18. According to Jewish tradition, the last of the prophets was Malachi (5th

The Messiah must be Jesus

shall become straight and the rough ways plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all ﬂesh shall see the salvation of God, for so has the Lord spoken.

4. "The voice of one saying: Cry. And I said: what shall I cry? All ﬂesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the ﬂower of grass. The grass is withered, and the ﬂower is fallen; but the word of the Lord remains forever. Go upon a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem; lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Judah: Behold your

God. Behold the Lord comes with strength and his arm rules. Behold his reward is with him, and his work before him. Like a shepherd he shall feed his ﬂock, and he shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and he shall comfort her who is with young.

5. "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hands, and weighed the heavens with his palm, and all the earth with his ﬁst? Who has weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has known the mind of the Lord? And who has been his counselor, and has taught him? Or with whom has he consulted, and who has instructed him? Or who showed him the path of justice, or the way of understanding? All nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain on a balance, and shall be reckoned as spittle. And Libanus shall not be enough for burning, nor the beasts thereof sufﬁcient for a burnt offering; and all nations are considered as nothing, and have been counted as nothing."17

Copyright © 2003. Catholic University of America Press. All rights reserved. c h a p t e r 51 When I had ﬁnished, Trypho remarked, "All the words of the prophecy which you just quoted are ambiguous, sir, and they certainly do not prove what you want them to prove."

"If," I replied, "prophets had not ceased in your race,18 Trypho, but still now appeared after this John, you undoubtedly might consider what I say about Jesus Christ ambiguous.

2. "But, if John came as forerunner, exhorting men to repent, and then Christ came and brought to a close John's prophesying and baptizing at the River Jordan, and preached

17. Is 40.1–17.

18. According to Jewish tradition, the last of the prophets was Malachi (5th c. B.C.E.). Justin seems unfamiliar with that idea. See Dial. 52.3.

Justin, Martyr, Saint. Dialogue with Trypho (Selections from the Fathers of the Church, Volume 3), edited by Michael Slusser, Catholic University of America Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/de

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st. justin martyr the Gospel in person, afﬁrming that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and that he had to suffer much at the hands of the Scribes and Pharisees, and to be cruciﬁed and to rise again on the third day, and to appear again at Jerusalem to eat and to drink with his disciples;19 and if he predicted that in the meantime before his second coming there would arise, as I already stated, heresies and false prophets [and false messiahs] in his name 20

(which has been veriﬁed), how can there be question of ambiguity when the facts speak for themselves?

3. "He also mentioned that there would no longer be any prophet among your people, and that men would acknowledge that the new covenant, long promised by God, was then in existence, namely, that he himself was the Christ. Here are his words: The Law and the Prophets were until John the Baptist, from that time the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who was to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 21 c h a p t e r 52 "It was also foretold by the patriarch Jacob that there would be two comings of Christ, and that in the ﬁrst he had to suffer, and that after this coming your people would have neither prophet nor king, and that the Gentiles who believe in the suffering Christ would look forward to his second coming. For this reason the Holy Spirit spoke these things obscurely in parables, when he said:

2. "Judah, your brothers have praised you; your hands shall be on the necks of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow down to you.

Judah is a lion's whelp; from the germ, my son, you are sprung up.

Resting, he has couched like a lion, and like a lion's whelp. Who shall rouse him? A leader out of Judah shall not fail, nor a ruler from his thigh, until those things that are reserved for him shall have come; and he shall be the expectation of nations. Tethering his foal to the vine, and the foal's ass to the tendril of the vine, he shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape. His eyes are more sparkling than the wine, and his teeth are as white as milk.22

19. See Mt 3.2–3; 16.21; Lk 9.22.

20. Mt 24.5, 24.

21. Lk 16.16; Mt 11.12, 14–15.

22. Gn 49.8–12. See Smit Sibinga, 127, 75–80; Skarsaune, 25–29, 140–44.

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The Messiah must be Jesus

3. "You will not have the nerve to assert, nor could you prove it if you did, that your race did not always have a prophet or king from the beginning until the time when Jesus Christ was born and suffered. Although you claim that Herod, after whose reign Christ suffered, was from Ascalon,23 you still must admit that you then had a high priest of your own race, so that even then you had one who offered sacriﬁces and observed the other legal ceremonies of the Mosaic Law.

"And since you also had a continuous succession of prophets down to John (even when your people were led captive into Babylon, your lands ravaged by war, and your sacred vessels carried away), there never ceased to be a prophet in your midst who was lord and leader and ruler of your people. Indeed, even your kings were appointed and anointed by the spirit in these prophets.

4. "But, since the coming and death of our Jesus Christ in your midst, you have not had a prophet, nor do you possess one now. Furthermore, you no longer live under your own king, and, in addition, your land has been laid waste, and abandoned as a lodge in a garden.24 And the word speaking through Jacob, And he shall be the expectation of nations,25 signiﬁed ﬁguratively his two comings, and also that the Gentiles would believe in him, which you can now certainly verify as a fact. For we Christians, made up of all nationalities, have become pious and just through our faith in Christ, and we look forward to his second coming.

Copyright © 2003. Catholic University of America Press. All rights reserved. c h a p t e r 53 "And the passage, Tying his foal to the vine, and the foal's ass to the tendril of the vine,26 was a prophecy both of the deeds he would perform at his ﬁrst coming and of the Gentiles' belief in him. For the Gentiles were like a foal, who has never been harnessed or felt a yoke upon his neck, until this Christ of ours arrived and sent his disciples to convert them. They have borne the yoke of his word, and have bent their backs to endure all

23. And, therefore, not a Jew. See Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 1.6.2; 1.7.11; Theodoret of Cyrus, Eranistes 1.83.

24. Is 1.8.

25. Gn 49.10.

26. Gn 49.11. See Smit Sibinga, 77–81; Skarsaune, 25–29; Daniélou, 104.

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st. justin martyr things, because they look forward to the many priceless rewards which he promised them.

2. "Indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ, when he was about to enter Jerusalem, ordered his disciples to get him the ass with its foal, which was tied at a gate of the village of Bethpage, and he rode upon it as he entered Jerusalem.27 Since it had been explicitly foretold that the Christ would do precisely this, when he had done it in the sight of all he furnished clear proof that he was the Christ. And yet, even after all these things have happened and are proved from the Scriptures, you persist in your stubbornness.

3. "Zechariah, one of the twelve prophets, predicted this very event when he said, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold your king will come to you, the just and savior; meek and lowly, riding upon an ass, and upon the foal of an ass.28

4. "Now that the prophetic Spirit, as well as the patriarch Jacob, mentioned the ass, an animal accustomed to the yoke, and its foal, which were in his possession, and that he bade his disciples, as I have said before, to lead the beasts to him, constituted a prediction that both you coming from the synagogue and those who would come from the Gentiles would believe in him.

As the unharnessed foal was a ﬁgure of the former Gentiles, so the ass, accustomed to the yoke, was a symbol of those coming from among your people. For you have the Law laid upon you by the prophets as a yoke.

5. "The same Zechariah foretold that Christ would be struck, and his disciples dispersed, which actually happened.29 For, after he was cruciﬁed, his disciples were dispersed until he arose again from the dead, and proved to them that it had been predicted that he would have to suffer.30 When they were convinced of this, they went out to all the world teaching these things.31

6. "Thus we too are ﬁrm in our faith in him and in his doc27. Mt 21.1–2, 7, 10.

28. Zec 9.9. Skarsaune, 74–76, 141–42, 260–64, 450–53.

29. See Zec 13.7; Mk 14.27.

30. See Lk 24.25–26, 44–46.

31. See Mk 16.20; Acts 1.8 and Barnard, 163 n 322.

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The Messiah must be Jesus

trine, because our faith is grounded upon both the prophets and those who, openly throughout the world, are worshippers of God in the name of the cruciﬁed one. Indeed, Zechariah said, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man of my people, says the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and his sheep shall be dispersed.32 c h a p t e r 54 "And those prophetical words of Jacob, as recorded by Moses, namely, He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape,33 signiﬁed that he would wash in his own blood those who believed in him. For the Holy Spirit called those whose sins were remitted by Christ, his robe, among whom he is always present in power, but will be manifestly present in person at his second coming.

2. "The phrase the blood of the grape indicates allegorically that Christ has blood, not, however, from human seed, but from the power of God. For, as God, not man, has made the blood of the grape, so it has been foretold that the blood of Christ would not be from human seed, but from divine power. Therefore, gentlemen, this prophecy which I have quoted shows that Christ is not a man of mere human origin, begotten in the ordinary human way."

32. Zec 13.7. See Skarsaune, 121.

33. Gn 49.11. See Smit Sibinga, 79–81, Skarsaune, 199–200; Daniélou, 104; C. Granado Bellido, "Simbolismo del vestido. Interpretacion patristica de Gen.

49,11," Estudios Ecclesiasticos 59 (1984): 313–57, esp. 314–17.

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T H E U N I T Y O F G O D A N D T H E

D I V I N I T Y O F C H R I S T

c h a p t e r 55 "We shall keep this interpretation of yours in mind," Trypho replied, "if you can reinforce your point with other arguments as well. But now, return to the original topic and prove to us that the prophetic Spirit ever admits the existence of another

God, besides the Creator of all things; and do be careful not to mention the sun and moon, which, Scripture tells us, God permitted the Gentiles to worship as gods.1 Even prophets often misuse the word in this sense, when they say, Your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, often adding, the great and mighty and awesome.2

2. "Such words are used, not as if they were really gods, but because the word is instructing us that the true God, the Creator of all, is the sole Lord of all those who are falsely regarded as gods and lords. To convince us of this the Holy Spirit said through David, The gods of the Gentiles [although reputed as gods] are idols of demons, and not gods.3 And he places a curse upon those who make such idols or worship them." 4

3. "Trypho," I responded, "such are not the proofs I was about to offer, for from your quotations I know that they who worship these and similar objects are justly condemned, but I am ready to adduce arguments that no one can contradict, ar1. Dt 4.19 might be interpreted that way by Jews but Justin proves by the words of the Prophets that only God is to be worshipped. See Smit Sibinga,

52–57.

2. Dt 10.17. See Smit Sibinga, 57–58.

3. 1 Chr 16.26; Ps 95 (96).5. See Skarsaune, 213, 368.

4. See Ps 113.16 (115.8).

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The unity of God and the divinity of Christ

guments which may seem unusual to you, although you read them every day. Hence, we readily understand why, on account of your iniquity, God has hidden from you the power of discerning the wisdom of his words, with the exception of those few to whom, in his inﬁnite mercy, he has left a seed for salvation (to use the words of Isaiah), lest your race perish completely, as did the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.5 Listen, therefore, to these Scriptural quotations which need no explanation, but only a hearing. c h a p t e r 56 6 "Moses, then, that faithful and blessed servant of God,7 tells us that he who appeared to Abraham under the oak tree of Mamre was God, sent, with two accompanying angels, to judge

Sodom by another, who forever abides in the super-celestial regions, who has never been seen by any man, and with whom no man has ever conversed, and whom we call Creator of all and Father. Here are the words of Moses:

2. "And God appeared to him under the oak tree in Mamre, as he was sitting at the door of his tent, at midday. And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw and beheld three men standing near him. And as soon as he saw them he ran to meet them from the door of his tent, and he bowed toward the ground, and said,8 and so on, down to, And Abraham rose up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord; and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and the whole land of that country, and behold, he saw a ﬂame go up from the earth as the smoke of a furnace." 9

At this point I asked them if they understood this quotation.

3. They answered that they knew the meaning of the cited passages, but failed to see how they proved that, besides the Creator of the world, any other God or Lord exists or is mentioned by the Holy Spirit.

4. "Then," I replied, "since you understand these quotations 5. See Is 1.9.

6. Chapters 56–62 constitute a unity. See G. Visonà, in Justin Martyr, Dialogo con Trifone (Torino: Edizioni Paoline, 1988), 202 n 1, on the introduction here of Justin's teaching on the pre-existence of the Son, the distinction of the Son from the Father, and the strong inﬂuence of Middle Platonism.

7. See Nm 12.7; Heb 3.2, 5.

8. Gn 18.1–3. See Smit Sibinga, 20–23, 61–62; Skarsaune, 410–13.

9. Gn 19.27–28.

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st. justin martyr from Scripture, I shall attempt to prove my assertion, namely, that there exists and is mentioned in Scripture another God and Lord under the Creator of all things, who is also called an Angel, because he proclaims to man whatever the Creator of the world—above whom there is no other God—wishes to reveal to them."

Then, repeating the previously quoted Scriptural passages, I asked Trypho if he really believed that God appeared to Abraham under the oak tree in Mamre,10 as the Word states.

"I certainly do," he replied.

5. "Was he one of those three," I asked, "who, the prophetic Spirit says, were seen as men by Abraham?"

"No," Trypho answered, "but God appeared to him before the vision of the three men. Furthermore, those three whom the Word calls men were angels. Two of them were sent to destroy Sodom, while the third was sent to impart the good news to Sarah that she was to have a son and, having fulﬁlled his mission, he departed."

6. "How, then, do you explain," I went on, "that one of the three who was in the tent, and who promised, I will return to you at the appointed time, and Sarah shall have a son,11 did return after Sarah gave birth to her son, and the prophecy then asserts that he is God? For a clariﬁcation of what I say, listen to these quite explicit words of Moses:

7. "And when Sarah noticed the son of Hagar, the Egyptian bondwoman, whom she bore to Abraham, playing with her son, Isaac, she said to Abraham: Drive out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not share the inheritance with my son Isaac.

Abraham was distressed on account of his son. And God said to Abraham: Do not be distressed on account of the boy and your bondwoman; in all that Sarah has said to you, give ear to her voice; for in Isaac shall your seed be named.12

8. "Do you not understand, therefore, that he who promised under the oak tree that he would return, since he knew he would be needed to counsel Abraham to do what Sarah wished,

10. Gn 18.1.

11. Gn 18.14. Smit Sibinga, 63–84.

12. Gn 21.9–12.

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The unity of God and the divinity of Christ

did return according to the Scriptures, and is God, as these following words indicate: And God said to Abraham: Let it not seem grievous to you for the boy and for your bondwoman?"13

9. "That's right," said Trypho, "but you have not thereby proved that there is another God besides him who appeared to Abraham, and who appeared also to the other patriarchs and prophets. All you have shown is that we were mistaken in our assumption that the three who were in the tent with Abraham were all angels."

10. "Then," I said, "if I could not prove to you from the Scriptures that one of these three is God, and yet is termed an Angel (because, as stated above, he delivered the messages of God, the Creator of all, to whomsoever God desires), and that he who appeared to Abraham on earth in human form, as did the two angels who accompanied him, was in fact the God who existed before the creation of the universe, it would be logical for you to adhere to the common doctrine of your people."

"Without a doubt," he replied, "for this has been our belief up to now."

11. "Then," I said, "let us return to the Scriptures and I shall try to convince you that he who is said to have appeared to Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, and is called God, is distinct from God, the Creator; distinct, that is, in number, but not in mind.14

For I state that he never did or said anything other than what the Creator—above whom there is no other God—desired that he do or say."

12. "Prove now," said Trypho, "that he exists, so that we can agree also upon this. For we understand that you deny that he afﬁrmed, did, or said anything contrary to the will of the Creator."

"The previously-quoted Scriptural passages will make this evident to you," I replied. "Here are the words: The sun was risen upon the earth, as Lot entered into Zoar. And the Lord rained upon Sodom brimstone and ﬁre from the Lord out of heaven. And he destroyed these cities, and all the surrounding country."15

13. Then the fourth of those who had remained with Trypho 13. Gn 21.12.

14. See Daniélou, 138.

15. Gn 19.23–25.

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st. justin martyr said, "We have to admit that the one of the two angels who went down to Sodom, and whom the Word through Moses named

Lord is one, other than God himself, who appeared to Abraham."

14. "Not only because of that quotation," I said, "must we certainly admit that, besides the Creator of the universe, another was called Lord by the Holy Spirit. For this was attested to, not only by Moses, but also by David, when he said, The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.16 And in other words, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You have loved justice, and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellow kings.17

15. "Tell me if it is your opinion that the Holy Spirit calls another God and Lord, besides the Father of all things and his

Christ. For, I am now going to prove to you from the Scriptures themselves that he, who was termed Lord in the Scriptures, is not one of the two angels who went down to Sodom, but he who accompanied them, and is called God, who appeared to Abraham."

16. "Get on with your proof, then," said Trypho, "for, as you see, it is getting late in the day, and we are not ready to make any unguarded replies, for we have never before heard anyone who made such inquiries, examinations, or proofs. In fact, we would not have listened to you thus far, had you not constantly cited the Scriptures in your attempts to prove your point, and had you not stated that there is no God superior to the Creator of the world."

17. "You must surely know," I went on, "the following quotation from Scripture: And the Lord said to Abraham: Why did Sarah laugh and say: Shall I who am an old woman really bear a child? Is there nothing impossible to God? At the appointed time I will return to you and Sarah shall bear a son.18 And a little later: And the men rose up from there, and turned their eyes towards Sodom and Gomorrah; and Abraham walked with them, bringing them on the way. And the Lord

16. Ps 109 (110).1. See Smit Sibinga, 86–87.

17. Ps 44 (45).7–8.

18. Gn 18.13–14.

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