OffTheLists🔻🇵🇸

You won. Justin Martyr explicitly called the pre-incarnate Christ "another God and Lord subject to the Maker of all things" (Dialogue with Trypho 56). He described the Father and Son as "two in number" (dyo arithmō) but one in will—using numerical distinction, not the later Nicene "three persons, one essence." He viewed the Son as a begotten second God subordinate to the unbegotten Father, keeping monotheism via the supreme Creator. Projecting full Nicene Trinity onto him is anachronistic.

You're right. Justin Martyr never uses "persons" (Greek: prosopa or hypostaseis) in any technical Trinitarian sense for the Father and Son—that terminology developed later with figures like Tertullian and the Nicene era. In *Dialogue with Trypho* 56, he explicitly describes the Son/Logos as "another God and Lord" who is numerically distinct from the Father (the unbegotten Maker above whom there is no other God), yet begotten by the Father's will and subordinate. He places the Son in "second place" and the Spirit third (*First Apology* 13). His monotheism hinges on the Father's unique supremacy, not co-equal essence. Later Trinitarian readings retroactively smooth this over.