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Justin Martyr's First Apology

877 Words4 Pages

In his First Apology, Justin Martyr relies on truth and reason to defend Christians, who are being treated unfairly. He believes that their beliefs are misunderstood and overlooked. According to Justin Martyr, Christianity is the most reasonable and he wants to convince the Emperor so that he ends the unjust treatment towards them. Justin Martyr begins by saying Christianity is the most reasonable; “It is the voice of reason, and ever attended to by men truly pious and worthy the name of philosopher, that truth alone is the thing to be had in the highest honour, and to hold the first place in our affections and the ancients to be followed nor one step further than they are followers of truth”(78). He goes on saying “we cannot possibly suffer …show more content…

Justin Martyr explains all of the misunderstandings behind Christianity. Christians worship “the most true God”(79) and therefore are not atheists. “We cannot justly be branded for atheists, we who worship the Creator of the universe…but we exalt him to the best of our power with the rational service of prayers and praises” (80). Justin Martyr reiterates “that we desire to be believed, not because we deliver the truth, and nothing but the truth and that Jesus alone is properly the Son of God, as being the Logos” through incarnation: “and by his counsel was made man, and taught these doctrines for the conversion and restoration of mankind, before whose coming in our flesh these same evil spirits”(81). In closing, Justin Martyr states, “as these things shall appear agreeable to truth and reason, so far we desire that you respect them …show more content…

He was trying to sell Christianity to the emperor, to make him give it a chance and to give it the attention it deserves and to attempt to understand it. “And we are verily of opinion that it would be for the interest of all men living not only to tolerate the learning of the Christian faith, but to give it all the public encouragement possible”(80).
Justin Martyr had reason, chose his words wisely and set his tone to be as effective as he could be. However, the First Apology makes the Emperor wrong and no one wants to be wrong. If I were the Emperor, I would not want to listen and change my ways. I want to be right, to believe what I want to believe and to know only what I know. If the emperor the same way and did not want to be wrong, that could be why Perpetua and Felicitas were killed for being Christian.
In my opinion, I think Justin Martyr succeeded in defending Christians and his beliefs to the Emperor. Justin Martyr was a knowledgeable Christian, leaving no point left unanswered; he used truth and reason to account for all of the ‘problems’ with Christianity. He believed that the Catholic beliefs were misunderstood and that Christians were not given a chance and they deserved better than that. Justin Martyr proved that Christianity is the most reasonable and that this unfair treatment and unnecessary killing needed to come to an

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