Dialogue with Trypho 4.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Seeing God depends on virtue, not on kinship; yet animals do no wrong.

Greek text · Archambault 1:22

Ὄψονται ἄρα, φησί, καὶ ἵπποι καὶ ὄνοι ἢ εἶδόν ποτε τὸν θεόν; Οὔ, ἔφην· οὐδὲ γὰρ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, εἰ μή τις ἐν δίκῃ βιώσαιτο, καθηράμενος δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ τῇ ἄλλῃ ἀρετῇ πάσῃ. Οὐκ ἄρα, ἔφη, διὰ τὸ συγγενὲς ὁρᾷ τὸν θεόν, οὐδʼ ὅτι νοῦς ἐστιν, ἀλλʼ ὅτι σώφρων καὶ δίκαιος; Ναί, ἔφην, καὶ διὰ τὸ ἔχειν ᾧ νοεῖ τὸν θεόν. Τί οὖν; Ἀδικοῦσί τινα αἶγες ἢ πρόβατα; Οὐδὲν οὐδένα, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ.

English · Claude translation

“Then horses and asses too,” he said, “will see, or have seen, God?” “No,” I said, “nor do most men, unless someone lives justly, purified by righteousness and every other virtue.” “Then he does not see God because of his kinship,” he said, “nor because he is a mind, but because he is self-controlled and just?” “Yes,” I said, “and because he has that by which he perceives God.” “What then? Do goats or sheep wrong anyone?” “No one in any way,” I said.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:22 · 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)

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 4.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/4/3/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 4.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/4/3/).