Dialogue with Trypho 119.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 2:210–212

Οὐκοῦν οὐκ εὐκαταφρόνητος δῆμός ἐσμεν οὐδὲ βάρβαρον φῦλον οὐδὲ ὁποῖα Καρῶν ἢ Φρυγῶν ἔθνη, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡμᾶς ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεὸς καὶ ἐμφανὴς ἐγενήθη τοῖς μὴ ἐπερωτῶσιν αὐτόν. Ἰδοὺ θεός εἰμι, φησί, τῷ ἔθνει, οἳ οὐκ ἐπεκαλέσαντο τὸ ὄνομά μου. Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἔθνος, ὃ πάλαι τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ὁ θεὸς ὑπέσχετο, καὶ πατέρα πολλῶν ἐθνῶν θήσειν ἐπηγγείλατο, οὐκ Ἀρράβων οὐδʼ Αἰγυπτίων οὐδʼ Ἰδουμαίων λέγων· ἐπεὶ καὶ Ἰσμαὴλ μεγάλου πατὴρ ἔθνους ἐγένετο καὶ Ἠσοῦ, καὶ Ἀμμανιτῶν ἐστι νῦν πολὺ πλῆθος. Νῶε δὲ καὶ αὐτοῦ Ἀβραὰμ πατὴρ ἦν καὶ ἁπλῶς παντὸς ἀνθρώπων γένους, ἄλλοι δὲ ἄλλων πρόγονοι.

English · Claude translation

“We are, then, not a contemptible people, nor a barbarous tribe, nor such as the nations of the Carians or Phrygians; but God has chosen us too, and has been made manifest to those who did not ask for him. ‘Behold, I am God,’ he says, ‘to the nation that did not call on my name.’ For this is that nation which God promised long ago to Abraham, and declared he would make him the father of many nations; not speaking of Arabs or Egyptians or Idumeans; since Ishmael too became the father of a great nation, and Esau, and there is now a great multitude of Ammonites. And Noah was the father of Abraham himself and in a word of the whole race of men, and others are the ancestors of others.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:210–212 · 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

Isa 65:1 · quotation, high confidence
Gen 17:5 · allusion, high confidence
Gen 21:18 · allusion, medium confidence

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong accent); stray full stop in the digital text): τῷ. Ἀβραὰμ → τῷ Ἀβραὰμ; ἐμφανής ἐγενήθη → ἐμφανὴς ἐγενήθη.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 119.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/119/4/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 119.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/119/4/).