Sophia Scriptura

Dialogue with Trypho 1.5

Justin Martyr · Dialogue with Trypho · ca. 155–160 · Rome · Read in context

Summary: Such views, Justin says, lead to moral license: the Stoics' endless cycles and the Platonists' untouchable immortal soul.

Greek text · Archambault 1:6

Τοῦτο δὲ ὅπη αὐτοῖς τελευτᾷ, οὐ χαλεπὸν συννοῆσαι· ἄδεια γὰρ καὶ ἐλευθερία λέγειν καὶ ἕπεσθαι τοῖς δοξάζουσι ταῦτα, ποιεῖν τε ὃ τι βούλονται καὶ λέγειν, μήτε κόλασιν φοβουμένοις μήτε ἀγαθὸν ἐλπίζουσί τι ἐκ θεοῦ. Πῶς γάρ; Οἵ γε ἀεὶ ταὐτὰ ἔσεσθαι λέγουσι, καὶ ἔτι ἐμὲ καὶ σὲ ἔμπαλιν βιώσεσθαι ὁμοίως, μήτε κρείττονας μήτε χείρους γεγονότας. Ἄλλοι δέ τινες, ὑποστησάμενοι ἀθάνατον καὶ ἀσώματον τὴν ψυχήν, οὔτε κακόν τι δράσαντες ἡγοῦνται δώσειν δίκην (ἀπαθὲς γὰρ τὸ ἀσώματον), οὔτε, ἀθανάτου αὐτῆς ὑπαρχούσης, δέονταί τι τοῦ θεοῦ ἔτι.

English · Claude translation

And it is not hard to see where this ends for them: those who hold these views have license and freedom to say and do whatever they wish, neither fearing punishment nor hoping for any good from God. How could they? They say that the same things will always be, and that I and you will live again in the same way, having become neither better nor worse. And others, supposing the soul immortal and incorporeal, think that they will neither pay any penalty if they do wrong (for what is incorporeal cannot suffer), nor, since it is immortal, do they need anything from God any longer.”

About this passage

Source
Archambault 1:6 · 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
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.
Topics
Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The first group are the Stoics (eternal recurrence of the same world); the second are Platonists.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 1.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/1/5/).

Plain text
Justin, Dial. 1.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/1/5/).

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