Dialogue with Trypho 112.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Read literally, Moses' bronze serpent would break his own law.

Greek text · Archambault 2:172

Ὑμεῖς δέ, ταῦτα ταπεινῶς ἐξηγούμενοι, πολλὴν ἀσθένειαν καταψηφίζεσθε τοῦ θεοῦ, εἰ ταῦτα οὕτως ψιλῶς ἀκούοιτε καὶ μὴ τὴν δύναμιν ἐξετάζοιτε τῶν εἰρημένων. Ἐπεὶ καὶ Μωσῆς οὕτω παράνομος ἂν κριθείη· αὐτὸς γὰρ παραγγείλας μηδενὸς ὁμοίωμα γίνεσθαι, μήτε τῶν ἐπὶ τῷ οὐρανῷ μήτε τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς ἢ θαλάσσης, ἔπειτα ὄφιν χαλκοῦν αὐτὸς ἐποίει, καὶ στήσας ἐπὶ σημείου τινὸς ἐκέλευσεν εἰς αὐτὸν ὁρᾶν τοὺς δεδηγμένους· οἱ δʼ ἐσώζοντο εἰς αὐτὸν ἀποβλέποντες.

English · Claude translation

“But you, explaining these things in a low way, charge God with great weakness, if you hear them so barely and do not examine the force of what is said. For then Moses too would be judged a transgressor; for he commanded that no likeness of anything be made, of the things in heaven or on earth or in the sea, and then he himself made a bronze serpent, and setting it on a pole he ordered those who had been bitten to look at it; and they were saved by looking at it.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:172 · 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

Exod 20:4 · allusion, high confidence
Num 21:8 · allusion, high confidence
Num 21:9 · allusion, high confidence

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 112.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/112/1/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 112.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/112/1/).