Sophia Scriptura

Dialogue with Trypho 61.2

Justin Martyr · Dialogue with Trypho · ca. 155–160 · Rome · Read in context

Summary: As a word is spoken without diminishing the mind, and fire kindles fire without loss, so the Son is begotten without division of the Father.

Greek text · Archambault 1:284–286

Ἀλλʼ οὐ τοιοῦτον ὁποῖον καὶ ἐφʼ ἡμῶν γινόμενον ὁρῶμεν; Λόγον γάρ τινα προβάλλοντες, λόγον γεννῶμεν, οὐ κατὰ ἀποτομήν, ὡς ἐλαττωθῆναι τὸν ἐν ἡμῖν λόγον, προβαλλόμενοι. Καὶ ὁποῖον ἐπὶ πυρὸς ὁρῶμεν ἄλλο γινόμενον, οὐκ ἐλαττουμένου ἐκείνου ἐξ οὗ ἡ ἄναψις γέγονεν, ἀλλὰ τοῦ αὐτοῦ μένοντος, καὶ τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἀναφθὲν καὶ αὐτὸ ὃν φαίνεται, οὐκ ἐλαττῶσαν ἐκεῖνο ἐξ οὗ ἀνήφθη.

English · Claude translation

“But do we not see something like this happening among ourselves too? For when we put forth a word, we beget a word, not by cutting off, so that the word in us is lessened by putting it forth. And as we see in the case of fire another fire coming into being, the one from which it was kindled not being lessened, but remaining the same; and what is kindled from it is seen to exist itself, not lessening that from which it was kindled.

About this passage

Source
Archambault 1:284–286 · 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)
Topics
Trinity, Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The analogy of fire from fire anticipates the Nicene phrase “light from light.”

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 61.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/61/2/).

Plain text
Justin, Dial. 61.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/61/2/).

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