Dialogue with Trypho 48.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Even if pre-existence could not be proved, Jesus would still be the Christ.

Greek text · Archambault 1:214

Κἀγὼ πρὸς ταῦτα ἔφην· Οἶδʼ ὅτι παράδοξος ὁ λόγος δοκεῖ εἶναι, καὶ μάλιστα τοῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ γένους ὑμῶν, οἵτινες τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ οὔτε νοῆσαι οὔτε ποιῆσαί ποτε βεβούλησθε, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν διδασκάλων ὑμῶν, ὡς αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς βοᾷ. Ἤδη μέντοι, ὦ Τρύφων, εἶπον, οὐκ ἀπόλλυται τὸ τοῦτον εἶναι Χριστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐὰν ἀποδεῖξαι μὴ δύνωμαι ὅτι καὶ προϋπῆρχεν υἱὸς τοῦ ποιητοῦ τῶν ὅλων, θεὸς ὤν, καὶ γεγέννηται ἄνθρωπος διὰ τῆς παρθένου.

English · Claude translation

And I said to this, “I know that the word seems paradoxical, and especially to those of your race, who have never wished either to understand or to do the things of God, but the things of your teachers, as God himself cries. Yet, Trypho,” I said, “that this is the Christ of God is not lost, even if I cannot prove that he also pre-existed as the Son of the Maker of all things, being God, and was born a man through the Virgin.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:214 · 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

Isa 29:13 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Christology

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 48.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/48/2/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 48.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/48/2/).