Dialogue with Trypho 90.5 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 2:84–86

Οὐ γάρ, ὅτι οὕτως ηὔχετο Μωσῆς, διὰ τοῦτο κρείττων ὁ λαὸς ἐγίνετο, ἀλλʼ ὅτι, ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς μάχης τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ὄντος, αὐτὸς τὸ σημεῖον τοῦ σταυροῦ ἐποίει. Τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἐπίσταται ὑμῶν, ὅτι μάλιστα μὲν ἡ μετὰ οἴκτου καὶ δακρύων εὐχὴ μειλίσσεται τὸν θεὸν καὶ ἡ ἐν πρηνεῖ κατακλίσει καὶ ἐν γόνασιν ὀκλάσαντός τινος; Τοῦτον δὲ τὸν τρόπον ἐπὶ λίθου καθεζόμενος οὔτε αὐτὸς ηὔξατο οὔτε ἄλλος ὕστερον. Ἔχει δὲ καὶ ὁ λίθος σύμβολον, ὡς ἀπέδειξα, πρὸς τὸν Χριστόν.

English · Claude translation

“For it was not because Moses prayed so that the people became stronger, but because, while the name of Jesus was at the front of the battle, he himself made the sign of the cross. For who of you does not know that the prayer that most appeases God is that made with lamentation and tears, and with the body prostrate or kneeling? But in this way, sitting on a stone, neither he nor anyone else afterward prayed. And the stone too has a symbolic meaning pointing to Christ, as I have shown.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:84–86 · 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

Exod 17:12 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Christology, Prayer

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong breathing)): ὅτι, ὲν ἀρχῇ τῆς μάχης → ὅτι, ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς μάχης.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 90.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/90/5/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 90.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/90/5/).