Dialogue with Trypho 48.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Trypho calls the doctrine of the pre-existent, divine Christ born as man paradoxical and foolish.

Greek text · Archambault 1:212–214

Καὶ ὁ Τρύφων· Καὶ περὶ τούτων ὅσα φρονεῖς ἀκηκόαμεν, εἶπεν. Ἀναλαβὼν οὖν τὸν λόγον, ὅθεν ἐπαύσω, πέραινε· παράδοξός τις γάρ ποτε καὶ μὴ δυνάμενος ὅλως ἀποδειχθῆναι δοκεῖ μοι εἶναι· τὸ γὰρ λέγειν σε προϋπάρχειν θεὸν ὄντα πρὸ αἰώνων τοῦτον τὸν Χριστόν, εἶτα καὶ γεννηθῆναι ἄνθρωπον γενόμενον ὑπομεῖναι, καὶ ὅτι οὐκ ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ἀνθρώπων, οὐ μόνον παράδοξον δοκεῖ μοι εἶναι ἀλλὰ καὶ μωρόν.

English · Claude translation

And Trypho said, “We have heard what you think about these things too. Take up the argument, then, where you left off, and finish it; for it seems to me paradoxical and impossible to prove at all. For your saying that this Christ pre-existed as God before the ages, and then that he consented to be born and become man, and that he is not man of men, seems to me not only paradoxical but foolish.”

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:212–214 · 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

1 Cor 1:23 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Christology

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 48.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/48/1/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 48.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/48/1/).