Christ and the Philosophers

Μεγαλειότερα μὲν οὖν πάσης ἀνθρωπείου διδασκαλίας φαίνεται τὰ ἡμέτερα· διὰ τοῦτο λογικὸν τὸ ὅλον τὸν φανέντα δι' ἡμᾶς Χριστὸν γεγονέναι, και σῶμα, καὶ Λόγον, καὶ ψυχήν. Ὅσα γὰρ καλῶς ἀεὶ έφθέγξαντο καὶ εὖπρον οἱ φιλοσοφήσαντες ἤ νομοθετήσαντες, κατὰ Λόγου μέρος εὑρέσεως καὶ θεωρίας ἐστὶ πονηθέντα αὐτοῖς. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ οὐ πάντα τὰ τοῦ Λόγου ἐγνώπρισαν, ὅς ἐστι Χριστὸς, καὶ ἐναντία ἑαυτοῖς πολλάκις εἶπον. Καὶ οἱ προγεγραμμένοι τοῦ Χριστοῦ κατὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, λόγῳ πειραθέντες τὰ πράγματα θεωρῆσαι καὶ ἐλέγξαι, ὡς ἀσεβεῖς καὶ περίεργοι εἰς δικαστήρια ἣχθησαν. Ὁ πάντων δὲ αὐτῶν εὐτονώτερος πρὸς τοῦτο γενόμενος Σωκράτης τὰ αὐτὰ ἡμῖν ἐνεκλήθη. Καὶ γὰρ ἔφασαν αὔτὸν καινὰ δαιμόνια εἰσφέρειν, καὶ οὒς ἡ πόλις νομίζει θεοὺς, μὴ ἡγεῖσθαι αὐτόν. Ὁ δὲ δαίμονας μὲν τοὺς φαύλους, καὶ τοὺς πράξαντας ἂ ἔφασαν οἱ ποιηταὶ, ἐκβαλὼν τῆς πολιτείας καὶ Ὅηερον καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ποιητὰς, παραιτεῖσθαι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐδίδεξε· πρὸς Θεοῦ δὲ τοῦ ἀγνώστου αὐτοῖς, διὰ λόγου ζητήσεως ἐπίγνωσιν προὺτρέπετο εἰπών· Τὸν δὲ πατέρα καὶ δημιουργὸν πάντων οὔθ’ εὑρεῖν ῥᾳδιον, οὔθ’ εὐροντα εἰς πάντας εἰπεῖν ἀσφαλές. Ἅ ὁ ἡμέτερος Χριστος δια τῆς ἑαυτοῦ δυνάμεως ἔπραξε. Σωκράτει μὲν γὰρ οὐδεις ἐπιστεύθη, ὑπέρ τούτου τοῦ δόγματος ἀποθνήσκειν· Χριστῷ δὲ τῷ καὶ ὑπὸ Σωκράτους ἀπὸ μέρους γνωσθέντι (Λόγος γάρ ἥν καὶ ἔστιν ὁ ἐν παντὶ ὢν, καὶ διὰ τῶν προφητῶν προειπὼν τὰ μέλλοντα γίνεσθαι, καὶ δι’ ἑαυτοῦ ὁμοιοπαθοῦς γενομένου καὶ διδάξαντος ταῦτἀ), οὐ φιλόσοποι οὐδε φιλόλογοι μόνον ἐπείσθησαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ χειροτέχναι, καὶ παντελῶς ἰδιῶται, καὶ δόξης και φόβου καὶ θανάτου καταφρονήσαντες. Ἅγιος Ἰουστίνος Μάρτυς, Ἀπολογία Δεύτερα,

So greater than all human teachings ours do appear because Christ who appeared for us became the rational whole, both body and reason and soul. For whenever something was pronounced upon well and fittingly by philosophers or legislators, they labored to find and look upon some part of the Word. But since they did not know all of the Word, which is Christ, they often spoke in opposition to one another. And those who by human birth came before Christ, when by use of reason they tried to consider and contemplate and speak of things, were brought into court as impious persons and trouble makers. And Socrates, who was more zealous in this than all of them, was accused as we are. For they said that he was introducing new divinities, and that he did not acknowledge those whom the city deemed gods. But deceitful divinities and their works he cast out of his city and he taught men to reject Homer and the other poets; and he encouraged them to acquaintance of the God unknown to them by means of investigation of reason, saying, ' But the father and maker of all things it is not easy to find, nor, having found him, is it safe to speak.' These things our Christ did through His own power. For no one had faith in Socrates so as to die for his teaching but in Christ, who was in part known even by Socrates (for the Word was and is in everyone, He who foretold the things to come through the prophets, and then in His own person, when He was made of like passions, He taught these things). And not only philosophers and scholars were convinced, but also artisans and people utterly uneducated, despising both glory and fear and death. Saint Justin Martyr,  from the Second Apology