Dialogue with Trypho 3.6 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 1:18

Τί οὖν; Ὁμοίως ἐστὶν ἄνθρωπον εἰδέναι καὶ θεόν, ὡς μουσικὴν καὶ ἀριθμητικὴν καὶ ἀστρονομίαν ἤ τι τοιοῦτον; Οὐδαμῶς, ἔφην. Οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἄρα ἀπεκρίθης ἐμοί, ἔφη ἐκεῖνος· αἱ μὲν γὰρ ἐκ μαθήσεως προσγίνονται ἡμῖν ἢ διατριβῆς τινος, αἱ δὲ ἐκ τοῦ ἰδέσθαι παρέχουσι τὴν ἐπιστήμην. Εἴ γέ σοι λέγοι τις ὅτι ἐστὶν ἐν Ἰνδίᾳ ζῶον φυὴν οὐχ ὅμοιον τοῖς ἄλλοις πᾶσιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖον ἢ τοῖον, πολυειδὲς καὶ ποικίλον, οὐκ ἄν πρότερον εἰδείης ἢ ἴδοις αὐτό, ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ λόγον ἄν ἔχοις εἰπεῖν αὐτοῦ τινα εἰ μὴ ἀκούσαις τοῦ ἑωρακότος.

English · Claude translation

“What then? Is it the same to know man and God as to know music and arithmetic and astronomy or something of that kind?” “Not at all,” I said. “Then you did not answer me correctly,” he said; “for some kinds of knowledge come to us from learning or some practice, but others give knowledge by seeing. If someone told you that in India there is an animal unlike all others in nature, but of such and such a kind, many-formed and varied, you would not know it before you saw it, nor could you give any account of it unless you heard from someone who had seen it.”

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:18 · 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)

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong accent); digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong breathing)): ἢ τι τοιοῦτον → ἤ τι τοιοῦτον; ἡμῖν ἣ διατριβῆς → ἡμῖν ἢ διατριβῆς.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 3.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/3/6/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 3.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/3/6/).