The First Christian Centuries: Justin Martyr

"Justin Martyr and His Worlds"presents a well -rounded portrait of one of the second-century church's most remarkable figures through state-of -the - question scholarship on a wide variety of topics.Here are studies of Justin's relationship to Judaism,Hellenism,and the Roman state, to philosophers,emperors,and heretics,and to the scriptures and other writings of second century Judaism and Christianity.The work of leading scholars is complemented by a map and timeline of Justin's world,a list of his writings, and a full-color gallery of images.

In the fall of 1958 Professor Helmut Koster offered at Harvard University a course in the development of gospel tradition in the second century.As a term project for this course,I prepared a paper a paper on the relationship of Justin Martyr's "Dialogue" 35:3 to the parallel gospel tradition. Unkwowingly I had begun the preparation of this volume.Work on this paper excited in me an interest in second century Christianity and its relationship to the Christianity of the first generations. For my doctoral dissertation at Harvard, I, therefore,decided to pursue this interest and examine in detail the sayings of Jesus in the writings of Justin Martyr. The present volume is a revision of that dissertation.

My aim in this book is to examine Justin Martyr's attempt at a comprehensive theological evaluation of the Mosaic Law.In his "Dialogue with Trypho",Justin gives a great deal of attention to the Mosaic Law.He writes for Jews and Christians,but his concept of the Law is partly determined by the gnostic hermeneutic of Scripture.Justin is a figure of considerable magnitude in ancient Christianity.His attempt at a systematic interpretation of the Mosaic Law,probably pre-dating that of Ptolemy(Letter to Flora),is of great interest to Christian theology and particularly to the history of Jewish-Christian relations.

Justin Martyr was the first great Apologist of the Church.He wrote for both the pagan world and the Jewish world.Because of this,the manner in which he conceived of and used Scripture is of great interest.This book will attempt to point out his concepts of Scripture,his methods of exegesis,and the relation of both to the world in which he lived.To date,no one has made a detailed and thorough study of the works of Justin with a special concern for his exegesis.As far as possible,this monograph will be limited to just that study-the Biblical exegesis of Justin Martyr.