Dialogue with Trypho 10.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Trypho's real objection: Christians claim piety but ignore circumcision, Sabbaths, and feasts, and hope in a crucified man.

Greek text · Archambault 1:48–50

Ἐκεῖνο δὲ ἀποροῦμεν μάλιστα, εἰ ὑμεῖς, εὐσεβεῖν λέγοντες καὶ τῶν ἄλλων οἰόμενοι διαφέρειν, κατʼ οὐδὲν αὐτῶν ἀπολείπεσθε, οὐδὲ διαλλάσσετε ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν τὸν ὑμέτερον βίον, ἐν τῷ μήτε τὰς ἑορτὰς μήτε τὰ σάββατα τηρεῖν μήτε τὴν περιτομὴν ἔχειν, καὶ ἔτι, ἐπʼ ἄνθρωπον σταυρωθέντα τὰς ἐλπίδας ποιούμενοι, ὅμως ἐλπίζετε τεύξεσθαι ἀγαθοῦ τινος παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ, μὴ ποιοῦντες αὐτοῦ τὰς ἐντολάς. Ἢ οὐκ ἀνέγνως, ὅτι Ἐξολοθρευθήσεται ἡ ψυχὴ ἐκείνη ἐκ τοῦ γένους αὐτῆς, ἥτις οὐ περιτμηθήσεται τῇ ὀγδόῃ ἡμέρᾳ; Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀλλογενῶν καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀργυρωνήτων διέσταλται.

English · Claude translation

“But this is what we are most at a loss about: that you, who say you are pious and think yourselves superior to others, are in no way separated from them, and do not make your life different from the Gentiles, in that you keep neither the feasts nor the Sabbaths nor have circumcision; and further, though you set your hopes on a crucified man, you nevertheless hope to obtain some good from God, without keeping his commandments. Or have you not read that ‘that soul shall be cut off from its people which shall not be circumcised on the eighth day’? And the same is laid down about strangers and about slaves bought with money.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:48–50 · 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)

Scripture

Gen 17:14 · quotation, high confidence
Gen 17:12 · allusion, high confidence
Gen 17:13 · allusion, high confidence

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 10.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/10/3/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 10.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/10/3/).