6 See Apol., i. 47. The Jews [By Hadrian's recent edict] were prohibited by law from entering Jerusalem on pain of death. And so Justin sees in circumcision their own punishment.
DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO.
203 man perished, and no one regards it. For the righteous man is taken away from before iniquity. His grave shall be in peace, he is taken away from the midst. Draw near hither, ye lawless children, seed of the adulterers, and children of the whore. Against whom have you sported yourselves, and against whom have you opened the mouth, and against whom have you loosened the tongue? ' ' CHAP. XVII. THE JEWS SENT PERSONS THROUGH THE WHOLE EARTH TO SPREAD CALUMNIES ON CHRISTIANS.
" For Other nations have not inflicted on us and on Christ this wrong to such an extent as you have, who in very deed are the authors of the wicked prejudice against the Just One, and us who hold by Him. For after that you had crucified Him, the only blameless and righteous Man, — through whose stripes those who approach the Father by Him are healed, — when you knew that He had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, as the prophets foretold He would, you not only did not repent of the wickedness which you had committed, but at that time you selected and sent out from Jerusalem chosen men through all the land to tell that the godless heresy of the Christians had spnmg up, and to publish those things which all they who knew us not speak against us. So that you are the cause not only of your own unrighteousness, but in fact of that of all other men. And Isaiah cries justly: ' By reason of you. My name is blasphemed among the Gentiles.' ^ And: ' Woe unto their soul! be- cause they have devised an evil device against themselves, saying. Let us bind the righteous, for he is distasteful to us. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! evil shall be rendered to him according to the works of his hands.' And again, in other words: ^ ' Woe unto them that draw their iniqui- ty as with a long cord, and their transgressions as with the harness of a heifer's yoke: 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 put light for darkness, and darkness for light; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ' ■♦ Accordingly, you displayed great zeal in publishing throughout all the land bitter and dark and unjust things against the only blameless and righteous Light sent by God.
For He appeared distasteful to you when He cried among you, ' It is written. My house is the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves! ' 5 He overthrew also the tables of the * Isa. Ivii. 1-4.
2 Isa. Hi. 5.
3 Isa. iii. 9 ff.
money-changers in the temple, and exclaimed, ' Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypo- crites! because ye pay tithe of mint and rue, but do not observe the love of God and justice. Ye whited sepulchres! appearing beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones.' ^ And to the Scribes, ' Woe unto you. Scribes! for ye have the keys, and ye do not enter in yourselves, and them that are entering in ye hinder; ye blind guides! ' CHAP. XVIII. CHRISTIANS WOULD OBSERVE THE » LAW, IF THEV DID NOT KNOW WHY IT WAS INSTITUTED.
" For since you have read, O Trypho, as you yourself admitted, the doctrines taught by our Saviour, I do not think that I have done fool- ishly in adding some short utterances of His to the prophetic statements. Wash therefore, and be now clean, and put away iniquity from your souls, as God bids you be washed in this laver, and be circumcised with the true circumcision. For we too would observe the fleshly circumcision, and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts, if we did not know for what reason they were en- joined you, — namely, on account of your trans- gressions and the hardness of your hearts. For if we patiently endure all things contrived against us by wicked men and demons, so that even amid cruelties unutterable, death and torments, we pray for mercy to those who inflict such things upon us, and do not wish to give the least retort to any one, even as the new Lawgiver commanded us: how is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites which do not harm us, — I speak of fleshly circumcision, and Sab- baths, and feasts?
CHAP. XIX. — CIRCUMCISION UNKNOWN BEFORE ABRAHAM. THE LAW WAS GIVEN BY MOSES ON ACCOUNT OF THE HARDNESS OF THEIR HEARTS.
" It is this about which we are at a loss, and with reason, because, while you endure such things, you do not observe all the other customs which we are now discussing."
"This circumcision is not, however, necessary for all men, but for you alone, in order that, as I have already said, you may suffer these things which you now justly suffer. Nor do we receive that useless baptism of cisterns, for it has noth- ing to do with this baptism of life. Wherefore also God has announced that you have forsaken Him, the living fountain, and digged for your- selves broken cisterns which can hold no water. Even you, who are the circumcised according to the flesh, have need of our circumcision; but we, having the latter, do not require the former. For if it were necessary, as you suppose, God 6 This and following quotation taken promiscuously from Matt xxiii. and Luke xi.
204 DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO.
would not have made Adam uncircumcised; would not have had respect to the gifts of Abel when, being uncircumcised, he offered sacrifice; and would not have been pleased with the uncir- cumcision of Enoch, who was not found, because God hatl translated him. I^t, being uncircum- cised, was saved from Sodom, the angels them- selves and the Lord sending him out. Noah was the beginning of our race; yet, uncircum- cised, along with his children he went into the ark. Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High, was uncircumcised; to whom also Abraham, the first who received circumcision after the flesh, gave tithes, and he blessed him: after whose order God declared, by the mouth of David, that He would establish the everlasting priest. Therefore to you alone this circumcision was necessary, in order that the peoi)le may be no people, and the nation no nation; as also Hosea,' one of the twelve prophets, declares. Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned, though they kept no Sabbaths,^ were pleasing to God; and after them Abraham with all his de- scendants until Moses, under whom your nation appeared unrighteous and ungrateful to God, making a calf in the wilderness: wherefore God, accommodating Himself to that nation, enjoined them also to offer sacrifices, as if to His name, in order that you might not serve idols. Which precept, however, you have not observed; nay, you sacrificed your children to demons. And you were commanded to keep Sabbaths, that you might retain the memorial of God. For His word makes this announcement, saying, ' That ye may know that I am God who redeemed you.' 3 CHAP. XX. — WHY CHOICE OF MEATS WAS PRE- SCRIBED.
" Moreover, you were commanded to abstain from certain kinds of food, in order that you might keep God before your eyes while you ate and drank, seeing that you were prone and very ready to depart from His knowledge, as Moses also affirms: ' The people ate and drank, and rose up to play.' ■♦ And again: ' Jacob ate, and was satisfied, and waxed fat; and he who was beloved kicked: he waxed fat, he grew thick, he was enlarged, and he forsook God who had made him.' 5 For it was told you by Moses in the book of Genesis, that God granted to Noah, being a just man, to eat of every animal, but not of flesh with the blood, which is dead.'' ^' And ■ Hos. i. and ii.
^ [They did not Sabbatiie; but Justin does not deny what is im- plied in many Scriptures, that they marked the week, and noted the seventh day. Gen. ii. 3, viii. 10, 12.]
3 Kzek. XX. 12.
* Ex. xxxii. 6.
5 Deut. xxxii. 15.
6 vfKf>^^i.^.\ov, or " dieth of itself;" com. reading was eKptnaiov, which was supposed to be derived from eicpiiTTu), and to mean " which ought to be cast out: " the above was suggested by H. Stcphanus.
as he was ready to say, " as the green herbs," I anticipated him: " Why do you not receive this statement, ' as the green herbs,' in the sense in which it was given by Ciod, to wit, that just as God has granted the herbs for sustenance to man, even so has He given the animals for the diet of flesh? But, you say, a distinction was laid down there- after to Noah, because we do not eat certain herbs. As you interpret it, the thing is incredi- ble. And first I shall not occupy myself with this, though able to say and to hold that every vegetable is food, and fit to be eaten. But although we discriminate between green herbs, not eating all, we refrain from eating some, not because they are common or unclean, but be- cause they are bitter, or deadly, or thorny. But we lay hands on and take of all herbs which are sweet, very nourishing and good, whether they are marine or land plants. Thus also God by the mouth of Moses commanded you to abstain from unclean and improper ^ and violent animals: when, moreover, though you were eating manna in the desert, and were seeing all those wondrous acts wrought for you by God, you made and wor- shipped the golden calf.*^ Hence he cries con- tinually, and justly, 'They are foolish children, in whom is no faith. ' ^ CHAP. XXI. SABBATHS WERE INSTITUTED ON AC- COUNT OF THE people's SINS, AND NOT FOR A WORK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
" Moreover, that God enjoined you to keep the Sabbath, and impose on you other precepts for a sign, as I have already said, on account of your unrighteousness, and that of your fathers, — as He declares that for the sake of the nations, lest His name be profaned among them, there- fore He permitted some of you to remain alive, — these words of His can prove to you: they are narrated by Ezekiel thus: I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My judg- ments, and take no part in the customs of Egypt; and hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Notwithstanding ye rebelled against Me, and your children walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them: which if a man do, he shall live in them. But they polluted My Sabbaths. And I said that I would pour out My fiiry upon them in the wilderness, to accomplish My anger upon them; yet I did it not; that My name might not be altogether profaned in the sight of the heathen. I led them out before their eyes, and 8 " The reasoning of St. Justin is not quite clear to interpreters. As we abstain from some herbs, not because they are forbidden by law, but because they are deadly; so the law of abstinence from improper and violent animals was imposed not on Noah, but on you as a yoke on account of your sins." — Maranus.
9 Deut. xxxii. 6, so.
DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO.
205 I lifted up Mine hand unto them in the wilder- ness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the coun- tries; because they had not executed My judg- ments, but had despised My statutes, and polluted My Sabbaths, and their eyes were after the devices of their fathers. Wherefore I gave them also statutes which were not good, and judgments whereby they shall not live. And I shall pollute them in their own gifts, that I may destroy all that openeth the womb, when I pass through them.' ' CHAP. XXII. so ALSO WERE SACRIFICES AND OBLATIONS.
/ " And that you may learn that it was for the sins of your own nation, and for their idolatries, and not because there was any necessity for such sacrifices, that they were likewise enjoined, listen to the manner in which He speaks of these by Amos, one of the twelve, saying: 'Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is this day of the Lord for you? It is dark- ness and not light, as when a man flees from the face of a lion, and a bear meets him; and he goes into his house, and leans his hands against the wall, and the serpent bites him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even very dark, and no brightness in it? I have hated, I have despised your feast-days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies: where- fore, though ye offer Me your burnt-offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your presence. Take thou away from Me the multitude of thy songs and psalms; I will not hear thine instru- ments. But let judgment be rolled down as water, and righteousness as an impassable torrent. Have ye offered unto Me victims and sacrifices in the wilderness, O house of Israel? saith the Lord. And have ye taken up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Raphan, the figures which ye made for yourselves? And I will carry you away beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is the Almighty God. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the moun- tain of Samaria: those who are named among the chiefs have plucked away the first-fruits of the nations: the house of Israel have entered for themselves. Pass all of you unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye unto Hamath the great, and go down thence to Gath of the strangers, the noblest of all these kingdoms, if their boundaries are greater than your boundaries. Ye who come to the evil day, who are approaching, and who hold to false Sabbaths; who He on beds of ivory, and are at ease upon their couches; who eat the lambs out of the flock, and the sucking calves out ' Ezek. XX. 19-26.
of the midst of the herd; who applaud at the sound of the musical instnmients; they reckon them as stable, and not as fleeting, who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Wherefore now they shall be captives, among the first of the nobles who are carried away; and the house of evil-doers shall be removed, and the neighing of horses shall be taken away from Ephraim.^ And again by Jere- miah: 'Collect your flesh, and sacrifices, and eat: for concerning neither sacrifices nor liba- tions did I command your fathers in the day in which I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.3 And again by David, in the forty-ninth Psalm, He thus said: ' The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion is the perfection of His beauty. God, even our God, shall come openly, and shall not keep silence. Fire shall burn before Him, and it shall be very temptestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Assemble to Him His saints; those that have made a cove- nant with Him by sacrifices. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness, for God is judge. Hear, O My people, and I will speak to thee; O Israel, and I will testify to thee, I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; thy burnt-offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullocks out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds: for all the beasts of the field are Mine, the herds and the oxen on the mountains. I know all the fowls of the heavens, and the beauty of the field is Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me. But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to de- clare My statutes, and to take My covenant into thy mouth? But thou hast hated instruction, and cast My words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with him; and hast been partaker with the adulterer. Thy mouth has framed evil, and thy tongue has enfolded deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I would be like thyself in wickedness. I will reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before thine eyes. Now con- sider this, ye that forget God, lest He tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. The 2 Amos V. 18 to end, vi, 1-7.
3 J«r. vii. 31 f.
206 DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO.
sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me; and there is the way in which I shall show him My salvation.' Accordingly He neither takes sacrifices from you nor commanded them at first to be offered because they are needful to Him, but because of your sins. For indeed the temple, which is called the temple in Jerusalem, He admitted to be His house or court, not as though He needed it, but in order that you, in this view of it, giving yourselves to Him, might not worship idols. And that this is so, Isaiah says: ' What house have ye built Me? saith the I.ord. Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.' ^ CHAP. XXXIII. THE OPINION OF THE JEWS RE- GARDING THE LAW DOES AN INJURY TO GOD.
" But if we do not admit this, we shall be lia- ble to fall into foolish opinions, as if it were not the same (lod who existed in the times of Enoch and all the rest, who neither were circumcised after the flesh, nor observed Sabbaths, nor any other rites, seeing that Moses enjoined such ob- servances; or that ( iod has not wished each race of mankind continually to perform the same righteous actions: to admit which, seems to be ridiculous and absurd. Therefore we must confess that He, who is ever the same, has commanded these and such like institutions on account of sinful men, and we must declare Him to be benevolent, foreknowing, needing nothing, righteous and good. But if this be not so, tell me, sir, what you think of those matters which we are investigating." And when no one re- sponded: " Wherefore, Trypho, I will proclaim to you, and to those who wish to become prose- lytes, the divine message which I heard from that man.3 Do you see that the elements are not idle, and keep no Sabbaths? Remain as you were born. For if there was no need of circumcision before Abraham, or of the observ- ance of Sabbaths, of feasts and sacrifices, before Moses; no more need is there of them now, after that, according to the will of God, Jesus Christ the Son of God has been born without sin, of a virgin sprung from the stock of Abra- ham. For when Abraham himself was in un- circumcision, he was justified and blessed by reason of the faith which he reposed in God, as the Scripture tells. Moreover, the Scriptures and the facts themselves compel us to admit that He received circumcision for a sign, and not for righteousness. So that it was justly re- corded concerning the people, that the soul which shall not be circumcised on the eighth day shall be cut off from his family. And, fur- thermore, the inability of the female sex to receive fleshly circumcision, proves that this » Ps. i. (inE. v.).
* Isa. Ixvi. I.
' The man he met by the sea-shore.
circumcision has been given for a sign, and not for a work of righteousness. For God has given likewise to women the abihty to observe all things which are righteous and virtuous; but we see that the bodily form of the male has been made different from the bodily form of the female; yet we know that neither of them is righteous or unrighteous merely for this cause, but [is considered righteous] by reason of piety and righteousness.
CHAP. XXIV. THE CHRISTIANS* CIRCUMCISION FAR MORE EXCELLENT.
" Now, sirs," I said, " it is possible for us to show how the eighth day possessed a certain mysterious import, which the seventh day did not possess, and which was promulgated by God through these rites. But lest I appear now to diverge to other subjects, understand what I say: the blood of that circumcision is obsolete, and we trust in the blood of salvation; there is now another covenant, and another law has gone forth from Zion. Jesus Christ circumcises all who will — as was declared above — with knives of stone; * that they may be a righteous nation, a people keeping faith, holding to the truth, and maintaining peace. Come then with me, all who fear God, who wish to see the good of Jerusalem, Come, let us go to the light of the Lord; for He has liberated His people, the house of Jacob. Come, all nations; let us gather ourselves together at Jerusalem, no longer plagued by war for the sins of her peo- ple. ' For I was manifest to them that sought Me not; I was found of them that asked not for Me; ' 5 He exclaims by Isaiah: ' I said. Behold Me, unto nations which were not called by My name, I have spread out My hands all the day unto a disobedient and gainsaying peo- ple, which walked in a way that was not good, but after their own sins. It is a people that provoketh Me to my face.' s CHAP. XXV. THE JEWS BOAST IN VAIN THAT THEV ARE SONS OF ABRAH.-yVI.
" Those who justify themselves, and say they are sons of Abraham, shall be desirous even in a small degree to receive the inheritance along with you; ^ as the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of Isaiah, cries, speaking thus while he personates them: ' Return from heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and glory. Where is Thy zeal and strength? Where is the multi- tude of Thy mercy? for Thou hast sustained us, O Lord. For Thou art our Father, because Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel has not recognised us. But Thou, O Lord, our Father, * Other edd. have, " with u«.'
DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO.
207 deliver us: from the beginning Thy name is up- on us. O Lord, why hast Thou made us to err from Thy way? and hardened our hearts, so that we do not fear Thee? Return for Thy ser- vants' sake, the tribes of Thine inheritance, that we may inherit for a httle Thy holy mountain. We were as from the beginning, when Thou didst not bear rule over us, and when Thy name was not called upon us. If Thou wilt open the heavens, trembling shall seize the mountains before Thee: and they shall be melted, as wax melts before the fire; and fire shall consume the adversaries, and Thy name shall be manifest among the adversaries; the nations shall be put into disorder before Thy face. When Thou shalt do glorious things, trembling shall seize the mountains before Thee. From the begin- ning we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen a God besides Thee: and Thy works,' the mercy which Thou shalt show to those who repent. He shall meet those who do righteousness, and they shall remember Thy ways. Behold, Thou art wroth, and we were sinning. Therefore we have erred and become all unclean, and all our righteousness is as the rags of a woman set apart: and we have faded away like leaves by reason of our iniquities; thus the wind will take us away. And there is none that calleth upon Thy name, or remembers to take hold of Thee; for Thou hast turned away Thy face from us, and hast given us up on account of our sins. And now return, O Lord, for we are all Thy people. The city of Thy holiness has become desolate. Zion has become as a wilderness, Jerusalem a curse; the house, our holiness, and the glory which our fathers blessed, has been burned with fire; and all the glorious nations ^ have fallen along with it. And in addition to these [misfortunes], O Lord, Thou hast refrained Thyself, and art silent, and hast humbled us very much.' " ^ And Trypho remarked, "What is this you say? that none of us shall inherit anything on the holy mountain of God? " CHAP. XXVI. — NO SALVATION TO THE JEWS EX- CEPT THROUGH CHRIST.
And I replied, " I do not say so; but those who have persecuted and do persecute Christ, if they do not repent, shall not inherit any- thing on the holy mountain. But the Gen- tiles, who have believed on Him, and have repented of the sins which they have committed, they shall receive the inheritance along with the patriarchs and the prophets, and the just men who are descended from Jacob, even although ' Otto reads: " Thy works which Thou shalt do to those who wait for mercy."
^ Some suppose the correct reading to be, "our glorious institu- tions [manners, customs, or ordinances] have," etc., ISi) for eSirj.
3 Isa. Ixiii. 15 to end, and Ixiv.
they neither keep the Sabbath, nor are circum- cised, nor observe the feasts. Assuredly they shall receive the holy inheritance of God. For God speaks by Isaiah thus: ' I, the Lord God, have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold Thine hand, and will strengthen Thee; and I have given Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out them that are bound from the chains, and those who sit in darkness from the prison-house.' ^ And again: ' Lift up a standard 5 for the people; for, lo, the Lord has made it heard unto the end of the earth. Say ye to the daughters of Zion, Behold, thy Saviour has come; having His reward, and His work before His face: and He shall call it a holy na- tion, redeemed by the Lord. And thou shalt be called a city sought out, and not forsaken. Who is this that cometh from Edom? in red gar- ments from Bosor? This that is beautiful in ap- parel, going up with great strength? I speak righteousness, and the judgment of salvation. Why are Thy garments red, and Thine apparel as from the trodden wine-press? Thou art full of the trodden grape. I have trodden the wine- press all alone, and of the people there is no