In First Apology, 45, Justin quotes from the psalter, such as Psa 2 and 110:
And
that God the Father of all would bring Christ to heaven after He had raised Him
from the dead, and would keep Him there until He has subdued His enemies the
devils, and until the number of those who are foreknown by Him as good and
virtuous is complete, on whose account He has still delayed the
consummation--hear what was said by the prophet David. These are his words:
"The Lord said unto My Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine
enemies Thy footstool. The Lord shall send to Thee the rod of power out of
Jerusalem; and rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies. With Thee is the government
in the day of Thy power, in the beauties of Thy saints: from the womb of
morning have I begotten Thee." That which he says, "He shall send
to Thee the rod of power out of Jerusalem," is predictive of the mighty,
word, which His apostles, going forth from Jerusalem, preached everywhere; and
though death is decreed against those who teach or at all confess the name of
Christ, we everywhere both embrace and teach it. And if you also read these
words in a hostile spirit, ye can do no more, as I said before, than kill us;
which indeed does no harm to us, but to you and all who unjustly hate us, and
do not repent, brings eternal punishment by fire. (ANF 1:178)
The quotation from Psa 110:3 (LXX:
109:3) in the Greek of Justin’s First Apology is ἐκ γαστρὸς πρὸ ἑωσφόρου ἐγέννησά
σε. As Leslie William Barnard notes:
Ps 110:1–3; cf. Mt 22:44; Acts 2:34, 35; 1
Cor 15:25; Heb 1:13, 10:12, 13. This psalm was given a Messianic application in
late and rabbinic Judaism (see the Excursus
in H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und
Midrash, 4 [Munich,
1922–1961], 452–65) and became one of the primary testimonia of the early Church being applied to the exaltation and
heavenly session of Jesus Christ. On the theological implications of Ps 110 see
J. Daniélou, “La Session à la droite du Père,” in Studia
Evangelica (Berlin, 1959), 689–98, and B. Lindars, New Testament Apologetic (London, 1961), 45–51, who argues that Ps
110:1 was originally a comment on Ps 16:11. Ps 110:3, quoted here by Justin,
later played a great part in the Arian controversy. (St. Justin Martyr: The First and Second
Apologies [trans. Leslie William Barnard; New York: Paulist Press, 1997], Logos
Edition)
