Theological Identity Making: Justin's Use of Circumcision to Create Jews and Christians

This essay contributes to the current scholarly view that in his Dialogue with Trypho, Justin is centrally concerned with the creation of distinct Christians and Jews. By using treatments of circumcision as a test case and engaging Justin's Dialogue rhetorically and stylistically-by commenting upon not only the structure of his arguments including aspects pertaining to sound such as breath-measures, but also upon his choice of words and biblical references-it documents the distinction-making process and provides supporting material often lacking in the scholarship on Justin. Justin creates Christians and Jews by forcing differences between them, differences that would not and do not exist in the socio-historical sphere. While circumcision provides a literal or physical, though unseen, difference between the two groups, Justin's primary interest is in making distinctions that hold sway in the theoretical and theological realm.