{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/001/0010379.htm","path":"chr/ecf/001/0010379.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/001/0010379.htm","text":"Hence are we called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity. But both Him, and the Son (who came forth from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels who follow and are made like to Him), 1776 and the prophetic Spirit, we worship and adore, knowing them in reason and truth, and declaring without grudging to every one who wishes to learn, as we have been taught.\nThis is the literal and obvious translation of Justin\u2019s words. But from c. 13, 16, and 61, it is evident that he did not desire to inculcate the worship of angels. We are therefore driven to adopt another translation of this passage, even though it be somewhat harsh. Two such translations have been proposed: the first connecting \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthe host of the other good angels\u201d as the common object of the verb \u201ctaught;\u201d the second connecting \u201cthese things\u201d with \u201cthe host of,\u201d etc., and making these two together the subject taught. In the first case the translation would stand, \u201ctaught these things to us and to the host,\u201d etc.; in the second case the translation would be, \u201ctaught us about these things, and about the host of the others who follow Him, viz. the good angels.\u201d [I have ventured to insert parenthetic marks in the text, an obvious and simple resource to suggest the manifest intent of the author. Grabe\u2019s note in loc. gives another and very ingenious exegesis, but the simplest is best.]","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I: JUSTIN MARTYR: Chapter VI.\u2014Charge of atheism...","type":"page"}