First Apology 64 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Rauschen, 104

Καὶ τὸ ἀνεγείρειν δὲ τὸ εἴδωλον τῆς λεγομένης Κόρης ἐπὶ ταῖς τῶν ὑδάτων πηγαῖς ἐνεργῆσαι τοὺς δαίμονας, λέγοντας θυγατέρα αὐτὴν εἶναι τοῦ Διός, μιμησαμένους τὸ διὰ Μωϋσέως εἰρημένον, ἐκ τῶν προειρημένων νοῆσαι δύνασθε. Ἔφη γὰρ ὁ Μωϋσῆς, ὡς προεγράψαμεν· „Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν. Ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος, καὶ πνεῦμα θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τῶν ὑδάτων“. Εἰς μίμησιν οὖν τοῦ λεχθέντος ἐπιφερομένου τῷ ὕδατι πνεύματος θεοῦ τὴν Κόρην θυγατέρα τοῦ Διὸς ἔφασαν. Καὶ τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν δὲ ὁμοίως πονηρευόμενοι θυγατέρα τοῦ Διὸς ἔφασαν, οὐκ ἀπὸ μίξεως, ἀλλʼ, ἐπειδὴ ἐννοηθέντα τὸν θεὸν διὰ λόγου τὸν κόσμον ποιῆσαι ἔγνωσαν, ὡς τὴν πρώτην ἔννοιαν ἔφασαν τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν· ὅπερ γελοιότατον ἡγούμεθα εἶναι, τῆς ἐννοίας εἰκόνα παραφέρειν θηλειῶν μορφήν. Καὶ ὁμοίως τοὺς ἄλλους λεγομένους υἱοὺς τοῦ Διὸς αἱ πράξεις ἐλέγχουσιν.

English · Claude translation

And from what has been said before you can understand that the demons, imitating what was said through Moses, brought about the setting up of the image of the so-called Kore at the springs of water, saying that she was the daughter of Zeus. For Moses said, as we wrote before: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and unformed, and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters.” In imitation, then, of what was said of the Spirit of God being borne over the water, they said that Kore was the daughter of Zeus. And likewise with wicked intent they said that Athena was the daughter of Zeus, not by intercourse, but, since they knew that God made the world by conceiving it through the Word, they said that Athena was the first conception; which we consider most ridiculous, to present the form of a female as the image of a conception. And likewise their deeds convict the others who are called sons of Zeus.

About this passage

Source

Rauschen, 104 · 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

Gen 1:1 · quotation, high confidence
Gen 1:2 · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

Kore (“the Maiden”), Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (damaged spot in the digital text; restored from the sense (Κόρην later in the chapter); digitization slip against Rauschen's printed text (missing accent); digitization slip against Rauschen's printed text (missing breathing); digitization slip against Rauschen's printed text (wrong letter); stray punctuation in the digital text): εἰδωλον → εἴδωλον; Κ(??)ρης → Κόρης; τῷ ύδατι → τῷ ὕδατι; Διὸς ἐφασαν → Διὸς ἔφασαν; τοῦ· Διὸς → τοῦ Διὸς; τοῦ Λιὸς → τοῦ Διὸς.

Cite this passage

Justin, 1 Apol. 64 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-1-apology/64/).

Plain text

Justin, 1 Apol. 64 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-1-apology/64/).