Dialogue with Trypho 103.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The “calves” of Psalm 22 are those who arrested Christ on the Mount of Olives.

Greek text · Archambault 2:134

Τὰ δὲ ἑξῆς εἰρημένα ἐν τῷ ψαλμῷ· Ὅτι θλῖψις ἐγγύς, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ βοηθῶν μοι. Περιεκύκλωσάν με μόσχοι πολλοί, ταῦροι πίονες περιέσχον με· ἤνοιξαν ἐπʼ ἐμὲ τὸ στόμα αὐτῶν ὡς λέων ἁρπάζων καὶ ὠρυόμενος· ὡσεὶ ὕδωρ ἐξεχύθη καὶ διεσκορπίσθη πάντα τὰ ὀστᾶ μου· τῶν ὁμοίως αὐτῷ συμβάντων προαγγελία ἦν. Ἐκείνης γὰρ τῆς νυκτός, ὅτε ἐπὶ τὸ ὄρος τῶν ἐλαιῶν ἐπῆλθον αὐτῷ οἱ ἀπὸ τοῦ λαοῦ ὑμῶν ὑπὸ τῶν Φαρισαίων καὶ γραμματέων καὶ τῶν διδασκάλων ἐπιπεμφθέντες, ἐκύκλωσαν αὐτὸν οὓς μόσχους κερατιστὰς καὶ προώλεις ὁ λόγος ἔλεγε.

English · Claude translation

“And what is said next in the psalm, ‘For trouble is near, for there is none to help me. Many calves have surrounded me; fat bulls have encircled me; they opened their mouth against me like a lion ravening and roaring; I am poured out like water, and all my bones are scattered,’ was likewise a foretelling of what happened to him. For on that night, when those of your people who had been sent by the Pharisees and scribes and teachers came upon him at the Mount of Olives, those whom the word called butting and destructive calves surrounded him.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:134 · 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

Ps 22:11 (21:12 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Ps 22:12 (21:13 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Ps 22:13 (21:14 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Ps 22:14 (21:15 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Matt 26:47 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Christology

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 103.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/103/1/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 103.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/103/1/).