Justin Martyr on the Logos

Last updated on: January 4, 2021 at 5:57 am by Michael F. Bird

Justin Martyr on the Logos 2020-09-23T06:58:42-04:00 Michael F. Bird

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

There is an intensification of Logos christology among the early apologists especially with Justin Martyr.

Justin makes no explicit mention of the Fourth Gospel, but it is far more likely than not that he knows of it and alludes to it,[1] and his Logos theology is best understood in light of its Johannine heritage.[2] Justin’s Logos is God’s instrument of revelation to humans (Dial. 128.2). The whole world come into being by a “Word of God” (Dial. 84.2; 1 Apol. 59.5; 64.5; 2 Apol. 5.3).[3] The Logos goes under various names from Scripture such as “Glory of the Lord,” “Son,” “Wisdom,” “Angel,” “God,” “Lord,” “Logos,” and “Commander” (Dial. 61.1; cf. 126.1; 128.1). The Logos is the seed of reason by which philosophers and barbarians were able to know the truth (1 Apol. 5.4; 46.1-6; 2 Apol. 13.3-6). The “divine Logos” moved the prophets to prophesy (1 Apol. 36.1). Jesus as the Logos is, then, that “rational power” (*Dial.*61.1) or “rational principle” (2 Apol. 10.1), who “acquired physical form and became a human being” (1 Apol. 5.4; 23.2; 63.10) by taking on “flesh” (1 Apol. 32.10; 66.2; Dial. 45.4; 84.2; 100.2).[4] He was “born from God … as Logos of God” (1 Apol. 22.2), born in a special manner from a virgin (Dial. 63-70; 1 Apol. 21.1-2; 22.2; 23.2; 32.10-33.9; 46.5; 63.16).

The center of gravity in Justin’s christology is to argue for a God beside God the Father, a first Power, the first-born and only-begotten Son of the unbegotten Father, the Logos who is Christ (Dial. 61.1-3; 1 Apol. 13.3; 21.1; 22.1-2; 23.2; 32.10; 46.2; 53.2; 60.7; 63.4, 10, 15; 2 Apol. 10.3, 8).[5] To that end, we can detect a very strong sense of divinity attributed to the Logos. The “Logos is divine” (1 Apol. 10.6; 36.1), he was pre-existent before creation and “already existed as God” (Dial. 61.1; 62.1-4; 87.2; 129.3; 2 Apol. 5.3). The Logos is “the son of the true God” (1 Apol.13.3) and is worshipped (Dial. 38.1; 1 Apol. 6.2; 13.3-4; 2 Apol. 13.4). Even so, the Son is not the Father, but the Father has always had a Son, the “first-born Logos of God, is also God” (logos prōtotokos ōn tou theou kai theos hyparchei) (1 Apol. 63.15). Justin’s analogies for Christ’s divinity vis-à-vis God the Father are like a thought from a mind or a fire kindling fire. Jesus is begotten from the Father, not an excision (apotome) of his essence (ousia) (Dial. 61.2; 128.3-4). Jesus is distinct in number, but not in substance (Dial. 56.11; 128.4; 129.3). Eric Osborne sums it up: “The word is God’s first-born, God himself, God to him in number, but one with him in essence.”[6]

Yet Justin also implies a certain subordination because God is unbegotten and everything after him is begotten and corruptive (Dial. 5.4) and the Son holds “second place” with the prophetic spirit “in the third rank” (1 Apol. 13.3-4; 60.7).[7] Justin argues that the Logos is “another God and Lord under the Creator of all things, who is also called an Angel, because he proclaims to man whatever the Creator of the world— above whom there is no other God— wishes to reveal to them” (Dial. 56.4; cf. 55.1; 61.1; 128.4; 129.4). This angel “called God, is distinct from God, the Creator; distinct, that is, in number, but not in mind” (Dial. 56.11). A God beneath God is supported by way of citations to Ps 45:6-7 and 110:1 (Dial. 56.14). Justin identifies God with the Angel of the Lord, this Angel with the pre-incarnate Christ, who appeared to Moses in the fire (Dial. 57-60; 127.4; 1 Apol. 62.3-4; 63.7-8, 17).[8]

—

[1] The reference to “new birth” and entering the “kingdom of heaven” in 1 Apol. 61.4-5 is far more likely derived from Jn 3:5 than to an independent baptismal liturgy or general tradition.

[2] Hengel (Johannine Question, 13) wrote that Justin’s Logos Christology “is inconceivable without the prologue of John.” For Hill (Johannine Corpus, 318), Justin’s notion of Christ as “God’s only Son, begotten in a peculiar manner is more or less simply a repackaging of John’s notion of the pre-existent, divine Word, the monogenes of the Father.” One would still have to admit that Justin augments Johannine Logos with the “firstborn” of Col 1:15, married it with the Synoptic infancey narratives, and identifies Christ with angelic traits. More circumspect is Frey (“Torah and Stoa,” 199), “John could inspire all these ideas, but they are also easily developed from Philo and the Bible, in the context of Greek philosophy, and in dispute with contemporary Jewish views.”

[3] Of course, Justin might mean “Word” here like Ps 33:6 rather than Jn 1:1-3.

[4] Justin’s favourite word here is the participle sarkopoētheis for “made fleshing.”

[5] One can see a similarity with Middle Platonists such as Numenius of Apamea who identified three Gods, a “first God” who is an indivisible Father, and a duumvirate Creator consisting of two gods (Frag. 11). Alcinous distinguished between a “first God” who is eternal and perfect and other daemons who are lesser or begotten gods (Handbook 10.1; 15.1).

[6] Eric F. Osborne, Justin Martyr (BZHT 47; Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1973), 28.

[7] L.W. Barnard (Justin Martyr: His Life and Thought [Cambridge: CUP, 1967], 100) points out: “It was inevitable that his unsystematised language about the derivative nature of the logos should later be capable of an Arian interpretation. Yet it is equally clear that Justin believed in the full Divinity of the Son.”

[8] Justin frequently cites Gen 19:24 (LXX): “The Lord rained down fire from the Lord out of heaven,” in Dial. 56. 23, 60.5, 127. 5, 129.1.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 1, 2021

Gupta and Bird Chatting on the Gospel of John

Next Post

January 7, 2021 Mike Bird's Lecture on Jesus among the gods

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Bible Lands Blogosphere Book Review Calvinism Colleges & Universities Ecclesiology Emerging Adulthood Evangelicalism Foreign Affairs Gospel of John Greco-Roman World Humor Just War N. T. Wright Old Testament Resurrection Terrorism Theological Education Travel Uncategorized Writing

Select a Month September 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In order to please God you need …

Select your answer to see how you score.

Hope To go to the Temple Houses Faith

Books by This Author Books by Mike Bird

See All Titles »