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St. Justin Martyr
Hortatory Address to the Greeks

ScriptureChristology

Hortatory Address to the Greeks

St. Justin Martyr · c. 155–165 AD

1h 39m read

Ante-Nicene

An exhortation to Greeks to abandon pagan philosophy and embrace the truth of Christianity, demonstrating that Moses and the prophets predate Greek thinkers.

Table of Contents

1Reasons for addressing the Greeks 2The poets are unfit to be religious teachers 3Opinions of the school of Thales 4Opinions of Pythagoras and Epicurus 5Opinions of Plato and Aristotle 6Further disagreements between Plato and Aristotle 7Inconsistencies of Plato’s doctrine 8Antiquity, inspiration, and harmony of Christian teachers 9The antiquity of Moses proved by Greek writers 10Training and inspiration of Moses 11Heathen oracles testify of Moses 12Antiquity of Moses proved 13History of the Septuagint 14A warning appeal to the Greeks 15Testimony of Orpheus to monotheism 16Testimony of the Sibyl 17Testimony of Homer 18Testimony of Sophocles 19Testimony of Pythagoras 20Testimony of Plato 21The namelessness of God 22Studied ambiguity of Plato 23Plato’s self-contradiction 24Agreement of Plato and Homer 25Plato’s knowledge of God’s eternity 26Plato indebted to the prophets 27Plato’s knowledge of the judgment 28Homer’s obligations to the sacred writers 29Origin of Plato’s doctrine of form 30Homer’s knowledge of man’s origin 31Further proof of Plato’s acquaintance with Scripture 32Plato’s doctrine of the heavenly gift 33Plato’s idea of the beginning of time drawn from Moses 34Whence men attributed to God human form 35Appeal to the Greeks 36True knowledge not held by the philosophers 37Of the Sibyl 38Concluding appeal