Dialogue with Trypho 3.7 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 1:18

Οὐ γάρ, φημί. Πῶς οὖν ἄν, ἔφη, περὶ θεοῦ ὀρθῶς φρονοῖεν οἱ φιλόσοφοι ἢ λέγοιέν τι ἀληθές, ἐπιστήμην αὐτοῦ μὴ ἔχοντες, μηδὲ ἰδόντες ποτὲ ἢ ἀκούσαντες; Ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἔστιν ὀφθαλμοῖς, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, αὐτοῖς, πάτερ, ὁρατὸν τὸ θεῖον ὡς τὰ ἄλλα ζῶα, ἀλλὰ μόνῳ νῷ καταληπτόν, ὥς φησι Πλάτων, καὶ ἐγὼ πείθομαι αὐτῷ.

English · Claude translation

“No,” I said. “How then,” he said, “could the philosophers think correctly about God or say anything true, when they have no knowledge of him, having never seen or heard him?” “But the divine, father,” I said, “is not visible to the eyes as other living things are, but can be grasped by the mind alone, as Plato says; and I believe him.”

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)

Extrabiblical texts

Plato, Phaedr. 247c (Plato (works)) · allusion, medium confidence

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong accent)): αὐτοὺ μὴ ἔχοντες → αὐτοῦ μὴ ἔχοντες.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 3.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/3/7/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 3.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/3/7/).