Dialogue with Trypho 103.5 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 2:138

Ἢ λέοντα τὸν ὠρυόμενον ἐπʼ αὐτὸν ἔλεγε τὸν διάβολον, ὃν Μωσῆς μὲν ὄφιν καλεῖ, ἐν δὲ τῷ Ἰὼβ καὶ τῷ Ζαχαρίᾳ διάβολος κέκληται, καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ σατανᾶς προσηγόρευται, ὄνομα ἀπὸ τῆς πράξεως ἧς ἔπραξε σύνθετον κτησάμενον αὐτὸν μηνύων· τὸ γὰρ σατᾶ ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίων καὶ Σύρων φωνῇ ἀποστάτης ἐστί, τὸ δὲ νᾶς ὄνομα ἐξ οὗ ἡ ἑρμηνεία ὄφις ἐκλήθη· ἐξ ὧν ἀμφοτέρων τῶν εἰρημένων ἓν ὄνομα γίνεται σατανᾶς.

English · Claude translation

“Or he called the devil the lion roaring against him, whom Moses calls the serpent, and who is called the devil in Job and Zechariah, and is addressed by Jesus as Satan, indicating that he acquired a compound name from the deed he did; for ‘sata’ in the language of the Jews and Syrians means an apostate, and ‘nas’ is the word from which serpent is translated; and from both of these one name is formed, Satanas.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:138 · 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 3:1 · allusion, high confidence
Job 1:6 · allusion, high confidence
Zech 3:1 · allusion, high confidence
Matt 4:10 · allusion, high confidence
1 Pet 5:8 · echo, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

Justin's etymology of “Satan” (sata, apostate, + nas, serpent) is fanciful; the Hebrew word means “adversary.”

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong accent)): Ἤ λέοντα → Ἢ λέοντα.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 103.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/103/5/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 103.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/103/5/).