Saturday, July 1, 2023

Philippe Bobichon on the Composite Quotations in Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 62.4 and 94.1

  

Dial. 62.4:

But this Offspring, which was truly brought forth from the Father, was with the Father before all the creatures, and the Father communed with Him; even as the Scripture by Solomon has made clear . . .

 

The expression ‘offspring before all creatures [γεννημα προ παντων των ποιηματων]’, dissociated with the translation, appears as a whole in Justin’s Greek text. It is made up of a fusion of the verse Ps. 109.3 [εκ γαστρος προ εωσφορου εγεννησα σε], cited in other different contexts, (Dial. 32.6; 63.3; 83.2, 4; 1 Apol. 45.4), Prov. 8.22 and Col. 1.15, which are likewise frequently cited in the Dialogue. Theologically, they bear witness to three major components of Justin’s argumentation: the preexistence of the Word, the generation of the Son, and the Virgin birth of Jesus.

 

Dial. 94.1:

For tell me, was it not God who commanded by Moses that no image [εικονα] or likeness [ομοιωμα] of anything which was in heaven above or on the earth should be made . . .

 

The reference verse (Exod. 20.4) goes as follows: ‘graven image [ειδωλον] . . . likeness [ομοιωμα]’. The verse Justin cites is apparently intentionally contaminated by Gen. 1.26 [κατεικονα ημετεραν και καθομοιωσιν], commented in Dial. 61.1-2. (Philippe Bobichon, “Composite Features and Citations in Justin Martyr’s Textual Composition,” in Composite Citations in Antiquity, ed. Sean A. Adams and Seth M. Ehorn, 2 vols. [Library of New Testament Studies 525; London: T&T Clark, 2016], 1:171)

 

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