17. JImavtia: "garments," as in the Hebrew text and some early Fathers. Oth-

st. justin martyr c h a p t e r 15 "In order to please God you must, therefore, learn to observe

God's true fast. Listen to what Isaiah has to say in this regard:

2. "Cry powerfully, cease not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and proclaim to my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins. For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know my ways, as a nation that has done justice, and has not forsaken the judgment of their

God.

3. "They ask of me the judgments of justice, and desire to draw near to God, saying, Why have we fasted, and you have not regarded? and humbled our souls, and you have not taken notice? Because in the days of your fasting you ﬁnd your own pleasure, and oppress all those who are subject to you. Behold, you fast for debates and strifes, and strike the humble with your ﬁsts. Why do you fast for me, as you do today, to make your voice be heard on high?

4. "This is not the fast which I have chosen, for a man to afﬂict his soul for a day. Nor, if you bend your neck in a circle, and spread sackcloth and ashes beneath you, shall you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord. This is not the fast which I have chosen, said the Lord. But loose every band of wickedness, undo the bonds of agreements made by violence, let the oppressed go free, and break asunder every unjust bond.

5. "Share your bread among the hungry, and bring the needy and harborless into your house; when you see one naked, cover him; and despise not those of your own ﬂesh. Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your garments 17 rise up quickly; and your justice shall go before you, and the glory of God shall surround you. Then shall you call and the Lord will hear you; and while you are yet speaking, he shall say, Behold, here I am.

6. "And if you shall take away from your midst the yoke, the stretching forth of your hand, and the words of murmuring; and shall give heartily your bread to the hungry, and shall satisfy the afﬂicted soul; then shall your light rise up in darkness, and your darkness shall be as 17. JImavtia: "garments," as in the Hebrew text and some early Fathers. Others, following Stephanus with the LXX, read ijavmata. See J. C. T. Otto, ed., Corpus apologetarum Christianorum saeculi secundi, vol. 5. (Jena: H. Dufft, 1847–81),

54 n 3, "healings."

Justin, Martyr, Saint. Dialogue with Trypho (Selections from the Fathers of the Church, Volume 3), edited by Michael Slusser, Catholic University of America Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/de

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A new covenant, not a new God

the noonday; and your God shall be with you continually, and you shall be satisﬁed as your soul desires, and your bones shall be made fat, and shall be as a watered garden, and like a fountain of water, or like a land whose water fails not.18

7. "Therefore, be circumcised rather in your heart,19 as the above-quoted words of God demand. c h a p t e r 16 "God himself, through Moses, exclaimed, Circumcise the hardness of your hearts, therefore, and be stiff-necked no more. For the Lord is your God, and the Lord of lords, a great God and mighty and terrible, who regards not persons nor takes bribes.20

"And in Leviticus it is written, Because they have transgressed against me and despised me, and because they have walked contrary to me, I also will walk contrary to them, and I will destroy them in the land of their enemies. Then shall their uncircumcised heart be ashamed.21

2. "Indeed the custom of circumcising the ﬂesh, handed down from Abraham, was given to you as a distinguishing mark, to set you off from other nations and from us Christians. The purpose of this was that you and only you might suffer the afﬂictions that are now justly yours; that only your land be desolate, and your cities ruined by ﬁre; that the fruits of your land be eaten by strangers before your very eyes; that not one of you be permitted to enter Jerusalem.22

3. "Your circumcision of the ﬂesh is the only mark by which you can certainly be distinguished from other men.23 Nor do I 18. Is 58.1–11. Daniélou, 320–21, Skarsaune, 55.

19. See Jer 4.4.

20. Dt 10.16–17. See Skarsaune, 70–72, 293; J. Smit Sibinga, The Old Testament Text of Justin Martyr, vol. 1, The Pentateuch (Leiden: Brill, 1963), 93–94.

21. Lv 26.40–41. See Skarsaune, 314.

22. See Marcovich, pp. vii–viii, for stylistic analysis of this typically difﬁcult section. St. Justin considers Jewish circumcision as a divine punishment. After Hadrian captured Jerusalem in 135 C.E., he issued a decree forbidding Jews from entering the city. Thus, if a person were circumcised, he was not allowed to visit the Holy City. Tertullian says that Bethlehem was also included in the decree (Against the Jews 3.4).

23. On whether in fact circumcision was distinctive, see Shaye J. D. Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999),

39–49.

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