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Hortatory Address to the Greeks

Justin Martyr

Chapter 34

About this work

Author: Justin Martyr

Chapter XXXIV.—Whence men attributed to God human form.

And if any person investigates the subject of images,

‹ Chapter 33 Chapter 35 ›

and

inquires

on

what

ground

those

who

first

fashioned

your

gods

conceived

that

they

had

the

forms

of

men

,

he

will

find

that

this

also

was

derived

from

the

divine

history

.

For

seeing

that

Moses

history

,

speaking

in

the

person

of

God

,

says

,

“

Let

Us

make

man

in

our

image

and

likeness

,

”

these

persons

,

under

the

impression

that

this

meant

that

men

were

like

God

in

form

,

began

thus

to

fashion

their

gods

,

supposing

they

would

make

a

likeness

from

a

likeness

.

But

why

,

ye

men

of

Greece

,

am

I

now

induced

to

recount

these

things

?

That

ye

may

know

that

it

is

not

possible

to

learn

the

true

religion

from

those

who

were

unable

,

even

on

those

subjects

by

which

they

won

the

admiration

of

the

heathen

,

to

write

anything

original

,

but

merely

propounded

by

some

allegorical

device

in

their

own

writings

what

they

had

learned

from

Moses

and

the

other

prophets

.

Notes

78
Literally, “those without.”