Sunday, July 11, 2021

Jean Daniélou on Justin Martyr's use of Water Imagery in Dialogue with Trypho 138

 In Dialogue with Trypho 138, Justin Martyr wrote:

 

“You know, then, sirs,” I said, “that God has said in Isaiah to Jerusalem: ‘I saved thee in the deluge of Noah.’ By this which God said was meant that the mystery of saved men appeared in the deluge. For righteous Noah, along with the other mortals at the deluge, i.e., with his own wife, his three sons and their wives, being eight in number, were a symbol of the eighth day, wherein Christ appeared when He rose from the dead, for ever the first in power. For Christ, being the first-born of every creature, became again the chief of another race regenerated by Himself through water, and faith, and wood, containing the mystery of the cross; even as Noah was saved by wood when he rode over the waters with his household. Accordingly, when the prophet says, ‘I saved thee in the times of Noah,’ as I have already remarked, he addresses the people who are equally faithful to God, and possess the same signs. For when Moses had the rod in his hands, he led your nation through the sea. And you believe that this was spoken to your nation only, or to the land. But the whole earth, as the Scripture says, was inundated, and the water rose in height fifteen cubits above all the mountains: so that it is evident this was not spoken to the land, but to the people who obeyed Him: for whom also He had before prepared a resting-place in Jerusalem, as was previously demonstrated by all the symbols of the deluge; I mean, that by water, faith, and wood, those who are afore-prepared, and who repent of the sins which they have committed, shall escape from the impending judgment of God. (ANF 1:268)

 

Commenting on Justin’s use of water/flood imagery, Jean Daniélou noted that:

 

 . . . the image of water suggests come complex and profound comparisons. Water as the principle of destruction (A conception found throughout the O.T. In the N.T. [Rv. 21:1] the abolition of the sea is especially mentioned as a feature of the new heaven and the new earth) is the common factor linking the water of the Flood, the water of baptism, and the descent into Hades. The death of Christ in his descent into the waters of death, while baptism is a symbolic death, of which the outward sign is immersion in water. Justin’s exposition, therefore, is true to the biblical symbolism of the water of baptism. (Jean Daniélou, Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture: A History of Early Christian Doctrine Before the Council of Nicaea, Volume 2 [trans. John Austin Baker; London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1973], 207)

 

 

“You know, then, sirs,” I said, “that God has said in Isaiah to Jerusalem: ‘I saved thee in the deluge of Noah.’ By this which God said was meant that the mystery of saved men appeared in the deluge. For righteous Noah, along with the other mortals at the deluge, i.e., with his own wife, his three sons and their wives, being eight in number, were a symbol of the eighth day, wherein Christ appeared when He rose from the dead, for ever the first in power. For Christ, being the first-born of every creature, became again the chief of another race regenerated by Himself through water, and faith, and wood, containing the mystery of the cross; even as Noah was saved by wood when he rode over the waters with his household. Accordingly, when the prophet says, ‘I saved thee in the times of Noah,’ as I have already remarked, he addresses the people who are equally faithful to God, and possess the same signs. For when Moses had the rod in his hands, he led your nation through the sea. And you believe that this was spoken to your nation only, or to the land. But the whole earth, as the Scripture says, was inundated, and the water rose in height fifteen cubits above all the mountains: so that it is evident this was not spoken to the land, but to the people who obeyed Him: for whom also He had before prepared a resting-place in Jerusalem, as was previously demonstrated by all the symbols of the deluge; I mean, that by water, faith, and wood, those who are afore-prepared, and who repent of the sins which they have committed, shall escape from the impending judgment of God. (Dialogue with Trypho, 138 [ANF 1:268])

 

Commenting on the above passage, Commenting on Justin’s use of water/flood imagery, Jean Daniélou noted that:

 

 . . . the image of water suggests come complex and profound comparisons. Water as the principle of destruction (A conception found throughout the O.T. In the N.T. [Rv. 21:1] the abolition of the sea is especially mentioned as a feature of the new heaven and the new earth) is the common factor linking the water of the Flood, the water of baptism, and the descent into Hades. The death of Christ in his descent into the waters of death, while baptism is a symbolic death, of which the outward sign is immersion in water. Justin’s exposition, therefore, is true to the biblical symbolism of the water of baptism. (Jean Daniélou, Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture: A History of Early Christian Doctrine Before the Council of Nicaea [trans. John Austin Baker; London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1973], 2:207)