Dialogue with Trypho 61

2 verses • Goodspeed Greek (Die ältesten Apologeten, 1914)

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

The doctrinal centerpiece of Dial. 56-62. Justin gives his fullest single statement of the Logos-doctrine: 'God begot before all creatures a Beginning, a certain rational power proceeding from himself.' He then explains how this begetting works without diminishing the Father — the famous fire-from-fire analogy: when one fire kindles another, the original is not diminished. The chapter also gathers the cluster of titles for the begotten Logos: Glory of the Lord, Son, Wisdom, Angel, God, Lord, Word.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

Dial. 61 is the pre-Nicene Christological text most directly continuous with Philo, Confusion of Tongues §146 (TCR /philo-conf/1/146). Where Philo lists ἀρχή, ὄνομα θεοῦ, λόγος, ὁ κατ' εἰκόνα ἄνθρωπος, ὁρῶν Ἰσραήλ as the Logos's titles, Justin lists ἀρχή, δόξα κυρίου, υἱός, σοφία, ἄγγελος, θεός, κύριος καὶ λόγος. The methodology is identical; the title-set evolves toward distinctively Christian vocabulary (Son, Glory, Wisdom). The fire-from-fire analogy itself is Justin's own development — pre-figuring Origen's eternal-generation doctrine (De Princ. I.2.4-6) and the Nicene Creed's 'light from light, true God from true God.'

Translation Friction

γεγέννηκε ('has begotten') is a perfect-tense form of γεννάω that does not, in early Greek, distinguish between begetting (of a son) and making (of an artifact). The Nicene Creed's γεννηθέντα, οὐ ποιηθέντα ('begotten, not made') is the fourth-century resolution of an ambiguity Justin's pre-Nicene Greek leaves open. Justin himself is comfortable saying both that the Logos is 'begotten' (γεννάω) and that this begetting is 'before all creatures' (πρὸ πάντων τῶν κτισμάτων) — but whether the begetting is in time or eternal is a question his text does not press.

Connections

Proverbs 8:22-31 LXX (Wisdom's pre-cosmic origination — the prooftext Justin gathers for the begotten Logos); Philo, Confusion of Tongues §146 (the Logos title-catalog — direct conceptual ancestor); Philo, On the Special Laws §81 (the image-Logos through whom the cosmos was made — TCR /philo-spec/1/81); Philo, On the Cherubim §27 (Two Powers framework); John 1:1-3, 14, 18 (the begotten Logos who became flesh); Colossians 1:15-18 (image of invisible God, firstborn, beginning); Hebrews 1:3 (reflection of glory, exact imprint); Nicene Creed 325 (φῶς ἐκ φωτός, θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ — Justin's fire-from-fire transposed into the conciliar formula); Origen, De Princ. I.2.4-6 (eternal generation; cites Justin's framework).

Dialogue with Trypho 61:1

ἀρχὴν γὰρ πρὸ πάντων τῶν κτισμάτων ὁ θεὸς γεγέννηκε δύναμίν τινα ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ λογικήν, ἥτις καὶ δόξα κυρίου ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου καλεῖται, ποτὲ δὲ υἱός, ποτὲ δὲ σοφία, ποτὲ δὲ ἄγγελος, ποτὲ δὲ θεός, ποτὲ δὲ κύριος καὶ λόγος.

God begot from himself, before all creatures, a Beginning — a kind of rational power. The Holy Spirit names this power the Glory of the Lord — and at other times Son, at other times Wisdom, at other times Angel, at other times God, at other times Lord and Word.

REF God begot before all the creatures a Beginning — a certain rational power from himself — which is also called by the Holy Spirit the Glory of the Lord, and at times Son, and at times Wisdom, and at times Angel, and at times God, and at times Lord and Logos. (Schaff, ANF I, pp. 227-228)

Notes & Key Terms 4 terms

Key Terms

γεννάω (γεγέννηκε) gennaō / gegennēke

"to beget / has begotten" — to generate, to bring forth; in early Greek covers both biological begetting and artisanal making; the Nicene Creed will eventually distinguish γεννητός from ποιητός

The verb at the center of fourth-century Christological controversy. Justin's perfect tense γεγέννηκε signals completed-and-continuing begetting. Origen will read this as eternal generation; the Arians will read it as a temporal act. The Nicene Creed resolves by adding the disjunction 'begotten, not made' to specify that what Justin says of the Logos is not merely artisanal production.

δύναμις λογική dynamis logikē

"rational power" — an intelligent operative agency, not a brute force; in Philo and Justin, the technical name for the Logos under its operative-power aspect

Same vocabulary Philo uses for the Two Powers (creative + kingly) at Cher. §§27-28. Where Philo has two Powers operating below the supreme God, Justin unifies the powers into the single Logos-figure. The pre-Nicene Christian narrowing from Philonic Two-Powers to Christian one-Logos is one of the substantive doctrinal moves between the two corpora.

δόξα κυρίου doxa kyriou

"Glory of the Lord" — Septuagintal kavod YHWH; the visible manifestation of the divine presence

Septuagintal-Hebrew translation of kavod YHWH (כְּבוֹד יְהוָה). The title Justin assigns to the Logos here is also what Hebrews 1:3 will transfer to Christ: ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης ('reflection of his Glory'). The identification of the pre-existent Logos with the Glory-of-the-Lord is the bridge between Septuagintal theophany language and developed Christology.

ἀρχή πρὸ πάντων τῶν κτισμάτων archē pro pantōn tōn ktismatōn

"Beginning before all creatures" — the Beginning that is temporally / ontologically prior to every created thing

Exactly the formula Colossians 1:15-18 uses for Christ: πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως ('firstborn of all creation')... ὅς ἐστιν ἀρχή ('who is the beginning'). Justin's identical phrasing is decisive evidence that he is reading Colossians and reading it as the Christological application of Philonic Logos-doctrine.

Translator Notes

Goodspeed, p. 161 (Dial. 61.1); Schaff, ANF I, pp. 227-228. This is the single most-cited sentence in pre-Nicene Christian Logos-Christology. Every later doctrinal development — Origenist eternal generation, Athanasian homoousios, Cappadocian three-hypostases, the Nicene Creed's 'light from light' — articulates a position on the question this sentence opens. The Logos is begotten (γεγέννηκε); the Logos is before all creatures (πρὸ πάντων τῶν κτισμάτων); the Logos is a rational power proceeding from God (δύναμις λογική ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ); the Logos has many titles (six listed here).
The conceptual ancestor of this sentence is Philo, Confusion of Tongues §146 (TCR /philo-conf/1/146). Philo had cataloged five titles for the Logos — ἀρχή, ὄνομα θεοῦ, λόγος, ὁ κατ' εἰκόνα ἄνθρωπος, ὁρῶν Ἰσραήλ. Justin adds three distinctively Christian titles: υἱός (Son), σοφία (Wisdom, drawing on Proverbs 8:22-31), and δόξα κυρίου (Glory of the Lord, drawing on Septuagintal kavod-language). The methodology — same figure under many titles — is Philo's; the Christian title-additions move toward the historical-incarnational identification.
γεγέννηκε ('has begotten') is the perfect tense of γεννάω. In early Greek (Septuagint, NT, early patristic), the verb covers both biological generation and artisanal production — there is no lexical distinction between begetting and making. The Nicene Creed of 325 will famously insist γεννηθέντα, οὐ ποιηθέντα ('begotten, not made'), splitting what Justin's Greek did not split. Justin's perfect tense (action completed, effect continuing) was the lexical seed Origen, Comm. Jo. I.29 and De Princ. I.2.4, would later expand into the doctrine of eternal generation.
Cross-reference Philo, On the Special Laws §81 (TCR /philo-spec/1/81): εἰκὼν δὲ θεοῦ λόγος ὁ πρεσβύτατος, δι' οὗ ὁ σύμπας κόσμος ἐδημιουργεῖτο — 'the image of God is the most ancient Logos, through whom the whole cosmos was crafted.' Philo's most-ancient-Logos formula and Justin's begotten-before-all-creatures formula are the same proposition under different verbal forms. Both name the Logos as the senior produced reality through whom creation issues.
On 'rational power from himself' (δύναμις λογική ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ): the prepositional phrase ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ is consequential. Justin is not saying the Logos was made out of pre-existing material; he is saying the Logos issues from God's own being. The same prepositional grammar is what John 16:28 (ἐξῆλθον ἐκ τοῦ πατρός — 'I came forth from the Father') and John 8:42 (ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐξῆλθον — 'I came forth from God') deploy for the incarnate Logos's procession.

Dialogue with Trypho 61:3

ὃν τρόπον γὰρ ἀπὸ πυρὸς ἀνάπτεται πῦρ ἕτερον, οὐκ ἐλαττουμένου ἐκείνου ἐξ οὗ ἀνήφθη, ἀλλὰ τοῦ αὐτοῦ μένοντος, καὶ τὸ ἀναφθὲν καὶ αὐτὸ φαίνεται, μὴ ἐλαττῶσαν τὸ ἐξ οὗ ἀνήφθη.

Think of fire: when one fire kindles another, the original is not diminished. It remains what it was. The new fire appears as itself — without taking anything away from the one that kindled it.

REF Just as we see, in the case of fire, that another fire is kindled from it — the one from which it is kindled not being lessened, but remaining the same — and the one that is kindled appears in itself, not lessening the one from which it was kindled. (Schaff, ANF I, p. 228, paraphrased)

Notes & Key Terms 2 terms

Key Terms

ἀνάπτω anaptō

"to kindle / to light up" — to ignite; to set alight from another source

The verb of kindling-from-source. Justin's metaphor depends on the verb's normal use: one fire produces another without losing anything of itself. The metaphor extends naturally to divine generation in Justin's framework — the Father produces the Son without losing anything of himself.

οὐκ ἐλαττοῦται ouk elattoutai

"is not diminished" — to be reduced, made less, lessened in quantity or quality

The negation Justin needs: divine generation does not diminish the divine. The verb ἐλαττόω (literally 'to make less') is also the verb of Philippians 2:7 (ἐλάττωσεν ἑαυτόν — 'he made himself less' / 'emptied himself'). The Pauline kenosis runs in the opposite direction from Justin's negation here: the incarnate Logos does empty himself; the begetting itself does not.

Translator Notes

Goodspeed, pp. 161-162 (Dial. 61.2); Schaff, ANF I, p. 228. The fire-from-fire analogy is Justin's signature pre-Nicene image for how a real begetting can occur without diminishing the begetter. The image will be picked up explicitly in the Nicene Creed of 325: φῶς ἐκ φωτός, θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ ('light from light, true God from true God'). Justin's analogy is the conceptual ancestor of the conciliar formula.
The analogy answers the question Philo's framework left open: how can the Logos be both 'from God' and 'numerically distinct from God' without compromising divine simplicity? Justin's image: just as fire kindled from fire shares the parent fire's nature without diminishing the source, the Logos shares the Father's divine nature without subtraction. Origen will read this as the ground of eternal generation (De Princ. I.2.4-6); Athanasius will read it as the ground of homoousios (Contra Arianos I.20).
The image is not unique to Justin in pre-Nicene literature — Athenagoras, Plea for Christians 10, uses a parallel light/sun analogy ('the Son is the first offspring of the Father, not as having come into being, but as the eternal Mind') — but Justin's fire-from-fire formulation is the earliest and was the most influential.
Note Justin's careful Greek: ἀνάπτεται πῦρ ἕτερον ('another fire is kindled') and οὐκ ἐλαττουμένου ἐκείνου ('that one not being lessened') and τοῦ αὐτοῦ μένοντος ('and remaining the same'). Three clauses, each tightening the analogy: the new fire is real (πῦρ ἕτερον), the old fire is undiminished (οὐκ ἐλαττουμένου), and the old fire is unchanged (τοῦ αὐτοῦ μένοντος). The image accomplishes exactly what fourth-century homoousios will articulate in technical terms.
Cross-reference Philo, On Dreams §230 (TCR /philo-somn/1/230): Philo's 'second god' formula handles the same question Justin's fire-from-fire image handles, but Philo's grammatical solution (anarthrous θεός vs. articular ὁ θεός) does not address how the second can come from the first without diminishing the first. Justin's analogy fills the gap.

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