LIBERTY UNIVERSITY JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Justin Martyr and Tertullian apologies
A Paper Submitted to
the Faculty of the School of Divinity
in Candidacy for the Degree of
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (Ed. D) Department of Christian Leadership and
Church Ministries
By
Mary Gracias
Lynchburg, Virginia
9/2022
Justin Martyr and Tertullian apologies
When early Christians tried to defend Christianity they were automatically at an instant
disadvantage compared to the Romans who were generally more literately correct and just
were more intelligent due to having more money and being in a higher social class. The Romans
had an instant advantage on early Christians. The apology letters were written in defense of the
criticism that came from ordinary people and intellectuals towards the early Christians. The
apologetics, two of which included Tertullian and Justin Martyr, all tried in their own individual
ways to fix and change all the negative views on Christianity. Many people saw early Christians
as unintelligent & arrogant. Being under Roman law was tough. Crucifixion was common in
Roman culture. The Romans crucified prisoners & slaves.
Romans had a hierarchy society. You were either the judge, or the one being judged.
Romans believed that persecutions unified their social order. Most all of the Roman statues
were connected to pagan Gods In Tertullian’s apology for the Christians he speaks out of how
the Romans persecuted Christians simply for being Christians. Tertullian’s apology says, “That
ever judges, who are commissioned to torture for the confession of truth, should abuse it upon
Christians only, for the extortion of a lie! You demand what I am, and I say I am a Christian; why
do you torture me to unsay it? I confess, and you rack on; if I confess not, what will you do? If
other malefactors deny, it is with difficulty you believe them; but if Christians deny, you acquit
them at a word.
Certainly you must think yourselves in the wrong for such proceedings, and be conscious of
a secret bias upon your judgments, that makes you run thus counter to the forms of court, the
reasons of justice, and the very intent of the laws themselves.” In this passage Tertullian is
displaying his feelings towards the Roman legal proceedings and how he feels about their unfair
justice system.
Tertullian naturally talks of the Christians with the highest regards. Christian’s lived their life by
a strict and very moral conduct. Tertullian says how the Christians were so far from homicide,
using the example of how Christians don’t even believe in killing a baby still in the womb,
because even that baby is too human to kill. “But Christians now are so far from homicide, that
with them it is utterly unlawful to make away a child in the womb, when nature is in
deliberation about the man; for to kill a child before it is born is to commit murder by way of
advance; and there is no difference whether you destroy a child in its formation, or after it is
formed and delivered.” Tertullian writes of antiquity in his apologies. “And did not this
alteration go so near the great law- giver’s heart that he acquitted his country in a pet, and
pined himself to death, being his own judge and his own executioner ? Does not your
experience light you every day to the mistakes and rubbish of antiquity?”
In Justin Martyr’s apologies he also talks highly or the Christian moral system. Justin Martyr
declared that Christianity was morally superior to paganism. Justin Martyr wrote in his
apologies about how the Christians believe in only one God, which was far-fetched compared to
the Romans who all believed in numerous gods. In regards to the Romans being polytheistic, he
explained that Christians may not worship false gods, but only the one true God, that being
Jesus Christ.
