Justin Martyr
Justin was born about 100 into a non-Christian family and searched for truth in the schools of philosophy until an elderly Christian explained the gospel to him. From then on he embraced Christianity as the true philosophy. He moved to Rome and opened a school, using the idea of the divine Logos, the “Word” of John 1, to build bridges to those steeped in Greek thought.1
His First Apology and Second Apology were open letters to the emperor and the Senate, explaining why Christians should not be persecuted; his Dialogue with Trypho argued from the Old Testament that Jesus is the Messiah and the divine Son of God. About 150 he also became the first theologian explicitly to call the church “Israel.”2 After debating a philosopher named Crescens, he was denounced and beheaded about 165.
In the First Apology he described a second-century service:
And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.3 Justin MartyrFirst Apology 67
His Legacy
Busenitz draws from that passage the marks of faithful worship: Scripture read, preaching, prayer, the Lord’s Supper, an offering, all on the Lord’s Day. Justin’s Dialogue also began the comparison of Mary with Eve that Irenaeus and Tertullian carried on, which Gregg Allison notes became a root of Roman Catholic teaching on Mary’s role in salvation, though “no biblical support for this idea is forthcoming.” His warm view of Greek philosophy opened a road that ran through Origen to the scholastics.4
