Dialogue with Trypho 68.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 1:324–326

Καὶ ὁ Τρύφων· Ἄπιστον γὰρ καὶ ἀδύνατον σχεδὸν πρᾶγμα ἐπιχειρεῖς ἀποδεικνύναι, ὅτι θεὸς ὑπέμεινε γεννηθῆναι καὶ ἄνθρωπος γενέσθαι. Εἰ τοῦτο, ἔφην, ἀπʼ ἀνθρωπείοις διδάγμασιν ἢ ἐπιχειρήμασιν ἐπεβαλόμην ἀποδεικνύναι, ἀνασχέσθαι μου οὐκ ἂν ἔδει ὑμᾶς· εἰ δὲ γραφὰς καὶ εἰς τοῦτο εἰρημένας τοσαύτας, πλειστάκις αὐτὰς λέγων, ἀξιῶ ὑμᾶς ἐπιγνῶναι αὐτάς, σκληροκάρδιοι πρὸς τὸ γνῶναι νοῦν καὶ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ γίνεσθε. Εἰ δὲ βούλεσθε τοιοῦτοι ἀεὶ μένειν, ἐγὼ μὲν οὐδὲν ἂν βλαβείην· τὰ δὲ αὐτὰ ἀεὶ ἔχων, ἃ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ συμβαλεῖν ὑμῖν εἶχον, ἀπαλλάξομαι ὑμῶν.

English · Claude translation

And Trypho said, “For you are attempting to prove something incredible and almost impossible: that God endured to be born and to become man.” “If I undertook to prove this,” I said, “by human teachings or arguments, you should not bear with me; but if, quoting so many Scriptures spoken to this effect, and repeating them very often, I ask you to recognize them, you are becoming hard of heart toward knowing the mind and will of God. But if you wish always to remain so, I would suffer no harm; I will leave you, having always the same things as I had before I met you.”

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:324–326 · 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

Christology

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (missing accent)): Εἰ δὲ βουλεσθε → Εἰ δὲ βούλεσθε.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 68.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/68/1/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 68.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/68/1/).