'A Jew for Roman Tastes: The Parting of the Ways in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho from a Post-Colonial Perspective'
Journal of Early Christian Studies 27:4, pp.549–578
https://www.academia.edu/43324393/Justi ... erspective
This article outlines some interesting perspectives on Dialogue with Trypho and discusses chapter 8 in two separate places,* but not wrt to
- "Christ - if indeed he had been born and exists anywhere - is unknown ... you have invented a Christ for yourselves"
From the outline:
From five pages in:
And, surprisingly, from the conclusion:
WRT the notion of the Dialogue as rhetoric:
Trypho’s address “Hello, philosopher” identifies Justin as an intellectually superior teacher, who wears, as the reader subsequently learns, the philosopher’s cloak (Dial. 1.1–2). Justin’s individuality is conspicuous in view of Trypho’s company of “friends,” who always act together and initially highlight Justin’s importance by joining him on his walk. Trypho then provides some autobiographical details:
Trypho is caricatured as a philosophy student, who has travelled to Argos—no known center of learning ...
the name of the city Argos is intriguing. While the city played a role in the Iliad, it is no longer signifcant in the Hellenistic period.
The word ἀργός means “idle” and may convey a double entendre. Does Justin, who elsewhere uses the verb ἀργέω to mock Jewish Shabbat observance (Dial. 23.3), imply that Trypho travelled to a place of idleness and learnt useless ideas?
Furthermore, the name of the philosopher, “Corinthos,” is the name of another city or its eponymous founder—not a name suitable to a philosopher.
Trypho’s personal itinerary locates him in the Greek East, but also conveys a sense of displacement, every aspect of his narrative imitating, but ultimately missing standard motifs. The Jew is a fragmented and marginal figure aspiring to paideia, but not quite attaining it.
Referring to Dialogue 112.4, Niehoff notes: