According to the Catholic calendar, today is the feast day for Justin of Caesarea, best known as Justin Martyr. He was born in Samaria around the year 110AD (only a matter of years after the last of Jesus’s original disciples died), and he was executed in Rome around 165AD because of his refusal to give up his beliefs (hence the name “Martyr”). Although he was not the first person to write in defence of the Christian faith, his writings are the earliest ones which have survived.
In response to scepticism about the resurrection, he said: “And to any thoughtful person would anything appear more incredible, than… to say that it was possible that from a small drop of human seed bones and sinews and flesh be formed into a shape such as we see? …If… one were to show you human seed and a picture of a man, and were to say with confidence that from such a substance such a being could be produced, would you believe before you saw the actual production? …In the same way, then, you are now incredulous because you have never seen a dead man rise again. But as at first you would not have believed it possible that such persons could be produced from the small drop, and yet now you see them thus produced, so also judge ye that it is not impossible that the bodies of men, after they have been dissolved, and like seeds resolved into earth, should in God’s appointed time rise again and put on incorruption.”
Justin’s largest work, “The First Apology”, was addressed to Emperor Antoninus Pius (AD138-161), in an attempt to persuade him to stop the arbitrary persecution of Christians. The work explains what Christians believe and why Christian practices are beneficial to, rather than harmful to, good government. In his conclusion, Justin says: “And if these things seem to you to be reasonable and true, honour them; but if they seem nonsensical, despise them as nonsense, and do not decree death against those who have done no wrong, as you would against enemies.”