69. I added, "You can be sure, Trypho, that the very
we have already come to agreement, that some of the commandments were imposed through Moses owing to the hardness of your nation's heart.
For you said that it was owing to his observance of the law that he was chosen Christ and became Christ, assuming that he has been demonstrated to be Christ."
Trypho said: "Yes, because you have conceded to us that he was circumcised and he observed all the other legal ordinances imposed through Moses."
I answered: "I conceded it and I do concede it, but I do not admit that he endured all this discipline on the grounds that he was justified by it, but because he was carrying out the divine policy which his Father and the Creator of the universe and Lord and God willed.
I also admit that he endured death by crucifixion and all the terrible sufferings which the men of your nation inflicted on him!" ...
69.
I added, "You can be sure, Trypho, that the very stories which he who is called the devil deceitfully caused to be told among the Greeks, just as he operated through the wise men of Egypt and the false prophets in the time of Elijah, have confirmed my understanding and faith in the Scriptures.
For when they say that Dionysus was born as the son of Zeus as a result of his intercourse with Semele, and when they relate that this Dionysus was the inventor of the vine, and that he was torn in pieces and died and rose again and went up to heaven, and when they introduce an ass into his mysteries, can I not recognize that he has imitated the prophecy spoken beforehand by the patriarch Jacob and recorded by Moses2?
And when they describe Hercules as strong and as journeying through the whole earth and that he was born to Zeus of Alcmena and that he died and went into heaven, do I not recognize an imitation of the passage
167:7-11 and 68 are omitted.
®Gen. 49:11,12.