St Justin Martyr's Dialogue With Trypho, a Jew, on Circumcision, Jesus, and Philosophy

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St Justin Martyr, Dialogue With Trypho
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AMAZON LINKS FOR
CHURCH HISTORIES CONSULTED:
Eusebius, History of the Church,
324 AD+
History of Early Christian
Literature, Edgar Goodspeed
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 1,
introductions and translations,
1870’s +
The Christian Tradition: A History
of the Development of Doctrine,
The Emergence of the Catholic
Tradition (100-600), Vol 1,
Jaroslav Pelikan
The Early Church, Henry Chadwick
The Path of Christianity: The First
Thousand Years, John Anthony
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Metsudah Chumash 5 Vol Set Hardcover, Torah with
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These cannot be practically purchased one volume
at a time on Amazon.
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
(Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture:
Old Testament, Volume III)
https://amzn.to/2VvTOWX

This was our source for the history of circumcision.
The back histories of these magazines have many
interesting articles on Biblical interpretation and
ancient history, well worth the modest annual fee
of under twenty dollars.

Today we will learn and reflect on the St Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho.
You may ask, how can we benefit when we ponder this Apology?
St Justin Martyr demonstrates how both the Old Testament and the Greco-Roman
moral philosophers both point to and are fulfilled by the coming of Christ into the
world. In his Dialogue with Trypho, St Justin coined much of the language we use
to describe Christianity, he proclaimed that the Christian Gentiles were now the
new Israel.

We always like to quote from the works we are
discussing. At the end of our talk, we will discuss
the sources used for this video, and my blogs that
also cover this topic. Please, we welcome
interesting questions in the comments, sometimes
these will generate short videos of their own. Let us
learn and reflect together!

To find the source of any
direct quotes in this blog,
please type in the phrase to
the search box in my blog to
see the referenced footnote.
Description has links for:
• Script PDF file
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In the manner of Plato, Justin constructs a dialogue with Trypho,
the Jewish philosopher, as they were walking in the forum at
Ephesus. Trypho greets him, explaining he is a Jewish refugee
from the Jewish War when the temple was destroyed, since his
Socratic teacher advises him to be kind to all fellow
philosophers.

Justin asks him why he needs
philosophy when he can profit from
Moses, his lawgiver, and the
prophets. Trypho responds, “Why
not? Do not the philosophers turn
every discourse on God? Do not
questions continually arise on
God’s unity and providence? Is it
not truly the duty of philosophy to
investigate the Deity?”
Saint Justin Martyr by Theophanes the Cretan,
painted 1540’s

How do the Jewish Scriptures and Greek philosophy relate to the Good News, the
Gospel of Jesus Christ? Do they conflict with the Gospel? Can Christians profitably
study Jewish Scripture and Greek philosophy? These are the questions this
dialogue explores, and St Justin the Martyr was one of the first of apostolic fathers
to explore these issues. When you read teachings you have heard and read many
times before, remind yourself, you are probably reading the original source.

The translator’s introduction in the Ante-Nicene Fathers tell us that Justin was a
“Gentile, born in Samaria, near Jacob’s well,” he was well-educated in Greek
philosophy, and he was acquainted with Judaism. The translator says the
“Dialogue with Trypho is the first elaborate exposition of why we should regard
Christ as the Messiah of the Old Testament,” and the first systematic attempt to
counter the arguments against those Jews who deny that Christ is the
Messiah. Justin was martyred around 165 AD, he quotes Isaiah, Jeremiah, the
Torah and the Psalms extensively, and he also has many quotations from the
Gospels, even at this early date before the canon was finalized.

The Finding of
the Savior in the
Temple, William
Holman Hunt,
painted 1860

Justin notes that many Greeks do not
believe the gods really pay attention to
us individually and do not see the need
to pray to them day and night. “They
neither dread punishment nor hope for
any benefit from god.” Other Greeks,
including the Platonists, reason that
since the soul is immortal and
immaterial, they see no need for moral
living since there is no weighing of the
scales, no punishment, and that the
“soul, since it is immortal, needs
nothing from God.”

So many ancient Greeks sound quite modern, they want to be spiritual, but not religious! If you
are spiritual you are your own master, nobody else can suggest to you how you should live your
life. You make the rules!
Like St Augustine, St Justin was converted first to philosophy, then to Christianity. You didn’t
study philosophy from books as you do today, you study under a philosopher. He first studied
under a stoic philosopher, but was disenchanted because stoicism assumes there is a God, but
does not seek further knowledge of God. Another philosopher was more concerned with his
fees, and a Pythagorean philosopher wanted him to first study music, astronomy, and
geometry. He finally found a Platonic teacher to his liking, St Justin tells us that his teacher’s
“contemplation of ideas furnished my mind with wings, so in a little while I supposed I had
become wise.”

Henry Chadwick says: “Much of the Platonic
tradition is warmly accepted by Justin: Plato rightly
taught that the soul has a special kinship to God,
that man is responsible for his actions, and that in
the world to come there is judgement and
justice. Justin thinks Plato made some mistakes,
for example what he holds that the soul possesses
a natural and inherent immortality in its own right
rather than in dependence on the Creator’s will,
and in accepting the deterministic myth of
transmigration of souls,” or reincarnation. He
thought Plato and other philosophers “had before
them the mysterious allegories of the Pentateuch
(Genesis through Deuteronomy), which provided
them obscure hints of the truth.” Like St Paul,
Justin believed in the “validity of the universal
moral conscience, quite independent of any
special revelation (Romans 1-2).

In a dialogue within a dialogue, Justin tells Trypho the story of his conversion
while talking with a old man he meets while walking by the sea. The old
man learns Justin is a philosopher, and he asks him, “Does philosophy make
happiness?” He asks, what is philosophy?
Justin responds, “Philosophy is the knowledge of that which really exists, and
a clear perception of the truth, and happiness is the reward of such
knowledge and wisdom.”
“What do you call God?”
Justin responds, “That which always maintains the same nature,” never
changing, “that indeed is God.”
The old man probes deeper, asking, Can we know both what is human and
divine, can we have a “thorough acquaintance of the divine and the
righteousness of man?” Can mere man really know God as easily as Plato
hints we can? “Can the mind of man see God at any time, if it is instructed
by the Holy Spirit?”
St Mary’s Church, Cambridge

Justin responds, “Plato indeed says that the mind’s eye
is of such a nature that when our mind is pure we may
see that very Being itself, who is the cause of all our
mind sees, having no color, no form, no greatness,
nothing which the bodily eye can perceive, that it is
beyond all essence, unutterable and inexplicable, alone
honorable and good, coming suddenly into souls who
are well dispositioned, on account of their affinity to
and desire of seeing Him.”
The old man asks, “Do the souls of all living things
comprehend God? Or are the souls of men of one kind
and the souls of horses or asses of another kind?”
St Mary’s Church, Cambridge

The old man and Justin then explore the platonic concept of salvation and the
soul. The ancient Greeks had a different concept of the soul than we do. Aristotle
said that all living things have a soul, a life force, and that plants had the most
primitive type of soul. Animals have a higher type of life force or soul, they are
animated, they can move where they want to go. Men and women have the highest
type of soul, not only are they animated, they can also think and converse.
What about life after death? The ancient Greeks had a glum view of the underworld, it
was a place where all souls, good and evil, flitted about in Hades. In the Odyssey the
hero Odysseus visited Hades to talk to the dead, he poured blood offerings so the
shades could drink up enough life force to be able to converse. On the other hand,
Plato believed in reincarnation. In Book X of the Republic Socrates describes a vision
of the afterlife where souls are directed to be reborn according to their tendencies,
many of the Greek heroes are reborn as beasts of prey, King Agamemnon of the Iliad
choosing to be reborn as an eagle, and animal souls are either reborn as other
animals or sometimes as men. The old man and Justin concur that this makes no
sense, for animals or anyone else have no conception they are being punished or
rewarded in their reincarnation, or that they are even being reincarnated.

Charon carries dead souls across the River Styx,
Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko, 1861
Spirits on the River Styx,
Konstantin Makovsky, 1861

Pieter Brueghel el Joven, Museum El Prado, Greek Underworld

Pieter Brueghel el Joven, Museum El Prado, Greek Underworld
St Justin and Trypho discuss the nature of
the soul, “to live is not its attribute, as it is
God’s, and the soul is not forever bound to
the body,” and at death “the soul leaves the
body and the man exists no longer; even
so, whenever the soul must cease to exist,
the spirit of life is removed from it, and
there is no more soul, but it goes back to
the place from when it was taken.”

What the old man is telling Justin is that the soul of man is not like the
essence of God, the soul of man is not unbegotten, that God creates
both men and their souls, and that the world is not eternally existing as
the ancient Greeks thought, but that God created and has the power to
destroy the world and man and man’s soul.
Whether he is saying that the souls of certain evil men are destroyed is
hard to say. Many minor theological points like this had not been
entirely settled this early in the history of the church. Justin quotes the
Book of Daniel but not Revelation, we do not know whether Justin was
aware of or read the Book of Revelation.

Michelangelo - Creation of Adam, painted 1511

Justin asks the old man whether he should employ a
teacher. The old man tells him that long before the
esteemed philosophers there were far more ancient
prophets, “who spoke by the Divine Spirit, who foretold
events that would take place.” “They alone both saw and
announced the truth to men, neither reverencing nor fearing
any man, nor influenced by glory, but speaking those things
alone which they saw and heard, being filled with the Holy
Spirit.” They do not need to offer proofs of the truth as
philosophers feel compelled to do, because they were
witnesses to the truth they experienced, and their truth is
worthy to be believed, since “they glorified the Creator, the
God and Father of all things, and proclaimed His Son, the
Christ sent by Him.” The old man ends his exhortation,
“pray that the gates of light may be opened to you, for these
things cannot be perceived or understood by all, but only by
the man to whom God and His Christ have imparted
wisdom.”

St Justin recounts that he never saw the old man
again, but that after he left “straight away a flame
was kindled in my soul; and a love of the prophets,
and of these men who are friends of Christ,
possessed me, and while his words revolved in my
mind, I found this philosophy alone to be safe and
profitable.”
For St Justin the Martyr, philosophy and Christianity
are not enemies of each other, they differ only in
degree, both seek wisdom and truth, except that
Christianity seeks wisdom and truth through prayer
and the assistance of the grace of God.
St Justin encourages Trypho, “If you are eagerly
looking for salvation, and if you believe in God,
become acquainted with the Christ of God, and
after being baptized, live a happy life.”

When the debate begins, the primary question Trypho asks is about circumcision,
which was a major stumbling block for Christian converts in the early days of the
Church, when many converts were confused on whether they first needed to
convert to Judaism before becoming Christian. Converting to Judaism meant you
had to be circumcised. St Paul in his Epistles famously reassures his Gentile
converts that they only needed to be circumcised in their heart. Not only did
Christian converts not need to be circumcised; it was wrong to require that converts
be circumcised, and he is quite strident in his exhortations in Galatians in particular.

Why was circumcision such a critical issue for both Jews and Christians in the early
Church? In Judaism, circumcision was a sign that Jews professed the Covenant
between the Lord and His people Israel, the Covenant sealed at Mt Sinai with the
giving of the Decalogue and the Law.
To Jews, circumcision sets Jews apart, circumcision is a rite of passage, circumcision
is central to Judaism, just like Baptism is a rite central to Christianity.
One puzzling event narrated in Exodus exhorts Jews on how critical it was to
circumcise by the eighth day all Jewish newborn sons. Moses had been selected by
the Lord to deliver his people from the hands of Pharaoh, and was even given
instructions from the Lord on how to achieve this deliverance, but the Lord was
angry because Moses had not yet circumcised his son that his Midianite wife,
Zipporah, had born him.

The Circumcision of son of Moses,
Jan Baptist Weenix, painted 1640 So, in Exodus, suddenly, this
happens:
“At a lodging place on the way the
Lord met Moses and sought to kill
him. Then Zipporah took a flint
and cut off her son’s foreskin, and
touched Moses’ feet with it, and
said, ‘Surely you are a bridegroom
of blood to me!’ So, he let him
alone. Then it was that she said,
‘You are a bridegroom of blood’
because of the circumcision.”
Exodus 4

Sought to kill him? The footnotes in the Rashi commentary note that though most
Talmudic rabbis think that this refers to Moses, some posit that perhaps the Lord is
seeking to kill the child. St Augustine also notes that this ambiguity exists in the
Latin Scriptures he reads from. Similarly, the Hebrew states that Zipporah threw the
foreskin at “his feet,” which means that though most rabbis think this means she
threw the foreskin at Moses’ feet, some Talmudic rabbis posit she could have
thrown it at her son’s feet, or at the angel’s feet.
We can also deduce that Zipporah was also upset at how Moses did not take this
obligation seriously. What is also surprising is that after Moses narrowly escaped
with his life, the succeeding events in Exodus carry on as if nothing had happened.
St Augustine has some observations on the Jewish rite of circumcision.

St Augustine considered circumcision to be a
sacrament of the Old Law. In the following quote,
St Augustine posits that the angel would have
killed the son had he not been circumcised. St
Augustine teaches us, “If I had been a Jew in the
times of the ancient people,” “I would have surely
accepted circumcision. That ‘seal of justice of the
faith’ (Romans 4:11) had so much power at the
time, before it was rendered void by the coming of
the Lord, that the angel would have strangled the
infant son of Moses if his mother had not taken up
a stone and circumcised the child, and thus by this
sacrament warded off his imminent destruction.”
“The Lord Himself received this sacrament after
birth, although on the cross He made it void.”
Baptism of St Augustine, Louis de Boulogne
II, painted 1702

Circumcision was also incredibly painful, and for a few days, quite
debilitating. The sons of Judah took advantage of this when took
revenge on a neighboring king when he committed what we
today would call date rape with their sister, Dinah. Genesis
related that when King Shechem “saw their sister Dinah, he
seized her and lay with her by force. And his soul was drawn to
Dinah, daughter of Jacob; he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to
her. Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, ‘Get me this girl
to be my wife.’ ”

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah,
whom she had borne to Jacob,
went out to visit the women of the
region. When Shechem son of
Hamor the Hivite, prince of the
region, saw her, he seized her
and lay with her by force. And his
soul was drawn to Dinah,
daughter of Jacob; he loved the
girl and spoke tenderly to her. So
Shechem spoke to his father
Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl to
be my wife.”
Now Jacob heard that Shechem
had defiled his daughter Dinah; but
his sons were with his cattle in the
field, so Jacob held his peace until
they came.
Genesis 34
Rape of Dinah, Giulano Bugiardini, painted 1600’s

How did the sons of Jacob, brothers of Dinah, respond to this
proposal that would join their two tribes together as a result of
the lust turned love? Genesis tells us that “The sons of Jacob
answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he
had defiled their sister Dinah. Only on this condition will they
agree to live among us, to become one people: that every male
among us be circumcised as they are circumcised.”

But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The heart of my son Shechem
longs for your daughter; please give her to him in marriage. Make
marriages with us; give your daughters to us and take our
daughters for yourselves. You shall live with us; and the land shall
be open to you; live and trade in it and get property in it.”
Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find
favor with you, and whatever you say to me I will give. Put the
marriage present and gift as high as you like, and I will give
whatever you ask me; only give me the girl to be my wife.”
The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor
deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. Only on
this condition will they agree to live among us, to become one
people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are
circumcised. Will not their livestock, their property, and all their
animals be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will live
among us.” And all who went out of the city gate heeded Hamor
and his son Shechem; and every male was circumcised, all who
went out of the gate of his city.
Genesis 34
Phillip Medhurst Picture Torah 171.
Simeon & Levi slay Hamor & Shechem.

So what happened then? What happened was what always
happened in the ancient world, when you defeat a city who is
hostile towards you, you slaughter all the men, enslave the
women and children, and load the rest on camels.
We read in Genesis, “On the third day, when the men of Shechem
were still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi,
Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city
unawares, and killed all the males.” “All their wealth, all their
little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they
captured and made their prey.”

On the third day, when the men of Shechem were
still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and
Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came
against the city unawares, and killed all the males.
They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword,
and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.
And the other sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and
plundered the city, because their sister had been
defiled. They took their flocks and their herds, their
donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field.
All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives,
all that was in the houses, they captured and made
their prey.
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought
trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants
of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my
numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against
me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my
household.” But they said, “Should our sister be
treated like a whore?”
Genesis 34
Phillip Medhurst Picture Torah 172. Simeon and
Levi slay Hamor and Shechem.

Their father Jacob was not happy with his hasty slaughter, this
was not good for the family’s reputation. When he encountered
his sons, they simply asked their father, “Should he treat our
sister as a harlot?” Later, on his deathbed, Jacob would curse his
sons for this act of hubris and slaughter.
This story in Genesis proves that circumcision was painful indeed.
Men can barely walk and surely cannot yield a sword shortly after
their circumcision, and helps explain why Gentiles were not eager
to be cut by the sharpened stone.

What were the GREEK VIEWS ON CIRCUMCISION? Hellenic and Roman culture celebrated nudity
for not only male athletes, but all active males who frequented the public baths and gymnasiums.
Baths and gymnasiums were social clubs more than they were athletic clubs, these facilities were
meeting places as well as exercise facilities.
But men were not totally nude if they were not circumcised, and no Greek citizen would ever
consent to circumcision, because then your mushroom (or glans) would show, and that was
considered very vulgar and really naked and shameful. Being circumcised was so socially isolating
that many Jews tried to cut off as little skin as possible so their sons could appear to be both Jew
and Greek. There was even a semi-surgical procedure to reverse circumcision, term epispasm,
that would entice skin to stretch over the mushroom. Rabbis were so concerned about this
procedure that they proclaimed that epispasm was a sin that could never be atoned at Yom
Kippur, unless it were undone.
These cultural norms explain why the early Christian Church would have been crippled in its
efforts to evangelize to Gentile converts if it had required them to undergo circumcision, and
makes it easier to understand why the first church council was called in Jerusalem in Acts 15
primarily over this question about circumcision.

Pompeii gymnasium, from the top of the stadium wall.
Delphi gymnasium Tindari, Italy, gymnasium

"A circumcision", Marco Marcuola, Venice, around

Circumcision, Marco
Marcuola, Venice, 1870
Trypho asks Justin why Christians, “who profess to be pious and suppose
they are better than others,” do not observe the Jewish festivals or
sabbaths, or require that converts be circumcised. Trypho asks Justin,
“Have you not read that the Lord will cut off the soul from His people
who shall not have been circumcised on the eighth day.”(Chapter X)

In the Jewish Torah, a Jewish son shall be circumcised on the eighth day
after his birth, St Justin sees this as a sign of Jesus resurrecting from the
dead on the eighth day of the week, or Sunday.
To the best of my knowledge there were no early Church Fathers who
spoke about observing the Jewish festival calendar, though there were
many who emphatically discouraged Christians from attending Jewish
festivals. The early church quickly developed its own calendar of festivals
remembering the saints and church history.

The Resurrection of Christ, Hendrick van den Broeck, painted 1572

When answering Trypho, St Justin first emphasizes that there is only one God, and
that this one God is God of both the Jews and the Christians. St Justin affirms this
when he responds that there is not “one God for us, another for you, but that He
alone is God who led your fathers out from Egypt with a strong hand and a might
arm.”
St Justin answers Trypho in a manner that many Christians would adopt, he
responds that the new Covenant under Christ replaces the old Covenant of the Law.
St Justin says, “the law promulgated on Mt Horeb is now old, and belongs to you
alone,” that the old law has been abrogated by the coming of Christ, who is the
“eternal and final law.” He quotes Jeremiah, “Behold, the days come, says the Lord,
that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers.” “Christ is the
new Law, and the new covenant, and the expectations of those who out of every
people wait for the good things of God.” The true spiritual Israel includes all people,
including Jews, “who have been led to God through the crucified Christ.” (Chap XI)

English Mission Hospital, Jerusalem
When answering Trypho, St Justin
first emphasizes that there is only
one God, and that this one God is
God of both the Jews and the
Christians. St Justin affirms this
when he responds that there is not
“one God for us, another for you, but
that He alone is God who led your
fathers out from Egypt with a strong
hand and a might arm.”

St Justin answers Trypho in a manner that many
Christians would adopt, he responds that the new
Covenant under Christ replaces the old Covenant of the
Law.

Moses on Mt Sinai, Daniele da Volterra,
fresco 1555
St Justin says, “the law promulgated on Mt Horeb
is now old, and belongs to you alone,” that the
old law has been abrogated by the coming of
Christ, who is the “eternal and final law.” He
quotes Jeremiah, “Behold, the days come, says
the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not
according to the covenant which I made with
their fathers.” “Christ is the new Law, and the
new covenant, and the expectations of those who
out of every people wait for the good things of
God.” The true spiritual Israel includes all people,
including Jews, “who have been led to God
through the crucified Christ.” (Chap XI)

St Justin summarizes his arguments in his subheadings for Chapter XIII, “Isaiah
teaches that sins are forgiven through Christ’s blood,” and for Chapter XIV,
“Righteousness is not placed in Jewish rites, but in the conversion of the heart
given by baptism by Christ.”
The hatefulness of Naziism and the still vivid memories of the Holocaust color our
interpretation of both Scripture and the Church Fathers, as indeed it should. So
the subheads for Chapter XVI makes us pause: “Circumcision is given as a sign,
that the Jews might be driven away for their evil deeds done to Christ and the
Christians,” and for Chapter XII, “The Jews spread calumnies on the Christians
through the whole earth,” and for Chapter XXVI, There is “no salvation for the
Jews except through Christ.” The question of anti-Semitism in the early Church
writings is a valid question, we plan to address this question in a future set of
blogs and videos.

St Justin quotes Jeremiah when he says, “circumcise
yourselves to the Lord, and circumcise the foreskin of
your heart.”(Chapter XXVIII) “The Christian’s
Circumcision is more excellent.” “The blood of the
old circumcision is obsolete, and we now trust in the
blood of salvation; there is now another covenant,
and another law has gone forth from Zion.”(Chapter
XXIV)
Likewise, the Passover Lamb points to the coming of
Christ. St Justin teaches us, “The mystery of the lamb
which God enjoined to be sacrificed as the Passover
was a type of Christ; with whose blood, in proportion
to their faith in Him, they anoint their houses, and
themselves, who believe in Him.”(Chapter XL)
Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, with gushing blood, detail of
the Ghent Altarpiece, Jan van Eyck, c. 1432

SOURCES:
My main source for St Justin Martyr is the Ante-Nicene fathers, Volume 1. Although
this was well known in the ancient world, really only one manuscript has survived.
We have a deeper discussion of the manuscript history and the sources in the video
on Justin’s Apology to the Emperor.
Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho was the longest Christian work at the time, and was
very influential in the ancient world. This work may have been based on an actual
dialogue with a Jewish rabbi, and in the dialogue the rabbi is not convinced that
Jesus is Lord, but that both is part of the point of the dialogue and a suggestion that
it was genuine. The written dialogue, likely written some time afterwards, of
course, selectively remembers and embellishes the original dialogue, much as Plato
selectively remembers and embellishes the teachings of Socrates.

The discussion spinning off Trypho’s introductory question on the
Christian views of circumcision is a big chunk of the work.
Trypho asks other questions which St Justin answers, such as why
Christ was not dishonored and shamed when he was crucified,
why some Christian eat meat offered to idols, and whether the
Messiah would be born from a virgin or a young woman, and we
invite you to read St Justin, his answers to many of these classic
questions often has framed these debates up to the present day.

The Dialogue with Trypho
inspired many similar
works over the years, as
Pelikan puts it, “the
dialogue with Judaism
became a literary conceit,
in which the question of
the uniqueness of
Christianity in
comparison with Judaism
became an occasion for a
literary exposition of
Christian doctrine for a
non-Jewish audience of
Christian readers.”
Maimonides teaches about the 'measure of
men' (compared to the earth and the universe,
men is very small), 1347. After a public debate
on the merits of Judaism, he was expelled from
medieval Spain.

These are the books we consulted for this video, we discuss them in
our video on St Justin Martyr’s Apology to the Emperor.
Note that Eusebius wrote the earliest history during the reign of the
Christian Roman Emperor Constantine.
We recommend you purchase the eBook for the Ante-Nicene Fathers
from Christian Book Distributors.

Metsudah Chumash 5 Vol Set Hardcover, Torah with
Rashi commentary and footnotes, by Rabbi
Avraham Davis (Editor)
These cannot be practically purchased one volume
at a time on Amazon.
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
(Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture:
Old Testament, Volume III)

CHURCH HISTORIES CONSULTED:
Eusebius, History of the Church, 324 AD+
History of Early Christian Literature, Edgar
Goodspeed
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 1, introductions
and translations, 1870’s
The Christian Tradition: A History of the
Development of Doctrine, The
Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-
600), Vol 1, Jaroslav Pelikan
The Early Church, Henry Chadwick
The Path of Christianity: The First
Thousand Years, John Anthony McGuckin

The thumbnail is Disputation of the Holy Sacrament. Raphael painted
this fresco and several others on the walls of the Apostolic Palace in
the Vatican, it includes many biblical figures and church fathers, and it
has its own Wikipedia page if you are curious.

Disputation of the Holy Sacrament, Raphael, Vatican fresco 1509

The YouTube description links to the video script and our blog.
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St Justin Martyr's Dialogue With Trypho, a Jew, on Circumcision, Jesus, and Philosophy