Justin Martyr Defends the Faith and Describes Its Worship

Justin Martyr introduces himself as the son of Priscus and grandson of Bacchius, from Flavia Neapolis in Palestine (Justin, First Apology 1). In his Dialogue with Trypho he tells how he went from a Stoic teacher to a Peripatetic, a Pythagorean and a Platonist, until an old man he met in a field near the sea pointed him to the Hebrew prophets. “A flame was kindled in my soul,” he says, and he found in Christianity the one philosophy that was safe and profitable (Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 2–8). He adds elsewhere that the sight of Christians facing death without fear had convinced him that the slanders against them were false (Justin, Second Apology 12). He lived at Rome, by his own account for the second time, and taught those who came to his lodging (Acts of Justin 2).

About 150–155 he addressed a defence of the Christians to the emperor Antoninus Pius, his sons, the senate and the Roman people (Justin, First Apology 1). He asks that Christians be judged for what they do and not condemned for a name (Justin, First Apology 4; 7). He also claims the best of the Greeks for his side: those who lived “reasonably” before Christ, such as Socrates and Heraclitus, were Christians, though they were thought atheists (Justin, First Apology 46).

He then describes Christian worship. Converts pray and fast, are taken to water and are washed in the name of the Father, of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit (Justin, First Apology 61). They are then led to the assembly. After common prayers and a kiss, bread and a cup of wine mixed with water are brought to the one presiding, who gives thanks at length; the people answer “Amen”, and deacons distribute the food and carry it to those absent (Justin, First Apology 65). Only those who believe what is taught, have been baptized and live as Christ taught may share it. It is not received as common bread and drink, Justin writes. As Jesus Christ was made flesh and had flesh and blood, “so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh” (Justin, First Apology 66). On the day called Sunday all gather; the “memoirs of the apostles” or the prophets are read, the one presiding gives an address, and prayers, thanksgiving and distribution follow. A collection is left with him for orphans, widows, the sick, prisoners and strangers (Justin, First Apology 67). The churches read Justin’s words on the Eucharist differently, and only one use of them is documented here: the Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes these chapters as a witness to the order of the Eucharistic celebration (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1345). No Orthodox or Protestant document that discusses them was found for this entry.

Justin expected to be denounced, perhaps by Crescens, a Cynic philosopher he had worsted in debate (Justin, Second Apology 3); Tatian, whom Irenaeus calls a hearer of Justin (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.28.1), says, as Eusebius quotes him, that Crescens tried to bring about his death (Eusebius, Church History 4.16). The record of his trial shows him with six companions before the prefect Rusticus. They refused to sacrifice, and were scourged and beheaded (Acts of Justin 1–5).

Justin’s chapters on baptism and the Sunday assembly are a detailed account of Christian worship in the middle of the second century, written by a participant for outsiders.