And almost all the Samaritans,
and a few even in other nations, worship this man and confess him, as the first
god; and a woman Helena who went about with him at that time, and had formerly
been a public prostitute, they say was the first idea generated by him. And a
certain man Menander, also a Samaritan, of the village of Capparetaea, who had
been a disciple of Simon’s, and inspired by demons, we know to have deceived
many while he was in Antioch by his magical arts, who even persuaded his
followers that they would never die; and even now there are some living who
profess this from him. And there is a certain Marcion of Pontus, who is even
now teaching his disciples to believe in some other god greater than the
Demiurge; who by the aid of the demons, has caused many of every race of men
and women to speak blasphemies and to deny that God is the Maker of this
Universe, and to profess that another, who is greater than He, has done greater
works. All who take their opinions from these people, as we said before, are
called Christians, just as also those philosophers who do not share the same
views are yet all called by one common name of philosophy. (Justin Maryr,
First Apology 26, St. Justin Martyr: The First and Second Apologies
[trans. Leslie William Barnard; Ancient Christian Writers 56; New York: Paulist
Press, 1997], 40-41)
The Greek for the text in bold reads:
Πάντες οἱ ἀπὸ τούτων ὁρμώμενοι, ὡς
ἔφημεν, Χριστιανοὶ καλοῦνται, ὃν τρόπον καὶ οἱ οὐ κοινωνοῦντες τῶν αὐτῶν δογμάτων
τοῖς φιλοσόφοις τὸ ἐπικατηγορούμενον ὄνομα τῆς φιλοσοφίας κοινὸν ἔχουσιν.
In a note (ibid., n. 41):
Justin is emphatic that this is
the distinguishing name of Christians; cf. 1
Apol. 4 and 26. The formation of the name accords with the Latin method of
adding ianus-ianos to a personal
name, as in Hērōdianoi in Mk 3:6;
12:13. This may suggest that the word Christos
had come to be regarded as a proper name when this derivative was formed.
Non-Christians apparently used it as a nickname, which may account for its
absence from the writings of the Apostolic Fathers (with the exception of
Ignatius). By Justin’s time, however, it was the distinguishing name of
believers although Gnostics and semi-Christians also used it (cf. 1 Apol. 26). On this name see A. Gercke,
“Der Christenname ein Scheltname,” in Festschrift
zur Jahrhundertfeier der Universitat Breslau (Breslau, 1911), 360–65; P. de
Labriolle, “Christianus,” Bulletin Du
Cange 5 (1930): 69–88; and H. J. Cadbury, “Names for Christians and
Christianity in Acts” in BC 5 (1933),
383–86.
