other uses of these same terms in passages addressing the virgin conception of Christ.
Divine Word (1 Apol. 33.9). It is unclear whether this passage has two persons doing the same work of
inspiration (both use qeoforevomai),
not suppose that they [the prophecies] are spoken by the inspired persons themselves, but by the divine
Word who moves them (ajpoV tou' kinou'nto" aujtouV" qeivou Lovgou). For sometimes He speaks things
that are to happen, in the manner of one who foretells the future; sometimes He speaks as in the person
of God the Master and Father of all; sometimes as in the person of Christ; sometimes as in the person of
the people answering the Lord or His Father." On this matter Barnard writes, "Justin's ideas of prophetic
inspiration is undeveloped and he should not be accused of Sabellianism."
Spirit in Justin's thought, for the Word of God, who is the Son, need not be said to have spoken "as from
Christ" (as in 1 Apol. 38.1) but could be described as speaking merely "from himself" in such a case.
In his position in the Godhead, the Holy Spirit is described as occupying the "third rank" (pneu'mav te
profhtikoVn ejn trivth/ tavxei) (1 Apol. 13.3) and is the third "power" of the Godhead (1 Apol. 60.5-7).
As such, he is worshipped and honored together with the Father and Son (1 Apol. 6.2).
Father or even in his own name (Dial. 36.6). In fact, the prophetic Spirit is described as taking on
to correctly expound (e.g., 1 Apol. 33.3;.36.3; 44.10; 54.4; 55.1, 7; 60.5; 2 Apol. 7.4). Since the text under consideration in 1 Apol.
33.6 is from the Gospel of Luke, it would not be unreasonable to assume that Justin had in mind fellow Christians who understood
this passage differently than he. Justin's own view appears to be in flux, for at times he maintained that it is the Logos himself who
effectuates the virgin conception and thereby begets Jesus Christ (1 Apol. 46.5), while at other times he echoed biblical imagery of
Jesus being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit (Dial. 78.3).
Spirit, since Christ is called the "power after the first," implying he is the second of two powers; and the Spirit is then described as a
"third," where "power" is still the antecedent. Thus, we should not be surprised that we find fluidity in the use of duvnami" in Justin.
since the Spirit takes on certain roles like an actor in a drama when he inspires the prophecies of Holy Scripture.
ejkei'novn te kaiV toVn par* aujtou' uiJovn, ejlqovnta kaiV didavxanta hJma'" tau'ta, kaiV toVn tw'n aujtw'/ eJpomenwn kaiV
ejxomoioumevnwn ajgaqw'n ajggevlwn stratovn, pneu'mav te toV profhtikoVn sebovmeqa kaiV proskunou'men). In reference to this
passage and its connection to Athenagoras, Embasy 10.5, Crehan writes, "The mention of angels immediately after the Trinity . . .
shows that they were considered to belong to the qeologivan, whereas all that concerned the Incarnation and God's plan of salvation
belonged to the ojikonomiva [sic] or dispensation. An embarrassing passage of Justin (I Apol. 6.2), where angels are named before
the Holy Spirit, is cleared up by this clear statement of Athenagoras" (Joseph Hugh Crehan, ed., Athenagoras: Embassy for the
Christians, The Resurrection of the Dead, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe, Ancient Christian Writers, vol. 23
[Westminster, MD: Newman, 1956], 134, n. 64). Crehan is probably being a bit too optimistic if he believes Athenagoras clarified
Justin's "embarrassing" passage (cf. Goodenough, Theology of Justin Martyr, 193-94).