Dialogue with Trypho 114.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The Jewish teachers take God's “fingers” literally and think the Father himself appeared to the patriarchs.

Greek text · Archambault 2:186–188

Καὶ πάλιν ὅταν λέγῃ· Ὄψομαι τοὺς οὐρανούς, ἔργα τῶν δακτύλων σου, ἐὰν μὴ ἀκούω τοῦ λόγου αὐτοῦ τὴν ἐργασίαν, οὐ συνετῶς ἀκούσομαι, ὥσπερ ὑμῶν οἱ διδάσκαλοι ἀξιοῦσιν, οἰόμενοι χεῖρας καὶ πόδας καὶ δακτύλους καὶ ψυχὴν ἔχειν ὡς σύνθετον ζῶον τὸν πατέρα τῶν ὅλων καὶ ἀγέννητον θεόν, οἵτινες καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ὦφθαι τῷ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ τῷ Ἰακὼβ αὐτὸν τὸν πατέρα διδάσκουσι.

English · Claude translation

“And again when he says, ‘I shall see the heavens, the works of your fingers,’ unless I hear it as the working of his Word, I shall not hear it with understanding, as your teachers think, who suppose that the Father of all, the unbegotten God, has hands and feet and fingers and a soul like a composite living being; who for this reason also teach that the Father himself appeared to Abraham and to Jacob.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:186–188 · 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 8:3 (8:4 LXX) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Trinity

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 114.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/114/3/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 114.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/114/3/).