In his First Apology, Justin reads Luke 1:35 as teaching that the premortal Jesus (the λογος), whom he also numerically identified with the “power of God,” appeared to Mary and overshadowed her:
And hear again how
Isaiah in express words foretold that He should be born of a virgin; for he
spoke thus: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a son, and
they shall say for His name, ‘God with us.' "For things which were
incredible and seemed impossible with men, these God predicted by the Spirit of
prophecy as about to come to pass, in order that, when they came to pass, there
might be no unbelief, but faith, because of their prediction. But lest some,
not understanding the prophecy now cited, should charge us with the very things
we have been laying to the charge of the poets who say that Jupiter went in to
women through lust, let us try to explain the words. This, then, "Behold,
a virgin shall conceive," signifies that a virgin should conceive without
intercourse. For if she had had intercourse with any one whatever, she was no
longer a virgin; but the power of God having come upon the virgin, overshadowed
her, and caused her while yet a virgin to conceive. And the angel of God who
was sent to the same virgin at that time brought her good news, saying,
"Behold, thou shalt conceive of the Holy Ghost, and shalt bear a Son, and
He shall be called the Son of the Highest, and thou shalt call His name Jesus;
for He shall save His people from their sins,"--as they who have recorded
all that concerns our Saviour Jesus Christ have taught, whom we believed, since
by Isaiah also, whom we have now adduced, the Spirit of prophecy declared that
He should be born as we intimated before. It is wrong, therefore, to
understand the Spirit and the power of God as anything else than the Word,
who is also the first-born of God, as the foresaid prophet Moses declared; and
it was this which, when it came upon the virgin and overshadowed her, caused
her to conceive, not by intercourse, but by power. And the name Jesus in the
Hebrew language means Σωτήρ (Saviour) in the Greek tongue. Wherefore, too, the
angel said to the virgin, "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins." And that the prophets are inspired4 by
no other than the Divine Word, even you, as I fancy, will grant. (First
Apology, XXXIII [ANF 1:174])
This identification of the “Word/λογος = Power
of God = (Holy) Spirit that came upon Mary” interpretation can also be found elsewhere:
But lest some should,
without reason, and for the perversion of what we teach, maintain that we say
that Christ was born one hundred and fifty years ago under Cyrenius, and
subsequently, in the time of Pontius Pilate, taught what we say He taught; and
should cry out against us as though all men who were born before Him were
irresponsible --let us anticipate and solve the difficulty. We have been taught
that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have declared above that He is the
Word of whom every race of men were partakers; and those who lived reasonably
are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the
Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like them; and among the barbarians,
Abraham, and Ananias, and Azarias, and Misael, and Elias, and many others whose
actions and names we now decline to recount, because we know it would be
tedious. So that even they who lived before Christ, and lived without reason,
were wicked and hostile to Christ, and slew those who lived reasonably. But
who, through the power of the Word, according to the will of God the Father and
Lord of all, He was born of a virgin as a man, and was named Jesus, and was
crucified, and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, an intelligent
man will be able to comprehend from what has been already so largely said. And
we, since the proof of this subject is less needful now, will pass for the
present to the proof of those things which are urgent. (First Apology, XLVI
[ANF 1:178])
And this food is
called among us Εὐχαριστία [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to
partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and
who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and
unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as
common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus
Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh
and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food
which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh
by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was
made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called
Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus
took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, "This do ye in remembrance
of Me, this is My body;" and that, after the same manner, having taken the
cup and given thanks, He said, "This is My blood;" and gave it to
them alone. Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras,
commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are
placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being
initiated, you either know or can learn. (First Apology, LXVI [ANF 1:185])
