Dialogue of Justin, Philosopher and Martyr, With Trypho, a Jew

The Dialogue with Trypho is one of the major surviving works of Justin Martyr (c. 100-165 AD), the early Christian philosopher and apologist whose writings are among the earliest notable Christian theological texts to survive from the second century.

The Dialogue presents a long conversation between Justin and a Jewish interlocutor named Trypho, conducted across two days in Ephesus shortly after the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-135 AD. The work addresses the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, the Christian interpretation of the Hebrew prophets, the question of whether Jesus was the promised Messiah, and the various other theological questions that the early Christian-Jewish relationship raised.

Justin was the first major Christian apologist whose works survive in major form. He had been trained in Greek philosophy before his Christian conversion and brought philosophical methods to Christian theological argument in ways that shaped subsequent patristic thought. He was executed in Rome around 165 AD under the emperor Marcus Aurelius and is venerated as one of the early Christian martyrs.