Dialogue with Trypho the Jew
Jesus receives Latreuo Worship
– Chapter 31Justin: But if so great a power is shown to have followed and to be still following the dispensation of His suffering, how great shall that be which shall follow His glorious advent! For He shall come on the clouds as the Son of man, so Daniel foretold, and His angels shall come with Him. These are the words: ‘I beheld till the thrones were set; and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool. His throne was like a fiery flame, His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. Thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The books were opened, and the judgment was set. I beheld then the voice of the great words which the horn speaks: and the beast was beat down, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. And the rest of the beasts were taken away from their dominion, and a period of life was given to the beasts until a season and time. I saw in the vision of the night, and, behold, one like the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven; and He came to the Ancient of days, and stood before Him. And they who stood by brought Him near; and there were given Him power and kingly honour, and all nations of the earth by their families, and all glory, serve Him. And His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not be taken away; and His kingdom shall not be destroyed Daniel 7:9-28…
Justin appeals to Daniel 7:14, where the Son of Man receives latreia—cultic service or worship. Yet Jesus Himself states in Matthew 4:10 that latreia is to be given to God alone. The force of Justin’s argument is straightforward: if the Son of Man rightly receives latreia, then He must be the Most High God or God is committing blasphemy by telling us to render the highest form of worship to someone who is not the Most High God.
In my article on Daniel 7:13-14, I also bring up Justin’s Martyr use Latreuo:
Latreuo as mere service?
2 Apologia ch1 – “…and the evil demons, who hate us, and who keep such men as these subject to themselves, and serving them in the capacity of judges…” – men latreuo demons as judges not gods?
In Justin’s worldview, demons are the spiritual entities behind idolatry, receiving the worship (both latreuo and proskyneo) offered to idols. Justin argues in other writings (e.g., First Apology, Chapter 5) that pagan religious systems, including emperor worship and temple sacrifices, are ultimately inspired by and directed toward demons, even if the participants are unaware of this reality.
Thus, if judges enforce idolatrous practices or persecute Christians for refusing to engage in them, those judges are indirectly perpetuating the system of cultic worship to demons. In this sense, their actions can be seen as enabling or reinforcing latreuo offered to demons. Latreuo/worship. Biblically speaking, worshiping something or having something as your god or idol does not necessarily require that you do it willingly or that you even recognize what that object is (Eph 5:5; Col 3:5; Mat 6:24; Phil 3:19 etc…). So Justin Martyr is saying that these men, whether knowingly or unknowingly are worshipping demons by virtue of taking them as judges above God.
Jesus is YHWH of Hosts
Spirit is a distinct Person from the Father
– Chapter 36.Justin: As you wish, Trypho, I shall come to these proofs which you seek in the fitting place; but now you will permit me first to recount the prophecies, which I wish to do in order to prove that Christ is called both God and Lord of hosts, and Jacob, in parable by the Holy Spirit; and your interpreters, as God says, are foolish, since they say that reference is made to Solomon and not to Christ, when he bore the ark of testimony into the temple which he built. The Psalm of David is this:
The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and all that dwell therein. He has founded it upon the seas, and prepared it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that is clean of hands and pure of heart: who has not received his soul in vain, and has not sworn guilefully to his neighbour: he shall receive blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour. This is the generation of them that seek the Lord, that seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your gates, you rulers; and be lifted up, you everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty in battle. Lift up your gates, you rulers; and be lifted up, you everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. [Psalm 24]
Accordingly, it is shown that Solomon is not the Lord of hosts; but when our Christ rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, the rulers in heaven, under appointment of God, are commanded to open the gates of heaven, that He who is King of glory may enter in, and having ascended, may sit on the right hand of the Father until He make the enemies His footstool, as has been made manifest by another Psalm. For when the rulers of heaven saw Him of uncomely and dishonoured appearance, and inglorious, not recognising Him, they inquired, ‘Who is this King of glory?’ And the Holy Spirit, either from the person of His Father, or from His own person, answers them, ‘The Lord of hosts, He is this King of glory.’ For every one will confess that not one of those who presided over the gates of the temple at Jerusalem would venture to say concerning Solomon, though he was so glorious a king, or concerning the ark of testimony, ‘Who is this King of glory?’
– Chapter 37
Justin: Moreover, in the diapsalm of the forty-sixth Psalm [46 in LXX but 47 in Hebrew], reference is thus made to Christ: ‘God went up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing to our God, sing: sing to our King, sing; for God is King of all the earth: sing with understanding. God has ruled over the nations. God sits upon His holy throne. The rulers of the nations were assembled along with the God of Abraham, for the strong ones of God are greatly exalted on the earth.’ And in the ninety-eighth Psalm, the Holy Spirit reproaches you, and predicts Him whom you do not wish to be king to be King and Lord, both of Samuel, and of Aaron, and of Moses, and, in short, of all the others. And the words of the Psalm are these:
The Lord has reigned, let the nations be angry: [it is] He who sits upon the cherubim, let the earth be shaken. The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the nations. Let them confess Your great name, for it is fearful and holy, and the honour of the King loves judgment. You have prepared equity; judgment and righteousness have You performed in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God, and worship the footstool of His feet; for He is holy. Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among those who call upon His name. They called (says the Scripture) on the Lord, and He heard them. In the pillar of the cloud He spoke to them; for they kept His testimonies, and the commandment which he gave them. O Lord our God, You heard them: O God, You were propitious to them, and [yet] taking vengeance on all their inventions. Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy.
Justin just applied Psalm 24, 47 and 99 to Jesus to identify Him as the Lord of Hosts, which in Hebrew is Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Abraham.
Another God and Lord?
– Chapter 56Justin: Moses, then, the blessed and faithful servant of God, declares that He who appeared to Abraham under the oak in Mamre is God, sent with the two angels in His company to judge Sodom by Another who remains ever in the supercelestial places, invisible to all men, holding personal intercourse with none, whom we believe to be Maker and Father of all things; for he speaks thus: ‘God appeared to him under the oak in Mamre, as he sat at his tent-door at noontide. And lifting up his eyes, he saw, and behold, three men stood before him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the door of his tent; and he bowed himself toward the ground, and said …’ Genesis 18:1-2 ‘Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrha, and toward the adjacent country, and beheld, and, lo, a flame went up from the earth, like the smoke of a furnace.’
And when I had made an end of quoting these words, I asked them if they had understood them. And they said they had understood them, but that the passages adduced brought forward no proof that there is any other God or Lord, or that the Holy Spirit says so, besides the Maker of all things.
Justin: I shall attempt to persuade you, since you have understood the Scriptures, [of the truth] of what I say, that there is, and that there is said to be, another God and Lord subject to the Maker of all things; who is also called an Angel, because He announces to men whatsoever the Maker of all things— above whom there is no other God — wishes to announce to them.
Justin: If I could not have proved to you from the Scriptures that one of those three is God, and is called Angel, because, as I already said, He brings messages to those to whom God the Maker of all things wishes [messages to be brought], then in regard to Him who appeared to Abraham on earth in human form in like manner as the two angels who came with Him, and who was God even before the creation of the world, it were reasonable for you to entertain the same belief as is entertained by the whole of your nation.
Trypho: Assuredly, for up to this moment this has been our belief.
Justin: Reverting to the Scriptures, I shall endeavour to persuade you, that He who is said to have appeared to Abraham, and to Jacob, and to Moses, and who is called God, is distinct from Him who made all things — numerically, I mean, not [distinct] in will. For I affirm that He has never at any time done anything which He who made the world— above whom there is no other God — has not wished Him both to do and to engage Himself with.
Justin: The Scripture just quoted by me will make this plain to you. It is thus: ‘The sun was risen on the earth, and Lot entered into Segor (Zoar); and the Lord rained on Sodom sulphur and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and overthrew these cities and all the neighbourhood.’ Genesis 19:23…
Justin: (After another pause.) And now have you not perceived, my friends, that one of the three, who is both God and Lord, and ministers to Him who is in the heavens, is Lord of the two angels? For when [the angels] proceeded to Sodom, He remained behind, and communed with Abraham in the words recorded by Moses; and when He departed after the conversation, Abraham went back to his place. And when he came [to Sodom], the two angels no longer conversed with Lot, but Himself, as the Scripture makes evident; and He is the Lord who received commission from the Lord who [remains] in the heavens, i.e., the Maker of all things, to inflict upon Sodom and Gomorrha the [judgments] which the Scripture describes in these terms: ‘The Lord rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrha sulphur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.’
As Trinitarian language developed over the centuries—especially in response to more radical heresies such as Arianism—what Justin Martyr refers to as “another God and Lord” would later be articulated as “another person” who is nevertheless fully God and fully Lord. We know this because Justin explicitly spells out this distinction when he said, “distinct from Him who made all things — numerically, I mean, not [distinct] in will.” He says the same thing later on:
The Word is not a mere manifestation/power of the Father
– Chapter 128And do not suppose, sirs, that I am speaking superfluously when I repeat these words frequently: but it is because I know that some wish to anticipate these remarks, and to say that the power sent from the Father of all which appeared to Moses, or to Abraham, or to Jacob, is called an Angel because He came to men (for by Him the commands of the Father have been proclaimed to men); is called Glory, because He appears in a vision sometimes that cannot be borne; is called a Man, and a human being, because He appears arrayed in such forms as the Father pleases; and they call Him the Word, because He carries tidings from the Father to men: but maintain that this power is indivisible and inseparable from the Father, just as they say that the light of the sun on earth is indivisible and inseparable from the sun in the heavens; as when it sinks, the light sinks along with it; so the Father, when He chooses, say they, causes His power to spring forth, and when He chooses, He makes it return to Himself. In this way, they teach, He made the angels. But it is proved that there are angels who always exist, and are never reduced to that form out of which they sprang. And that this power which the prophetic word calls God, as has been also amply demonstrated, and Angel, is not numbered [as different] in name only like the light of the sun but is indeed something numerically distinct, I have discussed briefly in what has gone before; when I asserted that this power was begotten from the Father, by His power and will, but not by abscission, as if the essence of the Father were divided; as all other things partitioned and divided are not the same after as before they were divided: and, for the sake of example, I took the case of fires kindled from a fire, which we see to be distinct from it, and yet that from which many can be kindled is by no means made less, but remains the same.
Justin is arguing against a form of modalism that says the Son/Word is just the Father’s own power appearing temporarily—like sunlight touching the earth and then withdrawing back into the sun. Its not a real “other” which exists; it’s one divine person, the Father, manifesting Himself by His own power temporarily. Justin makes this clear when he says, “is not numbered [as different] in name only like the light of the sun but is indeed something numerically distinct“. This sect of Modalism believed the same thing about angels as being manifestations/modes of the Father. But, as Justin points out, angels are created by God and proceed from Him, but once created, they always continue to exist. They do not revert back into divine energy or get reabsorbed into God after completing a mission. Gabriel doesn’t finish an errand and then melt back into the divine essence like steam condensing. So if angels—who are far lower than the Word—have persistent personal existence, then it is absurd to claim that the Word of God is merely a temporary emission with no enduring distinction. Although the analogy of the ray and the sun is used by the Fathers to speak of the Father and the Son, it is important to attend to the context in which they employ it. None of the Fathers use this analogy to argue that the Son is a mere temporary manifestation of the Father; rather, they use it to illustrate other points, such as derivation without division or unity of source without collapse of distinction. Hence to be “numerically distinct” is a refutation of Modalism. In chapter 129, he goes on to further explain
– Chapter 129
Justin: And now I shall again recite the words which I have spoken in proof of this point. When Scripture says, ‘The Lord rained fire from the Lord out of heaven,’ the prophetic word indicates that there were two in number: One upon the earth, who, it says, descended to behold the cry of Sodom; Another in heaven, who also is Lord of the Lord on earth, as He is Father and God; the cause of His power and of His being Lord and God. Again, when the Scripture records that God said in the beginning, ‘Behold, Adam has become like one of Us,’ Genesis 3:22 this phrase, ‘like one of Us,’ is also indicative of number; and the words do not admit of a figurative meaning, as the sophists endeavour to affix on them, who are able neither to tell nor to understand the truth. And it is written in the book of Wisdom: ‘If I should tell you daily events, I would be mindful to enumerate them from the beginning. The Lord created me the beginning of His ways for His works. From everlasting He established me in the beginning, before He formed the earth, and before He made the depths, and before the springs of waters came forth, before the mountains were settled; He begets me before all the hills.’ [Proverbs 8:22]
When I repeated these words, I added:
You perceive, my hearers, if you bestow attention, that the Scripture has declared that this Offspring was begotten by the Father before all things created; and that which is begotten is numerically distinct from that which begets, any one will admit.
He points out to their hypostatic properties as the differentiating factor when he says, “this Offspring was begotten by the Father before all things created; and that which is begotten is numerically distinct from that which begets, any one will admit.” Therefore “another God and Lord” would mean “another person”, not another essence.
Justin further clarifies that the “other God and Lord” is none other than the LORD (YHWH) who appears and acts in the Old Testament (for example, Genesis 19:24). Justin as well as Trypho and the Bible is explicit that there is only one YHWH. YHWH means the “self-existing One” which clearly rules out any degrees of “YHWH-hood”. There is no such thing as being a “lesser YHWH” as there is being a “lesser God” because unlike Godhood/divinity, “YHWH-hood” does not have different levels. Nothing in his argument suggests that Christ is a lesser or subordinate divine being. On the contrary, Christ is fully God, distinguished from the Father without being separated. Hence why Justin had no problem saying:
Jesus Christ; who, being the Word of God, inseparable from Him in power
Hortatory Address to the Greeks, ch.38
Eternally Begotten; An act of will?
– Chapter 61Justin: I shall give you another testimony, my friends, from the Scriptures, that God begot before all creatures a Beginning, [who was] a certain rational power [proceeding] from Himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos; and on another occasion He calls Himself Captain, when He appeared in human form to Joshua the son of Nave (Nun). For He can be called by all those names, since He ministers to the Father’s will, and since He was begotten of the Father by an act of will; just as we see happening among ourselves: for when we give out some word, we beget the word; yet not by abscission, so as to lessen the word [which remains] in us, when we give it out: and just as we see also happening in the case of a fire, which is not lessened when it has kindled [another], but remains the same; and that which has been kindled by it likewise appears to exist by itself, not diminishing that from which it was kindled. The Word of Wisdom, who is Himself this God begotten of the Father of all things, and Word, and Wisdom, and Power, and the Glory of the Begetter, will bear evidence to me, when He speaks by Solomon the following:
Justin argues that in Genesis 1:1, time came into existence. Therefore, whatever Justin says happened prior to Genesis 1:1, the creation of time along with the heavens and the earth must correctly be understood as non-linear or happening in eternity past:
“And from what source did Plato draw the information that time was created along with the heavens? For he wrote thus: Time, accordingly, was created along with the heavens; in order that, coming into being together, they might also be together dissolved, if ever their dissolution should take place. Had he not learned this from the divine history of Moses? For he knew that the creation of time had received its original constitution from days and months and years. Since, then, the first day which was created along with the heavens constituted the beginning of all time (for thus Moses wrote, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…”
Hortatory Address to the Greeks (Justin Martyr), Chapter 33
So when Justin says “God begot before all creatures a Beginning“, he is using linear, temporal language, which he must as a creature, to describe an eternal reality before time began. His belief, which is expressed differently than later Trinitarians were forced to, ia that the Word was existing in the Father eternally, but without having yet been begotten. He brought it out and begot it out of Himself when it was “time” to create creation, hence why he quotes Proverbs 8. So when He says that, “He was begotten of the Father by an act of will“, He is not expressing a temporal action but is trying to convey the idea that the Father wasn’t forced by an outside subject, but willingly begot the Son to create creation. The Fathers expressed the begetting of the Son as creatio ex-materia, creation from existing matter/substance, which is the substance of the Father. This is different from “creatio ex-nihilo”, creation from nothing, which is the way all creation was made, hence why Justin says, “God begot before all creatures a Beginning“. If God begat before all creatures, then common sense has it that the Son was not a creature.
So when anti-trinitarians point to Justin saying things like:
For those things which exist after God, or shall at any time exist, these have the nature of decay, and are such as may be blotted out and cease to exist; for God alone is unbegotten and incorruptible, and therefore He is God, but all other things after Him are created and corruptible.
– Chapter 5
This would actually strengthen our point. If the Son existed with the Father before time, as we have shown, then there is no moment in which He came to exist after God the Father. He therefore belongs on the side of the uncreated, and in that sense is truly God Almighty. When Justin speaks of God as “alone unbegotten and incorruptible,” he is contrasting God with creation, not setting the Father over against the Son. The Son, being uncreated, also stands outside corruption and would also be unbegotten in so far as contrasting that which comes into existence in time.
Genesis 1:26 – Father and Son
– Chapter 62Justin: And the same sentiment was expressed, my friends, by the word of God [written] by Moses, when it indicated to us, with regard to Him whom it has pointed out, that God speaks in the creation of man with the very same design, in the following words: ‘Let Us make man after our image and likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creeping things that creep on the earth. And God created man: after the image of God did He create him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and said, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have power over it.’ And that you may not change the [force of the] words just quoted, and repeat what your teachers assert — either that God said to Himself, ‘Let Us make,’ just as we, when about to do something, oftentimes say to ourselves, ‘Let us make;’ or that God spoke to the elements, to wit, the earth and other similar substances of which we believe man was formed, ‘Let Us make,’— I shall quote again the words narrated by Moses himself, from which we can indisputably learn that [God] conversed with some one who was numerically distinct from Himself, and also a rational Being. These are the words: ‘And God said, Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil.’ Genesis 3:22 In saying, therefore, ‘as one of us,’ [Moses] has declared that [there is a certain] number of persons associated with one another, and that they are at least two. For I would not say that the dogma of that heresy which is said to be among you is true, or that the teachers of it can prove that [God] spoke to angels, or that the human frame was the workmanship of angels. But this Offspring, which was truly brought forth from the Father, was with the Father before all the creatures, and the Father communed with Him; even as the Scripture by Solomon has made clear, that He whom Solomon calls Wisdom, was begotten as a Beginning before all His creatures and as Offspring by God, who has also declared this same thing in the revelation made by Joshua the son of Nave (Nun). Listen, therefore, to the following from the book of Joshua, that what I say may become manifest to you; it is this: ‘And it came to pass, when Joshua was near Jericho, he lifted up his eyes, and sees a man standing over against him. And Joshua approached to Him, and said, Are you for us, or for our adversaries? And He said to him, I am Captain of the Lord’s host: now have I come. And Joshua fell on his face on the ground, and said to Him, Lord, what do You command Your servant? And the Lord’s Captain says to Joshua, Loose the shoes off your feet; for the place whereon you stand is holy ground. And Jericho was shut up and fortified, and no one went out of it. And the Lord said to Joshua, Behold, I give into your hand Jericho, and its king, [and] its mighty men.’
Jesus is the Creator
– Chapter 64And you remember from other words also spoken by David, and which I have mentioned before, how it is declared that He would come forth from the highest heavens, and again return to the same places, in order that you may recognise Him as God coming forth from above, and man living among men; and [how it is declared] that He will again appear, and they who pierced Him shall see Him, and shall bewail Him. [The words] are these: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge: They are not speeches or words whose voices are heard. Their sound has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In the sun has he set his habitation; and he, like a bridegroom going forth from his chamber, will rejoice as a giant to run his race: from the highest heaven is his going forth, and he returns to the highest heaven, and there is not one who shall be hidden from his heat.’ [Psalm 19]
– Chapter 126
Justin: But if you knew, Trypho, who He is that is called at one time the Angel of great counsel, and a Man by Ezekiel, and like the Son of man by Daniel, and a Child by Isaiah, and Christ and God to be worshipped by David, and Christ and a Stone by many, and Wisdom by Solomon, and Joseph and Judah and a Star by Moses, and the East by Zechariah, and the Suffering One and Jacob and Israel by Isaiah again, and a Rod, and Flower, and Corner-Stone, and Son of God, you would not have blasphemed Him who has now come, and been born, and suffered, and ascended to heaven; who shall also come again, and then your twelve tribes shall mourn. For if you had understood what has been written by the prophets, you would not have denied that He was God, Son of the only, unbegotten, unutterable God. For Moses says somewhere in Exodus the following: ‘The Lord spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am the Lord, and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, being their God; and my name I revealed not to them, and I established my covenant with them.’ And thus again he says, ‘A man wrestled with Jacob,’ and asserts it was God; narrating that Jacob said, ‘I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.’ And it is recorded that he called the place where He wrestled with him, appeared to and blessed him, the Face of God (Peniel). And Moses says that God appeared also to Abraham near the oak in Mamre, when he was sitting at the door of his tent at mid-day. Then he goes on to say: ‘And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, three men stood before him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them.’ Genesis 18:2 After a little, one of them promises a son to Abraham: ‘Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, and I am old? Is anything impossible with God? At the time appointed I will return, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. And they went away from Abraham.’ Again he speaks of them thus: ‘And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom.’ Genesis 18:16 Then to Abraham He who was and is again speaks: ‘I will not hide from Abraham, my servant, what I intend to do.’ Genesis 18:17
Justin Martyr 1st Apology
Worship the Trinity and Angels?
– Chapter 6Hence are we called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity. But both Him, and the Son (who came forth from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels who follow and are made like to Him), and the prophetic Spirit, we worship (σέβομαι) and adore, knowing them in reason and truth, and declaring without grudging to every one who wishes to learn, as we have been taught.
Notice how Justin worship only 3 persons, Father, Son and Spirit, in their own places. But some have objected that Justin is also including angels in the mix: “we worship…and the Son who came forth from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels…”. But is this what Justin really meant? Let’s view his views in light of his views:
And with regard to our not swearing at all, and always speaking the truth, He enjoined as follows: Swear not at all; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these comes of evil. Matthew 5:34, 27 And that we ought to worship God alone, He thus persuaded us: The greatest commandment is, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve, with all your heart, and with all your strength, the Lord God that made you. Mark 12:30…
Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 16: Concerning patience and swearing
And everywhere we, more readily than all men, endeavour to pay to those appointed by you the taxes both ordinary and extraordinary, as we have been taught by Him; for at that time some came to Him and asked Him, if one ought to pay tribute to Cæsar; and He answered, Tell Me, whose image does the coin bear? And they said, Cæsar’s. And again He answered them, Render therefore to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. Whence to God alone we render worship, but in other things we gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men, and praying that with your kingly power you be found to possess also sound judgment.
1st Apology, Chapter 17: Christ taught civil obedience
In light of the fact that Justin worships God and 1 God alone, only two interpretations plausibly fit Justin’s meaning here in “and the Son who came forth from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels who follow and are made like to Him“
- First, Christ taught us and the good angels
- Second, Christ and the good angels taught us
Regardless of which interpretation one may take, what the passage cannot mean—on any responsible reading—is that Justin believed Christians are to worship angels. Such an interpretation contradicts both Justin’s broader theology and his explicit commitment to Christian monotheistic worship directed to God alone and the New Testament (Mat 4:10; Rev 22:8-9). This is what Scholar Charles E.Hills has to say:
One way of construing this rather confusing sentence is as a claim that Christians worship angels, along with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This is how Ehrman takes it. But this reading is suspect. Not only would it go against all prior (and subsequent) prohibitions against worshiping angels, such as Col 2:18 or Rev 19:10; 22:8-9, but Justin himself clearly says God created the “race of angels” in the beginning along with the face of men (1 Apology 7.5). Unlike the Logos, angels were not begotten but created. Moreover, in chapter 13 Justin offers a sharper and more concise statement that Christians “reasonably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third.” Then in chapter 16 he speaks of baptism “in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit.” In neither of these passages are angels mentioned. Thus, many have thought that the angels in chapter 6 are meant to go alongside “us” as those whom the Son has taught: “the Son (who came forth from Him and taught us and the angels… these things).” The particular Greek construction in 1 Apology 6 would support such a reading, as it shows Justin linking together the Father, the Son, and the Spirit by the use of a conjunction (te), which is not used for the company of angels.
(Charles E.Hills, How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus’ Divine Nature, pp. 187-188)
The Church historian Philip Schaff says the same thing:
1776 This is the literal and obvious translation of Justin’s words. But from c. 13, 16, and 61, it is evident that he did not desire to inculcate the worship of angels. We are therefore driven to adopt another translation of this passage, even though it be somewhat harsh. Two such translations have been proposed: the first connecting “us” and “the host of the other good angels” as the common object of the verb “taught;” the second connecting “these things” with “the host of,” etc., and making these two together the subject taught. In the first case the translation would stand, “taught these things to us and to the host,” etc.; in the second case the translation would be, “taught us about these things, and about the host of the others who follow Him, viz. the good angels.” [I have ventured to insert parenthetic marks in the text, an obvious and simple resource to suggest the manifest intent of the author. Grabe’s note in loc. gives another and very ingenious exegesis, but the simplest is best.]
(Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, Volume 1)
– Chapter 13
…Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judæa, in the times of Tiberius Cæsar; and that we reasonably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove. For they proclaim our madness to consist in this, that we give to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all; for they do not discern the mystery that is herein, to which, as we make it plain to you, we pray you to give heed.
– Chapter 38
And when the Spirit of prophecy speaks from the person of Christ, the utterances are of this sort:
I have spread out My hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, to those who walk in a way that is not good.Isaiah 65:2
The Nameless God
The Nameless God
– Chapter 63And all the Jews even now teach that the nameless God spoke to Moses; whence the Spirit of prophecy, accusing them by Isaiah the prophet mentioned above, said
The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel does not know Me, and My people do not understand.Isaiah 1:3 And Jesus the Christ, because the Jews knew not what the Father was, and what the Son, in like manner accused them; and Himself said,No one knows the Father, but the Son; nor the Son, but the Father, and they to whom the Son reveals Him.Matthew 11:27 Now the Word of God is His Son, as we have before said. And He is called Angel and Apostle; for He declares whatever we ought to know, and is sent forth to declare whatever is revealed; as our Lord Himself says,He that hears Me, hears Him that sent Me.Luke 10:16 From the writings of Moses also this will be manifest; for thus it is written in them,And the Angel of God spoke to Moses, in a flame of fire out of the bush, and said, I am that I am, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of your fathers; go down into Egypt, and bring forth My people.Exodus 3:6 And if you wish to learn what follows, you can do so from the same writings; for it is impossible to relate the whole here. But so much is written for the sake of proving that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God and His Apostle, being of old the Word, and appearing sometimes in the form of fire, and sometimes in the likeness of angels; but now, by the will of God, having become man for the human race, He endured all the sufferings which the devils instigated the senseless Jews to inflict upon Him; who, though they have it expressly affirmed in the writings of Moses,And the angel of God spoke to Moses in a flame of fire in a bush, and said, I am that I am, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,yet maintain that He who said this was the Father and Creator of the universe. Whence also the Spirit of prophecy rebukes them, and says,Israel does not know Me, my people have not understood Me.Isaiah 1:3 And again, Jesus, as we have already shown, while He was with them, said,No one knows the Father, but the Son; nor the Son but the Father, and those to whom the Son will reveal Him.Matthew 11:27 The Jews, accordingly, being throughout of opinion that it was the Father of the universe who spoke to Moses, though He who spoke to him was indeed the Son of God, who is called both Angel and Apostle, are justly charged, both by the Spirit of prophecy and by Christ Himself, with knowing neither the Father nor the Son. For they who affirm that the Son is the Father, are proved neither to have become acquainted with the Father, nor to know that the Father of the universe has a Son; who also, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God. And of old He appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of an angel to Moses and to the other prophets; but now in the times of your reign, having, as we before said, become Man by a virgin, according to the counsel of the Father, for the salvation of those who believe in Him, He endured both to be set at nought and to suffer, that by dying and rising again He might conquer death. And that which was said out of the bush to Moses,I am that I am, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and the God of your fathers,Exodus 3:6 this signified that they, even though dead, are yet in existence, and are men belonging to Christ Himself. For they were the first of all men to busy themselves in the search after God; Abraham being the father of Isaac, and Isaac of Jacob, as Moses wrote.
Second Apology
The Nameless God Continuing
– Chapter 6But to the Father of all, who is unbegotten there is no name given. For by whatever name He be called, He has as His elder the person who gives Him the name. But these words Father, and God, and Creator, and Lord, and Master, are not names, but appellations derived from His good deeds and functions. And His Son, who alone is properly called Son, the Word who also was with Him and was begotten before the works, when at first He created and arranged all things by Him, is called Christ, in reference to His being anointed and God’s ordering all things through Him; this name itself also containing an unknown significance; as also the appellation
Godis not a name, but an opinion implanted in the nature of men of a thing that can hardly be explained. ButJesus,His name as man and Saviour, has also significance. For He was made man also, as we before said, having been conceived according to the will of God the Father, for the sake of believing men, and for the destruction of the demons. And now you can learn this from what is under your own observation.
For numberless demoniacs throughout the whole world, and in your city, many of our Christian men exorcising them in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, have healed and do heal, rendering helpless and driving the possessing devils out of the men, though they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, and those who used incantations and drugs.
Hortatory Address to the Greeks
The Nameless God Continuing
– Chapter 21For God cannot be called by any proper name, for names are given to mark out and distinguish their subject-matters, because these are many and diverse; but neither did any one exist before God who could give Him a name, nor did He Himself think it right to name Himself, seeing that He is one and unique, as He Himself also by His own prophets testifies, when He says,
I God am the first,and after this,And beside me there is no other God.Isaiah 44:6 On this account, then, as I before said, God did not, when He sent Moses to the Hebrews, mention any name, but by a participle He mystically teaches them that He is the one and only God.For,says He;I am the Being;manifestly contrasting Himself,the Being,with those who are not, that those who had hitherto been deceived might see that they were attaching themselves, not to beings, but to those who had no being. Since, therefore, God knew that the first men remembered the old delusion of their forefathers, whereby the misanthropic demon contrived to deceive them when he said to them,If you obey me in transgressing the commandment of God, you shall be as gods,calling those gods which had no being, in order that men, supposing that there were other gods in existence, might believe that they themselves could become gods. On this account He said to Moses,I am the Being,that by the participlebeingHe might teach the difference between God who is and those who are not. Men, therefore, having been duped by the deceiving demon, and having dared to disobey God, were cast out of Paradise, remembering the name of gods, but no longer being taught by God that there are no other gods. For it was not just that they who did not keep the first commandment, which it was easy to keep, should any longer be taught, but should rather be driven to just punishment. Being therefore banished from Paradise, and thinking that they were expelled on account of their disobedience only, not knowing that it was also because they had believed in the existence of gods which did not exist, they gave the name of gods even to the men who were afterwards born of themselves. This first false fancy, therefore, concerning gods, had its origin with the father of lies. God, therefore, knowing that the false opinion about the plurality of gods was burdening the soul of man like some disease, and wishing to remove and eradicate it, appeared first to Moses, and said to him,I am He who is.For it was necessary, I think, that he who was to be the ruler and leader of the Hebrew people should first of all know the living God. Wherefore, having appeared to him first, as it was possible for God to appear to a man, He said to him,I am He who is;then, being about to send him to the Hebrews, He further orders him to say,He who is has sent me to you.(hortatory Address to the Greeks)
From the foregoing, we can see that Justin Martyr held that in the economia (how the Trinity relates to the world), the Father is ultimately without a proper name, because He stands beyond naming altogether. In Justin’s reasoning, a true name presupposes a superior who bestows it. Since no superior exists above the Father—and since the Father did not assign a name to Himself—this indicates, for Justin, that the Father transcends all names rather than possessing one.
By contrast, the Son can be named precisely because He is begotten of the Father, though not created, and the Father is above Him in status and rank, as a father is to his children. For this reason, Justin maintains that titles such as LORD (Jehovah), God, Commander, Word, Wisdom, and Angel or Messenger properly apply to the Son. It is the Son, not the Father, who appears and acts in the Old Testament under the name of the LORD God Almighty. Justin consistently assumes that whatever is named receives that name from one who is older or greater in rank.
Accordingly, terms commonly used for God—such as “Father,” “God,” “Creator,” or “Lord”—are not names in the strict sense. Justin describes them instead as designations drawn from God’s works and activities to distinguish Him from everything else. Even the word “God,” he argues, is not a name as such, but a conception embedded in human nature to indicate a reality that is exceedingly difficult to articulate. If any designation comes closest to functioning as a “name” for God in Justin’s thought, it is “Father,” since it most directly expresses His role as the source and maker of all that exists.
Hence, for Justin the Father is not Jehovah even though he believed that the Father is the timeless, uncreated God who transcends all creation. Rather, it is Jesus whose name is Jehovah and is therefore that very God who appears throughout the Old Testament under very names and guises.
With that said, since the Hebrew Bible affirms that Jehovah is beginningless, Almighty and supreme over all creation as the Most High God, then Jesus is Him:
“See now that I, even I, am he, And there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; And there is none that can deliver out of my hand.” Deuteronomy 32:39
“I will give thanks unto Jehovah according to his righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of Jehovah Most High.” Psalm 7:17
“The earth is Jehovah’s, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods… Lift up your heads, O ye gates; And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors: And the King of glory will come in. Who is the King of glory? Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; Yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors: And the King of glory will come in. Who is this King of glory? Jehovah of hosts, He is the King of glory.” Psalm 24:1-2, 7-10
“That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, Art the Most High over all the earth.” Read full chapter Psalm 83:18
“Book IV A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place In all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Psalm 90:1-2
“Jehovah reigneth; he is clothed with majesty; Jehovah is clothed with strength; he hath girded himself therewith: The world also is established, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from everlasting.” Psalm 93:1-2
“For thou, Jehovah, art most high above all the earth: Thou art exalted far above all gods.” Psalm 97:9
The Father could not Incarnate?
– Chapter 50
Then Trypho said, “We do not perceive this from the passage quoted by you, but[only this], that it was an angel who appeared in the flame of fire, but God who conversed with Moses; so that there were really two persons in company with each other, an angel and God, that appeared in that vision.”
I again replied, “Even if this were so, my friends, that an angel and God were together in the vision seen by Moses, yet, as has already been proved to you by the passages previously quoted, it will not be the Creator of all things that is the God that said to Moses that He was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, but it will be He who has been proved to you to have appeared to Abraham, ministering to the will of the Maker of all things, and likewise carrying into execution His counsel in the judgment of Sodom; so that, even though it be as you say, that there were two–an angel and God–he who has but the smallest intelligence will not venture to assert that the Maker and Father of all things, having left all supercelestial matters, was visible on a little portion of the earth.”
– Chapter 127
Justin: These and other such sayings are recorded by the lawgiver and by the prophets; and I suppose that I have stated sufficiently, that wherever God says, ‘God went up from Abraham,’ Genesis 18:22 or, ‘The Lord spoke to Moses,’ Exodus 6:29 and ‘The Lord came down to behold the tower which the sons of men had built,’ Genesis 11:5 or when ‘God shut Noah into the ark,’ Genesis 7:16 you must not imagine that the unbegotten God Himself came down or went up from any place. For the ineffable Father and Lord of all neither has come to any place, nor walks, nor sleeps, nor rises up, but remains in His own place, wherever that is, quick to behold and quick to hear, having neither eyes nor ears, but being of indescribable might; and He sees all things, and knows all things, and none of us escapes His observation; and He is not moved or confined to a spot in the whole world, for He existed before the world was made. How, then, could He talk with any one, or be seen by any one, or appear on the smallest portion of the earth, when the people at Sinai were not able to look even on the glory of Him who was sent from Him; and Moses himself could not enter into the tabernacle which he had erected, when it was filled with the glory of God; and the priest could not endure to stand before the temple when Solomon conveyed the ark into the house in Jerusalem which he had built for it? Therefore neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor any other man, saw the Father and ineffable Lord of all, and also of Christ, but [saw] Him who was according to His will His Son, being God, and the Angel because He ministered to His will; whom also it pleased Him to be born man by the Virgin; who also was fire when He conversed with Moses from the bush. Since, unless we thus comprehend the Scriptures, it must follow that the Father and Lord of all had not been in heaven when what Moses wrote took place: ‘And the Lord rained upon Sodom fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven.’ Genesis 19:24 and again, when it is thus said by David: ‘Lift up your gates, you rulers; and be lifted up, you everlasting gates; and the King of glory shall enter;’ and again, when He says: ‘The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.
This passage is often cited to suggest that Justin believed the Father, being greater ontologically, lacked abilities that the Son possessed, particularly the ability to appear, speak, or act within the created order. But that is not what Justin is saying. His point is not that the Father could not do these things if He wanted to, but that because the Father did not descend, appear, or manifest Himself in this way, it follows that He was not the one seen or heard in these encounters. The impossibility Justin describes (“How, then, could He“) is not an impossibility of power or nature, but an impossibility conditioned by what God chose to do.
An analogy helps clarify the logic. A king may be fully capable of coming outside His castle and addressing the people in person, but, as long as He chooses to rule through his emissary, then it is “impossible” for the people to have heard the king himself—not because the king lacks the ability to do so, but because he did not present himself. “How, then, could He talk with any one, or be seen by any one, or appear [outside the Castle]” if he didn’t reveal himself. The impossibility arises from a decision already made, not from any deficiency. In the same way, Justin argues that since the Father did not come down or appear, He was not the one who spoke or was seen; it was the Son who acted as the Father’s visible and speaking agent.
This is confirmed by Justin’s own explanation. He grounds the argument in the Fathers eternality. The reason why the Father “neither has come to any place, nor walks, nor sleeps, nor rises up, but remains in His own place, wherever that is, quick to behold and quick to hear, having neither eyes nor ears, but being of indescribable might; and He sees all things, and knows all things, and none of us escapes His observation; and He is not moved or confined to a spot in the whole world,” is precisely because “FOR He existed before the world was made.” So he qualifies that whoever exists before creation, has all those attributes. But, as we have already proved, Justin explicitly teaches that the Son existed before all creation. If pre-existence before the world entails these divine attributes—as Justin states—then the Son cannot be excluded from them. And if that’s the case, then the anti-trinitarians argument falls apart.
Concerning the passage where Justin contrasts the Son’s glory with the Father’s—“they were not able to look even on the glory of Him who was sent from Him”—Justin explains that the Son is called Glory because “He appears in a vision sometimes that cannot be borne.” (ch.128). For Justin, then, “glory” names the mode of appearance of the Logos when that appearance overwhelms human perception. It is not a substance and not a synonym for the Father’s essence. Taken together, Justin’s point is that if human beings could not even endure the Son’s visible, mediated glory, how much less could they endure the Father’s unmanifested glory. Were the Father to appear directly, He would do so without His glory being mediated or “contained”—not because the Father lacks the power to mediate it, but because the Father is not the mediator and has not assumed that role.
The Father is more Kingly and Just
But just so much power have rulers who esteem opinion more than truth, as robbers have in a desert. And that you will not succeed is declared by the Word, than whom, after God who begot Him, we know there is no ruler more kingly and just.
(1 Ap.12)
Justin consistently grounds the Son’s authority precisely in the fact that He acts with the Father’s own power and will. A ruler who is “inseparable from Him in power” cannot be less just in any qualitative sense, since His judgments are the very expression of the Father’s justice. John 5:19 says the Son can only do what He sees His Father doing. To say that the Father is more therefore marks relational order, not ontological inferiority.