Dialogue with Trypho 5.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 1:28–30

Ὀρθῶς ποιῶν. Τίνα γὰρ λόγον ἔχει σῶμα οὕτω στερεὸν καὶ ἀντιτυπίαν ἔχον καὶ σύνθετον καὶ ἀλλοιούμενον καὶ φθίνον καὶ γινόμενον ἑκάστης ἡμέρας μὴ ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς τινος ἡγεῖσθαι γεγονέναι; Εἰ δὲ ὁ κόσμος γεννητός, ἀνάγκη καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς γεγονέναι καὶ οὐκ εἶναί ποι τάχα· διὰ γὰρ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐγένοντο καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ζῶα, εἰ ὅλως κατʼ ἰδίαν καὶ μὴ μετὰ τῶν ἰδίων σωμάτων φήσεις αὐτὰς γεγονέναι. Οὕτως δοκεῖ ὀρθῶς ἔχειν. Οὐκ ἄρα ἀθάνατοι. Οὔκ, ἐπειδὴ καὶ ὁ κόσμος γεννητὸς ἡμῖν ἐφάνη.

English · Claude translation

“You are right. For what reason is there to think that a body so solid, which offers resistance, and is composite and changing and perishing and coming into being every day, did not come into being from some beginning? And if the world is begotten, the souls too must have come into being, and perhaps not exist somewhere; for they came into being for the sake of men and the other living things, if you say at all that they came into being separately and not with their own bodies.” “That seems right.” “Then they are not immortal.” “No, since the world too has appeared to us to be begotten.”

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:28–30 · 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 (wrong accent)): εἶναὶ ποι → εἶναί ποι.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 5.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/5/2/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 5.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/5/2/).