Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and Trypho: Jewish leadership and Jesus traditions in Justin’s construal of Christian and Jewish identity

Abstract

[Excerpt] Benjamin A. Edsall In discussions of Jewish traditions in the second-century Christian imagination, Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho remains an important touchstone. It is a work rife with passages from Jewish scriptures and elements of Jewish tradition, which Justin’s literary avatar attempts to appropriate as symbols within his Christian theological and social vision. Throughout, Justin is concerned to present Christianity as coherent and unified, construing Trypho’s Jewish identity as a foil to his own. One important aspect of this is seen in his representation of Jewish leadership groups such as the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. Far from this being a simple question about Justin’s knowledge or ignorance of contemporary Judaism, it becomes immediately clear that Justin’s representation of these groups is closely related to his reception of early Christian gospel traditions, the ‘Memoirs of the apostles’, in his well-known formulation.