Dialogue with Trypho 61.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 1:282–284

Μαρτύριον δὲ καὶ ἄλλο ὑμῖν, ὦ φίλοι, ἔφην, ἀπὸ τῶν γραφῶν δώσω, ὅτι ἀρχὴν πρὸ πάντων τῶν κτισμάτων ὁ θεὸς γεγέννηκε δύναμίν τινα ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ λογικήν, ἥτις καὶ δόξα κυρίου ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου καλεῖται, ποτὲ δὲ υἱὸς, ποτὲ δὲ σοφία, ποτὲ δὲ ἄγγελος, ποτὲ δὲ θεός, ποτὲ δὲ κύριος καὶ λόγος, ποτὲ δὲ ἀρχιστράτηγον ἑαυτὸν λέγει, ἐν ἀνθρώπου μορφῇ φανέντα τῷ τοῦ Ναυῆ Ἰησοῦ· ἔχει γὰρ πάντα προσονομάζεσθαι ἔκ τε τοῦ ὑπηρετεῖν τῷ πατρικῷ βουλήματι καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς θελήσει γεγεννῆσθαι.

English · Claude translation

“I will give you another testimony from the Scriptures, friends,” I said, “that God begot before all creatures a Beginning, a certain rational Power from himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit now the Glory of the Lord, now Son, now Wisdom, now Angel, now God, now Lord and Word; and he calls himself Captain when he appeared in human form to Joshua the son of Nun. For he can be called by all these names from his serving the Father's will and from his having been begotten of the Father by his will.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:282–284 · 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

Prov 8:22 · echo, high confidence
Josh 5:14 · allusion, high confidence
Col 1:15 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Christology, Trinity

Notes

Translation notes

A central passage of Justin's Logos theology. “Beginning” (ἀρχή) echoes Prov 8:22; “by his will” anticipates later debates over whether the Son's generation is by will or by nature.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 61.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/61/1/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 61.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/61/1/).