First Apology 57 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Rauschen, 94

Οὐ γὰρ μὴ γενέσθαι τὴν ἐκπύρωσιν ἐπὶ κολάσει τῶν ἀσεβῶν οἱ φαῦλοι δαίμονες πεῖσαι δύνανται, ὅνπερ τρόπον οὐδὲ λαθεῖν τὸν Χριστὸν παραγενόμενον ἴσχυσαν πρᾶξαι, ἀλλʼ ἐκεῖνο μόνον, τοὺς ἀλόγως βιοῦντας καὶ ἐμπαθῶς ἐν ἔθεσι φαύλοις τεθραμμένους καὶ φιλοδοξοῦντας ἀναιρεῖν ἡμᾶς καὶ μισεῖν, δύνανται ποιῆσαι· οὓς οὐ μόνον οὐ μισοῦμεν, ἀλλʼ, ὡς δείκνυται, ἐλεοῦντες μεταθέσθαι πεῖσαι βουλόμεθα. Οὐ γὰρ δεδοίκαμεν θάνατον, τοῦ πάντως ἀποθανεῖν ὁμολογουμένου, καὶ μηδενὸς ἄλλου καινοῦ ἀλλʼ ἢ τῶν αὐτῶν ἐν τῇδε τῇ διοικήσει ὄντων· ὧν εἰ μὴ κόρος τοὺς μετασχόντας κἂν ἐνιαυτοῦ ἔχῃ, ἵνα ἀεὶ ὦσι καὶ ἀπαθεῖς καὶ ἀνενδεεῖς, τοῖς ἡμετέροις διδάγμασι προσέχειν δεῖ. Εἰ δʼ ἀπιστοῦσι μηδὲν εἶναι μετὰ θάνατον, ἀλλʼ εἰς ἀναισθησίαν χωρεῖν τοὺς ἀποθνήσκοντας ἀποφαίνονται, παθῶν τῶν ἐνταῦθα καὶ χρειῶν ἡμᾶς ῥυόμενοι εὐεργετοῦσιν, ἑαυτοὺς δὲ φαύλους καὶ μισανθρώπους καὶ φιλοδόξους δεικνύουσιν· οὐ γὰρ ὡς ἀπαλλάξοντες ἡμᾶς ἀναιροῦσιν, ἀλλʼ ὡς ἀποστεροῦντες ζωῆς καὶ ἡδονῆς φονεύουσι.

English · Claude translation

For the evil demons cannot persuade people that there will be no conflagration for the punishment of the ungodly, just as they were not able to make Christ remain hidden after he came; but this alone they can do: make those who live irrationally, brought up in passion and in evil customs, and who love glory, kill and hate us. Yet we not only do not hate them, but, as is shown, pitying them, we wish to persuade them to change. For we do not fear death, since it is agreed that all will certainly die, and there is nothing new, but the same things in this order of the world. If those who partake of these things are not sated with them even in a year, they ought to attend to our teachings so that they may be forever without suffering and without need. But if they do not believe that there is anything after death, but declare that those who die pass into insensibility, then they do us a kindness by freeing us from the sufferings and needs of this life, and show themselves wicked and haters of mankind and lovers of glory; for they do not kill us as though to release us, but murder us as though to rob us of life and pleasure.

About this passage

Source

Rauschen, 94 · Gerhard Rauschen, ed., S. Iustini Apologiae duae, Florilegium Patristicum 2 (Bonn: Hanstein, 1911), 8–114 · Greek text: G. Rauschen, S. Iustini Apologiae duae (Florilegium Patristicum 2, 1911), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Rauschen (Florilegium Patristicum 2, 1911); made independently of existing English translations.

Topics

Persecution, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

“If those who partake…”: the sentence is compressed and its sense debated. Justin seems to mean that the round of this life repeats itself, so anyone weary of it should seek the lasting life Christians teach.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (damaged spot in the digital text; restored from the sense; digitization slip against Rauschen's printed text (ι for υ)): καινοῖ → καινοῦ; (??)ποστεροῦντες → ἀποστεροῦντες.

Cite this passage

Justin, 1 Apol. 57 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-1-apology/57/).

Plain text

Justin, 1 Apol. 57 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-1-apology/57/).