Dialogue with Trypho 88.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Christ did not need baptism; he acted for fallen humanity.

Greek text · Archambault 2:74

Καὶ οὐχ ὡς ἐνδεᾶ αὐτὸν τοῦ βαπτισθῆναι ἢ τοῦ ἐπελθόντος ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς πνεύματος οἴδαμεν αὐτὸν ἐληλυθέναι ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμόν, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τὸ γεννηθῆναι αὐτὸν καὶ σταυρωθῆναι ὡς ἐνδεὴς τούτων ὑπέμεινεν, ἀλλʼ ὑπὲρ τοῦ γένους τοῦ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὃ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ὑπὸ θάνατον καὶ πλάνην τὴν τοῦ ὄφεως ἐπεπτώκει, παρὰ τὴν ἰδίαν αἰτίαν ἑκάστου αὐτῶν πονηρευσαμένου.

English · Claude translation

“And we know that he did not come to the river as though he needed to be baptized or needed the Spirit that came upon him in the form of a dove; just as he did not endure to be born and crucified as though he needed these things, but for the sake of the human race, which from Adam had fallen under death and the deceit of the serpent, each of them having done evil by his own fault.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:74 · 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

Rom 5:12 · echo, medium confidence
Gen 3:13 · allusion, medium confidence

Topics

Baptism, Christology

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 88.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/88/4/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 88.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/88/4/).