2. Moses changed Hosea's name to Joshua when he sent him out to spy in
M O R E O N T H E B I R T H O F J E S U S
c h a p t e r 75 "We know too that in the book of Exodus Moses likewise indicated in a mysterious manner that the name of God himself
(which he says was not revealed to Abraham or to Jacob) was also Jesus. For it is written thus: And the Lord said to Moses, say to this people: Behold, I send my angel before your face, to guard you in your journey, and bring you into the place that I have prepared for you.
Take notice of him, and obey his voice; do not disobey him, for he will not pardon you, because my name is in him.1
2. "Consider well who it was that led your fathers into the promised land, namely he who was first named Auses [Hosea], but later renamed Jesus [Joshua].2 If you keep this in mind, you will also realize that the name of him who said to Moses, My name is in him,3 was Jesus. Indeed, he was also called Israel. And he similarly bestowed this name upon Jacob.
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3. "From Isaiah we know that the prophets who were sent to carry his messages to man are called angels and apostles of God, for Isaiah uses the expression, Send me.4 Equally evident to all is the fact that he who was called by the name Jesus [Joshua] became a prophet mighty and great.
4. "If, then, we are convinced that that God has appeared in 1. Ex 23.20–21. See Smit Sibinga, 136–37; Trakatellis, 82; Skarsaune, 419–
20.
2. Moses changed Hosea's name to Joshua when he sent him out to spy in the promised land (Nm 13.16). Later, Joshua led the people into the land (Dt
31.23). The Greek form of the name is Jesus. See Dial. 89.1; 90.4; 91.4; 106.3; 113.1; 115.2; 132.1, 3.
3. Ex 3.21
4. Is 6.8.
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st. justin martyr so many forms to Abraham, to Jacob, and to Moses, how can we doubt and refuse to believe that, in conformity with the will of the Father of all, he could also be born man of a virgin, particularly when we have so many Scriptural texts which clearly show that even this has taken place according to the will of the Father?5 c h a p t e r 76 "When Daniel says that he who receives the eternal kingdom is as a Son of Man does he not make a veiled allusion to this same truth?6 The words, as a Son of Man, indicate that he would become man and appear as such, but that he would not be born of a human seed. Daniel states the same truth figuratively when he calls Christ a Stone cut out without hands; 7 for, to affirm that he was cut out without hands signifies that he was not a product of human activity, but of the will of God, the Father of all, who brought him forth.
2. "And does not the statement of Isaiah, Who shall declare his generation? 8 show that his origin is indescribable, and no mere man has such an origin? When Moses affirmed that he shall wash his robe in the blood of the grape,9 did he not mystically foretell what I have frequently mentioned to you, namely, that Christ would have blood, but not from men, just as it is not man, but God, who gave blood to the grape?
3. "And, in calling him angel of great counsel,10 did not Isaiah predict that Christ would be a teacher of those truths which he expounded when he came upon this earth? For he alone openly taught the great counsels that the Father intended for those who either were, or shall be, pleasing to him, as well as for those men or angels who withdrew from his will.
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4. "Here are his words of instruction: They shall come from the 5. See Trakatellis, 91: "We find an astonishingly clear reworking of Justin's idea in Tertullian's Against Praxeas. Chapters 5 through 16 of that work presuppose a full acquaintance with Justin's theophanic sections." See also Prigent,
127–32.
6. Dn 7.13. See Skarsaune, 88–90.
7. Dn 2.34. See Skarsaune, 199, 381–82; Trakatellis, 57, Prigent, 171–77.
8. Is 53.8 See Skarsaune, 199–201.
9. Gn 49.11. See Smit Sibinga, 75–76.
10. Is 9.6 (5). See Skarsaune, 452.
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east and the west, and will banquet with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into external darkness.11
5. "And: Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not eat and drink and prophesy and cast out devils in your name? And then I will say to them: Depart from me.12 Again, in other words with which he will condemn them who are not worthy to be saved, he said, Depart into exterior darkness, which the Father has prepared for the devil and his angels.13
6. "And again he also said elsewhere: I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and poisonous insects, and over all the power of the enemy.14 Indeed, we who are believers in Jesus our
Lord, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, exorcised all devils and other evil spirits and thus have them in our power. Now, if the prophets foretold cryptically that Christ would suffer first and then be Lord of all, it was still practically impossible for anyone to grasp the full meaning of such prophecies, until
Christ himself convinced his apostles that such things were explicitly proclaimed in the Scriptures.
7. "For, before his crucifixion he exclaimed, The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the Scribes and Pharisees, and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.15 And David proclaimed that he would be born from the womb before the sun and the moon,16 in accordance with the Father's will, and he revealed that he, being Christ, was the mighty God, and was thus to be adored." 17
Copyright © 2003. Catholic University of America Press. All rights reserved. c h a p t e r 77 "I admit," said Trypho, "that your arguments are so numerous and forceful that they suffice to make me confused, but I again call to your attention that I want the proof of that Scriptural passage which you have so often promised. Please go on 11. Mt 8.11–12. See Massaux, 59.
12. Mt 7.22–23. See Massaux, 59–60.
13. Mt 25.30, 41. See Massaux, 60–61.
14. Lk 10.19. See Massaux, 90–91.
15. Mk 8.31.
16. See Ps 71 (72).5, 17; 109 (110).3.
17. See Ps 23 (24).8; 44 (45).13; 71 (72).11.
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st. justin martyr now and show us how that passage refers to your Christ, and not to Hezekiah, as we Jews believe."
2. "I will do as you wish," I replied, "but, first, prove to me that Hezekiah was the one spoken of in the following words: Before he had known how to call father or mother, he received the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in the presence of the king of Assyria.18 Indeed, I will not accept your explanation that Hezekiah waged war with the people of Damascus and Samaria in the presence of the king of Assyria. For the prophecy reads thus: Before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in the presence of the king of Assyria.
3. "Now, if the prophecy had not said this by way of addition, Before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, but had only said, And she shall bring forth a son and he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, you could reply that because God foreknew that he would take them, he had foretold it. But the prophecy actually has the addition, Before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria. Now, you cannot prove that this ever happened to any of you Jews, but we Christians can show that it did happen to our Christ.
4. "For, at the time of his birth, the Magi came from Arabia and worshipped him, after they had met Herod, then king of your country, whom the Word calls king of Assyria because of his wicked ungodliness.19 For you well know that the Holy Spirit often speaks in parables and similitudes, just as he did to all the people of Jerusalem when he frequently said to them: Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.20
Copyright © 2003. Catholic University of America Press. All rights reserved. c h a p t e r 78 "At the time when the Magi from Arabia came to King
Herod and said, From the star which has appeared in the heavens we know that a king has been born in your country, and we have come to 18. Is 8.4. See Skarsaune, 202, 239; Daniélou, 222.
19. See Mt 2.1–2.
20. Ezek 16.3. See G. Otranto, "Lo sviluppo della similitudine nella struttura del Dialogo con Trifone di Giustino," VetChr 11 (1974): 68–92.
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worship him,21 he asked the elders of your people and learned from them that Christ was to be born in Bethlehem; for they replied that it was written in the prophet, And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the princes of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people.22
2. "Now, these Magi from Arabia came to Bethlehem, worshipped the child, and presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. After they had worshipped him in Bethlehem, they were admonished in a vision not to return to Herod.23
3. "And Joseph, the spouse of Mary, who at first had decided to put her away because he thought she was pregnant through human intercourse, namely, fornication, was likewise commanded in a vision not to do so, when the angel appeared to him and told him that what she had conceived was of the Holy
Spirit.
4. "Consequently, overwhelmed with awe, he did not put her away. But when Quirinius was taking his first census in Judea,
Joseph traveled from Nazareth, where he lived, to Bethlehem, which was his place of origin, to be enrolled, for he was by birth of the tribe of Judah, which inhabited that region.24 Then he was ordered in a vision to go with Mary into Egypt and to remain there with the child until another revelation should advise them to return into Judea.25
5. "Now, concerning the birth of the child in Bethlehem, [you should know that] when Joseph could find no lodging place in the village, he went to a cave nearby, and there Mary gave birth to the child and laid him in a manger, and there the Arabian Magi found him.26
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6. "I have already quoted the words of Isaiah in which he foretold the symbol of the cave27 but, for the benefit of those
21. See Mt 2.2. See Skarsaune, 120.
22. Mi 5.2; Mt 2.5–6.
23. See Mt 2.11–12; Massaux, 62.
24. See Mt 1.24; Massaux, 62–63.
25. See Lk 2.1–5.
26. See Mt 2.11; Massaux, 63–64; S. Rossi, "Il tempo e l'ambientazione del Dialogus di Giustino," Giornale Italiano di Filologia 17 (1964): 55–65. That the birthplace was a cave is not specified in the New Testament, but is alleged by the Protoevangelium of James 18.1.
27. See Dial. 70.3.
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st. justin martyr who have joined you today, I will repeat the passage." Then I repeated the before-mentioned words of Isaiah, and added that by these words the priests who performed the mysteries of Mithras were urged by the Devil to declare that they were initiated by Mithras himself in a place they call a cave.
7. "Now, when the Arabian Magi failed to return to Herod, as he had requested, but had gone to their own country by another route, as they had been ordered, and when Joseph, Mary and the child had already retired into Egypt, as they were divinely directed, Herod, since he did not know who the child was whom the Magi had come to worship, ordered every boy in Bethlehem without exception to be slain.28
8. "This, too, had been foretold by Jeremiah, when the Holy Spirit spoke through him in this fashion: A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are not.29 Therefore, because of the voice which was to be heard as far as Ramah, that is, as far as Arabia (for even today there is a place in Arabia called Ramah), lamentation was to fill the place where Rachel
(the wife of the holy patriarch Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel) lies buried, that is, Bethlehem, for the women were weeping for their massacred children and had no consolation for that which had occurred.
9. "And the words of Isaiah, He shall take the power of Damascus and the possessions of Samaria,30 meant that the power of the wicked demon that dwelt in Damascus should be crushed by Christ at his birth. This is shown to have taken place. For the Magi, possessed for the commission of every wicked deed through the power of that demon, by coming and worshipping
Christ openly revolted against the power that had possessed them, which power the Scripture indicated by parable to be located in Damascus.
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10. "And that sinful and wicked power is fittingly called 28. See Mt 2.12–16.
29. Mt 2.17–18; Jer 38 (31).15. See Skarsaune, 120: "copied from Mt 2."
30. Is 8.4. See Skarsaune, 82, 200–2; Daniélou, 222 and (on the star of Jacob) idem, "L'étoile de Jacob et la mission chrétienne de Damas," VigChr 11
(1957): 121–38.
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