2. And I replied, "Trypho, I am not such a wretch as to say

M I L L E N N I U M A T T H E E N D

O F T H E W O R L D

c h a p t e r 80 "Sir," replied Trypho, "as I already remarked, you steadfastly cling to the Scriptures in all your statements. But, tell me truthfully, do you really believe that this place Jerusalem shall be rebuilt, and do you actually expect that you Christians will one day congregate there to live joyfully with Christ,1 together with the patriarchs, the prophets, the saints of our race, or even those who became proselytes before your Christ arrived? Or did you come to this admission only so that you might seem to prevail over us in the investigations?"

2. And I replied, "Trypho, I am not such a wretch as to say one thing and to think another. I have declared to you earlier 2

I did, however, point out that there are many pure and pious Christians who do not share our opinion.

3. "Moreover, I also informed you that there are some who are called Christians, but in reality are godless and impious heretics,3 whose doctrines are entirely blasphemous, atheistic, and senseless. However, that you may be assured that I am not making this admission only in your presence, I promise to write up our whole debate as best I can, and there I will inscribe the admission I just made to you, for I do not desire to be a follower of men and their teachings, but of God 4 and his doctrines.

1. See Rom 15.10.

2. Perhaps in the missing portion of the Dialogue?

3. See Dial. 35.6.

4. See Acts 5.29.

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 4. "If you have ever encountered any nominal Christians who do not admit this doctrine, but dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob by asserting that there is no resurrection of the dead, but that their souls are taken up to heaven at the very moment of their death, do not consider them to be real Christians; just as one, after careful examination, would not acknowledge as Jews the Sadducees 5 or the similar sects of the Genistae, Meristae, Galileans,

Hellenians and the Baptist Pharisees6 (please take no offense if I say everything that I think), but would realize that they are

Jews and children of Abraham in name only, paying lip service to God, while their heart, as God himself declared, is far from him.7

5. "Whereas I, and all other wholeheartedly orthodox Christians, feel certain that there will be a resurrection of the ﬂesh, followed by a thousand years in the rebuilt, embellished, and enlarged city of Jerusalem, as was announced by the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah and the others.8 c h a p t e r 81 "Isaiah has spoken concerning this millennium as follows:

For there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into their heart, but they shall ﬁnd gladness and joy in it, such as I create. For, behold, I make Jerusalem a rejoicing, and my people a joy; and I shall rejoice over Jerusalem, and be glad over my people. And no more shall the voice of weeping be heard in her, nor the voice of crying; no more shall there be an infant of a few days there, nor an old man who shall not ﬁll out his days; for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.

2. "And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat their fruits, and drink the wine. They shall

5. The Sadducees denied the resurrection of the body from the dead. See Daniélou, 7.

6. Marcovich, 209, cites a similar catalogue in Hegesippus, apud Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.22.7, with relevant literature: D. Gerhenson and G. Quispel, "Meristae," VigChr 12 (1958): 19–26; M. Black, "The parables as allegory,"

Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 42 (1959–60): 273–87; M. Simon, Les sectes juives au temps de Jésus (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1960), 74–75.

7. See Is 29.13; Mt 15.8.

8. Ezek 37.12–14. For Isaiah, see Is 65.17–25.

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Millennium at the end of the world

not build, and others inhabit; they shall not plant, and others eat. For as the days of the tree of life, so shall be the days of my people, and the works of their hands shall be multiplied. My elect shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for a curse; for they shall be a righteous seed blessed by the Lord, and their posterity with them. And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will hear; as they are yet speaking, I will say, What is it? Then shall the wolves and lambs feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the serpent shall eat earth like bread. They shall not hurt nor destroy on my holy mountain, says the Lord." 9

3. "Now, by the words, For as the days of the tree [of life], so shall be the days of my people, and the works of their hands shall be multiplied, we understand that a period of one thousand years is indicated in symbolic language. When it was said of Adam that in the day that he eats of the tree, in that he shall die,10 we knew he was not a thousand years old. We also believe that the words, The day of the Lord is as a thousand years,11 also led to the same conclusion.

4. "Moreover, a man among us named John, one of Christ's apostles, received a revelation and foretold that the followers of Christ would dwell in Jerusalem for a thousand years, and that afterwards the universal and, in short, everlasting resurrection and judgment would take place.12 To this our Lord himself testiﬁed when he said, They shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, but shall be equal to the angels, being sons of God, being of the resurrection.13

9. Is 65:17–25. For a careful examination of Justin's millennarian ideas see Skarsaune, 402–7.

10. Gn 2.17.

11. Ps 89 (90).4; 2 Pt 3.8. See Skarsaune, 111, 405.

12. Rv 20.4–6. See Skarsaune, 402–6, esp. 405 n 78, and Barnard, 210.

13. Lk 20.35–36. This section is quoted in Daniélou, 393, with the comment, "Here in one passage are all the documentation and all the argumentation connected with the millennium, comprising Ps 89.4, which appears in Jubilees and in II Peter, Gn 2.17 and Is 65.22 in the LXX version."

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I N T E R P R E T I N G S C R I P T U R E

A B O U T C H R I S T

c h a p t e r 82 "You should realize from the fact that among us Christians the charisms of prophecy exist down to the present day that the gifts that previously resided among your people have now been transferred to us. And, just as there were false prophets among you at the time your holy prophets lived, so now there also are in our midst many [false prophets] and false teachers, against whom we had been warned by our Lord himself, so that we should be prepared for anything, since we are aware that he foreknew what would befall us after his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven.

2. "He predicted that we would be slaughtered and hated because of his name, and that many false prophets and false

Christs would start preaching in his name, and would mislead many:1 and this has actually happened.

3. "Many have disseminated atheistic, blasphemous, and perverse doctrines, falsely branding them with his name, and they have taught, and still do, whatever that unclean spirit of the Devil has suggested to their minds. And we do our very best to warn them, as we do you, not to be deluded, for we are fully aware that whoever can speak out the truth, and fails to do so, shall be condemned by God, who said through Ezekiel: I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Judah. If the wicked man shall sin and you have not warned him, he indeed shall die in his iniq1. See Mt 24.5, 9, 11, 24; Massaux, 65–66.

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Interpreting Scripture about Christ

uity, but I will require his blood at your hand; but if you have warned him, you shall be innocent.2

4. "It is not from a love of wealth, or of glory, or of pleasure, therefore, but because of fear of a future judgment, that we strive to speak in accordance with the Scriptures. For no person can justly accuse us of such vices. Nor do we wish to emulate the lives of your rulers, whom God thus censures: Your princes are companions of thieves; they all love bribes and run after rewards.3

Now if, unfortunately, you should encounter such men even among us Christians, do not for that reason blaspheme Christ and attempt to misinterpret the Scriptures. c h a p t e r 83 "For instance, your teachers have presumed to refer the statement, The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool, 4 to Hezekiah, as if he were ordered to sit on the right side of the Temple, when the Assyrian king sent men to him with menacing messages and he was warned by Isaiah not to be afraid.5 Now, we all know and acknowledge that what Isaiah predicted did actually happen, and that the Assyrian king was checked from waging war on Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, and that an angel of the Lord put to death about one hundred and eighty-ﬁve thousand in the Assyrian camp.6

2. "But, it is evident that the quoted psalm does not refer to Hezekiah, for it is worded as follows: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool. He shall send forth the scepter of power upon Jerusalem, and he shall rule in the midst of your enemies. In the brightness of the saints, before the morning star I begot you. The Lord has sworn and he will not repent: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.7

3. "Now, who will not concede that Hezekiah was not a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek? And who is not aware that he was not the redeemer of Jerusalem? And who does not 2. Ezek 3.17–19. See Skarsaune, 450.

3. Is 1.23.

4. Ps 109 (110).l. See Skarsaune, 86–88.

5. 2 Kgs 18.17–19.6; Is 36.14; 37.1.

6. Is 37.36.

7. Ps 109 (110).1–4.

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st. justin martyr know that he did not send the scepter of power upon Jerusalem, and did not rule in the midst of his enemies? For who does not know that it was God who turned his enemies away while he wept and moaned?

4. "But, although our Jesus has not yet returned in glory, he has sent forth into Jerusalem the scepter of power, namely, the call to repentance to all the nations over which the demons used to rule, as David testiﬁes: The gods of the Gentiles are demons.8 And the power of his word compelled many to abandon the demons whom they used to obey, and through him to believe in almighty God, because the gods of the Gentiles are demons. Furthermore, we have proved earlier that the words, In the brightness of the saints, from the womb before the morning star I begot you,9 were addressed to Christ." c h a p t e r 84 "So also the words, Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,10 was foretold about him. For, if the one of whom Isaiah spoke was not to be born of a virgin, to whom did the Holy

Spirit allude when he said, Behold, the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son? If he was to be born as a result of human intercourse like any other ﬁrst-born son, why did God solemnly announce that he would give a sign which all ﬁrst-born have in common?

2. "What is truly a sign, and what was to be an irrefutable proof to all men, namely, that by means of a virgin's womb the ﬁrst-born of all creatures took ﬂesh and truly became man, was foreknown by the prophetic Spirit before it took place and foretold by him in different ways, as I have explained to you. Indeed he foretold this in order that, when it did take place, everyone would understand that it all happened by the power and purpose of the Creator of the world; just as Eve was made from one of Adam's ribs, and as all living beings were created by the Word of God in the beginning.

3. "But even here you dare to distort the translation of this 8. Ps 95 (96).5. See Skarsaune, 368.

9. Ps 109 (110).3.

10. Is 7.14 (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion). See 1 Apol. 33, Dial. 43, 67, 71; Skarsaune, 145, 200; Daniélou, 88; Marcovich, 215.

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Interpreting Scripture about Christ

passage made by your elders at the court of Ptolemy, the Egyptian king, asserting that the real meaning of the Scriptures is not as they translated it, but should read, Behold a young woman shall conceive, as though something of extraordinary importance was signiﬁed by a woman conceiving after sexual intercourse, as all young women, except the barren, can do. And even the barren can become fertile by the power of God.

4. "Samuel's mother, who had been sterile, gave birth to her child by the will of God.11 The same thing can be said of the wife of the holy patriarch Abraham,12 and of Elizabeth,13 who bore John the Baptist, and of many other women. You must realize, therefore, that nothing is impossible and that God can do all things, if he wills it. And, especially when it was prophesied that this would happen, you should not dare to mutilate or misinterpret the prophecies, for in doing so you do no harm to God, but only to yourselves. c h a p t e r 85 "Then, too, some of you dare to explain the following words,

Lift up your gates, O you princes, and be you lifted up, O eternal gates, that the King of Glory may enter, as if they referred to Hezekiah, while others of you apply them to Solomon.14 We can prove, to the contrary, that they were spoken neither of the one, nor of the other, nor quite simply of any of your kings, but solely of this Christ of ours, who appeared without beauty or honor, as Isaiah,

David, and all the Scriptures testify;15 who is Lord of hosts by the will of the Father, who bestowed that honor upon him; who arose again from the dead and ascended into heaven, as is stated in the psalm and the other Scriptural passages which also declared him to be Lord of hosts. You can easily see the truth of this even now, if you just open your eyes and look at the things that are happening around you.

11. See 1 Sm 1.20.

12. See Gn 21.2.

13. See Lk 1.57.

14. Ps 23 (24).7. See Skarsaune, 82–84, 151–52; Daniélou, 259; P. Beskow (cited above, Dial. 29.1 n 27). On Kuvrio" dunavmewn see C. Oeyen, "Die Lehre der göttlichen Kräfte bei Justin," SP XI, 2 (= TU 108; 1972), 215–21.

15. See Is 53.2–3.

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st. justin martyr 2. "Every demon is vanquished and subdued when exorcised in the name of this true Son of God, who was the ﬁrst-born of all creatures,16 who was born of a virgin, who was cruciﬁed by your people under Pontius Pilate, who died and then, after his resurrection from the dead, ascended into heaven.

3. "But, if you attempt to exorcise them in the name of any man born among you, whether kings, just men, prophets, or patriarchs, not one of the demons will be subdued. Whereas, if any man among you should exorcise them in the name of the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, they will, perhaps, become subdued. But some of your exorcists, as I have already noted, adjure the demons by employing the magical art of the Gentiles, using fumigations and amulets.17

4. "The words of David also show that there are angels and powers whom the word of the prophecy, through David, ordered to lift up the gates in order that he who arose from the dead,

Jesus Christ, the Lord of hosts, should enter in accordance with the Father's will.18 For the beneﬁt of those who were not with us yesterday, I will repeat the prophecy of David and summarize much of what was said at that time.

5. "I do not think it useless to do so, even though it means frequently repeating myself. It would be foolish to observe the sun and moon and other stars as they revolve in their courses and effect the same change of seasons; and to consider a mathematician as he constantly gives the answer 'four' when asked how many two times two are; and to speak always in the same way in acknowledging all other things that are ﬁrmly established as true, and yet, when discoursing about the meaning of the prophecies contained in the Scriptures, to prefer not to quote always the same Scripture, but to think oneself capable of inventing and uttering words superior to the Scriptures.

6. "Here is the passage from which I showed that God revealed to us that there are angels and powers in heaven: Praise

16. Col 1.15.

17. Justin has not described them so far in the Dialogue, but 2 Apol. 6 speaks of "all the other exorcists and exploiters of incantations and drugs," in contrast with Christian exorcists.

18. See Ps 23 (24).7.

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Interpreting Scripture about Christ

the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the high places. Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts."19

At this point, one of the men who had joined them on the second day, Mnaseas by name, remarked, "We greatly appreciate your kindness in taking the trouble to repeat those passages for our sake."

7. "My friends," I replied, "listen to the Scripture which prompts me to do this. Jesus commanded us to love even our enemies,20 as Isaiah also had announced at some length, in whose words is included the mystery of the new birth, both of us and of all who look forward to the glorious coming of Christ in Jerusalem and strive in their every action to please him.

8. "Here are the words of Isaiah: Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word. Say, our brethren, to them that hate and detest you, that the name of the Lord is gloriﬁed. He has appeared in their joy, and they shall be confounded. A voice of clamor from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord that renders recompense to the proud. Before she came to labor she brought forth; before her time came to be delivered, she brought forth a male child.

9. "Who ever heard of such a thing, or saw the like? Has the earth brought forth in one day? And has she brought forth a nation at once?

Because Zion has been in labor and has brought forth her children. But I gave this expectation even to her who does not bring forth, said the Lord. Behold I have made her that begets and her that is barren, said the Lord. Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and hold a joyous gathering, all you that love her. Be glad, all you that mourn for her, that you may suck and be ﬁlled from the breasts of her consolations; that having sucked out, you may be delighted with the entrance of his glory." 21

Copyright © 2003. Catholic University of America Press. All rights reserved. c h a p t e r 86 After saying this, I continued, "Understand now how he whom the Scriptures announce as about to return in glory after his cruciﬁxion was symbolized both by the tree of life (which is

19. Ps 148.1–2. See Skarsaune, 237–38, who raises the possibility of a common source behind Dial. 85.6 and Irenaeus, Demonstration 9. This is the ﬁrst place this text is quoted in the Dialogue, despite Justin's claim that he has already used it.

20. See Mt 5.44; Massaux, 66.

21. Is 66.5–11. See Skarsaune, 452–53.

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st. justin martyr said to have been planted in Paradise) and by what was about to happen to all the just. When Moses was sent with a rod to deliver the people, he held it in his hands at their head, and he divided the sea in two. With this rod he touched the rock and saw water gush forth. And, by throwing a tree into the bitter waters of Marah, he made them sweet.

2. "By placing rods in their drinking-places, Jacob caused the sheep of his mother's brother to conceive, so that he might gain possession of their young. The same Jacob boasts that he crossed the river with his rod. He also claimed that he saw a ladder, and the Scripture has stated that God rested on it, and we have shown from the Scriptures that this was not the Father.

And when Jacob had poured oil over a stone at the same place, God appeared to him and told him that he had anointed a pillar in honor of the God whom he had seen.22

3. "We likewise have proved that in many Scriptural passages Christ is symbolically called a Stone. We have likewise shown that every chrism, whether of oil, or myrrh, or any other balsam compound, was a ﬁgure of Christ; for the Word says, Therefore

God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellow kings.23 All kings and other anointed persons are called kings and anointed by participation in him, just as he himself received from the Father the titles of King and Christ and Priest and Angel and all other titles of this kind which he has or had.

4. "Aaron's rod, by blossoming, proved him to be the high priest.24 Isaiah, indeed, foretold that Christ would come forth as a rod from the root of Jesse.25 And David declared that the just man is like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring

22. On this chapter see esp. G. Q. Reijners, The Terminology of the Holy Cross in Early Christian Literature as based upon Old Testament Typology, Graecitas Christianorum Primaeva 2 (Nijmegen: Dekker & Van de Vegt, 1965), 38–41. See also

Fédou, passim; Skarsaune, 215, 374–79; Daniélou, 275–77. These events were described in Ex 4.7, 14, 16–21 (dividing the sea); 15.23–25 (waters of Marah);

17.5–6 (rock in Horeb); Gn 28.12–18 (Jacob's ladder); 30.31–42 (Jacob's rods); 31.13 (Jacob's vision). On Jacob's ladder, see Daniélou, 276; P. Lundberg, La typologie baptismale dans l'ancienne Église (Leipzig: A. Lorentz, 1942),

192–97.

23. Ps 44 (45).8. See Skarsaune, 177, 416; Lundberg (cited above, n 22), 167–68.

24. See Nm 17.8, 23.

25. See Is 11.1.

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Interpreting Scripture about Christ

forth its fruit in due season, and his leaf shall not fall off. 26 And, again, it is said that the righteous man shall ﬂourish like a palm tree.27

5. "From a tree God appeared to Abraham, as it is written, by the oak tree of Mamre.28 After crossing the river Jordan, the people found seventy willow trees and twelve springs. David declares that God comforted him with a rod and staff.

6. "Elisha, by throwing a piece of wood into the River Jordan, brought up to the surface the iron head of the axe with which the sons of the prophets had begun to cut wood for the construction of a building in which they proposed to read the precepts of God and study them; just as our Christ, by being cruciﬁed on the wood of the cross and by sanctifying us by water, raised up us who had been immersed in the mire of our mortal sins and made us a house of prayer and worship.29 Finally, it was a rod which signiﬁed that Judah was the father of the twins who were born of Tamar by a great mystery."30 c h a p t e r 87 After I had spoken thus, Trypho said, "Now, when I ask the following question I want you to know that I do so, not in an attempt to contradict what you said, but only for the sake of gaining information on the subject.

2. "Explain to me the following words of Isaiah: A shoot shall sprout from the root of Jesse, and a ﬂower shall blossom out of his root.

And a spirit of God shall rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and fortitude, a spirit of knowledge and piety; and he shall be ﬁlled with a spirit of the fear of the Lord.31 Now you have admitted that these words were spoken of Christ, who, you claim, already existed as God, and, becoming incarnate by the will of God, was born of a virgin. This, then, is my question:

26. See Ps 1.3.

27. Ps 91 (92).13. See Skarsaune, 374, 377–79.

28. Gn 18.1. See Daniélou, 276–77; Skarsaune, 208, 375.

29. For the recovery of the lost axe, see 2 Kgs 6.4–7.

30. See Gn 38.25–26.

31. Is 11.1–3. See Daniélou, 219; Skarsaune, 50; C. Oeyen (cited above, Dial. 85.1 n 14), 218.

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