19. And Trypho said: "This is enough to bewilder any-
read that there was to be a final law and a covenant more authoritative than any other, which all men must now observe who lay claim to God's inheritance. For the law of Horeb is now antiquated and was for you alone, but this one is for all without discrimination.
A law which is given in contrast to another cancels the previous one and similarly a covenant which takes place later renders the former one void.
Christ has been given to us as an everlasting and final law, and this covenant is reliable after which there is neither law nor ordinance nor commandment'
.!.
[There follow quotations from Isa. 51:4,5; Jer. 38 (31), 31,32.] "If therefore God declared that a new covenant was destined to be established and that this one was to be for a light to the Gentiles, we see and we are convinced that through the name of this crucified Jesus Christ men leave the idols and other wickedness and approach God and endure as far as death in order to maintain their profession and their worship.
And it is open to all to understand from their actions and from the power that accompanies them that this is the new law and the new covenant and the obedience of men coming from all peoples? and waiting upon God's rewards.
We are the true spiritual race of Israel and of Judah and of Jacob and Isaac and Abraham, who was witnessed to by God in uncircumcision, through faith, and blessed and called the father of many nations, for we have been brought near to God through this crucified Christ, as will be demonstrated as our arguments develop."
19.
And Trypho said: "This is enough to bewilder anyone, that you endure any sort of ill-treatment, and yet you do not observe all the other ordinances about which we are having this discussion."
1Cap. 11:3 is omitted.
2Gen. 49:10.
8Gen. 17:5; 24:1,12; cf Rom. 4:10.
(Justin) "Circumcision is not necessary for everybody, but only for you, so that you may, as I have already said, experience the sufferings which you now justly experience.
We regard that cistern-baptism of yours as futile; it has nothing to do with that baptism which is the baptism of life.
This is why God cried aloud, You have deserted him, the living fountain, and you have dug for yourselves broken cisterns which will not be able to hold water!.
You who have physical circumcision need our circumcision, but we, having our own, do not need yours.
If circumcision had been necessary, as you believe, God would not have created Adam uncircumcised, nor would he have looked upon the gifts of Abel who was offering sacrifices in physical uncircumcision, nor would Enoch, in a state of uncircumcision, have pleased him, and he was not found, because God translated him2.
Lot was saved from Sodom} when uncircumcised, escorted by angels sent from the Lord.
Noah, the originator of a new race, went with his sons into the ark4 uncircumcised.
Melchizedek, priest of the Most High, was uncircumcised.
To him Abraham, who was the first to receive physical circumcision, gave tithes as offerings, and Melchizedek blessed him5; it was according to his order that God recorded through David that he would set up the everlasing priest®.
This circumcision was necessary for you alone, so that the people might not be a people? and the race no race, as Hosea, one of the minor prophets, says.
Further, all these righteous men just named never observed the sabbath, and yet pleased God, and after them Abraham and all his sons as far down as Moses, during whose time your
Yer. 2:13.
2Gen. 4:4; 5:24.
38Gen. 19:17-20.
4Gen. 7:13.
5Gen. 14:18-20.
6Ps, 109 (110) :4.
7Hos. 1:9.
race proved unrighteous and unthankful to God when they made the calfin the wilderness.
This was why God, adapting the practice to this people, ordained also that they should offer sacrifices as if in his name, to prevent you indulging in idolatry; but you did not even avoid this, but you even sacrificed your children to demons.
And he commanded you to keep the sabbath so that you should preserve a memory of God.
The Word, moreover, indicates this when he says, So that you should know that I am your God who redeemed oul, : 20.
Again, he enjoined you to refrain from certain kinds of food, in order that when you eat and drink you should have God before your eyes, because you are unstable and easily inclined to revolt from the knowledge of him.
[Here follows a quotation of Deut. 32:15.] It is recorded by the hand of Moses in the book of Genesis that it was permitted by Noah, a righteous man, to eat every living thing, except meat with the blood in it, that is, a carcase." 2
And as Trypho was trying to say "As green herbs'3, I forestalled him and said "Could you not interpret the phrase
'as green herbs' as the statement by God that as God made herbs for food for man, so he gave the animals for meat to eat?
But since we do not eat some sorts of herbs, so you allege that a distinction (of meats) was then being imposed on Noah.
Your interpretation is unconvincing.
First because I could say that every herb is in fact good and can be eaten, and I could carry conviction, but I will not spend time on that argument.
Secondly, even if we do distinguish herbs from food, and do not eat all herbs, we do not refrain
1Rxod. 20: 12,20.
2Gen. 9:3,4.
8Trypho was going to argue that as we distinguish between edible and inedible herbs, so God meant to distinguish between one class of legitimate and another of illegitimate sorts of meat.