Folia Theologica 17. (2006)
László Perendy: A Christian Platonist
170 L. PERENDY his name is spelled in a Greek form, it is in fact a Latin name: Iustinus. His grandfather and his father were coloni in Flavia Neapolis in Palestine, a city which is called now Nablus in Arabic. Flavia Neapolis was founded under the reign of Titus (79-81), after the demolition of ancient Sichem. The inhabitants of Flavia Neapolis were given the privileges which were accompanied with Roman citizenship. It is conceivable that these settlers were called Samaritans after the name of the geographical region. It seems to be feasible that - as in other places - the settlers were given land after the end of their military service. Consequently, it is likely that a significant number of the settlers had not been married, but they got married only after their settlement to local women, who were Samaritans. Actually, on one occasion Justin calls himself Samaritan. On the basis of these data we cannot exclude that on his mother's side he was a Samaritan. Although - except for the one occasion mentioned above - he always called himself pagan, we can suppose with good reason that he had very extensive cultural links with the local community which survived the first Jewish war or which came into existence then. This assumption is supported by the fact that among his quotations of the Old Testament there are a great number which contain Samaritan variant readings. It is interesting to mention that Harnack regards it a happy coincidence that Palestine was the land of birth of Justin. Although by education he was Greek and his descent was partially Latin, his place of birth - both physically and figuratively - was not far from the Jacob's well. Some scholars — e. g. C. Munier - think that he did not speak Hebrew and he did not know the Samaritan religious traditions. P. Bobichon - in his critical edition of the Dialogue - expresses more positive views on how detailed Justin's knowledge of the various types of contemporary Judaism was. From Dialogue 2,8 we are informed that Justin wanted to get to full knowledge by studying the views of contemporary philosophical schools. Some scholars think that he pursued serious studies already in Flavia Neapolis. His parents must have been substantially wealthy, because they were able to support him financially in his studies and journeys. In his own account he studied the doctrines
