 There has been significant scholarly debate about the extent to which Justin’s Apologies differed from prior and future apologetic discourse.Paul Parvis, a prominent Justin scholar from the University of Edinburgh, has noted that the "First Apology" is unlike any apology that preceded it.It presents itself as legal petition, a standard Roman administrative genre that seeks to change a legal precedent (in this case, asking Christians to be charged based on evil deeds rather than for being Christian in and of itself).