Dialogue with Trypho 43.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Isaiah says Christ's generation cannot be told.

Greek text · Archambault 1:190

Περὶ δὲ τοῦ τῆς γενέσεως αὐτοῦ μυστηρίου ἤδη λέγειν κατεπείγοντος λέγω. Ἡσαΐας οὖν περὶ τοῦ γένους αὐτοῦ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὅτι ἀνεκδιήγητόν ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις, οὕτως ἔφη ὡς καὶ προγέγραπται· Τὴν γενεὰν αὐτοῦ τίς διηγήσεται; Ὅτι αἴρεται ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἡ ζωὴ αὐτοῦ, ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνομιῶν τοῦ λαοῦ μου ἤχθη εἰς θάνατον. Ὡς ἀνεκδιηγήτου οὖν ὄντος τοῦ γένους τούτου ἀποθνήσκειν μέλλοντος, ἵνα τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ ἰαθῶμεν οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἄνθρωποι, τὸ προφητικὸν πνεῦμα ταῦτα εἶπεν.

English · Claude translation

“And now, since it is pressing to speak of the mystery of his birth, I speak of it. Isaiah, then, spoke thus about the descent of Christ himself, that it cannot be told by men, as has been written before: ‘Who shall tell his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth; because of the lawless deeds of my people he was led to death.’ The prophetic Spirit said these things, then, since his descent could not be told, and he was to die, so that we sinful men might be healed by his stripes.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:190 · 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 53:8 · quotation, high confidence
Isa 53:5 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Christology

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 43.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/43/3/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 43.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/43/3/).