — which we are able to demonstrate even from many cases that have occurred among you;

men who changed from being violent men and tyrants, either overcome, or having observed the steadfastness of life among their neighbors, or having noticed the strange endurance of fellow travelers who were being cheated, or having had experience of business partners. And concerning not swearing oaths at all, but always speaking the truth, he exhorted thus: "Do not swear at all; let your yes be yes and your no, no; whatever is more than these is from the evil one." And that

God alone must be worshiped, he persuaded thus, saying: "The greatest commandment is: You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone with all your heart and with all your strength" — the Lord God who made you. And when someone approached him and said, "Good teacher," he answered saying, "No one is good except God alone, who"

"made all things." And whoever is found not living according to what he taught must be recognized as no Christian at all, even if they speak the teachings of Christ with their tongue; for he said that not those who merely say, but those who also do the works, will be saved. For he spoke as follows: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does"

"the will of my Father who is in heaven. For whoever hears me and does what I say hears him who sent me. And many will say to me: 'Lord, Lord, did we not eat and drink in your name, and do mighty works?' And then I will say to them: 'Depart from me, workers of lawlessness.' Then there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when"

"the righteous shine like the sun, and the unrighteous are sent away into the eternal fire. For many will come in my name, outwardly clothed in sheep's clothing, but inwardly being ravenous wolves; you will recognize them from their works. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." And we hold that those who do not live in accordance

with his teachings, but are called Christians only in name, ought to be punished by you as well. And we try to pay tribute and taxes to those appointed by you over all matters, everywhere, before all others, just as we were taught by him. For at that time certain men approached and asked him whether it is right to pay tribute to Caesar. And he replied, "Tell me—whose likeness is stamped on the coin?" They answered,

"Caesar's." And again he answered them: "Render, then, the things of Caesar to Caesar, and the things of God to God." For this reason we worship God alone, but in everything else we serve you willingly, confessing you as rulers and kings over mankind, and asking that alongside your royal authority you may also be shown to have sound judgment. But if, even though we pray and set everything

in plain view, you disregard us, we ourselves will suffer no harm, since we believe — or rather, are convinced — that each man will pay the penalty for his deeds through eternal fire, and will be required to render account for his conduct in proportion to the powers he received from God, as Christ indicated when he said: "To whomever God gave more, more will also be required of him." Consider the end of each of

the kings that have arisen, that they underwent the death every man shares; and if that death meant the end of all awareness, it would be a stroke of luck for every wicked person. But since perception remains for all who have come into being, and eternal punishment is laid up for them, do not neglect to be persuaded and to believe that these things are true. For necromancies, and the visions of uncorrupted children, and the summonings of human souls, and those called among

the magicians "dream-senders" and "assistant spirits," and the things done by those who have knowledge of these matters, let them persuade you that even after death souls remain in a state of perception; and the men who are seized and thrown about by the souls of the dead, whom everyone calls demon-possessed and mad; and the oracles among you called those of Amphilochus and Dodona and Pytho, and whatever other such things there are, and the

teachings of the writers — of Empedocles and Pythagoras, of Plato and Socrates — and the pit in Homer, and the descent of Odysseus for the viewing of these things, and of those who have said the same things as these: if you would receive us in like manner as these, we believe in God no less than they do — indeed, more — we who expect to receive back again our own bodies, even those that have died and been cast into the earth, since it is impossible

to say that nothing is possible for God. And to one who considers it, what could seem more incredible than this — if we did not exist in a body, and someone said that from some small drop of human seed it was possible for bones and sinews and flesh, fashioned into an image such as we see, to come into being? Let it now be said as a hypothesis: if someone were to say to us, when we did not yet exist as such, and to those not yet existing as such,

showing the seed of a man and a painted image, and affirming that from such-and-such a thing such-and-such would come to be, before seeing it come to be, did you believe? No one would dare say otherwise. In the same way, then, unbelief holds you because you have not yet seen a dead man rise. But just as you would never have imagined, at the outset, that such things could emerge from a tiny drop, and yet you now watch them come to be, in the same

way reckon that it is not impossible that human bodies, having been dissolved and scattered into the earth like seeds, should by the command of God rise again at the appointed time and "put on incorruption." For what worthy power of God the people who claim that each thing passes back into that from which it came, and that God himself can do nothing beyond this, are attributing to him, we cannot say; but this much we do perceive, that

they would never have believed it possible for such beings as they themselves ever to come to be, of the sort they now observe themselves and the entire cosmos to be, made from the very materials they see them composed of. But it is better to believe even things impossible to one's own nature and to men, than to disbelieve like the rest, since we have also come to know our teacher Jesus Christ saying, "The things impossible with men are possible with God." And he said,

"Do not be afraid of those who kill you and can do nothing further after that; rather, fear the one who, after death, has power to throw both soul and body into Gehenna." Now Gehenna is a place where those who have lived unjustly and do not believe that these things which God taught through Christ will come to pass are going to be punished. And the Sibyl and Hystaspes also said there would be

a destruction of corruptible things by fire. And the philosophers called Stoics teach that God himself is dissolved into fire, and that the world in turn comes to be again by a change; but we understand the maker of all things, God, to be something better than the things that change. If, then, we say some things similar to what your honored poets and philosophers say, and other things more fully and divinely, and are alone able to do so with proof, why are we unjustly hated above all others?

For by our saying that all things have been ordered and brought into being by God, we will seem to be saying Plato's doctrine; by our saying there will be a conflagration, the Stoics' doctrine; by our saying that the souls of the unjust exist after death with sensation and are punished, while the souls of the good, freed from punishments, live well, we will seem to be saying the same as the poets and

philosophers; by our saying that one must not worship the works of human hands, we say the same as Menander the comic poet and those who have said this, for they too declared the maker greater than the thing made. By our saying that the Word, who is God's firstborn offspring, was begotten without sexual union — Jesus Christ, our teacher — and that he, having been crucified and

having died and risen again, ascended into heaven, we bring nothing new beyond those said among you to be sons of Zeus. For you know how many sons the writers honored among you say Zeus had: Hermes, the interpretive word and teacher of all; Asclepius, who became a healer and, having been struck by lightning, ascended into heaven; Dionysus, torn to pieces; Heracles, who gave himself to fire in flight from his labors;

the Dioscuri, born of Leda; Perseus, offspring of Danae; and Bellerophon, a mortal man who nonetheless rode the horse Pegasus. What shall we say of Ariadne and those said to have been placed among the stars like her? And what of your own emperors who die, whom you always deem worthy to be made immortal, and produce someone swearing an oath that he saw the burnt Caesar rising from the pyre into

heaven? And as for what deeds are recorded of each of those said to be sons of Zeus, there is no need to tell them to those who already know, except to say that these things were written for the instruction and encouragement of the young; for everyone considers it a fine thing to be an imitator of the gods. Far be it from a sound-minded soul to hold such a notion about the gods as that even the leader and begetter of all, Zeus himself, according to

them, became a father-killer and was born of such a father, and, overcome by desire for evil and shameful pleasures, went after Ganymede and the many women he seduced, and that his own children accepted him after doing similar things. But, as we said before, it was the wicked demons who did these things; we have been taught that only those who live piously and virtuously, close to God, are made immortal, while we believe that those who live

unjustly and do not change are punished in eternal fire. Now Jesus, whom we call the Son of God, would deserve that title on the grounds of wisdom alone even if he were merely a man in the common sense; after all, every one of the ancient authors calls God the father of both men and gods. But if we say that he was begotten of God in a special way, apart from ordinary generation, as Word of God, as we said before, let this be a common

claim for you too, who say that Hermes is the Word who brings messages from God. And if someone should object that he was crucified, this too is common to the sons of Zeus, previously enumerated, who suffered as you tell it. For their deaths are not recorded as alike but as different; so that his own particular suffering should not be thought to make him inferior — rather, as we promised, as the

argument proceeds we will show him to be greater, or rather he has already been shown to be so; for the greater is made known by his deeds. And if we likewise claim that he was born from a virgin, let that too be no different from what you already grant Perseus. And as for our saying that he healed the lame and the paralyzed and those crippled from birth, and raised the dead, we will seem to be saying the same

things claimed to have been done by Asclepius. But in order that this too may now become clear to you, that whatever we say, having learned it from Christ and from the prophets who came before him, alone is true and older than all the writers who have ever existed, and that we do not claim acceptance because we say the same things as they do, but because we speak the truth — and that Jesus Christ alone was begotten as Son to God in a special way, being his Word,

his firstborn, and his power, and becoming man in accordance with his purpose, taught us these things so as to transform and restore the human race; and that before he became man among men, certain beings — I mean the aforementioned evil demons — got ahead of him and, through the poets, told as having happened things they had invented as myths, in the same way that they have also brought about the slanderous

and impious deeds said against us, of which there is no witness or proof — this we shall make our refutation. First, that although we say things similar to the Greeks, we alone are despised for bearing the name Christ, and though guilty of nothing we are killed as though we were criminals, while elsewhere others venerate trees, rivers, mice, cats, crocodiles, and most other unreasoning creatures, and not

are the same things honored by all, but different things in different places, so that all are impious toward one another because they do not worship the same things. This is the only charge you have to bring against us: that we do not worship the same gods as you, nor bring libations and burnt fat and, at burials, wreaths and sacrifices to the dead. For that the same things are among some reckoned gods, among

others beasts, and among others sacrificial victims, you know precisely. Second, that from every race of men those who formerly worshiped Dionysus son of Semele and Apollo son of Leto — who, on account of their loves for boys, did things shameful even to speak of — and those who worshiped Persephone and Aphrodite, who were driven mad by desire on account of Adonis, whose mysteries you also celebrate, or Asclepius or any

of the other so-called gods — although death was threatened through Jesus Christ — have despised these, and have dedicated themselves to the unbegotten and impassible God, whom we are persuaded neither went after Antiope and the other women like her, nor after Ganymede, driven by desire, nor was freed, when he had gotten aid through Thetis, by that hundred-handed one, nor, caring for this reason for Thetis's son Achilles, on account of

the concubine Briseis, destroyed many of the Greeks. And we pity those who are persuaded of such things; but we recognize the demons responsible for them. Third, that even after the ascension of Christ into heaven, the demons put forward certain men who said they themselves were gods, who far from suffering persecution at your hands, were instead granted honors. A certain Simon, a Samaritan, from a village

called Gitta, who under Claudius Caesar, by the art of the demons working through him, performed magical powers in your imperial city of Rome, was believed to be a god, and has been honored by you with a statue as a god — a statue which has been set up in the river Tiber between the two bridges, bearing this Roman inscription: SIMONI DEO SANCTO. And nearly all the Samaritans, and a few

and in other nations too, confessing him as that first god, they worship him — and a certain Helen, who traveled about with him at that time, having earlier stood on a rooftop, they say was the first Thought that came to be from him. And a certain Menander, himself also a Samaritan, from the village of Capparetaea, who became a disciple of Simon and was likewise set in motion by demons, and having come to be in Antioch

deceived many by magical art, as we know — he even persuaded those who followed him that they would not die at all, and even now there are some from his school who profess this. And a certain Marcion of Pontus, who even now is still teaching those who are persuaded to think there is some other god greater than the Demiurge — he, throughout every race of mankind, through the collaboration of the demons, has made many

speak blasphemies and deny that the maker of this universe is god, while confessing that some other, as being greater, has done greater things than this one. All who take their start from these men are called Christians, as we have said, in the same way that those among the philosophers who do not share the same doctrines still hold in common the name of philosophy that is applied to them. But whether they also do those shameful

mythologized deeds — the overturning of the lamp, promiscuous intercourse, and the eating of human flesh — we do not know; but that they are not persecuted or put to death by you, even on account of their doctrines, we do know. We also have a treatise composed against all the heresies that have arisen, which we will give you if you wish to read it. And we, so that we do no wrong and commit no impiety, [have been taught that] to expose

the children that are born is the deed of wicked men, we have been taught. First, because we see that almost all such children are led into prostitution — not only the girls but the boys as well; and just as the ancients are said to have kept herds of cattle or goats or sheep or grazing mares, so now people keep even children for this shameful use alone; and likewise a multitude of women and hermaphrodites and those who commit unspeakable acts

stands throughout every nation given over to this abomination. And you take wages, contributions, and tolls from these people, when you ought instead to root them out of your empire. And one of those who make use of such people, on top of this godless, impious, and unrestrained intercourse, unites, should it happen, with his own child, kinsman, or brother. Some even prostitute their own children and wives, and

some are openly castrated for the purpose of unnatural lust, and trace the mysteries back to the Mother of the Gods; and beside every one of the gods reckoned among you, a serpent is inscribed as a great symbol and mystery. And the things openly done and honored among you as belonging to a divine light that has been overturned and is absent, you write down against us — which, since we are free of doing any of this, brings no harm to us, but rather to those who do it

and bear false witness besides. For among us the leader of the wicked demons goes by the names serpent, Satan, and devil — a fact you may confirm for yourself by searching our own writings. Christ foretold that this being, together with his army and the men who follow him, would be dispatched into the fire to suffer punishment for the endless age. And indeed the delay in doing this as yet

has come about on God's side for the sake of humankind; since he knows in advance that some will be saved through repentance, and perhaps others not yet even born. From the start he made the human race with intelligence, capable of choosing what is true and doing what is right, with the result that no person can plead ignorance before God — for they were born with reason and the capacity to reflect. But if anyone disbelieves that these things matter

to God, then by that very reasoning he must admit either that no God exists, or claim that God exists yet takes pleasure in evil, or that he sits unmoved like a stone — and that virtue and vice are empty words, that people merely imagine by opinion that certain things are good or bad. This would be the height of impiety and injustice. And again, lest one of those exposed, not being taken up, should die and we become murderers; rather

from the start we do not marry except for the raising of children, or else, renouncing marriage, we practice continence altogether. And already one of our number, in order to persuade you that promiscuous intercourse is not a mystery among us, submitted a petition in Alexandria to Felix the governor, asking him to permit a physician to remove his testicles; for the physicians there said it was forbidden to do this without the governor's permission.

And since Felix would in no way agree to sign it, the young man stayed as he was, satisfied with his own conscience and that of his like-minded friends. We thought it not out of place to mention here Antinous as well, a figure of recent times, whom everyone, out of sheer fear, rushed to venerate as divine — even though they knew perfectly well who he was and where he had come from. But lest someone should say in objection to us,

'What prevents the one called Christ among us, being a man born of men, from having performed by magical art the powers we speak of, and from seeming for that reason to be the Son of God' — we will now proceed to the demonstration, trusting not those who merely assert it, but being compelled of necessity to believe those who prophesied before it happened, because of the fact that we can see with our own eyes things foretold that have come to pass and are coming to pass — which is the greatest

and truest proof, and it will strike you the same way, we believe. Among the Jews, then, there arose certain men who served as God's prophets; through them the prophetic Spirit announced in advance the things that were destined to happen, before they came to pass. And the kings who ruled among the Jews at various periods obtained the prophecies — recorded just as they were uttered at the time of prophesying, set down by the prophets themselves in books, in their own Hebrew language — and kept them

carefully in their possession. And when Ptolemy, king of the Egyptians, was building a library and endeavoring to gather together the writings of all men, having learned also of these prophecies, he sent to Herod, then king of the Jews, asking that the books of the prophecies be sent to him. And King Herod sent them, written in their aforesaid Hebrew tongue. But since what was

written in them was not intelligible to the Egyptians, he again asked him, sending men to translate them into the Greek tongue. And when this had been done, the books remained even among the Egyptians until now, and they are everywhere among all the Jews — who, though they read them, do not understand what is said, but consider us enemies and adversaries, killing and punishing us

whenever they are able, as you too can be persuaded. For indeed, in the Jewish war that has now taken place, Bar Kochba, the leader of the Jewish revolt, ordered that Christians alone be led away to terrible punishments, unless they should deny Jesus Christ and blaspheme. In the books of the prophets we found it proclaimed beforehand that he would come, be born through a virgin, grow to manhood, and heal every disease and every

sickness and raise the dead, and be envied and unrecognized and crucified — Jesus our Christ — and die and be raised and ascend into the heavens, and that he is and is called Son of God; and that certain men would be sent by him into every race of mankind to proclaim these things, and that men from the nations would believe in him more [than the Jews would]. It was prophesied, before he appeared, at times

five thousand years before, at times three thousand, at times two thousand, and again a thousand, and at other times eight hundred; for according to the successions of the generations, different prophets arose one after another. Moses, then, being the first of the prophets, said in these very words: "A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from between his thighs, until he comes to whom it is reserved; and he himself shall be the expectation

of the nations, tying his colt to the vine and rinsing his cloak in the juice of the grape." It falls to you, then, to look closely into this and learn how long the Jews kept a native ruler and monarch, right up until Jesus Christ appeared — our teacher, the one who unfolds the meaning of prophecies that had gone unrecognized, just as it had been announced beforehand by the divine holy prophetic Spirit through Moses,

that a ruler would not fail from the Jews until he came to whom the kingship was reserved. For Judah is the forefather of the Jews, from whom they also came to be called Jews; and you, after his manifestation had come about, both took the kingship of the Jews and mastered the whole of their land. And the words "he will be what the nations wait for" pointed to the fact that out of every nation, men would set their hope on him

coming again — which you can see for yourselves with your own eyes and be persuaded by the deed; for from every race of men they look for the one who was crucified in Judea, after whom immediately the land of the Jews was captured by the spear and handed over to you. And the words "tying his colt to the vine and rinsing his cloak in the blood of the grape" formed an emblem pointing to what would befall Christ and those

...of what was going to happen. For there stood a certain foal of a donkey at the entrance of a village, tied to a vine, which he then ordered his acquaintances to bring to him; and when it had been brought, he mounted it, sat down, and entered into Jerusalem, where the greatest temple of the Jews stood, which you later tore down. Afterward he was put on the cross, so that what remained of the prophecy might reach fulfillment. For the words "He rinsed his cloak in the blood of the grape"

was a foretelling of the suffering he was going to undergo, by which, through blood, he cleanses those who believe in him. For the "robe" called such by the divine spirit through the prophet is the men who believe in him, in whom dwells the seed that comes from God, the Word. And the stated "blood of the grape" signifies that the one who would appear would indeed have blood,

but not from human seed, rather from divine power. And the first power after the Father and Master of all, God, is also the Son, who is the Word; in what manner he, having been made flesh, became man, we will state in what follows. For in the way that the blood of the vine was made not by man but by God, so too this was disclosed as coming to be

not from human seed but from the power of God, as we said before. And Isaiah too, another prophet, prophesying the same things through other words, spoke as follows: "A star will dawn out of Jacob, and a blossom will spring from the root of Jesse, and in his arm nations will hope." And a shining star has risen, and a flower has come up from the root of Jesse—this

is the Christ. For through a virgin from the seed of Jacob, who became the father of Judah, the one shown to be the father of the Jews, he was born by the power of God; and Jesse became forefather according to the oracle, while by succession of descent he was son of Jacob and of Judah. And again, that he was to be born, word for word, from a virgin was prophesied through Isaiah; listen. It was

said thus: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and give birth to a son, and they will speak his name as God-with-us." For the things which men considered unbelievable and impossible to happen, these God foretold beforehand through the prophetic spirit as going to occur, so that when they did occur they would not go disbelieved, but would be believed because they had been foretold. So that

some, not understanding the prophecy set forth, might not bring against us the same charges we ourselves brought against the poets, who say that Zeus went to women for the sake of sexual pleasure, we will attempt to make the meaning clear. "Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb" means that the virgin conceived without union with a man; for if she had known any man at all, she would no longer have been a virgin; but a power of God came upon the virgin and overshadowed her,

and made her, while remaining a virgin, conceive. God's angel, dispatched to that very virgin at that moment, brought her the good news, saying: "Behold, you shall conceive in the womb from the Holy Spirit and bring forth a son, and he will be named son of the Most High, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins"—as those who recorded

everything concerning our savior Jesus Christ have taught, whom we have believed, since indeed through Isaiah, who was mentioned before, the prophetic spirit said that this one was going to be born, as we foretold. The spirit, then, and the power from God ought to be understood as nothing other than the Word, who is also firstborn to God, as Moses, the prophet mentioned before, disclosed; and this,

having come upon the virgin and overshadowed her, made her pregnant not through intercourse but through power. And Jesus, a name in the Hebrew tongue, signifies "savior" in the Greek language. Hence the angel also said to the virgin: "And you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." As for the fact that no others are inspired by God

who prophesy, except by the divine Word, you too, I suppose, will say. And where on earth he was going to be born, as another prophet, Micah, foretold, listen. He spoke thus: "And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a ruler, who will shepherd my people." Now there is a certain village in

the region of the Jews, standing thirty-five stades from Jerusalem, the place where Jesus Christ was born—something you can verify from the registers of the census that took place under Quirinius, who was your first procurator in Judea. And that the Christ, once born, was going to remain unknown to other men until he reached manhood—which indeed happened—listen to the words previously spoken concerning this. They are these:

"A child has been born to us, and a young man has been given to us, whose rule is upon his shoulders"—a disclosure of the power of the cross, to which, when crucified, he added his shoulders, as will be shown more clearly as our discourse proceeds. And again the same prophet Isaiah, inspired by the prophetic spirit, said: "I spread out my hands toward a disobedient, contradictory people, toward those walking in"

a path that is not good. Now they demand justice from me, and presume to approach God." And once more, speaking through a different prophet in other terms, he declares: "They bored through my hands and feet, and cast lots over my clothing." Now David the king and prophet, who spoke these words, experienced none of this; but Jesus Christ had his hands stretched out, having been crucified by

the Jews who contradicted him and claimed that he was not the Christ; for indeed, as the prophet said, mocking him they made him sit upon a judgment seat and said, "Judge for us." And the words "They dug into my hands and feet" are an explanation of the nails that were driven, at his crucifixion, into his hands and his feet. And after they had crucified him, they cast lots for

his clothing, and those who crucified him divided it among themselves. And that these things happened, you can learn from the Acts that took place under Pontius Pilate. And that it was expressly prophesied that he would sit upon a foal of a donkey and enter into Jerusalem, we will state the words of the prophecy of another prophet, Zephaniah. These are they: "Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem; behold,"

your king comes to you, gentle, mounted upon a donkey, even a foal, the offspring of a beast of burden. Now whenever you hear the prophets' words spoken as if from a person, do not think that these inspired men are speaking on their own account, but rather that it is the divine Word stirring them who speaks. At one moment he speaks in prediction of things to come, at another as though in the voice of the Master of all

and Father, God, at another time as though from the person of the Christ, at another time as though from the person of peoples answering the Lord or his Father—which one can also see done among your own writers, there being one who composes the whole work, while introducing characters who converse. This the Jews who possess the books of the prophets failed to understand,

and so they did not recognize the Christ even when he had come; in fact they despise us for claiming that he has come and for proving, as had been foretold, that he was crucified at their hands. So that this point too may be plain to you, here are words uttered in the Father's voice through the prophet Isaiah, mentioned above: "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger, but Israel"

has failed to know me, and my people has failed to grasp it. Woe, sinful nation, people full of sins, evil seed, lawless sons; you have abandoned the Lord." Elsewhere again, this same prophet, speaking likewise in the Father's voice, says: "What sort of house will you build for me? declares the Lord. The sky is my throne, and the earth the resting place for my feet." And again elsewhere: "Your"

new moons and your sabbaths my soul hates, and a great day of fasting and a day of rest I cannot endure; nor, if you come to appear before me, will I listen to you. Your hands are full of blood. Even if you bring fine flour, incense is an abomination to me; lamb fat and the blood of bulls are not what I want. For who has required these things from your hands? But undo every bond

of injustice, break the knots of forced contracts, shelter the homeless and the naked, break your bread for the hungry." Now you can grasp the character of what is set forth through the prophets, speaking in God's own voice. And whenever the prophetic spirit speaks in the voice of Christ, it speaks thus: "I held out my hands toward a people who disobey and contradict me, toward those who walk"

in a way that was not good." Then once more: "I offered my back to those who struck it and my cheeks to those who slapped them, and I did not hide my face from the disgrace of spitting. The Lord came to my aid; that is why I was not disgraced, but I set my face like flint, and I knew I would not be put to shame, since the one who vindicates me is near"

me." Again, in another place, he says: "They divided my garments by casting lots, and pierced my hands and feet. But I lay down and slept, and I rose up, because the Lord upheld me." And again, when he says: "They spoke with their lips, they shook their heads, saying, Let him rescue himself." From this you can learn that the Jews did all these things to Christ. For when he had been crucified,

they twisted their lips and shook their heads, saying: "He who raised the dead—let him rescue himself." And when the prophetic spirit foretells what is yet to come, it speaks in this way: "For instruction will go out from Zion, and the Lord's message from Jerusalem, and he will render judgment among the nations and correct a great many peoples; they will hammer their swords into plow blades and their spears

into sickles, and nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore." And that this has indeed happened, you can be convinced. For out of Jerusalem twelve men went out into the world, and these were unlearned men, unable to speak, yet through the power of God they made known to every race of men that they had been sent by Christ to teach all

the word of God; and we who once used to slaughter one another not only do not make war on our enemies, but, so as neither to lie nor to deceive those who examine us, we gladly confess Christ and die. For the maxim "my tongue swore the oath, but my mind stayed unsworn" could well have driven us to behave this way. It would have been a ridiculous thing indeed, for you, whose enlisted and conscripted soldiers

embrace your allegiance before their own life and parents and homeland and all their kin, though you are able to give them nothing incorruptible, while we, who love incorruption, should not endure all things for the sake of receiving from him who is able to give what we desire. Now listen to how it was foretold concerning those who proclaimed his teaching and made known his appearing, by the

aforementioned prophet and king, speaking thus through the prophetic spirit: "Day pours forth speech to day, and night declares knowledge to night. There are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard. Their voice has traveled across the whole earth, and their message reaches to the world's farthest edges. He set his tent

in the sun, and he, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, will rejoice like a giant to run his course." In addition to these, we have thought it fitting and proper to recall also other words prophesied through this same David, from which it is possible for you to learn how the prophetic spirit exhorts men to live, and how it makes known the plot that took place involving Herod, king of the Jews, and

those Jews, and Pilate, your procurator who was among them, together with his soldiers, against Christ, and that he was destined to be believed in by men of every race, and that God calls him son and has promised to subject all his enemies to him, and how the demons, so far as lies in them, try

to flee the authority of God, the father and master of all, and of his Christ, and how, before the day of judgment arrives, God summons everyone to turn back to him. They are spoken thus: "Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the impious, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of the pestilent, but rather his will is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he will meditate day and night. And he will be like the tree planted beside the outlets of waters, which will give its fruit in its season, and its leaf will not fall away, and everything he does will prosper. Not so the impious, not so, but rather like the chaff which the wind scatters

off the face of the earth. That is why the wicked will not stand when judgment comes, nor will sinners hold a place among the assembly of the just, since the Lord watches over the path the righteous walk, while the path of the wicked leads to ruin." "Why did the nations seethe with rage, and the peoples scheme for nothing? The kings of the earth rose up, and the rulers assembled as one, aligned against the Lord and opposing his Christ, saying: Let us break

their bonds and cast off from us their yoke. He who dwells in the heavens will laugh them to scorn, and the Lord will mock them; then he will speak to them in his wrath, and in his fury he will trouble them. But I have been established king by him upon Zion his holy mountain, proclaiming the ordinance of the Lord. The Lord said to

me: You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession; you will shepherd them with a rod of iron, you will shatter them like a potter's vessels. And now, kings, understand; be instructed, all who judge the earth. Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice in him with

trembling. Take hold of instruction, lest the Lord be angered, and you perish from the righteous way, when his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who put their trust in him." And again, when the prophetic spirit through this same David makes known another prophecy, that after being crucified Christ would reign, it spoke thus: "Raise a song to the Lord, every land, and proclaim, day by day

day by day his deliverance; for the Lord is great and highly to be praised, fearsome beyond all gods; since every god of the nations is nothing but an idol of demons, while our God made the heavens. Splendor and honor stand before him, might and pride fill the place of his sanctuary; give to the Lord, father of the ages, splendor. Receive grace

and enter before his face and bow down in his sacred courts; let all the earth stand in awe before him and be made steady, unmoved. Let the nations rejoice; the Lord reigned" from the tree. And when the prophetic spirit speaks of things about to happen as though they had already happened, as is also possible to notice in what has been said above, so that it may give no

excuse to those who read it, we will explain this too. It foretells the things altogether known to be about to happen as though they had already happened; and that it is necessary to understand it this way, fix your minds on what is being said. David spoke the aforementioned words fifteen hundred years before Christ became man and was crucified, and none of those crucified before him gave joy to the nations, nor indeed any of those after him.

But our Jesus Christ, having been crucified and having died, rose again, and reigned, having ascended into heaven; and over the things proclaimed by him through the apostles among all the nations there is joy for those who await the incorruption announced by him. Now so that no one may suppose, from what we have said above, that we say the things that happen, happen by the necessity of fate, on the ground that we foretold things known in advance, we will resolve this too.

from having foretold things known in advance, we will resolve this too. Having learned from the prophets that penalties, punishments, and good rewards are given out according to the value of each person's deeds, we too affirm this to be true; since if this is not so, but all things happen according to fate, then nothing at all is in our power; for if it is fated that this man be good and that man wicked, neither is the one

acceptable nor the other blameworthy. And again, if the human race does not have the power, by free choice, to flee shameful things and choose good things, it is not responsible at all for whatever it does. But we demonstrate as follows that it is by free choice that it both acts rightly and stumbles. We see the same man pursuing opposite courses. But if it had been fated for him to be either wicked or virtuous,

he would never have been receptive of opposites and changed sides many times over; nor again would some men be virtuous and others wicked, since we would then be declaring fate itself to be the cause of good and evil things and acting contrary to itself, or else that former statement would have to be judged true, that there is no virtue or vice at all, but things are considered good or bad only by opinion—which, as

...as true reason shows. It would be the greatest impiety and injustice. But we say that this is fixed and unalterable: fitting rewards for those who choose what is good, and likewise fitting penalties for those who choose the opposite. For God did not make man like the other things — trees, say, and four-footed beasts, which can do nothing by choice — since man would not have been worthy of reward or praise

if he had not chosen the good of his own accord, but simply came to be that way; nor, if he were bad, would he justly meet with punishment, since he would not be such of his own accord, but would be unable to be anything other than what he had been made. The holy prophetic Spirit taught us these things, saying that it was spoken by God through Moses to the first man formed, thus: "Behold, before your face is the good

and the evil; choose the good." And again, through Isaiah, the other prophet, it was said as though from the person of the Father of all and Master, God, to this effect: "Wash yourselves, become clean, remove the evils from your souls, learn to do good, judge on behalf of the orphan and secure justice for the widow; come, let us argue it out together, says the Lord; and though your

sins be crimson, I will bleach them like wool; though they be scarlet, I will bleach them like snow. If you are willing and heed me, you will feed on the good things of the land, but if you refuse to heed me, the sword will consume you; for the mouth of the Lord has said these things." Now this phrase just cited, "the sword will consume you," does not mean that the disobedient will be killed by literal swords, but rather

the sword of God is fire, whose fodder are those who choose to do base deeds. That is why it says, "A sword will consume you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." Had he meant a blade that cuts and kills on the spot, he would never have used the word "consume." So too Plato, when he said, "The blame is the chooser's; God is blameless," took this from Moses the prophet and said it — for Moses is older

than all the writers among the Greeks. Everything philosophers and poets alike declared about the soul's deathlessness, or about punishments following death, or about gazing upon the heavens, or kindred teachings—they grasped and expounded only because they drew their starting points from the prophets. This is why every nation appears to hold scattered seeds of truth; yet they are proven mistaken whenever

they contradict themselves. So then, when we say that future events have been prophesied, we do not mean that they come to pass by the necessity of fate; rather, since God foreknows all that is going to be done by every man, and since it is his fixed decree that each man will be repaid according to the merit of his deeds, he foretells through the prophetic

Spirit what will be met with, from him, according to the merit of what is done, ever leading the human race to attention and remembrance, showing that he cares for them and exercises providence over them. But by the working of the base demons, death was ordered for anyone caught reading the books of Hystaspes, the Sibyl, or the prophets—so that fear would keep those who came across them from learning what is good, and would hold them instead in servitude to the demons

and hold them fast — a thing they have not been able to accomplish in the end. For we not only read these books without fear, but, as you see, we even bring them to you for your inspection, knowing they will appear pleasing to all; and even if we persuade only a few, we shall have gained the greatest reward, for like good farmers we shall receive our wages from the Master. Now that the Father of all,

God, was going to bring Christ up into heaven after raising him from the dead, and to hold him there until he strikes down the demons hostile to him, and until the number of those foreknown by him who are to become good and virtuous is completed — for whose sake he has not yet brought about the conflagration — hear what was said through David the prophet. It is this: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right

hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will send you out of Jerusalem a rod of power; and rule in the midst of your enemies. With you is dominion on the day of your power, amid the splendors of your holy ones; from the womb, before the morning star, I begot you." Now the phrase spoken, "The Lord will send you out of Jerusalem a rod of power,"

is a foretelling of the mighty word, which his apostles, setting out from Jerusalem, proclaimed everywhere; and though death has been ordained for those who teach, or merely acknowledge, the name of Christ, we nonetheless welcome that name everywhere and proclaim it openly. And if you too will meet these words as enemies, you can do no more, as we said before, than kill us — a thing which for us

brings no harm at all, but it brings everlasting fiery punishment on you and on everyone who hates us without cause and refuses to change course. Now so that some, reasoning irrationally, may not say — in order to turn people away from what we teach — that we claim Christ was born a hundred and fifty years before Quirinius, yet only taught, later, in the time of Pontius Pilate, what we say he taught, and thus charge that

all the men born before then bear no responsibility, we will get ahead of the difficulty and resolve it. We have been taught, and have already declared, that Christ is the firstborn of God, being the Word (Logos) in which the whole race of men has shared. And those who have lived according to the Word are Christians, even though they were accounted atheists — among the Greeks this included Socrates, Heraclitus, and others of their sort, and among non-Greek peoples it included Abraham, Ananias, and Azariah

and Mishael and Elijah and many others, whose deeds or names we know it would take long to list, and so for now we forgo doing so. Accordingly, those born before who lived without the Word were useless and enemies of Christ, and murderers of those who lived according to the Word; while those who lived, and now live, according to the Word are Christians, and are fearless and untroubled. For this reason, through

through the Word's power, in keeping with the purpose of God, who is Father and Master of all, he was born a man from a virgin and given the name Jesus, and, after being crucified and dying, rose again and ascended into heaven — as anyone thoughtful will be able to grasp from everything said at such length. But since we don't need, at this point, to argue in proof of this, we will move on to the pressing demonstrations relevant to

the matter at hand. That the land of the Jews was indeed going to be sacked, hear what was said by the prophetic Spirit; the words are spoken as from the mouth of peoples marveling at what had happened. They are these: "Zion has become a desert, Jerusalem has become a desert, our house has become a curse, our holy and glorious place, blessed by our forefathers, has gone up in flames,

and all her glorious things have fallen. And at these things you held back and were silent and humbled us exceedingly." And that Jerusalem was laid desolate, just as it had been foretold to happen, you are convinced of. It has also been said, concerning its desolation, and concerning the fact that none of them would be permitted to dwell there, through Isaiah the prophet, thus: "Their land is desolate; before their faces their enemies

will devour it, and none of them will be left dwelling in it." And that it is guarded by you so that none of them may come to be in it, and that death has been decreed against any Jew who is caught entering it, you know precisely. And that our Christ was prophesied to heal every disease and raise the dead, hear what has been said. It is this: "At his coming the lame man will leap like

a deer, and the tongue of the stammering will be clear; the blind will see again, and lepers will be cleansed, and the dead will rise and walk." And that he did these things, you can learn from the Acts drawn up under Pontius Pilate. And as for how it was foretold beforehand by the prophetic Spirit that he would be put to death together with the men who hoped in him, hear what was said through Isaiah. It is this: "See how the righteous

man has perished, and no one lays it to heart; upright men are swept away, and no one gives it thought. From the face of injustice the righteous man has been taken away, and he will be in peace; his burial has been removed from the midst." And again, how it is said through this same Isaiah, that the peoples of the nations who did not expect him will worship him, while the Jews, who were always expecting him, will fail to recognize him when he comes;

the words were spoken as from the person of Christ himself. They are these: "I became manifest to those who did not ask for me, I was found by those who did not seek me; I said, Here I am, to a nation that did not call upon my name. I spread out my hands toward a disobedient and contrary people, toward those walking a path that is not good, following instead their own sins."

"the people that provokes me to my face." For the Jews, though they had the prophecies and were always expecting the Christ, failed to recognize him when he appeared — not only that, but they even mistreated him; whereas those from the nations, who had never heard anything at all about the Christ until the apostles who went out from Jerusalem made known the things concerning him and passed down the prophecies, responded with faith and gladness,

and turned away from their idols, consecrating themselves through the Christ to the unbegotten God. Now that it was foreknown that these slanders would be spoken against those who confess the Christ, and that those who slander him and say it is good to keep the old customs would be wretched, hear the words spoken briefly through Isaiah. They are these: "Woe to those who call the sweet bitter and"

"the bitter sweet." And that having become man for our sake he endured to suffer and be dishonored, and will again come with glory, hear the prophecies spoken to this effect. Here is what they say: "Because they handed his soul over to death, and he was counted among the lawless, he took upon himself the sins of many and will make atonement for the wrongdoers. For behold, my servant will show understanding,"

"and he shall be exalted and glorified exceedingly. As many shall be astonished at you, so shall your form be without honor before men, and your glory before men, so shall many nations marvel, and kings will fall silent, mouths shut; because those who were told nothing about him will see, and those who have not heard will come to understand. Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom"

"has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We brought news of him before him, like a child, like a root in parched soil. He has no form or splendor; we looked at him, and he had neither form nor beauty, but his appearance was without honor, fading away among men. A man in distress, familiar with bearing sickness, for his face was turned away, he was held in no honor and not"

"esteemed. This one bears our sins and suffers pain for us, and we accounted him to be in trouble and affliction and ill-treatment. But he was wounded because of our transgressions and has been made sick because of our sins; it was the discipline that secures our peace that fell on him, and by his wound we found healing. We all went astray like sheep, each man went astray in his own way; and"

"the Lord delivered him up for our sins, and because he has been ill-treated he does not open his mouth. As a sheep he was led to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth at all. In his abasement he was denied justice." So then, after he was crucified, all his acquaintances also deserted him, denying him;

but afterward, once he had been raised from among the dead and had appeared to them, he taught them to search the prophecies where all these things were foretold as things to come. And once they had seen him going up into heaven and had come to believe, and had taken from him the power sent down from that place, they went out to every nation of humankind, taught these things, and were called apostles. So that the prophetic Spirit might reveal to us that this one who suffers these things

has a lineage that cannot be recounted and reigns over his enemies, it spoke thus: "His generation, who shall declare it? For his life is taken up from the earth; because of his people's lawless deeds he goes to his death. I will hand over the wicked in place of his burial and the rich in place of his death, because he committed no lawlessness, nor was deceit found in his"

"mouth; and the Lord wills to cleanse him from his affliction. If you make an offering for sin, your soul will see offspring that lives long. And the Lord wills to take away his soul from pain, to show him light and shape him with understanding, to declare righteous the one who serves many well — for he will carry our sins himself. So he will receive many as his portion, and will divide the"

"spoils of the strong, for his soul was handed over to death; he was counted among the lawless, he himself carried the sins of many, and because of their transgressions he was given up." Now that he was also to ascend into heaven, as was foretold, hear. It was spoken thus: "Lift up the gates of heaven, be opened, that the king of glory may enter. Who is this king"

"of glory? The Lord mighty and the Lord powerful." And that he was also to come from heaven in glory, hear as well the words spoken to this effect through Jeremiah the prophet. They read: "Behold, one like a son of man is coming on the clouds of the sky, with his angels beside him." Since, then, we have shown that everything already fulfilled was foretold before it happened

through the prophets, it is necessary also to have faith concerning the things likewise prophesied but not yet come to pass, that they will certainly come to pass. For just as the things already accomplished, though proclaimed beforehand and unrecognized, turned out just so, in the same way the things still remaining, even though unrecognized and disbelieved, will come to pass. For the prophets proclaimed beforehand two comings of his: one, the one already come to pass, as of a man dishonored and subject to suffering,

and the second, when it has been proclaimed that he will come with glory from heaven together with his angelic host, when he will also raise up the bodies of all men who have ever lived, and will clothe the worthy with incorruption, but will send the unjust, in eternal sensation, together with the wicked demons, into the eternal fire. That these things too have been foretold as coming to pass, we shall show. It was spoken

through Ezekiel the prophet thus: "Joint will join joint and bone will join bone, and flesh will come back over them. Every knee will bow before the Lord, and every tongue will give him praise." As for the kind of feeling and punishment the unrighteous will undergo, hear the words spoken about that as well. They go: "Their worm will never stop, and their fire"

"shall not be quenched." And then they will repent, when repentance profits them nothing. As for what the Jewish peoples will say and do once they behold him arriving in glory, this was spoken beforehand through the prophet Zechariah: "I will command the four winds to bring together the scattered children; I will direct the north wind to carry them in, and tell the south wind not to hinder them. And then in Jerusalem there will be great mourning, not"

"a mourning not of mouths or lips, but a mourning of the heart, and they will tear not their garments but their minds. Tribe will grieve against tribe, and then they will gaze on the one they pierced, and will cry out: Why, Lord, did you make us wander from your path? The glory our fathers praised has turned into shame for us." Now although we have many further prophecies we might bring forward,

we have stopped speaking, considering these sufficient to persuade those who have ears able to hear and understand, and thinking that they are able to understand that we do not merely make the same kind of claim, without being able to prove it, as those who tell myths about the supposed sons of Zeus. For by what reasoning would we have believed in a man who was crucified, that he is firstborn to the unbegotten God

and that he himself is the one who will judge the entire human race — unless, that is, we had discovered prophecies announced concerning him prior to his coming and taking on human form, and had watched them actually unfold: the Jewish land laid waste, and people out of every nation won over by the teaching passed down from his apostles, abandoning the ancient practices in which they had wandered astray, and proving themselves

to be us, since we can see for ourselves that Christians drawn from the nations are more numerous and more truthful than those converts who came from Judaism and Samaria? Every other human race, after all, is termed "nations" by the prophetic Spirit, whereas the Judean and Samaritan tribe is named Israel and the house of Jacob. And just as it was foretold that believers from the nations would outnumber those from the Jews and Samaritans,

we shall report what was prophesied. It was spoken thus: "Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate are many, more than of her who has the husband." For every nation lacked the true God, serving instead things made by human hands; the Jews and Samaritans, however, possessed the word handed down to them by God through the prophets

and always expecting the Christ, failed to recognize him when he appeared, except for a few, whom the holy prophetic Spirit foretold through Isaiah would be saved. It spoke as if from their own person: "Had the Lord not left us offspring, we would have ended up like Sodom and Gomorrah." Now Sodom and Gomorrah are recorded by Moses as certain cities of ungodly men, which having burned with fire and brimstone, [the Lord destroyed].

God destroyed [them], with none of those in the cities saved except a certain foreigner, Chaldean by race, whose name was Lot; with whom his daughters also were saved. And their whole country, being desert and burned and remaining barren, those who wish to see it may see. But since it was foreknown that those from the nations would prove more truthful and more faithful, we will report what was said through Isaiah the prophet.

He spoke thus: "Israel is uncircumcised in heart, but the nations in the foreskin." So many things borne out in this way can reasonably fill with conviction and belief anyone who welcomes the truth and is not driven by love of glory or governed by the passions. But those who hand down the things made into myths by the poets bring no proof to the young people who learn them by heart, and [these things were spoken] for the deceit and leading astray of the human race—

we demonstrate—by the working of the wicked demons. For when they heard it proclaimed through the prophets that Christ would come, and that the impious among mankind would face punishment by fire, they set forth many figures said to have been fathered as sons of Zeus, supposing they could manage to make men regard the things concerning Christ as a wondrous tale, no different from what the poets had told. And these stories circulated among

the Greeks and among all the nations, wherever they had more occasion to hear the prophets proclaiming beforehand that Christ would come to be believed in. But we will make clear that although they heard the things said through the prophets, they did not understand them accurately, but, going astray, imitated the things concerning our Christ. Moses, then, the prophet, as we said before, was older than all writers, and through him, as we indicated before, it was prophesied thus: "There shall not fail

a ruler from Judah, nor a chief from among his descendants, until the one arrives for whom it has been kept in store; and he will be what the nations look forward to, tying his young donkey to a vine and washing his garment in the juice of grapes." On hearing these words of prophecy, the demons then claimed Dionysus as a begotten son of Zeus, and passed down that he had discovered the vine; they then set a donkey among

his mysteries, and taught that, having been torn apart, he ascended into heaven. And since through the prophecy of Moses it was not stated in so many words whether he who was to come is the son of God, and whether, mounted on a foal, he would stay upon the earth or instead rise up to heaven, and because the word "foal" was able to mean the offspring of either a donkey or a horse, not knowing whether

the one proclaimed beforehand—who is the son of God, as we said before, or of man—would come leading the foal of a donkey as a symbol of his coming, or that of a horse, they said that Bellerophon too, a man born of men, ascended into heaven upon the horse Pegasus. And because they heard it said, through the other prophet Isaiah, that a virgin would give birth to him and that he would go up to heaven on his own, they

put forward that this was said of Perseus. And when they learned that it had been foretold, in the prophecies cited above, "Mighty like a giant, running his race," they applied this to Heracles, who was mighty and wandered across the entire earth. Then, learning further that it had been foretold he would cure every sickness and raise the dead back to life, they put forward Asclepius. But in no case, among any of those called sons of Zeus, did they copy the crucifixion—

for it was not understood by them, since all the things said with reference to it were spoken symbolically, as has been shown before. This shape, as the prophet had already declared, stands as the supreme sign of his power and dominion — a fact confirmed even by what falls under our own eyes. Just look at everything that exists in the world: none of it can be governed or share fellowship with anything else apart from this shape. For the sea

is not crossed unless this trophy, which is called the sail, remains sound on the ship; and the earth is not plowed without it; nor do diggers do their work, nor craftsmen likewise, except with tools built in this shape. Nothing distinguishes the human body from that of the other unreasoning creatures except its upright posture and

having outstretched hands, and carrying on the face — projecting down from the brow — the feature called the nose, by means of which the living creature draws breath; and this displays nothing but the shape of the cross. That is why the prophet also spoke these words: "The breath before our face is Christ the Lord." And your own symbols too show the power

of this shape—I mean those of the standards and of the trophies, by means of which your processions everywhere take place, showing in these the signs of your authority and power, even though you do this without understanding it. And you set up the images of your emperors who die upon this shape, and you call them gods by inscriptions. And so through

reason and through the visible shape, as far as our power allows, having exhorted you, we know that we are henceforth blameless, even if you disbelieve; for what was our part has been done and is completed. But the wicked demons were not content, before the manifestation of Christ, to say that those mentioned had been born sons of Zeus, but since, after he had been manifested and had come among men, they learned how he had been proclaimed beforehand through the prophets

and knew that he was believed in and expected among every nation, again, as we showed before, they put forward others—Simon and Menander from Samaria, who, having worked magical powers, deceived many and still hold them deceived. For indeed among you too, as we said before, Simon, having come to the imperial city of Rome in the time of Claudius Caesar, so

astonished the sacred senate and the Roman citizenry so greatly that he was accounted a god and given a statue, honored just as the other gods honored among you are honored. Therefore we ask that the sacred senate and your people take note of this our request as fellow judges, so that, if anyone is held by the teachings of that man, having learned the truth he may be able to flee the error. And the statue, if you wish, take it down. For

the wicked demons are not able to persuade men that the conflagration for the punishment of the impious will not take place, just as they were also unable to prevent Christ from being made manifest when he came—but this alone they are able to do: to make those who live irrationally, who are raised in wicked customs given over to passion, and who love glory, kill us and despise us — people we do not despise in return; rather, as has been made plain, we pity them and want to win them over. Not

because we fear death—since it is agreed that in any case one must die, and nothing new happens except to those who belong to this present order; and unless those who partake of it have their fill even for a year, so that they might always be free of passion and free of want, they must attend to our teachings. But if they refuse to believe that anything follows death, and claim instead that the dying simply lapse into unconsciousness,

then, by delivering us from the passions and needs of this life, they would be doing us a benefit; instead they show themselves wicked and haters of mankind and lovers of glory—for they do not kill us as though setting us free, but murder us as though robbing us of life and pleasure. And Marcion too, from Pontus, as we said before, the wicked demons put forward, who even now teaches that one should deny that the maker of all heavenly and earthly things is God, and deny that the

Christ proclaimed beforehand through the prophets is his son, and he proclaims some other god besides the creator of all things, and likewise another son; by whom many, persuaded as though he alone knew the truth, mock us, having no proof at all for what they say, but, irrationally, like sheep seized by a wolf, become food for godless doctrines and for demons. For

the so-called demons strive for nothing else than to draw people away from the God who fashioned them and from his firstborn, Christ; and those of the earth who are not able to be lifted up, they have nailed and still nail to earthly and man-made things, while those who press on toward the contemplation of things divine, unless they have sound and pure reason and a life free of passion, they trip up and cast into impiety.

And in order that you may learn that Plato too took this from our teachers—I mean from the word spoken through the prophets—namely that God shaped the world by turning formless matter, listen now to the exact words uttered through Moses, the aforementioned first prophet and older than the writers among the Greeks, through whom the prophetic spirit indicated how, and

out of what, God fashioned the world; he spoke thus: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth. And the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the deep; and the spirit of God was borne over the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light.' And it was so." So that by the word of God, out of the things lying beneath and previously shown to be formless

that the whole cosmos came into being through Moses. Both Plato and those who say the same things learned this, and we ourselves learned it, and you too can be persuaded of it. And we know that what the poets call Erebus was spoken of earlier by Moses. And as for what is treated physically in Plato's Timaeus concerning the Son of God, when he says, "He placed him crosswise in the universe," he likewise took this from Moses and

said it. For it is written in the writings of Moses that at that time, once the Israelites had left Egypt and reached the desert, poisonous creatures attacked them — adders, asps, serpents of every sort — and these were killing the people; and by the inspiration and working that came from God, Moses took bronze and made

a figure of a cross and mounted it on the sacred tabernacle, telling the people, "Whoever gazes on this image and believes will be saved by it." And when this had happened, he recorded that the serpents died, and handed down that the people escaped death in this way. Plato, having read this and not understood it accurately — not grasping that it was a figure of a cross but supposing it to be a chiasm — said that the

power ranking after the first God, which he said had been set crosswise within the universe. As for why he called it a third, this, as we noted earlier, was because he had read Moses' statement that the Spirit of God was carried above the waters. He assigns second rank to the Word that comes from God, which he claims was set in an X-shape across the universe, and he assigns third rank to the Spirit, said to hover over the water, when he writes:

"The third things are concerned with the third." And hear how the prophetic Spirit foretold through Moses that there would be a conflagration. It spoke as follows: "An ever-living fire will come down and consume even to the abyss below." We do not, then, hold the same opinions as others by imitating them; rather, all others speak by imitating what is ours. Among us, then, it is possible to hear and learn these things from people who do not even know

the shapes of letters — men uneducated and foreign in speech, but wise and faithful in mind, and some of them maimed and blind in their eyes — so that one may understand that these things came to be not by human wisdom but are spoken by the power of God. And we will now explain the manner in which we too have dedicated ourselves to God, made new through Christ, so that by omitting this we may not seem to be doing something dishonest

in our exposition. Everyone who is convinced and accepts that what we teach and say here is true, and who pledges to be able to live by it, is instructed to pray and, through fasting, ask God for the forgiveness of past sins, while we pray and fast together with them. Then they are led by us to where there is water, and are regenerated by the same manner of regeneration by which we ourselves were regenerated;

since it is in the name of God, Father and Master of the universe, together with our Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, that they receive the washing in water at that point. For Christ himself said, "Unless you are born again, you will never enter God's kingdom." And that those already born cannot possibly climb back into the wombs that bore them

is evident to everyone. And it has been said through the prophet Isaiah, as we wrote above, in what manner those who have sinned and repent will escape their sins. It was said as follows: "Wash yourselves, become clean, put away the evils from your souls, learn to do good, defend the orphan's cause and secure justice for the widow. Come now, let us argue this out, the Lord says; though your sins are like scarlet,

I will turn them white like wool, and though they are crimson, I will turn them white like snow. But if you refuse to listen to me, the sword will consume you, for the mouth of the Lord has declared it." And we received an account on this matter from the apostles, as follows: since, in our first coming into being, we were begotten with no knowledge of our own, by necessity, out of moist seed, through our parents' union with one another, and

came to be amid base habits and wicked ways of living — in order that we might not remain children of necessity and ignorance but of choice and knowledge, and that we might obtain forgiveness of the sins we had previously committed — the name of God the Father and Master of all is invoked over the water upon the one who has chosen to be regenerated and has repented of his sins, this alone being pronounced by the one who leads the person to be washed to the washing.

For no one can utter a name for the unnameable God; and if anyone should dare to say that there is one, he is mad with an incurable madness. This washing is called illumination, since those who learn these things have their understanding illuminated. And the person receiving this illumination is washed as well, invoking Jesus Christ — crucified under Pontius Pilate — and invoking the Holy Spirit, who spoke through the prophets and announced in advance everything concerning

Jesus. And the demons, having heard that this washing had been proclaimed through the prophet, brought it about that those entering their temples, and about to approach them, likewise sprinkle themselves, after performing libations and burnt offerings; and they even bring it about that those approaching wash themselves completely before coming to the temples where they are established. And indeed, as for the removing of sandals by those entering the temples

— the same practice being enjoined by their priests upon those who worship there — the demons, having learned this from what happened to Moses, the prophet already mentioned, imitated it. For at that time, when Moses was ordered to travel down into Egypt and bring out the Israelite people living there, while he was shepherding in the land of Arabia the flocks of his maternal uncle, our Christ conversed with him in the form of fire out of a bush,

and said: "Remove the sandals from your feet, and come near and listen." And he took off his sandals and, approaching, was told to travel into Egypt and bring the Israelite people out from there; and he received great strength from Christ, who had addressed him in the form of fire, and upon going down he brought the people out, accomplishing feats great and astonishing, which, if you want to know them, you can learn precisely from

his writings. But all the Jews, even now, teach that it was the unnameable God who spoke to Moses. For this reason the prophetic Spirit, through Isaiah the prophet already mentioned, rebuking them, as we wrote above, said: "The ox knew its owner, and the donkey its master's manger, but Israel did not know me, and my people did not understand me." And Jesus too,

the Christ, because the Jews did not know what the Father is and what the Son is, likewise rebuking them, himself said: "No one has known the Father except the Son, nor has anyone known the Son except the Father, along with whoever the Son wills to reveal him to." The divine Word, then, is God's Son, as noted earlier. And he is also called angel and apostle;

for he himself announces whatever must be known, and he is sent to make known whatever is announced, just as our Lord himself also said: "He who hears me hears him who sent me." And this will also become evident from the writings of Moses. For it is said in them as follows: "And the angel of God spoke to Moses out of the bush, in a blaze of fire, and said: I am

The One who is — Abraham's God, Isaac's God, Jacob's God, the God of your ancestors. Go down into Egypt and bring my people out." Should you wish to trace what follows in that account, you have the means to do so; setting down the whole of it here is simply not feasible. Rather these words stand as evidence that Jesus Christ is God's Son and messenger, though he was the Word before that,

and appearing at times in the shape of fire, and at other times in a form without body; but now, by God's will, having taken on humanity for the sake of the human race, he submitted even to the suffering the demons contrived to inflict on him through the senseless Jews' hands. These people, despite having it stated plainly within Moses' own compositions — "And God's angel spoke to Moses in a flame of fire

from within the bush, declaring: I am the One who is, Abraham's God and Isaac's God and Jacob's God" — they claim that the speaker of these words is the Father and Maker of everything. That is why the prophetic Spirit, rebuking them, likewise declared: "But Israel did not know me, and my people failed to understand me." And once more, Jesus, as we have already shown,

would have said to them: "No one has known the Father but the Son, nor has anyone known the Son but the Father and those the Son chooses to reveal him to." The Jews, then, assuming it was always the Father of all speaking to Moses — whereas it was actually God's Son speaking with him, the one also named angel and messenger — are rightly rebuked, both by the prophetic

...spirit and through Christ himself, since they knew neither the Father nor the Son. For those who assert that the Son is the Father are refuted, since they neither understand the Father nor know that the Father of all has a Son; who, being Word and firstborn of God, is also God. And formerly, through the form of fire and a bodiless appearance,

he showed himself to Moses and the rest of the prophets; but now, during the period of your rule, as we noted earlier, he became man through a virgin in keeping with the Father's plan, and for the deliverance of those who put their trust in him, he submitted to being scorned and to suffering, so that through dying and rising again he might defeat death. And as for what was spoken to Moses out of the bush: "I am the one who is, the God

Abraham's God, and Isaac's God, and Jacob's God, and the God of your ancestors"—this shows that those men, though dead, still exist and belong to Christ himself; they were, in fact, the very first humans to devote themselves to seeking after God, since Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac fathered Jacob, as Moses likewise wrote. And the setting up

of the idol of the so-called Kore at the springs of waters—that the demons brought this about, calling her a daughter of Zeus, in imitation of what was said through Moses—you can understand from what has already been said. For Moses said, as we wrote above: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth. And the earth was invisible and unformed, and a spirit

of God was borne above the waters." In imitation, then, of this saying, that a spirit of God was borne upon the water, they called Kore a daughter of Zeus. And Athena likewise, acting wickedly in the same way, they called a daughter of Zeus—not from intercourse, but because, when they learned that God, having conceived it in thought, made the world through the Word, they called Athena his first thought—which we consider most ridiculous,

namely, to present an image of a thought in female form. And likewise their deeds refute the others said to be sons of Zeus. Now we, after thus washing the one who has been persuaded and has given his assent, lead him to those called brothers, where they are assembled, to offer common prayers earnestly for ourselves and for the one who has been enlightened and for all others everywhere, so that, having learned the truth,

we may also prove, by our conduct, to be good citizens who keep the commandments, so we may attain to everlasting salvation. Once the prayers are finished, we greet one another with a kiss. Then bread, and a cup of water mixed with wine, are brought to whoever presides over the brothers, and he takes them and sends up praise and glory to the Father of all in the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and

offers extended thanks for having been judged worthy to receive these things from him. When he has concluded the prayers and the thanksgiving, everyone present responds with, "Amen." "Amen" is a Hebrew word meaning "may it be so." Once the president has given thanks and the whole assembly has responded, those we call deacons distribute to each person present a portion of what has been consecrated with thanksgiving—

bread and wine and water—and they carry it away to those who are not present. This food is called among us the Eucharist, and no one may share in it unless he believes our teaching to be true, has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and new birth, and lives according to what Christ handed down. For we do not take these as ordinary

bread nor common drink; rather, just as Jesus Christ our savior became flesh through the word of God and took on flesh and blood for the sake of our salvation, in the same way we have been taught that the food consecrated through the word of prayer that comes from him—the food that, through transformation, feeds our own flesh and blood—is itself the flesh and blood of that same incarnate Jesus,

we have been taught it is. In the records the apostles themselves produced, the writings known as Gospels, they passed down the instruction they had received: that Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and said, "Do this in remembrance of me; this is my body"; and likewise, taking the cup and offering thanks, he declared, "This is my blood," giving it to them alone. This practice, too, among

the mysteries of Mithras, the wicked demons handed down to be observed, imitating this; since bread and a cup of water are set out before the one being initiated during those rites, together with certain prescribed words, as you either already know or can find out. As for us, from that time on we always remind one another of these things; and those of us who have possessions help all who are in want, and we are always together with one another. And over everything we partake of we bless

the maker of all things, through his Son Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. On the day named for the sun, all who dwell in the towns or in the countryside gather in a single place, and the apostles' records or the prophets' writings are read aloud for however long the time allows. Once the reader falls silent, the one presiding rises to speak, urging and inviting

and urges us to imitate these good examples. After that we all stand up together and offer prayers; and, as we said before, when we have finished the prayer, bread is brought, and wine and water, and the president likewise sends up prayers and thanksgivings to the best of his ability, and the people acclaim, saying the "Amen"; and the distribution and partaking of the things over which thanks have been given

takes place for each one, and to those not present it is sent through the deacons. And those who have means and are willing to give offer whatever they choose, each according to his own decision; the sum gathered is placed in the president's keeping, and he uses it to assist orphans and widows, those in need because of illness or other hardship, those held in prison, and the foreigners staying among us as

foreigners—in short, he becomes a guardian to all who are in need. And we all hold our common assembly on the day of the sun, since it counts as day one, the day when God turned darkness and matter into an ordered cosmos, and on that same day our savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead; for they crucified him the day before, the day of Saturn,

and then on the day following that of Saturn — the day of the sun — he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them what we have likewise handed on to you for your own examination. If these teachings strike you as reasonable and true, give them due honor; but if they strike you as nonsense, dismiss them as foolishness — only do not condemn to death, as though they were enemies, men guilty of no wrong. Yet we warn

you that you will not escape the judgment of God that is to come, if you persist in injustice; and we ourselves shall cry out, "Whatever is pleasing to God, let that come to be!" And although the letter of your father, the supremely great and distinguished Caesar Hadrian, would let us insist that you command the judgments to proceed just as we have asked, it is not on the ground of Hadrian's ruling that we have chosen to press this request, but

because we know how to ask for what is just that we have composed this address and explanation. And we have appended also a copy of Hadrian's letter, so that in this matter too you may recognize that we speak the truth. And this is the copy: "To Minucius Fundanus. I have received a letter written to me by Serenius Granianus, a most illustrious man, whose successor you are. It does not seem good to me, then, to leave the matter uninvestigated, so that neither

the people be disturbed, nor an occasion for mischief be given to informers. If, then, the provincials are able clearly to sustain this charge against the Christians, so as to make answer even before a tribunal, let them resort to this alone, and not to mere petitions or outcries alone. For it is far more fitting, if anyone wishes to bring an accusation, that you examine this. If, then, anyone accuses them and shows that they are doing something

contrary to the laws, determine the penalty according to the gravity of the offense. But—by Hercules!—if anyone puts this forward for the sake of malicious accusation, take up the matter in view of its seriousness, and see to it that you exact a just penalty."

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