Dialogue with Trypho 103.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The “bulls” are the teachers who sent the arresting party; no one helped him.

Greek text · Archambault 2:134–136

Καὶ τὸ Ταῦροι πίονες περιέσχον με εἰπεῖν τοὺς καὶ αὐτοὺς μὲν τὰ ὅμοια τοῖς μόσχοις ποιήσαντας, ὅτε ἤχθη πρὸς τοὺς διδασκάλους ὑμῶν, προέλεγεν· οὓς ὡς ταύρους διὰ τοῦτο ὁ λόγος εἶπεν, ἐπειδὴ τοὺς ταύρους τοῦ εἶναι μόσχους αἰτίους οἴδαμεν. Ὡς οὖν πατέρες εἰσὶ τῶν μόσχων οἱ ταῦροι, οὕτως οἱ διδάσκαλοι ὑμῶν τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτῶν αἴτιοι ἦσαν τοῦ ἐξελθόντας εἰς τὸ ὄρος τῶν ἐλαιῶν συλλαβεῖν αὐτὸν καὶ ἄγειν ἐπʼ αὐτούς. Καὶ τὸ εἰπεῖν Ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ βοηθῶν δηλωτικὸν καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦ γενομένου. Οὐδεὶς γὰρ οὐδὲ μέχρις ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου βοηθεῖν αὐτῷ ὡς ἀναμαρτήτῳ βοηθὸς ὑπῆρχε.

English · Claude translation

“And ‘Fat bulls have encircled me’ foretold those who did the same as the calves when he was led to your teachers; whom the word called bulls because we know that bulls are the cause of there being calves. As, then, bulls are the fathers of the calves, so your teachers were the cause for their children of going out to the Mount of Olives to seize him and bring him to them. And ‘For there is none to help’ also shows what happened. For not even one man was found to help him as a sinless man.

About this passage

Source

Archambault 2:134–136 · 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 22:12 (21:13 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
Matt 26:57 · allusion, high confidence
Matt 26:56 · allusion, medium confidence

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 103.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/103/2/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 103.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/103/2/).