06 — The Dialogue with Trypho
Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho the Jew is the longest surviving Christian–Jewish dialogue from the early Church — a record, in literary form, of a two-day disputation with a learned Jew named Trypho about the Law of Moses, the prophecies of Scripture, and the claim that Jesus is the Messiah. These files treat the work itself — its setting, structure, and argument — and the difficult theme of the Church and Israel, handled with attention to its sources and its complexity rather than reduced to polemic.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father)
The Dialogue is Justin’s longest work and his most sustained engagement with the Jewish Scriptures and the Jewish people. It is cast as a courteous but pointed debate, set at Ephesus, between Justin in his philosopher’s cloak and Trypho, a Jew who had fled the recent war in Judaea. Over its course Justin argues three theses: that the ceremonial Law was given for a time and a reason and is no longer binding; that the prophets foretold Christ, who is both the suffering servant and a second divine person, “another God”; and that the Church drawn from the nations is now the true Israel. The work is a primary source of the first importance both for early Christian biblical interpretation and for the history of Jewish–Christian relations — a history this section treats with care, naming the sources, marking the disputed points, and resisting the reduction of a complex text to a flat supersessionism.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Debate with Trypho | The Dialogue with Trypho the Jew: its setting at Ephesus, its date and the identity of Trypho, its structure, and its three main arguments — the temporary Law, the prophecies of Christ, and the calling of the Gentiles — handled as a source, with its disputed historical questions marked. |
| The Church and Israel | Justin’s account of the Church as the “true Israel,” the temporary purpose of the Mosaic Law, the prophetic argument, and the careful handling of his supersessionism — its sources, its tone, and its difficulties, neither endorsed uncritically nor flattened into mere polemic. |
See Also
- The Conversion — the autobiography that opens the Dialogue
- The Logos Spermatikos — the “second God” argument of the Dialogue
- Eucharistic Realism in Justin — the Eucharist as Malachi’s pure sacrifice
- The Church Fathers — Justin among the Fathers
References
- Justin, Dialogue with Trypho. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1; and trans. Thomas B. Falls, rev. Thomas P. Halton, ed. Michael Slusser, St. Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho (FOTC selections; CUA Press, 2003).
- Barnard, L. W. Justin Martyr: His Life and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967.
- Skarsaune, Oskar. The Proof from Prophecy: A Study in Justin Martyr’s Proof-Text Tradition. Leiden: Brill, 1987.