Dialogue with Trypho 99.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Christ knew he would suffer; the “lack of understanding” is that of his enemies.

Greek text · Archambault 2:116–118

Ἀλλʼ ἵνα μή τις λέγῃ· Ἠγνόει οὖν ὅτι μέλλει πάσχειν· ἐπάγει ἐν τῷ ψαλμῷ εὐθύς· Καὶ οὐκ εἰς ἄνοιαν ἐμοί. Ὅνπερ τρόπον οὐδὲ τῷ θεῷ εἰς ἄνοιαν ἦν τὸ ἐρωτᾶν τὸν Ἀδὰμ ποῦ ἐστιν, οὐδὲ τὸν Κάϊν ποῦ Ἄβελ, ἀλλʼ εἰς τὸ ἕκαστον ἐλέγξαι ὁποῖός ἐστι, καὶ εἰς ἡμᾶς τὴν γνῶσιν πάντων διὰ τοῦ ἀναγραφῆναι ἐλθεῖν, καὶ οὗτος ἐσήμαινεν οὐκ εἰς ἄνοιαν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀλλὰ τῶν νομιζόντων μὴ εἶναι αὐτὸν Χριστόν, ἀλλʼ ἡγουμένων θανατώσειν αὐτὸν καὶ ὡς κοινὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐν ᾅδου μενεῖν.

English · Claude translation

“But lest anyone say, ‘Then he did not know that he was to suffer,’ it adds at once in the psalm, ‘And it is not for want of understanding in me.’ Just as it was not for want of understanding in God to ask Adam where he was, or Cain where Abel was, but to convict each of what he was, and that the knowledge of all things might come to us by being written down; so this too indicated not his own want of understanding, but that of those who thought he was not the Christ, but supposed that they would put him to death and that he would remain in Hades like a common man.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:116–118 · 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

Gen 3:9 · allusion, high confidence
Gen 4:9 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Christology

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 99.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/99/3/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 99.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/99/3/).