First Apology 59 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Rauschen, 94–96

Ἵνα δὲ καὶ παρὰ τῶν ἡμετέρων διδασκάλων, λέγομεν δὲ τοῦ λόγου τοῦ διὰ τῶν προφητῶν, λαβόντα τὸν Πλάτωνα μάθητε τὸ εἰπεῖν, ὕλην ἄμορφον οὖσαν στρέψαντα τὸν θεὸν κόσμον ποιῆσαι, ἀκούσατε τῶν αὐτολεξεὶ εἰρημένων διὰ Μωυσέως, τοῦ προδεδηλωμένου πρώτου προφήτου καὶ πρεσβυτέρου τῶν ἐν Ἕλλησι συγγραφέων, διʼ οὗ μηνύον τὸ προφητικὸν πνεῦμα, πῶς τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ ἐκ τίνων ἐδημιούργησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ἔφη οὕτως· „Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν. Ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος, καὶ σκότος ἐπάνω τῆς ἀβύσσου· καὶ πνεῦμα θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τῶν ὑδάτων. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός· Γενηθήτω φῶς. Καὶ ἐγένετο οὕτως“. Ὥστε λόγῳ θεοῦ ἐκ τῶν ὑποκειμένων καὶ προδηλωθέντων διὰ Μωυσέως γεγενῆσθαι τὸν πάντα κόσμον, καὶ Πλάτων καὶ οἱ ταὐτὰ λέγοντες καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐμάθομεν, καὶ ὑμεῖς πεισθῆναι δύνασθε. Καὶ τὸ καλούμενον Ἔρεβος παρὰ τοῖς ποιηταῖς εἰρῆσθαι πρότερον ὑπὸ Μωϋσέως οἴδαμεν.

English · Claude translation

And so that you may learn that Plato took from our teachers, I mean from the Word speaking through the prophets, his saying that God made the world by changing formless matter, hear the very words spoken through Moses, who was shown above to be the first prophet and older than the writers among the Greeks. Through him the prophetic Spirit, indicating how and from what God made the world in the beginning, spoke thus: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss; and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters. And God said, Let there be light. And it was so.” So that both Plato and those who say the same things, and we ourselves, have learned, and you too can be persuaded, that by the word of God the whole world came into being out of the underlying things foretold by Moses. And we know that what the poets call Erebus was spoken of before by Moses.

About this passage

Source

Rauschen, 94–96 · 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.

Scripture

Gen 1:1 · quotation, high confidence
Gen 1:2 · quotation, high confidence
Gen 1:3 · quotation, high confidence

Extrabiblical texts

Plato, Tim. 30a (Plato (works)) · allusion, medium confidence

Topics

Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

Justin reads Gen 1:2 (“invisible and unformed”) as matter prior to the ordered world, and seems to accept its use by Plato; later Christian writers insisted more explicitly on creation from nothing.
Plato, Timaeus 30a, 69b; Erebus: Hesiod, Theogony 123, the darkness of Gen 1:2.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Rauschen's printed text (missing accent); digitization slip against Rauschen's printed text (wrong breathing and missing accent); punctuation slip in the digital text): διὰ Μωυσέως. τοῦ → διὰ Μωυσέως, τοῦ; ἐν Ἐλλησι → ἐν Ἕλλησι; πάντα κόσμον. καὶ Πλάτων → πάντα κόσμον, καὶ Πλάτων; οἰδαμεν → οἴδαμεν.

Cite this passage

Justin, 1 Apol. 59 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-1-apology/59/).

Plain text

Justin, 1 Apol. 59 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-1-apology/59/).