Fragments of lost works

Contents

These are only the fragments of Justin not already on this site. Otto's nos. 1 and 2 (against Marcion, from Irenaeus, Against Heresies 4.6.2 and 5.26.2) are in Eusebius, Church History 4.18.9 and Irenaeus, both already on this site. On the Resurrection is a separate work.

1. 3Tatian reports Justin's saying that the demons are like robbers.
2. 4Methodius reports Justin's explanation that the flesh is inherited by the kingdom rather than inheriting it.
3. 5A fragment argues that because corruption entered human nature through the first transgression, the Word had to take a body to unite life with that nature, rather than save by a mere command.
4. 6Ignorance of God harms not God but ourselves, depriving us of his friendship.
5. 7Truth, like light, cannot become its opposite or be overcome.
6. 8A hard heart repels a sound word.
7. 9Knowledge of God is the soul's health and makes it like God.
8. 10As bodies cast shadows, so God's justice necessarily repays each person according to his choices.
9. 11The soul finds it hard to return to the good it has left and to leave the evil it is used to.
10. 12The believer, thought mad by others, knows he has been freed from error by the one unchanging truth.
11. 13Living well means living by the truth, which requires understanding the nature of things.
12. 14An unskilled teacher ruins his pupils, and careless pupils endanger their teacher.
13. 15Yielding to the passions is slavery; mastering them is freedom.
14. 16Not sinning is best, being punished is second best, and the unpunished wrongdoer is most wretched.
15. 17As a charioteer's skill or failure decides his team's fate, so with the guide of a life.
16. 18The aim of philosophy is likeness to God.
17. 19Nothing is too cramped or too numerous for God.
18. 20A fragment explains a prophecy as directed at Israel acting like the nations, citing Jeremiah's charge of idolatry.