In Dialogue with Trypho 8, Justin Martyr gives Trypho the line that Christ, “if he has indeed been born, and exists anywhere,” is unknown, and accuses Christians of accepting a groundless report.
The mythicist reading
The passage shows that a Christian author in the second century could frame a challenge around Christ’s existence and the lack of public evidence. It is an early literary witness to the question mythicism asks: what did people know about an earthly Jesus, and when did they know it?
The strongest reply
The Dialogue is a Christian apologetic work, not a transcript. Trypho’s words are preserved by Justin, who shapes the exchange to make a theological argument. The passage cannot establish that a historical Trypho said these words, or that skepticism was widespread.
Where the evidence leaves us
Justin is evidence that this objection was represented in second-century Christian literature. Treating the dialogue as a verbatim record would go beyond what the source can show.