Dialogue with Trypho 19.2

Summary: Circumcision was not for all; Jewish washings are broken cisterns compared with the baptism of life.

Greek text · Archambault 1:84

Οὐ γὰρ πᾶσιν ἀναγκαῖα αὕτη ἡ περιτομή, ἀλλʼ ὑμῖν μόνοις, ἵνα, ὡς προέφην, ταῦτα πάθητε ἃ νῦν ἐν δίκῃ πάσχετε. Οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸ βάπτισμα ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἀνωφελὲς τὸ τῶν λάκκων προσλαμβάνομεν· οὐδὲν γὰρ πρὸς τὸ βάπτισμα τοῦτο τὸ τῆς ζωῆς ἐστι. Διὸ καὶ κέκραγεν ὁ θεός, ὅτι Ἐγκατελίπετε αὐτόν, πηγὴν ζῶσαν, καὶ ὠρύξατε ἑαυτοῖς λάκκους συντετριμμένους, οἳ οὐ δυνήσονται συνέχειν ὕδωρ.

English · Claude translation

“For this circumcision is not necessary for all men, but for you alone, so that, as I said before, you might suffer what you now justly suffer. Nor do we receive that useless baptism of cisterns; for it is nothing compared with this baptism of life. That is why God cried out: ‘You have forsaken him, the living spring, and dug for yourselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water.’

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:84 · 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

Jer 2:13 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Baptism

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 19.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/19/2/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 19.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/19/2/).

Greek text · Archambault 1:84

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Notes on the original text

Cite this passage