TESTIMONY OF JUSTIN MARTYR.
Justin's "Apology" was written at Rome about the year 140. His
"Dialogue with Trypho the Jew" was written some years later. In
searching his works, we shall see how much greater progress apostasy
had made at Rome than in the countries where those lived whose writings
we have been examining. And yet nearly all these writings were composed
at least a century later than those of Justin, though we have quoted
them before quoting his, because of their asserted apostolic origin,
or of their asserted origin within a few years of the times of the
apostles.
It does not appear that Justin, and those at Rome who held with him in
doctrine, paid the slightest regard to the ancient Sabbath. He speaks
of it as abolished, and treats it with contempt. Unlike some whose
writings have been examined, he denies that it originated at creation,
and asserts that it was made in the days of Moses. He also differs with
some already quoted in that he denies the perpetuity of the law of ten
commandments. In his estimation, the Sabbath was a Jewish institution,
absolutely unknown to good men before the time of Moses, and of no
authority whatever since the death of Christ. The idea of the change
of the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first, is not
only never found in his writings, but is absolutely irreconcilable with
such statements as the foregoing, which abound therein. And yet Justin
Martyr is prominently and constantly cited in behalf of the so-called
Christian Sabbath.
The Roman people observed a festival on the first day of the week
in honor of the sun. And so Justin in his Apology, addressed to the
emperor of Rome, tells that monarch that the Christians met on "the
day of the sun," for worship. He gives the day no sacred title, and
does not even intimate that it was a day of abstinence from labor, only
as they spent a portion of it in worship. Here are the words of his
Apology on the Sunday festival:--
"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.
Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when
our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and
the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings,
according to his ability, and the people assent, saying, Amen;
and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that
over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent
a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do,
and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is
deposited with the president, who succors the orphans and widows,
and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want,
and those who are in bonds, and the strangers sojourning among us,
and, in a word, takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is
the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the
first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and
matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same
day rose from the dead. For he was crucified on the day before that
of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is
the day of the sun, having appeared to his apostles and disciples,
he taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also
for your consideration." Chap. lxvii.
Not one word of this indicates that Justin considered the Sunday
festival as a continuation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. On
the contrary, he shows clearly that no such idea was cherished by him.
For though the fourth commandment enjoins the observance of the seventh
day because _God rested on that day_ from the work of creation, Justin
urged in behalf of the Sunday festival that it is _the day on which
he began his work_. The honor paid to that festival was not therefore
in Justin's estimation in any sense an act of obedience to the fourth
commandment. He mentions as his other reason for the celebration by
Christians of "the day of the sun," that the Saviour arose that day.
But he claims no divine or apostolic precept for this celebration; the
things which he says Christ taught his apostles being the doctrines
which he had embodied in this Apology for the information of the
emperor. And it is worthy of notice that though first-day writers
assert that "Lord's day" was the familiar title of the first day of
the week in the time of the Apocalypse, yet Justin, who is the first
person after the sacred writers that mentions the first day, and this
at a distance of only 44 years from the date of John's vision upon
Patmos, does not call it by that title, but by the name which it bore
as a heathen festival! If it be said that the term was omitted because
he was addressing a heathen emperor, there still remains the fact that
he mentions the day quite a number of times in his "Dialogue with
Trypho," and yet never calls it "Lord's day," nor indeed does he call
it by any name implying sacredness.
Now we present the statements concerning the Sabbath and first-day
found in his "Dialogue with Trypho the Jew." The impropriety, not to
say dishonesty, of quoting Justin in behalf of the modern doctrine
of the change of the Sabbath, will be obvious to all. He was a most
decided no-law, no-Sabbath writer, who used the day commonly honored as
a festival by the Romans, as the most suitable, or most convenient, day
for public worship, a position identical with that of modern no-Sabbath
men. Justin may be called a law man in this sense, however, that while
he abolishes the ten commandments, he calls the gospel "the new law."
He is therefore really one who believes in the gospel and denies the
law. But let us hear his own words. Trypho, having in chapter viii.
advised Justin to observe the Sabbath, and "do all things which have
been written in the law," in chapter x. says to him, "You observe no
festivals or Sabbaths."
This was exactly adapted to bring out from Justin the answer that
though he did not observe the seventh day as the Sabbath, he did thus
rest on the first day, if it were true that that day was with him a
day of abstinence from labor. And now observe Justin's answer given in
chapter twelve:--
"The new law requires you to keep perpetual Sabbath, and you,
because you are idle for one day, suppose you are pious, not
discerning why this has been commanded you; and if you eat
unleavened bread, you say the will of God has been fulfilled. The
Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances: if there
is any perjured person or a thief among you, let him cease to be
so; if any adulterer, let him repent; then he has kept the sweet
and true Sabbaths of God."
This language plainly implies that Justin held all days to be alike,
and did not observe any one day as a day of abstinence from labor. But
in chapter xviii., Justin asserts that the Sabbaths--and he doubtless
includes the weekly with the annual--were enjoined upon the Jews for
their wickedness:--
"For we too would observe the fleshly circumcision, and the
Sabbaths, and in short, all the feasts, if we did not know for
what reason they were enjoined you--namely, on account of your
transgressions and the hardness of your hearts. For if we patiently
endure all things contrived against us by wicked men and demons, so
that amid cruelties unutterable, death and torments, we pray for
mercy to those who inflict such things upon us, and do not wish
to give the least retort to any one, even as the new Law-giver
commanded us: how is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those
rites which do not harm us--I speak of fleshly circumcision, and
Sabbaths, and feasts?"
Not only does he declare that the Jews were commanded to keep the
Sabbath because of their wickedness, but in chapter xix. he denies that
any Sabbath existed before Moses. Thus, after naming Adam, Abel, Enoch,
Lot, and Melchizedek, he says:--
"Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned, though they
kept no Sabbaths, were pleasing to God."
But though he thus denies the Sabbatic institution before the time of
Moses, he presently makes this statement concerning the Jews:--
"And you were commanded to keep Sabbaths, that you might retain
the memorial of God. For his word makes this announcement, saying,
'That ye may know that I am God who redeemed you.'" [Eze. 20:12.]
The Sabbath is indeed the memorial of the God that made the heavens and
the earth. And what an absurdity to deny that that memorial was set up
when the creative work was done, and to affirm that twenty-five hundred
years intervened between the work and the memorial!
In chapter xxi. Justin asserts "that God enjoined you [the Jews] to
keep the Sabbath, and imposed on you other precepts for a sign, as I
have already said, on account of your unrighteousness, and that of your
fathers," &c., and quotes Ezekiel 20 to prove it. Yet that chapter
declares that it was in order that they might know who was that being
who sanctified them, _i. e._, that they might know that their God was
the Creator, that the Sabbath was made to them a sign.
In chapter xxiii., he again asserts that "in the times of Enoch" no one
"observed Sabbaths." He then protests against Sabbatic observance as
follows:--
"Do you see that the elements are not idle, and keep no Sabbaths?
Remain as you were born. For if there was no need of circumcision
before Abraham, or of the observance of Sabbaths, of feasts and
sacrifices, before Moses; no more need is there of them now, after
that, according to the will of God, Jesus Christ the Son of God
has been born without sin, of a virgin sprung from the stock of
Abraham."
That is to say, there was no Sabbatic institution before Moses,
and neither is there any since Christ. But in chapter xxiv., Justin
undertakes to bring in an argument for Sunday, not as a Sabbath, but
as having greater mystery in it, and as being more honorable than the
seventh day. Thus, alluding to circumcision on the eighth day of a
child's life as an argument for the first-day festival, he says:--
"It is possible for us to show how the eighth day possessed a
certain mysterious import, which the seventh day did not possess,
and which was promulgated by God through these rites."
That is to say, because God commanded the Hebrews to circumcise their
children when they were eight days old, therefore all men should now
esteem the first day of the week more honorable than the seventh day,
which he commanded in the moral law, and which Justin himself, in
chapter xix., terms "the memorial of God." In chapter xxvi., Justin
says to Trypho that--
"The Gentiles, who have believed on him, and have repented of the
sins which they have committed, they shall receive the inheritance
along with the patriarchs and the prophets, and the just men who
are descended from Jacob, even although they neither keep the
Sabbath, nor are circumcised, nor observe the feasts."
And in proof of this, he quotes from Isa. 42, and 62, and 63,
respecting the call of the Gentiles. Upon this (chapter xxvii.), Trypho
the Jew very pertinently asks:--
"Why do you select and quote whatever you wish from the prophetic
writings, but do not refer to those which expressly command the
Sabbath to be observed? For Isaiah thus speaks [chap. 58:13, 14],
'If thou shalt turn away thy foot from the Sabbath,'" etc.
To which Justin makes this uncandid answer:--
"I have passed them by, my friends, not because such prophecies
were contrary to me, but because you have understood, and do
understand, that although God commands you by all the prophets
to do the same things which he also commanded by Moses, it was
on account of the hardness of your hearts, and your ingratitude
towards him, that he continually proclaims them, in order that,
even in this way, if you repented, you might please him, and
neither sacrifice your children to demons, nor be partakers
with thieves," etc. And he adds: "So that, as in the beginning,
these things were enjoined you because of your wickedness, in
like manner, because of your steadfastness in it, or rather your
increased proneness to it, by means of the same precepts, he calls
you [by the prophets] to a remembrance or knowledge of it."
These are bitter words from a Gentile who had been a pagan philosopher,
and they are in no sense a just answer unless it can be shown that the
law was given to the Jews because they were so wicked, and was withheld
from the Gentiles because they were so righteous. The truth is just
the reverse of this. Eph. 2. But to say something against the Sabbath,
Justin asks:--
"Did God wish the priests to sin when they offer the sacrifices
on the Sabbaths? or those to sin, who are circumcised and do
circumcise on the Sabbaths; since he commands that on the eighth
day--even though it happen to be a Sabbath--those who are born
shall be always circumcised?" And he asks if the rite could not be
one day earlier or later, and why those "who lived before Moses"
"observed no Sabbaths?"
What Justin says concerning circumcision and sacrifices is absolutely
without weight as an objection to the Sabbath, inasmuch as the
commandment forbids, not the performance of religious duties, but our
own work. Ex. 20:8-11. And his often repeated declaration that good men
before the time of Moses did not keep the Sabbath, is mere assertion,
inasmuch as God appointed it to a holy use in the time of Adam, and we
do know of some in the patriarchal age who kept God's commandments, and
were perfect before him.
In chapter xxix., Justin sneers at Sabbatic observance by saying,
"Think it not strange that we drink hot water on the Sabbaths." And as
arguments against the Sabbath he says that God "directs the government
of the universe on this day equally as on all others," as though this
were inconsistent with the present sacredness of the Sabbath, when
it was also true that God thus governed the world in the period when
Justin acknowledges the Sabbath to have been obligatory. And he again
refers to the sacrifices and to those who lived in the patriarchal age.
In chapter xli., Justin again brings forward his argument for Sunday
from circumcision:--
"The command of circumcision, again, bidding [them] always
circumcise the children on the eighth day, was a type of the true
circumcision, by which we are circumcised from deceit and iniquity
through Him who rose from the dead on the first day after the
Sabbath [namely, through], our Lord Jesus Christ. For the first day
after the Sabbath, remaining the first of all the days, is called,
however, the eighth, according to the number of all the days of the
cycle, and [yet] remains the first."
Sunday-keeping must be closely related to infant baptism, inasmuch as
one of the chief arguments in modern times for the baptism of infants
is drawn from the fact that God commanded the Hebrews to circumcise
their male children; and Justin found his scriptural authority for
first-day observance in the fact that this rite was to be performed
when the child was eight days old! Yet this eighth day did not come
on one day of the week, only, but on every day, and when it came on
the seventh day it furnished Justin with an argument against the
sacredness of the Sabbath! But let it come on what day of the week it
might (and it came on all alike), it was an argument for Sunday! O
wonderful _eighth_ day, that can thrive on that which is positively
fatal to the seventh, and that can come every week on the first day
thereof, though there be only seven days in each week!
In chapters xliii., and xlvi., and xcii., Justin reiterates the
assertion that those who lived in the patriarchal age did not hallow
the Sabbath. But as he adds no new thought to what has been already
quoted from him, these need not be copied.
But in chapter xlvii., we have something of interest. Trypho asks
Justin whether those who believe in Christ, and obey him, but who wish
to "observe these [institutions] will be saved?" Justin answers: "In
my opinion, Trypho, such an one will be saved, if he does not strive
in every way to persuade other men ... to observe the same things as
himself, telling them that they will not be saved unless they do so."
Trypho replied, "Why then have you said, 'In my opinion, such an one
will be saved,' unless there are some who affirm that such will not be
saved?"
In reply, Justin tells Trypho that there were those who would have no
intercourse with, nor even extend hospitality to, such Christians as
observed the law. And for himself he says:--
"But if some, through weak-mindedness, wish to observe such
institutions as were given by Moses (from which they expect some
virtue, but which we believe were appointed by reason of the
hardness of the people's hearts), along with their hope in this
Christ, and [wish to perform] the eternal and natural acts of
righteousness and piety, yet choose to live with the Christians and
the faithful, as I said before, not inducing them either to be
circumcised like themselves, or to keep the Sabbath, or to observe
any other such ceremonies, then I hold that we ought to join
ourselves to such, and associate with them in all things as kinsmen
and brethren."
Justin's language shows that there were Sabbath-keeping Christians in
his time. Such of them as were of Jewish descent no doubt generally
retained circumcision. But it is very unjust in him to represent the
Gentile Sabbath-keepers as observing this rite. That there were many
of these is evident from the so-called "Apostolical Constitutions,"
and even from the Ignatian Epistles. One good thing, however, Justin
does say. The keeping of the commandments he terms the performance of
"the eternal and natural acts of righteousness." He would consent to
fellowship those who do these things provided they made them no test
for others. He well knew in such case that the Sabbath would die out in
a little time. Himself and the more popular party at Rome honored as
their festival the day observed by the heathen Romans, as he reminds
the emperor in his Apology, and he was willing to fellowship the
Sabbath-keepers if they would not test him by the commandments,
_i. e._, if they would fellowship him in violating them.
That Justin held to the abrogation of the ten commandments is also
manifest. Trypho, in the tenth chapter of the Dialogue, having said
to Justin, "You do not obey his commandments," and again, "You do not
observe the law," Justin answers in chapter xi. as follows:--
"But we do not trust through Moses, or through the law; for then
we would do the same as yourselves. But now--for I have read that
there shall be a final law, and a covenant, the chiefest of all,
which it is now incumbent on all men to observe, as many as are
seeking after the inheritance of God. For the law promulgated on
Horeb is now old, and belongs to yourselves alone; but this is for
all universally. Now, law placed against law has abrogated that
which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner
has put an end to the previous one."
We must, therefore, pronounce Justin a man who held to the abrogation
of the ten commandments, and that the Sabbath was a Jewish institution
which was unknown before Moses, and of no authority since Christ. He
held Sunday to be the most suitable day for public worship, but not
upon the ground that the Sabbath had been changed to it, for he cuts up
the Sabbatic institution by the roots; and so far is he from calling
this day the Christian Sabbath that he gives to it the name which it
bore as a heathen festival.