Dialogue with Trypho 4.7 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Justin concedes that souls neither see God nor transmigrate, though they can know that God exists.

Greek text · Archambault 1:24–26

Οὐδὲ ταύταις ἄρα ὄφελός τι τῆς κολάσεως, ὡς ἔοικεν· ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ κολάζεσθαι αὐτὰς λέγοιμι, εἰ μὴ ἀντιλαμβάνονται τῆς κολάσεως. Οὐ γάρ. Οὔτε οὖν δρῶσι τὸν θεὸν αἱ ψυχαί, οὔτε μεταμείβουσιν εἰς ἕτερα σώματα· ᾔδεσαν γὰρ ἂν ὅτι κολάζονται οὕτως, καὶ ἐφοβοῦντο ἂν καὶ τὸ τυχὸν ἐξαμαρτεῖν ὕστερον. Νοεῖν δὲ αὐτὰς δύνασθαι ὅτι ἔστι θεὸς καὶ δικαιοσύνη καὶ εὐσέβεια καλόν, κἀγὼ συντίθεμαι, ἔφη. Ὀρθῶς λέγεις, εἶπον.

English · Claude translation

“Then there is no profit to them from their punishment, it seems; indeed I would not say that they are punished at all, if they are not aware of the punishment.” “No indeed.” “So the souls neither see God, nor pass into other bodies; for they would know that they are punished in this way, and would be afraid to commit even a chance sin afterwards. But I too agree,” he said, “that they can perceive that God exists, and that righteousness and piety are good.” “You are right,” I said.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:24–26 · 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.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 4.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/4/7/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 4.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/4/7/).