Dialogue with Trypho 57.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 1:264–266

Κἀγὼ ἀπεκρινάμην· Ὅτι μὲν βεβρώκασι, γέγραπται· εἰ δὲ τοὺς τρεῖς ἀκούσαιμεν λελέχθαι βεβρωκέναι, καὶ μὴ τοὺς δύο μόνους, οἵτινες ἄγγελοι τῷ ὄντι ἦσαν καὶ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, δῆλόν ἐστιν ἡμῖν, τρεφόμενοι, κἂν μὴ ὁμοίαν τροφὴν ᾗπερ οἱ ἄνθρωποι χρώμεθα τρέφονται (περὶ γὰρ τῆς τροφῆς τοῦ μάννα, ἣν ἐτράφησαν οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, ἡ γραφὴ οὕτω λέγει, ὅτι ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγον), εἴποιμʼ ἂν ὅτι ὁ λόγος, ὁ λέγων βεβρωκέναι, οὕτως ἂν λέγοι ὡς ἂν καὶ αὐτοὶ εἴποιμεν ἐπὶ πυρὸς ὅτι πάντα κατέφαγεν, ἀλλὰ μὴ πάντως τοῦτο ἐξακούειν ὅτι ὀδοῦσι καὶ γνάθοις μασώμενοι βεβρώκασιν. Ὥστε οὐδὲ ἐνταῦθα ἀπορήσαιμεν ἂν περὶ οὐδενός, εἰ τροπολογίας ἔμπειροι κἂν μικρὸν ὑπάρχωμεν.

English · Claude translation

And I answered, “It is written that they ate; but if we understand it to be said that the three ate, and not only the two who were really angels, and who in the heavens, as is plain to us, are nourished, even if not with food like that which we men use (for concerning the food of manna on which your fathers were fed in the wilderness, the Scripture speaks thus, that they ate the bread of angels), I would say that the word that says they ate would speak as we too might say of fire that it devoured everything, and not by all means understand that they ate chewing with teeth and jaws. So that here too we would be at a loss about nothing, if we were even a little experienced in figurative speech.”

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:264–266 · 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

Ps 78:25 (77:25 LXX) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (spacing slip in the digital text): ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγον ) → ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγον).

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 57.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/57/2/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 57.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/57/2/).