Justin Martyr
Justin
Martyr not only wrote apologies aimed at defending Christianity (and its sacred
texts) to a traditional polytheistic audience, he also engaged in a debate with
the Jew, Trypho. In both situations, Justin used Logos theology to explain the
appearance of God to certain individuals (for example, Abraham and Moses), but
he found it especially useful in proving the superiority of Christianity to
Judaism. In his first Apology, for example, Justin asserted that “all the Jews”
believe that it was the “nameless God” or “Father of the Universe” who appeared
or spoke to the patriarchs or prophets in Holy Scripture. This belief, he
claimed, clearly demonstrates that Jews are both ignorant of God as well as the
fact that God’s divine Word is also God. Furthermore, Justin continued, it was
the Logos who appeared to and spoke with Moses and the others, sometimes as
fire, but also sometimes in the guise of an angel or apostle. And when the
voice out of the bush said to Moses, “I am who I am—the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” it signified that all of these departed
patriarchs now belong to Christ (the Word who has come in the present age as a
human being). (1 Apol. 63)
In
his Dialogue with Trypho, Justin not only asserted but also attempted to prove
his point with a close reading of a number of biblical passages, including the
appearance of the three persons to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre (Gen 18). Noting
the different places in the Greek text (LXX) that one or another visitor is
referred to as “Lord” (kurios), Justin induced Trypho to acknowledge
that more than one figure is referred to in this way. In essence, this passage
clearly reveals another God or Lord, subject to the Creator but who exists
alongside of the Creator and is the one who carries the Creator’s messages to
humanity. (Dial. 56) To strengthen his argument, Justin then pointed out
various additional places in the Greek text of Genesis where more than one
being is called “God” or “Lord.” For example, he cited Psalm 45:6–7 where God
appears to be anointed by another God (“your God”) and Psalm 110:1 where the
Psalmist writes: “The Lord says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make
your enemies your footstool’.” (Dial. 56, cont.)
Concluding
his arguments, Justin contended that all other passages of scripture, in which
God is said to act, to move, to speak, or even to be seen, refer to the Word
rather than the Unbegotten God. In other words, all scriptural allusions to God
as being seen or heard (for example, Moses and the bush or Jacob wrestling with
the man at Peniel) are manifestations of God the Son or Logos (Dial.
57-60) This clear distinction between the First and the Second God was
absolutely necessary to Justin’s argument, in order to protect the utter
transcendence and incomprehensibility of the Supreme God and to assert the
mediating presence of the Logos. He summarized:
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 . . . Therefore, neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor
any other person, 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. (Dial.
127 [ANF 1:263])
According
to Justin, then, as a divine agent of the Unbegotten God, the Word can approach
and interact with the material and mortal realm. Such agency protects the
transcendence of the Supreme God, while allowing interaction with the creation
through God’s Word. After all, while mixing with creation was tough and dirty
work, some (divine) one one had to do it. (Robin M. Jensen, “Theophany and the
Invisible God in Early Christian Theology and Art,” in God in Early
Christian Thought: Essays in Memory of Lloyd G. Patterson, ed. Andrew B.
McGowan, Brian E. Daley, and Timothy J. Gaden [Supplements to Vigiliae
Christianae 94; Leiden: Brill, 2009], 277-78)
