In First Apology 6, we read the following:
Hence
we are called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists with reference to
gods such as these, but not with reference to the most true God, the Father of
righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is unmixed with evil.
But we worship and adore both Him and the Son who came from Him, and taught us
these things, and the army of the other good angels, who follow Him and
are made like Him, and the prophetic Spirit, giving honor [to Him] in reason
and truth; and to everyone who wishes to learn handing over without grudging,
what we have been taught. (St. Justin Martyr: The First and Second Apologies
[trans. Leslie William Barnard; New York: Paulist Press, 1997], 26)
According to Barnard
This is one of the most enigmatic passages in
1 Apol. Attempts have been made to
avoid the sudden and embarrassing introduction of angels before the prophetic
Spirit. Thus straton has been taken
as the object of didaxanta, either
parallel to hēmas, i.e., “and taught
us and taught the army of the good angels,” or parallel to tauta, i.e., “and taught us these things and [belief in] the army
of the good angels.” Both of these are unconvincing and are strained
interpretations of the text. Straton
has also been emended to stratēgon,
so as to refer to Christ as the Head of the angels. See Otto’s note (Otto,
21–23). If, however, the text is taken as it stands, worship and adoration, in
a liturgical context, are addressed to God the Father of Righteousness, the Son
who came from Him, the army of the good angels, and the prophetic Spirit.
Justin closely connects the good angels with Jesus as the messengers of God who
would accompany Him in His glory at the last day. In a remarkable passage in Dial. 128 he states that, as the logos
has a separate, permanent existence from the Father, so there are angels who
have a permanent existence. It is Justin’s Christology that is at the root of
his theory of the origin of angels and he clearly goes beyond Jewish tradition,
which held only to a temporary existence for angels. Cf. T. B. Chagiga 14A;
Genesis Rabba 78; Echa to 3.23 quoted by Goodenough, 190–91. (But cf. Philo De Plant. 46, who says Moses prayed to
the powers.) So here Justin does not withhold worship and adoration from the
good angels who, like Jesus, have a permanent existence. His main attention is
focused on the doctrine of the logos rather than on a trinitarian theology.
While he fully accepted the Trinity on the authority of the Church’s teaching
and liturgical usage, his expression here is somewhat loose and untechnical—the
language of Christian experience rather than of theological reflection.
According to Gildersleeve
5. ἐκεῖνον …
στρατόν: Nobis
semel constitutum est controversias theolegicas in hoc opere non attingere
(Thirlby). I desire to follow Thirlby’s good example. The only natural
translation of the text, as it stands, commits Justin to the worship of angels.
I leave others to reconcile this with cc. 13 and 61. Comp. also the very strong
language of Origen, c. Cels. 1, 26 and 3, 77: προσκυνεῖν καὶ θαυμάζειν καὶ σέβειν χρὴ μόνον τὸν ταῦτα πεποιηκότα. Add 5, 6. On the other hand, to make τὸν στρατόν depend on διδάξαντα, ‘who taught us and the host of angels,’ is
sadly strained. If the passage is to be emended, I would suggest τοῦ τῶν ἄλλων … στρατοῦ ἀρχισράτηγον. The mass of similar words might have led to
the dropping of ἀρχιστράτηγον. Christ is identified with the ἀρχιστράτηγος of Joshua 5:14, in Dial. c. T. 61, and,
unless I am mistaken, Eusebius, a great admirer of Justin, has this passage in
his mind (H. E. 1, 3) when he Calls Christ τὸν τῆς κατʼ οὐρανὸν λογικῆς καὶ ἀθανάτου στρατιᾶς ἀρχιστράτηγον. As to τῶν ἄλλων ἀγγέλων, every novice knows that in Gr. ἄλλος (ὁ ἄλλος) does not necessarily include as ‘another,’ ‘the other’ in English, and
even if it did here, Christ is often called an angel. So c. 63, 41, and in the
Dial. c. T. passim, e.g. 59. (Basil
L. Gildersleeve, The Apologies of Justin Martyr, to Which is Appended the
Epistle to Diognetus [New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1877], 117-18)