In regard to
the controversy with Judaism, we have two principal sources: the Dialogue of Justin
Martyr with the Jew Trypho,
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2 based, it appears, on real interviews of Justin with Trypho; and
Tertullian’s work against the Jews.
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3
Another work from the first half of the second century by
Aristo of Pella, entitled "A Disputation of Jason and Papiscus concerning Christ," is lost.
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4
It was
known to Celsus who speaks contemptuously of it on account of its allegorical interpretation. Origen
deems it useful for ordinary readers, though not calculated to make much impression on scholars.
It was intended to show the fulfillment of the old prophecies in Christ, and ends with the conviction
of the Jew Papiscus and his baptism by Jason. The author was a Jewish Christian of Pella, the city
of refuge for the Christians of Jerusalem before the destruction.
I. The defensive apology answered the Jewish objections thus:
(1) Against the charge, that Christianity is an apostasy from the Jewish religion, it was held,
that the Mosaic law, as far as it relates to outward rites and ceremonies was only a temporary
institution for the Jewish nation foreshadowing the substance of Christianity, while its moral precepts
as contained in the Decalogue were kept in their deepest spiritual sense only by Christians; that the
Old Testament itself points to its own dissolution and the establishment of a new covenant;
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5 that
Abraham was justified before he was circumcised, and women, who could not be circumcised,
were yet saved.
(2) Against the assertion, that the servant-form of Jesus of Nazareth, and his death by the
cross, contradicted the Old Testament idea of the Messiah, it was urged, that the appearance of the
Messiah is to be regarded as twofold, first, in the form of a servant, afterwards in glory; and that
the brazen serpent in the wilderness, and the prophecies of David in Psalm 22, of Isaiah 53, and
Zech. 13, themselves point to the sufferings of Christ as his way to glory.
(3) To the objection, that the divinity of Jesus contradicts the unity of God and is blasphemy,
it was replied, that the Christians believe likewise in only one God; that the Old Testament itself
makes a distinction in the divine nature; that the plural expression: "Let us make man,"
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6
the
appearance of the three men at Mamre
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7
of whom one was confessedly God,
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8
yet distinct from
the Creator,
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9 indicate this; and that all theophanies (which in Justin’s view are as many
christophanies), and the Messianic Psalms,
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00
which ascribe divine dignity to the Messiah, show
the same.
II. The aggressive apology or polemic theology urges as evidence against Judaism:
(1) First and mainly that the prophecies and types of the Old Testament are fulfilled in Jesus
Christ and his church. Justin finds all the outlines of the gospel history predicted in the Old
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Διάλογος πρὸς Τρύφωνα Ἰουδαῖον. .
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Adverus Judaeos. Also Cyprian’s Testimoni adv. Judaeos.
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Ἰάσονος καὶ Παπίσκου ἀντιλογία περὶ Χ ριστοῦ. Comp. the discussion of Harnack, l.c. pp. 115-130. He assigns the book
to a.d. 135 or soon after. It disappeared in the seventh century.
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Is. 51:4 sqq.; 55r> sqq.; Jer. 31:31 sqq.
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Gen. 1:26; Comp. 3:21
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Gen. 18:1 sqq.
99
Gen. 21:12.
100
Gen. 19:24.
101
Ps. 110:1 sqq.; 45:7 sqq.; 72:2-19, and others
70
Philip Schaff
History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene
Christianity. A.D. 100-325.
Testament: the Davidic descent of Jesus, for example, in Isa. 11:1; the birth from a virgin in 7:14];
the birth at Bethlehem in Micah 5:1; the flight into Egypt in Hosea 11:1 (rather than Ps. 22:10?);
the appearance of the Baptist in Is. 40:1–17; Mal. 4:5; the heavenly voice at the baptism of Jesus
in Ps. 2:7; the temptation in the wilderness under the type of Jacob’s wrestling in Gen. 32:24 sqq.;
the miracles of our Lord in Is. 35:5; his sufferings and the several circumstances of his crucifixion
in Is. 53 and Ps. 22. In this effort, however, Justin wanders also, according to the taste of his
uncritical age, into arbitrary fancies and allegorical conceits; as when he makes the two goats, of
which one carried away the sins into the wilderness, and the other was sacrificed, types of the first
and second advents of Christ; and sees in the twelve bells on the robe of the high priest a type of
the twelve apostles, whose sound goes forth into all the world.
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01
(2) The destruction of Jerusalem, in which Judaism, according to the express prediction of
Jesus, was condemned by God himself, and Christianity was gloriously vindicated. Here the Jewish
priest and historian Josephus, who wrote from personal observation a graphic description of this
tragedy, had to furnish a powerful historical argument against his own religion and for the truth of
Christianity. Tertullian sums up the prophetic predictions of the calamities which have befallen the
Jews for rejecting Christ, "the sense of the Scriptures harmonizing with the events."
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02
§ 39. The Defense against Heathenism.
I. The various Objections and Accusations of the heathens, which we have collected in §
(1) The attack upon the miraculous in the evangelical history the apologists could meet by
pointing to the similar element in the heathen mythology; of course proposing this merely in the
way of argumentum ad hominem, to deprive the opposition of the right to object. For the credibility
of the miraculous accounts in the Gospels, particularly that of the resurrection of Jesus, Origen
appealed to the integrity and piety of the narrators, to the publicity of the death of Jesus, and to the
effects of that event.
(2) The novelty and late appearance of Christianity were justified by the need of historical
preparation in which the human race should be divinely trained for Christ; but more frequently it
was urged also, that Christianity existed in the counsel of God from eternity, and had its unconscious
votaries, especially among the pious Jews, long before the advent of Christ. By claiming the Mosaic
records, the apologists had greatly the advantage as regards antiquity over any form of paganism,
and could carry their religion, in its preparatory state, even beyond the flood and up to the very
gates of paradise. Justin and Tatian make great account of the fact that Moses is much older than
the Greek philosophers, poets, and legislators. Athenagoras turns the tables, and shows that the
very names of the heathen gods are modern, and their statues creations of yesterday. Clement of
Alexandria calls the Greek philosophers thieves and robbers, because they stole certain portions
of truth from the Hebrew prophets and adulterated them. Tertullian, Minucius Felix and others raise
the same charge of plagiarism.
(3) The doctrine of the resurrection of the body, so peculiarly offensive to the heathen and
Gnostic understanding, was supported, as to its possibility, by reference to the omnipotence of God,
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Ps. 19:4; Comp. Rom. 10:18..
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Adv.Jud. c. 13
71
Philip Schaff
History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene
Christianity. A.D. 100-325.