Dialogue with Trypho

Outside the New Testament, our earliest complete witness to Christian apologetic against the Jews remains the ''Dialogue with Trypho'', written by Justin Martyr (circa 165), a convert to Christianity from traditional Greek religion. The ''Dialogue'' purports to be a two-day dialogue that took place in Asia Minor between Justin and Trypho, a Hellenized Jew. Justin argues extensively on the basis of lengthy Old Testament quotations that Christ is the Messiah and God incarnate, and that the Christian community is the new Israel. In the beginning of the work Justin recounts how he converted to Christianity. The ''Dialogue'' remains of great, and varying, interest. It has important information on the development of Jewish-Christian relations, on the development of the text of the New Testament, and on the existence and character of the early Jewish Christian community. Justin's story of how he became a Christian is one of our early conversion accounts. The ''Dialogue'' is a useful textbook