What Is Apologetics?

Apologetics is a verbal defense of a claim. The New Testament word is ἀπολογία, a defense, and 1 Peter 3:151 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionBut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:1 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionOpen the Source tells Christians to be ready to give that answer for the hope that is in them.

Key Points

• ἀπολογία is Strong’s G627. The lexicon line on this site is “a verbal defense,” especially in a law court.
• Acts 22:1Acts 22:1 · King James VersionMen, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you.Acts 22:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source is Paul’s “defence” before the crowd in Jerusalem. Acts 25:16Acts 25:16 · King James VersionTo whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.Acts 25:16 · King James VersionOpen the Source uses the same word for a prisoner’s chance to answer his accusers.
• Philippians 1:7Philippians 1:7 · King James VersionEven as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.Philippians 1:7 · King James VersionOpen the Source pairs “the defence and confirmation of the gospel.” On this site’s King James and Greek line, Philippians 1:17Philippians 1:17 · King James VersionBut the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.Philippians 1:17 · King James VersionOpen the Source is “I am set for the defence of the gospel.” Verse 16 is the other group.
• 1 Peter 3:151 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionBut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:1 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionOpen the Source says to sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and to be ready with an answer, a reason of the hope, “with meekness and fear.”
• Justin’s First Apology is an address and petition to the emperor and the Senate on behalf of people “unjustly hated.”
• Athenagoras asks Marcus Aurelius and Commodus to try Christians for deeds, not for the name. Augustine’s City of God undertakes a defense of the city of God against those who preferred their own gods after Rome was sacked.

What Apologia Means

The Greek noun is ἀπολογία. This site’s short gloss is “a verbal defense,” and the longer line says it is a verbal defense particularly in a law court. English “apologetics” is built from that noun. It is not an apology in the later sense of saying one is sorry. It is a speech that answers a charge.

Acts 22:1Acts 22:1 · King James VersionMen, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you.Acts 22:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source, King James Version: “Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you.” Paul is standing on the stairs of the barracks, speaking Hebrew to the crowd that had seized him. The defence is the story he then tells. Acts 25:16Acts 25:16 · King James VersionTo whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.Acts 25:16 · King James VersionOpen the Source is Festus’s rule that a Roman does not hand a man over before the accused has faced his accusers and had a chance to answer. The Greek word there is the same noun.

Philippians 1:7Philippians 1:7 · King James VersionEven as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.Philippians 1:7 · King James VersionOpen the Source says the church shares Paul’s grace “in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel.” In this site’s King James text, Philippians 1:16Philippians 1:16 · King James VersionThe one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:Philippians 1:16 · King James VersionOpen the Source is the group that preaches Christ “of contention,” and Philippians 1:17Philippians 1:17 · King James VersionBut the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.Philippians 1:17 · King James VersionOpen the Source is the group that does it “of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.” The Greek study line on this site puts ἀπολογία in 1:7 and in 1:17, matching that English. Some printed Greek New Testaments number the defence clause as 1:16, because they swap the two sentences. The word, and the claim, are the same: Paul is posted for a defense of the gospel.

1 Peter 3:151 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionBut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:1 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionOpen the Source:

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

1 Peter 3:15 · King James Version

“Answer” is ἀπολογίαν. “Reason” is the ground of the hope. The sentence is addressed to Christians who may be asked. Isaiah 8:13Isaiah 8:13 · King James VersionSanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.Isaiah 8:13 · King James VersionOpen the Source says to sanctify the LORD of hosts. Peter’s line says to sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Yahweh Texts Applied to Jesus sets those two verses side by side. The hope Peter names is the Christian hope. Charity in Disagreement quotes the next verse, on a good conscience. This page stays with what the answer is.

Justin, Athenagoras, and Augustine

The early written defenses are petitions to rulers, not a school syllabus.

Justin’s First Apology opens: “To the Emperor Titus Ælius Adrianus Antoninus Pius Augustus Cæsar, and to his son Verissimus the Philosopher, and to Lucius the Philosopher… and to the sacred Senate, with the whole People of the Romans, I, Justin, the son of Priscus and grandson of Bacchius, natives of Flavia Neapolis in Palestine, present this address and petition on behalf of those of all nations who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused, myself being one of them.” He asks them to judge after investigation, not from rumour. Later he says a sober man will acknowledge that Christians are not atheists, because they worship the Maker of the universe, and that “our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate.” The document is a defense of people under a charge, and it states who Jesus is.

Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians, is addressed “to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus.” Chapter 1 says citizens may follow ancestral rites, including Egyptian worship of animals, while “for us who are called Christians you have not in like manner cared,” and that the multitude makes war “for our name alone.” Chapter 2 asks that Christians “shall not be hated and punished because we are called Christians,” but tried on charges and released or punished for a wrong, “not for the name.” He calls the discourse “my defense.”

Augustine, The City of God, Book I, is later. The preface, to Marcellinus, says: “The glorious city of God is my theme in this work… I have undertaken its defense against those who prefer their own gods to the Founder of this city.” The occasion is the charge that Christian faith brought the sack of Rome. The defense is a long argument about two cities, not a list of tactics.

Those three texts are primary examples of the word at work: a petition, a plea about the name “Christian,” and a defense of the city of God against a historical charge. They are not a definition pasted over 1 Peter. Peter already used the noun for a reason of the hope.

Apologetics and Evangelism

1 Peter 3:151 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionBut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:1 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionOpen the Source answers a person who asks. Evangelism, in the New Testament, is the announcement of the gospel to people who have not asked in that way. Romans 1:16Romans 1:16 · King James VersionFor I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.Romans 1:16 · King James VersionOpen the Source calls the gospel the power of God unto salvation. 1 Corinthians 15:3–41 Corinthians 15:3–4 · King James Version^15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; ^15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:1 Corinthians 15:3–4 · King James VersionOpen the Source says the gospel Paul preached is that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose. An answer to a charge and an announcement of that news are different sentences. They can sit in one conversation. Peter does not turn the answer into a substitute for the announcement, and Paul does not treat the gospel as only a reply to accusers.

Examples already on this site are the pages that do that work with sources: Is the Bible True?, Did Jesus Really Exist?, the resurrection, Is Jesus God?, and Does God Exist?. How to Use This Wiki says how the shelves are organized. Is Faith Belief Without Evidence? is Hebrews 11:1 beside the same Petrine sentence.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Examples of Apologetics?

Acts 22 is Paul’s defence of his life. Justin’s address answers the charge that Christians are atheists and haters of the state. Athenagoras asks to be tried for deeds. Augustine answers the claim that the sack of Rome refuted the Christian God. 1 Peter 3:151 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionBut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:1 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionOpen the Source is the sentence that tells every Christian to be ready with a reason.

Where Does the Word First Appear?

In the Greek New Testament on this site, ἀπολογία appears in Acts, Philippians, 2 Timothy, and 1 Peter, among other places. The English name “apologetics” is later. The noun is already in those letters.

Keep Reading

• 1 Peter 3:151 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionBut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:1 Peter 3:15 · King James VersionOpen the Source
• ἀπολογία
• The Trinity
• Is Jesus God?
• The Resurrection of Jesus
• Is the Bible True?
• Charity in Disagreement