Traduction
Masquer
The First Apology of Justin
Chapter XXVIII.--God's care for men.
For among us the prince of the wicked spirits is called the serpent, and Satan, and the devil, as you can learn by looking into our writings. And that he would be sent into the fire with his host, and the men who follow him, and would be punished for an endless duration, Christ foretold. For the reason why God has delayed to do this, is His regard for the human race. For He foreknows that some are to be saved by repentance, some even that are perhaps not yet born. 1 In the beginning He made the human race with the power of thought and of choosing the truth and doing right, so that all men are without excuse before God; for they have been born rational and contemplative. And if any one disbelieves that God cares for these things, 2 he will thereby either insinuate that God does not exist, or he will assert that though He exists He delights in vice, or exists like a stone, and that neither virtue nor vice are anything, but only in the opinion of men these things are reckoned good or evil. And this is the greatest profanity and wickedness.
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Literally, "For He foreknows some about to be saved by repentance, and some not yet perhaps born." ↩
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Those things which concern the salvation of man; so Trollope and the other interpreters, except Otto, who reads touton masculine, and understands it of the men first spoken of. [See Plato (De Legibus, opp. ix. p. 98, Bipont., 1786), and the valuable edition of Book X. by Professor Tayler Lewis (p. 52. etc.). New York, 1845.] ↩
Edition
Masquer
Apologia Prima
28
1. Παρ’ ἡμῖν μὲν γὰρ ὁ ἀρχηγέτης τῶν κακῶν δαιμόνων ὄφις καλεῖται καὶ σατανᾶς καὶ διάβολος, ὡς καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἡμετέρων συγγραμμάτων ἐρευνήσαντες μαθεῖν δύνασθε· ὃν εἰς τὸ πῦρ πεμφθήσεσθαι μετὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ στρατιᾶς καὶ τῶν ἑπομένων ἀνθρώπων κολασθησομένους τὸν ἀπέραντον αἰῶνα, προεμήνυσεν ὁ Χριστός.
2. καὶ γὰρ ἡ ἐπιμονὴ τοῦ μηδέπω τοῦτο πρᾶξαι τὸν θεὸν διὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον γένος γεγένηται· προγινώσκει γάρ τινας ἐκ μετανοίας σωθήσεσθαι μέλλοντας καί τινας μηδέπω ἴσως γεννηθέντας.
3. καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν νοερὸν καὶ δυνάμενον αἱρεῖσθαι τἀληθῆ καὶ εὖ πράττειν τὸ γένος τὸ ἀνθρώπινον πεποίηκεν, ὥστ’ ἀναπολόγητον εἶναι τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις παρὰ τῷ θεῷ· λογικοὶ γὰρ καὶ θεωρητικοὶ γεγένηνται.
4. εἰ δέ τις ἀπιστεῖ μέλειν τούτων τῷ θεῷ, ἢ μὴ εἶναι αὐτὸν διὰ τέχνης ὁμολογήσει, ἢ ὄντα χαίρειν κακίᾳ φήσει ἢ λίθῳ ἐοικότα μένειν, καὶ μηδὲν εἶναι ἀρετὴν μηδὲ κακίαν, δόξῃ δὲ μόνον τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἢ ἀγαθὰ ἢ κακὰ ταῦτα ἡγεῖσθαι· ἥπερ μεγίστη ἀσέβεια καὶ ἀδικία ἐστί.