Dialogue with Trypho 65.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 1:308–310

Κἀγώ· Εἰ μὲν ἁπλῶς καὶ μὴ μετὰ κακίας τούτους τοὺς λόγους εἰπὼν ἐσίγησας, ὦ Τρύφων, μήτε τοὺς πρὸ αὐτῶν προειπὼν μήτε τοὺς ἐπακολουθοῦντας συνάψας, συγγνωστὸς εἶ, εἰ δὲ χάριν τοῦ νομίζειν δύνασθαι εἰς ἀπορίαν ἐμβάλλειν τὸν λόγον, ἵνα εἴπω ἐναντίας εἶναι τὰς γραφὰς ἀλλήλαις, πεπλάνησαι· οὐ γὰρ τολμήσω τοῦτό ποτε ἢ ἐνθυμηθῆναι ἢ εἰπεῖν, ἀλλʼ ἐὰν τοιαύτη τις δοκοῦσα εἶναι γραφὴ προβληθῇ, καὶ πρόφασιν ἔχῃ ὡς ἐναντία οὖσα, ἐκ παντὸς πεπεισμένος ὅτι οὐδεμία γραφὴ τῇ ἑτέρᾳ ἐναντία ἐστίν, αὐτὸς μὴ νοεῖν μᾶλλον ὁμολογήσω τὰ εἰρημένα, καὶ τοὺς ἐναντίας τὰς γραφὰς ὑπολαμβάνοντας τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν μᾶλλον ἐμοὶ πεῖσαι ἀγωνίσομαι.

English · Claude translation

And I said, “If you spoke these words simply and not with malice, Trypho, and then fell silent, neither citing the words before them nor joining those that follow, you are to be forgiven; but if you did it because you think you can throw the argument into perplexity, so that I might say that the Scriptures contradict one another, you are mistaken. For I will never dare either to think or to say this; but if a Scripture that seems to be such is put forward, and gives an appearance of being contrary, being wholly persuaded that no Scripture is contrary to another, I will rather confess that I do not understand what is said, and will strive to persuade those who suppose the Scriptures are contrary to think as I do.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:308–310 · 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

Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

A clear early statement of the consistency of Scripture.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong accent)): μετὰ κακὶας → μετὰ κακίας.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 65.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/65/2/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 65.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/65/2/).