Justin Martyr – NONVIOLENT CHRISTIANS

Rape of Dinah

In Chapter 34 Shechem rapes Dinah. Simeon and Levi use deceit and trickery to kill every male in Shechem’s city. The actions of his sons cause great concern to Jacob. ³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.” Genesis 35: 30 NIV

Jacob is worried that the residents of the land will kill him and his family because of the great injustice committed by his sons.

Then Jacob recognizes the protection God is giving him in spite of this great injustice: ²So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. ³Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” Genesis 35:2,3 NIV

In the time of Jacob, people living in his society resorted to great vengeance against their enemy.

The Meeting of Esau and Jacob (Artist: James Jacques Joseph Tissot, 1836-1902. Image: Public Domain, The Jewish Museum, New York)

God reveals himself.

The Bible is the story of God revealing himself to man. As we study history, we can see how God has been revealing himself to man as man is able to understand.

Jacobs sons took great vengeance against Shechem. Yet God shows Jacob that he wants to be our protector.

Moses and the Law

When Moses wrote down the law God gave him on Mount Sinai, he began to address the violence of revenge. God was no longer allowing the injustice of unlimited revenge. Moses taught that justice was an eye for an eye.

²³But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, ²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Exodus 21:23. NIV

This quelled the violence and revenge that was common when someone was injured.

When the Children of Israel were fleeing Egypt, God opened the Red Sea and protected Israel. They were not required to kill a single Egyptian soldier. Many Christians have reported the protection of God in violent situations.

A bit of snow melt splitting the snow in front of the evening’s Alpenglow. Picture: Copyright © 2020 by Leon Kauffman

Solomon Teaches Nonviolence

Solomon taught the wisdom of living a nonviolent life:

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. ²²In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. Proverbs 25:21 & 22 NIV

The Prophets Teach Nonviolence

And Isaiah told us that Jesus will bring about a time of nonviolence:

Isaiah said:

⁴He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Isaiah 2: 4. NIV

Many early Christians quoted these passages and commented on them. They clearly thought that these this passage is for the current church age.

Justin Martyr: (100 AD – 165 AD)

“We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war. We have exchanged our swords for plowshares, our spears for farm tools…now we cultivate the fear of God, justice, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given us through the Crucified One….The more we are persecuted and martyred, the more do others in ever increasing numbers become believers.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 110.3.4

Jesus Teaches Nonviolence

Jesus came. He is the exact representation of the Father. In God’s greatest revelation of himself he was ready to reveal his mercy, his compassion and his love for his enemies.

He taught non-violence. Jesus said: ³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. Matthew: 5: 38 & 39 NIV

Matthew was originally written in Hebrew. George Howard’s translation of the Hebrew directly to English Reads:

³⁸Again you have heard what is said in the Torah: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. ³⁹But I say to you, do not repay evil for evil; but he who smites your right cheek provide for him the left. Matthew: 5: 38 & 39 George Howard

On the way to the cross, Jesus refused to resist his enemies and while he was suffering on the cross Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:24 NIV.

Jesus said, “And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27 NIV

Jesus teaches and demonstrates a new way to treat our enemies. We are to love them and deal with them nonviolently. We must now love our enemies and allow Jesus to bring justice.

The Old Testament is filled with great violence and war. Some say that the Old Testament teaches violence, surely Jesus would expect us to continue to protect ourselves through violence. Jesus is God, if he can change the teaching of Moses, he can allow the Old Testament saints to use violence and ask his followers to live nonviolent lives during the church age.

Jesus is our Protection.

Jesus asks that we follow his example. Jesus will protect us but he does not want us to use violence. If we are following Jesus and living lives of nonviolence, it is possible that we and our families will die for him.

But Jesus will often provide a way of escape for his followers. When Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. he told his followers to flee to the mountains and he gave them signs so that they would know when to flee.

The Jews rebelled against Rome. When Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, Josephus suggested that as many as a million Jews died at the hands of the Romans. Many of the Jews killed were peaceful citizens of Jerusalem. Many thousands were taken captive as slaves and taken to the mines in Egypt.

Most of followers of Jesus fled the city and survived.

Many of us like Jacob have lived lives that are less than ideal in God’s eyes. And yet God offers us mercy and forgiveness and protection through Jesus. In the long view, even if we and our families die for Jesus, we will live with Jesus forever.

Jesus offers forgiveness in the rebirth: Born Again

7 Reasons the Old Testament Cannot be used to Justify Christian Violence

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If Early Church writers thought that this passage supported Christian Non-Resistance can we also consider the passage to support Non-Resistance today?

The Swan Range rising up in the clear blue sky over the mowed hay at the Gordon Ranch. Courtesy Leon Kauffman.

By reading quotes from Early Church writers concerning Isaiah 2:3-4 and a similar passage in Micah 4:2-4 we can see that they felt the Christian Church was a fulfillment of this prophecy and that Christians should no longer participate in violence and war.

This is the passage from Isaiah:

³Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
    so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴He will judge between the nations
    and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war anymore.

Isaiah 2:3 & 4 NIV

Many early Christians quoted these passages and commented on them. Let’s look at a few of the quotes.

Justin Martyr: (100 AD – 165 AD)

For from Jerusalem there went out into the world, men, twelve in number, and these illiterate, of no ability in speaking: but by the power of God they proclaimed to every race of men that they were sent by Christ to teach to all the word of God, and we who formerly used to murder one another do not only now refrain from making war upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie nor deceive our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ.
The First Apology of Justin Martyr Chapter 39.

Irenaeus (130 AD – 202 AD)

“The new covenant that brings back peace and the law that gives life have gone forth over the whole earth, as the prophets said: “For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and he will instruct many people; and they will break down their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and they will no longer learn to make war.” These people formed their swords and war lances into plowshares,” that is, into instruments used for peaceful purposes. So now, they are unaccustomed to fighting, so when they are struck, they offer also the other cheek.”
Irenaeus of Lyons: Against Heresies Book 4 (c.180 AD)

From this quote it appears that Irenaeus clearly thought that turning the other cheek included a refusal to resist in the time of war.

Other early writers including Tertullian and Origin quoted the Isaiah and Micah passages as well.

After all these years, the 20^th Century was the bloodiest century ever and Christians were involved in most of the wars.

And why do Christians fight in wars today? Is it because the church is teaching that the fighting, violence and war is acceptable? What about the commands of Jesus and Paul?

Jesus said,³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
Matthew 5:38,39. NIV

Jesus said, ⁴⁴But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:44-45a. NIV

Paul said, “Some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. ³For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:2-5. NIV

Clearly early Christians felt that this Isaiah passage confirmed that Christians should follow Jesus’ example in living and dying by refusing to resist evil men.

We can find many examples of early Christians teaching including the quotes above. We can also see the example of Christians dying at the hands of the Romans by laying their lives down without resistance in times of persecution. I am not aware any Christian writers before Constantine who were pro-war.

Hippolytus wrote:

If anyone be a soldier or in authority, let him be taught not to oppress or to kill or to rob, or to be angry or to rage and afflict anyone. But let those rations suffice him which are given to him. But if they wish to be baptized in the Lord, let them cease from military service or from the [ post of] authority, and if not let them not be received.

Let a catechumen or a believer of the people, if he desire to be a soldier, either cease from his intention, or if not let him be rejected. For he hath despised God by his thought, and leaving the things of the Spirit, he hath perfected himself in the flesh, and hath treated the faith with contempt.

THE TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD. Hippolytus, (170 AD -235 AD)

Return to : Reasons Christians Give to Say Violence by Christians is Legitimate

Edited: 6/25/2022

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Do Genesis 34 & 35 Foreshadow the Nonviolence of Jesus?

Does Isaiah 2:3-4 Teach Christian Non-Violence?

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