Dialogue with Trypho 49.6 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: As Moses' spirit passed to Joshua, Elijah's spirit came upon John.

Greek text · Archambault 1:220–222

Καὶ ὁ Τρύφων· Καὶ τοῦτο παράδοξον λέγειν μοι δοκεῖς, ὅτι τὸ ἐν Ἡλίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ γενόμενον προφητικὸν πνεῦμα καὶ ἐν Ἰωάννῃ γέγονε. Κἀγὼ πρὸς ταῦτα· Οὐ δοκεῖ σοι ἐπὶ Ἰησοῦν, τὸν τοῦ Ναυῆ, τὸν διαδεξάμενον τὴν λαοηγησίαν μετὰ Μωσέα, τὸ αὐτὸ γεγονέναι, ὅτε ἐρρέθη τῷ Μωσεῖ ἐπιθεῖναι τῷ Ἰησοῦ τὰς χεῖρας, εἰπόντος αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ· Κἀγὼ μεταθήσω ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ἐν σοὶ ἐπʼ αὐτόν;

English · Claude translation

And Trypho said, “This too you seem to me to say paradoxically: that the prophetic Spirit of God that was in Elijah was also in John.” And I said to this, “Do you not think that the same thing happened with Joshua the son of Nun, who succeeded Moses in leading the people, when Moses was told to lay his hands on Joshua, God himself saying, ‘And I will take of the spirit that is in you and put it upon him’?”

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:220–222 · 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

Num 27:18 · allusion, high confidence
Num 11:17 · quotation, high confidence
Deut 34:9 · allusion, medium confidence

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 49.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/49/6/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 49.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/49/6/).