14
transcendence while asserting the possibility of a relationship with God.
87
This may be (and has been)
regarded as a product of Middle Platonic, Philonic, or Hellenistic Jewish influences,
88
but this concept of
a transcendent God is also suggested in both the Old and New Testaments,
89
especially in John's
Gospel.
90
The function of the Son, then, is to act as mediator not merely in salvation, but in all
interaction between God and his creation.
91
Thus, we begin with Justin's concept of God the Father as
the highest being (Dial. 56.4; 56.11; 60.5), the "begetter of all things" (1 Apol. 13.4).
92
Yet the gulf
between transcendence and immanence is bridged by the Son of God (1 Apol. 63.15),
93
who himself is
described as "proceeding"
94
(Dial. 100.4) or "begotten"
95
from God by his will.
96
In this sense he is
called the "Son" of God,
97
who was previously "with the Father"
98
(2 Apol. 6.3), even conferring with
him prior to creation (Dial. 62.4).
99
For Justin, as with his predecessors and contemporaries "Father" and "Son" imply an ordered
relationship. While he clearly presented the Son as with the Father at creation (Dial. 62.3-4), Justin
indicated that the roles in the Godhead were distinct and used terms of mediation with regard to the
planning and execution of creation. Not only did God conceive of and make the world through (diav) the
Logos (1 Apol. 64.5),
100
he also ordered all things through him (2 Apol. 6.3; Dial. 84.2).
87
Goodenough writes, "Justin's object in securing the remote location of God is thus twofold, he is trying to impress his
readers with God's transcendence, but particularly with a view to the impossibility of God's being able to appear in theophanies"
(Goodenough, Theology of Justin Martyr, 126). At the same time Justin struggled with the need to present Jesus as "God with us."
88
Discussion of the influences of Greek philosophy on Justin's thought is beyond the scope of this paper. For a critical history
of the debate see Charles Nahm, "The Debate on the Platonism of Justin Martyr," Second Century 9, no. 3 (1992): 129-51. In short,
my own view is similar to what Nahm describes as a "partial assimilation with a critical reserve" of Middle Platonic language and
categories (Nahm, "Debate on the Platonism of Justin Martyr," 150).
89
See M. J. Edwards, "Justin's Logos and the Word of God," Journal of Early Christian Studies 3, (1995): 261-80.
90
John 1:18 states, "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has
explained Him" (QeoVn oujdeiV" eJwvraken pwvpote: monogenhV" qeoV" oJ w]n eij" toVn kovlpon tou' patroV" ejkei'no" ejxhghvsato).
91
Cf. Gerald O'Collins, Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus Christ (Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 1995), 170-171.
92
= gennhvtora tw'n aJpavntwn.
93
One passage also calls the Son the "offspring" (gevvnnhma) of God (Dial. 62.4).
94
= proevrcomai.
95
= gennavw. In one place Justin uses the uncustomary prwtogovno" for Christ (1 Apol. 58.3), a Philonic term with more
philosophical affinities than the biblical prwtovtoko", which Justin favors for just that reason (1 Apol. 23.2l; 46.2; 53.2; 63.15; Dial.
100.2; 116.3; Dial. 125.3). Justin favors the biblical term prwtovtoko" ("first-born"), on several occasions independent of direct
quotations from the Colossian hymn (1 Apol. 23.2; 33.6; 46.2; 53.2; 63.15; Dial. 100.2; 116.3; 125.3).
96
1 Apol. 12.7; 21.1; 22.2; 23.2l; 2 Apol. 6.3; Dial. 34.2; 61.1, 3; 62.4; 105.1; 128.4; cf. Justin, Against Marcion, in Irenaeus,
Against Heresies 4.6.2. Only in Dial. 64.1 is the Son said to have been "created" by God (poihvsanto"), but this comes from the
mouth of Trypho, not Justin. This Creator-creature relationship between Father and Son is not used by Justin, who avoided using the
term with regard to Christ. It is often assumed that Justin conceived of the Son (Logos) as having a definite point of origin by
procession, generation, or emanation from the very being of the Father sometime prior to creation (Barnard, Athenagoras, 95;
Goodenough, Theology of Justin Martyr, 153-55; Aloys Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition: From the Apostolic Age to
Chalcedon (451), trans. J. S. Bowden (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1965), 130). However, the actual evidence supporting this is
unclear and, as Goodenough points out, "Justin has apparently made no attempt to speculate about events in the timeless eternity
which lay behind creation" (Goodenough, Theology of Justin Martyr, 154-55). Justin did not advance a theory of "eternal
generation" (though he did not deny it); nor did he suggest a creation ex nihilo. Rather, whatever the timing of the Son's generation
(if one can speak of "timing" in an eternity without creation), it is a generation ex deo.
97
Christ is called "Son of God," "his Son," or simply "Son" quite frequently in Justin: 1 Apol. 12.9; 13.3; 14.1; 22.1 (2x); 30.1;
31.7; 32.9; 40.7; 54.7 (2x); 58.1; 63.4, 10, 14; 2 Apol. 6.3 (2x); Dial. 7.3; 23.3; 43.1; 45.4; 48.2; 85.2; 100.4(2x); 100.5; 102.7;
103.8; 108.2; 113.4; 115.4; 116.2; 117.3; 118.2; 126.1, 2; 128.1; 132.1; 137.2.
98
= proV tw'n poihmavtwn [kaiV] sunwVn.
99
Witherington suggests that "for Justin the logos was defined impersonally before the incarnation as the Father's
rational thought or intelligence, which became personal only when the logos took on human flesh" (Witherington, The Many
Faces of Christ, 236). Since it is clear that Justin believed the Logos was a personal mediator of the Father prior to the
incarnation, as this paper shows, Witherington's comments indicate a misreading of Justin's Christology.
100
= ejpeidhV ejnnohqevnta toVn qeoVn diaV Lovgou toVn kovsmon poih'sai. It is interesting that not only is the act of creation
itself executed from the Father and through the Logos, but Justin said the pre-creative conceptualizing itself followed the same
order. Similarly in 1 Apol. 59.5, Justin employed a dative of agency to convey the mediating role of the Logos in creation since the
preceding context has God (the Father) as the ultimate agent of creation (see Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the
Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996], 162-66).