Dialogue with Trypho 5.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 1:30–32

Ἆρα τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν ὅ λέγεις, οἷον καὶ Πλάτων ἐν Τιμαίῳ αἰνίσσεται περὶ τοῦ κόσμου, λέγων ὅτι αὐτὸς μὲν καὶ φθαρτός ἐστιν ᾗ γέγονεν, οὐ λυθήσεται δὲ οὐδὲ τεύξεται θανάτου μοίρας διὰ τὴν βούλησιν τοῦ θεοῦ; Τοῦτʼ αὐτό σοι δοκεῖ καὶ περὶ ψυχῆς καὶ ἀπλῶς πάντων πέρι λέγεσθαι; Ὅσα γάρ ἐστι μετὰ τὸν θεὸν ἢ ἔσται ποτέ, ταῦτα φύσιν φθαρτὴν ἔχειν, καὶ οἷά τε ἐξαφανισθῆναι καὶ μὴ εἶναι ἔτι· μόνος γὰρ ἀγέννητος καὶ ἄφθαρτος ὁ θεὸς καὶ διὰ τοῦτο θεός ἐστι, τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ πάντα μετὰ τοῦτον γεννητὰ καὶ φθαρτά.

English · Claude translation

“Is what you say something like what Plato hints in the Timaeus about the world, saying that it is indeed perishable insofar as it came into being, but that it will not be dissolved or meet the lot of death because of the will of God? Does the same seem to you to be said about the soul, and in a word about all things? For whatever exists after God, or will ever exist, has a perishable nature, and can be blotted out and exist no more; for God alone is unbegotten and incorruptible, and for this reason he is God, while all other things after him are begotten and perishable.”

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:30–32 · 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)

Extrabiblical texts

Plato, Tim. 41a–b (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Eschatology

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (damaged spot in the digital text; restored from the sense; digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong accent); digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong breathing); digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong diacritic)): οἶον καὶ Πλάτων → οἷον καὶ Πλάτων; λέγων ὃτι → λέγων ὅτι; ἧ γέγονεν → ᾗ γέγονεν; τοῦ θεο(??) → τοῦ θεοῦ; καὶ οἶά τε → καὶ οἷά τε.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 5.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/5/4/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 5.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/5/4/).