The transformation of Pauline arguments in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho

Harvard Theological Review

Volumn 92, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 79-93

  Werline, Rodney ^a  

^a Emmanuel School of Religion

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EID: 67649300685     PISSN: 00178160     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0017816000017867     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. All quotations in English from Justin are from Dialogue with Trypho in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985).
2. Quotations from the Greek text are from D. R. Bueno, Padres Apologistas Griegos: Biblioteca de Autoris Cristianos (Madrid: La editorial Catolica, 1954).
3. Albrecht Thoma, Justins literarishes Verhältnis zu Paulus und zum Johannes-Evangelium, ZWTh 18 (1875) 385-412;
4. Theodore Stylianopoulos, Justin Martyr and the Mosaic Law (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1975) 70, 104-8;
5. Oskar Skarsaune, The Proof from Prophecy: A Study in Justin Martyr's Proof-Text Tradition: Text-Type, Provenance, Theological Profile (NovTSup. 56 [Leiden: Brill, 1987] 186).
6. Compare also Erwin R. Goodenough, The Theology of Justin Martyr: An Investigation into the Conceptions of Early Christian Literature and its Hellenistic and Judaistic Influences (Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1968) 96;
7. Leslie W. Barnard, Justin Martyr: His Life and Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967) 62-63.
8. Furthermore, he even attacks Marcion in the Dialogue. Stylianopoulos (Justin Martyr and the Mosaic Law, 71 n. 61, 70 n. 58) recalls Harnack's proposal that some "orthodox" second-century CE Christian authors shwow a "hostile neglect" of Paul because he was popular among "heretical" groups. J. B. Sibinga (The Old Testament Text of Justin Martyr, vol. 1: The Pentatuch [Leiden: Brill, 1963] 98) suggests the same possibility. However,
9. Skarsaune, The Proof from Prophecy, 99.
10. For the problem of Justin's intended audience, see Stylianopoulos, Justin Martyr and the Mosaic Law, 12-44, 169-195.
11. He maintains that the context for the writing is the Jewish-Christian debate on obeying Torah. See also Graham N. Stanton, "Aspects of Early Christian-Jewish Polemic and Apologetic" NTS 31 (1985) 377-92.
12. See also Marc Hirshman ("Polemic Literary Units in the Classical Midrashim and Justin Martyr," JQR 83 [1993] 371-73), who concludes that Trypho is a "congenial lightweight" in the debate.
13. Nevertheless, as Demetrios Trakatellis ("Justin Martyr's Trypho," in George W. E. Nickelsburg and George W. MacRae, eds., Christians among Jews and Gentiles [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986] 287-97) shows, Justin continually presents Trypho as a respected debater and thinker.
14. Even though the Dialogue does not represent a historical incident, it is likely rooted in Justin's teaching (see Harold Remus, "Justin Martyr's Argument with Judaism," in Stephen G. Wilson, ed., Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity, vol. 2: Separation and Polemic [Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University, 1986] 72).
15. Compare Stylianopoulos, Justin Martyr and the Mosaic Law, 16-17, 39, 71.
16. Marcel Simon (Verus Israel: A Study of the Relations between Christians and Jews in the Roman Empire [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986] 139) claims that Justin's Apology contains fewer quotes from the Jewish scriptures because its intended audience is pagan. Pagans probably would not accept the Jewish scriptures as an authority. According to Simon, the number of quotations from Jewish scriptures increases in the Dialogue because its audience is Jewish. Simon argues that Tertullian's works exhibit a similar pattern in scriptural references.
17. Justin Dialogue 7.
18. See Peter Richardson (Israel in the Apostolic Church [SNTSMS 10; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969] 33-38), who appropriately emphasizes the effects that the two Jewish revolts had on Jewish-Christian relations and identity.
19. Compare Stanton ("Aspects of Early Christian-Jewish Polemic and Apologetic," 387-88), who also notes that the Dialogue provides an example of Christian self-definition over against Jews and pagans.
20. For an examination of other Pauline texts in Justin, see Skarsaune, Proof from Prophecy, 98-100.
21. Richardson, Israel in the Apostolic Church, 9-32.
22. Compare Simon, Verus Israel, 171. For more, see the discussion below on circumcision as a sign.
23. Compare Skarsaune, Proof from Prophecy, 314.
24. Justin refers to Jesus' ruling on divorce in Apol. 15.3. In contrast, Arthur J. Bellinzoni (The Sayings of Jesus in the Writings of Justin Martyr [Leiden: Brill, 1967] 70) concludes that Justin is using a carefully composed gospel harmony of elements from Matthew, Mark, and Luke in Apology 15.
25. Stanton, "Aspects of Early Christian-Jewish Polemic and Apologetic," 379;
26. Remus, "Justin Martyr's Argument with Judaism," 73;
27. Harold Horbury, "Jewish-Christian Relations in Barnabas and Justin Martyr," in James D. G. Dunn, ed., Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways A.D. 70 to 135 (WUNT 66, Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1992) 342-43.
28. StylianopouIos, Justin Martyr and the Mosaic Law, 70.
29. Contrast Sibinga (The Old Testament Text of Justin Martyr, vol. 1: The Pentatuch, 96-99), who concludes that Justin's texts lies "half way between Paul's and the LXX," and, therefore, Justin probably did not take it from Galatians.
30. Sibinga, The Old Testament Text of Justin Martyr, 1. 95.
31. Compare Stylianopoulos, Justin Martyr and the Mosaic Law, 43 n. 80.
32. Compare Richardson, Israel in the Apostolic Church, 83-84, 146-47.