Justin Martyr was the first Christian thinker to argue that Greek philosophy and Christianity share a common source — the Logos, the divine reason that orders all things — meaning that Socrates, Heraclitus, and the Greek philosophers were, in a sense, Christians before Christ. His "seeds of the Word" (logoi spermatikoi) doctrine held that the divine Logos scattered seeds of truth in all rational creatures, so that whatever was true in Greek philosophy reflects the same Logos fully incarnated in Jesus. This was an apologetic strategy aimed at showing educated pagans that Christianity did not require abandoning reason but fulfilled it.
"Those who have lived with Logos are Christians, even though they were thought to be atheists, such as Socrates among the Greeks" — the boldest statement of Justin's logos spermatikos doctrine, claiming Socrates as a Christian avant la lettre.
On the "seeds of the Word" scattered among all humanity before the incarnation — those who lived according to the Logos were virtuous, even if they did not know Christ by name.
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