Saturday, September 30, 2023

The Use of 2 Ezra 6:19-21 in Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho

  

The critical edition of The Dialogue with Trypho uncovers no Deuterocanon cited by St. Justin, save one secure citation from 2 Ezra 6:19-21. See Philippe Bobichon and Justin Martyr, Dialogue avec Tryphon: Édition critique, traduction, commenaire, Paradosis: Études de littéture et de théologie ancienns 47.102 (Fribourg, 2003), 1:380, 2:1040. Justin does assume that Trypho accepts this book cited within a string of other Scripture (e.g., Jeremiah). The critical edition of St. Justin’s two apologies (Oxford, 2009) betrays a paucity of Old and New Testament books cited so that it is not possible to say whether St. Justin would have been using Deuterocanon when writing to groups outside of Jews. (Martin Jugie, A Complete History of the Biblical Canon in the Christian East and West, Volume 1: Greek, Latin, and Slavic Biblical Canon from the New Testament Until AD 1500, translated, edited and expanded by Christiaan Kappes [N.P.: Patristic Pillars, 2022], 189 n. 21)