Justin Martyr has become a focal figure in recent scholarship on early Christianity, playing a key role in discussions of the so-called ‘parting of the ways’, of the development of the idea of heresy and of polemics against it, of Christian interpretation of the Jewish scriptures and of the emergence of the core of what was to become the New Testament. This has resulted in new editions of the surviving works attributed to him, the Apology (or Apologies) and the Dialogue with Trypho a Jew, challenging E. J. Goodspeed’s Die ältesten Apologeten (Göttingen 1914), on which many depended for much of the twentieth century. Justin’s works survive in just one manuscript, dated to the fourteenth century, Parisinus gr. 450 (now commonly named Codex A, with other exemplars dependent on it); its text has multiple lacunae and corruptions, provoking numerous emendations, often inherited and further re-edited, by a series of editors prior to Goodspeed.
A major intervention was made by Miroslav Marcovich, in a new systematic study of the manuscript and its subsequent derivatives, copyists and editors, resulting in editions of the Apologiae (PTS 38, Berlin 1994) and Dialogus (PTS 47, Berlin 1997; both reissued in a combined volume 2005). Marcovich brought the philological and editorial expertise which he had demonstrated in his editions of other classical and early Christian texts, resulting in a text accompanied by detailed cross-references to sources and parallels, and by a full text-critical apparatus indicating his own conjectured emendations, along with those of earlier editors. However, a continuing criticism of Marcovich’s edition has been that he was over-enthusiastic in his emendations, at times attributing to Justin a more sophisticated level of Greek than is justified. Marcovich provided little to no discussion of the contents of these writings and no translation. A further critical edition of the Dialogue (in French) appeared in 2003, by Philippe Bobichon (Paradosis xlvii/1–2, Fribourg, 1124 pp.). The critical introduction is a full account of the major questions, with extensive reference to the scholarly literature, and the text has a critical apparatus (often rejecting Marcovich’s more speculative emendations), with a French translation on the facing page. A second volume gives detailed notes on the translation and contents, followed by appendices on key issues and useful indices. This is a tour de force, and it is regrettable that it has not been as easily accessible (or accessed) in Anglophone settings as it deserves.
Now we have another significant contribution, not only to the text and translation but also to the key debates characteristic of scholarship in recent decades, which would appear to have begun as a Göttingen project. Following an introduction to Justin and to the literary and transmission questions raised by the enterprise, by the overall editor (Tobias Georges), the core of the volume is a critical text and German translation by Heinz-Günther Nesselrath. The text is based on that of Bobichon, although appended to the introduction there is a separate list of changes made by Nesselrath: one might suggest that the work should be cited as Georges/Nesselrath in future textual discussion. This is followed by a lengthy set of endnotes to the translation, with attributed contributions by Nesselrath, Georges, Rainer Hirsch-Luipold, Martin Meiser and Andrea Villani, covering textual issues, explanations of terms and possible backgrounds, parallels (especially in classical texts) and cross-references elucidating Justin’s argument; these, despite their smaller typeface and somewhat eclectic character, repay careful consideration for the breadth of expertise included.
The second half of the volume consists of major essays by leading scholars: ‘“Wahre Philosophie”: der Christ Justin und die kaiserzeitliche Philosophie’ (Jörg Ulrich); ‘Rezeption und Interpretation der biblischen Schriften bei Justin’ (Martin Meiser); ‘Justins Dialogus und das Judentum seiner Zeit’ (Roland Deines); ‘Monotheismus und Christologie in Justins Dialog mit Tryphon: monarchische und binitarische Gottesvorstellungen im Trialog zwischen Heiden, Juden, und Christen’ (Alfons Fürst); ‘The Dialogue with Trypho as a forerunner of Christian–Jewish dialogues’ (Yaakov Ariel). These are familiar topics in classic discussions of Justin’s writings and reflect the established interests of German patristic scholarship on intellectual and literary aspects of the texts studied; they are also consonant with the inclusion of this volume in the SAPERE (Scripta Antiquitatis Posterioris ad Ethicam Religionemque pertinentia) series. However, each of the essays is an independent contribution to its topic and engages thoroughly with the broader relevant scholarship, thus contextualising Justin within his Graeco-Roman and Jewish contexts and within the emergence of Christian theological thought. This makes the cumulative bibliography a valuable resource for those studying both Justin and his early Christian context.
On the other hand, it is noteworthy that there is only a handful of references to Marcion or to heresy, topics which have dominated recent anglophone (and to some extent francophone) discussion of Justin and the Dialogue, and some of the key scholarly works on these topics are absent from the bibliography. This will lead some readers to identify a somewhat dated atmosphere in the overall conception and framing of the project. None the less, it stands as a valuable corrective to those over-enthusiastic appeals to Justin or reconstructions of his goals and achievements which pay little or no attention to the careful and nuanced theological and philosophical analyses demanded by his lengthy and complex oeuvre.
This edition, together with that by Bobichon, must now be considered fundamental to any further study of Justin Martyr. English readers, in particular, will need to take note: they were given some indirect access to Marcovich’s text in the revised edition by Thomas P. Halton of Thomas B. Falls’s translation of the Dialogue (FoC vi, New York 1948, which had drawn partly on the Migne PG text) (ed. Michael Slusser, Washington, DC 2003: not all of Marcovich’s emendations were accepted); however, for the Greek text many still cite Goodspeed. We are reminded of the indelibly international character of patristic scholarship, and of the pressing need for considerable linguistic skills by those engaged in it.
