Justin and the 'So-Called' Temple of Jerusalem

[Secret Alias]

Justin has a strange habit of using ἐπικληθέντα and ἐπικληθεὶς to qualify the 'Jerusalem temple'

1. And that you may learn that it was for the sins of your own nation, and for their idolatries and not because there was any necessity for such sacrifices

2. For indeed the temple, which is called the temple in Jerusalem, He admitted to be His house or court, not as though He needed it, but in order that you, in this view of it, giving yourselves to Him, might not worship idols

καὶ γὰρ τὸν ναὸν τὸν ἐν Ἰερουσαλὴμ ἐπικληθέντα οὐχ ὡς ἐνδεὴς ὢν ὡμολόγησεν οἶκον αὐτοῦ ἢ αὐλήν, ἀλλ' ὅπως καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο προσέχοντες αὐτῷ μὴ εἰδωλολατρῆτε.

3. Moreover, that Solomon was a renowned and great king, by whom the temple called that at Jerusalem was built, I know

καὶ ὅτι μὲν βασιλεὺς ἐγένετο καὶ μέγας ὁ Σολομών, ἐφ' οὗ ὁ οἶκος Ἰερουσαλὴμ ἐπικληθεὶς ἀνῳκοδομήθη, ἐπίσταμαι

4. And we, therefore, in the uncircumcision of our flesh, believing God through Christ, and having that circumcision which is of advantage to us who have acquired it--namely, that of the heart--we hope to appear righteous before and well-pleasing to God: since already we have received His testimony through the words of the prophets.) [And, further, God will be slandered unless you show] that you were commanded to observe the Sabbath, and to present offerings, and that the Lord submitted to have a place called by the name of God (καὶ τόπον εἰς ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπικληθῆναι ἀνασχέσθαι τὸν κύριον), in order that, as has been said, you might not become impious and godless by worshipping idols and forgetting God, as indeed you do always appear to have been.

5. Trypho, answer me: Are those righteous patriarchs who lived before Moses, who observed none of those[ordinances] which, the Scripture shows, received the commencement of[their] institution from Moses, saved,[and have they attained to] the inheritance of the blessed?"

And Trypho said, "The Scriptures compel me to admit it."

"Likewise I again ask you," said I, "did God enjoin your fathers to present the offerings and sacrifices because He had need of them, or because of the hardness of their hearts and tendency to idolatry?"

"The latter," said he, "the Scriptures in like manner compel us to admit."

What can we say about Justin's attitude toward the temple of Jerusalem? That it wasn't holy? That it wasn't a temple?

[Ben C. Smith]

Justin has a strange habit of using ἐπικληθέντα and ἐπικληθεὶς to qualify the 'Jerusalem temple'

1. And that you may learn that it was for the sins of your own nation, and for their idolatries and not because there was any necessity for such sacrifices

2. For indeed the temple, which is called the temple in Jerusalem, He admitted to be His house or court, not as though He needed it, but in order that you, in this view of it, giving yourselves to Him, might not worship idols

καὶ γὰρ τὸν ναὸν τὸν ἐν Ἰερουσαλὴμ ἐπικληθέντα οὐχ ὡς ἐνδεὴς ὢν ὡμολόγησεν οἶκον αὐτοῦ ἢ αὐλήν, ἀλλ' ὅπως καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο προσέχοντες αὐτῷ μὴ εἰδωλολατρῆτε.

3. Moreover, that Solomon was a renowned and great king, by whom the temple called that at Jerusalem was built, I know

καὶ ὅτι μὲν βασιλεὺς ἐγένετο καὶ μέγας ὁ Σολομών, ἐφ' οὗ ὁ οἶκος Ἰερουσαλὴμ ἐπικληθεὶς ἀνῳκοδομήθη, ἐπίσταμαι

....

5. Trypho, answer me: Are those righteous patriarchs who lived before Moses, who observed none of those[ordinances] which, the Scripture shows, received the commencement of[their] institution from Moses, saved,[and have they attained to] the inheritance of the blessed?"

And Trypho said, "The Scriptures compel me to admit it."

"Likewise I again ask you," said I, "did God enjoin your fathers to present the offerings and sacrifices because He had need of them, or because of the hardness of their hearts and tendency to idolatry?"

"The latter," said he, "the Scriptures in like manner compel us to admit."

What can we say about Justin's attitude toward the temple of Jerusalem? That it wasn't holy? That it wasn't a temple?

Maybe that it was not in Jerusalem?

Only half joking; he is arguing in one of those passages that God needed no temple, so maybe his point is that the presumed heavenly temple, after which the earthly one would have been modeled, is the "real" temple, and the one in Jerusalem was always meant to be transitory. Or maybe the contrast is between the Jerusalem temple and the Christian actually being a temple, as per Paul. "You Jews," he would be suggesting, "are always going on about 'the temple in Jerusalem,' whereas we Christians know that the real temple is in heaven," or "that the real temple is the Christian believer."

Interesting, though, and I am just guessing here.

I do think that the following one (which I have omitted from the above list) is probably a red herring:

4. And we, therefore, in the uncircumcision of our flesh, believing God through Christ, and having that circumcision which is of advantage to us who have acquired it--namely, that of the heart--we hope to appear righteous before and well-pleasing to God: since already we have received His testimony through the words of the prophets.) [And, further, God will be slandered unless you show] that you were commanded to observe the Sabbath, and to present offerings, and that the Lord submitted to have a place called by the name of God (καὶ τόπον εἰς ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπικληθῆναι ἀνασχέσθαι τὸν κύριον), in order that, as has been said, you might not become impious and godless by worshipping idols and forgetting God, as indeed you do always appear to have been.

It is just a callback to Deuteronomy 12.11 and various similar verses in that book.

[Joseph D. L.]

I'd like to know just who the old man who taught Justin was.