13. The Greek text has "God of God," probably a copyist's error. Visonà,

Jesus as high priest

2. "Even now, for the sake of an argument, you maintain that God did not accept the sacriﬁces of the Israelites who then dwelt at Jerusalem, but that he has declared that the prayers of the Jews who were then in the Dispersion were pleasing to him and that he calls their prayers sacriﬁces. Now, I also afﬁrm that prayers and thanksgivings, offered by worthy persons, are the only perfect and acceptable sacriﬁces to God.

3. "For Christians were instructed to offer only such prayers, even at their thanksgiving for their food, both liquid and solid, whereby the Passion which the Son of God endured for us is commemorated.13 But your high priests and teachers have caused his name to be profaned and blasphemed throughout the whole world. But those ﬁlthy garments, which you place upon all those who by the name of Jesus embrace Christianity, will be thrown off us when he raises all of us up, and makes some incorruptible, immortal, and free from pain in an everlasting and indissoluble kingdom, and banishes others into the eternal torment of ﬁre.

4. "But you and your teachers mislead yourselves when you explain this passage of Scripture as referring to the Jews of the Dispersion, and afﬁrm that it says their prayers and sacriﬁces were pure and acceptable in every place.14 You should realize that you are uttering lies and are striving in every way to deceive yourselves.

In the ﬁrst place, your nation does not even now extend from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof,15 for there are nations among which none of your race has ever yet lived.

5. "But there is not a single race of men, whether barbarians, or Greeks, or persons called by any other name, nomads, or vagabonds, or herdsmen dwelling in tents,16 among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and Creator of the universe in the name of the cruciﬁed Jesus. Furthermore, Scripture clearly shows us that at the time the 13. The Greek text has "God of God," probably a copyist's error. Visonà,

335 n 3, points out that the reference here is to the agape, not the Eucharist proper.

14. See Mal 1.11.

15. Ibid.

16. The Scythians were widely perceived as nomads. See Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 709: "You will reach the nomad Scythians / Who dwell aloft on well-wheeled wagons / Equipped with precision bow and arrows"; and 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 prophet Malachi uttered these words, the Dispersion of your people over the face of the earth, as it now exists, had not yet taken place.17 c h a p t e r 118 "It would be much better for you, therefore, to stop being disputatious, and repent before the great day of judgment comes, for then, as I demonstrated from Scripture, all those of your tribes who cruciﬁed Christ shall lament.18

"Now, I have explained the meaning of the words, The Lord has sworn, [You are a priest forever] according to the order of Melchisedek.19 I have also shown that the prophecy of Isaiah, his burial has been taken away from the midst,20 referred to Christ, who was to be buried and to rise again. I have stated on many occasions that this same Christ will be the Judge of both the living and the dead.21

2. "Further, Nathan spoke thus of him to David: I will be a Father to him, and he shall be a Son to me, and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I did from them that were before him; and I will establish him in my house, and in his kingdom forever.22 And Ezekiel states that he shall be the only prince in this house, for he is the chosen priest and Eternal King and the Christ, since he is the Son of God.23 And do not suppose that Isaiah or the other prophets speak of sacriﬁces of blood or libations being offered on the altar at his second coming, but only of true and spiritual praises and thanksgivings.

3. "We, indeed, have not believed in him in vain, nor have we been led astray by our teachers, but by wondrous divine providence it has been brought about that we, through the calling of the new and eternal testament, namely, Christ, should be

Horace, Odes 3.24.10: campestres melius Scythae, / quorum plaustra vagas rite trahunt domos, "The Scythians do it better: / They move from place to place /

With their houses on their wagons" (trans. D. Ferry, The Odes of Horace [New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997], 230–31).

17. See Dial. 53.5.

18. See Mal 3.23 (4.4); Zec 12.10, 12; Jn 19.37; Rv 1.7.

19. Ps 109 (110).4. See Dial. 33.

20. Is 53.8. See Dial. 16 and 97.

21. Dial. 36, 46, 49.

22. 1 Chr 17.13–14; 2 Sm 7.14–15.

23. See Ezek 44.3; 45.17.

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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Jesus as high priest

found more understanding and more religious than you, who are reputed to be, but in reality are not, intelligent men and lovers of God.

4. "Isaiah, in wonderment at this, said, And kings shall shut their mouth; for they to whom it was not told of him, shall see; and they that heard not, shall understand. Lord, who has heard our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? 24

"Trypho," I went on, "as far as is possible I am trying to repeat in a brief and concise form what I have already said, for the beneﬁt of those who have come here with you today."

5. "That is ﬁne," rejoined Trypho. "But, even if you were to repeat the same thing at greater length, rest assured that all of us here present will gladly listen to you."

24. Is 52.15; 53.1.

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T H E G E N T I L E S A S G O D ' S N E W P E O P L E

c h a p t e r 119 "Do you, gentlemen, suppose," I continued, "that we could have grasped these things in the Scriptures without a special grace from him who willed them, so that the words spoken by Moses might be fulﬁlled? Here they are:

2. "They provoked me with strange gods; they stirred me up to anger with their abominations. They sacriﬁced to devils whom they knew not; new gods that came recently, whom their fathers knew not. You have forsaken the God that begot you, and have forgotten the God that nourished you. And the Lord saw, and was jealous, and was moved to wrath by reason of the anger of his sons and daughters, and he said: I will turn away my face from them, and I will show what their ﬁnal end shall be; for they are a perverse generation, and unfaithful children.

They have provoked me to jealousy with that which is no god, and have angered me with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with that which is no people, and will vex them with a foolish nation. For a ﬁre is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell. It shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the foundations of the mountains. I will heap evils upon them.1

3. "And after that Just One was put to death, we blossomed forth as another people, and sprang up like new and thriving wheat, as the prophets exclaimed, And many nations shall ﬂee unto the Lord in that day and they shall be for him a people; and they shall dwell in the midst of the whole earth.2 But we Christians are not 1. Dt 32.16–23. See 1 Apol. 60 and Skarsaune, 52.

2. Zec 2.11. See Skarsaune, 73.

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The Gentiles as God's new people

only a people, but a holy people, as we have already shown: And they shall call it a holy people, redeemed by the Lord.3

4. "Wherefore, [not only] are we are not a contemptible people, nor a tribe of barbarians, nor just any nation as the Carians or the Phrygians, but God even chose us and appeared to those who did not seek him.4 Behold, he said, I am God to a nation which has not called upon my name.5 For, this is really the nation promised of old to Abraham by God, when he told him that he would make him a father of many nations, not saying in particular that he would be father of the Arabs, or the Egyptians, or the Idumaeans, since Ishmael became the father of a mighty nation and so did Esau; and there is now a great throng of Ammonites. Noah was the father of Abraham, and indeed, of all men. And other nations had other ancestors.

5. "What greater favor, then, did Christ bestow on Abraham?

This: that he likewise called with his voice, and commanded him to leave the land wherein he dwelt.6 And with that same voice he has also called all of us, and we have abandoned our former way of life in which we used to practice evils common to all the other inhabitants of the world. And we shall inherit the Holy Land together with Abraham, receiving our inheritance for all eternity, because by our similar faith we have become children of Abraham.7

6. "For, just as he believed the voice of God, and was thereby justiﬁed,8 so have we likewise believed the voice of God (which was spoken again to us by the prophets and the apostles of Christ), and have renounced all worldly things even to death.

Thus, God promised Abraham a religious and righteous nation of like faith, and a delight to the Father;9 but it is not you, in whom there is no faith.10

3. Is 62.12. See Skarsaune, 333.

4. See Dt 14.2.

5. See Is 65.1. This chapter gives Rudolf both title and central focus to the latest commentary on the Dialogue.

6. See Gn 12.1.

7. See Gal 3.7.

8. See Gn 15.6.

9. See Prv 10.1; 15.20.

10. See Dt 32.20; Skarsaune, 53.

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st. justin martyr c h a p t e r 120 "Notice now how he makes the same promises to Isaac and to Jacob. Here are his words to Isaac: In your offspring shall all the nations be blessed.11 And to Jacob: In you and in your offspring all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed.12 But he does not address this blessing to Esau, nor to Reuben, nor to any one else, but only to the ones from whom Christ was to come through the Virgin

Mary in accordance with the divine plan of our redemption.

2. "If you were to examine closely the blessing of Judah, you would see what I mean. For the offspring is divided after Jacob, and comes down through Judah and Perez and Jesse and David.13 Now, this was a sign that some of you Jews would certainly be children of Abraham, and at the same time would share in the lot of Christ; but that others, also children of Abraham, would be like the sand on the sea shore,14 which, though vast and extensive, is barren and fruitless, not bearing any fruit at all, but only drinking up the water of the sea. Of this a great part of your people is guilty, for you all imbibe bitter and godless doctrines, while you spurn the word of God.

3. "For in the passage relating to Judah, he says, A prince shall not fall from Judah, nor a prince from his thighs, until what is laid up for him shall come; and he shall be the expectation of Gentiles.15 It is evident that the expected one was not Judah, but Christ. For all of us who are of the Gentiles are not expecting Judah, but Jesus, who also delivered your forefathers from Egypt. For the prophecy referred to the coming of Christ: Until he comes for whom it is laid up; and he shall be the expectation of the Gentiles.

4. "Jesus came, therefore, as I have proved in detail, and he is expected to come again upon the clouds.16 You yourselves have deﬁled his name,17 and you strive to have his name profaned throughout the world.

"Now, gentlemen," I continued, "I could have argued with you about the passage which you claim should be written, Until

11. Gn 26.4.

12. Gn 28.14.

13. See Mt 1.2–6; Lk 3.32–34.

14. See Gn 22.17.

15. Gn 49.10. See Skarsaune, 85, 106.

16. See Dn 7.13.

17. See Mal 1.12.

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The Gentiles as God's new people

the things laid up for him come. For, the Seventy did not translate as you do, but, Until he come for whom it is laid up.

5. "But, since the rest of the passage (And he shall be the expectation of the Gentiles) clearly refers to Christ, I will not dispute with you the exact wording of the passage, just as I refrained from basing my arguments about Christ upon Scriptures which you do not recognize as authentic, namely, upon the words of Jeremiah, Esdras, and David, which I indeed quoted,18 but only upon those passages recognized by you until now as authentic.

"For, if your teachers had understood them, they would most assuredly have expunged them from the text, as they did the words describing the death of Isaiah, whom you Jews sawed in half with a wooden saw.19 This incident, too, was a symbol of Christ, who is going to cut your nation in two, and to admit the worthy half into his eternal kingdom with the holy patriarchs and prophets. But the rest, he has said, he will condemn to the undying ﬂames, together with all those of all nations who are likewise disobedient and unrepentant.

6. "Indeed, he said, For they will come from the east and from the west, and will banquet with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the darkness outside.20

"In speaking, I have only one thought in mind, namely, to tell the truth, and in doing so I have not the slightest fear, even if you were to tear me at once to pieces. For I was not afraid either of any one of my people, I mean the Samaritans, when I wrote an address to Caesar, and afﬁrmed that they were mistaken in trusting Simon, the magician among their people, who they say is god above every principality, authority and power." 21

[God] through David speaks of Christ, it does not say in his seed shall the Gentiles be blessed, but in him. Here are the words: His

18. See Dial. 71–73.

19. See Heb 11.37; Martyrdom of Isaiah; and Ascension of Isaiah, 5.11–14.

20. Mt 8.11–12.

21. See 1 Apol. 26.3; 2 Apol. 15. This reference to 1 Apology proves that the Dialogue is later in date of composition. See van Winden, 20–21.

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st. justin martyr name shall endure forever; it shall rise above the sun; and all nations shall be blessed in him.22 But, if all nations are blessed in Christ, and we who are from all nations believe in him, then he is the Christ, and we are they who are blessed through him.

2. "It is written23 that God once allowed [the nations] to worship the sun and yet you cannot discover anyone who ever suffered death because of his belief in the sun. But you can ﬁnd men of every nation who, for the name of Jesus, have suffered, and still suffer, all kinds of torments rather than deny their belief in him. For his word of truth and wisdom is more blazing and bright than the might of the sun, and it penetrates the very depths of the heart and mind. Thus the Word said, His name shall arise above the sun.24 And Zechariah afﬁrms, The Dawn is his name.25

3. "And again, They shall mourn tribe by tribe.26 But, if he was so brilliant and powerful at his ﬁrst coming, when, without honor or comeliness, he was scorned, that he is known in every nation, and some men of every nationality have repented of their former wicked manner of life; and even the devils were subject to his name, and all the powers and kingdoms fear his name more than they fear all the dead, shall he not at his coming in glory completely destroy all who hated him and maliciously turned their backs on him, while bestowing upon his faithful followers rest and every other blessing they expected?

4. "We, therefore, were endowed with the special grace of hearing and understanding, of being saved by Christ, and of knowing all truths revealed by the Father.27 Thus, he says to him, It is a great thing for you that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring the dispersions of Israel back. I have given you to be the light of the Gentiles, that you may be their salvation even to the farthest part of the earth.28

22. Ps 71 (72).17. See Dial. 34.3–6; Skarsaune, 84–85, 143–44.

23. Dt 4.19. See Dial. 55.1 n 1; Smit Sibinga, 30, 140.

24. Ps 71 (72).17. See Dial. 34.6 n 21.

25. Zec 6.12. See Skarsaune, 84, 143–44, 266, 381.

26. See Zec 12.12; Dial. 32.

27. See Jn 14.7.

28. Is 49.6. See Skarsaune, 62, 348–49.

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