Justin Martyr (c. AD 100-165) was an early Christian apologist and philosopher. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies, a dialogue, and a few fragments have survived. A student of several schools of philosophy, notably Platonism, he found none of them satisfactory. An old Syrian Christian challenged him in a dialogue, explaining how the testimony of the prophets are more reliable than the reasoning of philosophers. Moved by the aged man's argument, Justin renounced both his former religious faith and his philosophical background, choosing instead to re-dedicate his life to the service of the Divine. His conversion is generally thought to have occurred at Ephesus. He traveled throughout the land, spreading the knowledge of Christianity as the "true philosophy," starting his own school in Rome. Because of his refusal to sacrifice to Roman idols, Justin was martyred, along with six of his friends and students.
The Dialogue with Trypho, along with the First and Second Apologies, is a second-century Christian apologetic text, usually agreed to be dated in between AD 155-160. It is seen as documenting the attempts by theologian Justin Martyr to show that Christianity is the new law for all men, and to prove from Scripture that Jesus is the Messiah.