Sophia Scriptura

First Apology 17

Justin Martyr · First Apology · ca. 150–155 · Rome · Read in context

Summary: Christians pay taxes and pray for the emperors, worshiping God alone; everyone will answer to God.

Greek text · Rauschen, 38

Φόρους δὲ καὶ εἰσφορὰς τοῖς ὑφʼ ὑμῶν τεταγμένοις πανταχοῦ πρὸ πάντων πειρώμεθα φέρειν, ὡς ἐδιδάχθημεν παρʼ αὐτοῦ. Κατʼ ἐκεῖνο γὰρ τοῦ καιροῦ προσελθόντες τινὲς ἠρώτων αὐτόν, εἰ δεῖ Καίσαρι φόρους τελεῖν. Καὶ ἀπεκρίνατο· „Εἴπατέ μοι, τίνος εἰκόνα τὸ νόμισμα ἔχει“; Οἱ δὲ ἔφασαν· „Καίσαρος“. Καὶ πάλιν ἀνταπεκρίνατο αὐτοῖς· „Ἀπόδοτε οὖν τὰ Καίσαρος τῷ Καίσαρι καὶ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τῷ θεῷ.“ Ὅθεν θεὸν μὲν μόνον προσκυνοῦμεν, ὑμῖν δὲ πρὸς τὰ ἄλλα χαίροντες ὑπηρετοῦμεν, βασιλεῖς καὶ ἄρχοντας ἀνθρώπων ὁμολογοῦντες καὶ εὐχόμενοι μετὰ τῆς βασιλικῆς δυνάμεως καὶ σώφρονα τὸν λογισμὸν ἔχοντας ὑμᾶς εὑρεθῆναι. Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἡμῶν εὐχομένων καὶ πάντα εἰς φανερὸν τιθέντων ἀφροντιστήσετε, οὐδὲν ἡμεῖς βλαβησόμεθα, πιστεύοντες, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ πεπεισμένοι, κατʼ ἀξίαν τῶν πράξεων ἕκαστον τίσειν διὰ πυρὸς αἰωνίου δίκας, καὶ πρὸς ἀναλογίαν ὧν ἔλαβε δυνάμεων παρὰ θεοῦ τὸν λόγον ἀπαιτηθήσεσθαι, ὡς ὁ Χριστὸς ἐμήνυσεν εἰπών· „Ὧι πλέον ἔδωκεν ὁ θεός, πλέον καὶ ἀπαιτηθήσεται παρʼ αὐτοῦ“.

English · Claude translation

And everywhere we try, before all others, to pay the taxes and levies to those appointed by you, as we were taught by him. For at that time some came to him and asked him whether one ought to pay taxes to Caesar. And he answered, “Tell me, whose image does the coin have?” And they said, “Caesar's.” And again he answered them, “Give, then, to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” Therefore we worship God alone, but in other things we gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men, and praying that with your royal power you may also be found to have sound judgment. But if you disregard us, though we pray and set everything in the open, we shall suffer no harm, since we believe, or rather are persuaded, that each will pay the penalty through eternal fire according to the merit of his deeds, and will be required to give account in proportion to the powers he has received from God, as Christ indicated when he said, “To whom God has given more, from him more will also be required.”

About this passage

Source
Rauschen, 38 · Gerhard Rauschen, ed., S. Iustini Apologiae duae, Florilegium Patristicum 2 (Bonn: Hanstein, 1911), 8–114 · Greek text: G. Rauschen, S. Iustini Apologiae duae (Florilegium Patristicum 2, 1911), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Rauschen, FlorPatr 2. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Rauschen (Florilegium Patristicum 2, 1911); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Scripture
Topics
Prayer, Eschatology

Cite this passage

Justin, 1 Apol. 17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-1-apology/17/).

Plain text
Justin, 1 Apol. 17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-1-apology/17/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage