Dialogue with Trypho 1.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Justin replies that most philosophers do not care whether God cares for individuals.

Greek text · Archambault 1:6

Ναί, ἔφην, οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς δεδοξάκαμεν. Ἀλλʼ οἱ πλεῖστοι οὐδὲ τούτου πεφροντίκασιν, εἴτε εἶς εἴτε καὶ πλείους εἰσὶ θεοί, καὶ εἴτε προνοοῦσιν ἡμῶν ἑκάστου εἴτε καὶ οὕ, ὡς μηδὲν πρὸς εὐδαιμονίαν τῆς γνώσεως ταύτης συντελούσης· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡμᾶς ἐπιχειροῦσι πείθειν ὡς τοῦ μὲν σύμπαντος καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν γενῶν καὶ εἰδῶν ἐπιμελεῖται θεός, ἐμοῦ δὲ καὶ σοῦ οὐκ ἔτι καὶ τοῦ καθʼ ἕκαστα, ἐπεὶ οὐδʼ ἂν ηὐχόμεθα αὐτῷ διʼ ὅλης νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας.

English · Claude translation

“Yes,” I said, “so we too have thought. But most of them have not even cared about this, whether there is one God or several, and whether they take thought for each of us or not, as though this knowledge contributed nothing to happiness. Indeed, they try to persuade us that God cares for the universe and for the kinds and species themselves, but no longer for me and you and for each individual; since otherwise we would not pray to him night and day.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:6 · Georges Archambault, ed., Justin: Dialogue avec Tryphon, 2 vols., Textes et documents pour l'étude historique du christianisme 8, 11 (Paris: Picard, 1909) · Greek text: G. Archambault, Justin: Dialogue avec Tryphon (Paris, 1909), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Archambault. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Archambault (1909); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Prayer

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 1.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/1/4/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 1.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/1/4/).