AIM The purpose of this study is to assess the appropriateness of Justin Martyr‘s apologetical arguments as contained in his genuine works, namely First and Second Apologies and Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, in response to the so-called “five-fold attack” against Christianity in the second century AD. Methodologically, by ‘appropriate‘ in this study is meant ‘suitable‘ or ‘proper,‘ taking into account the rhetorical and literary conventions of second-century Graeco-Roman culture, the contemporary social situation, Justin‘s rhetorical and/or intended audience and his purpose. Would Justin‘s arguments from the point of view of second-century standards have been reasonable, possessing at least a potential for effectiveness, or would they have been either ignored, dismissed without serious consideration, or even worsened the plight for Christians? I believe this work fills a significant gap in our knowledge of Justin, being the first time a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness, or otherwise, of Justin‘s arguments has been made in one single study. SCOPE This Thesis is divided into six major chapters, plus a Conclusion: (i) In Chapter One I provide a brief introduction discussing how and why the Apologists emerged during the second century AD to meet the challenges of the day, as well as outlining the aim and scope of this study. (ii) In Chapter Two I discuss the nature of Christian Apology, its relationship to petitions to the Roman emperors, and how it compares to other (non-Christian) apologetic, protreptic, educational and missionary discourses. I also examine the rhetorical and literary conventions of the second century Graeco-Roman world and outline how Justin employed rhetoric in his three known works. (iii) In Chapter Three I outline in detail the particular attacks experienced by the Christians in Justin‘s time. (iv) In Chapter Four I examine the questions of intended destination, structure and purposes of Justin‘s apologetical works. (v) In Chapter Five I analyse the appropriateness of Justin‘s apologetical arguments in 1 and 2 Apologies. (vi) In Chapter Six I analyse the appropriateness of Justin‘s apologetical arguments in Dialogue. In all, eight distinct arguments from the Apologies (Behaviour, Beliefs, Due Process, Threat, Similitude, Dependence/Source, Antiquity/Prophecy, Miracles) and four distinct arguments from Dialogue (Superiority, Fulfilled Prophecy, Miracles, True Israel) are outlined in detail and then analysed giving the reasons for and against their appropriateness. CONCLUSIONS In my Conclusion, I argue that all of Justin‘s arguments were appropriate for one or more reasons, with only the argument of Threat in the Apologies being largely inappropriate. At the same time, all his arguments contained notable weaknesses, except for the argument of Similitude. The following table is provided, listing each of Justin‘s apologetical arguments and the number of reasons I give for their respective appropriateness/inappropriateness, together with a yes/no/mixed conclusion in the final column: [Table not shown].This table is simplistic, nevertheless it does illustrate that the question of appropriateness is rarely a simple one, as more often than not there exist simultaneous reasons for and against the appropriateness of any particular argument. How has this study furthered our knowledge and understanding of Justin and his apologetical works? What can we conclude about Justin and his works based on the appropriateness or inappropriateness of his arguments? It is clear that for both the Apologies and Dialogue the strengths of Justin‘s arguments outweigh their weaknesses. The strengths generally pertain to philosophical, religious, or ethical aspects of the works that are presented logically and cogently while the weaknesses, by and large, result from Justin‘s tendency towards arrogance and abuse. Justin wrote very much the way he lived. As a philosopher and skilled debater Justin was not above offending and demeaning those with whom he did not agree if he thought this would increase the reception of his message. His brilliance and arrogance proved to be a lethal combination and led to his ultimate silencing. It perhaps also curtailed the effectiveness of his writings for no change of policy was ever effected during his lifetime, or at least universally implemented.

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Throughout the Second Temple period (516 BCE-70 CE), the reading and interpretation of the Jewish scriptures shaped the national consciousness of the Jewish people. Within this setting, the Jesus movement emerged as a Jewish group which also laid claim to the Jewish scriptures as a means of articulating its identity even though, over time, the group came to be comprised primarily of non-Jews. How was it possible for a group of non-Jews to lay claim to the sacred texts of Jews and use these scriptures to define their own community? With the aim of exploring the answer to this question, my study compares and contrasts the way that the writings of the New Testament attributed to Luke, hereafter Luke-Acts, and the writings of the early Christian apologist Justin Martyr define the Christ-believing community by describing its privileged status in relation to the Jewish scriptures. This entails an examination of their respective representations of the Jewish scriptures and the exegesis of Christ-believers from two main vantage points: their portrayal of Christ-believers as authoritative interpreters of the Jewish scriptures (Part One) and their depiction of Christ-believers as heirs to the promises of scripture (Part Two). Although both authors similarly divide between insiders and outsiders to the Christ-believing community by arguing that Christ-believers alone possess an inspired capacity to interpret the Jewish scriptures, they do not describe insiders to their community in precisely the same way. Whereas Justin argues that Christ-believers have become the rightful recipients of the scriptural promises that God originally made to Jews, Luke envisages an ongoing role for the Jewish people as the recipients of the promises that God pledged to Israel. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis examines the citation of Ps 68(67).19 in Eph 4.8. Following an introduction that introduces the problem of the altered wording in the citation in Eph 4.8, chapter 2 comprises a History of Research that is organised around the possible sources for the author’s citation in Eph 4.8. One of several conclusions made is that the proclivity of NT scholars to attribute the source text to particular Jewish traditions has contributed to overlooking the import of Ps 68(67).19 within a normal pattern of christological reading of the Psalms in early Christianity. Following these opening chapters, the thesis is divided broadly into Part One and Part Two. The first is deconstructive in nature; the second is constructive. Part One examines textual traditions of Ps 68(67).19 within Justin Martyr, the Peshitta Psalter, and Targum Psalms. Each of these sources share the reading ‘give’ rather than ‘receive’, raising the question of the relationship between these traditions and Eph 4.8. Chapter 3 examines Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho, which contains two citations of Ps 68(67).19 that strongly resemble Ephesians. Nevertheless, as nearly all interpreters acknowledge, Justin never refers directly to ‘Paul’ or ‘Pauline’ letters in any of his writings. Is the parallel wording of Justin’s citations evidence for an early Christian tradition that was also available to Ephesians? I argue that although unmentioned by name, a reasonable case can be made that Justin is familiar with the Pauline corpus, including Eph 4.8. Chapter 4 considers the evidence of Peshitta Psalms, which agrees with the reading of Eph 4.8 in a strand of its copyist tradition. After examining scholarly construals of the Peshitta MS tradition, I consider direct evidence for the influence of Eph 4.8 upon some Peshitta MSS as intimated by Theodore of Mopsuestia. Chapter 5 examines Targum Psalms, focusing on translation techniques and the targumist’s tendency to add, alter, or modify his source in various ways. I argue that when the targumist’s techniques and tendencies are taken into consideration, the targum’s reading ‘give’ is better understood as a typical targumic insertion. The proclivity of many scholars to link Targum Psalms to Eph 4.8 is a classic example of ‘parallelomania’. Part Two turns to make a constructive case for the citation found in Eph 4.8. Chapter 6 is a close examination of the author of Ephesians’ approach to literary borrowing. I consider both his citations from the Jewish scriptures and his use of Colossians as evidence. Chapter 7 examines how early Christians read the biblical Psalms as prophecies. Following a survey of Jewish readings of the Psalms, this chapter surveys how early Christians read the Psalms in light of the death and resurrection- exaltation of Christ. Drawing insights from this, chapter 8 turns to consider the phrases ‘he ascended . . . he gave gifts’ in Eph 4.8. I argue that an ambiguity of the addressee in the text of Ps 68(67).19 allowed for the application of this text to Christ. Moreover, the ‘ascent’ language could easily be applied to the resurrection- exaltation and this association naturally led to the language of gift-giving in Eph 4.8. Chapter 9 considers how the citation of Ps 68(67).19 fits into the context of Ephesians 4, focusing on several important factors such as the language of descent in Eph 4.9–10. Part One and Part Two are followed by a short conclusion that summarises the thesis and draws out several conclusions and implications based upon this study.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T16:17:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao SAmuel N dos SAntos.pdf: 1063779 bytes, checksum: 95147b60c8e271abf2cf57c25320fd96 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-31 / The intention of this study is to analyze the proposal of the making of Christian identity from the work entitled First Apology, by Justin Martyr. We believe that in the formation of Christianity, some authors such as Justin, promoted the project of creating a Christian identity, from the rules and practices that should equalize / standardize the fact of being a Christian in the first and second centuries A.D. Justin, in his First Apology, indicates what should be done and what should be avoided to be considered Christian, and such discourse allows the production of identity characteristics. To achieve this goal, we investigated the relationships of interculturality in the first and second centuries A.D, we researched and presented specific aspects of author and his work, such as: its dating, the extant manuscripts, the genre, the historical context, etc. Finally, in the last chapter, we presented closely at particular aspects of the First Apology: its internal structure, his idea about Jesus, the Jewish prophecies, the Christians as a race, those who were not Christians and the groups considered heretical, the relationship of the author with the stoicism and the Platonism, the author s intention in drawing up his speech and, finally, about the Christian identity proposed by him seen from the data above. / A intenção do presente trabalho é analisar a proposta de construção de uma identidade cristã a partir da obra intitulada I Apologia, de Justino Mártir. Acreditamos que na formação do cristianismo, alguns autores como Justino, promoveram o projeto de criação de uma identidade cristã, a partir de preceitos e práticas que deveriam igualar/homogeneizar o fato de se ser cristão nos séculos I e II d.C. Justino indica na I Apologia o que se deveria fazer e o que se deveria evitar para se ser considerado cristão e tal discurso possibilita a produção de características identitárias. A partir dessa ideia, investigamos as relações de interculturalidade nos séculos I e II d.C., pesquisamos e apresentamos o autor e aspectos específicos de sua produção, tais como: datação, manuscritos existentes, gênero, o contexto histórico, etc. Por fim, no último capítulo, apresentamos detidamente aspectos particulares da I Apologia: sua estrutura interna, sua ideia de Jesus, das profecias judaicas, dos cristãos enquanto uma raça, que os diferenciavam dos que não eram cristãos e dos grupos considerados heréticos, a relação do autor com o estoicismo e o platonismo, a intenção do autor na elaboração do discurso e, por último, a identidade cristã por ele proposta a vista disto tudo.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 880-87).

Le présent mémoire propose d’examiner, d’une façon approfondie et innovatrice, le rapport entre les chrétiens et Marc-Aurèle à travers une analyse complète des sources à disposition, notamment celles historico-littéraires, épigraphiques, numismatiques et législatives. En particulier, l’on démontrera l’absence de fondement de l’image faite a posteriori de Marc-Aurèle en tant que protector christianorum dont le premier témoin, d'après nos connaissances, est Tertullien. L’on montrera, par le biais d’une analyse législative des sources à notre disposition qu’à l’époque de Marc-Aurèle il n’y avait aucune loi qui protégeait les chrétiens. Bien au contraire, les dispositions de Trajan étaient toujours valides. Par la suite, nous chercherons à trouver les véritables raisons de la politique de Marc-Aurèle envers les chrétiens à travers la comparaison entre la pensée médio-platonicienne de Justin et celle stoïcienne du princeps. L’interprétation philosophique de l’attitude à montrer face à la mort, nous donnera une clef de lecture pour pénétrer les raisons les plus profondes des violences et des procès que les chrétiens ont subis au cours de son principat. / This work aims to provide an original and thorough exploration of the relationship between Marcus Aurelius and the Christians by means of an in-depth analysis of the available historical, literary, epigraphic, numismatic, and legal sources. Specifically, it will show that the a posteriori view of Marcus Aurelius as protector Christianorum, apparently introduced by Tertullian, is unfounded. In support of this argument, a legal analysis of the available sources will show that, far from enjoying legal protection during the Principality of Marcus Aurelius, Christians were still subject to Trajan’s laws. The true reasons underlying the policy of Marcus Aurelius towards the Christians will be investigated by comparing the Middle Platonism of Justin Martyr with the stoic meditations of the princeps. In particular, the philosophical interpretation of the attitude deemed suitable in the face of death will provide an insight into the reasons that led to the wave of violence and to the trials of Christians under Marcus Aurelius’ rule.