"Zeitgeist" Online Movie: Part One
Refuted©
Posted: August 23, 2007
Three Justin Martyr Quotations
Justin Martyr was a second century C.E. Christian, who produced writings to defend Christianity. Justin Martyr came was raised in a pagan home and he was weaned on Greek philosophy. 1 Consequently, after he became a Christian, he tended to connect Greek beliefs with his Christian beliefs. Although he did claim that Satan inspired the pagan religions to imitate some aspects of Christianity, Justin never considered the essential Christian message duplicated in any other religion. 2 Now, let’s examine the portions of Justin’s writings that “Zeitgeist” quotes from.
1) “When we say that Jesus Christ was produced without sexual union, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended to heaven, we propound nothing new or different from what you believe regarding those whom you call the sons of Jupiter.”
- Justin Martyr,First Apology [21:30]
In this instance, Justin is attempting to convince a skeptical pagan audience that there were parallels between pagan myths and the Christ story. In general, it was the pagans who didn't comprehend this. Further, even the Jewish parallels that Justin utilizes are not that similar to any pagan counterparts.
Consider some of the parallels listed in Justin's First Apology, and see how convincing they appear. These are all taken from Chapters 32 and 33. Notice how Justin is tying back to Hebrew prophecies (my emphasis below):
The prophet Moses, then, was, as we have already said, older than all writers; and by him, as we have also said before, it was thus predicted: "There shall not fail a prince from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until He come for whom it is reserved; and He shall be the desire of the Gentiles, binding His foal to the vine, washing His robe in the blood of the grape." The devils, accordingly, when they heard these prophetic words, said that Bacchus was the son of Jupiter, and gave out that he was the discoverer of the vine, and they number wine [or, the ass] among his mysteries; and they taught that, having been torn in pieces, he ascended into heaven."
2) Justin Martyr also writes: “And if we even affirm that He was born of a virgin, accept this in common with what you accept of Perseus.”
J. Gresham Machen, a New Testament professor at Princeton Theological Seminary writes:
“When Justin…refers to the birth of Perseus as a birth from (or through) a virgin, he is going beyond what the pagan sources contained. There seems to be no clear evidence that pagan sources used the word ‘virgin’ as referring to mothers of heroes, mythical or historical, who were represented as being begotten by the gods.” 3
3) Justin also writes:
“From what has been already said, you can understand how the devils, in imitation of what was said by Moses, asserted that Proserpine was the daughter of Jupiter, and instigated the people to set up an image of her under the name of Kore [Cora, i.e., the maiden or daughter] at the spring-heads. For, as we wrote above, Moses said, "In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and unfurnished: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." In imitation, therefore, of what is here said of the Spirit of God moving on the waters, they said that Proserpine [or Coral] was the daughter of Jupiter. And in like manner also they craftily feigned that Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter, not by sexual union, but, knowing that God conceived and made the world by the Word, they say that Minerva is the first conception; which we consider to be very absurd, bringing forward the form of the conception in a female shape. And in like manner the actions of those others who are called sons of Jupiter sufficiently condemn them.”
Notice that Justin is arguing that demons mostly copied the older Jewish beliefs—not the Christian beliefs. For some reason Justin draws a parallel between God, the Father using God the Son to imagine and create the world, with the Roman goddess Minerva being “the first conception.” Minerva was believed to be the Roman goddess of wisdom who had leaped out of Jupiter’s head fully grown. Further, the New Testament never states that God “conceived the World.” This is hardly a strong parallel with Jesus’ virgin birth.
Endnotes:
1. J. Ed Komoszewski, M. James Sawyer, Daniel B. Wallace, Reinventing Jesus: What the DA VINCI CODE and Other Novel Speculations Don’t Tell You (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2006), 229.
2. J. Ed Komoszewski, M. James Sawyer, Daniel B. Wallace, Reinventing Jesus: What the DA VINCI CODE and Other Novel Speculations Don’t Tell You (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2006), 230.
3. J. Gresham Machen, The Virgin Birth of Christ (Grand Rapids, MichiganL Baker, 1965, reprint of Harper & Row edition, 1930), 330, 336, quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ (Grand Rapids, Michigan: ZONDERVAN, 2007), 181.
Continue to: Was Jesus Based on Joseph, an Old Testament Figure?
