Justin Martyr: The First Apology

Justin Martyr was a Christian catechist living in Rome who was martyred, along with several of his students, in the mid-second century. His First Apology, written in the style of a classical speech of defense, was addressed to the household of the non-Christian Emperor Antoninus Pius, defending the new faith and arguing for their conversion to Christianity. Introduction In Chapters 6167, Justin described aspects of Christian worship, primarily to clarify for non-Christians that the worship services were neither orgies nor cannibalistic rites, two accusations leveled against early Christians. Justin carefully avoided words that carried connotations of pagan worship, such as priest, and strived to convince his readers that the Christians who gathered in the liturgy were morally upright and responsible citizens. In the course of his description, Justin preserved a picture of second-century worship among his Greek-speaking community in Rome. His weekly liturgy was composed of a reading …