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Address to the Greeks

Tatian

Chapter 29

About this work

Tatian attacks Greek claims to cultural and philosophical superiority, defends Christian teaching about God, creation, resurrection, and ethics, and argues for the antiquity of biblical wisdom.

Author: Tatian
Date: c. AD 165–175
Origin: Rome or the eastern Mediterranean
Genre: Apology

Account of Tatian’s Conversion.

Wherefore, having seen these things, and moreover also

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having

been

admitted

to

the

mysteries

,

and

having

everywhere

examined

the

religious

rites

performed

by

the

effeminate

and

the

pathic

,

and

having

found

among

the

Romans

their

Latiarian

Jupiter

delighting

in

human

gore

and

the

blood

of

slaughtered

men

,

and

Artemis

not

far

from

the

great

city

sanctioning

acts

of

the

same

kind

,

and

one

demon

here

and

another

there

instigating

to

the

perpetration

of

evil

,

—

retiring

by

myself

,

I

sought

how

I

might

be

able

to

discover

the

truth

.

And

,

while

I

was

giving

my

most

earnest

attention

to

the

matter

,

I

happened

to

meet

with

certain

barbaric

writings

,

too

old

to

be

compared

with

the

opinions

of

the

Greeks

,

and

too

divine

to

be

compared

with

their

errors

;

and

I

was

led

to

put

faith

in

these

by

the

unpretending

cast

of

the

language

,

the

inartificial

character

of

the

writers

,

the

foreknowledge

displayed

of

future

events

,

the

excellent

quality

of

the

precepts

,

and

the

declaration

of

the

government

of

the

universe

as

centred

in

one

Being

.

And

,

my

soul

being

taught

of

God

,

I

discern

that

the

former

class

of

writings

lead

to

condemnation

,

but

that

these

put

an

end

to

the

slavery

that

is

in

the

world

,

and

rescue

us

from

a

multiplicity

of

rulers

and

ten

thousand

tyrants

,

while

they

give

us

,

not

indeed

what

we

had

not

before

received

,

but

what

we

had

received

but

were

prevented

by

error

from

retaining

.

Notes

77
At Aricia, near Rome.
78
[A memorable tribute to the light-giving power of the Holy Scriptures. “Barbarian books” (barbaric means something else) they were; but well says Dr. Watts in a paraphrase of Ps. cxix. 96 (and comp. capp. xl., xli., infra),— “Let all the heathen writers join to form one perfect book, Great God if once compared with thine, how mean their writings look!” See his Hymns, p. 238. Ed. Worcester, 1836.]