Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus

The Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus is a lost early Christian text in Greek describing the dialogue of a converted Jew, Jason, and an Alexandrian Jew, Papiscus. The text is first mentioned, critically, in the True Account of the anti-Christian writer Celsus, and therefore would have been contemporary with the surviving, and much more famous, dialogue between the convert from paganism Justin Martyr and Trypho the Jew.

Dating and authorship

Lahey dates the Dialogue to c. 140 and considers a date of c. 160 unlikely since the Dialogue is believed to be a source or model for the Dialogue with Trypho, which is itself dated c. 160.
Maximus the Confessor, notes that Clement of Alexandria, in the sixth book of his Hypotyposes ascribes the Dialogue to Luke the Evangelist, though Maximus himself ascribes the authorship to Aristo Pellaeus, an Eastern apologist and chronicler whom Eusebius mentions in connection with emperor Hadrian and Simon bar Kokhba. Although some doubt the testimony of Maximus, citing the absence of multiple attestation, many scholarly examinations of the dialogue readily accept Aristonian authorship.
F. C. Conybeare proposed the hypothesis that two later traditions, the Dialogue of Athanasius and Zacchaeus and the Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila, were based on an earlier text, and identified that text as the Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus. His thesis was not widely accepted.