Dialogue with Trypho 4.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Archambault 1:18–20

Ἔστιν οὖν, φησί, τῷ νῷ ἡμῶν τοιαύτη τις καὶ τοσαύτη δύναμις, ἢ μὴ τὸ ὄν διʼ αἰσθήσεως ἔλαβεν; Ἦ τὸν θεὸν ἀνθρώπου νοῦς ὄψεταί ποτε μὴ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι κεκοσμημένος; Φησὶ γὰρ Πλάτων, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, αὐτὸ τοιοῦτον εἶναι τὸ τοῦ νοῦ ὄμμα καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο ἡμῖν δεδόσθαι, ὡς δύνασθαι καθορᾶν αὐτὸ ἐκεῖνο τὸ ὄν εἰλικρινεῖ αὐτῷ ἐκείνῳ, ὅ τῶν νοητῶν ἁπάντων ἐστὶν αἴτιον, οὐ χρῶμα ἔχον, οὐ σχῆμα, οὐ μέγεθος, οὐδὲ οὐδὲν ὧν ὀφθαλμὸς βλέπει· ἀλλά τι ὅν τοῦτʼ αὐτό, φησί, ὂν ἐπέκεινα πάσης οὐσίας, οὔτε ῥητὸν οὔτε ἀγορευτόν, ἀλλὰ μόνον καλὸν καὶ ἀγαθόν, ἐξαίφνης ταῖς εὖ πεφυκυίαις ψυχαῖς ἐγγινόμενον διὰ τὸ συγγενὲς καὶ ἔρωτα τοῦ ἰδέσθαι.

English · Claude translation

“Is there then,” he said, “such and so great a power in our mind? Or does it grasp being otherwise than through sense perception? Will the mind of man ever see God unless it is adorned with the Holy Spirit?” “Plato says,” I said, “that the eye of the mind is of such a kind, and was given us for this purpose, that we might be able to see with it, pure itself, that very Being which is the cause of all things known to the mind, which has no color, no shape, no size, nor anything that the eye sees; but is something, he says, that is beyond all essence, neither speakable nor expressible, but alone beautiful and good, coming suddenly into souls that are well endowed, because of their kinship with it and their longing to see it.”

About this passage

Source

Archambault 1:18–20 · 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.

Extrabiblical texts

Plato, Resp. 509b (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

Justin combines phrases from Plato: Republic 509b (“beyond being”), Phaedrus 247c, Seventh Letter 341c (“suddenly”).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip (missing space); digitization slip against Archambault's printed text (wrong accent)): οὕτε ἀγορευτόν → οὔτε ἀγορευτόν; καλὸνκαὶ → καλὸν καὶ.

Cite this passage

Justin, Dial. 4.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/4/1/).

Plain text

Justin, Dial. 4.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/justin-dialogue/4/1/).