In First Apology 63, addressing how God appeared to Moses, Justin wrote that "Now the Word of God is His Son, as we have before said. And He is called Angel and Apostle (Ὁ λόγος δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ, ὡς προέφημεν) . . . " (ANF 1:184). Commenting on Jesus being called an “angel” by Justin, Leslie William Barnard wrote that
The synonym “Angel” is, however, not applied
in the New Testament to Christ. Holte, 126–27, following J. Barbel, Christos Angelos (Bonn, 1941), 50–51, is
sure that Justin is influenced by Philo in describing the logos-Christ as
“Angel.” It is true that Philo frequently gives the logos the epithet “Angel”
and interprets all angelic visions in the Old Testament as visitations of the
logos. However, in view of the prominence of the angel Christology in early
Christian writers (Barbel, Christos
Angelos, 18ff., 34ff.), which undoubtedly derives from the Old Testament,
it seems unnecessary to postulate Philo as its direct source. In fact Justin bases his view on Ex 3:1, “the angel
of the Lord appeared to [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of the
bush”; cf. Acts 7:30ff., which follows the LXX in stating that the angel
appeared at the same time as God’s voice was heard. In Dial. 60 Justin argues with Trypho, who claims that “angel” and
“God” are two different persons; according to Justin they are identical, for
logos is both God and Angel. It would seem Justin is simply basing his view on
Ex 3 (cf. Is 9:6 LXX) interpreted from the point of view of Middle Platonism
and the Wisdom literature, viz., that God is utterly transcendent and can come
into contact with this world only through the medium of the logos, who is
called “angel.” Philo, too, was influenced by Middle Platonism. (St. Justin Martyr: The First
and Second Apologies [trans. Leslie William Barnard; New York: Paulist
Press, 1997], Logos Edition)
