An older generation of scholars believed that Justin Martyr (100-165) was ignorant of Paul’s epistles. Some modern Protestant apologists such as James White still claim this, in part, to get around Justin’s explicit teachings about free-will, synergistic soteriology, and baptismal regeneration. Notwithstanding, a growing number of modern scholars believe that Justin did have access to the Pauline Epistles. Consider the following from his Dialogue with Trypho:
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Justification of Abraham: Paul |
Justification of Abraham: Justin Martyr |
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Rom 4 Gal 3 |
“There will be no other God, O Trypho,
nor was there from eternity any other existing” (I thus addressed him), “but
He who made and disposed all this universe. Nor do we think that there is one
God for us, another for you, but that He alone is God who led your fathers
out from Egypt with a strong hand and a high arm. Nor have we trusted in any
other (for there is no other), but in Him in whom you also have trusted, the
God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. But we do not trust through Moses
or through the law; for then we would do the same as yourselves. But now—(for
I have read that there shall be a final law, and a covenant, the chiefest of
all, which it is now incumbent on all men to observe, as many as are seeking
after the inheritance of God. For the law promulgated on Horeb is now old,
and belongs to yourselves alone; but this is for all universally. Now, law
placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant
which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal
and final law—namely, Christ—has been given to us, and the covenant is
trustworthy, after which there shall be no law, no commandment, no ordinance.
Have you not read this which Isaiah says: ‘Hearken unto Me, hearken unto Me,
my people; and, ye kings, give ear unto Me: for a law shall go forth from Me,
and My judgment shall be for a light to the nations. My righteousness
approaches swiftly, and My salvation shall go forth, and nations shall trust
in Mine arm?’ And by Jeremiah,
concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks: ‘Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with
their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of
the land of Egypt’). If, therefore, God proclaimed a new covenant which was
to be instituted, and this for a light of the nations, we see and are
persuaded that men approach God, leaving their idols and other
unrighteousness, through the name of Him who was crucified, Jesus Christ, and
abide by their confession even unto death, and maintain piety. Moreover, by
the works and by the attendant miracles, it is possible for all to understand
that He is the new law, and the new covenant, and the expectation of those
who out of every people wait for the good things of God. For the true
spiritual Israel, and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham (who in
uncircumcision was approved of and blessed by God on account of his faith, and
called the father of many nations), are we who have been led to God through
this crucified Christ, as shall be demonstrated while we proceed. (Dialogue,
11) “But if we do not admit this, we shall
be liable to fall into foolish opinions, as if it were not the same God who
existed in the times of Enoch and all the rest, who neither were circumcised
after the flesh, nor observed Sabbaths, nor any other rites, seeing that
Moses enjoined such observances; or that God has not wished each race of
mankind continually to perform the same righteous actions: to admit which,
seems to be ridiculous and absurd. Therefore we must confess that He, who is
ever the same, has commanded these and such like institutions on account of
sinful men, and we must declare Him to be benevolent, foreknowing, needing
nothing, righteous and good. But if this be not so, tell me, sir, what you
think of those matters which we are investigating.” And when no one
responded: “Wherefore, Trypho, I will proclaim to you, and to those who wish
to become proselytes, the divine message which I heard from that man. Do you
see that the elements are not idle, and keep no Sabbaths? Remain as you were
born. For if there was no need of circumcision before Abraham, or of the
observance of Sabbaths, of feasts and sacrifices, before Moses; no more need
is there of them now, after that, according to the will of God, Jesus Christ
the Son of God has been born without sin, of a virgin sprung from the stock
of Abraham. For when Abraham himself was in uncircumcision, he was justified
and blessed by reason of the faith which he reposed in God, as the Scripture
tells. Moreover, the Scriptures and the facts themselves compel us to admit
that He received circumcision for a sign, and not for righteousness. So that
it was justly recorded concerning the people, that the soul which shall not
be circumcised on the eighth day shall be cut off from his family. And,
furthermore, the inability of the female sex to receive fleshly circumcision,
proves that this circumcision has been given for a sign, and not for a work
of righteousness. For God has given likewise to women the ability to observe
all things which are righteous and virtuous; but we see that the bodily form
of the male has been made different from the bodily form of the female; yet
we know that neither of them is righteous or unrighteous merely for this
cause, but [is considered righteous] by reason of piety and righteousness.
(Dialogue, 23) “Unless, therefore, a man by God’s great
grace receives the power to understand what has been said and done by the
prophets, the appearance of being able to repeat the words or the deeds will
not profit him, if he cannot explain the argument of them. And will they not
assuredly appear contemptible to many, since they are related by those who
understood them not? For if one should wish to ask you why, since Enoch, Noah
with his sons, and all others in similar circumstances, who neither were circumcised
nor kept the Sabbath, pleased God, God demanded by other leaders, and by the
giving of the law after the lapse of so many generations, that those who
lived between the times of Abraham and of Moses be justified by circumcision,
and that those who lived after Moses be justified by circumcision and the
other ordinances—to wit, the Sabbath, and sacrifices, and libations, and
offerings; [God will be slandered] unless you show, as I have already said,
that God who foreknew was aware that your nation would deserve expulsion from
Jerusalem, and that none would be permitted to enter into it. (For6 you are
not distinguished in any other way than by the fleshly circumcision, as I
remarked previously. For Abraham was declared by God to be righteous, not on account
of circumcision, but on account of faith. For before he was circumcised the
following statement was made regarding him: ‘Abraham believed God, and it was
accounted unto him for righteousness.’ And we, therefore, in the
uncircumcision of our flesh, believing God through Christ, and having that
circumcision which is of advantage to us who have acquired it—namely, that of
the heart—we hope to appear righteous before and well-pleasing to God: since
already we have received His testimony through the words of the prophets.)
[And, further, God will be slandered unless you show] that you were commanded
to observe the Sabbath, and to present offerings, and that the Lord submitted
to have a place called by the name of God, in order that, as has been said,
you might not become impious and godless by worshipping idols and forgetting
God, as indeed you do always appear to have been. (Now, that God enjoined the
ordinances of Sabbaths and offerings for these reasons, I have proved in what
I previously remarked; but for the sake of those who came to-day, I wish to
repeat nearly the whole.) For if this is not the case, God will be slandered,
as having no foreknowledge, and as not teaching all men to know and to do the
same acts of righteousness (for many generations of men appear to have
existed before Moses); and the Scripture is not true which affirms that ‘God
is true and righteous, and all His ways are judgments, and there is no
unrighteousness in him.’ But since the Scripture is true, God is always
willing that such even as you be neither foolish nor lovers of yourselves, in
order that you may obtain the salvation of Christ,2 who pleased God, and
received testimony from Him, as I have already said, by alleging proof from
the holy words of prophecy. (Dialogue, 92) Then I said again, “Would you suppose,
sirs, that we could ever have understood these matters in the Scriptures, if
we had not received grace to discern by the will of Him whose pleasure it
was? in order that the saying of Moses might come to pass, ‘They provoked me
with strange [gods], they provoked me to anger with their abominations. They
sacrificed to demons whom they knew not; new gods that came newly up, whom
their fathers knew not. Thou hast forsaken God that begat thee, and forgotten
God that brought thee up. And the Lord saw, and was jealous, and was provoked
to anger by reason of the rage of His sons and daughters: and He said, I will
turn My face away from them, and I will show what shall come on them at the
last; for it is a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They
have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God, they have provoked Me
to anger with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with that which
is not a nation, I will provoke them to anger with a foolish people. For a
fire is kindled from Mine anger, and it shall burn to Hades. It shall consume
the earth and her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains;
I will heap mischief on them.’11 And after that Righteous One was put to
death, we flourished as another people, and shot forth as new and prosperous
corn; as the prophets said, ‘And many nations shall betake themselves to the
Lord in that day for a people: and they shall dwell in the midst of all the
earth.’ But we are not only a people, but also a holy people, as we have
shown already. ‘And they shall call them the holy people, redeemed by the
Lord.’2 Therefore we are not a people to be despised, nor a barbarous race,
nor such as the Carian and Phrygian nations; but God has even chosen us, and He
has become manifest to those who asked not after Him. ‘Behold, I am God,’ He
says, ‘to the nation which called not on My name.’ For this is that nation
which God of old promised to Abraham, when He declared that He would make him
a father of many nations; not meaning, however, the Arabians, or Egyptians,
or Idumæans, since Ishmael became the father of a mighty nation, and so did
Esau; and there is now a great multitude of Ammonites. Noah, moreover, was
the father of Abraham, and in fact of all men; and others were the
progenitors of others. What larger measure of grace, then, did Christ bestow
on Abraham? This, namely, that He called him with His voice by the like
calling, telling him to quit the land wherein he dwelt. And He has called all
of us by that voice, and we have left already the way of living in which we
used to spend our days, passing our time in evil after the fashions of the
other inhabitants of the earth; and along with Abraham we shall inherit the
holy land, when we shall receive the inheritance for an endless eternity,
being children of Abraham through the like faith. For as he believed the
voice of God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, in like manner we,
having believed God’s voice spoken by the apostles of Christ, and promulgated
to us by the prophets, have renounced even to death all the things of the
world. Accordingly, He promises to him a nation of similar faith,
God-fearing, righteous, and delighting the Father; but it is not you, ‘in
whom is no faith.’ (Dialogue, 119) |
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Universal Sinfulness of Israel: Paul |
Universal Sinfulness of Israel: Justin
Marty |
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Rom 3 |
And Trypho said, “Why do you select and
quote whatever you wish from the prophetic writings, but do not refer to
those which expressly command the Sabbath to be observed? For Isaiah thus
speaks: ‘If thou shalt turn away thy foot from the Sabbaths, so as not to do
thy pleasure on the holy day, and shalt call the Sabbaths the holy delights
of thy God; if thou shalt not lift thy foot to work, and shalt not speak a
word from thine own mouth; then thou shalt trust in the Lord, and He shall
cause thee to go up to the good things of the land; and He shall feed thee
with the inheritance of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it.’ ” And I replied, “I have passed them by,
my friends, not because such prophecies were contrary to me, but because you
have understood, and do understand, that although God commands you by all the
prophets to do the same things which He also commanded by Moses, it was on
account of the hardness of your hearts, and your ingratitude towards Him,
that He continually proclaims them, in order that, even in this way, if you
repented, you might please Him, and neither sacrifice your children to
demons, nor be partakers with thieves, nor lovers of gifts, nor hunters after
revenge, nor fail in doing judgment for orphans, nor be inattentive to the
justice due to the widow nor have your hands full of blood. ‘For the
daughters of Zion have walked with a high neck, both sporting by winking with
their eyes, and sweeping along their dresses. For they are all gone aside,’
He exclaims, ‘they are all become useless. There is none that understands,
there is not so much as one. With their tongues they have practised deceit,
their throat is an open sepulchre, the poison of asps is under their lips,
destruction and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not
known.’2 So that, as in the beginning, these things were enjoined you because
of your wickedness, in like manner because of your stedfastness in it, or
rather your increased proneness to it, by means of the same precepts He calls
you to a remembrance or knowledge of it. But you are a people hard-hearted
and without understanding, both blind and lame, children in whom is no faith,
as He Himself says, honouring Him only with your lips, far from Him in your
hearts, teaching doctrines that are your own and not His. For, tell me, did
God wish the priests to sin when they offer the sacrifices on the Sabbaths?
or those to sin, who are circumcised and do circumcise on the Sabbaths; since
He commands that on the eighth day—even though it happen to be a
Sabbath—those who are born shall be always circumcised? or could not the
infants be operated upon one day previous or one day subsequent to the
Sabbath, if He knew that it is a sinful act upon the Sabbaths? Or why did He
not teach those—who are called righteous and pleasing to Him, who lived
before Moses and Abraham, who were not circumcised in their foreskin, and
observed no Sabbaths—to keep these institutions?” (Dialogue, 27) |
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Circumcision of the heart: Paul |
Circumcision of the heart: Justin Martyr |
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Rom 2-3 |
“What I mean is this. Jesus (Joshua), as
I have now frequently remarked, who was called Oshea, when he was sent to spy
out the land of Canaan, was named by Moses Jesus (Joshua). Why he did this
you neither ask, nor are at a loss about it, nor make strict inquiries.
Therefore Christ has escaped your notice; and though you read, you understand
not; and even now, though you hear that Jesus is our Christ, you consider not
that the name was bestowed on Him not purposelessly nor by chance. But you
make a theological discussion as to why one ‘α’ was added to Abraham’s first
name; and as to why one ‘ρ’ was added to Sarah’s name, you use similar
high-sounding disputations. But why do you not similarly investigate the
reason why the name of Oshea the son of Nave (Nun), which his father gave
him, was changed to Jesus (Joshua)? But since not only was his name altered,
but he was also appointed successor to Moses, being the only one of his
contemporaries who came out from Egypt, he led the surviving people into the
Holy Land; and as he, not Moses, led the people into the Holy Land, and as he
distributed it by lot to those who entered along with him, so also Jesus the
Christ will turn again the dispersion of the people, and will distribute the
good land to each one, though not in the same manner. For the former gave
them a temporary inheritance, seeing he was neither Christ who is God, nor
the Son of God; but the latter, after the holy resurrection,4 shall give us
the eternal possession. The former, after he had been named Jesus (Joshua),
and after he had received strength from His Spirit, caused the sun to stand
still. For I have proved that it was Jesus who appeared to and conversed with
Moses, and Abraham, and all the other patriarchs without exception,
ministering to the will of the Father; who also, I say, came to be born man
by the Virgin Mary, and lives for ever. For the latter is He after whom and
by whom the Father will renew both the heaven and the earth; this is He who
shall shine an eternal light in Jerusalem; this is he who is the king of
Salem after the order of Melchizedek, and the eternal Priest of the Most
High. The former is said to have circumcised the people a second time with
knives of stone (which was a sign of this circumcision with which Jesus
Christ Himself has circumcised us from the idols made of stone and of other
materials), and to have collected together those who were circumcised from
the uncircumcision, i.e., from the error of the world, in every place by the
knives of stone, to wit, the words of our Lord Jesus. For I have shown that
Christ was proclaimed by the prophets in parables a Stone and a Rock.
Accordingly the knives of stone we shall take to mean His words, by means of
which so many who were in error have been circumcised from uncircumcision
with the circumcision of the heart, with which God by Jesus commanded those
from that time to be circumcised who derived their circumcision from Abraham,
saying that Jesus (Joshua) would circumcise a second time with knives of
stone those who entered into that holy land. (Dialogue, 113; cf. 43 and 92
quoted above) |
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Gal 3:10, 13 |
Possible Allusion to Gal 3:10, 13 in
Justin |
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For all who rely on the works of the law
are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not
observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” . . . And
the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led
astray by their hypocrisy. (NRSV) |
“For the whole human race will be found
to be under a curse. For it is written in the law of Moses, ‘Cursed is every
one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law
to do them.’ And no one has accurately done all, nor will you venture to deny
this; but some more and some less than others have observed the ordinances
enjoined. But if those who are under this law appear to be under a curse for
not having observed all the requirements, how much more shall all the nations
appear to be under a curse who practise idolatry, who seduce youths, and
commit other crimes? If, then, the Father of all wished His Christ for the
whole human family to take upon Him the curses of all, knowing that, after He
had been crucified and was dead, He would raise Him up, why do you argue
about Him, who submitted to suffer these things according to the Father’s
will, as if He were accursed, and do not rather bewail yourselves? For
although His Father caused Him to suffer these things in behalf of the human
family, yet you did not commit the deed as in obedience to the will of God.
For you did not practise piety when you slew the prophets. And let none of
you say: If His Father wished Him to suffer this, in order that by His
stripes the human race might be healed, we have done no wrong. If, indeed,
you repent of your sins, and recognise Him to be Christ, and observe His
commandments, then you may assert this; for, as I have said before, remission
of sins shall be yours. But if you curse Him and them that believe on Him,
and, when you have the power, put them to death, how is it possible that
requisition shall not be made of you, as of unrighteous and sinful men,
altogether hard-hearted and without understanding, because you laid your
hands on Him? (Dialogue, 95) “For the statement in the law, ‘Cursed
is every one that hangeth on a tree,’ confirms our hope which depends on the
crucified Christ, not because He who has been crucified is cursed by God, but
because God foretold that which would be done by you all, and by those like
to you, who do not know4 that this is He who existed before all, who is the
eternal Priest of God, and King, and Christ. And you clearly see that this
has come to pass. For you curse in your synagogues all those who are called
from Him Christians; and other nations effectively carry out the curse, putting
to death those who simply confess themselves to be Christians; to all of whom
we say, You are our brethren; rather recognise the truth of God. And while
neither they nor you are persuaded by us, but strive earnestly to cause us to
deny the name of Christ, we choose rather and submit to death, in the full
assurance that all the good which God has promised through Christ He will
reward us with. And in addition to all this we pray for you, that Christ may
have mercy upon you. For He taught us to pray for our enemies also, saying,
‘Love your enemies; be kind and merciful, as your heavenly Father is.’ For we
see that the Almighty God is kind and merciful, causing His sun to rise on
the unthankful and on the righteous, and sending rain on the holy and on the
wicked; all of whom He has taught us He will judge. (Dialogue, 96) |
Some may ask “why didn’t Justin simply copy
out a passage from Paul, except for quotations from the Old Testament, in his
Dialogue with Trypho and only present allusions thereto?” Matthew J. Thomas offered the following response:
First, in relation to
the Dialogue’s audience, Rensberger notes that “Otto and C. Semisch
already suggested the Jewish addresses of the Dialogue as a sufficient reason
for not bringing up Paul” (Rensberger, “As the Apostle Teaches,” 188), and
continues, “One wonders what Justin would have said about Paul if he had spoken
of him: that he was a Pharisee and persecutor of the church, who however became
a Christian and taught us not to observe the Law? Trypho no doubt knew of one
or two such persons himself (cf. Dial. 39.2), and is unlikely to have been
impressed by the example” (Rensberger, “As the Apostle Teaches,” 189).
Rensberger’s suggestion that a Jewish audience would make explicit reference to
Paul less likely indeed finds attestation as far back as the second century: as
Clement of Alexandria writes regarding Paul’s authorship of Hebrews, “in
writing to Hebrews who had conceived a prejudice against him and were suspicious
of him, [Paul] very wisely did not repel them at the beginning by putting his
name” (Preserved in Hist. Eccl. 6.14.3). Second, as Rensberger
recognizes (with reference to Stylianopoulos), Justin is consistent in his
promise to Trypho to engage only agreed-on authorities, so that “even [Jesus]
is not appealed to in the Dialogue” as an authority (Rensberger, “As the
Apostle Teaches,” 189; cf. Stylianopoulos, Justin Martyr, 165). This
accounts for the lack of explicit Pauline appeal, and while it is possible that
Justin could “copy out a passage from Paul” (as he appears to do with his OT
citations) and introduce it into the discussion without attribution, such a
move would seem likely to undermine the apologist’s credibility with his
reading in a text where he pledges to refrain from “basing my arguments about
Christ upon writings which you [Trypho] do not recognize,” and rather “only
upon those writings recognized by you until now as authentic” (Dial. 130.5,
translation adjusted; cf. 28.2, 71.2).
This proves to be the
final piece of the puzzle: Justin’s frequent echoes of Paul—which even most
agnostics admit to hearing, even if they believe them to come via secondary sources—must
be allusive, and not verbatim citation of texts, if Justin is to remain within
the agreed-on grounds of his debate. Justin’s concern to remain within these
grounds can be witnessed throughout the Dialogue, beginning with his
reticence to mention the words of Jesus, which he does only briefly and apologetically
at Dialogue 18.1, stating that to do so seems ουκ ατοπον on the
grounds that Trypho had previously introduced them into the discussion and
attested to reading them (Dial. 10.2). (Matthew J. Thomas, Paul’s “Works of
the Law" in the Perspective of Second-Century Reception [Downers Grove,
Ill.: IVP Academic, 2020], 202-3; see “Justin and Paul,” pp. 191-207, for a
lengthy discussion of allusions to Paul’s epistles in Dialogue with Trypho)