2. With good reason, therefore, does Isaiah exclaim, Because

A new covenant, not a new God

picked men from Jerusalem to every land,27 to report the outbreak of the godless heresy of the Christians and to spread those ugly rumors against us which are repeated by those who do not know us. As a result, you are to blame not only for your own wickedness, but also for that of all others.

2. With good reason, therefore, does Isaiah exclaim, Because of you my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles.28 And, Woe unto their soul, for they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying,

Let us bind the Just One, for he is useless to us. Therefore they eat the fruit of their deeds. Woe unto the wicked: evil shall be rendered to him, in accordance with the works of his hands.29

"And again, in another passage, Woe unto those who draw their iniquity as with a long cord, and their injustices, as it were, with the rope of a cart; who say, Let his speed come near, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that change light into darkness, and darkness into light; that change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter.30

3. "Thus, you have spared no effort in disseminating in every land bitter, dark, and unjust accusations against the only guiltless and just light sent to men by God. For he seemed to be inconvenient to you, when he cried out, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.31

"Then he even overturned the money-changers' tables in the temple, and exclaimed, Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you pay tithes on mint and rue, and never think of the love of God and justice. You are whited sepulchers, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones.32

4. "And to the Scribes he said, Woe unto you, Scribes, for you have the keys, and you do not enter in yourselves, and you hinder them that are entering; you blind guides! 33

27. Cited by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.18.

28. Is 52.5. See Skarsaune, 31.

29. Is 3.9–11 (LXX). See Skarsaune, 30.

30. Is 5.18–20. See Skarsaune, 30, 111, 160.

31. Mt 21.13. See Skarsaune, 121; É. Massaux, The Inﬂuence of the Gospel of St.

Matthew on Christian Literature before Irenaeus. Book 3: The Apologists and the Didache, trans. N. J. Belva and S. Hecht, ed. A. Bellinzoni (Leuven: Peeters, 1990),

49–50.

32. Mt 23.23, 27; Lk 11.42. See Massaux, 51–52.

33. Lk 11.52.

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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st. justin martyr c h a p t e r 18 "Since you, Trypho, admit that you have read the teachings of him who is our Savior, I do not consider it out of place to have added those few short sayings of his to the quotations from the prophets.

2. "Wash yourselves, be clean, and take away evil from your souls.34

Thus does God order you to be washed in this laver, and to be circumcised with the true circumcision. We, too, would observe your circumcision of the ﬂesh, your Sabbath days, and, in a word, all your festivals, if we were not aware of the reason why they were imposed upon you, namely, because of your sins and your hardness of heart.

3. "If we patiently bear all the evils thrust upon us by vicious men and demons, and still, amid indescribable tortures and death, ask mercy even for our persecutors and do not wish that anybody be requited with even a little of them, as our new Lawgiver decreed, why is it, Trypho, that we should not observe those rites which cannot harm us, such as the circumcision of the ﬂesh, the Sabbaths, and the festivals?"

34. Is 1.16. See Skarsaune, 168–70.

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J E W I S H R I T U A L L AW S A S A

R E M E D Y F O R I D O L A T R Y

c h a p t e r 19 "That," interposed Trypho, "is precisely what we are puzzled about—why you endure all sorts of tortures, yet refuse to follow the [Jewish] customs now under discussion."

2. "As I already explained," I answered, "it is because circumcision is not essential for all men, but only for you Jews, to mark you off for the suffering you now so deservedly endure. Nor do we approve of your useless baptism of the wells, which has no connection at all with our baptism of life. Thus has God protested that you have forsaken him, the fountain of living water, and have dug for yourselves broken cisterns which can hold no water.1

3. "You Jews, who have the circumcision of the ﬂesh, are in great need of our circumcision, whereas we, since we have our circumcision, do not need yours. For if, as you claim, circumcision had been necessary for salvation, God would not have created Adam uncircumcised; nor would he have looked with favor upon the sacriﬁce of the uncircumcised Abel, nor would he have been pleased with the uncircumcised Enoch, who was seen no more, because God took him.2

4. "The Lord and his angels led Lot out of Sodom; thus was he saved without circumcision. Noah, the uncircumcised father of our race, was safe with his children in the ark. Melchisedek,

1. Jer 2.13. See Skarsaune, 70, 173, 378. On the baptism of the wells see Shaye J. D. Cohen, "The Rabbinic Conversion Ceremony," Journal of Jewish Studies 41 (1990): 177–203, reprinted in The Beginnings of Jewishness (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 198–238.

2. Gn 5.24. See Smit Sibinga, 60; Skarsaune, 127.

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st. justin martyr the priest of the Most High, was not circumcised, yet Abraham, the ﬁrst to accept circumcision of the ﬂesh, paid tithes to him and was blessed by him; indeed, God, through David, announced that he would make him a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.3

5. "Circumcision, therefore, is necessary only for you Jews, in order that, as Hosea, one of the twelve prophets, says, your people should not be a people, and your nation not a nation.4 Furthermore, all these men were just and pleasing in the sight of God, yet they kept no Sabbaths. The same can be said of Abraham and his descendants down to the time of Moses, when your people showed itself wicked and ungrateful to God by molding a golden calf as an idol in the desert.

6. "Therefore, God, adapting his laws to that weak people, ordered you to offer sacriﬁces to his name, in order to save you from idolatry, but you did not obey even then, for you did not hesitate to sacriﬁce your children to the demons. Moreover, the observance of the Sabbaths was imposed upon you by God so that you would be forced to remember him, as he himself said,

That you may know that I am God your Savior.5 c h a p t e r 20 "You were likewise ordered to abstain from eating certain kinds of meat, so that while eating and drinking you would keep God before your eyes, for you have always been disposed to forget him, as Moses himself testiﬁes: The people ate and drank, and rose up to play.6 And in another passage, Jacob ate and was ﬁlled, and grew fat; my beloved kicked, he grew fat and gross and broad, and forsook God who made him.7 Indeed, Moses in the Book of Genesis makes known to you how God allowed the righteous

Noah to eat every kind of meat, except ﬂesh with its blood still in it, that is, strangled." 8

3. Ps 109 (110).4. See J. L. Marshall, "Melchizedek in Hebrews, Philo and Justin Martyr," Studia Evangelica VII, 9 (= TU 126; 1982), 339–42.

4. Hos 1.9.

5. Ezek 20.12, 20.

6. Ex 32.6, taken from the golden calf episode. See Smit Sibinga, 138; Skarsaune, 171.

7. Dt 32.15. See Smit Sibinga, 144; Skarsaune, 446.

8. See Gn 9.3–4. Marcovich, 102, notes the emendation of H. Stephanus:

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