Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are
not just turning back the clock. We are stepping
right into the middle of a massive culture war,
one that really, you could argue, defined the
entire trajectory of the Western world. We're
going way back. We are traveling back to the
second century A .D. And when I say culture war,
I don't mean, you know, Twitter feuds. I mean
a time of absolute intellectual collision. It
really was a tectonic shift. You have to picture
the landscape. On one side, you have the established
heavyweight Greco -Roman world. This is the world
of marble statues, centuries of polished philosophy.
You have the academy in Athens, the Pax Romana.
It's a world that values reason, logic, order,
and... you know, aesthetics. And then on the
other side, you have this emerging, scrappy,
illegal, and often deeply, deeply misunderstood
faith called Christianity. To the Romans, it
just looked like a weird Eastern cult. It was
secretive, it was stubborn, and it just did not
fit into their boxes. Exactly. You have Athens
representing reason and the intellect, and you
have Jerusalem representing revelation and faith.
Two different planets. For the longest time,
these two worlds were like oil and water. They
just didn't speak the same language. They didn't
even operate in the same categories. The philosophers,
you know, they looked down on the Christians
as barbarians. And the Christians often looked
at the philosophers as purveyors of empty lies.
Until today's subject walks onto the scene, we
are diving into the life and mind of a man named
Justin, known to history as Justin Martyr. Justin
Martyr. And the image that really hooked me when
we were going through the sources is this simple
visual. Here is a guy who becomes a devout Christian.
He is willing to die for this new faith, but
he never takes off the robe. The polyam. Right,
the philosopher's cloak. That specific garment
meant something, didn't it? Oh, absolutely. It
was like wearing a lab coat today. It singled
authority, education, and a specific worldview.
So Justin wore the uniform of a Greek thinker
while preaching the gospel. He basically claimed
that Christianity wasn't a rejection of philosophy,
but the true philosophy. Your philosophy, exactly.
He's the guy who had the audacity to claim that
Socrates, I mean, the godfather of Greek thought,
was actually a Christian before Christ even arrived.
That is an incredibly bold claim, and it's one
of the reasons Justin's such a towering figure
in early church history. He's not just defending
the faith, he's intellectualizing it. He's translating
it. He's translating Bible into Plato for a Roman
audience. So our mission for this deep dive is
to explore that journey. How does a pagan seeker
from Samaria become a Christian saint? Right.
We need to unpack his writings, the apologies
and the dialogue with Trefo. And we definitely
need to get into the weeds of his memoirs of
the apostles because they tell us some fascinating
things about how the Bible as we know it was
formed. And of course, we have to talk about
how it all ended, which is unfortunately right
there in his name, martyr. It is. But let's start
at the beginning. Who was this guy? Because his
background is a bit of a paradox, isn't it? It
really is. Justin was born roughly around 100
A .D., give or take a decade. He was born in
Flavia, Neapolis. Which is modern -day Nolbliss
in the West Bank. Ancient Shechem. Correct. Now,
geographically, that is Samaria. That is deep
biblical territory. It's a heartland. It's where
Jacobsville was. It's central to the Old Testament
narrative. But culturally... Justin was fully,
completely Greek. His family was Gentile. So
no connection to the Jewish faith of the area?
None. No. His father's name was Priscus, which
is a Latin name, and his grandfather was Bacchus,
a Greek name. Justin himself tells us he was
uncircumcised and defined himself explicitly
as a Gentile. So even though he's born in the
biblical landscape, he's not plugged into the
Jewish tradition at all. He's a tourist in the
Holy Land, essentially. Not even a tourist. He's
more like a colonizer. in a sense. He was likely
part of a Roman diplomatic community or a colony
sent to settle there after the Jewish wars. The
Romans had crushed the area and renamed it. So
Justin grows up as a Roman citizen, culturally
Greek, looking for answers in the standard curriculum
of the Hellenistic world. He knew little to no
Hebrew or Aramaic. He was looking toward Athens.
Not Jerusalem. And this is where we get what
I call the educational montage. I love this part
of his story because it feels so relatable, you
know? Yes. He's young. He's hungry for truth.
And he goes strictly shopping for a guru. He
wants a mentor. He wants a system that explains
the metaphysics of the universe. He describes
this search vividly in the opening of his dialogue
with Trifo. It's almost a spiritual autobiography.
He's looking for a system that provides theological
inspiration, something that explains the is the
being behind everything. OK, so it's stop number
one, the Stoic. Right. The Stoics were the heavy
hitters of the time. If you were a serious person
in the second century, you looked into Stoicism.
It was about emotional regulation, logic. The
order of the cosmos accepting your fate. A very
practical philosophy. Very. And Justin says he
spent significant time with this Stoic teacher.
He really gave it a shot. But eventually he realized
they were getting nowhere. What was the breaking
point? The teacher couldn't explain the being
of God. And even worse, when Justin pressed him
on it, the teacher said it didn't even matter.
Wow. That is a deal breaker for Justin. Exactly.
To the Stoic, the practical ethics were the point.
How to live a tranquil life. To Justin, understanding
God was the pinnacle of philosophy. The entire
point of the exercise. The whole point. If the
teacher doesn't think that's a priority, Justin
is out. He thinks, what is the point of philosophy
if not to know the divine? So he packs his bags.
Next up, he goes to a peripatetic philosopher.
These are the followers of Aristotle, right?
That's them. Very empirical, very logical, obsessed
with categorization and observation. And this
interaction is almost comical. It feels like
a satire of higher education. It really does.
Justin shows up, ready to learn the secrets of
the universe, and within the first few days,
the philosopher asks him to settle on the tuition
fee to make sure their time isn't unprofitable.
I love that. Justin is looking for the meaning
of life, and this guy is looking for a check.
Justin dismisses him immediately. He says that
transactional nature proves he isn't a philosopher
at all. A true philosopher loves wisdom, not
money. Another one bites the dust. So he moves
on. Third stop, the Pythagorean. Now, the Pythagoreans
are interesting. We think of the theorem A squared
plus B squared equals C squared. But back then,
they were almost a mystical cult, weren't they?
Very mystical. They believed the universe was
built on mathematical harmony. all about numbers,
music, harmony. And this teacher was a big deal.
He was highly celebrated, a big name, but he
had prerequisites. He asked Justin, do you know
music? Do you know astronomy? Do you know geometry?
You got to do the coursework first. The idea
was that you couldn't detach your soul from earthly
things without these abstract sciences. You had
to discipline the mind with math before you could
approach the divine. And Justin, impatient as
ever, admits he doesn't know them. And the teacher
sends him away. He's rejected. And Justin admits
he was crushed because he believed this teacher
actually knew something. But he couldn't be bothered
with the prereqs. He didn't want to spend years
learning the lute and looking at star charts
just to get to the starting line. Which leaves
him somewhat desperate. But then he finds the
Platonists, and this is the breakthrough. It
is. Platonism was enjoying a resurgence at this
time, what scholars call Middle Platonism. It
was all about the world of forms, immaterial
ideas. The idea that this physical world is just
a shadow of a truer, higher reality. And that
clicks with him. It's like a light bulb goes
on. Justin says the contemplation of ideas furnished
his mind with wings. Wings for his mind. That's
a beautiful phrase. It captures that intellectual
high you get when you feel like you're finally
understanding how the world works. It is. He
felt he was becoming wise. He expected in his
stupidity, his words, looking back, that he would
see God immediately because that's the end goal
of Plato's philosophy, to see the divine with
the mind's eye. He thought he'd made it. He thought
he had arrived. So he thinks he's found it. He's
a Platonist. He's walking on air. But then comes
the plot twist. The old man by the sea. This
sounds like a fable, but it's how he describes
his conversion. It's a very cinematic moment.
Justin is walking near the seashore looking for
solitude to meditate. presumably on these platonic
ideas. And he notices he's being followed by
an elderly man. They start talking. And Justin,
probably feeling pretty smart in his philosopher's
robe, tries to engage the man in a debate. He
tries to use the Socratic method on him. He does.
But the old man, who many scholars think might
have been a Syrian Christian, flips the script.
He completely flips it. He challenges Justin's
reliance on human reasoning. Justin is talking
about the soul, about reincarnation, about seeing
God through the intellect. The old man starts
poking holes in it. How so? He argues that the
philosophers, even Plato, are limited. They haven't
seen God. They're just guessing based on their
own minds. They're making it up as they go. And
then comes the pivot. The old man tells him,
you're looking in the wrong place. Right. He
says there were men more ancient than all the
philosophers, men who were righteous and beloved
by God. He introduces the concept of the prophets.
This is a huge shift from thinkers to seers.
Exactly. The old man argues that these prophets
didn't speak for glory or out of fear, and they
didn't rely on demonstrations of logic. They
spoke by the divine spirit. They weren't just
smart. They were inspired. And their proof was
that they predicted events that actually happened.
He tells Justin that the writings of these prophets
are still extant, they still exist, and they
offer the only safe and profitable philosophy.
Safe and profitable. I like that. Philosophy
was dangerous. You could get lost in the maze.
But the prophets were an anchor. And the kicker
is the prayer. The old man tells him, pray that
the gates of light may be open to you. Because
you can't just figure this out with a high IQ.
It has to be given by God. And that's the moment
Justin says, straightway a flame was kindled
in my soul. A flame in his soul. He fell in love
with the prophets and with the friends of Christ.
It's fascinating because he describes it almost
like a romance. He was seized by a love for the
truth that he found there. But here is what makes
Justin, Justin. He converts. He dedicates his
life to the divine. But he doesn't go put on
a tunic and hide in a monastery. No. He keeps
the philosopher's robe on. Why? Because he believed
he had finally found the true philosophy. He
viewed Christianity not as a rejection of his
quest for wisdom, but as the culmination of it.
All those other schools were just advertisers.
This was the main course. So he takes it on the
road. He travels to Ephesus and eventually to
Rome, setting up his own school. He's teaching
Christianity, but he's doing it in the style
of a philosophical lecturer. He is debating.
He's writing. He is engaging the culture on its
own terms. And this brings us to the core of
his teaching. This is where we have to talk about
the logos, because this is how he bridges that
gap we talked about, Jerusalem and Athens. This
is the intellectual glue. This is Justin's masterstroke.
You have to understand, the word logos is Greek.
It means word, but it also means reason. rationality
the ordering principle of the universe it's a
huge concept in their world huge the stoics used
it the platonists used it it was the buzzword
of greek intellect it was the force that held
the cosmos together but it's also in the beginning
of the gospel of john in the beginning was the
word the logos and the logos was with god and
the logos was god exactly so justin looks at
his greek audience and says You guys love the
Logos. You worship reason. Great. We know who
he is. We've got him. He isn't an abstract principle.
He isn't just gravity or logic. He is a person.
He is Jesus Christ. That is a massive hook. He's
taking their most cherished concept and putting
a face on it. But he takes a step further with
the concept of Logos Primatikos. The seeds of
the word. This is my favorite part of his theology
because it's so creative. It is his way of solving
the problem of history. If Jesus only appeared
recently under Pontius Pilate, what about all
the good people who lived before him? What about
the great thinkers? Plato, Socrates. Right, were
they all lost? Justin argues that Christ is the
full logos, the complete word of God. But, he
says, seeds of that logos were scattered throughout
humanity long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
So whenever a Greek philosopher stumbled upon
a truth, whether it was Plato talking about the
soul or Heraclitus talking about change, Justin
says they were actually tapping into the logos.
Precisely. He argues that these philosophers
borrowed essential truths, perhaps even from
Moses and the Old Testament prophets, but ultimately
from the logos itself. So they didn't invent
it. They discovered it. They discovered a piece
of it. He says that the human mind, by virtue
of being rational, participates in the divine
reason. So when Socrates stood up for truth against
the Athenian mob, he was doing that by the power
of the Logos. This leads him to that incredibly
bold claim we mentioned earlier, that Socrates
was, in a sense, a Christian. His logic is consistent.
If Socrates lived according to reason, Logos,
and Christ is the Logos, then Socrates lived
according to Christ. even if he didn't know the
name Jesus. It's such an inclusive way to view
history, but it also asserts Christianity's dominance.
It's like he's saying, everything you got right
belongs to us. That's it. Everything you got
wrong is because you only had a seed, not the
whole plant. That's it, exactly. He says, and
this is a direct quote, whatever things were
rightly said among all men are the property of
us Christians. It legitimized Christian faith
to the Roman intellect. It's not a barbarian
superstition. It's the completion of Plato. It's
what you've been looking for all along. Now,
we have to get a little technical for a second
because Justin also tries to explain the mechanics
of who Jesus is in relation to God the Father.
And he uses an analogy that I think is really
helpful, fire. Yes, the fire analogy is crucial
because he's trying to navigate monotheism. If
God is one, how can Jesus also be God? A huge
stumbling block for pagans. The Romans thought
Christians were polytheists because they worshipped
a second God. Justin says the Logos is numerically
distinct from the Father. He's not just a mode
or a mask God wears. He is a distinct person.
Not that there's a but. But he is born of the
Father's substance. He uses the image of one
fire being lit from another. Okay. If I use my
torch to light your torch, your fire is new.
It is distinct. I can move it away, but my fire
hasn't been diminished. We haven't lost anything.
The substance is the same. It is light from light.
That's a great way to explain the begotten, not
made concept to a Roman audience who understood
physics and elements. It is. However, we have
to note that scholars point out Justin's theology
has some elements that later orthodoxy would
refine or even reject. It's not perfect yet.
No. He has a touch of what's called subordinationism.
Meaning he sees the son as subordinate to the
father. In a sense. He emphasizes that the Father
engendered the Son by a voluntary act at the
beginning of creation. It implies a temporal
starting point or a dependency that conflicts
with later doctrines of the co -eternal Trinity.
But remember, he's pioneering this language in
the second century. He doesn't have the Nicene
Creed yet. Right. He's figuring it out in real
time. He's beta testing the theology. He's the
one building the scaffolding that later theologians
would climb. And he's doing the same with the
Holy Spirit. He defends the spirit as a member
of the Trinity, largely using prophetic exegesis.
The spirit as the voice of the prophets. Exactly.
He argues that the spirit is the prophetic voice
that spoke through the ages. So he presents a
triune God, even if the mechanics aren't fully
polished by 4th century standards. Okay, let's
pivot to the documents themselves. Because talking
about his ideas is one thing, but looking at
the paper trail is another. We know a lot of
ancient texts are lost to time. How do we even
have Justin's work? We barely do. It's a bit
of a miracle, really. How so? For the medieval
period, Justin was mostly known by reputation
or through quotes in other people's work, like
the church historian Eusebius. But in 1540, a
man named Guillaume Pellissier purchased a single
manuscript in Venice. Just one? Just one. It's
now in the National Library of France, cataloged
as Parisianus Graecus 450. And that's it. That's
the source. It was copied in 1364, possibly in
Mystra, in the crumbling Byzantine Empire. Internal
evidence suggests the scribe used multiple older,
rotting manuscripts to compile this one clean
copy. That gives me chills. A scribe in 1364,
probably working by Camelite, saving the voice
of a man from a 150 AD. If that scribe takes
a day off, or if that library burns down, we
lose Justin. We would have lost the apologies
and the dialogue entirely. We would just have
fragments. It's that close. So, what's in this
manuscript? Let's start with the first apology.
Who is he writing to? He is swinging for the
fences. He addresses it to the emperor Antonius
Pius and his sons, Marcus Aurelius, who would
become the famous philosopher king, and Lucius
Verus and the Roman Senate. Talk about a tough
crowd. And what's the goal? What's he trying
to do? Survival. He wants them to stop persecuting
the church. He's refuting the common charges,
atheism and immorality. Wait, atheism? They called
Christians atheists. That sounds backward to
us. It does, but you have to understand the Roman
mindset. To a Roman... The gods were part of
the state civic structure. Right. They were public
utilities almost. Kind of. If you didn't worship
the gods of the empire, Jupiter, Apollo, the
genius of the emperor, you were denying the divine
order. You were an atheist because you rejected
the recognized gods. So Justin has to argue against
that. He flips this. He says, we are atheists
regarding your false gods, but we worship the
most true God. He also gives us some of the earliest
descriptions of what Christians actually did
when they got together because there were rumors,
right? secret meetings eating flesh people thought
they were cannibals because of the language of
the eucharist exactly this is my body this is
my blood if you hear that out of context it sounds
horrific so justin throws the doors open he describes
sunday worship what does it look like the reading
of the memoirs yeah the prayers and he describes
the eucharist in detail he writes that it is
not common bread and common drink he says they
have been taught that the food He uses the word
transmutation. Yes. He connects the incarnation
Jesus taking on flesh with the Eucharist. Just
as Jesus became flesh for our salvation, the
bread and wine become his flesh and blood to
nourish us. It's the very high view of the sacrament
explicitly to counter the idea that they were
just engaging in weird rituals. He's saying this
is deep theology, not a crime. Precisely. And
then we have the dialogue with Truffaut. This
is a different beast entirely. It is. The apology
is a legal defense. The dialogue is a theological
debate. It's set as a conversation between Justin
and Truffaut, who is described as a Jewish refugee
from the Bar Kokhba revolt. Let's set the scene
there. The Bar Kokor revolt ended around 135
AD. This was a massive Jewish uprising against
Rome, and Rome crushed it brutally. Utterly.
Jews were banned from Jerusalem, so tensions
are extremely high. And this dialogue gives us
a window into that tension. It's our best window
into the Jewish -Christian relations of the second
century. Justin meets Trifo, likely in Ephesus,
and they start a multi -day debate. And Justin's
argument is what? That Christianity is the new
law for all men. He uses the Old Testament relentlessly
to try to prove to Trifo that Jesus is the Messiah.
And he takes a pretty hard line on the ritual
laws, circumcision, the Sabbath, kosher laws.
He does. He argues those were temporary. They
were pedagogic, meaning they were like a tutor
meant to teach a lesson for a specific time or
to mark the Jewish people out due to their hardness
of heart, according to his argument. But now
that's over. Now that Christ, the end or goal
of the law, has come, those rituals must cease.
And he goes so far as to claim the church is
the true Israel. Yes. And we have to be honest
about the tone here. This can be difficult to
read. Justin regards the Jews who reject Jesus
as an accursed people in some passages, and his
polemics are hostile. So we're just reporting
what's in the text here. Exactly. Scholars note
this as a significant moment in the development
of Christian supersessionism, the idea that the
church replaces Israel. However, the dialogue
is also unique because it acknowledges nuance.
Justin admits there are Jewish believers in Jesus
who still keep the law, and he says he's willing
to tolerate that as long as they don't force
Gentile converts to do the same. So he's hostile,
but he's also engaging in a dialogue, which implies
some level of mutual recognition. Yes, and he
calls Trifo his friend at the end, doesn't he?
He does. They pray for each other. It's a debate,
not just a diatribe. It shows that the lines
were being drawn, but they weren't fully calcified
yet. A fascinating document. Let's move to section
four, because for anyone interested in the Bible,
this is fascinating. Justin almost never uses
the word gospel. He uses the word euangelion
only three times. Instead, he constantly refers
to the memoirs of the apostles. Why memoirs?
That sounds like a biography you buy at an airport
bookstore. It goes back to his target audience.
Remember, he's pitching to Greeks and Romans.
Right. Xenophon, the Greek historian, wrote a
famous work called the Memorabilia, or Memoirs
of Socrates. By using this term, Justin is framing
the Gospels as trustworthy historical records,
biographical accounts of a teacher similar to
what they knew about Socrates. He's putting Jesus
on the same literary shelf as Socrates. He's
saying these aren't myths. These are records.
And he says these memoirs were read publicly
every Sunday. Along with the writings of the
prophets, this is crucial. It shows that by 150
AD, these Christian writings were being treated
with the same liturgical weight as the Old Testament
scriptures. They were scripture. They were being
read as scripture in the gathered assembly. But
here's where it gets really interesting for the
text detectives. When Justin quotes Jesus, he
doesn't sound exactly like my Bible. He seems
to be remixing Matthew, Mark, and Luke. That
is the harmonization theory. Justin often quotes
a passage that blends Matthew and Luke together
seamlessly. Can you give an example? Sure. When
he talks about the virgin birth, he combines
the angel's message to Joseph from Matthew with
the message to Mary from Luke into one continuous
narrative flow. So he's not juggling three different
scrolls in front of him. Probably not. Scrolls
were expensive and unwieldy. Many scholars, like
Oskar Skarsson, believe Justin used a Krigma
source. or pre -existing harmony. What would
that be? A cheat sheet? Kind of. Maybe a school
text they use for teaching or catechism. It's
a precursor to what his student, Tatian, would
later do with the Diatessaron, which was a formal
weaving of the four Gospels into one narrative.
And because he's using these unique sources,
we get some details that simply aren't in the
standard Gospels. The one that blew my mind was
the fire in the Jordan. Yes. In the dialogue
with Trifo, when Justin describes the baptism
of Jesus, he says that when Jesus went down into
the water, a fire was even kindled in the Jordan.
A fire in the river. That is such a dramatic
image. Where does he get that from? We don't
know for sure. It's not in Matthew, Mark, Luke,
or John. But it suggests Justin had access to...
traditions or texts perhaps something like the
lost dialogue of jason of episcus that contain
these extra canonical details it gives the baptism
a very cosmic supernatural feel it really does
he also quotes the voice from heaven differently
in luke it usually says you are my son whom i
love with you i am well pleased but just in quotes
he quotes you are my son this day i have begotten
you Which is a direct quote from Song 2 .7. It
is, and it's actually found in the Western text
Type of Luke, a manuscript variation. It fits
Justin's theology perfectly because he's always
trying to show prophecy fulfillment. If the voice
quotes the psalm, the connection is undeniable.
It's all about connecting the dots for him. There's
also the bit about Satan. Justin gives us an
etymology lesson that, well, let's just say he
didn't know Hebrew. He did not. Justin was a
Greek speaker through and through. He attempts
to explain the name Satanus. And how does he
break it down? He breaks it down. Satan, which
he says means apostate, and nas, which he says
means serpent. So Satan means apostate serpent.
Is that accurate? Linguistically, no, not at
all. Satan is Hebrew for accuser or adversary.
But he makes it work for his argument. Theologically,
it works for him. It connects the Satan who tempted
Jesus in the desert back to the serpent who tempted
Adam in the garden. It reinforces his view of
Christ as the victor who conquers the ancient
enemy. It's amazing how he connects those dots,
even if his linguistics are a bit shaky. It shows
his mind was always looking for the pattern,
the link between the old and the new. Always.
He saw the world as a unified story written by
the logos. Everything fit together. So we have
this brilliant, bold teacher. He's arguing with
emperors. He's debating rabbis. He's running
a school in Rome. But in the second century,
if you stick your neck out like that, eventually
someone swings an axe. It was inevitable. Rome
was tolerant of many things, but it was not tolerant
of defiance. And Justin ran afoul of a cynic
philosopher named Crescens. A cynic philosopher?
What were they like? The cynics were intense.
They rejected social conventions, wealth, and
status. Think Diogenes living in a barrel. Very
countercultural. And he got into it with one
of them. He and Crescens disputed publicly. And
Justin essentially humiliated Crescens in debate,
showing that the cynic didn't really understand
the truth and was just a lover of noise. So Crescens
got angry. Tatian, Justin's student, implies
that Crescens laid snares for him. He snitched
on him. He denounced him to the authorities.
This was during the reign of Marcus Aurelius,
the Stoic emperor. You'd think a philosopher
emperor would be lenient to a philosopher saint,
but no. No. Marcus Aurelius viewed the Christian's
obstinacy, their refusal to sacrifice, as irrational
and stubborn. So Justin is arrested. And we actually
have a transcript of the trial. This is called
the Martyrdom of Justin. It's a court record,
or at least it's based on one. It's chillingly
bureaucratic. He's tried by the urban prefect,
Junius Rusticus. And this guy is a big deal.
Get this, Rusticus was actually the stoic tutor
to Marcus Aurelius. So it is two philosophers
facing off again. One representing the power
of Rome, one representing the truth of Christ.
That's the scene. And Rusticus demands, approach
and sacrifice all of you to the gods. And Justin
says, no one in his right mind gives up piety
for impiety. That is such a mic drop. He's calling
the Roman religion impiety. He is flipping the
script on the judge. He is. And Rusticus warns
him, if you do not obey, you will be tortured
without mercy. And this is the moment where the
rubber meets the road. The old man by the sea
promised him a safe philosophy. Does it hold
up under threat of torture? Justin replies. That
is our desire, to be tortured for our Lord Jesus
Christ and so to be saved. He desires it. For
that will give us salvation and firm confidence
at the more terrible universal tribunal of our
Lord and Savior. He's looking at the Roman judge
and saying, I'm worried about a much higher court
than yours. Your judgment is temporary. His is
eternal. Exactly. And his companions, six of
them, including slaves like Eul Pistis and Hyrax,
they join in. They don't back down. What do they
say? They say, do as you wish. For we are Christians
and we do not sacrifice to idols. And so... Rusticus
passes sentence. They are to be scourged and
beheaded. And the text says they glorified God
and went to the customary place to be executed.
When did this happen? Somewhere between 162 and
168 AD. Unless Justin became Justin Martyr. He
wore the robe to the very end. He died as a philosopher
of Christ. Now you'd think that's the end of
the story. But curiously, Justin's journey continues
after death. Or at least... His bones journey.
Ah, yes. The mystery of the relics. This is a
classic hagiographical puzzle. There are relics
everywhere. Well, the Church of St. John the
Baptist in Sacrafano, Italy, claims to have his
relics. The Jesuit church in Valletta, Malta,
also claims to have them. So he's in two places
at once. At least. But then there's the American
connection. This is the one that really surprised
me. The Maryland connection. Yes, the Maryland
claim. In 1873, a noble family in Italy allegedly
sent Justin's remains to a priest in Baltimore
for safekeeping during political unrest. So they
shipped him to America. They ended up in St.
Mary's Church in Annapolis, Maryland. St. Justin
Martyr in Annapolis. Well, in 1989, they were
rediscovered in a vault and given a proper burial.
But scholars and the church now assert that these
are likely the bones of a different St. Justin.
perhaps a third -century martyr from the persecution
of Maximus. It's probably not him. Probably not.
But for a long time, people believed the philosopher
was resting in Maryland. That is wild. It just
goes to show how revered he was. Everyone wanted
a piece of the true philosopher. His legacy isn't
really in his bones, though. It's in his method.
He set the template for how Christianity engages
with the world. He didn't run away. He didn't
run away from culture. He engaged it. He didn't
reject philosophy. He baptized it. There's even
a literary nod to him in the 20th century. The
Rector of Justin, a famous novel from 1964. Right,
by Louis Hauschenkloss. The headmaster names
his prep school Justin Martyr. And why? Because
Justin tried to reconcile Greek thought with
Christ. He wanted an intellectual faith. The
headmaster didn't want the humble fisherman vibe.
He wanted the intellectual faith. He wanted gentleman
scholars. It shows that Justin is the patron
saint of the thinking Christian. So as we wrap
up this deep dive, let's summarize what we've
unpacked. Justin was the bridge builder. He took
the intellectual toolkit of the Greco -Roman
world and used it to dismantle their own objections
to Christianity. He legitimized the faith. Before
Justin, Christianity could be dismissed as a
weird foreign superstition. After Justin, you
had to argue with it. You had to take it seriously.
You had to deal with the logos. You had to deal
with the fact that Moses might be older than
Plato. He forced the world to take this faith
seriously. And he did it with such optimism.
I keep going back to that idea of the seeds of
the word, the logos spermatikos. It is a beautiful
concept. It turns the whole world into a treasure
hunt for truth. It leads me to our final thought
for the listener. Justin believed that truth
found anywhere, even in the minds of pagans,
even in sources that didn't know Jesus, belonged
to Christianity because all truth comes from
the Logos. Whatever things were rightly said
among all men are the property of us Christians.
That's his quote. So if Justin were alive today,
in our world of fragmented information, conflicting
worldviews, science versus religion debates,
Where would he say the seeds of the word are
hidden now? That is the question, isn't it? Yeah.
He wouldn't be afraid of modern science or philosophy.
He'd be looking for the seed. He'd be looking
for the partial truth that points to the whole.
He'd be listening. He would be engaging, not
retreating. I love that. It's a challenge to
not just look for where the world is wrong, but
where it might be accidentally right. And then
to connect that seed back to the source. Well,
on that note, we encourage you to go look for
some seeds in your own sources this week. Thanks
for listening to The Deep Dive. We'll catch you
next time.