Justin Martyr

Irenaeus Against Heresies Vol I of Ante-Nicean Fathers The Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Alexander Roberts James Donaldson, ed., Hendrickson Pubhshers, 1994... 

Theodotus eloquently expressed the manner in which Christians could reinterpret and rework a Graeco-Roman philosophical cosmology from the basis of their experience as converts to Christianity. In this, he is similar to his contemporary Tatian (120-180 ce). A Syrian by birth, Tatian had travelled to Rome, perhaps to study under Justin Martyr like Justin, we read that he arrived in the great city after becoming disenchanted with his quest for truth Ad Graec. 29.1). 

The three Christians on whom I have focused in this chapter— Theo-dotus, Justin Martyr, and Tatian—all believed that baptism had provided the opportunity for a deeply spiritual experience in which they were drawn closer to the divine source or illuminated. Baptism—at least ideally— permitted the initiate to experience the full impact of a savior s power, as he or she was transported spiritually out of the cosmos onto a new plane of spiritual existence. This journey, however it was experienced, provided a new birth, a new genesis for the individual. It removed the individual from a hfe in which he or she was blindly enslaved to sin, into a new life in which he or she hved in moral freedom. Christians of the second century universally agreed that baptism, as an event, had resounding cosmological ramifications. Justin, Tatian and Theodotus leave us the testimonials of three Christians who experienced the full force of baptism as a profound event, capable of drawing the individual into a new relationship with the cosmos. 

Justin Martyr. The Apologies of Justin Martyr. Edited by Basil Gildersleeve. New York, 1877. 

An Early Christian Philosopher Justin Martyr s Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters One to Nine. Introduction, text and commentaiy by J.C.M. van Winden. Leiden EJ. Brill, 1971. 

Facing the Beast Justin Martyr, Seneca, and the Emotional Life of the Martyr. In Stoicism and Early Christianity, edited by Ismo Dunderberg and Tuomas Rasimus, 176-198. Peabody, MA Hendrickson, 2010. 

Dial. Tryph. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Ttypho EcLProph. Clement of Alexandria, Prophetic Ecbgues... 

See Augustine, Confessions book 12. Many Fathers used the Timaeus to interpret Genesis 1.1-2, including Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius and Augustine. 

Martyrdom was the essential prerequisite for resurrection in the view of the early Christian fathers such as Justin, Irenaeus and Tertullian. After the Last Judgement, the martyrs and ascetics would receive their compensation, rising again with glorified bodies to become priests of God, ruling the earth with him. 

Justin, Apologia (Prima). L apologie de Saint Justin philosophe et martyr. Edited by Charles Munier. Fribourg Editions universitaires, 1995. 

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