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Dialogue with Trypho / Chapter 66

Dialogue with Trypho 66

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

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

Justin introduces the virgin-birth prooftext from Isaiah 7:14 LXX: ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει καὶ τέξεται υἱόν — 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb and shall bear a son.' Justin reads the prophecy as a unique messianic sign: no one in Abraham's genealogical line was born of a virgin except Jesus Christ; the prophecy's placement in 'the house of David' (Isaiah 7:13) establishes its messianic-Davidic application; the sign 'Immanuel' (God-with-us) names the divine identity of the one born. The chapter prepares the ground for the major παρθένος-vs-ʻalmah translation controversy that Dial. 67 will press.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

Dial. 66 is the earliest extant Christian deployment of Isaiah 7:14 LXX as a self-contained virgin-birth prooftext outside the New Testament citation chain (Matthew 1:23 quotes the verse but doesn't develop the argument). Justin's specific claim — that the prophecy's placement in the Davidic-house addressee makes it messianic-Davidic, and that no other figure in Abraham's line was born of a virgin — frames the chapter as a uniqueness argument. The genealogical-uniqueness move is structurally important: it argues from a single virgin-birth event in the entire Hebrew Bible's narrative scope, which both confirms the prophecy's specificity AND requires the παρθένος reading (since on the ʻalmah reading, the verse would describe an ordinary birth and forfeit prophetic uniqueness).

Translation Friction

The argument depends entirely on the LXX rendering παρθένος ('virgin'). On the Hebrew reading עַלְמָה (ʻalmah — 'young woman, marriageable woman'), the verse describes an ordinary contemporary birth (typically read as Isaiah's own son Maher-shalal-hash-baz or as a Davidic-court birth fulfilled within Isaiah's lifetime). Justin's Christian reading collapses if the Hebrew is the authoritative text. The next chapter (Dial. 67) confronts Trypho's exact challenge on this point. Modern scholarly consensus is mixed: παρθένος is the LXX's lexical choice, but whether 'ʻalmah' was a technical virginity-term in 8th-century-BCE Hebrew is contested.

Connections

Isaiah 7:13-14 LXX (the prophecy Justin is exegeting); Isaiah 7:14 Hebrew (the underlying עַלְמָה /'ʻalmah' on which Dial. 67 turns); Matthew 1:18-25 (the gospel citation of Isaiah 7:14 LXX as fulfilled in Jesus's virgin birth); Luke 1:26-38 (the annunciation narrative); Genesis 17:19 (the Sarah-Isaac promised-birth pattern Justin implicitly contrasts); 1 Apology 33 (Justin's parallel deployment of Isaiah 7:14 with messianic application); Tertullian, Adversus Judaeos 9 (extended Latin treatment of the same Isaiah 7:14 controversy); the canonical Hebrew Isaiah 7:14 at /isaiah/7#v14; the variant-tradition LXX Isaiah chapter page at /lxx-isaiah/7 (per-chapter coverage, not per-verse permalink — see editorial note in v3).

Dialogue with Trypho 66:1

καὶ τὰ τοιάδε λεγόμενα διὰ τοῦ Ἡσαΐου ἀκούσατε· ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει καὶ τέξεται υἱόν, καὶ καλέσουσι τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἐμμανουήλ, ὅ ἐστι μεθερμηνευόμενον· μεθ' ἡμῶν ὁ θεός.

Listen, then, to what was spoken through Isaiah: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel' — which, translated, means 'God with us.'

REF Hear, then, what was spoken through Isaiah: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel — which is, being interpreted, God with us.' (Schaff, ANF I, p. 232 — quoting Isaiah 7:14 LXX with Matthean translation gloss)

Notes & Key Terms 2 terms

Key Terms

παρθένος parthenos
"virgin" — a sexually intact young woman; in classical Greek, specifically virginal; in Septuagintal usage, sometimes broader

The Septuagintal rendering of Hebrew עַלְמָה (ʻalmah) at Isaiah 7:14. The choice of παρθένος (rather than the more etymologically parallel νεᾶνις — 'young woman') specifies virginity in a way the Hebrew did not technically require. The translation choice is one of the most consequential single-word decisions in the entire Septuagint and structures the rest of the παρθένος-vs-ʻalmah dispute Dial. 67 will press.

Ἐμμανουήλ Emmanouēl
"Emmanuel / Immanuel" — Greek transliteration of Hebrew עִמָּנוּאֵל (Immanu-El) = 'God-with-us'; one of the divine-presence names

The Hebrew name preserves the divine-presence claim in compressed form. Greek-speaking readers need the translation gloss (μεθ' ἡμῶν ὁ θεός) because the name's meaning is not transparent in transliteration. The same name resurfaces at Christian liturgical contexts (Advent antiphon, hymnody) and in patristic Christology as a key incarnation-name.

Translator Notes

  1. Goodspeed, p. 168 (Dial. 66.1); Schaff, ANF I, p. 232. The Isaiah 7:14 LXX prooftext is the centerpiece of the chapter. The Septuagintal Greek reads ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει — 'behold, the virgin shall have in her womb.' The Greek noun παρθένος specifies a virgin (a sexually intact young woman); the underlying Hebrew עַלְמָה ('ʻalmah') is broader, designating a young marriageable woman without necessarily specifying virginity. The translational gap is what Dial. 67 will engage.
  2. Justin's closing parenthetical — ὅ ἐστι μεθερμηνευόμενον· μεθ' ἡμῶν ὁ θεός — 'which, being interpreted, [means] God with us' — is the same translation gloss Matthew 1:23 provides for Greek-speaking readers of the Aramaic-Hebrew name Immanuel (עִמָּנוּאֵל = 'im-anu-El = with-us-God). The Matthean citation is exact down to the gloss; Justin is reading Matthew's quotation and re-deploying it.
  3. The Immanuel name carries the chapter's theological weight. 'God-with-us' is a divine-presence name; assigning it to a child born of a virgin is, on Justin's reading, the prophetic announcement of the incarnation. The same name will be picked up in Christian liturgical use (the Advent antiphon 'O Emmanuel,' the 'O come, O come, Emmanuel' hymn) and in patristic Christology generally.
  4. Cross-reference the canonical Hebrew Isaiah 7:14 at /isaiah/7#v14 for the full prophetic context (the Syro-Ephraimite war, Ahaz's refusal to ask a sign, Isaiah's offered sign). The LXX Isaiah chapter page at /lxx-isaiah/7 carries the παρθένος-rendering analysis at the chapter level — TCR's variant-tradition routes are per-chapter rather than per-verse (see editorial note below).
Dialogue with Trypho 66:3

ἐν γὰρ τῷ γένει τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ τοῦ κατὰ σάρκα οὐδεὶς οὐδέποτε ἀπὸ παρθένου γεγέννηται οὐδὲ λέγεται γεγεννῆσθαι, ἀλλ' ἢ οὗτος ὁ ἡμέτερος Χριστός.

In Abraham's lineage according to the flesh, no one has ever been born of a virgin — nor is anyone said to have been so born — except this Christ of ours.

REF For in the line of Abraham according to the flesh, no one ever has been born of a virgin, nor is said to have been born, except this our Christ. (Schaff, ANF I, p. 232, paraphrased)

Notes & Key Terms 2 terms

Key Terms

γένος genos
"lineage" — race, lineage, descent; in genealogical context, the line of biological descent from a named ancestor

Same noun used at Matthew 1:1 (βίβλος γενέσεως — 'book of the genesis/genealogy') and Genesis 5:1 LXX. Justin's choice of γένος Ἀβραάμ ('the lineage of Abraham') frames the uniqueness claim within the Davidic-Messianic ancestral scope.

κατὰ σάρκα kata sarka
"according to the flesh" — in the realm of physical/biological descent; in Pauline usage, contrasted with κατὰ πνεῦμα ('according to spirit')

Pauline prepositional phrase from Romans 1:3 ('born of David's seed according to the flesh') and Romans 9:5 ('the Christ according to the flesh'). Justin's deployment here is exactly Pauline: 'the line of Abraham κατὰ σάρκα' is the biological ancestral line, not the spiritual one. The Christ comes from Abraham's biological line but is not himself biologically generated κατὰ σάρκα — he is born of a virgin, not by human seed.

Translator Notes

  1. Goodspeed, p. 168 (Dial. 66.3); Schaff, ANF I, p. 232. Justin's uniqueness argument: across the entire Hebrew Bible's genealogical record of Abraham's line, no virgin birth is reported except the one Isaiah 7:14 prophesies and Matthew 1:18-25 narrates as fulfilled in Jesus. The argument's logical force depends on (a) the LXX παρθένος reading being authoritative and (b) the uniqueness claim being empirically true within the biblical narrative scope.
  2. The uniqueness move is rhetorically powerful but exegetically narrow. It does not engage the obvious Jewish counter-question: if Isaiah 7:14 is a sign for the Syro-Ephraimite-war contemporary context, what is the prophecy's relation to its immediate historical fulfillment? Trypho will press exactly this in Dial. 67 (the ʻalmah-as-Hezekiah's-mother reading attributed to second-century-CE Jewish exegetes).
  3. Editorial note on the cross-link to LXX Isaiah 7:14: TCR's variant-tradition routes (lxx-isaiah, dss-isaiah, etc.) are per-chapter rather than per-verse — there is no /lxx-isaiah/7/14 permalink, only /lxx-isaiah/7. The LXX Isaiah chapter page does carry the παρθένος-rendering analysis. The variant-tradition deep-link UX (per-verse anchors for variant traditions) is a Pillar II verse-as-center-architecture item, planned for after Phase A. For now, readers wanting the LXX divergence should navigate to /lxx-isaiah/7 from this note's plain-text pointer.
  4. Cross-reference Matthew 1:18-25 — the gospel narrative of Jesus's virgin birth that Justin's argument depends on. The Matthean citation of Isaiah 7:14 LXX is the New-Testament-internal anchor; Justin's reading here is the earliest extant patristic deployment of the same prooftext-uniqueness logic.
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