Dialogue with Trypho 2.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 1:10

Τῆς δὲ ψυχῆς ἔτι μου σπαργώσης ἀκοῦσαι τὸ ἴδιον καὶ τὸ ἐξαίρετον τῆς φιλοσοφίας, προσῆλθον εὐδοκιμοῦντι μάλιστα Πυθαγορείῳ, ἀνδρὶ πολὺ ἐπὶ τῇ σοφίᾳ φρονοῦντι. Κἄπειτα ὡς διελέχθην αὐτῷ, βουλόμενος ἀκροατὴς αὐτοῦ καὶ συνουσιαστὴς γενέσθαι· Τί δαί; Ὡμίλησας, ἔφη, μουσικῇ καὶ ἀστρονομίᾳ καὶ γεωμετρίᾳ; Ἢ δοκεῖς κατόψεσθαί τι τῶν εἰς εὐδαιμονίαν συντελούντων, εἰ μὴ ταῦτα πρῶτον διδαχθείης, ἃ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπὸ τῶν αἰσθητῶν περισπάσει καὶ τοῖς νοητοῖς αὐτὴν παρασκευάσει χρησίμην, ὥστε αὐτὸ κατιδεῖν τὸ καλὸν καὶ αὐτὸ ὅ ἐστιν ἀγαθόν;

English · Claude translation

But since my soul was still eager to hear what is proper and excellent in philosophy, I went to a very famous Pythagorean, a man who thought much of his wisdom. And when I spoke to him, wishing to become his hearer and disciple, he said, “Well then, have you studied music and astronomy and geometry? Or do you think you will see any of the things that lead to happiness unless you are first taught these, which will draw the soul away from the things of sense and make it fit for the things of the mind, so that it may see the beautiful itself and what the good itself is?”

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:10 · 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.

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (missing iota subscript); digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong accent)): μουσικῆ → μουσικῇ; Ἤ δοκεῖς → Ἢ δοκεῖς.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 2.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/2/4/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 2.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/2/4/).