"That [Word] was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world."

This passage embodies a truth which is unique in Scripture: that in the
Word was Life, that the Life was the Light of men, and that that Light
was (even before the Incarnation) the true Light which lighteth every
man.

This, I say, is a truth which is not, that I am aware of, to be found,
except by very remote implication, in the rest of Scripture. And yet it
is continually reproduced by Justin in a way which shows that he had
drunk it in, as it were, and he used it continually as the principle on
which to explain the vestiges of truth which existed among the heathen.

Thus:--

"We have been taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we
have declared above that He is the Word of Whom every race of men
were partakers; and those who lived reasonably (or with the Logos,
[Greek: hoi meta logou biôsantes]) are Christians, even though they
have been thought Atheists; as among the Greeks, Socrates and
Heraclitus, and men like them." (Apol. I. ch. xlvi.)

Again:--

"No one trusted in Socrates so as to die for this doctrine, but in
Christ, Who was partially known even by Socrates (for He was and is
the Word Who is in every man)," &c. (Apol. II. ch. x.)

Again, in a noble passage:--