Dialogue with Trypho 141.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: David's fall shows that the patriarchs' marriages were not license; Justin criticizes polygamy.

Greek text · Archambault 2:308

Καὶ ἡ μία δὲ αὕτη τῆς παραπτώσεως τοῦ Δαυῒδ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Οὐρίου γυναῖκα πρᾶξις, ὦ ἄνδρες, ἔφην, δείκνυσιν ὅτι οὐχ ὡς πορνεύοντες πολλὰς ἔσχον γυναῖκας οἱ πατριάρχαι, ἀλλʼ οἰκονομία τις καὶ μυστήρια πάντα διʼ αὐτῶν ἀπετελεῖτο· ἐπεὶ εἰ συνεχωρεῖτο, ἣν βούλεταί τις καὶ ὡς βούλεται καὶ ὅσας βούλεται, λαμβάνειν γυναῖκας, ὁποῖον πράττουσιν οἱ ἀπὸ τοῦ γένους ὑμῶν ἄνθρωποι, κατὰ πᾶσαν γῆν, ἔνθα ἂν ἐπιδημήσωσιν ἢ προσπεμφθῶσιν, ἀγόμενοι ὀνόματι γάμου γυναῖκας, πολὺ μᾶλλον ἂν τῷ Δαυῒδ τοῦτο συνεχωρεῖτο πράξειν.

English · Claude translation

“And this one deed of David's fall, with the wife of Uriah, shows, sirs,” I said, “that the patriarchs did not have many wives as fornicators, but a certain dispensation and all mysteries were accomplished through them; since if it were allowed to take whatever wife one wishes, and as one wishes, and as many as one wishes, as the men of your race do throughout the whole earth, wherever they settle or are sent, taking wives in the name of marriage, much more would this have been allowed to David.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:308 · 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.

Scripture

2 Sam 11:4 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Marriage, Ethics

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 141.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/141/4/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 141.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/141/4/).