The Apology was written by
Justin, probably ca. 155 CE, and it purports to be a petition written to the
emperor seeking relief for the persecuted Christian minority. IT survived the
Middle Ages, together with the Dialogue, in one single manuscript, the Parisinus
graecus 450. The manuscript is dated to 11 September 1364, and on 2 April
1541 a copy was made which still exists under the name Phillippicus 3081.
This poor manuscript tradition may seem strange when one reflects upon the
strong influence Justin exerted on later Christian tradition, but in fact such
cases are more norm than exception for second century Christian texts. The
works of many Christian writers from this period, whether mainstream or
sectarian, are completely lost to us save for the occasional fragment (Examples
of second century authors whose works only survives in fragments are Papias,
Marcion and Hegesippus as well as the apologists Quadratus, Apollinaris, and
Militiades) found in later Christian writers, and one must assume that there
were quite a number of authors whose names or works we know nothing of today at
all. Even in the case of the greatest Christian writer of the period, Irenaeus
of Lyons, the manuscript tradition is fairly weak and had history taken but a
slightly different turn, even his works might have been lost to the modern world
(see e.g. Eric Osborn, Irenaeus of Lyons [Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2001], 1). (David E. Nyström, The Apology of Justin
Martyr: Literary Strategies and the Defence of Christianity [Wissenschaftliche
untersuchungen zum neuen testament 462; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018], 11)
