How Justin’s Mistakes Twisted Torah Verses for His Argument

Nearly 1,900 years ago, a man named Justin lived in the Land of Israel. Born in Shechem, then called Neapolis, he was a Roman and a pagan idol worshiper. At some point, he converted to Christianity and became a well-known Christian preacher.

Justin eventually moved to Rome, where he opened a Christian school. During a wave of persecution against Christians, the Roman emperor Marcus Antonius (likely Antoninus, known in Jewish tradition as a friend of Rabbi Judah the Prince) ordered his execution. To this day, the Christian world marks “Saint Justin’s Day” every March.

Among his writings is a work called Dialogue with Trypho the Jew. In it, Justin describes what he claimed was a debate with a Jewish sage. Some have speculated that this sage was meant to be Rabbi Tarfon, a great opponent of early Christianity. However, most of the “dialogue” was invented by Justin himself. It was crafted to make it appear as though the Christian preacher could “defeat” his Jewish counterpart in argument, while delivering long speeches to “prove” Christianity’s truth from the Jewish scriptures.

Rabbi Tarfon is indeed mentioned in the Talmud (Shabbat 116a) in a discussion about whether books containing Hashem’s Name such as Christian writings, should be saved from a fire on Shabbat. His response was sharp: “I shall cause my children to perish if I do not burn them along with the names in them. Even if one is pursued by a murderer or chased by a venomous snake, he should enter a house of idolatry rather than these houses [of Christians], for they recognize and reject, while the idolaters do not recognize and reject.”

While not every Jew at the time rejected Christianity outright, some saw it as simply a mistaken belief in a false messiah, the sages foresaw the danger. Christianity, they understood, would eventually lead to uprooting Judaism and to persecution of the Jewish people. Sadly, history proved them right.

In truth, there is no evidence that Justin ever met Rabbi Tarfon. His “debate” was more a work of fiction than a record of real events. This allowed Justin to put whatever words he wished into his opponent’s mouth, so that Trypho, the fictional Jew, would conveniently be persuaded by his arguments.

A closer look at Justin’s claims reveals a lack of understanding of the Hebrew language and Torah context. One striking example comes from chapter 130 of his book, where Justin quotes from the Torah, supposedly to prove his case:

“Through Moses, the faithful servant, it was said… Rejoice, nations, with His people, and all angels of God will be strengthened in Him, for He avenges the blood of His sons, takes vengeance, repays His enemies, and His haters receive their due, and Hashem will purify His people’s land.”

The problem? That’s not the actual verse. The real text (Deuteronomy 32:43) says: “Rejoice, nations, with His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants, take vengeance on His adversaries, and atone for His land and His people.”

What happened was a classic translation error. In ancient Greek, the translator had no vowels to guide him. Instead of reading “with His people” (referring to the people of Israel), he read it as “with Him”, changing the meaning entirely. The phrase “atone for His land, His people” was also misunderstood, twisted into an idea about purifying the people in a way that fit a Christian narrative.

From there, Justin concluded that the verse referred to the nations rejoicing with Hashem while Israel was being criticized or replaced, an idea completely foreign to the Torah’s actual message.

One can imagine that if the real Rabbi Tarfon had heard such a claim, he would have replied immediately: “If you cannot read a single word of Hebrew correctly, how can you claim to explain our holy verses?” But in Justin’s fictional story, Trypho does not respond. Instead, he is portrayed as convinced by Justin’s reasoning.

Sadly, these kinds of distortions became a foundation for many later Christian teachings, teachings that accused the Jewish people of ignoring their own prophets, all while relying on mistranslated and misread verses.