Dialogue with Trypho 102.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Why did God not simply kill Herod? For the same reason he did not destroy the serpent at once.

Greek text · Archambault 2:130

Ἐὰν δέ τις ἡμῖν λέγῃ· Μὴ γὰρ οὐκ ἠδύνατο ὁ θεὸς μᾶλλον τὸν Ἡρώδην ἀποκτεῖναι; προλαβὼν λέγω· Μὴ γὰρ οὐκ ἠδύνατο ὁ θεὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ τὸν ὄφιν ἐξᾶραι τοῦ μὴ εἶναι, καὶ μὴ εἰπεῖν ὅτι Καὶ ἔχθραν θήσω ἀνὰ μέσον αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς γυναικός, καὶ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτῆς; Μὴ γὰρ οὐκ ἠδύνατο εὐθὺς πλῆθος ἀνθρώπων ποιῆσαι;

English · Claude translation

“And if anyone says to us, ‘Could not God rather have killed Herod?’, I answer beforehand: Could not God in the beginning have removed the serpent from existence, and not have said, ‘And I will put enmity between him and the woman, and between his seed and her seed’? Could he not at once have made a multitude of men?

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:130 · 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 3:15 · quotation, high confidence

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 102.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/102/3/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 102.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/102/3/).