Justin Martyr, a second‑century philosopher, became Christianity’s first major defender, and his works explore faith, reason, prophecy, and even the fallen angels.
Justin Martyr was a second‑century Christian philosopher and the most important early defender of the faith. He was born in Flavia Neapolis in Samaria, the modern city of Nablus, to a Gentile family.
Justin studied several schools of philosophy before an old man he met by the sea pointed him to the Hebrew prophets. He became a Christian and taught in Rome. Around AD 165 he was beheaded with six companions for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods.
Major Works
Three of Justin’s works survive in full:
First Apology, addressed to Emperor Antoninus Pius around AD 155.
Second Apology, a shorter appeal to the Roman Senate written a few years later.
Dialogue with Trypho, a long debate with a Jewish teacher named Trypho, set in Ephesus.
Defense of Christianity
Christians in Justin’s day faced rumors of atheism, cannibalism, and immorality. Justin answered each charge. Christians reject the gods of Rome, he wrote, but they worship the true God. He asked the emperor to judge Christians by their actions and not punish them for the name alone.
First Apology chapters 61 through 67 describe how Christians baptized and how they worshiped on Sunday. They read the apostles’ memoirs and the prophets, heard a sermon, prayed, shared bread and wine, and collected gifts for orphans, widows, and the sick. This is the oldest full description of a Christian worship service outside the New Testament.
Faith and Reason
Justin did not throw out philosophy. He taught that every person has a seed of the Logos, the divine Reason. Where Greek thinkers such as Socrates said true things, they spoke by that seed. Christians, he argued, have the full Logos, who became man in Jesus Christ.
Justin never gave up his philosopher’s cloak. He treated Christianity as the true philosophy.
Fulfillment of Prophecy
Prophecy was Justin’s strongest argument. First Apology chapters 30 through 53 walk through Old Testament prophecies and show how Jesus fulfilled them. The Dialogue with Trypho runs 142 chapters and spends most of its length on the same theme.
Justin argued that prophecies written long before Jesus was born could not have been made up after the fact.
Justin on the Fallen Angels
In Second Apology chapter 5, Justin writes that angels God placed over the earth broke their assignment, slept with women, and fathered children. He says those children are the beings called demons. Justin adds that these angels taught humans to offer sacrifices, incense, and drink offerings. He saw the pagan gods as these same spirits.
How to Read Justin Martyr Today
Start with First Apology chapters 61 through 67. They take about 15 minutes and show you second‑century worship.
Then read Second Apology in full. It has 15 chapters.
Read the Dialogue with Trypho in sections. Chapters 1 through 8 tell his conversion story.
All three are free in the Ante‑Nicene Fathers, volume 1.
About the Author
CK Quarterman is a USAF veteran, independent author, and publisher at CKQbooks. He writes the Malaterrestrials nonfiction series, which examines evil earthbound non‑human intelligences through Scripture and history, along with the Watchers’ Universe and Sons of the Flood fiction series. Find his books at ckqbooks.com.
Truth · History · Scripture
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