Conversation with Tryphon the Jew

Contents About the conversation of Saint Justin with Tryphon the Jew Chapter 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50 • 51 • 52 • 53 • 54 • 55 • 56 • 57 • 58 • 59 • 60 • 61 • 62 • 63 • 64 • 65 • 66 • 67 • 68 • 69 • 70 • 71 • 72 • 73 • 74 • 75 • 76 • 77 • 78 • 79 • 80 • 81 • 82 • 83 • 84 • 85 • 86 • 87 • 88 • 89 • 90 • 91 • 92 • 93 • 94 • 95 • 96 • 97 • 98 • 99 • 100 • 101 • 102 • 103 • 104 • 105 • 106 • 107 • 108 • 109 • 110 • 111 • 112 • 113 • 114 • 115 • 116 • 117 • 118 • 119 • 120 • 121 • 122 • 123 • 124 • 125 • 126 • 127 • 128 • 129 • 130 • 131 • 132 • 133 • 134 • 135 • 136 • 137 • 138 • 139 • 140 • 141 • 142 About the conversation of Saint Justin with Tryphon the Jew The conversation with Tryphon the Jew represents the fruit of the apologetic activity of St. Justina against another enemy of the Christian Faith, Judaism. The enmity into which Judaism became from the very beginning in relation to Christianity became stronger and more bitter during the time of Justin. The daily increasing spread of the new Faith and the political oppression under which the Jews were found after the destruction of Jerusalem greatly irritated the primordial hatred of the Jews towards the followers of Christ, especially those of the circumcision. They uttered solemn curses against Christians in the synagogues after prayer (Discussed with Trif. ch. 16, 47, 96, 108, 117 and 137), and took the most zealous part in spreading absurd rumors about their immorality. According to Justin, they sent chosen people to all countries to publicize that the new teaching of Christians is godless, and to spread other slander among the pagans. Looking at Christians as apostates and traitors to the Law of Moses, at every opportunity they were ready to subject them to the death penalty: this was the case, for example, during the uprising of the Jews at Varkokhev against the Romans; and only the Roman government prevented them from fulfilling their desire (Raz. from Trif. ch. 16). Such a hostile attitude of the Jews towards Christianity could not fail to attract the attention of Justin. Despite the prohibition of teachers for Jews to enter into relations and religious conversations with Christians, Justin, in the mantle of a philosopher, repeatedly met with Jews during his travels, and with the more sensible of them, such as for example. Tryphon, entered into discussions about Christianity and its relationship to Judaism. A written monument of Justin's apologetic zeal in relation to Judaism is preserved in his “Conversation with Tryphon the Jew.” The authenticity of this work is beyond any doubt. Eusebius, among the works of Justin, attributes to him a conversation against the Jews, shows its content and quotes words from it in the form as they are in the conversation with Tryphon that has come down to us (C. Ist. IV, 18). Here is the testimony of a church historian: “Justin also wrote a conversation against the Jews that he had in the city of Ephesus with Tryphon, the most famous among the Jews of that time. In this conversation, he tells how Divine grace turned him to the teachings of the Faith, with what zeal he had previously studied philosophical subjects and with what ardent zeal he sought the truth. He also tells about the Jews that they plotted against the teachings of Christ, and proves this to Tryphon in the following words: “You not only did not repent of your evil deeds, but even then, having chosen certain people from Jerusalem, you sent them to the whole earth to proclaim that a godless heresy of Christians had appeared, and to spread those slander against us, which is usually repeated by all those who do not know us. Thus, you are guilty not only of your own injustice, but also of the injustice of all people in general” 1. Justin also writes that prophetic gifts shone in the church in his time 2; also mentions the revelation of John and clearly says that it belongs to this apostle 3. He also cites some prophetic sayings and accuses Tryphon of the fact that the Jews erased them from Scripture 4. “The testimony of Eusebius is confirmed by the indications contained in the conversation itself, and by its closest internal relationship with the apologies belonging to Justin. The writer of the conversation calls himself a Samaritan, says that before turning to the Christian Faith he was a follower of Platonic philosophy, and points to an apologetic work previously written and presented to the Roman emperor (Col. Ch. 2.120. cf. and Apostle 26 and 2 Apostle 12): features that suit the face of Justin the Martyr. Added to this is the similarity between the conversation and the apologies of Justin, not only in style and apologetic techniques and evidence, but also in some special features that indicate the identity of their writer; such as a) The Gospels, both in conversation and in apologies, are called ἀπομνημονεύματα τῶν ἀποστόλων (memorial notes of the apostles), which other church writers do not have; b) quotations of Old Testament and New Testament sayings, often deviating from the text of 70 interpreters and canonical Gospels, are similar in apologies and in conversation 5 . The objection to the authenticity of the conversation between Justin and Tryphon, based on the fact that some quotations from the Old Testament deviate from the text of the 70 interpreters and are brought into agreement with the translations of Theodotion and Symmachus, who lived later than Justin, is eliminated by the explanations of scientists (Kredner and Zemisch) that Justin had in his hands the text of the 70, somewhat revised by Christian hands, and that copies of such a text were used in his works and Theodotion and Symmachus 6. The question arises: in the conversation that has reached us, St. Should Justina see the presentation of his actual conversation with Tryphon the Jew, or was the conversational form an arbitrarily chosen form of presentation of thoughts about Christianity and its relationship to Judaism? Many scientists (eg Lumper, Lücke, Möhler) argued the first; others (Cleric, Dupin) found the latter most likely. But Eusebius (C. Ist. IV, 18) testifies to the reality of Justin’s conversation with Tryphon. In the conversation itself, the author makes it clear that he intends to describe the conversation he had with the Jew (chapter 80). Considering the jealousy of St. Justin’s commitment to converting the lost to the path of truth, which he himself testifies to (2 Apol. 3), cannot be allowed if he did not seek and find opportunities to converse with the Jews in the interests of the Christian Faith. One of these incidents prompted Justin to put the conversation in writing. It goes without saying that this essay is not an exact copy, a literal reproduction of the conversation that took place. – As for Tryphon the Jew, there is no definite information about him. Eusebius calls him the most famous among the Jews of that time; but the assumption based on this that Tryphon is one and the same person with the famous Rabbi Tarfo, the teacher or friend of Rabbi Akiba, is refuted by the conversation itself, where Tryphon is repeatedly contrasted with Jewish teachers (chap. 9, 38, 62). At the beginning of the conversation, Tryphon himself provides some details about his face and life circumstances. During the last war that broke out between the Jews and the Romans, he left his fatherland and settled in Greece; lived a lot in Corinth, where he devoted himself to the study of philosophy ch. 1). Perhaps for the same purpose, Tryphon arrived in Ephesus, where, according to Eusebius, a meeting and conversation took place between him and Justin. During the walk, Justin's philosophical mantle attracted the attention of Tryphon, who, after the first words of mutual greeting, showed that he was also interested in philosophy. Justin did not hide his surprise that Tryphon was looking for from the pagan sages what is much more fully and perfectly found in the sacred books of Moses and the prophets, and he tells how, having gone through philosophical systems, he lovingly settled on the philosophy of Plato, but through a conversation with one elder he learned of its unsatisfactoryness, and found peace in Christ and His teaching. When Justin's last announcement caused Tryphon's regret and even the frivolous laughter of his companions, Justin undertook to prove the truth and Divinity of Christianity (chap. 1–9). Thus begins the conversation, which, after a break due to the night, continued the next day until the evening. The work is dedicated to a certain Mark Pompey (chapter 8, 141.) It consists of 142 chapters. Despite many breaks, digressions, side questions and repetitions, in addition to the introduction, it contains three parts. 1. St. Justin, in response to Tryphon’s reproach that Christians do not fulfill the law of Moses, proves to him that the Old Testament ritual law, after the coming of Jesus Christ, lost its binding force and meaning and was replaced by a new law (chap. 10-47). The prophets (Isaiah and Jeremiah) predicted the establishment of the New Testament for all people and for all times, which abolished the Old, given only to the Jews because of their stiffness. The remission of sins is not granted through Jewish washings, and righteousness does not consist in external ritual works, but in the internal cleansing of the heart. Jewish circumcision is not absolutely necessary, otherwise the uncircumcised patriarchs could not please God. The same must be said about the Sabbaths, sacrifices and offerings. The Old Law was the image of the New, and the righteous who lived before the Law and under the Law are saved through Christ. In Him all the predictions of the prophets were fulfilled. They predicted a twofold coming of Christ: one, humiliated, when He suffered for people, and the other, when He comes in all His glory. Therefore, it should not be at all tempting that Jesus Christ endured suffering and death on the cross. 2. Then Justin, on the basis of Holy Scripture, expounds and proves the doctrine of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, His incarnation, suffering, resurrection and ascension into heaven (chap. 48-108). Here Justin points to the epiphanies to the patriarchs, where the Angel of God differs from God the Creator and appears together with the properties of the Divine, explains the mystery of the birth of God the Word from the Father by the likeness of fire kindled from fire, sets out in detail the prophecy of Isaiah (VII, 14) about the birth of Christ from the Virgin, reveals the prototypes of the cross in the upraised hands of Moses, the blessing of Joseph, in the serpent lifted up on the tree, and proves the resurrection of Christ from the words of Psalm 21 and from the story of the prophet. Ions. 3. In the third part, Justin cites and explains the prophecies about the calling of the pagans to the church of Christ, shows that those who believe in Christ have become spiritual Israel, and all the promises of God apply to them, and sets out the types of the Church in the marriage of Jacob, to whom another seed was promised, in the ark of Noah and the blessings he gave to his sons (chap. 109-141). At the end of this reasoning, Tryphon thanks Justin for the conversation, and they part with mutual good wishes (chap. 142). The time at which the conversation was written cannot be determined with precision, although it is clear from it that it was written by Justin after the apologies. Since the works of almost the same time, written by Appollinaris, the bishop of Hierapolis and the rhetorician Miltiades (Eusebius “Ecclesiastical History” IV, 27. V, 17) against the Jews, have not reached us, the conversation of St. Justina with Tryphon constitutes a very significant monument of Christian apologetics. In it, Justin, the first of the church teachers, collected and explained prophecies and prototypes about Christ and His blessed kingdom; He deals with them quite a lot in apologies, but here he sets them out in all detail, because he is reasoning with a Jew. However, in it, as a first experience, it is natural to find an explanation of some passages from the Old Testament in a prophetic sense, whereas they actually do not have it; It is also clear that the apologist in the fight against Judaism did not always withstand the gaze of the apostle. Paul on the Old Testament decrees, as serving as a mentor in Christ 7. One morning, while I was walking along the alleys of Xysta 8, someone met me, accompanied by others, and said to me: “Hello, philosopher!” And after these words, he immediately turned to me and began to walk next to me: his friends did the same. I, in turn, greeted him and asked what he wanted from me? “I learned,” he said, “from Corinth, a follower of Socrates, in Argos, that one should not neglect or despise people who wear clothes like yours, 9 but should show them all possible respect and enter into conversation with them; Perhaps there will be some benefit from such treatment for that person, or for me, and it is good for both if one or the other receives benefit. That is why, when I see someone in such clothes, I happily approach him; for the same reason, now I willingly turned to you with my conversation, and these people also follow me in the hope of hearing something useful from you. “Who are you, most excellent of mortals?” – I said, laughing. He told me his name and birth frankly. My name is Tryphon, he said; I am a circumcised Jew, in the last war 10 I left my fatherland, settled in Greece and live mostly in Corinth. “How can you,” I asked, “get as much benefit from philosophy as from your lawgiver and prophets?” - Why not? - he answered. – Don’t philosophers always talk about God, and don’t all their discussions have His unity and providence as their subject? Is not the real task of philosophy to investigate the nature of the Divine? “Of course,” I said, “that is our opinion.” But many of the philosophers 11 are completely indifferent to whether there are one or many gods, and whether their providence extends to each of us or not, as if this knowledge does not in the least lead to happiness. They even try to prove to us that God cares about the world, but only in general, about the genera and types of creatures, but does not care about me and you and each one separately, even if we prayed to him all night and day. It is easy to understand where such thinking is heading: it gives fearlessness and freedom to both their teachers and followers to do and say what they please, without fear of punishment and without expecting any reward from God. And what can people hope or fear who claim that it will always be the same, that you and I will again live the same way as now, having become neither better nor worse? But others 12, starting from the idea that the soul is immortal and incorporeal, think that they cannot be punished if they have done something evil, since the incorporeal is not subject to suffering; if the soul is immortal, then it does not need anything from God. Then Tryphon said with a pleasant smile: – What do you think about this, what is your opinion about God and what is your philosophy, tell us. “I’ll tell you what I think,” I answered. Philosophy in truth is the greatest and most precious acquisition in the eyes of God: it alone leads us to God and makes us pleasing to Him, and those who direct their minds to philosophy are truly holy; but many did not guess what philosophy is and for what purpose it was sent down to people, otherwise there would be neither Platonists, nor Stoics, nor Peripatetics, nor theorists 13, nor Pythagoreans, because this knowledge is only one. Why it was divided into many sects, I now intend to say. It happened that the first who studied philosophy and became famous through this had followers who did not independently investigate the truth, but were struck only by the courage and abstinence of their teachers, together with the news of their teachings, and accepted as truth what each of them learned from their teacher; and then they, in turn, passed on the same and other similar concepts to their followers and each became known under the name by which the founder of their teaching was called. Thus, I myself, when I first wished to become acquainted with one of them, placed myself under the guidance of a Stoic; but when I had lived with him for quite some time and my knowledge of God had not increased at all (for he himself did not have, and did not consider such knowledge necessary), then I left him and turned to another, called a peripatetic, a witty man, as he thought of himself, he tolerated my presence for several days, and then demanded that I set a fee so that our interview would not be useless to us. For this reason I left him too, considering him unworthy of the name of philosopher. But since my soul longed to know what constitutes the essence and main subject of philosophy, I came to the famous Pythagorean, a man who was very proud of his wisdom. When I announced to him my desire to become his listener and student, he asked me: “Have you studied music, astronomy and geometry? Or do you think it is possible to understand anything from the science leading to happiness if you have not previously been thoroughly engaged in what distracts the soul from the sensory and prepares it for the mental, so that it is able to contemplate beauty and goodness in their essence? Then he spoke a lot in favor of this knowledge and about the need to study it and sent me away as soon as I admitted my ignorance of it. Naturally, I was saddened that my hope was destroyed, and especially since I considered him a man with some knowledge; but on the other hand, considering how much time I had to spend on those sciences, I did not dare to postpone it for a long time. In the midst of this difficulty, it occurred to me to also try the Platonists, because they too enjoyed great fame. One of the famous Platonists, a reasonable man, recently arrived in our city 14; I worked with him for a lot of time, improved and made rapid progress every day. Plato’s doctrine of the incorporeal greatly fascinated me, and the theory of ideas gave wings to my thought; Soon, it seemed, I became a sage, and in my recklessness I hoped to soon contemplate God himself, for such is the goal of Plato’s philosophy. In this state of mind, one day, when I decided to indulge in deep peace and remove myself from every trace of humanity, I went to a place not far from the sea. As I approached the place where I wanted to be alone with myself, an ancient old man appeared, venerable in appearance, with a pleasant and important bearing, who followed me at a short distance. Turning to him, I stopped and looked at him intently. - Do you know me? – he asked. - Why are you looking at me like that? - he told me. “I’m surprised,” I answered, “that you met me in the same place; I didn't expect to see any people here. “I am worried,” he answered, “about some of my family: they have gone away, and I come here to look at them, see if they show up from where they are.” Why are you here? “I love,” I said, “such walks where nothing entertains my mind, and I can talk to myself without fear of interruption: these places are very convenient for mental exercises 15.” “So you are a lover of reasoning,” he said, “rather than deeds and truth, and you are not trying to be a more active sage rather than a sophist.” “What could be better,” I answered, “than the task of proving that reason rules over everything, and that a person who has made it his support and is supported by it can look at the wanderings and aspirations of others and see that they are not doing anything healthy, nothing pleasing to God.” Without philosophy and sound reason, no one can have wisdom. Therefore, every person should philosophize and consider this the most important and excellent thing, and everything else second and third, and if anything is done with philosophy, it is done in moderation and worthy of respect, but without it it is harmful and humiliating for those who undertake it. – So, does philosophy bring happiness? – he asked. “Indeed,” I said, “and she only.” “But what is philosophy,” he said, “and what kind of happiness does it bring, tell me, if nothing interferes?” “Philosophy,” I answered, “is knowledge of things and knowledge of truth, and happiness is the reward of this knowledge and wisdom.” -What do you call God? – he asked. – That which always remains the same and is the cause of the existence of other beings is truly God. This was my answer to the elder, and he listened to it with pleasure. Then he asked me again. – Isn’t knowledge a general name for different things? For in all arts, one who is knowledgeable in any of them is called knowledgeable: so in the art of commanding an army, navigation and medicine. Not so in relation to things divine and human. Is there any knowledge that would give us knowledge about divine and human things, as well as what is divine and just in them? “Of course there is,” I answered. - What? Is it possible to know God and man in the same way as we can know music, arithmetic, astronomy and the like? “So, you answered my question unfairly,” he objected. – For some knowledge is acquired by us through experience or reflection, and others are obtained through vision. If someone told you that in India there is an animal, by its nature unlike all others, but such and such, diverse and multi-colored, you would not have knowledge of it until you saw it, and you could not say anything about it unless you heard from an eyewitness. “Of course so,” I responded. “How,” he asked, “can philosophers think or speak correctly about God when they have no knowledge of Him, have neither seen Him nor heard of Him?” “Of course, father,” I answered. - The deity cannot be visible with the eyes like other living beings: it can only be comprehended by the mind, as Plato says, and I believe him in that. “Is there in our mind,” he asked, “a power of such a nature and volume that it can comprehend what was not previously communicated to it through the senses?” Or will a person's mind ever see God if it is not instructed by the Holy Spirit? “Plato says,” I answered, “that this is the eye of the mind and is given to us for this reason, so that we can through it, when it is pure, contemplate that truly existing one, which is the source of everything that is comprehended by the mind, which has neither color, nor shape, nor size, nor anything else visible to the eye, but is a being identical to itself, the highest of all essence, the ineffable, inexplicable one beautiful and good, suddenly manifesting itself in noble souls because of their affinity and desire to see Him. “What kind of affinity,” he asked, “do we have with God?” Is the soul divine and immortal and is it a part of that supreme Mind? As he sees God, in the same way can we comprehend the deity with our minds and through this become blissful? “Absolutely so,” I said. “Do the souls of all animals,” he asked, “comprehend Him?” Or is the soul of a person of one kind, and the soul of a horse or a donkey of another? “No,” I answered, “but the souls are the same in everyone.” “Will both horses and donkeys see God,” he said, “or have they ever seen Him?” “No,” I answered, “and few people see Him, but only those who lived righteously and became pure through justice and all virtue.” “This means that a person sees God,” he objected, “not because of his affinity with Him and not because he has intelligence, but because he is temperate and fair.” “Yes,” I said, “and also because he is gifted with the ability to think about Him.” - Well? Do goats or sheep adore anyone? – In your opinion, will these animals also see God? he asked. - No, because their body is such that it prevents them. “And if these animals could speak,” he said, “rest assured that they would blame our body with greater justice.” But now let's allow it, and let it be as you say. Tell me this: does the soul see God when it is in the body, or when it is freed from it? “And while she exists in human form,” I said, “she can contemplate God with her mind, but especially when she renounces the body and exists independently, she will achieve what she loved completely and always.” – Does she remember this 16 when she again connects with the human body? - What is the benefit for souls who have seen God, or what advantage does a person who has seen Him have over someone who has not seen Him, if he does not even remember that she saw Him? “I can’t say,” I answered. – And what do those who are recognized as unworthy of this vision endure? “They are imprisoned, as it were, in bonds, in the bodies of certain animals, and this is their punishment. - Do they know that for this very reason they are imprisoned in such bodies and that they have sinned? “It seems that for these souls there is no benefit from punishment; and it cannot be said that they are punished if they are not aware of the punishment. - So, souls do not see God, do not pass into other bodies, otherwise they would know that they are being punished in this way, and would be afraid to commit the slightest sin later. But I agree,” he continued, “that souls are capable of understanding that there is a God, and that justice and piety are good. “You’re right,” I said. “And these philosophers know nothing about such things, for they cannot even say what the soul is.” - It seems unfair. – Otherwise, one should not call it immortal, for if it is immortal, then it is beginningless. – According to some Platonists, it is beginningless and immortal. – And you call the world itself beginningless? – Some people claim this, but I don’t agree with them. - You're doing it right. For what reason is there to think that a body that has such hardness and strength of resistance, complex and changeable, daily destroyed and renewed, did not arise from some cause? If it has a beginning, then souls also necessarily received a beginning and can cease to exist: for they were produced for people and other animals, even if, in your opinion, they originated separately and not together with their bodies. - It seems fair. - So, they are not immortal. – No, because the world itself, as we saw, received a beginning 17. – But at the same time, I do not claim that souls will be destroyed, for this would be very beneficial for the evil ones. What happens to them? The souls of the pious are in a better place, while the evil and lawless are in a worse place, awaiting the time of judgment here. Thus, those who turned out to be worthy to see God no longer die, but others are punished as long as God wants them to exist and be punished 18. - What are you saying, isn’t it the same as Plato teaches in Timaeus 19 regarding the world: according to him, it is subject to destruction, since it received a beginning; however, it will not be destroyed and is not subject to the fate of death, because God wants it so? Don't you think that this applies to the soul and to all things in general? For everything that exists or will exist after God is of a perishable nature and can be destroyed and destroyed; God alone is beginningless and indestructible, and that is why He is God; everything else after Him has a beginning and is subject to destruction. Therefore, souls are mortal and subject to punishment, for if they were without beginning, they would not sin and would not be infected with stupidity, they would not be timid and then bold again, they would not voluntarily move into pigs, snakes and dogs, nor could they be forced to do so, precisely because they are without beginning. For one beginningless is similar to another beginningless, equal and identical to it; and one cannot be placed above another in strength or honor. Hence it is impossible for there to be many beginningless beings, for if there were any difference between them, then no matter how much you searched, you would not find the reason for the difference, but still stretching your thoughts into infinity, finally, after all your labors, you will stop at one without beginning, and you will call this the cause of all things 20 . Didn’t Plato and Pythagoras, the sages who became for us like a wall and stronghold of philosophy, know this, I say? 21 “I don’t care,” answered the elder, “about Plato and Pythagoras, and generally about no one who shared their thoughts.” But the truth is this: you will learn it from the following. The soul either itself is life, or only receives life. If it is life, then it animates something else, and not itself, just as movement moves something else rather than itself. And no one will deny that the soul lives. If it lives, it lives not because it is life, but because it participates in life: what partakes of something is different from what it partakes of. The soul is involved in life because God wants it to live, and therefore it can cease to live if God wants it to no longer live. For it is not characteristic of the soul to live as God does; but just as a person does not always exist, and his body is not always united with the soul, then when this union needs to be destroyed, the soul leaves the body, and the person no longer exists, so from the soul, when it is necessary for it to no longer exist, the life spirit is taken away, and the soul no longer exists, but goes back to the same place from where it was taken. “Which teacher,” I asked, “can a person trust or where can he expect help, if these philosophers do not have the truth?” - There were once people who were much older than any of these revered philosophers - blessed, righteous and pleasing people to God, who spoke by the Holy Spirit and predicted the future, which is now coming true: they are called prophets. They alone called and proclaimed the truth to people, in spite of anyone, without fear, without being carried away by glory, but they only said what they heard and saw when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Their writings still exist today, and whoever reads them with faith will receive much instruction regarding the beginning and end of things, as well as what a philosopher should know. In their speeches they did not indulge in evidence, for they are above all evidence, being reliable witnesses of the truth; the very events that have already happened and are still happening force us to accept their testimony. Also, for the sake of the miracles that they performed, They deserve faith, because they glorified the Creator of all, God the Father, and proclaimed Christ His Son sent from Him; what the false prophets, filled with the spirit of lies and impurity, did not do and do not do: the latter, on the contrary, dare to perform some miracles to amaze people and spread the glory of the spirits of lies and demons. But first of all, pray that the doors of light will be opened to you, for these things cannot be seen or understood by anyone unless God and Christ give Him understanding. Having said this and much more that now was not the time to repeat, the elder left, urging me to think about his words, and I never saw him again. But a fire immediately kindled in my heart, and I was overcome by love for the prophets and those men who are friends of Christ; and, reflecting with myself about his words, I saw that this philosophy is single, solid and useful 22. This is how I became a philosopher. I would like everyone to be of the same thoughts with me and not turn away from the teachings of the Savior; for it inspires some kind of fear and has the power to strike those who have turned aside from the true path, and at the same time serves as the sweetest tranquility for those who live according to it. Therefore, if you care at all about yourself and desire your salvation and trust in God, you can now comfortably, if you do not shy away from work, come to know the Christ of God and, having become a perfect disciple 23, achieve bliss. At these words, my dear 24, Tryphon’s companions laughed, and he himself said, smiling: “I approve of some of what you said, and I am surprised at your zeal for the divine, but it would be better for you to follow the philosophy of Plato or someone else and live in the feat of patience, abstinence and chastity, rather than be deceived by false words and follow people who are worthless.” For if you remained faithful to those philosophical principles and lived blamelessly, then there would still be hope for a better fate; but now that you have forsaken God and placed your hope in man, what means of salvation remain for you? Therefore, if you want to obey me (for I already look at you as a friend), then first accept circumcision, then, as legalized, keep the Sabbath and holidays and new moons of God and generally fulfill everything written in the law, and then, perhaps, you will have mercy from God. As for Christ, if He was born and is somewhere, then He is unknown to others and neither knows Himself nor has any power until Elijah comes, anoints Him and announces Him to everyone. And you, Christians, have accepted a false rumor and imagined some kind of Christ for yourself, and for His sake you are so recklessly ruining your life. “I apologize to you, man,” I objected, “and may this be forgiven you: you say what you don’t know; you follow teachers who do not understand the Scriptures, and you say at random whatever comes into your mind. If you want to accept the evidence that we are not led astray and will not stop confessing Christ, even if for this we were subjected to all sorts of insults from people and the most cruel tyrant forced us to renounce: then I will prove to you, if you stay here, that we believed not empty fables and not unsubstantiated words, but a teaching that is filled with the Holy Spirit and abounds in power and grace. At this, Tryphon’s companions laughed again and raised an indecent cry. Then I stood up and was ready to leave them; but Tryphon took me by the clothes and said that he would not let me go until I fulfilled my promise. “Then don’t allow your comrades,” I answered, “to make such noise and behave indecently; but if they want, let them listen in silence, or leave us if they have something more important to do; and we, walking and resting, will continue the conversation. Tryphon agreed to this proposal; and we decided to go aside with him and came to the middle stage of Xistus, and two of his companions left it, laughing at our jealousy. When we reached the place where there are stone benches on both sides, Tryphon’s companions, who sat on the other side, began to talk about the former Jewish war, which one of them mentioned. When they finished, I began my speech to them again. – My friends, what do you blame us for? Is it because we do not live according to the law, do not circumcise the flesh like your ancestors, do not keep the Sabbath like you? Or do you judge us for our lives and morals? That is, didn’t you also believe the slander that we eat human flesh and after feasting we extinguish the candles and indulge in lawless copulation? 25 Or do you accuse us only of following such teaching and holding thoughts that, in your opinion, are false? “This last surprises me,” said Tryphon, “and as for the slander that many people are making against you, they are not worthy of faith, since they contradict human nature.” But I find your rules in the so-called Gospel so great and amazing that, in my opinion, no one can fulfill them: I tried to read them. This is what especially confuses us: you show off your piety and consider yourself better than others, but you are no different from them and do not surpass the pagans in your life - you do not observe holidays or Saturdays, you do not have circumcision, but place your trust in a man crucified and yet hope to receive good from God without fulfilling His commandments. Have you not read: “The soul that is not circumcised on the eighth day will be cut off from its generation.” This commandment extends to both foreigners and those bought with money 26 . And you have despised this covenant along with the subsequent commandments, and, however, try to convince us that you know God, although you do not observe any of the duties that those who fear God perform. If you can defend yourself in this and show us how you hope for something when you do not keep the law, then with great pleasure we would hear this from you, and then we can explore the rest in a similar way. “There will never be, and from all eternity there has not been, another God, Tryphon,” so I began to tell him, “except the One who created and arranged everything visible to us; and we do not honor another God as ours, and another as yours, but we recognize one and the same, who brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. We trust in no other (for there is no other) except the one in whom you also - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Our hope, however, is not through Moses and not through the law; otherwise there would be no difference between you and us. But I read, Tryphon, that there must once have been a last law and a covenant stronger than all others, which must be observed by all people who wish to receive the inheritance of God. The law given at Horeb is already the old law and only for you, the Jews, but the one I’m talking about is for all people in general; the new law, placed above the law, cancels the ancient one, and the subsequent covenant in like manner destroys the previous one. We have been given an eternal and perfect law and a faithful covenant, this is Christ, after whom there is no more law, statute or commandment. Have you not read what Isaiah says: “Listen to Me, hear, O My people, and give ear to Me, O kings: from Me will come forth My law and My judgment for the light of the nations; My righteousness is quickly approaching, and My salvation will appear, and the nations will trust in My arm.” 27 About the same new covenant, God speaks through Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the one I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.”28 So, if God foretold that He would establish a new covenant and, moreover, one that would be a light for the nations, and we see and are sure that in the name of this very crucified Jesus Christ people turned to God from idolatry and other lawlessness, and until death they continue in their confession and maintain piety; then everyone can understand from these very actions and from the miracles accompanying them that He is the new law and the new covenant and hope of those who from all nations expected benefits from God. And we who are brought to God through this crucified Christ, we are the true spiritual Israel and the race of Judah, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham, who in circumcision received testimony and blessing from God for their faith and was called the father of many nations: - as this will be proven in my further discussion. Moreover, I added other words of Isaiah, where he exclaims: “Listen to My words, and your soul will live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you - the surest reward to David: this I have given as a testimony to the nations... The nations that do not know You will call on You, and the people who do not know You will flee to You, for the sake of Your God, the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified You.” 29. You despised this very law and rejected His new holy covenant, and even now you do not accept it and do not repent of your crime, for “your ears are closed, your eyes are blinded and your heart is hardened” 30. And Jeremiah proclaimed loudly 31 and you did not hear. The Lawgiver has come, and you do not see Him: the poor preach the Gospel, the blind see, but you do not understand. A second circumcision is already needed, and you think a lot about your circumcision according to the flesh. The new law commands you to always keep the Sabbath, but you remain on one day and think that you are pious, not realizing why this commandment was given to you. Again, if you eat unleavened bread, then say that you have fulfilled the will of God, but this is not what pleases the Lord our God. If any of you is guilty of perjury or theft, let him sin no more; if anyone is a fornicator, let him repent, and then he will keep God’s true and acceptable Sabbath. If anyone has unclean hands, let him wash and be clean 32 . Of course, Isaiah 33 did not send you to the bathhouse to cleanse you from murder and other sins - all the waters of the sea cannot wash them; but, as befits him, even then he proclaimed that saving washing 34 which belongs to those who repent, those who are cleansed not with the blood of goats and sheep or the ashes of a young woman, or the offerings of wheat flour, but by faith through the blood and death of Christ, for that very One who died. This is what Isaiah says about it: “The Lord will open His holy arm in the sight of all nations, and all the nations and the ends of the earth will see the salvation of God. Get away, get away, get away, get out of here and don’t touch the uncleanness. Come out from among her, separate yourself from the vessels of the Lord, for you do not walk in disorder; for the Lord will go before you, and the Lord God of Israel will gather you together. Behold, My servant will be filled with understanding, and will be greatly exalted and glorified. How many will be amazed at You - Your appearance and glory will be so despised among people: so many nations will be amazed at You and kings will close their lips; because those to whom it was not announced will see, and those who have not heard will understand. Lord, who believed our rumor? and to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed? We proclaimed before Him like a child, like a root in a thirsty land. He has neither form nor beauty, but His appearance is more dishonorable and despicable than the appearance of the sons of men. He is a man with a plague and knows how to bear the disease, because His face was turned away, mocked and despised. He bears our sins and suffers because of us, and we imputed to Him that He is in sickness, in ulcers and in torment. But He was wounded for our sins and tortured for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; through His wound we were healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray; every man has gone astray in his way. And the Lord gave Him up for our sins, and He does not open His mouth because of torment. Like a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb that is silent before the shearer, so He does not open His mouth. Because of His humility, judgment was removed from Him. But who will tell His generation? Because His life is taken from the earth, and from the iniquities of His people He goes to death. And I will give the wicked for His grave and the rich for His death, because He committed no iniquity and deceit was not found in His mouth. And the Lord is pleased to cleanse Him from the plague. If you give Him as a sacrifice for sin, then your soul will see a long-lasting seed. And the Lord wants to save His soul from suffering, to show him the light and educate him with reason, to justify the righteous man who has beneficially served many. And He will bear our sins. Therefore, He will possess many and divide the spoils of the mighty, because His soul was given over to death, and He was counted among the wicked, He bore the sins of many and was betrayed for their iniquities. Rejoice, the barren one, who did not give birth; open up and exclaim, you who are not ill with the stomach, therefore the one who is alone has many more children than the one who has a husband. For the Lord said: Enlarge the place of your tent and your curtains, spread them out, do not spare, lengthen your ropes and strengthen your stakes, spread them to the right and to the left; and thy seed shall inherit the nations, and thou shalt inhabit the desolate cities. Do not be afraid that you are ashamed, do not be embarrassed that you have been reproached, for you will forget your eternal shame and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood; because the Lord has acquired a name for himself, and your deliverer, the God of Israel himself, will be named throughout all the earth. The Lord called you as a woman abandoned and discouraged, as a woman hated from her youth” 35. So, through the bath of repentance and the knowledge of God, which was established, as Isaiah says, for the sake of the iniquities of the people of God, we believed, and we declare that this baptism, foretold to us, alone can cleanse those who repent, and it is the water of life; and the reservoirs that you dug for yourselves are destroyed and are of no use to you. For what is the use of that washing which cleanses only the flesh and body? Wash your soul from anger and covetousness, from envy, from hatred, and then your whole body will be clean. This is the meaning of unleavened bread, namely, so that you do not do the ancient works of bad leaven; but you understand everything in a carnal sense and consider it piety if you do such things, while your souls are filled with deceit and all kinds of evil. Therefore, after seven days of eating unleavened bread, God commanded you to prepare new leaven, that is, doing other things, and not imitating the ancient and bad 36. And in order to prove that your new Legislator requires this of you, I will again quote the words that I previously presented, along with several others that I then omitted. Isaiah says this: “Listen to Me, and your soul will live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, a sure reward to David; behold, I have given him as a witness to the nations, as a ruler and a guide for the nations... The nations that did not know You will call on You, and the people that did not know You will flee to You, for the sake of Your God, the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified You. Seek God and when you find it, call upon Him while He is near to you. Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the wicked man his intentions, and let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, for He will generously forgive your sins. For My purposes are not as your purposes, and My ways are not as your ways; but as far as heaven is from earth, so far is My way from your path, and your thoughts from My thoughts. Just as snow or rain comes down from heaven and does not return there until it has watered the earth and fertilized it, so that it grows and gives seed to the sower and bread for food, so will My word be that goes out of My mouth: it will not return until it has accomplished all that pleases Me, and My commandments have been prospered. For you will go out willingly and you will be brought out with joy. The mountains and hills will jump for joy, waiting for you, and all the trees of the field will splash their branches, and instead of thorny grass the cypress will spring up and instead of the nettles the myrtle will spring up. And the Lord will be in the name and for an everlasting sign, and will not fail” 37. These and other similar words of the prophets, Tryphon, I added, relate partly to the first coming of Christ, at which it was foretold that He would appear inglorious, ugly 38 and mortal, and partly to His second coming, when He would come in glory and on the clouds of heaven; then your people will see and recognize Him Who was pierced, as Hosea 39, one of the 12 prophets, and Daniel 40 predicted. So, learn to observe the true fast of God, as Isaiah says, so that you may please God. Isaiah declared: “Shout loudly, do not spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and tell my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their iniquities. They seek Me from day to day and desire to know My ways, as if they were a people who have done righteousness and have not forsaken the statutes of God. They now ask Me for righteous judgment and want to draw closer to God, saying: why did we fast and You didn’t see, why did we humble our souls and You didn’t know? During the days of your fasts you find all your pleasures and burden your workers; Behold, you fast for disputes and strife and strike the humble with your fists. Why do you fast to Me as you do now, so that your voice may be heard crying? This is not the kind of fast I chose, so that a person would humble his soul in a day. Even if you bend your neck like a circle and spread sackcloth and ashes under you, do not call it a fast and a day pleasing to the Lord. This is not the fast I have chosen, says the Lord, but destroy every alliance of unrighteousness, break the networks of violent agreements, set the oppressed free, and destroy every unrighteous record. Break your bread to the hungry and bring the bloodless poor into your house; If you see a naked man, cover him, and do not despise the household of your seed. Then your morning light will appear and your garments 41 will quickly shine, and your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of God will surround you. Then you will call, and God will hear you, and while you are still speaking, He will say: Here I am. If you put away from you covenant, rubbing of hands and words of murmuring, and give your bread to the hungry from your heart and encourage the dejected soul, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkness will be like the noonday. And your God will always be with you, and you will be satisfied as your soul desires, and your bones will become fat and will be like a watered garden, or a spring of water, or an earth with abundant water.”42 Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart, as the word of God requires in all these sayings. And God himself proclaimed through Moses the following words: “Cut off the hardness of your hearts and be no more stiff-necked: for the Lord your God and the Lord of lords is a great, powerful and awesome God. “He doesn’t look at faces and doesn’t accept gifts” 43. And in the book of Leviticus: “Because they transgressed against Me and despised Me, and because they walked crookedly before Me, I also walked crookedly with them, and I will destroy them in the land of their enemies. Then their uncircumcised heart will be ashamed." 44 The fleshly circumcision received from Abraham was given to you as a sign by which you would be separated from other nations and from us, and so that you alone would endure the disasters that have now justly befallen you, and so that your country would be devastated and your cities burned with fire, your fruits would be destroyed in your sight by your enemies, and none of you would dare enter Jerusalem 45 . For you are distinguished in no other way from other people except by circumcision; and none of you, I think, will dare to deny that God foresaw and foresees the future and that He prepares for everyone a fate in accordance with his merits. Therefore, those disasters have befallen you worthily and justly, for you killed the Righteous One and His prophets before Him, and even now you despise and, as much as you can, dishonor those who trust in Him and in the Almighty and Creator of all God who sent Him: and you curse in your synagogues those who believe in Christ 46 . You currently do not have the power to kill us yourself - those in power today are preventing this; and when you could, you did that too. That is why God calls to you through the prophet Isaiah: “See how the righteous perished, and no one takes it to heart: and righteous people are killed, and no one thinks about it. The righteous is taken from the presence of unrighteousness. His grave will be in peace; he is taken from among you. You have brought here, O wicked sons, the seed of adulterers and the children of harlots. At whom did you make fun, against whom did you open your mouth and loosen your tongue” 48? Other nations are not as much to blame as you for this injustice that occurs in relation to us and to Christ; for you are the authors of their evil prejudice against the Righteous One and against us, His followers. When you crucified Him, the only blameless and righteous man, by whose stripes all who come to the Father through Him are healed, and when you learned that He had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, as foretold in the prophecies, then not only did you not repent of your atrocities, you also sent chosen people from Jerusalem to the whole earth to proclaim that a godless Christian heresy had appeared, and to spread slander against us, which all those who don’t know us usually repeat it. Thus, you are the cause of injustice not only for your own, but also for all other people. And Isaiah rightly exclaims: “Through you my name is blasphemed among the nations.”49 And: “Woe to their soul, because they conceived an evil plan against themselves, saying: We will bind the righteous, because he is of no use to us. For this they eat the fruits of their deeds. Woe to the wicked: evil shall befall him according to the works of his hands.”50 And again in another place: “Woe to those who drag down their sins as if with a long rope, and unrighteousness as if with the strap of a yoke, who say: Let His speed draw near, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put light for darkness and darkness for light, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”51 You have tried to spread throughout the entire earth those bitter, dark and false accusations against the one immaculate and correct Light, from God, sent to people. He seemed useless to you when he exclaimed before you: “It is in the scripture: My house is a house of prayer..., but you made it a den of thieves” 52 . And he overthrew the tables of the money changers in the church, and said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you give tithes of mint and rue, ... and do not think about the love of God and about judgment: ... whitewashed tombs, which seem beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead.”53 And to the scribes: “Woe to you, scribes, because you have the keys and do not enter in, and hinder those who want to enter, you are blind leaders.” 54 Since you declared, Tryphon, that you had read the teaching taught by our Savior, I do not consider it inappropriate that I added several short sayings of Him to the prophetic words. And so, “Wash yourselves, and be now pure, and take away wickedness from your souls” 55: so God commands you to be washed with this washing and to be circumcised with the true circumcision. We would also observe your circumcision in the flesh and the Sabbath and all the holidays in general, if we did not know for what reason they were commanded to you, namely because of your sins and coarseness of heart. For if we patiently endure all the attacks on us by evil people and demons, and even in the midst of unspeakable images of death and torment, we pray for mercy for our tormentors, and according to the commandment of the new Lawgiver, we do not wish the slightest revenge on anyone; then why, Tryphon, should we not observe what does not harm us at all, that is, carnal circumcision, Saturdays and holidays. “Is it truly worthy of surprise that you endure such disasters and do not observe everything that we are now talking about 56?” “This is because circumcision is not necessary for everyone, but only for you Jews, so that, as I said before, 57 you may be subject to the calamities that you rightly suffer today.” We do not accept your useless washing from reservoirs, for it is nothing in relation to that baptism of life. That is why God declares that “you have forsaken Him, the living fountain, and dug for yourselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water” 58 . And you, being circumcised in the flesh, have need of our circumcision, but we, having this, do not need yours. If carnal circumcision were necessary, as you think, then God would not have created Adam uncircumcised 59 , would not have respected the gifts of Abel, who made sacrifices in the uncircumcision of the flesh, would not have pleased Him with Enoch uncircumcised, so that he was not found, because God took him 60 . Lot the uncircumcised was saved from Sodom because the angels and the Lord himself brought him out. Noah, the beginning of a new generation, being uncircumcised, entered the ark with his children. Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High, was not circumcised, to whom Abraham, the first to receive circumcision according to the flesh, gave tithes, and Melchizedek blessed him, according to whose order God commanded through David 61 to appoint an eternal priest. So, you alone needed this circumcision, so that, as Hosea, one of the twelve prophets, says, “the people were not people and the people were not people” 62 . All the previously mentioned righteous people pleased God by not keeping the Sabbath, and after them Abraham and all his descendants until the time of Moses, during which your people appeared unrighteous and ungrateful before God, making a calf in the desert. Therefore, God, condescending to the weakness of the people, commanded that sacrifices be made only in His name, so that you would not worship idols 63 , but you did not observe this, but even slaughtered your children as sacrifices to demons 64 . He also commanded you to keep the Sabbath so that you would remember God, as indicated by the saying of God: “so that you may know that I am God your deliverer” 65 . God also commanded you to abstain from certain foods, so that when you eat and drink you will have God before your eyes 66 , since you are fickle and inclined to abandon the knowledge of Him, as Moses says: “The people ate and drank and rose up to play” 67 . And in another place: “Jacob ate and was filled and became fat, 68 and his beloved turned back; became fat, grew fat, enlarged, and left God who created Him” 69. But that God allowed Noah, a righteous man, to eat every animal, except the flesh of the blood, which died of itself, this is told to you by Moses in the book of Genesis 70. Tryphon wanted to object to me with the words: “like grass grains” 71, but I warned him and asked: why do you take the words “like grass grains” not in the sense in which they were spoken by God, that is, just as God created grains for food for man, so He gave animals so that he could eat meat? But just as we do not eat some plants, it is as if - you say - even at that time Noah was commanded to make a distinction between animals. Your explanation cannot be accepted. First of all, I could easily prove that every grain is grass and is used as food, but I will not dwell on this. Let us suppose that we make a distinction between herbal grains and do not eat all plants, but this is not because they are unclean and unclean, but because they are either bitter, or poisonous, or prickly; but all sweet, nutritious and beautiful plants, whether they grow on the sea or on land, we eat with pleasure. It follows from this that God, through Moses, commanded you to abstain from unclean, predatory and ferocious animals because you, who ate manna in the desert and saw all the miracles God created for you, cast a golden calf and worshiped it. It is true that God always says about you: “Fools of fools! there is no faith in them" 72 . And that for the sins of yours and your fathers, God, as a reminder of them, as I said before, commanded you to keep the Sabbath and placed other commandments on you, and that he left some of you alive for the pagans, so that His name would not be defiled among them: His very words can prove this to you. Thus it is said through Ezekiel: “I am the Lord your God: walk in My commandments, keep My statutes, and do not cleave to the customs of Egypt, and sanctify My Sabbaths; They will be a sign between Me and you, so that you may know that I am the Lord your God.” But you provoked Me to anger, and your children did not walk in My commandments, and did not strive to do My statutes, and whoever does them will live through them, and they have profaned My Sabbaths. And I said, “I will pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to complete my wrath on them,” but I did not, lest my name be completely defiled in the sight of the nations, before whose eyes I brought them out. And I lifted up My hand against them in the wilderness, to scatter them among the heathen and to scatter them in the countries, because they did not keep My statutes, rejected My commandments, and profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on the thoughts of their fathers. And I gave them bad commandments and such decrees that they would not live; and I will defile them in their houses 73 when I come to destroy every creature that opens the womb” 74 . Further, because God also commanded sacrifices for the sins of your people and for idolatry, and not because He needed them, listen to how He speaks about this through Amos, one of the twelve prophets: “Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you need this day of the Lord? He is darkness, not light, it is the same as if a man ran away from a lion and was met by a bear, or if he walked into his house and leaned his hands on the wall and a snake bit him. Surely, the day of the Lord is not darkness, and not light - darkness from which there will be no light for them: I have hated, I have rejected your holidays and I will not find pleasure in your assemblies. Therefore, if you bring me your burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them, and I will not regard your saving manifestations. Take from Me many of your songs and psalms: I will not listen to your organs. Let judgment flow like water, and righteousness like an impassable fountain. Did you bring sacrifices and offerings to Me in the wilderness, O house of Israel? says the Lord. But you took the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan, images that you made for yourself. And I will remove you beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is Almighty God. Woe to those who live luxuriously in Zion and trust in Mount Samaria. Those who bore the name of the leaders gathered the first fruits from the pagans: the house of Israel went up to themselves. Go all of you to Halan and look from there, go to the great Amath, and from here go down to Gaia of the foreigners, to the most beautiful of all these kingdoms; Are their limits greater than your limits? Woe to those who come on the ill-fated day, who draw near and celebrate false Sabbaths, who sleep on beds of ivory, who indulge in luxury on their beds, who eat lambs from the herd and young calves from the herd, who applaud to the sound of organs - they thought that this would continue and not run away - who drink wine from large cups and anoint themselves with excellent ointments, but did not grieve at all for Joseph's contrition. For this they will now go into captivity, and at their head are princes going into exile; the dwelling of the wicked will be removed, and the neighing of horses will be taken away from Ephraim" 75 . And again through Jeremiah: “Gather together your meats and sacrifices and eat, because I gave no commandment to your fathers about sacrifices and drink offerings on the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt” 76 . And through David, in Psalm 49, He said this: “The God of gods, the Lord spoke and called the earth from the east of the sun to the west. From Zion is the splendor of His beauty. God will clearly come, our God, and will not remain silent: a fire will kindle before Him and a strong storm will surround Him. He will call heaven above and earth to judge his people. Gather to Him His saints, who have entered into a covenant with Him through sacrifice. And the heavens will proclaim His righteousness, for God is the Judge. Listen, my people, and I will tell you, O Israel, and I will testify to you: I am God, your God. It is not because of your sacrifices that I will rebuke you: your burnt offerings are always before Me. I will not accept calves from your house or goats from your flocks, for all the beasts of the field, the cattle on the mountains, and the oxen are Mine; I know all the birds of the air, and the beauty of the field is with Me. If I am hungry, I will not tell you, for the universe and everything that fulfills it is Mine. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer a sacrifice of praise to God and render your vows to the Most High; Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me. And God said to the sinner: Why do you explain My statutes and accept My covenant with your lips? You hated the teaching and threw My words back. If you saw a thief, you ran with him, and laid your share with the adulterer. Your mouth is full of malice and your tongue has woven fetters; you have sat and slandered your brother, and tempted your mother’s son. You did it, and I was silent; you imagined such wickedness that I would be like you. I will reprove you and bring all your sins before your face. Understand this, you who forget God, so that someday He will not kidnap you, and there will be no one to deliver you. The sacrifice of praise will glorify Me, and there is a way where I will show him My salvation.” And so God does not accept sacrifices from you, and initially established them to be offered not because of the need for them, but for your sins. Even the church called Jerusalem, God recognized as His home or palace, not because He needed it, but so that you, at least there, honoring Him, would not worship idols. This is confirmed by the words of Isaiah: “What kind of house have you built for me? - says the Lord. “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool” 77. If we do not recognize this, we must fall into absurd thoughts: either as if there was not one and the same God in the days of Enoch and all the others who did not know either carnal circumcision, or keep the Sabbath and other institutions prescribed by Moses, or that God was pleased that the human race should not always perform the same righteous deeds; to think so is clearly ridiculous and stupid. But we must confess that God, being always one and the same, prescribed these and similar actions because of sinners, and thus we can recognize Him as a lover of mankind, foreseeing the future, all-content, just and good. If something is wrong, then answer me, my sirs, what do you think about this subject? Nobody answered. Then I began: Behold, Tryphon, I will tell you and those who wish to be proselytes 78 the Divine teaching that I heard from that man 79 . You see that the 80 elements are not idle and do not keep the Sabbath. Abide as you were born. If before Abraham there was no need for circumcision, and before Moses there was no need for the Sabbath, holidays and offerings, then now, when, by the will of the Father, the Son of God Jesus Christ was born without sin from a Virgin from the race of Abraham, there is also no need for them. And Abraham himself, while still uncircumcised, was justified and received blessing for the faith that he had in God, as Scripture shows 81; he received circumcision only as a sign, and not for justification, which both Scripture and the very essence of the matter force us to admit. Therefore, it is rightly said about that people: “every soul that is not circumcised on the eighth day will be cut off from its generation” 82 . And the inability of the female sex to undergo carnal circumcision proves that this circumcision is given as a sign, and not as a work of righteousness; God created women in such a way that they can also do everything holy and virtuous. We see that the bodily structure of a man and a woman is different, but we know that both are righteous or unrighteous, not on this basis, but in relation to piety and virtue. It would be possible, my friends, I continued, to prove to you that the eighth day, more than the seventh, contained the sacrament that was thus proclaimed by God. But so that it does not seem that I am deviating to other subjects, I ask you to understand that the blood of circumcision has been destroyed, and we have believed in the saving blood: there is now a different covenant, a different law that has come out of Zion. Jesus Christ circumcises all who wish, as was once prophesied: “with knives of stone” 83 , so that there may be “a holy nation, a people who keep the faith, adhere to the truth and keep peace” 84 . “Come with me, all you who fear God, who desire to see the blessings of Jerusalem. Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord; He sent his people, the house of Jacob, away. Come, all nations, let us gather together in Jerusalem, no longer besieged by war for the sins of the people.”85 “I have revealed myself to those who do not seek Me, I have been found by those who do not ask Me,” says the Lord through Isaiah. “I said, Here am I, to the nations that did not call on my name. I stretched out My hands all day long to an unfaithful and rebellious people, to people who walk in evil ways, but follow their own sins. These are the people who insult Me before My face." 86 Together with us 87 those who justify themselves and are called the children of Abraham will wish to have at least a small part in the inheritance, as the Holy Spirit calls through Isaiah, speaking as if on their behalf: “Look from heaven and look from the habitation of Your holiness and glory. Where is Your zeal and strength? Where is the abundance of Your mercy, for You have endured us. Lord! You are our Father, for Abraham did not know us and Israel did not recognize us. But You, Lord our Father, free us; from the beginning Your name has been upon us. Why did You, Lord, allow us to wander far from Your path, and harden our hearts so that we did not fear You? Bow down for the sake of Your servants, for the sake of the tribes of Your heritage, so that we may receive a little inheritance from Your holy mountain. We have become as we were at first, when You did not possess us and Your name was not named over us. When You open the sky, fear from You will embrace the mountains, and they will melt, like wax melts from fire; and the fire will burn up the adversaries, and Your name will be known to Your adversaries; The nations will tremble at Your presence. When You do something glorious, fear from You will embrace the mountains. Since the ages we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen, God except You and Your works, which You will do to those who await mercy. He will meet with those who do righteousness, and they will remember Your ways. So You became angry, and we sinned. Because of this we went astray and became all unclean, and all our righteousness was like sitting rags, and we fell away like leaves because of our iniquities: so the wind will carry us away. And no one calls on Your name, no one remembers to take hold of You, because You turned Your face away from us and gave us up for our sins. But turn now, Lord, for we are all Your people. The city of Your holiness has become desolate, Zion has become like a desert, Jerusalem is cursed; the house, our sanctuary, and the glory that our fathers blessed were burned with fire and all the glorious customs fell. You allowed all this, Lord, and were silent, and greatly humbled us." 88 What do you mean,” said Tryphon, “your words that none of us will receive any inheritance on the holy mountain of God? “I’m not saying that,” I answered, but that those who persecuted Christ and are still persecuting, and do not repent, will not receive any inheritance on the holy mountain. On the contrary, the nations who have believed in Christ and repented of what they have sinned will receive an inheritance along with the patriarchs, prophets and righteous people born of Jacob; although they do not keep the Sabbath, are not circumcised, and do not observe the holidays, they will undoubtedly receive the holy inheritance of God. God speaks through Isaiah this way: “I, the Lord God, have called you in righteousness, and I will take you by the hand and strengthen you, and will make you a covenant for generations, for the light of the nations, so that you may open the eyes of the blind, and bring the prisoners out of their chains and those sitting in darkness from the house of prison.”89 And again: “Raise a banner for the nations. So the Lord announced to the ends of the earth: tell the daughters of Zion: behold, the Savior has come to you, having a reward and a work before Him; and he will call it a holy people, redeemed from the Lord, and you will be called a city sought out and not forsaken. Who is this that cometh from Edom, the redness of His raiment from Bozrah? He, handsome in robes, ascending in the greatness of His power? I discuss the righteousness and judgment of salvation. Why are Your garments red, and Your vestments as from a vine? Full of crushed grapes, I alone have trodden the winepress, and among the nations there is no man with Me; and I trampled them in wrath and crushed them like the earth, and poured out their blood on the earth. The day of vengeance has come for them, and the year of redemption is coming. I looked and there was no helper, I looked and no one gave help: an arm saved Me, and My anger came; and I trampled them in My wrath, and poured out their blood on the earth" 90. “But why,” objected Tryphon, “do you cite from the prophecies only those places that are favorable to you, and did not mention those where it is clearly commanded to keep the Sabbath?” Here are the words of Isaiah: “When you keep your foot from the Sabbaths, so as not to fulfill your desires on the holy day, you will call the Sabbaths most pleasant days, dedicated to your God, you will not move your foot to work and you will not utter a word from your mouth, and you will trust in the Lord; then He will lead you to earthly blessings and provide you with the inheritance of Jacob your father: the mouth of the Lord has spoken this” 91. Friends,” I answered, “I omitted other prophetic sayings, not because they contradict me, but because you know and should know that if God through all the prophets commands to do the same thing that He commanded through Moses, then for your hard-heartedness and ingratitude towards Him He repeats the same thing, so that at least in this way you will repent and please Him, so that you do not sacrifice your children to demons and not were “accomplices of thieves, loving gifts and chasing rewards, refusing protection to the orphans and inattentive to the widow’s judgment, and finally, so that your hands are not filled with blood” 92. “For the daughters of Zion walked with their necks high, playing with the blinking of their eyes and dragging their tunics together” 93. “Everyone has turned aside,” God cries, “everyone has become worthless: there is not one wise, not even one. With their tongues they deceived, their throats were an open coffin, the poison of asps was behind their lips, destruction and misfortune were in their ways, and they did not know the way of peace” 94 . So, just as at first God laid these commandments on you for your sins, so for your persistence in them, or better yet for multiplying them, He, by repeating the same thing, awakens you to the remembrance and knowledge of Him. But you are a hard-hearted, foolish, blind and lame people, and “sons who have no faith,” as He Himself says, “who worship Him only with their lips, but are far from Him in heart, teaching their own teaching that is not His.” Also, tell me: did God really want the high priests to sin by making sacrifices on the Sabbath, or by those who were circumcised and circumcising others on the Sabbath day to sin, when God commands that those born on the eighth day must be circumcised, even if it were the Sabbath? If He knew that circumcision on the Sabbath was wicked, could He not have commanded that it be performed on those born on the day before or after the Sabbath? or why didn’t God teach the righteous people who lived before Moses to fulfill the same decrees, who were called righteous and were pleasing to Him, although they were not circumcised and did not keep the Sabbath? “And we heard this from you before,” said Tryphon, “and paid attention; this, to tell the truth, is worth attention. And I will not say, like others, that it was God’s will: this is always a trick of those who are not able to answer the question. “Since I offer my proofs and exhortations from the Scriptures and from the essence of the matter itself,” I said, do not hesitate and do not hesitate to believe me, although I am uncircumcised. A short time remains for you to convert, and if Christ precedes you with His coming, then you will repent in vain, you will cry in vain, for He will not hear you. “Plow up new fields for yourselves,” Jeremiah tells the people, “and do not sow on thorns. Be circumcised to the Lord and take away the uncircumcision of your heart." 96 Therefore, do not sow on thorns or on unplowed ground; there will be no fruit for you from it. Know Christ - here is a new land, beautiful and rich for your hearts. “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will visit all those who have circumcised their foreskin, Egypt and Judah, Edom and the children of Moab, because all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in their hearts.”97 You see, God does not want that circumcision, which is given as a sign: it is of no use to the Egyptians and to the sons of Moab and Edom 98 . But whether one is a Scythian or a Persian, if he has knowledge of God and His Christ and keeps His eternal commandments, he is circumcised with a beautiful and useful circumcision and is a friend of God, who joyfully accepts his gifts and offerings. Now I will tell you, friends, the words of God Himself, spoken to the people through Malachi, one of the twelve prophets. Here they are: “I have no favor with you, says the Lord, and I will not accept your sacrifices from your hands: because from the east of the sun to the west, my name is glorified among the nations, and in every place a sacrifice is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice; because My name is glorified by the nations, says the Lord, but you profane it” 99. And through David he said: “A people whom I did not know began to serve Me; with the hearing of the ear they obeyed Me.” 100 Let us unite all nations and together glorify God for the fact that He has looked upon us; Let us glorify Him through the King of glory, through the Lord of hosts. For He has shown His favor towards the pagans, and our sacrifices are more acceptable to Him than yours. So, what need do I have of circumcision when I have a testimony from God in my favor? What is the benefit of such baptism to me, baptized in the Holy Spirit? Of this, I think, I can convince even those who have little understanding. It was not me who composed such a teaching and it was not embellished by human art, but David sang it, Isaiah preached it, Zechariah preached it, Moses wrote it. Do you know him, Tryphon? It is in your writings, or better yet, not in yours, but in ours, because we believe them, but you read them and do not understand their meaning. Do not be annoyed, do not reproach us for the uncircumcision of the body, which God Himself established, and do not be horrified that we drink hot water on Saturday, 101 because God rules the world on this day as well as on all others, and the high priests are commanded to offer sacrifices on that day as on others; and there were so many righteous people, attested by God Himself, who did not keep any of these provisions of the law. But attribute to your own wickedness that God may be falsely accused by foolish men, that He has not always taught the same righteousness to all. And to many the legal decrees seemed unreasonable and unworthy of God - these are people who have not received grace to understand that through them your wicked and sick-souled people were called by God to conversion and spiritual repentance, and that the prophecy uttered after the death of Moses is eternal. This is also said in the psalm, friends 102. But that we, wise in the commandments of God, recognize them as “sweeter than honey and honeycomb,” 103 this is revealed by the fact that even death does not force us to renounce the name of the Lord. Everyone knows that we, believers in God, pray to Him to “save us from strangers,” that is, evil and deceitful spirits, as the prophetic word of one of those who believe in Him figuratively says. And we always pray to God through Jesus Christ to preserve us from demons who are alien to the reverence of God and whom we once worshiped, so that after turning to God through Christ we may be blameless 104 . For we call Him Helper and Savior, from the power of whose name the demons tremble, and now conjured by the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, the former ruler of Judea, they obey us; from here it is obvious to everyone that His Father gave Him such great power that even the demons submit to the name and dispensation of His former suffering 105 . If His power is so great, with which the economy of His suffering was and is accompanied, then what will it be like at the time of His glorious coming? He will come as the Son of man, on the clouds, accompanied by angels, as Daniel announced in the following words: “I looked while thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days sat down: His raiment was white as snow, the hair of His head was like pure wool, His throne was like a flame of fire, the wheels under Him were burning fire. A river of fire flowed from Him, thousands of thousands served Him, and darkness stood before Him. The books opened and the court sat down. I then saw the voice of the great words that the horn spoke; and the beast was killed, its body perished and was given to the fire to be burned; and other animals lost their power, only the life of these animals was continued for a certain period and for a while. Then I saw in a vision at night, and behold, one like the Son of Man walked with the clouds of heaven, and reached the Ancient One in days, stood before Him, and those present brought Him. And royal power and honor were given to Him, and all nations according to their families, and all glory served Him; His power is eternal power, which cannot be taken away, and His kingdom will not perish. My spirit was afraid in my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I approached one of those standing and asked him for an explanation for all this. He answered me and showed me the meaning of those words: these great beasts mean four kingdoms that will disappear from the earth and will not receive a kingdom until the age and even the age of centuries. Then I wanted to know exactly about the fourth beast, which crushed everything and was very terrible; his teeth are iron and his claws are copper; he ate, tormented, and trampled the remains with his feet; - also about ten horns on his head and about one that grew, from which the first three fell: this horn had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and its appearance was more courageous than the others. I also noticed that this horn waged war with the saints and gained the upper hand over them, until the Ancient of Days came and gave judgment to the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints of the Most High received the kingdom. About the fourth beast I was told this: there will be a fourth kingdom on earth, which will surpass all these kingdoms, devour the whole earth, devastate it and destroy it. Ten horns mean ten kings who will rise, and after them another, who will surpass the first in malice, will subdue three kings and will utter words against the Most High, will overthrow the other saints of the Most High and will decide to change days and times; and they will be given into his hand for a time and for times and half a time. But the court sat down, and they took away his power in order to destroy and destroy it in the end. The kingdom and power and greatness of the kingdoms of all under heaven were given to the holy people of the Most High, so that they might reign forever; all authorities will submit and serve Him. This is the end of the word. I, Daniel, was very amazed at the vision, my appearance changed, however, I kept what was said in my heart” 106. - When I fell silent for a minute, Tryphon said: “These and similar passages of Scripture, my lord, make us expect that glorious and great person who will receive from the Ancient One in days, like the Son of Man, an eternal kingdom; and this one you call Christ was dishonored and dishonored, so that he was subjected to the most extreme curse, which is prescribed in the law of God - he was crucified on the cross. “If I had not proven from the Scriptures that I have previously cited,” I said in response to Tryphon, “that His appearance is inglorious, and His generation inexplicable, that for His death the rich will be put to death, and that by His striping we have been healed, that He will be led like a sheep; if I had not revealed that His coming will be twofold, one when He was crucified by you, the other, “when you know whom you have pierced, and your tribes will mourn, tribe to tribe, women especially and men especially,” 107 then it might seem that I am speaking dark and unknown; and now I, throughout the whole conversation, present all the evidence from your holy and prophetic Scriptures, in the hope that among you there may be found one of that seed which, by the grace of the Lord of hosts, is preserved for eternal salvation. However, in order to reveal the real question to you more clearly, I will present other words spoken by the prophet David: from them you will learn that Christ from the Holy Spirit of prophecy is even called Lord, that the Lord of all, the Father, raises Him up from the earth and places Him at His right hand, until He finally makes His enemies His footstool 108; this has been fulfilled since the time when our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven after the resurrection from the dead, and meanwhile times are drawing to a close, and already standing at the door is the one who will utter blasphemous and insolent words against the Most High, and who, in the words of Daniel, will hold out “for a time, times and half a time.” But you, not knowing how long he will last, think differently; for you put “time” at a hundred years. If this is so, then the man of lawlessness must reign for at least three hundred and fifty years, if what Daniel says “and times” is taken to mean only two times. In saying this, I retreated from the present subject, so that you, having been convinced by what God has said about you: “You sons of fools” 109, and also: “For this, I still want to deport this people, and I will deport them and take away wisdom from the wise and hide understanding from those who understand” 110, - you will stop deceiving yourself and others who listen to you, and learn from us, made wise by the grace of Christ. These are the words spoken by David: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool. The Lord will send You a rod of strength from Zion, and reign among Your enemies. Dominion is with Thee in the day of Thy power, in the brightness of Thy saints: from the womb before the dawn have I begotten Thee. The Lord has sworn and will not repent: You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at Your right hand: in the day of His wrath He destroyed kings. He will judge among the nations, he will fill the corpses. He will drink from the fountain on the way: therefore He will lift up His head" 111. “I know,” I continued, “that you think to interpret this psalm as if it refers to King Hezekiah; but from the words of the psalm itself I will now prove to you that you are mistaken. It is said: “The Lord has sworn and will not repent,” “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,” and so on. You do not dare to contradict us that Hezekiah was not a priest and is not the eternal priest of God, and that this is said about our Jesus, the words themselves show. “But your ears are closed and your hearts are blinded” 112. As for the words: “The Lord has sworn and will not repent,” “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”: then with them God, with an oath, because of your unbelief, declared Him a priest according to the order of Melchizedek: that is, as Melchizedek, according to Moses, was a priest of the Most High God and, moreover, a priest of the uncircumcised, and blessed the circumcised Abraham 113, who brought him to tithe, so God declared that His eternal priest, who is called Lord by the Holy Spirit, will be the priest of the uncircumcision, and those of the circumcision who come to Him, that is, believe in Him and ask for blessing, He will accept and bless them. And that He will first be a humble man, and then exalt himself, is clear from the concluding words of the same psalm: “He will drink from the spring along the way,” and further: “therefore He will lift up His head.” To further prove to you your misunderstanding of the Scriptures, I will remind you of another psalm inspired to David by the Holy Spirit, which, in your opinion, refers to Solomon, who was king among you; but it is also said about our Christ. You are deceived by monosounding words. Where the law of the Lord is called “immaculate” 114, there you do not mean the law that was to come after Moses, but the law given by Moses himself, although God promised to give “a new law and a new covenant” 115. And the psalm, which says: “O God, give Thy judgment to the king,” 116 you attribute to Solomon, since he was a king, although the words of the psalm clearly preach about the eternal king, that is, about Christ; for Christ is called king, priest, God, Lord, angel and man, captain of hosts, a stone, a child born, first lifting up suffering, and then ascending into heaven and again having to come with glory, and finally having an eternal kingdom, as I prove to you from all the scriptures. And so that you understand what I said, I will quote the words of the psalm. Here they are: “O God, give Your judgment to the king, and Your righteousness to the king’s son, so that He may judge Your people with righteousness and Your poor with judgment. Let the mountains accept peace for the people and the hills accept truth. He will judge the poor of the people, and will save the sons of the poor people, and will humble the slanderer, and will abide with the sun, and before the moon, throughout all generations. He will come in like rain on the fleece, and like a drop falling on the ground. During His days righteousness and abundance of peace will shine until the moon is taken away. And He will rule from sea to sea and from rivers to the ends of the world. The Ethiopians will fall before Him and His enemies will lick the ground. The kings of Farsia and the islands will bring gifts, the kings of Arabia and Sheba will bring gifts, and all the kings of the earth will worship Him, and all nations will serve Him, for He has delivered the poor from the strong, and the needy who had no helper. He has spared the poor and needy, and will save the souls of the poor; He will deliver their souls from covetousness and unrighteousness, and His name will be precious before them. And he will live, and some of the gold of Arabia will be given to him; and they will constantly pray for Him, they will bless Him all day long. He will be supported on the earth, he will be exalted on the heights of the mountains; His fruits will (grow) in Lebanon and flourish in the midst of the city like the grass of the earth. His name will be blessed forever; before the sun, His name exists. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through Him; All nations will magnify Him. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wonderful things, and blessed is the name of His glory forever and ever; and the whole earth will be filled with His glory. Let it be, let it be” 117. At the end of this psalm, which I cited, it is written: “The songs of David, the son of Jesse, are finished.” I know that Solomon was a glorious and great king, and under him the so-called Temple of Jerusalem was built, but it is clear that nothing of what was said in the psalm was fulfilled on it. For all the kings did not worship him, his kingdom did not extend to the ends of the earth, and his enemies did not fall before him and lick the earth. But I dare to quote what is written in the book of Kings about his deeds, namely: to please his wife, he worshiped idols in Sidon, 118 which those of the pagans who, through Jesus crucified, knew the Creator of all God, do not do, but are rather ready to endure every torment and punishment until their last breath, rather than worship idols or eat things sacrificed to idols. However,” Tryphon objected, “I hear that many who say that they profess Jesus and are called Christians eat food sacrificed to idols and claim that there is no harm from it. – True, there are people who declare themselves Christians and recognize Jesus crucified as Lord and Christ, and at the same time preach not His teaching, but the spirits of lies, but from this we, disciples of the true and pure teaching of Jesus Christ, become stronger in faith and firmer in the hope He proclaimed. For we ourselves see His predictions about what will be done in His name being fulfilled in practice; he said: “Many will come in My name, outwardly clothed in sheep’s skins, but within ravenous wolves” 119 . “There will be divisions and heresies” 120. “Beware of false prophets, who will come to you, outwardly clothed in sheep’s skins, but inwardly ravening wolves.” 121 “Many false Christs will arise and deceive many of the faithful.” 122 So, friends, there are and were many who, coming in the name of Jesus, taught to say and do ungodly and blasphemous things: they are known among us by the names of those from whom this or that teaching and opinion originally originated. For each of them in his own way teaches to blaspheme the Father of all and Christ, whose coming He foretold, and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 123; We do not communicate with any of them, knowing that they are godless, ungodly, unrighteous and lawless, and do not honor Jesus, but confess Him only in words. They call themselves Christians, just as pagans inscribe the name of God on idols, and participate in lawless and godless rituals 124. Some of them are called Marcians, 125 others Valentinians, others Basilidians, and others Saturnilians, or another name, each receiving the name from the founder of his teaching, just as each of those who considers himself a philosopher, as I said at the beginning, 126 finds it necessary to bear the name of the philosophical teaching he follows from the father of the school. So, not only from this, as I said, we are convinced that Jesus knew what would happen after Him, but also from many other things that He foretold concerning those who believed and confessed Him as Christ. The very suffering that we endure, being killed by our neighbors, He predicted to us, so that in no way can we reproach Him for any word or action. Therefore, we pray for you, and for all our other persecutors, that you will repent with us and not blaspheme Christ Jesus, who has testified in all things to be blameless and innocent by works, miracles, and now performed in His name, words of teaching and prophecies predicted about Him; we pray that you will believe in Him and be saved at His future glorious coming and not be condemned by Him to the fire. “Let it be as you say,” objected Tryphon; Let us assume that it is predicted about Christ that He will suffer, that He is called a stone, and after the first coming, in which, according to predictions, He should appear to the suffering, He will come with glory and then will be the Judge of all, the eternal King and Priest; but prove whether he is the one about whom it was predicted. “According to your desire, Tryphon,” I answered, “I will present the evidence that you require in my place; and now let me first bring the prophecies that I want to prove that Christ is called God and Lord of hosts by the Holy Spirit and allegorically Jacob; your interpreters are “foolish”, according to the word of God 127, arguing that this is not said about Christ, but about Solomon, when he brought the tabernacle of testimony into the church built by him. Here is a psalm of David: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that fills it, the world and all who live beyond it. He founded it on the seas and placed it on the waters. Who will ascend to the mountain of the Lord, or who will stand in His holy place? Innocent in hands and pure in heart, he who did not waste his soul in vain and did not swear falsely to his neighbor; he will receive blessing from the Lord and mercy from God his Savior. This is a race of those who seek the Lord, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your gates, O princes, and rise up, O everlasting gates, and the King of glory will rise up. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord is strong and mighty in war. Lift up your gates, O princes, and you shall be lifted up, O everlasting gates, and the King of glory will arise. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts is the King of glory." 128 It has already been proven 129 that Solomon is not the Lord of hosts, but our Christ. When he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, the princes appointed by God in heaven were commanded to open the gates of heaven so that He who is the King of glory would ascend, and, having ascended, “sat at the right hand of the Father until He made enemies at His footstool,” as is said in another Psalm 130. Since the princes of heaven saw that He had an appearance devoid of beauty, honor and glory, then, not knowing Him, they asked: “Who is this King of glory?” And the Holy Spirit answered them on behalf of the Father or Himself: “The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory.” Everyone will agree that neither about Solomon, no matter how glorious this king was, nor about the tabernacle of the testimony, none of those standing at the gates of the temple of Jerusalem dared to say: who is this King of glory? And in Psalm 46,” I continued, “this is what it says about Christ: “God arose with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing the praises of our God, sing; sing to our King, sing. For God is the King of all the earth, sing wisely. God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the nations gathered together with the God of Abraham, because the mighty of God’s land were greatly exalted.” And in Psalm 98, the Holy Spirit reproaches you and shows that the One whom you do not recognize as King is the King and Lord of Samuel, Aaron, Moses and all the others. The words of the psalm are as follows: “The Lord reigns, let the nations be angry; He sits on cherubim, let the earth shake. The Lord is great in Zion and exalted above all nations. Let them recognize Your great name, because it is terrible and holy, and royal honor loves judgment. You prepared justice, You brought justice and righteousness to Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool, for He is holy. Moses and Aaron are among His priests; and Samuel was among those who called on His name; they called,” says the Scripture, “to the Lord, and He listened to them. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud: they kept His testimony and the commandment that He gave them. Lord our God, You listened to them; God, You were merciful to them and took revenge for all their inventions. Exalt the Lord our God and worship on His Holy Mountain, for Holy is the Lord our God.” “It was good for us, sir,” Tryphon objected then, “when we obeyed the teachers, who issued a command that we should not talk to any of you, and not enter into discussions with you about such subjects, because you say a lot of wicked things: you are trying to convince us that this Crucified One was with Moses and Aaron and spoke to them in the pillar of cloud, then he became a man and was crucified, ascended to heaven, and will come to earth again, and that I must worship Him. “I know,” I answered, “that, according to the testimony of the word of God, this great wisdom of the Creator of all and Almighty God is hidden from you.” Therefore, out of compassion for you, I make every effort so that you understand this teaching of ours, which is so strange to you; if not, at least I will be innocent on the day of judgment. You will hear other teachings that will seem more strange to you; do not be embarrassed, but listen and investigate more readily, despising the tradition of your teachers, who are convicted by the Spirit of prophecy that they cannot understand the words of God, but are trying more to teach their own doctrines. Psalm 44 speaks in a similar way about Christ: “My heart has poured out good words: I speak my deeds to the king. My tongue is the reed of a scribe who is soon writing. You are more beautiful in appearance than the sons of men; grace was poured out in Your mouth, therefore God blessed You forever. Gird Your sword on Your thigh, O Mighty One; be strengthened and prospered by Your adornment and Your beauty, and reign for truth, meekness and righteousness: and Your right hand will guide You wonderfully. Your arrows are sharp, O Mighty One, the nations will fall before You, into the heart of the king’s enemies. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; The rod of justice is the rod of Your kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated unrighteousness: for this God Thy God has anointed thee with the oil of gladness above Thy partakers. Your garments are fragrant with myrrh, scarlet and cassia, from the ivory houses with which they entertained You. Daughters of kings in Thy honor; At Your right hand appeared a queen in gilded clothing, multi-colored. Listen, daughter, and consider and incline your ear and forget your people and your father’s house. And the king will desire your beauty, because He Himself is your Lord, and they will worship Him. The daughter of Tyre will bear gifts; the rich of the people will pray before Your face. All the glory of the royal daughter is inside, she is decorated with golden fringes and different flowers. The virgins, her friends, will lead her to the King, her neighbors will bring her to You. They will bring you with joy and joy, they will bring you to the royal church. Instead of Your fathers, sons were born to You; You will make them princes throughout the whole earth. I will remember Your name from one generation to another: therefore people will glorify You forever and ever.” “It’s not surprising,” I continued, “if you hate us, who understand these sayings and reproach you for your always stubborn prejudice.” Even Elijah, talking with God, says this about you: “Lord! they have killed Your prophets and destroyed Your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my soul.” God answers him: “I still have seven thousand people who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 131 Therefore, just as then God withheld His anger for the sake of those seven thousand, so now He did not and does not inflict His judgment, for He knows that some daily become disciples in the name of His Christ and leave the path of error, and each of them receives gifts according to their worth, being enlightened through the name of this Christ. One receives the spirit of reason, another - advice, another - power, another - healing, another - foreknowledge, another - teaching, and another - the fear of God 132. “Know,” Tryphon said to me, “that by speaking in this way, you are out of your mind.” “Listen, friend,” I said, “I’m not crazy or beside myself. It was predicted that Christ, after ascending to heaven, would free us as captives from error and give us gifts. These are the words: “He ascended on high, took captivity captive, and gave gifts to men” 133 . So, we, having received gifts from Christ who ascended on high, prove from the words of the prophets that you, wise in yourselves and knowing in your own eyes, are fools and only worship God and His Christ with your lips; and we, being instructed in all truth, honor Him with our deeds, knowledge and heart, even to the point of death. However, perhaps you do not dare to recognize Him as Christ, as the Scriptures show, visible events and deeds performed in His name, because you are afraid of persecution from the rulers who, through the action of an evil and deceitful spirit, this serpent, will not cease to persecute and kill those who profess the name of Christ until He comes again, crushes them all and rewards each according to his dignity. “Now prove to us,” said Tryphon, “that the one who, according to you, was crucified and ascended into heaven, is the Christ of God.” You have already proven in sufficient places from the Scriptures that you cited earlier that Christ must also suffer, and that He will come again with glory and receive an eternal kingdom over all nations, and all power will submit to Him; but prove to us: is your Jesus really the same one? “This, my sirs, has already been proven for those who have ears, even from what you yourself admit.” But so that you do not think that I am at a loss and am not able to present the required evidence, I will fulfill this in my place, as I promised, and now I will turn to the continuation of the speech I began. So, the sacrament of the lamb, which God commanded to be slaughtered as the Passover, was a prototype of Christ, with whose blood believers, according to the measure of their faith in Him, anoint their houses, that is, themselves 134; for the image that God created, namely Adam, was the habitation of the breath of God, as you all can understand. And that this commandment about the lamb was given for a time, I will prove this way. God does not allow the Passover lamb to be slaughtered anywhere except in the place where “His name is called” 135: because He knew that after the suffering of Christ the days would come when the place of Jerusalem would be given over to your enemies, and all offerings would cease altogether. The lamb, which was ordered to be roasted all over, was a symbol of the suffering of the cross that Christ had to suffer. For when a lamb is roasted, it is placed in the likeness of a cross: one spit passes through it straight from the lower extremities to the head, and the other across the shoulder blades, on which the front legs of the lamb are supported. In the same way, those two goats during Lent, the same by command, of which one was released and the other was sacrificed, 136 announced the twofold coming of Christ: first, when the elders of your people and priests brought Him out as a goat released, laid hands on Him and killed Him, and the other coming of Him, since you will recognize in the same place in Jerusalem the One Whom you dishonored, and Who was an offering for all sinners who wish to repent and observe the fast prescribed by Isaiah, that is, those who break the bonds of violent agreements and observe the commandments numbered by the prophet and mentioned by me; which those who believe in Jesus do. You also know that this offering of two goats, which were ordered to be brought during fasting, is not allowed anywhere except Jerusalem. And the offering of wheat flour, my lords,” I continued, “which was ordered to be brought for those cleansed from leprosy, was a prototype of the bread of the Eucharist, which our Lord Jesus Christ commanded to be offered in remembrance of the suffering He raised for people who cleansed their souls from all sin, and at the same time so that we thank God, both for the fact that He created the world for man and everything that is in it, and for the fact that that He freed us from the sin in which we were, and completely destroyed principalities and powers through Him who became suffering according to His will. Therefore, God speaks about the sacrifices that you then offered, as I said before, through Malachi, one of the twelve prophets: “I have no favor with you, says the Lord, and I will not accept your sacrifices from your hands: because from the rising of the sun to the west, My name is glorified among the nations and in every place incense and a pure sacrifice is offered to My name, for My name is great among the nations, says the Lord, and you are his you defile" 137. About the sacrifices that we pagans offer in every place, that is, about the bread of the Eucharist and also about the cup of the Eucharist, even then He predicts, adding that we glorify His name, but you desecrate it. And the commandment of circumcision, commanding that infants be circumcised without fail on the eighth day, was a type of true circumcision, with which we were circumcised from error and sin through our Lord Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead on the first day of the week; for the first day of the week, being the first of all days, is nevertheless called the eighth in the calculation of all days according to their circulation, although it remains the first. The twelve bells 138, hanging, in accordance with the command, on the long robe of the high priest, were a symbol of the twelve Apostles, who were strengthened by the power of the eternal Priest Christ, and whose voice filled the whole earth with the glory and grace of God and His Christ. Therefore, David says: “Their voice went through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” 139 Also, Isaiah, as if on behalf of the Apostles, who tell Christ that people believe not in their preaching, but in the power of Him who sent them, thus cries out: “Lord! who believed our rumor? And to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed? We preached before Him like a child, like a root in a thirsty land,” 140 and other words of prophecy that I cited before. The words spoken as if on behalf of many: “we preached before Him,” with the addition: “like a child,” show that the wicked will become His servants and will obey His commands, and all will become like one youth. This can also be seen on the body: although it is considered to have many members, they are all called together and are one body; so both the people and the church, consisting of many people in number, but forming one whole, are designated and called by one name. So, my lords, I continued, by listing all the other decrees of Moses, I could prove that they were prototypes, symbols and announcements of what was going to happen to Christ, of those people whose faith in Him was foreknown, as well as of the actions that Christ Himself was to perform. But since, in my opinion, what I have listed is enough, I will continue my speech in order. So, if circumcision began with Abraham, and the Sabbath, sacrifices, offerings and holidays from the time of Moses, and it was proven that they were established due to the hardness of heart of your people, then all this should have stopped with the coming of the Son of God, Christ, who, by the will of the Father, was born of a virgin from the line of Abraham, from the tribe of Judah and David, and about whom it was predicted that He would come as an eternal law and a new covenant for the whole world, as this can be seen from the previously cited prophecies. But we, who came to God through Him, received not carnal circumcision, but spiritual circumcision, which Enoch and others observed; We accepted it by the mercy of God through baptism, since we were sinners, and everyone can equally accept it in the same way. Now I turn to the mystery of the birth of Christ, which calls our attention. Isaiah spoke about the origin of Christ Himself, which is inexplicable to people, as I have already mentioned: “Who can tell His generation? His life is taken from the earth, He was led to death for the sins of My people" 141. With these words, the prophetic Spirit said that the origin of the One who had to die in order for us sinners to be healed by His plague is inexplicable. In addition, so that people who believe in Him could know how He would be born and come into the world, the prophetic Spirit through the same Isaiah predicted His birth like this: “And the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying: Ask yourself for a sign from the Lord your God in the depths or in the heights. And Ahaz said, I will not ask or tempt the Lord. Isaiah said, Listen now, O house of David! Is it really not enough for you that you burden people? Why are you still burdening the Lord? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The Virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son, and His name will be called Emmanuel. He will eat oil and honey before he can reject evil and choose good: because before a child can distinguish good from evil, He will reject evil in order to choose good. Before the child can name father or mother, He will take the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in view of the king of Assyria. And the land will be abandoned, which you can hardly tolerate because of the two kings. However, God will bring on you and on your people and on your father’s house days that have not yet come upon you since the time when he separated Ephraim from Judah - (he will bring) the king of Assyria” 142 . That no one in the race of Abraham was ever born according to the flesh, nor was it said that he was born of a virgin, this is known to everyone. But since you and your teachers dare to say that the prophecy of Isaiah does not say: “Behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb,” but: “Behold, a young woman will conceive in her womb and bear a Son,” and, moreover, you attribute this prophecy to Hezekiah, your former king, then I will try to reprove you in short words to explain it, and to prove that it is said about Him whom we recognize as Christ. In doing this, I will be completely right in relation to you, because I am trying to convince you with evidence; and if you remain hard-hearted or hesitate in your decision out of fear of death, which is determined for Christians, and do not want to admit the truth, then you will find yourself guilty of your own death. And you deceive yourselves when, on the basis that you are Abraham’s seed according to the flesh, you think to inherit the blessings that God promised to bestow through Christ. No one will receive any of these benefits, except only those who in spirit have become like the faith of Abraham and have known all the sacraments: I mean that some commandments are given for piety and right life, other commandments and rituals are prescribed either in relation to the sacrament of Christ, or in consideration of the hardness of heart of your people. That this is so, God Himself shows in Ezekiel, saying: “if Noah and Jacob 143 and Daniel ask for sons or daughters, it will not be given to them” 144. But He speaks the same thought in Isaiah like this: “The Lord God said: And they will come out and see the skeletons of the people who have transgressed against Me; for their worm will not die and the fire will not be quenched, and they will be a spectacle for all flesh" 145 . So, having cut off such hope in your souls, you must try to find out in what way you can receive remission of your sins and hope of inheriting the promised benefits; but there is no other way except that you, having come to know our Christ and having been washed by that baptism for the remission of sins, which Isaiah proclaimed, then live without sin. “Although, as it seems,” said Tryphon, “I am interrupting the words that you think are necessary to clarify the matter, let me first ask you a question that is crowded in my soul, and to which I wish resolution.” “As much as you want,” I said, “ask what comes to your mind; and even after your questions and answers, I will try to resume and complete my evidence. “Tell me,” Tryphon asked, “will those who lived according to the law given by Moses live in the resurrection of the dead, like Jacob, Enoch and Noah, or not?” “My lord,” I answered, “when I quoted the words of Ezekiel: “even though Noah and Daniel and Jacob ask for their sons and daughters, it will not be given to them,” but each will obviously be saved by his own righteousness, I said that those who lived according to the law of Moses will also be saved. For in the law of Moses those who obey it are commanded to do what is by nature good, holy and just, and in addition to this it is commanded to do what is legalized by the hardness of the people; This is what the people under the law did. since those who did universal, natural and eternal good are pleasing to God, then they, like the righteous men who lived before them Noah, Enoch, Jacob and others, at the time of the resurrection will be saved through our Christ, together with those who recognized this Christ as the Son of God, who was before the morning star and the moon, and then deigned to be incarnate and born of a Virgin from the line of David in order to overcome through such an economy from the beginning, the serpent and the angels who resembled him cunningly, so that death would be trampled upon, and at the time of the second coming of Christ Himself would completely lose all power over those who believe in Him and live well, and then no longer exist, when some will be sent to continually suffer judgment and fiery condemnation, while others will live together, free from suffering and corruption, without sorrow and in immortality. “But if someone even now,” Tryphon asked me, “wants to live according to the law of Moses and together believes in this crucified Jesus and recognizes that He is the Christ of God, that He has been given the power to judge everyone without exception and His kingdom is eternal, then can such people also be saved?” “Let’s discuss together,” I said, “is it still necessary to observe everything prescribed by Moses?” “No,” he answered, “we know that, as you said, neither the Passover lamb can be slaughtered anywhere else, 146 nor goats can be offered during Lent, as commanded, nor all other sacrifices.” “So, tell me, I ask you,” I said, “what regulations can be observed?” then you will be convinced that it is quite possible to be saved without observing and fulfilling these eternal decrees 147. “We can keep the Sabbath,” he answered, “we can be circumcised, observe the months, and wash ourselves if we touch something forbidden by Moses, or after sexual intercourse.” “Then,” I objected, “in your opinion, can Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Job and other righteous people like them who lived before them and after them be saved - I mean also: Sarah, the wife of Abraham, Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, Rachel, the wife of Jacob and Leah and other similar women, even before the mother of Moses, the faithful servant of God? They did not comply with anything like that. “Weren’t Abraham and his descendants circumcised,” answered Tryphon. “I know,” I said: “Abraham and his descendants were circumcised; and why circumcision was given to them, I explained in detail before, and if what has been said so far does not convince you, then we will further examine this subject. You know that not a single righteous person before Moses observed or received a commandment to observe any of these decrees that we are now talking about, except for circumcision, which received its origin from Abraham. “We know,” he said, “and we admit that they will be saved.” “Understand,” I said again, “that all such commandments were given to you by God through Moses, out of the hardness of heart of your people, so that, through these numerous decrees, you would always have God before your eyes in every matter and would not decide on lawless and ungodly deeds.” So God ordered you to wear a red rag 148 on yourself so that through it you would not forget God; He also ordered you to wear an amulet 149 made of small strips of parchment depicting letters, which, of course, we think, were sacred; and this on the part of God was to excite you to constant remembrance of Him and at the same time served as a conviction in your souls. But you did not retain the memory of God in the least, and even through this you were not convinced not to serve idols: but in the time of Elijah, enumerating those who did not bend the knee to Baal, God named only seven thousand, and in the book of Isaiah he denounces you for sacrificing your children to idols. On the contrary, because we do not make sacrifices to those to whom we once made sacrifices, we endure the most terrible torment, and we rejoice when we are killed, believing that God will resurrect us through His Christ and make us incorruptible, free from suffering and immortal. But we know that the regulations given to you because of the hardness of heart of your people do not in the least contribute to righteousness and holiness. “But will he be saved,” Tryphon asked again, “who, realizing that this is true, recognized this Christ, believes and obeys Him, and in addition wants to observe these decrees?” “In my opinion, Tryphon,” I said, “such a one will be saved, unless he tries in every possible way to persuade other people, that is, pagans who have been circumcised through Christ through error, to observe the same, and does not claim that they cannot be saved unless they observe those decrees, as you did at the beginning of our conversation, saying that I will not be saved without observing them.” – Why did you say: “in my opinion, such a one will be saved?” Are there people who reject the possibility of salvation for such? “Yes, Tryphon,” I answered, “they are afraid to even have communication in conversation or in food with such people; but I don't agree with them. If someone, out of weakness of spirit, wants to observe some of the decrees of Moses, which are possible now, given in our opinion for the sake of your hardness of heart, and at the same time will trust in Christ and fulfill the eternal and natural rules of justice and holiness, live with Christians and believers, but, as I already said, will not incline them to be circumcised, like himself, to keep the Sabbath and other similar things, then, I think, such people should be received and have fellowship in everything with them, as with relatives and brothers. If, Tryphon, - I said, - someone from your family says that he believes in this Christ, but in every possible way forces the pagans who believed in Christ to live according to the Law of Moses or does not want to have communication with them in life, then I do not accept such people either. However, I think that those who are convinced by them to combine the confession of Christ of God and the observance of the law can be saved. But in no way, in my opinion, will those be saved who, having believed and recognized Him as Christ, for some reason turned to the Jewish law, rejected Christ and did not repent before death. Nor will those who, descended from the seed of Abraham, live according to the law and did not believe in this Christ before their death, be saved, especially those who cursed and curse those who believe in this Christ Himself in order to achieve salvation and be freed from the punishment of fire. Mercy, love for mankind and the immeasurable wealth of God's mercy, according to Ezekiel, accepts those who repent of sins as righteous and sinless; and the one who falls from piety or righteousness into wickedness and lawlessness is recognized as a sinner, unrighteous and wicked. That is why our Lord Jesus Christ said: “In what I find you, in that I will judge you.” 150 “Now we know,” said Tryphon, “your opinion regarding this.” Resume your speech where you left off and finish it: it seems strange to me, and it seems completely impossible to prove it. You say that this Christ is God, who existed before the ages, then deigned to be born and become man, and that He is not just a man of men: this seems to me not only strange, but also absurd. “I know,” I answered, “that this seems strange, especially to those of your people who have never wanted to understand and fulfill the Divine, but follow only the traditions of your teachers, as God Himself proclaims this 151.” However, Tryphon,” I continued, “my proof that He is the Christ of God is not in vain, even if I could not prove that He, being God, existed from the beginning as the Son of the Creator of all and was born a man from a virgin. But since it has been fully proven that He is the Christ of God, whoever this Christ may be, 152 even though I will not prove that He existed before and by the will of the Father deigned to be born as a man, subservient to us, having flesh - in this last point only it is fair to say that I am mistaken, but it is unfair to deny that He is the Christ if He appears to you as a man, born of men, and if it is proven that He became by election Christ. There are some of our kind 153, friends! - I said to those who recognize Him as Christ, but call Him a simple man, born of men: I do not agree with them and will not agree, even if the majority of like-minded people began to say this with me; because Christ Himself commanded us to believe not in human teachings, but in what was announced by the blessed prophets and what was taught by Himself. “It seems to me,” said Tryphon, “those who claim that He was a man and was anointed by election and became Christ speak more justly than you, who think as you teach; for we all expect that Christ will be a man of men, and that when he comes he will be anointed by Elijah. Therefore, if it is revealed that the One about whom you speak is Christ, then we must fully recognize Him as a man, born of men; and since Elijah has not yet come, I do not recognize Him as Christ. “Doesn’t the word of God say through Zechariah 154,” I asked again, “that Elijah will come before that great and terrible day of the Lord?” “Of course so,” he answered. - So, if the word of God prompts us to admit that according to the prophecies there will be two comings of Christ, one when He will appear to the suffering, inglorious and without form, the other when He will come in glory as the Judge of all - as this has been proven from the previously cited passages of Scripture: then should we not admit that the word of God foreshadowed Elijah as the forerunner of a terrible and great day, that is, His second coming? “And our Lord,” I said, “taught in His teaching that the same thing would happen when He said that Elijah would come 155; and we know that this will be fulfilled when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with glory from heaven. His first appearance was also preceded by a messenger, that is, the Spirit of God who was in Elijah, who then acted through John the Prophet from your people, after whom no other prophet appeared among you. He, sitting by the Jordan River, exclaimed: “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one mightier than me will come, whose boots I am not worthy to wear: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He has a spade in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather the wheat into the barn, and He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire” 156. Your king Herod imprisoned this same prophet, and when, during the celebration of his birthday, his brother’s daughter pleased him with a dance, he allowed her to ask for whatever she wanted. The mother inspired the girl to ask for the head of John, who was in prison; and as a result of her request, the king sent and ordered the head of John to be brought on a platter. Therefore, our Christ, when he still lived on earth, said this to those who argued that Elijah should come before Christ: “Elijah will come and arrange everything: but I tell you that Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him, but did with him as they wanted.” And then it is written: “then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist” 157. “It seems strange to me what you say,” said Tryphon, “namely, that the prophesied Spirit of God, who was in Elijah, was also in John?” “But don’t you think,” I answered, “that the same thing happened with Joshua, the son of Nun, who took over the people after Moses, when God himself commanded Moses to lay his hands on Jesus and said: “And I will take from the Spirit that is in you and transfer it to him.” “Of course I think so,” he said. “So,” I continued, “if God, even during the life of Moses, took from the Spirit that was in Moses and transferred it to Jesus, then he could also transfer it from Elijah to John, so that just as Christ at the time of His first coming appeared inglorious, so the first appearance of the Spirit, which in Elijah always remained in purity 159, would appear, like the coming of Christ, inglorious. For it is said that “The Lord is fighting against Amalek with a secret hand,” 160 and you do not deny that Amalek has fallen. If we say that Amalek will be defeated only at the time of the glorious coming of Christ, then what will be the fruit of the Scripture, which says: “The Lord is fighting against Amalek with a secret hand.” Therefore, you can understand that the secret power of God was in Christ Crucified, Whom the demons and all the principalities and powers of the earth tremble. “It seems to me,” said Tryphon, “that you have often been in competition with many about all controversial subjects, and therefore now you can answer everything that they ask you about.” Answer me first about how you prove that there is another God besides the Creator of all, and then prove that He was born of a Virgin. “First, allow me,” I answered, “to quote from the prophecy of Isaiah some passages relating to the service of the Forerunner, which John the Baptist and Prophet performed for our Lord Jesus Christ. “Isaiah,” I said, “speaks this way about the predecessor of John: “Hezekiah said to Isaiah: good is the word of the Lord, which he said: let there be peace and righteousness in my days.” And “comfort the people; priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem and comfort her, because her humiliation is fulfilled; his sin is forgiven, because he accepted his double sins from the hand of the Lord. The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the ways of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God! Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and every crooked place shall be made straight, and every rough place shall become smooth paths; and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see the salvation of God; because the Lord said so. Speaker's voice: proclaim! I said: what should I proclaim? All flesh is grass, and all glory of man is like the flower of grass. The grass withers and its blossom falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Climb to the high mountain, O evangelist of Zion; lift up your voice with might, O evangelist of Jerusalem. Lift up, don't be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah: Behold your God, behold the Lord cometh with power, and His arm passeth with power. This is His reward with Him and His work before Him. Like a shepherd He will feed His flock and with His arm He will gather the lambs and He will comfort the one who is with child. Who measured the water with his hand, the sky with a span, and the whole earth with a handful? Who announced the mountains on the scales and the hills on the steelyard? Who recognized the mind of the Lord and who was His adviser and taught Him? Or with whom did He consult and who admonished Him? Or who showed Him the judgment? Or who opened the way of understanding to Him? All nations are like a drop from a bucket, they were considered as the inclination of the steelyard and will be considered as saliva. There will not be enough Lebanon for burning, and there will not be enough four-legged animals for burnt offerings; all nations are nothing, and are counted as nothing” 162. “When I stopped speaking, Tryphon said: “The words of the prophecy cited by you, my sir, are mutual and have nothing decisive to prove what you want to prove.” “If, Tryphon,” I answered, “they had not stopped after John, and until now there had been prophets in your family, then these words might seem mutual. But if John came before Christ to preach repentance to people, if Christ came to John when he was sitting by the Jordan River, and put an end to his prophecy and baptism and Himself began to preach the Gospel, saying that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and that He must suffer much from the scribes and Pharisees, be crucified and rise on the third day, appear again in Jerusalem and again eat and drink with His disciples, and what in the period of time before His coming, as I already said, heresies 163 and false prophets will appear under His name, which has already clearly been fulfilled; If this is so, then how can you still doubt it when you can be convinced by it yourself? Moreover, He said that in your generation there will no longer be a single prophet, and people will know that the new covenant has already come, which God once promised to establish, that is, He is Christ; These are His words: “The law and the prophets until John the Baptist; from this time on, the kingdom of heaven is taken by force and strong seekers get it. And if you want to know, he is Elijah who must come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear" 164. “The Patriarch Jacob also predicted,” I continued to say, “that there will be a twofold coming of Christ, and that during the first He will be a sufferer, and after His coming your people will have neither a prophet nor a king, and that the nations who believe in Christ the sufferer will await His second coming.” That is why the Holy Spirit, I said, spoke this in a parable and in secret. He said this: “Judas, your brothers have praised you; your hands are on the back of your enemies; the sons of your father will worship you, Judah, little lion: from a young branch, my son, you came. Having reclined, he fell asleep like a lion and like a lion's cub: who will wake him up? The prince of Judah and the leader of his bowels will not fail until what is set aside for him comes 165; and he will be the desire of the nations: he will tie his foal to the vine, and the foal of his donkey to the ivy. He will wash his garments in wine and his garments in the blood of grapes. His eyes are merry with wine and his teeth are white as milk." 166 And that in your family from the very beginning until the time of the birth and suffering of Christ there was never a prophet or ruler, you do not dare to assert so shamelessly, and you cannot prove it. For although you say that Herod, from whom He suffered 167, was from Ascalonia, you do not deny that in your family at that time there was a bishop, so that even then you had one who offered sacrifices according to the law of Moses and kept other statutes; and there were also successive prophets before John. In the same way, even while your people were taken to Babylon, the land was conquered and the sacred vessels were taken away, the prophet did not cease to be among you, who was the lord, leader and ruler of your people. For the Spirit who worked in the prophets anointed and appointed kings for you. But after the appearance among you and the death of Jesus our Christ there was and now there is no prophet; you have ceased to have your own king, and your land is devastated and abandoned, like a “guard in a garden” 168 . The saying of James: “and He will be the hope of the nations” symbolically showed that the coming of Christ will be twofold and the nations will believe in Him: this, finally, now you can see; because we, of all nations, who have become worshipers of God and righteous through faith in Christ, await His second coming. - The saying: “He will tie his foal to the vine and the foal of his donkey to the ivy,” foreshadowed both the deeds He did at the time of His first coming, as well as the nations who would believe in Him. They were like a foal that had neither a saddle nor a yoke around its neck, until this Christ came and, through the disciples He sent, turned them to His teaching, and they, having accepted His teaching, subdued their neck to endure everything in anticipation of the benefits promised from Him. And indeed our Lord Jesus Christ, when he intended to enter Jerusalem, ordered the disciples to bring to Him a donkey, which with its foal was tied at the entrance to a village called Bethphage, and mounted it and entered Jerusalem. Since it was clearly foretold that this would be fulfilled by Christ, the generally known fulfillment of it clearly proves that He is the Christ. And despite the fact that all this has been fulfilled and shown in the Scriptures, you still remain hard-hearted. Zechariah, one of the twelve prophets, predicted what this would be in the following words: “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, rejoice, preach, daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King will come to you - just and saving, meek and poor, sitting on the leash and the foal of an ass” 169. And that the prophetic Spirit, together with the patriarch Jacob, says that He will have in His possession a donkey with its foal, then He Himself commanded the disciples, as I have already said, to bring both animals - this was a prediction of those who would believe in Him, both from your synagogue and from the pagans. For just as the colt that did not bear a yoke was a symbol of the pagans, so the yoked ass indicated the people of your people, because you have a law that was imposed on you through the prophets. The Prophet Zechariah even predicted that this Christ himself would be defeated and His disciples would scatter, which is what happened. After His crucifixion on the cross, His disciples who were with Him scattered until He rose from the dead and convinced them that this was what had been predicted about His suffering; They, thus admonished, went into the whole world and preached this teaching. Therefore, we are firm in His faith and teaching, for we are convinced of this by the prophets and by those who, as we see, have become throughout the entire universe worshipers of God in the name of this Crucified One. Thus it was said to Zechariah: “Sword, rise up against My Shepherd and against a man of My people, says the Lord of hosts; smite the Shepherd and his sheep will be scattered" 170. – The words transmitted by Moses and spoken by the patriarch Jacob: “He will wash his garments in wine and his garments in the blood of grapes,” meant that He will wash those who believe in Him with His blood. The Holy Spirit called His garment those who received the remission of their sins through Him: in them He is always present by His power, but will be fully present at His second coming. The saying “blood of a grape” mysteriously shows that Christ has blood, but not from the seed of man, but from the power of God. Just as it was not man who produced the blood of the grapes, but God, so it is predicted that the blood of Christ will not come from the human race, but from the power of God. And this prophecy I have cited, my lords, shows that Christ is not a simple man, born like ordinary people. “We will remember this explanation of yours,” answered Tryphon, “if you support this opinion with other evidence.” Now begin your speech again and prove to us that the Spirit of prophecy recognizes another God besides the Creator of all, not to mention the sun and the moon, which, according to the testimony of Scripture 171, God allowed the pagans to worship as gods. The prophets often use this word and say: “Your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords,” adding repeatedly that He is “great, strong and terrible” 172. This is said not in the sense that they were really gods, but Scripture makes it clear that the only true God, who created everything, is the Lord of imaginary gods and rulers; and to show this, the Holy Spirit said through Saint David: “the gods of the nations,” that is, those who are revered as gods, “are idols of demons, and not gods” 173. And He adds a curse to those who make them and worship them 174. “I do not intend, Tryphon,” I said, “to present evidence from those passages of Scripture by which, I know, those who worship imaginary gods are condemned, but I will present those to which no one can object; they will seem new to you, although you read them every day.” And from this you can understand that God, for your malice, has hidden from you the ability to understand the wisdom contained in His words, except for those to whom, by the grace of His great mercy, He left, as Isaiah 175 says, a seed for salvation, so that your people would not perish completely like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. So, pay attention to the passages that I present from the Holy Scriptures: they do not require explanation, but you only need to listen to them. - Moses, the blessed and faithful servant of God, proclaims that the one who appeared to Abraham at the oak of Maurice was God, together with two angels who were sent to condemn Sodom by the Other, always above the heavens, who did not appear to anyone and never directly talked. Whom we call the Creator of all things and the Father. Here are the words of Moses: “God appeared to him by the oak tree of Moor, while he was sitting at the door of the tent at noon. Raising his eyes, he saw, and behold, three men stood before him; and when he saw them, he ran from the door of his tent to meet them and bowed down to the ground and said” and so on until the words: “And Abraham hastened early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord, and looked at the sight of Sodom and Gomorrah and at the sight of the surrounding country, and he saw, and behold, a flame rose from the earth like smoke from a furnace” 176 . Having finished this, I asked if they understood the words given. They answered that they understood, but that they in no way served to prove what I said, that there is or is mentioned by the Holy Spirit another God and Lord, besides the Creator of all. “I will try,” I said, “to prove what I affirm to you who understand the Scriptures, that is, that there is and is mentioned, besides the Creator of all, another God and Lord, who is also called an angel, because he proclaims to people what pleases the Creator of all, above Whom there is no other God.” And again, repeating the words I quoted, I asked Tryphon, do you think that God appeared to Abraham at the Moorish oak tree, as the Scripture says? - And He was one of those three whom the Holy Spirit of prophecy calls men and whom Abraham saw? – I asked. “No,” said Tryphon, “but God appeared to him before the appearance of those three, and those three whom Scripture calls men were angels - two were sent to destroy Sodom, and the third announced to Sarah the birth of her son, for which he was sent, and then went his way.” “How then,” I asked, “one of the three, who was in the tent, who said: “I will return to you at that time, and Sarah will have a son,” 177 appeared again after the birth of Sarah’s son, and calls His prophecy word God? So that you can understand what I am saying, listen to the clear words of Moses: “When Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian slave, who was born to Abraham, playing with Isaac, her son, she said to Abraham: drive out this slave and her son, because the son of this slave will not be an heir along with my son Isaac. And this word about his son seemed very cruel to Abraham. Then God said to Abraham: Let this not be cruel before you in relation to your son and to your slave; whatever Sarah tells you, obey her voice, for your seed will be called Isaac.” 178 “Have you understood,” I asked, “that the one who then promised to return under the oak tree, knowing in advance that it would be necessary to give Abraham advice about what Sarah was inclining him to, came in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He is God, as the following words show: “God said to Abraham: Let not this be cruel before you in relation to your son and to the slave girl”? “We understand,” answered Tryphon; - but by this you did not prove that there is another God besides the One who appeared to Abraham and also to other patriarchs and prophets; you only showed us that we unfairly thought that the three who were in Abraham’s tent were all angels. “Even if I could not,” I objected, “prove to you from the Scriptures that one of those three is God and, indeed, is called an angel, because, as I said before, He proclaims the will of God the Creator of all to those to whom He pleases to reveal it; however, even then you should have recognized that this One in the form of a man, like the two former angels with him, who appeared on earth to Abraham, was also God before the creation of the world, since all your people recognize this. “Of course,” he answered, “that’s what we thought until this day.” “Turning to the Scriptures,” I said, “I will try to convince you that the One who in the Scriptures appears to Abraham, Jacob and Moses and is called God, is other than God the Creator of everything - other, I mean, in number, and not in will, 179 for I affirm that He did only what God who created everything, above Whom there is no other God, wanted Him to do and spoke. “So, prove,” Tryphon objected, “that this is so, so that we can agree with you on this, for we do not assume that you claim that He did or said anything contrary to the will of the Creator of all.” “The Scripture I have already cited,” I answered, “will make this clear to you.” These are his words: “The sun rose over the earth when Lot entered Zoar; and the Lord poured down upon Sodom brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and destroyed those cities and all the surrounding country" 180 . Then the fourth of those remaining with Tryphon said: – So, we must admit that in addition to God Himself, who appeared to Abraham, the Scriptures of Moses also call one of the two angels who went to Sodom Lord. “Not on this basis alone,” I said, “one must fully recognize what exists, namely, that besides the Creator of all things, another is also called Lord by the Holy Spirit: this is what He is called not only by Moses, but also by David. The latter says: “The Lord says to the Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool,” as I previously cited 181; and in another place: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy partakers.” 182 So, answer me, do you think that the Holy Spirit calls anyone else God and Lord, except the Father of all and His Christ; for I promised to prove to you from the Scriptures themselves that not one of the two angels who went to Sodom is called Lord in the Scriptures, but He who was with them is also called God, who appeared to Abraham. “Prove,” said Tryphon: “because the day, as you see, is passing, and we are not ready to make such dangerous answers, since we have never heard of anyone who would consider, research or prove it.” And we would not tolerate your comments if you did not trace everything back to the Scriptures: and you try to provide evidence from them and declare that there is no higher God except the Creator of the universe. “You know,” I said, “that the Scripture says: “And the Lord said to Abraham: Why did Sarah laugh, saying: Can I really give birth, since I am old? Or is God's word powerless? At this time I will return to you at the hour, and Sarah will have a son.” And a little lower: “The men stood up from there and looked at the view of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham walked along with them, seeing them off. And the Lord said, “I will not hide from Abraham my servant what I do.” And a little further: “The Lord said: The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has increased, and their sins are very great. I will go down and see if this is exactly what is happening according to their cry that reaches Me, and if not, then I will find out. And the men departed from there and came to Sodom. Abraham stood before the Lord; and Abraham approached and said: “Will You destroy the righteous along with the wicked?” 183 and so on. I do not consider it necessary to repeat what was previously written by me; it is necessary to cite only those places on which I based my evidence for Tryphon and his companions; therefore I moved on to further words: “And the Lord departed as soon as He finished His conversation with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. And two angels came to Sodom in the evening; Lot sat at the gates of Sodom,” and so on until the following words: “The men stretched out their hands and drew Lot into their house and locked the doors of the house.” And then the following words: “And the angels took his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his daughters, because the Lord spared him. And it came to pass, when they brought them out, and said, Save, save your life. Don't look back and don't stop in the whole surrounding country; escape to the mountain so as not to be captured. But Lot said to them: I pray to You, Lord, because Your servant has found mercy in Your sight, and You have magnified Your righteousness, which You are doing in me, saving my life; I cannot run to the mountain so that disasters do not befall me and I die: this city is close, so that I can find refuge there, and it is small; I will be saved there, since it is small, and my soul will live. And He said to him: Behold, I have looked at your face, and according to your word I will not destroy the city of which you spoke. Hurry to be saved there, for I cannot do any work until you enter there. Therefore He named the city Zoar. The sun rose over the earth, and Lot entered Zoar. And the Lord poured down upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and destroyed those cities and all the surrounding country.” Having finished these words, I asked: do you now, friends, not understand that one of these three, who is God and Lord and serves Him who is in heaven, is the Lord of those two angels? For while they went to Sodom, He remained and talked with Abraham, as it is related by Moses; when He left after the conversation, Abraham returned to his place. And when He came (to Sodom), it was no longer two angels talking with Lot, but He Himself, as the word (of God) shows, Who is also the Lord, who received from the Lord in heaven, that is, from the Creator of all, the commission to carry out judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, depicted in Scripture as follows: “The Lord poured out brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven” 184 . “The Scripture obviously forces us to admit this,” said Tryphon, “when I fell silent: but you yourself will agree that one can doubt what is said, namely, that He ate what Abraham prepared for Him.” “Of course, it is written that they ate,” I answered, “but if it were said that three ate, and not just two, who were really angels and, as we know, eat in heaven, although not with the same food that we people eat, - for about the manna that your fathers ate in the wilderness, the Scripture says that: “they ate the bread of angels” 185 - then I would say that the Scripture says that they ate, in the same sense as we ourselves say about fire, that it devoured everything; but it should not be understood that they ate by chewing with their teeth and jaws. Thus, here too we will not find any difficulty if we are at least somewhat familiar with the tropical way of expression. “It is possible,” said Tryphon, “to eliminate this difficulty, meaning the special way of eating with which they used what Abraham had prepared, in which sense it is written that they “ate.” But now show us how this God, who appeared to Abraham, and the servant of God the Creator of all, was born of a virgin and became a man, as you said, servile to us all. “Let me first, Tryphon,” I said, “explain in detail some other evidence on this point, so that you are convinced of its truth, and after that I will give the explanation that you require.” “Do as you please,” said Tryphon: “through this you will do a completely pleasant thing for me.” “I want to bring you the Scriptures,” I said, “without worrying about any purely artificial development of evidence, for I do not have such an ability, but I have been given from God only the grace to understand His Scriptures: by this grace I convince everyone to become partakers of tunity and unenviably, so that I will not be condemned for this at the judgment that the Creator of all God has to bring about through my Lord Jesus Christ. “In this regard, you act worthy of serving God,” said Tryphon, “but it seems to me that you speak ironically, as if you do not master the art of proof.” “If it seems so to you,” I objected, “so be it; but I am convinced of the truth of what I said. However, I’d better get on with the rest of my evidence - be careful. “Moses also wrote, brothers,” I continued, “that He who appeared to the patriarchs and was called God is also called an angel and Lord, so that from this you understand that He serves the Father of all, with which you have already agreed and in which you will be completely confirmed, convinced by even greater evidence. The Word of God, through Moses, telling about Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, says this: “And it came to pass at the time when the sheep conceived in the womb, I saw them with my own eyes in a dream; and behold, the goats and rams that mounted the sheep and goats were whitish, mottled and grey. And the angel of God said to me in a dream: Jacob, Jacob. I said: what, Lord? And He said: Lift up your eyes and see - goats and rams ascending on sheep and goats, whitish, speckled and gray; for I have seen what Laban is doing to you. I am God, who appeared to you in the place of God, where you anointed a pillar to Me and dedicated a vow. Now arise and leave this land and go to the land of your birth, and I will be with you." 186 And again in another place it is said about the same Jacob like this: “Rising that night, he took his two wives and two maidservants and his eleven sons, and Jacob crossed the ford. And he took them and crossed the stream and carried all his things. Jacob was left alone; and man 187 fought with him until the morning. But He saw that He did not overcome him, and He touched the broad part of his thigh, and the broad part of Jacob's thigh became numb while he wrestled with Him. And He said to him: Let Me go, for the dawn has risen. He said: I will not let you go unless you bless me. And He said to him: What is your name? he said Jacob. And He said to him: Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel will be your name, for you have fought with God and you will be strong with men. Jacob asked Him and said: Tell me Your name. And He said: Why do you ask My name? And He blessed him there, Jacob called the name of that place: vision of God; for I saw God face to face, and my soul rejoiced” 188. And in another place the following is narrated about the same Jacob: “Jacob came to Luzah, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, himself and all the people who were with him. And he built an altar there, and called the name of the place Beheel, because there God appeared to him during his flight from the presence of his brother Esau. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried near Beel under an oak tree, and Jacob named him the oak of weeping. And God appeared again to Jacob in Luz, when he came from Syrian Mesopotamia, and blessed him. And God said to him, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel will be your name.” 189 – He is called God and is and will be God. When they all expressed their agreement, I said: “I find it necessary to give you passages of Scripture that tell how this Angel and God and Lord appeared to Jacob during his flight from his brother Esau, who also appeared to Abraham in human form and then fought with Jacob in the same form. These are the words: “And Jacob left the well of the oath and went to Haran and found a certain place and fell asleep there, for the sun had set. And he took from the stones of that place and put them under his head, and fell asleep in that place, and saw a dream. And so a ladder was established on earth, the top of which reached to heaven: and the Angels of God ascended and descended on it, and the Lord sat on it. And He said: I am the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and of Isaac. Do not be afraid, I will give the land on which you sleep to you and to your seed. And your seed will be like the sand of the earth, and will spread to the sea, the south, the north and the east, and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. And now I am with you, I will keep you in every way you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have fulfilled everything that I have told you. And Jacob awoke from his sleep and said: The Lord is in this place, but I did not know. And he was afraid and said: How scary this place is! This is nothing else, but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone which he had put under his head, and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. And Jacob called the name of this place: the house of God; and before that the name of the city was Ulammaus" 190. “Let me now,” after that I continued, “prove to you from the book of Exodus how the same Angel, and God, and Lord, and husband, and man, who appeared to Abraham and Jacob, appeared in a blazing fire from a bush and talked with Moses. And after expressing to them that they would listen to me with pleasure and willingly, I cited the following words from the book inscribed - Exodus: “After a long time the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaned from their labors,” and so on. “Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them: The Lord God of your fathers has appeared to me, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, saying: I visit you with a visitation and see what happened to you in Egypt.” 191 Then I said: Do you notice, my lords, that the One whom Moses speaks of as an angel who talked with him in a blazing fire is God and declares to him that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? “We do not see this from the words you cited,” said Tryphon, “but that the one who appeared in the fiery flame was an angel, and the one who spoke with Moses was God, so that both the angel and God, two together, appeared in that vision.” “Even if it were so, my friends,” I answered, “that is, that both the angel and God appeared together in that vision to Moses, however, as was proved to you by the previously quoted words, that God who told Moses that He was the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob would not be the Creator of the universe, but the One who, as was shown, appeared to Abraham and Jacob, who serves the will of the Creator of all and in the judgment of Sodom he also served His counsel. Therefore, even if there were two there, as you say, an angel and God, no one, even one with little understanding, would dare to assert that the Creator of everything and the Father left everything that exists above the sky and appeared on a small part of the earth. “Since it has already been proven,” said Tryphon, “that the one who appeared to Abraham was called God and Lord, and on behalf of the Lord of heaven brought destruction to the land of Sodom, then although there was an angel with God who appeared to Moses, we agree that the God who spoke to Moses from the bush was not God the Creator of all, but the One who, as shown, appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: He is also called an angel God the Creator of everything because he proclaims to people the will of the Father and Creator of everything. “But now I will show, Tryphon,” I began to speak, “that in Moses’ vision He alone, who is both called an Angel and is God, appeared and spoke to Moses. For this is what the Scripture says: “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; and he sees that the bush is burning with fire, but the bush itself was not burned. And Moses said, I will go and see this great vision, for the bush is not burned up. When the Lord saw that he was coming to look, the Lord called him from the bush” 192. Therefore, as Scripture calls Him an angel, Who appeared in a dream to Jacob, and then says that this same angel, who appeared to him in a dream, said: “I am God, who appeared to you during your flight from the face of Esau your brother”; and we read in the time of Abraham about the destruction of Sodom that the Lord brought this judgment “from the Lord in heaven”: so here, when the Scripture says that the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses and then declares Him to be Lord and God, it means the One and the Same One, Who, as can be seen from many testimonies already given, serves God, who is above the world, and has no other God above Him. “But, my friends,” I continued, “I will present to you another testimony from the Scriptures as proof that as the beginning 193, before all creatures, God gave birth from Himself to a certain intelligent power, which from the Holy Spirit is also called the glory of the Lord, sometimes the Son, sometimes wisdom, sometimes an angel, sometimes God, sometimes the Lord and the Word; He Himself also calls Himself “the leader of the army” when He appeared in human form to Joshua 194. For He has all these names both from His service to the will of the Father and from His birth according to the will of the Father. Don't we see something similar to this in ourselves? When we pronounce a word, we give birth to it, but not through separation, so that the word in us decreases when we pronounce it. In the same way, we see from fire another fire comes, but in such a way that the one from which it is kindled does not decrease, but remains the same, while the one kindled from it actually exists and shines, without diminishing the one from which it was kindled 195. The Word of wisdom will be my witness, that very One who is God, born of his Father, the Word, and Wisdom, and Power, and Glory of Him who begat; It says through Solomon: “If I tell you what happens daily, I will list what has been since the beginning. The Lord created Me as the beginning of His ways into His works. He founded Me before the world, in the beginning, before He created the earth and before He created the deeps, before there were springs of water, before the mountains were established; before all the hills He gives birth to Me. God created the country and the desert and the high places inhabited under the sky. When He prepared the heavens, I was with Him, and when He established His throne on the winds, when He established the upper clouds, and when He established the fountains of the deep, when He established the foundations of the earth, I was with Him, arranging all things. He rejoiced in me, and I rejoiced daily before Him at all times, because He rejoiced when He finished the world, and rejoiced over the sons of men. So, My son, listen to Me. Blessed is the man who will obey Me and the man who will follow My ways, watching daily at My doors, watching the thresholds of My entrances: for My ways are the ways of life, and the will 196 has been prepared from the Lord. But those who sin against Me are wicked to their own souls, and those who hate Me love death." 197 And this very thing, friends, is what the Word of God declares through Moses, showing you that God in the same sense, when creating man, spoke to the One who is indicated in this way: “Let us make man in Our image and likeness; and let them have possession of the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the livestock and all the earth and every creeping thing that moves on the earth. And God created man, in the image of God He created him, husband and wife He created them. And God blessed them, saying: spread and multiply, and fill the earth, and rule over it." 198 But so that you do not distort the thoughts of the words I have cited, presenting what your teachers say - as if God said to Himself “let us create,” just as we, intending to do something, often say to ourselves: we will do it, or God said “let us create,” referring to the elements, that is, to the earth and other substances from which we imagine man to be created: then again I will cite the words of Moses himself, from which we can undoubtedly learn that God spoke to someone from Him various in number and intelligent Being. These are the words: “And God said: Behold, Adam has become as one of Us, to know good and evil” 199 . By saying “as one of Us,” He indicated the number of Persons coexisting with each other, and at least two. For I cannot recognize as fair what is preached by a doctrine that you yourself recognize as heretical, or what its propagators are able to prove, that God spoke to the angels and that the human body is the creation of angels. But this is that generation that truly came from the Father, which was with the Father before all creatures, and to which the Father speaks, as Scripture through Solomon shows that this very generation, called wisdom by Solomon, was born of God and as a beginning before all creatures. And He Himself, in revelation to Joshua, proclaims this truth. And so that what I have said will be fully proven to you, listen to the following words from the book of Jesus: “And it came to pass, while Jesus was in Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and saw a man standing opposite him. And Jesus came to Him and said: Are you one of ours or one of our enemies? And He said to him: I, the captain of the army of the Lord, have now come. Jesus fell face down on the ground and said to Him: Lord, what do you command your servant? And the leader of the Lord says to Jesus: Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. And Jericho was shut and fortified, and no one came out of it. And the Lord said to Jesus: Behold, I have delivered Jericho and its king and the mighty men of might into your hands.” 200 “You prove strongly and in detail, my friend,” said Tryphon, “now show that He, by the will of His Father, condescended to be born a man from a virgin, to be crucified and to die; and prove that after that He rose again and ascended into heaven. “This has already been proven, my lords,” I answered, “by the previously quoted words of the prophecies, but I will repeat them again and explain them to you, and try to convince you to agree with me.” The words of Isaiah: “Who will tell His generation? For His life is taken from the earth,” don’t these seem to you to mean that He is not descended from men, who, it is said, was handed over to death by God for the sins of the people? About His blood, Moses, as I mentioned before, accurately said: “He will wash His garment in the blood of the grape,” since His blood did not come from the seed of man, but from the will of God. And the words of David: “In the brightness of Your saints, from the womb I begot You before the morning star; The Lord has sworn and will not repent; You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" 201. Do they not show you that God and the Father of all from the beginning wanted Him to be born from the womb of man? And in another place, which I have already cited, God says: “Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the rod of righteousness is the rod of Your kingdom. You loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy partakers. Myrrh, precious gum and cassia from Your garments, from the ivory chambers with which You were entertained. Daughters of kings in Thy honor; on Your right side appeared a queen, clothed in a golden robe, speckled. Listen, daughter, look and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house. And the King will desire your beauty, for He is your Lord, and you will worship Him” 202. These words clearly mean that He is worshiped and God and Christ, witnessed by Him who did it 203. They also clearly show that the Word of God addresses those who believe in Him, who are one soul, one host and one church, as to a daughter, that is, to a church formed in His name and bearing His name (for we are all called Christians), and teach us to forget the ancient customs of our fathers; They say this: “Listen, daughter, and look, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house; and the King will desire your beauty; for He is your Lord, and you will worship Him.” “Let Him be,” objected Tryphon, “as the Scriptures show, Lord, Christ and God for you pagans, who are all called Christians in His name; but we, the servants of God, who created Himself, have no need to confess Him and worship Him. “If I were as partial to arguments and vanity as you are, Tryphon,” I answered, “I would not have continued to talk with you until now, since you are not trying to understand what I am saying, but are straining your strength only to make some kind of objection.” But now, since I am afraid of God’s judgment, I do not rush to make a decisive judgment about anyone from your family, wondering if he is one of those who can be saved by the grace of the Lord of hosts. Therefore, although you act craftily, I will still respond to your judgments and objections; I do the same thing in relation to everyone in general from your people who want to know my opinion and ask me about these subjects. You could understand from the passages of Scripture I cited, if only you paid attention to them, that those who are saved from your people are saved through Him and are part of Him, and therefore you would not ask me about it. I will again quote the words of David that I have already spoken, and I ask you to turn your strength to understanding them, and not to somehow evading or objecting to them. Here are the words of David: “The Lord reigns, let the nations be angry; He sits above the cherubim, let the earth shake. The Lord is great in Zion and exalted above all people. Let them confess Your great name, because it is terrible and holy, and the honor of the King loves judgment, and has prepared righteousness, You have created judgment and righteousness in Jacob. Lift up the Lord our God and worship at His footstool, for He is holy. Moses and Aaron were among His priests; and Samuel was among those who called on His name: they called on the Lord, He heard them. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud, because they kept His testimonies and His commandments which He gave them." 204 There are other words of David, which I have already cited 205, which you foolishly consider to be spoken about Solomon on the basis that they are inscribed, “about Solomon”: from the very words it is clear that they were not spoken about Solomon, that the one represented in them was before the sun, and that those who are saved from your people will be saved through Him. These are the words: “O God, give Your judgment to the king and Your righteousness to the king’s son: let Him judge Your people with righteousness and Your poor with judgment. Let the mountains accept peace for the people and the hills accept truth. He will judge the poor people and save the sons of the poor people and humble the slanderer, and He will abide with the sun and before the moon throughout all generations,” and so on. “His name abides before the sun, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through Him, all nations will exalt Him. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous things; and blessed is the name of His glory forever and ever; and the whole earth will be filled with His glory. Let it be, let it be” 206. Remember also other words spoken, as I have already mentioned, 207 also by David, in which it is shown that He is about to come from the highest heavens and will return again to the same place, so that you recognize Him as both God coming from above and a man who was among men and will come again when those who pierced Him look at Him and weep. These words are: “The heavens tell the glory of God, and the firmament shows the works of His hands. Day speaks word to day, and night proclaims knowledge to night. There is no speech or language in which their voices are not heard. Their broadcast went to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the universe. He has appointed His dwelling place in the sun, and He, like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, will rejoice like a giant as he goes on his way. His departure from the end of the sky and His procession to the end of the sky, and no one can hide from His warmth” 208. “I am so amazed by so many passages of Scripture that I do not know what to say about the passage from Isaiah where God declares that God will not give His glory to anyone else, saying: “I am the Lord God, that is My name; I will not give My glory, nor My virtues to another.”209). “If you, Tryphon,” I said, “in citing these words, simply and without guile stopped, without introducing the preceding words and without adding subsequent words, then you can be excused; but if you did this in the thought that you could confuse my speech and force me to say that the scriptures contradict each other, then you are mistaken, for I will never dare to think or say this. If I come across a passage of Scripture that seems to be like this, and seems to contradict another: then, fully convinced that no passage of Scripture contradicts another, I would rather admit that I myself do not understand its meaning, and I will try to convince those who admit contradictions in Scripture to think the same thing. With what intention you proposed this question, God knows. But I will bring to your memory that passage of Scripture, as it is said, so that you will be convinced from it that God gives glory only to His Christ, and I will add, my lords, a few words that are in connection with those given by Tryphon, and following them: I will bring them not from different departments, but as they are united into one; and you listen to me carefully. These are the words: “Thus says the Lord God, who created heaven and established it, who founded the earth and all that is on it, and who gave breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it. I, the Lord God, have called You in righteousness, and I will hold Your hand and strengthen You. And I gave You as a covenant of the generation, as a light of the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring those bound from their bonds and those sitting in darkness out of prison. I am the Lord God - that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, nor My virtues to graven images. That which (was) from the beginning has come: this is the new thing that I proclaim; and before it was announced, it was revealed to you. Sing a new song to God; His power is from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and sail on it, the islands and those who live on them. Rejoice, desert and its cities and villages, the inhabitants of Kidar will rejoice, and those who dwell on the rock will cry out from the edge of the mountains; they will give glory to God, proclaim His power in the islands. The Lord God of armies leads: He will crush the army, arouse jealousy and cry out loudly against the enemies” 210. Having finished this, I asked: did you understand, friends, that God promises to give His glory to the One whom He placed in the light of the pagans, and not to anyone else; and not that, as Tryphon says, that God will retain the glory for Himself? “We understand this,” answered Tryphon, “so continue your speech further.” Then I began the conversation where I had left off before, proving that He should be born of a Virgin, and that this birth was predicted by Isaiah, and again cited his prophecy. Here it is: “And the Lord spoke a word to Ahaz, saying: Ask yourself a sign from the Lord your God in the depths or in the heights. And Ahaz said: I will not ask or tempt the Lord. And Isaiah said: Listen, house of David: is it really not enough for you to burden people, and why do you still burden the Lord? Therefore the Lord Himself is giving you a sign. The Virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son, and His name will be called Emmanuel. He will eat oil and honey before he will be able to reject evil or choose good; because before the baby knows evil or good, He will reject the evil and choose the good. Before the child can name his father or mother, He will take the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in the sight of the king of Assyria. And the land will be abandoned, which you can hardly tolerate because of the two kings. However, God will bring upon you and your people and your father’s house days that have not yet come upon you since the time when He separated Ephraim from Judah, namely the king of Assyria” 212 . To this I added that no one in the race of Abraham was ever born according to the flesh or was said to be born of a virgin, except our Christ, as everyone knows. “The Scripture,” answered Tryphon, “does not say: “Behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a son,” but: “Behold, a young woman will conceive in her womb and give birth to a son,” and further, as you cited. The entire prophecy refers to Hezekiah, on whom subsequent events took place in accordance with this prophecy. The Greek myths say that Perseus was born from the virgin Danai after Zeus, whom they called Zeus, ascended into her in the form of gold; and you should be ashamed to say such things to them, and rather should acknowledge that this Jesus, as a man, was born of men, and if you can prove from the Scriptures that He is the Christ, affirm that He was worthy of election into Christ for a lawful and perfect life: but do not dare to relate such unnatural incidents, otherwise you, like the Greeks, will be convicted of folly. - Tryphon! - I said, “I want to convince you and all people in general that even if you began to say even worse words in jest and mockery, I will not give up on my intention: on the contrary, from the very words and events with which you think to refute me, I will always deduce, with the help of evidence from the Scriptures, evidence of what I claimed. However, you are acting unfairly and unworthy of a lover of truth when you try to reject what you have already agreed with us on, namely, that some commandments were given through Moses due to the hardness of heart of your people. For you said that He was chosen and became Christ for living according to the law, if it could be proven that He is the Christ. “You admitted,” said Tryphon, “that He was circumcised and fulfilled other decrees of Moses.” “I recognized and acknowledge this,” I answered, “but I did not claim that He fulfilled all these decrees in order to be justified through them, but in order to fulfill the economy according to the will of His Father, the Creator of all, the Lord and God.” I also acknowledge that He took it upon Himself to become a man and die on the cross and endure everything that the people of your people did to Him. But since, Tryphon, you again do not agree with what you previously admitted, then answer me: the righteous men and patriarchs who lived before Moses, who did not observe any of the decrees, according to the testimony of Scripture, which received their beginning through Moses, will they receive salvation in the inheritance of the blessed or not. “The Scriptures force me to answer this in the affirmative,” said Tryphon. “I will also ask you: did God command your fathers to make offerings and sacrifices because He needed them, or because of their hardness of heart and inclination to idolatry?” “The Scriptures also force us to admit the latter,” said Tryphon. “Is it foretold in the scriptures,” I asked, “that God promised to establish a new covenant, besides the one given at Mount Horeb?” “And this is predicted,” answered Tryphon. “The Old Testament,” I asked again, “wasn’t it decreed to your fathers with such fear and trembling that they could not talk with God?” “So, why,” I asked, “God promised that there would be another covenant and said that it would be established differently from the first one, without fear, trembling and lightning?” Doesn't this show that God considers other commands and deeds to be eternal and adapted to the needs of the entire human race, and He commanded others to accommodate the hardness of heart of your people, as He Himself proclaims through the prophets? “And he must agree with this,” answered Tryphon, “who loves the truth, and not disputes.” “I don’t know,” I said, “how you call others lovers of debate, but I myself often turned out to be like that in this conversation, because you often contradict what you previously agreed with.” “Yes, you are trying,” said Tryphon, “to prove an incredible and almost impossible thing, namely, that God deigned to be born and become a man.” “If I tried to prove this,” I answered, “through human teachings or arguments, then you should not have tolerated me: if for that purpose I constantly cited so many passages from the Scriptures and asked you to delve into their meaning, then you turn out to be hard-hearted in knowing the mind and will of God.” However, there is no harm for me if you remain in your previous thoughts; I will keep the same thoughts that I had before the conversation with you, and I will move away from you. - Friend! - said Tryphon, - pay attention to the fact that with great difficulty and effort you reached these opinions; therefore, we should first experience everything that is offered to us, and then agree with what the scriptures force us to do. “I ask you not that you should not bother to explore the subjects of our conversation, but that when you have nothing to say, you do not again contradict what you have already expressed your consent to.” “We will try to fulfill this,” answered Tryphon. To the questions I have already proposed,” I began to speak, “I will add several others to you, with such questions I will try to finish this discussion in a short time. “Ask,” said Tryphon. “Do you think,” I asked, “that there is another who should be worshiped, called in the scriptures Lord and God, besides the Creator of the universe and Christ, who, as has been proven to you in so many places from the Scriptures, became man.” “How can we admit this,” answered Tryphon, when we raised such an inquiry precisely about whether there is another God besides the one Father? “It is necessary to ask you about this too,” I said, “to know whether your opinion is different from what you just expressed.” - No, friend! - answered Tryphon. - So, if you fully agreed with this and if the Scripture says: “Who will tell His generation”? then shouldn't you understand that He is not of human origin? “How does the Scripture,” objected Tryphon, “tell David that God will take a son from his loins, give him a kingdom and seat him on the throne of His glory?” “If, Tryphon,” I answered, “the prophecy of Isaiah: “Behold, the Virgin will conceive in her womb,” was said not to the house of David, but to some other house of the twelve tribes, then perhaps this matter would be doubtful; but since the prophecy itself was spoken to the house of David, the words spoken by God to David himself in secret, Isaiah explains how they were to be fulfilled. Don’t you know, friends, I said, that many sayings spoken in secret, in parables, or sacraments, or in symbolic actions, were explained by prophets who lived after those who said or did something? “True,” answered Tryphon. “So, if I prove that this prophecy refers to our Christ, and not to Hezekiah, as you say, then do I not have the right to demand from you that you do not believe your teachers, who dare to assert that the translation made by your seventy elders under Ptolemy, king of Egypt, is in some way incorrect? About the fact that the scriptures clearly expose their unreasonable and self-willed opinion, they say: it is not so written 213; and what, in their opinion, can be attributed and adapted to human affairs, then, they say, is said not about our Christ, but about the one to whom they choose to apply. Thus, they taught you to refer the passage of Scripture that we are now talking about to Hezekiah: that they lie, I will prove, as I promised. But when we contrast with them the passages from the scriptures which I have quoted above, which clearly represent Christ as suffering, worshiped and God, they are forced to agree that this is said about Christ, but they dare to say that our Christ is not the Christ, and affirm that He will come, suffer, reign and be worshiped like God: which is just as ridiculous and stupid, as I will prove. But since I first need to answer what you just said in a funny way, I will first give an answer to this, and then I will prove the rest. “Know, Tryphon,” I began to say, “that the very thing that the so-called devil distorted and spread in the legends of the Greeks, just as he acted in Egypt through the Magi and through the false prophets during the time of Elijah, all this strengthened in me the knowledge of the Scriptures and faith in them. For when they say that Bacchus, the son of Jupiter, was born from his copulation with Semele, that he was the inventor of the grape, that after he was torn to pieces and died, he rose again and ascended into heaven, and when a donkey is introduced into his sacraments, then do I not see that the devil imitated the above prophecy of the patriarch Jacob, written by Moses? When it is also said that Hercules was strong and walked the whole earth, that he was born to Jupiter from Alcmene and after death ascended to heaven, then don’t I also see here an imitation of the passage of Scripture relating to Christ: “Strong as a giant to walk His way”? When Aesculapius is cited, who raised the dead and healed other diseases, can I not say that here too there is an imitation of the prophecies about Christ? Since I have not cited a single place from Scripture that shows that Christ will do this, then, of necessity, I will remind you of one saying; from it you will understand how Scripture predicted even those who are deprived of the knowledge of God, i.e. about the pagans, who, having eyes, did not see and, having hearts, did not understand, but worshiped material images - that they would leave idols and trust in this Christ. This is how it reads: “Rejoice, O thirsty desert, let the desert rejoice and bloom like the lily. And the desert of Jordan will bloom and rejoice, and the glory of Lebanon and the honor of Carmel will be given to it. And my people will see the height of the Lord and the glory of God. Strengthen yourself, weak arms and relaxed knees! Be comforted, you faint-hearted, strengthen yourself, do not be afraid! Behold, our God will render judgment and reward; He Himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will hear; then the lame will leap up like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will speak clearly; because water broke out in the desert and a stream in a thirsty land, and the waterless place will turn into ponds, and there will be a source of water in the thirsty land” 215. Our Christ opened the source of living water from God in a land deprived of the knowledge of God, that is, among the pagans: He appeared among your people and healed people, from birth and according to the flesh, blind, deaf and lame, and with His word brought about what one said, another heard, another saw; He raised the dead and brought them back to life, and through His deeds He aroused the people of that time to know Him. They, seeing such things, considered them a magical deception, and dared to call Him a sorcerer and a deceiver of the people. But He did this with the goal of convincing those who later had faith in Him that if anyone, having some kind of physical defect, fulfills the commandments He handed down, then He, at His second coming, will resurrect him entirely and make him immortal, incorruptible and carefree. – When the performers of the mysteries of Mithra say that he was born from a stone, and the place where they initiate those who believe in him is called a cave, then don’t I see that they borrowed this from the words of Daniel: “a stone without hands was torn from a great mountain,” 216 and also from the prophet Isaiah, whom they tried to imitate in all words? For they arranged for those initiated into the sacraments to have conversations about observing the truth. However, I need to give us the words of Isaiah so that you can see that this is true. Here they are: “Listen, you who are far off, to what I have done; and those close to you will know My power. The wicked in Zion have retreated; fear will embrace the wicked. Who will tell you about your eternal place? He who walks in righteousness, who speaks upright, who hates wickedness and unrighteousness and removes his hands from gifts, who stops his ears so as not to hear the wrong judgment of blood and closes his eyes so as not to see wickedness: he will live in a high cave of strong rock. He will be given bread and his water will be faithful. You will see the king in glory and your eyes will see far. Your soul will think about the fear of God. Where is the scribe? Where are the advisors? Where is the one who numbers those who are fed - the small and the great people? They did not consult with him and did not know the depth of the sounds so that they did not hear: they are a despicable people and the one who listens has no understanding” 217. It is clear that this prophecy speaks of the bread that our Christ commanded us to create in remembrance of His incarnation for the sake of those who believe in Him, for whom He suffered; and about the cup, which He ordered to be made with thanksgiving in memory of His blood. The same prophecy also shows that we will see this very King in glory, and together his words affirm that the people, whose faith in Him was foreknown, will think about the fear of the Lord, and that those who consider themselves experienced in the words of the Scriptures and hear the prophecies do not understand them. And when I hear, Tryphon, I said, that Perseus was born of a virgin, I understand that this too is a fake of that lying serpent. “But I do not agree with your teachers who do not admit that those seventy elders during the time of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, made the translation correctly and are trying to translate themselves. And I want you to know that from the translation made by the elders under Ptolemy, they completely destroyed many passages of the Scriptures, which clearly testify to what was predicted about the deity, humanity and death on the cross of this Crucified One, I do not cite these passages in such disputes, since I know that all of your people reject them; but I will conduct my research on the basis of those passages of Scripture that you still recognize. However, no matter what passages I brought to you, you accepted them, except that you rebelled against the saying: “Behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb,” claiming that it is said: “Behold, a young woman will conceive in her womb.” But I promised to prove that this prophecy does not refer to Hezekiah, as you have been taught, but to this Christ of mine; and now I’ll get down to it. “We ask you,” said Tryphon, “first to present at least some of those passages of Scripture that, you say, have been completely destroyed among us.” “I will fulfill your wish,” I answered. – So, from the explanations that Ezra said regarding the law of the Passover, they released the following: “And Ezra said to the people: this Passover is our Savior and our refuge. And if you think and it will enter into our hearts that we have to humiliate Him in a sign 218, and then we will trust in Him, then this place will not be desolate forever, said the God of armies; But if you do not believe in Him and do not obey His preaching, you will be a laughing stock among the nations” 219. And from the words of Jeremiah they released the following: “I am like a gentle lamb carried to the slaughter. They had thoughts against Me, saying: Come, let us throw the tree into his bread and destroy him from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more." 220 Since these words from Jeremiah are still preserved in some copies in the Jewish synagogues - for they were recently released - and they show how the Jews consulted about this Christ and decided to put Him to death by crucifixion, and He Himself appears here as a gentle lamb, just as Isaiah is prophetically called a sheep led to the slaughter, then they come from these words into such difficulty that they turn to His blasphemy. From the words of the same Jeremiah they also released the following: “The Lord God remembered His dead from Israel who had fallen asleep in the earth of the grave and came down to them to preach His salvation to them” 221. “And from the ninety-fifth psalm of David they destroyed the following few words: “from the tree.” For it was said: “Say among the nations: The Lord reigns from the tree,” 222 but they left it like this: “Say among the nations: The Lord reigns.” But it was never said of any of your kind that he, as God and Lord, reigned over the nations, except for this one Crucified: about Him in the same psalm the Holy Spirit says that He was saved by His resurrection, and shows that He has no resemblance to the gods of the nations; for they are images of demons. But so that you understand my words, I will give you the entire psalm. Here it is: “Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless His name; preach His salvation day by day. You proclaim His glory among the nations, His wonders among all people: for the Lord is great and greatly praised; He is more terrible than all the gods; for all the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord created the heavens. Glory and beauty are before Him, holiness and splendor are in His sanctuary. Give to the Lord, fatherland of nations, give to the Lord glory and honor, give to the Lord the glory due to His name. Take the sacrifices and enter into His courts; worship the Lord in His holy court. Let the whole earth move before His presence. Say among the nations: The Lord reigned from the tree. For He has corrected the universe so that it cannot be moved; He will judge the nations in righteousness. May the heavens rejoice and may the earth rejoice, may the sea and all that fills it be removed. The fields and everything in them will rejoice, all the trees of the forest will rejoice before the Lord; because He is coming, coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the nations in His truth.” “God knows,” answered Tryphon, “whether our leaders destroyed anything from the Scriptures; but I find this incredible. “Of course,” I said, “this seems incredible: for this is more terrible than the merging of the calf, which they performed while saturated with manna on earth, the sacrifice of children to demons, or the killing of the prophets themselves.” But you, it seems to me, have not at all heard those passages from the Scriptures which, as I said, were secretly destroyed by them: meanwhile, some of the passages of Scripture cited above, together with others that have been preserved with you and which I will present to you, are very sufficient to prove the subjects under investigation. “We know that you brought them for us and at our request,” said Tryphon. But regarding the psalm of David, which you have just cited, I think that it cannot be attributed to anyone else other than the Father who created heaven and earth; and you claim that he refers to that Sufferer Who, as you try to prove, is Christ. “Pay attention, I ask you,” I answered, “when I bring you the saying spoken by the Holy Spirit in this psalm; you will then see that I am speaking correctly, and you are not yet completely deceived: in this way you can yourself understand many other things from the sayings of the Holy Spirit. “Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless His name; proclaim His salvation day by day, His wonders among all people.” Here the Holy Spirit commands that people from all over the earth who have known this saving sacrament, i.e., should not cease to sing to God and the Father of all. the suffering of Christ, by which He saved them; because they know that he is glorious, terrible, and is the Creator of heaven and earth, who has accomplished this salvation of the human race, precisely the one who, after crucifixion and suffering, was honored by God to reign over all the earth 223 ... the earth into which he enters, and “they will forsake Me and destroy My covenant, which I established with them on that day. And I will forsake them and hide My face from them; and there will be ruin and many misfortunes and sorrows will come upon him, he will say on that day: because my Lord is not with us, these misfortunes have come upon me. But I will certainly turn My face away from them on that day because of all the iniquities that they have committed, for they have gone to strange gods.”224 – And in the book of Exodus, Moses mysteriously announced, as we also know, that the name of God Himself, which, according to him, was not revealed to either Abraham or Jacob, was Jesus. It is said this way: “And the Lord said to Moses: Tell this people: Behold, I am sending My angel before your face, so that he will guard you on your way, so that he will bring you into the land that I have prepared for you. Listen to Him and obey Him, do not rebel against Him, for He will not forgive you; because My name is on Him" ​​225. So, who brought your fathers into the land? Finally, understand that this was a man named Jesus 226, and previously called Absi. If you pay attention to this, you will understand that the name of the one who said to Moses: “My name is on Him” was Jesus, he was called Israel, and also transferred this name to Jacob. And that the prophets sent to proclaim His commandments are called angels and messengers of God, this is clear from the words of Isaiah, because Isaiah says: “send me” 227; and that the one who received the name Jesus was a great and powerful prophet, this is clear to everyone. So, if we know that God appeared in such different images to Abraham, Jacob and Moses, then why do we doubt and do not want to believe that He, by the will of the Father of all, could be born of a virgin as a man, especially when we have so many places from Scripture from which it can be clearly understood that this also happened by the will of the Father? – And when Daniel says that he who receives the eternal kingdom is “like a son of man,” is this not what he is hinting at? For the words: “as the son of man,” show that He appeared and became man, but not from the seed of man. And when he calls Him “a stone. torn off without hands,” he mysteriously depicts the same thing, because the words: “torn off without hands,” show that He is not a work of man, but of the will of the Father of all God, who produced Him. The saying of Isaiah: “Who will tell His generation”? shows that He is of inexplicable origin; because there is not a single person born of men who has an inexplicable origin. And the words of Moses: “He will wash His garments in the blood of grapes,” do not they show, as I have often told you, that he secretly foretold about Him; namely, that He has blood, but not from people, just as the blood of the grapes was produced not by man, but by God? Also. when Isaiah calls Him “the Angel of the great council” 228, did he not predict that He would be the Teacher of what He taught after His coming? He alone openly announced the great intentions of the Father regarding all those who were or will be pleasing to Him, as well as regarding those who had fallen from His will, men and angels. He said this: “they will come from the east and the west, and will lie down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven: and the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness” 229. And again: “They will say to Me on that day: Lord! God! Did we not eat and drink in Your name, and prophesy and cast out demons? And I will say to them: Depart from Me" 230. And in other words with which he would condemn those unworthy of salvation, He declared: “go into outer darkness, which the Father has prepared for Satan and his angels” 231. And in other words He said: “I give you power to tread on snakes and scorpions and scolopendras and all the power of the enemy.”232 And now we, believers in Jesus our Lord crucified under Pontius Pilate, conjure all demons and evil spirits and keep them in our power. Although it was secretly predicted through the prophets that Christ would suffer and reign over everything, no one could understand this until He Himself convinced the Apostles that this was clearly predicted in the Scriptures. For before His crucifixion He said: “The Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the scribes and Pharisees, be crucified, and rise again on the third day.” And David foretold that “He would be born from the womb before the sun and the moon,” 234 and showed that He, being the Christ, is a mighty and admirable God. “Although,” said Tryphon, “I agree with you that such numerous evidence is sufficient for our conviction; but I want to notice to you that I demand from you an explanation that you have repeatedly promised: you offer it to us, so that we can see how you will prove that that saying refers to your Christ, while we say that it was predicted about Hezekiah. “I will fulfill your wish,” I answered. - Just prove to me in advance that the words apply to Hezekiah: “before he began to be able to name his father or mother, he received the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in the sight of the king of Assyria.” For you will not be allowed to explain them as you wish - that Hezekiah fought in Damascus or Samaria in front of the king of Assyria. The prophetic word says: “before the boy can name his father or mother, he will take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in the sight of the king of Assyria.” If the Prophetic Spirit had not said this with the addition: “before the child can name his father or mother, he will take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria”: but would only say: and he will give birth to a son, and he will take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, then you could say: since God knew that Hezekiah would receive this, He predicted it. And now the prophecy says with the addition: “before the boy can name his father or mother, he will receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria.” And you cannot prove that this ever happened to any of the Jews, but we are able to prove that it was fulfilled in our Christ. For immediately after His birth, the wise men from Arabia came and worshiped Him, having first gone to Herod, who then reigned in your land; It is he who the prophecy calls the king of Assyria for his godless and wicked spirit 235. You know,” I said, “that the Holy Spirit often speaks in parables and similitudes, as He did in relation to all the people of Jerusalem, repeatedly calling upon them: “Your father is an Ammorite and your mother is a Hittite.”236 “This King Herod, when the wise men from Arabia came to him and said that they knew from the star that appeared in the sky that a king had been born in your land and we came to worship him,” learned from the elders of your people that He was born in Bethlehem, because the prophet, they said, wrote this: “And you are Bethlehem, the land of Judah, no less in the provinces of Judah; For out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd My people” 237). So, these wise men, having come to Bethlehem from Arabia, bowed to the Youth and brought Him gifts - gold, frankincense and myrrh; then, after worshiping the Youth in Bethlehem, they received a command through revelation not to return to Herod. And Joseph, also, the betrothed of Mary, who at first wanted to expel his betrothed, on the assumption that she was pregnant from union with some man, that is, from fornication, was commanded through a vision not to expel his wife, because, as the Angel who appeared to him said, what she has in the womb is from the Holy Spirit. Then, being afraid, he did not expel her; but since there was a census in Judea at that time, the first under Quirinius, he went from Nazareth, where he lived, to enroll in Bethlehem, where he came from, for he was from the tribe of Judah, who lived in this country. And then he was ordered to go to Egypt with Mary and stay there with the Child until they were again told to return to Judea. When the time came for the Baby to be born in Bethlehem, Joseph, due to the lack of a place to stay in that village, came to a cave not far from the village 238 . And while they were there, Mary gave birth to Christ and laid Him in a manger, where the wise men who came from Arabia found Him. “I have already reminded you 239,” I said, “that Isaiah also foretold about the significance of this cave, and again I will cite this place for those who came with you today. And I read the words from Isaiah, already quoted above, adding that the priests of the mysteries of Mithra, as a result of these words, were excited by the devil to say that they were initiating the mysteries in a place they called a cave. When the wise men from Arabia did not return to Herod, as he asked, but, in accordance with the command, returned to their country another way, and when Joseph with Mary and the Child, also by revelation, went to Egypt, then Herod, not knowing the Child, whom the wise men came to worship, ordered to kill all the infants of Bethlehem. And this event was predicted by Jeremiah, because the Holy Spirit speaks through him: “a voice was heard in Rama - weeping and much weeping: Rachel was crying for her children and did not want to be consoled, because they were not there” 240. And so, as a result of the voice that was heard from Rama, that is, from Arabia, (for even to this day in Arabia there is a place called Rama), weeping had to fill the place where Rachel, the wife of Jacob, was buried), the holy patriarch, called Israel, that is, Bethlehem, and this is because the women wept for their murdered children and in such misfortune had no consolation. – The words of Isaiah: “he will take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria,” indicate that Christ, upon birth, will defeat the power of the evil spirit that lived in Damascus; this obviously came true. For the Magi, who, like prey, were carried away to all the evil actions that were committed by the demon, by their coming and worship of Christ clearly show that they rebelled against the power that made them their prey: and this power, as the prophecy mysteriously showed us, dwelt in Damascus. Quite appropriately, this power, as full of sin and wicked, is called Samaria. And that Damascus belonged and belongs to the land of Arabia, although now it is annexed to the country called Syrophenicia, none of you can deny this. So, my lords, it would be good for you to learn what you do not understand from those who have received grace from God, that is, from us Christians, and not try in every possible way to establish your own teaching, leaving the Divine. Therefore, this grace is transferred to us, as Isaiah says in the following words: “This people draws near to Me: they honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; but in vain they worship Me, teaching the commandments and commandments of men. Therefore, I intend to deport this people, and I will deport them, and I will take away the wisdom of their wise men and destroy the understanding of the prudent.”241 Then Tryphon became somewhat angry, but respecting the Scriptures, as could be seen from his face, he said to me: – The words of God are holy; but your interpretations, as can be seen from your explanations, are strained, or better yet, wicked: for you say that the angels sinned and fell away from God. “My lord,” I answered in a softer voice in order to incline him to listen, “I marvel at your reverence and wish that you would have the same spirit in relation to Him Whom, as it is written, angels serve; for Daniel says that "He, as the Son of man, is brought unto the Ancient of days, and to Him is given all dominion for ever and ever." And so that you know, my lord, - I said, - that it was not we, as a result of our insolence, who made the interpretation for which you reproach us, I will give you proof from Isaiah himself, who says that evil angels lived and live in Tanya, the land of Egypt. Here are his words: “Woe to you, apostate sons! Thus says the Lord: you made counsel, but not through Me, and entered into an alliance, but not through My Spirit, to add sins to sins: going to Egypt (and they did not ask Me) to receive help from Pharaoh and protect themselves under the protection of the Egyptians. The veil of Pharaoh will be a shame to you, and those who trust in the Egyptians will be dishonored, because in Tan the rulers are evil angels. In vain they will trouble the people; it will serve not for benefit and help, but for shame and dishonor” 243. Zechariah also says, as you yourself mentioned, that “the devil stood at the right hand of Jesus the priest to resist him. The Lord said: May the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you." 244 And also, as you said, in the book of Job it is written that “angels came to present themselves before the Lord and the devil came with them” 245 . Also at the beginning of the book of Genesis, Moses says that the serpent deceived Eve and was cursed. And we know that in Egypt the Magi tried to imitate the miracles performed by God through the faithful servant Moses. And David, as you know, says: “the gods of the nations are demons.” “I told you, my lord,” Tryphon responded to this, “that you are trying in every possible way to protect yourself by strictly following the Scriptures.” Tell me, do you truly recognize that this place of Jerusalem will be restored, and do you hope that your people will gather and enjoy joy with Christ, together with the patriarchs, prophets and believers from our family, as well as with those who became our proselytes before the coming of your Christ? Or did you resort to such a confession in order to emerge victorious in this dispute? “I’m not so unhappy, Tryphon,” I answered, “what can I say other than what I think.” I explained to you before that I and many others recognize this, just as you are absolutely sure that it will be. However, as I told you, there are many Christians with a pure and pious mood who do not admit this. And as for those who only bear the name of Christians, but in fact are godless and ungodly heretics, I showed you that they teach completely blasphemous, godless and insane things. But so that you know that I’m not just saying this in front of you, I will set out, as far as my strength allows, in a book our entire conversation; in it I will place the same thoughts of mine that I express before you. For I desire to follow not men or human teachings, but God and His teachings. If you meet people who are called Christians, but do not recognize this, and even dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, do not recognize the resurrection of the dead and think that their souls are taken to heaven immediately after death, then do not consider them Christians, just as anyone with common sense does not recognize the Jews - the Sadducees or similar "sects" 246 - Genists, Merists, The Gadileans, Ellivins, Pharisees and Baptists (do not be offended if I say what I think) - Jews and children of Abraham who only worship God in name and with their lips, but in their hearts, as God Himself says, are far behind Him. But I and other Christians who are sensible in everything know that there will be a resurrection of the body and a millennium in Jerusalem, which will be built, beautified and exalted, as Ezekiel, Isaiah and other prophets declare. – Isaiah says this about this millennium: “there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the former will not be remembered and will not come to the heart, but they will find in it joy and gladness in what I am doing; for behold, I make Jerusalem a joy and my people a joy, and I will rejoice in Jerusalem and rejoice in my people. And no more will the voice of weeping be heard on it, nor the voice of crying, and there will no longer be any baby or old man there who will not fulfill his time; For the young man will be a hundred years old, and the dying sinner will be a hundred years old and will be cursed. And they will build houses and live themselves, and plant grapes and themselves will eat the fruits thereof and drink the wine. They will not build for others to live, and they will not plant for others to eat; For the days of my people will be like the days of the tree of life; the works of their labors will be multiplied. My chosen ones will not labor in vain, nor bear children to curse: for they will be righteous seed and blessed by the Lord, and their grandchildren will be with them. And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will hear them; while they are still talking, I will tell them: what is this? Then the wolves and lambs will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like an ox, and the serpent will eat earth like bread. They will not do evil nor destroy on the holy mountain, says the Lord." 248 From what is said in these words, “as the days of the tree of life will be the days of my people, the works of their labors,” I continued, “we understand that a millennium is mysteriously indicated here. For when it was said to Adam: “On the day he eats of the tree, on that day he will die,” 249 then we know that he did not survive the thousand years. We also know that the saying leads to the same thing: “the day of the Lord is like a thousand years” 250. In addition, we have someone named John, one of the Apostles of Christ, who predicted in a Revelation that those who believe in our Christ will live in Jerusalem for a thousand years, and after that there will be a general, in a word, eternal resurrection of all together and then judgment; just as our Lord said: “They will not marry or be given in marriage, but will be equal to the angels, as children of the resurrection of God” 251. – We still have prophetic gifts, from which you should understand that what previously existed among your people has passed to us. Just as you had false prophets among your holy prophets, so we now have many false teachers, whom our Lord commanded to beware of, so that we are prepared for everything, knowing that He knew in advance what would happen to us after His resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven. He said that we would be killed and hated for His name, and that many false prophets and false Christs would come in His name and deceive many 252; this is what is being fulfilled; because many, under His name, spread ungodly, blasphemous and profane doctrine; they taught and are still teaching what the devil puts into their minds. We try to persuade such people, as well as you, to give up their error, being convinced that anyone who can speak the truth and does not speak will be condemned by God, as God Himself testified through Ezekiel: “I have made you a watchman for the house of Judah. If a sinner sins and you do not warn him, then he himself will perish from his sin, and I will exact his blood from you: and if you warn him, you will be innocent” 253. Therefore, we try to talk with you in accordance with the Scriptures out of fear, and not out of passion for money, or fame, or pleasures: no one can accuse us of anything like that; and we do not want to live like the leaders of your people, whom God denounces, saying: “your rulers are accomplices of thieves, they love gifts, they pursue rewards” 254. But even if you know such people, even among us, do not blaspheme Christ and the Scriptures because of them, and do not misinterpret them. - So the words: “The Lord says to my Lord: sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool,” your teachers dared to explain as if they were referring to Hezekiah; as if he was ordered to sit on the right side of the church while the king of Assyria sent threats to him, and through Isaiah he was told not to fear the enemy. We know that what was said in Isaiah 255 was fulfilled, and that the king of Assyria retreated from the siege of Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah and the angel of the Lord killed up to one hundred eighty-five thousand people in the Assyrian camp - we also know and recognize this. But it is clear that the psalm does not refer to Hezekiah: it reads like this: “The Lord says to my Lord: Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool. He will send a rod of power against Jerusalem and will rule among Your enemies. In the radiance of the saints, I gave birth to You before the morning star. The Lord has sworn and will not repent: You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek." 256 Who will not agree that Hezekiah is not a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek? Who doesn't know that he was not the liberator of Jerusalem? Who does not know that he did not send a rod of power into Jerusalem and did not reign among his enemies, but God removed his enemies from him while he wept and wept? And our Jesus, although he had not yet come in glory, sent a rod of power to Jerusalem, a word of calling and repentance to all the nations over which demons ruled, according to the word of David: “the gods of the nations are demons.” And this powerful word of His convinced many to leave the demons whom they served, and through Him to believe in Almighty God, because the gods of the nations are demons. And the words: “in the brightness of Thy saints, I begot Thee from the womb before the morning star” refer, as we said before, 257 to Christ. - It was also said about Him: “Behold, the Virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son.” For if the One about whom Isaiah spoke had not been born of a Virgin, then about whom was it the Holy Spirit who exclaimed: “Behold, the Lord Himself will give a sign; behold, the Virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son”? If He were to be born from copulation, like all other firstborns, then why did God Himself say that He would give a sign that was not common to all firstborns? But that which in truth is a sign and should be the object of faith of the entire human race, namely, that from the virgin’s womb the First-born from all creatures will take His flesh, will truly become a Child - about this Isaiah through the prophetic Spirit in various ways, as I outlined to you, foretold, so that when this is fulfilled, they would know that this happened by the power and will of the Creator of all, just as Eve was made from one Adam's ribs and all other animals were created in the beginning by the Word of God. And here again you dare to distort the translation made by your elders under Ptolemy, king of Egypt, and claim that in the Scripture it is not as they translated, but “behold, a young woman will be with child,” as if a great thing was shown if a woman gave birth from copulation with her husband? All young women do this, except for the barren ones, but, however, God can, if He wants, make sure that these too give birth. So Samuel’s mother, who had never given birth before, gave birth by the will of God; the same can be said about the wife of the holy patriarch Abraham and about Elizabeth, who gave birth to John the Baptist, and about some others. Therefore, you should not think that God cannot do whatever he wants. Especially if something was predicted, do not dare to distort or misinterpret the prophecies: by doing this you will only do harm to yourself, but will not harm God. - The words of the prophecy: “Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, O everlasting gates, that a king of glory may arise,” 258 some of you dare to attribute also to Hezekiah, and others to Solomon: meanwhile it is possible to prove that the prophecy speaks of neither one nor the other, and not of any other of your kings, but only of our that Christ, Who, according to the words of Isaiah, David and all Scriptures, appeared without beauty and glory. Who is “Lord of hosts,” according to the will of Him who gave it to Him. Who also rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, as the psalm and other passages from the Scriptures show, proclaiming Him “Lord of armies,” so that even now, if you want, you can easily be convinced of what is happening before your eyes 259. For every demon is conquered and subdued through a spell in the name of this very Son of God, “the firstborn of all creation” 260, who was born of the Virgin and became a suffering man, was crucified by your people under Pontius Pilate and died, and rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven 261. But if you conjure in the name of some people who were with you, kings or saints, prophets or patriarchs, then no demon will submit to you; and if any of you adjures Abraham by God, and Isaac by God, and Jacob by God, then perhaps he will submit. Some of your spellcasters, I said, cast spells through art, like the pagans, and use incense and bandages 262. The Psalm of David also proves the existence of Angels and Powers, to whom the prophetic word commands to lift the gates so that the Lord of hosts, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead according to the will of the Father, may ascend; I will repeat this psalm for those who were not with us yesterday. For them I now summarize most of what I said yesterday. And if I tell you this now, although I have said the same thing many times, I know that it is not inappropriate. For we see that the sun, moon and other stars always take the same path and cause changes of times; who also deals with calculations to the question: how much is two times two, despite the fact that he has repeatedly said: four, will not, however, stop repeating that it is four; similarly, other generally accepted things are always spoken and affirmed in the same way. After this, it would be funny if a person who bases his conversation on the prophetic writings omitted them and did not repeat the same passages, but thought that he would invent and say something better than Scripture. So, the saying, which proves, as I said, the existence of Angels and Powers in heaven, reads like this: “Praise the Lord from heaven, praise Him on high; praise Him, all His Angels, praise Him, all His Powers” ​​263. Then one of those who came on the second day, named Mnasey, said: “And we are pleased that you are trying to repeat the same thing for us.” “Listen, my friends,” I said, “in obedience to what command of Scripture I do this.” Jesus commanded us to love even our enemies: this is what Isaiah also taught at length, in whose words we also speak about the sacrament of the rebirth of us and all those who are awaiting the appearance of Christ in Jerusalem and who are trying to please Him with deeds. Here are the words of Isaiah: “Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His words. Speak, our brothers, to those who hate you and persecute you, so that the name of the Lord may be glorified. He appeared in their time of joy, and they will be ashamed. The voice of noise from the city, the voice of the people 264 , the voice of the Lord, who gives retribution to the proud. Before the stomach patient (came) to give birth and before the labor of pain came, she gave birth to a son. Who has heard anything like this, who has seen anything like this? Did the earth give birth in one day, did it give birth to a people at once? Because Zion was sick and gave birth to her children. I gave this expectation even to her who did not give birth, said the Lord; Behold, I have made the woman in labor and barren, says the Lord. Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and rejoice, all ye that love her; Rejoice, all you who mourn for him, that you may be fed and satisfied from the breasts of his consolation, so that when you are satisfied you may enjoy the entrance of His glory.”265 “Listen,” I added, “how the tree of life planted in paradise, and the events that were to happen to all the saints, were a symbol of Him who, according to the testimony of the Scriptures, will come again in glory after His crucifixion.” Moses was sent with a rod to free the people and, holding it in his hands, cut the sea ahead of the people; by means of a rod he brought forth water from the stone; throwing the tree into the bitter water of Marah, he made it sweet. Jacob, having put the rods in vessels with water, received what his uncle's sheep conceived in the womb, and he took offspring for himself. The same Jacob boasts that he crossed the river with a rod. He said that he saw a ladder, and on it, according to the testimony of the Scriptures, God was established, but it was not the Father, as we have proven from Scripture 266. And when Jacob poured oil on the stone in the same place, he received testimony from God Himself who appeared to him that he anointed the pillar of God who appeared to him. And we have proven that Christ is mysteriously called a stone in many places of Scripture; They also proved 267 that every anointing with oil or stactium or other fragrant ointments was an image of Him, according to the word of Scripture: “Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of joy more than Your partakers.” All kings and anointed ones received from him the title of kings and anointed ones; while He Himself received from the Father the names: King, Christ, Priest, Angel and other similar names that He has or had. Aaron's frozen rod showed him to be the high priest. Isaiah predicted that from the root of Jesse a rod would be born - Christ 269. And David says that the righteous “is like a tree planted by the rivers, which gives its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not fall away” 270. It is also said that the righteous “will flourish like a date” 271. God appeared to Abraham at the tree, as it is written, “at the oak of Mamre” 272 . After crossing the Jordan 273 the people found seventy willow trees and twelve springs. David says that through the rod and stick he received consolation from God. Elisha, throwing a tree into the Jordan River, summoned an iron ax from the bottom, with which the sons of the prophets came to cut down trees to build a house, in order to read and meditate on the law and commandments of God, just as our Christ redeemed us, immersed in the gravest sins we had committed - through His crucifixion on a tree and through the sanctification of us with water, and made us a house of prayer and worship. The rod showed that Judah is the father of those born not without the great sacrament of Tamar 274. “Don’t think ahead,” said Tryphon at the end of my words, “that I’m trying to refute what you say when I ask: but I want to be taught about what I’m asking.” And so tell me: if the Scripture says through Isaiah: “a rod will come out of the root of Jesse, and a flower will come out of the root of Jesse, and the Spirit of God will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, and the Spirit of the fear of God will fill Him,” 275 and these words, he continued, “according to your confession, refer to Christ, and you say that He, as God, existed before, but by will God became incarnate and was born of the Virgin as a man: then how can it be proven that before there existed one who is filled with the powers of the Holy Spirit, counted by Isaiah, as if he had a need for them? “You proposed a very intricate and clever question,” I answered. In fact, there seems to be some difficulty here; but so that you understand his decision, listen to what I intend to say. Scripture says that these numbered gifts of the Holy Spirit descended on Him not because He needed them, but because they had to rest on him, that is, come to an end in Him 276 so that subsequently prophets should not appear among your people, as before: this you yourself can see, because after Him there was absolutely not a single prophet among you. Notice what I say: namely, each of your prophets received from God one or the other power, and did or said what we know from the Scriptures. Solomon had the Spirit of wisdom, Daniel had the Spirit of counsel and understanding, Moses had strength and piety, Elijah had the Spirit of fear, Isaiah had knowledge; Also, others each had one power or in combination with another some power, such as Jeremiah, the twelve prophets, David, and all the prophets who were among you. So, the powers of the Holy Spirit rested, that is, ceased to act 277 with the coming of Him, after whom, during this dispensation that He accomplished among people, they were to depart from you, and having rested on Him, again, in accordance with the prediction, they became gifts, which He, from the grace of the power of that Spirit, gives to those who believe in Him, depending on the dignity of each. That it was foretold that this would be fulfilled by Him after His ascension into heaven, I have already said 278 and now I repeat. Scripture says this: “he ascended on high, took captivity captive, gave gifts to the sons of men” 279. And another prophecy says: “And it will come to pass after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, on My servants and on My handmaids, and they will prophesy” 280 (). And you can see among us both women and men who have gifts from the Spirit of God. So, it was not because He needed strength that the forces numbered in Isaiah were predicted to come against Him, but because they would no longer exist. Let this be evidence to you of what was done, as I have already said, by the wise men from Arabia: immediately after the birth of the Child they came and worshiped Him. For as soon as He was born, He already had His power: and growing in a manner common to all other people, using suitable things, He gave what was proper to each age, ate all kinds of food, and remained thirty years, more or less, until John came ahead as the messenger of His coming and was His Forerunner on the path of baptism, as I have already shown 282. And when Jesus came to the Jordan River, where John was baptizing, and went down into the water, a fire kindled in the Jordan 283; and when He came out of the water, the Holy Spirit, like a dove, flew down on Him, as the Apostles wrote of this very Christ of ours. And we know that He did not come to the river because He needed baptism or the Spirit that descended on Him in the form of a dove; He also condescended to be born and crucified not because He needed it, but He did this for the human race, which from Adam fell to death and the deception of the serpent, because each through his own fault did evil. For God, wanting both angels and men, gifted with freedom of choice and autocracy, to do what He made them capable of, created them in such a way that if they choose what is pleasing to Him, He will keep them incorruptible and free from punishment; if they do evil, He will punish everyone as He pleases. And the fact that He, riding on a donkey, entered Jerusalem - which, as I showed 284, was predicted - did not give Him the power to be Christ, but gave people an indication that He is the Christ, just as under John it was necessary to give people an indication so that they would know who Christ is. For when John sat by the Jordan and preached a baptism of repentance, wearing only a leather belt and clothing made of camel's hair and eating nothing but locusts and wild honey, people thought that He was the Christ, but he himself declared to them: “I am not the Christ, but the voice of one crying; for a stronger one than I will come, whose boots I am not worthy to carry” 285. But when Jesus came to the Jordan, and He was revered as the son of Joseph the carpenter, and He seemed, as the Scriptures foretold, without a form and was taken for a carpenter - for He, living among people, was engaged in carpentry work, making plowshares and yokes 286, and thereby taught righteousness and an active life - then the Holy Spirit for people, as I said above, descended on Him in the form of a dove and at the same time came from heaven a voice prophesied through David, who, as if on his own behalf, spoke what was to be said to Him from the Father: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You” 287. This voice declared that His birth would follow for people from the time He became known to them. “You know well,” said Tryphon, “that all our people are waiting for Christ, and we recognize that all the passages from the Scriptures you cited are said about Him; I also confess that the name Joshua, given to the son of Nun, disposed me to agree to this too 288. But we doubt whether Christ should have been so ingloriously crucified, for the law says: “Cursed is everyone who is crucified,” 289 so I find it very difficult to believe this. That the Scriptures say that Christ has to suffer is clear; but we want to know whether it can also be proven that He will endure the kind of suffering cursed in the law? “If,” I answered, “Christ had not suffered, and the prophets had not predicted that through the iniquities of the people He would be led to death, dishonored, beaten and counted among the wicked, and He would be led like a sheep to the slaughter, Whose race, according to the word of the prophet, no one can explain, then one would rightly be surprised.” But if this characterizes and indicates Him to everyone, then how can we not boldly believe in Him? And all who understood the words of the prophets will say that it is He and not another, if only they hear that He was crucified. “Teach us,” said Tryphon, “from the Scriptures, so that we too will believe you.” That Christ has to suffer and be led like a sheep, we know this; but whether He should have been crucified and so shamefully and ingloriously died the death cursed by the law - prove it to us, because we cannot even understand it. “You know,” I answered, “that the prophets revealed their words and actions, as you agreed, in parables and types, hiding the truth contained in them, so that much could not be easily understood by everyone, so that those who wished to find it would take the trouble to find it and know it.” “We admitted it,” they said. “Listen,” I said, “to what follows.” Moses was the first to show this seeming curse upon Him by the signs which he did. - Which ones are you talking about? - asked Tryphon. “When the people,” I answered, “were at war with Amalek, and the son of Nun, called Joshua, was in charge of the battle, Moses himself prayed to God, stretching out his hands on both sides; He and Aaron supported them all day so that they would not become weak from his fatigue. For if he omitted anything from this sign, which represented the cross, then, as it is written in the books of Moses, the people were overcome; if he remained in this position, then Amalek was defeated to the same extent, and the strong had strength from the cross. It was not because Moses prayed thus that the people were victorious, but because while the name of Jesus was at the head of the battle, he himself made the sign of the cross 290 . For who among you does not know that that prayer greatly appeases God, which is performed with weeping and tears, with throwing to the ground and kneeling? In this way, neither he himself nor the other one who was sitting on the stone offered prayers. And even the stone was a symbol of Christ, as I have already shown 291. - God shows in another way the power of the mystery of the cross, speaking through Moses in the blessing with which He blessed Joseph: “from the blessing of the Lord is his land, from the changes of the sky and from the dew, from the depth of the springs below, from the fruits brought by the solar revolutions in due time, and from the descent of the menstruation, from the tops of the ancient mountains, and from the tops of the hills and constant springs, and from the fullness of the fruits of the earth: and that which is pleasing to Him who appeared in the bush, let it come on the head of Joseph and on the top of the head of the one who became famous among the brothers. His beauty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are the horns of a unicorn, with them he gores people from the ends of the earth” 292. But no one will say or prove that the unicorn's horns are in any other thing or figure other than the image expressing the cross. For here it is a straight tree, the uppermost part of which rises like a horn, when another tree is attached to it across it, and the ends of the latter on both sides seem like horns attached to one horn; in the middle, the established tree, on which those who are crucified are erected, also appears in the likeness of a horn and represents the appearance of a horn when it is harmonized and established with other horns 293. And the words: “with them he will gore the nations at once from the ends of the earth” clearly depict what is now happening among all nations. For people from all nations are gored by horns, i.e. wounded through this sacrament, and turned from vain idols and demons to the veneration of God; to those who do not believe, the same sign appears for destruction and condemnation, just as after the people came out of Egypt, through the image of the outstretching of the hands of Moses and the name of the son of Nun, Amalek was defeated by the name of Jesus, and Israel was victorious. Also the image and sign used against the sting of Israel from the serpents was evidently erected for the safety of the believers; because even then the death of the serpent was foretold through the one who had crucifixion and salvation for those who, having been bitten by him, resort to Him who sent His Son into the world, Who was crucified. For the prophetic Spirit through Moses taught us not to believe in the serpent, when he declares that the serpent was in the beginning cursed by God, and through Isaiah shows that he will be killed as an enemy by the great sword 294, which is Christ. “Therefore, if anyone has not received great grace from God to understand what the prophets said and did, it will not be of any benefit to him that he apparently recounts their words or deeds, although he cannot give an account of them. Will they not even seem worthy of contempt to many if they are retold by people who do not understand them? For if anyone wants to ask you: since Enoch and Noah with their children and others like them, who were not circumcised and did not keep the Sabbath, pleased God, then why through other leaders and another statute was it pleasing to God after so many generations that from Abraham to Moses they were justified through circumcision, and after Moses through circumcision and other statutes, i.e. Sabbaths, sacrifices, ashes and offerings? What do you say to this, except that, as I said before, 295 God, as a foreseeer, knew that your people would be worthily expelled from Jerusalem and none of you would be allowed to enter there? There is no other way to recognize you than by your fleshly circumcision. Abraham received from God the testimony of his righteousness, not through circumcision, but through faith; for before he was circumcised, it was said about him this way: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” 296. And we, who, being uncircumcised in the flesh, believe in God through Christ and have circumcision that is useful for us who have acquired it, i.e. circumcision of the heart, we hope to appear righteous and pleasing to God, because we have already received this testimony from Him through prophetic words. And that you were commanded to keep the Sabbath and offer your sacrifices, and that the Lord allowed the place to be called by the name of God, this, as I said 297, is so that you do not idolater and forget God and do not become wicked and godless, which you have always turned out to be. And that for this reason God gave you commandments about Sabbaths and offerings, I have already shown in the previous speech; but for the sake of those who came today, I intend to repeat almost all of my provisions. If this is not so, then God will be slandered, as if He did not have foresight and did not teach all people to know and fulfill the same truth - for there were many generations of people before Moses - and the Scripture is unjust, which says that “God is true and righteous, and all His ways are judgments and there is no unrighteousness in Him” 298 . But since the Scripture is true, God does not want you to always remain foolish and selfish, so that you may be saved with Christ, Who is pleasing to God and attested by Him, as I have already said and proved from the words of the holy prophets. For he offers to the entire human race what is always and everywhere good and just, and every people knows that adultery, fornication, murder and all other similar deeds are evil. And although everyone does this, they are not alien to the consciousness that they sin when they do this, excluding only those who, due to the influence of an unclean spirit or due to corruption from upbringing, bad customs and wicked laws, have lost natural concepts or have better extinguished and suppressed them. However, one can see that such people do not want to tolerate what they do to others, and in a hostile conscience they reproach each other for what they themselves do. Therefore, it seems to me that it is well said by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that all righteousness and piety are contained in two commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” For whoever loves God with all his heart and all his strength, he, being filled with a pious disposition, will not honor any other god, and in accordance with the will of God will honor that Angel whom the Lord God Himself loves. Also, whoever loves his neighbor as himself will wish for him the same good as he wishes for himself; and no one wishes harm to himself. Therefore, he who loves his neighbor will pray and try for him for the same thing that he wants for himself; A person’s neighbor is none other than a person – an obsequious and rational animal. So, if all righteousness is divided into two types: in relation to God and people, then whoever, as Scripture says, “loves the Lord God with all his heart and with all his strength and his neighbor as himself,” is truly righteous. And you have never shown good disposition and love either for God, or for the prophets, or for yourself, but, as is known, you have always turned out to be idolaters and murderers of the righteous, so that you laid your hands on Christ Himself, and to this day you remain in your malice, cursing those who prove that the One crucified by you is Christ; Moreover, you try to prove that He was crucified as an enemy of God and cursed; it is a consequence of your unreasonable prejudice. Despite the fact that you can understand from the signs made by Moses 300 that He is the Christ, you do not want to, and besides, hoping to put us in difficulty, you propose to us whatever questions you please, but you yourself do not know what to say when you enter into a conversation with some firm Christian. Tell me: didn’t God command through Moses not to make an image or likeness of either what is above or what is on earth, and didn’t He, through Moses, make a copper serpent in the desert and place it on a sign 301 by which those bitten by snakes were saved, and yet he is innocent of unrighteousness? For through this God announced the sacrament, showing that He would destroy the power of the serpent, which aroused Adam to crime, and would grant those who believed in Him who had to die through this meaning, i.e., the cross, salvation from the bites of the serpent - evil deeds, idolatry and other untruths. If this is not how it should be understood, then explain to me why Moses established the copper serpent as a sign and ordered those who were bitten to look at it and those who were bitten were healed, and this is when he himself commanded not to make the likeness of any thing at all. Then another of those who came on the second day said: – You said the truth: we cannot explain it; I repeatedly asked our teachers about this, and no one gave me an answer. Therefore, continue what you began to say; We listen with attention to your explanation of the sacrament, because of which the writings of the prophets are subject to false accusations. “So,” I said, “just as God commanded to give a sign through the serpent, and yet he is free from guilt, so in the law a curse is placed on people crucified, but it is not placed on the Christ of God, through whom God saves all those who have done something worthy of the curse.” According to the Law of Moses, the entire human race will be subject to damnation. For it is said: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in everything that is written in the book of the law, to do it” 302. No one completely fulfilled everything - and you did not dare to contradict - but some kept the commandments more and others less. Therefore, if people who are under this law are subject to damnation because they did not fulfill everything, then are not all nations guilty of idolatry, child molestation and other vices more subject to damnation? So, if the Father of all things wanted His Christ to take upon Himself the curses of everyone, for the entire human race, knowing that He would resurrect Him who was crucified and dead, then why do you speak of the One who, by the will of the Father, wanted to endure this, as if cursed, rather than rather mourning for yourselves? Although His Father Himself made Him endure this for the human race, you did not do this in order to serve the intention of God; for even in killing the prophets you were not committing a work of piety. And let none of you say: if the Father wanted him to endure this so that through His plague the human race would change, then we have not done any evil. If you speak like this, repenting of your sins, recognizing Him as Christ and keeping His commandments, then, as I said, 303 you will have remission of sins. But if you curse Him and those who believe in Him, and when possible, kill them, then how can the fact that you laid your hands on Him not be exacted from you as wicked, sinful, completely hard-hearted and insane people. And what is said in the law is “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” 304; strengthens our hope, which depends on the crucified Christ, not because God curses this crucified one, but because God foretold what you and those like you were going to do, not knowing that He is the One who exists first of all, the eternal Priest of God, the King and Christ. This, as you can see, is being fulfilled. For in your synagogues you curse those who became Christians through Him; also other nations bring into effect the very curse, killing those who only declare themselves Christians; and we say to all of them: you are our brothers, get to know the truth of God better. And when neither they nor you listen to us, but strongly demand that we renounce the name of Christ, then we rather prefer and endure death, confident that God will reward us with all the benefits promised through Christ. And moreover, we pray for you that you may receive mercy from Christ. For He taught us to pray even for our enemies, saying: “Be kind and merciful, just as your heavenly Father is” 305. We see that Almighty God is good and merciful. He causes His sun to rise on the ungrateful and on the righteous and sends rain on the saints and on the wicked, whom He has taught will judge all. It was not in vain that the prophet Moses, when He and Aaron supported his hands, remained in this form until the evening. For the Lord remained on the tree almost until evening, and towards evening they buried Him; and then He rose again on the third day. David announced this: “I cried with my voice to the Lord, and He heard me from His holy mountain. I fell asleep and slept; and I stood up again, because the Lord supported me” 306. Isaiah also predicted how He would die: “I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and rebellious people, to those who walk in the evil way.”307 And about the fact that He will rise again, the same Isaiah said this: “His tomb was taken out of the midst” and: “I will give the rich for His death” 308. And in another place, again, David said this about suffering and the cross in a mysterious allegory in the 21st Psalm: “They pierced My hands and My feet, they counted all My bones: but they themselves reasoned and looked at Me. They divided My garments for themselves and cast lots for My clothing” 309. For when they crucified Him, having fastened Him with nails, they “pierced His hands and feet,” and those who crucified Him divided His clothes for themselves, and having cast lots, each left it to the decision of the lot to determine who should take. But you deny that this psalm refers to Christ, being blind in everything and not understanding that no one in your people, who was called the anointed king, was pierced hand and foot during his lifetime and did not die through this sacrament, that is, crucifixion, except this Jesus. But I will quote the entire psalm so that you can hear about His piety towards the Father, and how He relates everything to Him, asking Him even for salvation from this death; at the same time, from this psalm it is clear who those who rebelled against Him were, and it is clear that He became in truth a man who felt suffering. Here is this psalm: “O God, my God, look at me? why have you left me? Words about My sins are far from My salvation. My God! I will cry to You during the day and You will not hear Me, and at night - and not in ignorance of Me. But You live in a holy place, praise of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You, they hoped and You freed them; They called to You and were saved; they trusted in You and were not put to shame. But I am a worm, and not a man, a reproach of people and rejected by the people. All who saw Me laughed at Me and said with their lips, nodding their heads: He trusted in the Lord, let him free Him, let him save Him, because He desires Him. But You brought Me from the womb, You are My hope from My mother’s breasts; I am committed to You from the womb, You are My God, from My mother’s womb. Do not depart from Me, because sorrow is close, because there is no helper for Me. Many bulls surrounded Me, fat bulls surrounded Me, they opened their mouth against Me, like a ravenous and roaring lion. All My bones came out like water and were divided. My heart became like melting wax in the midst of My interior; My strength dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue stuck to My throat, and You brought Me down to the dust of death; For a multitude of dogs have surrounded Me, a congregation of the wicked have surrounded Me. They pierced My hands and feet, they counted all My bones; and they themselves reasoned and looked at Me. They divided My garments for themselves, and they cast lots for My clothing. But You, Lord, do not remove Your help from Me: turn to My protection. Free My soul from weapons, and My only begotten from the paw of a dog. Save Me from the mouth of the lion and My humility from the horns of unicorns. I will tell Your name to My brothers, in the midst of the church I will sing Your praises. You who fear the Lord, praise Him: all the seed of Jacob! praise Him; let all the seed of Israel fear Him" ​​310. “I will prove to you,” I then continued, “that the entire psalm refers to Christ, and for this I will explain it again. His initial words “O God, my God! look at Me; why have you forsaken me? predicted from ancient times what was to be said at the time of Christ. Being crucified on the cross, He said: “God, God, why have you forsaken me?” 311. And further words: “words about My sins are far from My salvation; My God, I will cry to You during the day and You will not hear Me, and at night - and not without My knowledge,” they predicted how and what Christ had to do. For on the day when He was to be crucified, He took with Him three of His disciples to the mountain called Olivet, located opposite the temple of Jerusalem, and prayed like this: “Father! if possible, let this cup pass from Me,” and then continued His prayer: “However, not as I will, but as You will,” 312 showing with these words that He truly became a man capable of suffering. But, lest anyone say: behold, He did not know that He would suffer, the psalm immediately adds: “and not in my ignorance.” Just as it was not out of ignorance that God asked Adam where he was, or Cain where Abel was, but in order to convict everyone of what he was like, and so that knowledge of all this would come to us through Scripture: so here Christ points not to His own ignorance 313, but to the ignorance of those who thought that He was not the Christ, but believed that they would kill him, and He would remain in hell as an ordinary person. The following words: “You live in a holy place, the praise of Israel,” showed that he would accomplish a deed worthy of praise and surprise, namely, on the third day after the crucifixion he would rise from the dead. The Father gave Him this to fulfill. I have already shown that Christ is called Jacob and Israel, and that not only is it mysteriously foreshadowed about Him in the blessing of Joseph and Judah 314; even in the Gospel it is written that He said this: “everything has been handed over to Me by the Father, and no one knows the Father, only the Son, nor the Son, only the Father and those to whom the Son will reveal it” 315. And so, He revealed to us everything that we, by His grace, learned from the Scriptures; we recognize Him as the Firstborn of God, existing before all creatures, and the Son of the patriarchs, because He was incarnated from the Virgin of their race, and deigned to become a man without form and glory and suffering. That is why He, speaking in a conversation about His future suffering, said this: “The Son of Man must suffer much, and be rejected by the Pharisees and scribes, be crucified, and rise on the third day.” 316 Here He called Himself the Son of Man, either because He was born of a Virgin, who, as I said, came from the line of David, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham, or because Abraham himself was the father of Him and the numbered men from whom Mary descends; for we know that the parents of women are the fathers of the children their daughters bore. And when one of His disciples, formerly called Simon, by the revelation of His Father, recognized Him as the Son of God Christ, He renamed him Peter. And since it is written in the writings of His Apostles that He is the Son of God, we also call Him Son, and we know that He exists before all creatures and came from the Father by His power and will: He is variously called in the prophetic books: wisdom, and the day, and the east, and the sword, and the rod, and Jacob, and Israel. We also recognize that He became man through the Virgin so that in the same way that the crime that originated from the serpent began, it would receive its destruction in the same way. For Eve, when she was a virgin and innocent, having received the word of the serpent, brought about disobedience and death; and Mary the Virgin, accepting faith and joy, when the Angel Gabriel brought Her the joyful news that “the Spirit of the Lord will come upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her, therefore the holy thing born of her is the Son of God,” answered: “Let it be done to me according to your word” 318. And from her was born He, of whom, as I have proved, it is spoken of in so many places of Scripture; through Him, God defeats the serpent and the angels and men who resemble him, and frees from death those who repent of their sins and believe in Him. – The following words of the psalm: “Our fathers trusted in You, they trusted, and You freed them, they cried to You and were saved, they trusted in You and were not put to shame; but I am a worm, and not a man, a reproach of men and rejected by the people,” show that He recognizes as fathers those who trusted in God and were delivered by Him, and who were the fathers of that Virgin from whom He was born and became man; moreover, He shows that He Himself will be saved by the same God, but does not boast that He will do anything by His will and power. This is what he did on earth. When someone “said to Him: good teacher! then He answered: Why do you call Me good? There is only one good thing, this is my heavenly Father” 319. With the words: “I am a worm, and not a man, a reproach of people and rejected by the people,” He predicted what He would be and what would happen to Himself. Reproach comes from everywhere to us who believe in Him; He is the one rejected by the people, because He was despised and dishonored by your people, and endured what you planned for Him. With further words: “and all who saw Me laughed at me and said with their lips, nodding their heads: He trusted in the Lord, let him deliver Him, because He desires Him,” He also predicted what would happen to Him. For each of those who saw Him crucified nodded their heads, twisted their mouths, and said under each other’s noses with mockery what was written in the records of His Apostles: “He called himself the Son of God, let him come down and walk; may God save Him" ​​320. – These words also pointed to the events: “You are My hope from My mother’s breasts; I have been committed to You from the womb, You are My God from My mother’s womb. Many bulls surrounded Me, fat bulls surrounded Me; They opened their mouth against me, like a ravenous and roaring lion. All My bones came out like water and were divided. My heart became like melting wax in the midst of My interior; My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue is stuck to the throat.” “My hope is from the breasts of My Mother”: these words indicated that immediately after His birth in Bethlehem, King Herod, as I have already said, 321, having learned about Him from the wise men who came from Arabia, plotted to kill Him, but Joseph, at the command of God, taking Him along with Mary, retired to Egypt; for it pleased the Father that He who was born of Him should be put to death after He had matured and proclaimed His teaching. If someone tells us: Couldn’t God have killed Herod better? then in response to this I ask whether God could not have destroyed the serpent at the beginning and not said: “I will put enmity between him and the woman and between his seed and her seed” 322? Could He suddenly create a multitude of people? But since He knew that it was good for him to be so, he created angels and men with free will to do righteousness, and determined periods of time during which He recognized it as good for them to use free will; and having given them free will, He appointed public and private courts, because He knew that it was excellent. Therefore, Scripture tells about the building of the tower and about the division and change of languages ​​​​as follows: “And the Lord said: behold, the people are one and they all have one language, and they began to do this; and now they will not lack in everything that they intend to do” 323. The saying: “My strength dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue stuck to my throat,” also foreshadowed what He intended to do by the will of the Father. For the power of His mighty word, with which He always denounced the Pharisees and scribes and in general all the teachers of your people, when they argued with Him, stopped in the likeness of a large and strong spring, the water of which was turned aside - when He was silent and did not want to answer anything to anyone under Pilate, as it is said in the memorial records of His Apostles 324, in order to bring real fruit and the words of Isaiah: “The Lord gives me tongue, so that I know when I should speak a word" 325. By saying: “You are My God, do not depart from Me,” He teaches us, among other things, that we should all hope in God, who created everything, and seek salvation and help from Him alone, and not think like other people that we can be saved by birth or wealth, or strength or wisdom, as you have always done, you who once poured out the golden calf and have always shown yourself to be ungrateful, murderers of the righteous and proud of your origin. If the Son of God clearly says that He cannot be saved either because He is the Son, or because He is strong or wise, but shows that He cannot be saved without God, although He is sinless, as Isaiah says, and did not sin even in a word - for “He committed no iniquity or deceit with his lips” 326 - then how can you and others who expect salvation without this hope think that you are deceiving yourselves? – What is further read in the psalm: “because sorrow is near, because there is no helper for Me. Many bulls surrounded Me, fat bulls surrounded Me; They opened their mouth against Me like a ravenous and roaring lion: all My bones came out like water and were divided,” they also predicted what happened to Him. For on that night, when they attacked Him from the Mount of Olives, 327 those sent from your people by order of the Pharisees and scribes, surrounded Him with those whom the scripture called vigilant and deadly calves. The words: “fat bulls surrounded Me,” signify those who acted like bulls when He was brought to your teachers; Scripture called them bulls because bulls are the culprits of the lives of calves. Just as bulls are the fathers of calves, so are your teachers responsible for the fact that their children went to the Mount of Olives to seize Him and bring Him to them. The saying: “there is no helper” also indicates an event. For no one, not a single person, was there to help Him as if He were sinless. And the words: “they opened their mouth against me like a roaring lion” indicate the then king of Judah, named Herod, the successor of that Herod, who, when Christ was born, killed all the babies born around that time in Bethlehem, thinking that among them would certainly be the one whom he learned about from the wise men who came from Arabia; but he did not know the will of the Almighty, who ordered Joseph and Mary with the Child to go to Egypt and remain there until they were again told in revelation to return to their country. There they remained until the death of Herod, who killed the infants in Bethlehem, and until the reign after him of Archelaus, who also died before Christ fulfilled on the cross the dispensation He had accepted according to the will of the Father. And when Herod, who succeeded Archelaus, received the power granted to him, Pilate, to please him, sent Jesus bound to him; Foreseeing that, God said this: “and they took Him to the house of the Assyrian as a friendly gift to the king” 328. Or by the lion roaring at Him, God meant the devil, who was called the serpent by Moses, the devil in Job and Zechariah, and Jesus called him Satan, showing that this name was composed and given to him from the work he did, for “sata” in the language of the Jews and Syrians means an apostate, and “us” is a name that in translation means serpent; from both words one name is formed: Satanas 329. For this devil, as soon as Jesus came out of the Jordan River and a voice said to Him: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You,” then, as it is written in the apostolic notes, he came to Him and tempted him, and even said to Him: “Bow before me,” but Christ answered him: “Get away from Me, Satan; Worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone” 330. Since he deceived Adam, he thought that he could do something against Christ. “All My bones came out like water and were divided, My heart became like melting wax in the midst of My bowels,” these words are a prophecy of what happened that night when they came out against Him on the Mount of Olives to seize Him. In the memorial records, which, I say, were compiled by His apostles and their followers, it is said that sweat flowed from Him, like drops of blood, while He prayed and said: “let this cup pass by, if possible,” 331: at this time His heart, as well as His bones, trembled, the heart was like wax melting in His entrails, so that we would know that, by the will of the Father, His Son really endured for us such suffering, and so that we do not say that He, as the Son of God, did not feel what was happening to Him. The words: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue is stuck to My throat,” as I have already said, foreshadowed His silence, therefore He, Who usually denounced the foolishness of all your teachers, resolutely did not answer anything. The words: “You brought me down to the dust of death, because a multitude of dogs surrounded Me, a crowd of wicked people surrounded Me; They pierced My hands and My feet, they numbered all My bones; but they themselves reasoned and looked at Me: they divided My garments for themselves and cast lots for My clothing,” - as I have already said, they foretold what kind of death the assembly of the wicked would condemn Him to; He calls them dogs and hounds, showing that the leaders of the dogs themselves gathered and tried to accuse Him: this is also described in the memorial records of His Apostles. And I showed that after the crucifixion of Christ, those who crucified Him divided His clothes among themselves. – The following words in the psalm: “But You, Lord, do not remove Your help from Me, turn to My protection. Free My soul from the sword and My only begotten from the paw of the dog; save Me from the mouth of the lion and My humility from the horns of unicorns,” they also indicated and foreshadowed what His nature was and what was going to happen to Him. For, as I said above, He was the only begotten of the Father of all, actually begotten of Him as Word and Power, and then became man from the Virgin, as we know from the records of His Apostles. I also mentioned above that He died on the cross. “Free My soul from the sword and My only begotten from the paw of a dog, save Me from the mouth of a lion and My humility from the horns of unicorns” also showed what kind of suffering He would die from, that is, from crucifixion on the cross; for I have already explained to you that the words “from the horns of unicorns” indicate the image of the cross. His request that His soul be delivered from the sword, from the lion’s mouth and from the dog’s paw, was a prayer that no one would take possession of His soul; so that we, when departing from life, ask the same from God, Who is able to turn away every shameless and evil angel, so that he does not take possession of our soul. And I proved to you the existence of souls by the fact that the ventriloquist, at the request of Saul, summoned the soul of Samuel. But it seems that all the souls of such righteous men and prophets were subject to the power of those forces that are revealed from the case itself in this ventriloquist. Therefore, God, through His Son, teaches us to constantly try to be righteous and at the time of death to pray that our souls will not be subjected to such force. As he gave up his spirit on the cross, He said: “Father! into Your hands I commend My Spirit,” 332 as I also learned from the memorable notes. Exhorting His disciples to surpass the life of the Pharisees and instilling in them that otherwise they would not be saved, He, as it is written in these records, said: “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” - That He knew that His Father would give Him everything at His request and would raise Him from the dead - that He exhorted all those who feared God to praise God for the pardon of the entire race of believing people through the sacrament of this Crucified One, and that He became among His brothers the Apostles - who, after His resurrection from the dead, being assured by Himself that even before suffering He spoke about the need to endure this and that the prophets had predicted about it, repented of his apostasy from Him during His crucifixion - and that He, being with them, praised God, as is shown in the memorial records of the apostles - all this was depicted by the last words of the psalm. “I will tell your name to my brothers, in the midst of the church I will sing praises to you. You who fear the Lord, praise Him! all you seed of Jacob, glorify Him; Let all the seed of Israel fear Him.” And the fact that He, as is also related in the memorial records, renamed one of the Apostles Peter, and likewise called the other two brothers, the sons of Zebedee, by the name Boanerges, i.e. sons of thunder, this meant that He is the same one who gave the name Israel to Jacob and called Absiah the name Jesus; through which name the people who remained from those who left Egypt were brought into the land promised to the patriarchs. And that He, like a star, is about to shine from the race of Abraham, Moses showed in the words: “a star will rise from Jacob and a leader from Israel” 334; and in another place the Scripture says: “Here is a man whose name is east” 335 . So, when at His birth a star appeared in the sky, as it is written in the memorial records of His Apostles, the wise men from Arabia learned about it by this sign, came and worshiped Him. - Regarding His resurrection on the third day after the crucifixion, it is written in the memorial records that people from your family, competing with Him, said to Him: “Show us a sign”; and He answered them: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah” 336. These words of His were then hidden, so that the listeners could not understand from them that after the crucifixion He would resurrect on the third day. He also represented your race as more wicked and adulterous than the city of Nineveh, who, when Jonah, thrown out on the third day from the belly of a huge fish, told them that in three days they would all perish, they imposed a public fast on all living things, from man to dumb, with the wearing of sackcloth, with a strong cry, with true heartfelt repentance, and with abstinence from wickedness; believing that God is merciful and loving towards all who turn away from wickedness. Even the king of this city and the nobles wore sackcloth and remained in fasting and prayer, and prayed that their city would not be destroyed. But when Jonah lamented that on the third day, as he preached, the city was not destroyed, then by God's dispensation a pumpkin 338 grew for him, under the shade of which he sat and was protected from the heat - it was an unexpected pumpkin, which Jonah neither planted nor watered, but suddenly grew up to provide him with shade - and by another order of God it withered, about which Jonah lamented; then God convicted him of unjust sorrow that the city of Nineveh was not destroyed, saying: “You regretted the pumpkin, which you did not labor on, which you did not cultivate, and which grew in its night, and withered in its night; and will I not spare Nineveh, a great city, in which live more than one hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left, and a multitude of cattle” 339? – All of your people knew these incidents; and although Christ declared before you that He would give you the sign of Jonah, inspiring by this that you, at least after His resurrection from the dead, would repent of your evil deeds and, like the Ninevites, beseech God with tears so that your city would not be taken and destroyed, as it is now destroyed: despite this, you not only did not repent, having learned about His resurrection, but, as I have already said, 340 you sent out chosen men throughout the entire universe to divulge that “a godless and lawless heresy arose through Jesus, some flatterer Galilean, whom we crucified, but His disciples stole Him at night from the tomb, where He was laid after being taken down from the cross, and deceive people, saying that He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.” You also slander that He taught those godless, lawless and ungodly deeds of which you accuse those who confess Him as Christ, Teacher and Son of God, before the entire human race. Moreover, even now, when your city is taken and your land is devastated, you do not repent, but still dare to curse Him and those who believe in Him. But we do not hate you or those who accepted such an opinion from you, but we pray that all of you will at least now repent and receive mercy from the All-merciful and merciful Father of all - God. - And about the fact that the nations had to repent of the wickedness in which they lived due to their error, after they heard the teaching preached by His apostles, starting from Jerusalem, and learned It from them, let me quote a few words from the prophecy of Micah, one of the twelve prophets. Here they are: “And in the last days the mountain of the Lord will be revealed, prepared on the top of the mountain, lifted up above the hills: and people will flock to it. And many nations will come and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob: and we will be shown His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For out of Zion will go out the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge many among the people, and will expose the mighty nations at a distance: and they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not raise sword against nation, and they will no longer know how to fight. And every man shall sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one shall make him afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken; for all men will walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of our God forever. And it will come to pass in that day, “I will gather the broken one, and will receive the exiled one, and the one whom I have smitten, and will make the broken one a remnant, and the oppressed one a mighty nation: and the Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion from now on and forever.”341 “I know, my lords,” I continued after those words, “that your teachers understand all the words of this place about Christ, I also know that they claim that He has not yet come; and if he came, they say, then it is unknown who He is; but when He appears and is glorified, then it will be known who He is. Then what is said in these words will be fulfilled, they say; as if there had not yet been any fruit from the words of the prophecy! Foolish! They do not understand what is clear from all the passages of Scripture - that two comings of Christ are announced: one in which He is presented as a Sufferer, inglorious, dishonored and crucified, and the other - in which He will come with glory from heaven, when a man of apostasy, speaking proud words even against the Most High, dares to commit lawless deeds on earth against us - Christians, us - who, having learned the reverence of God from the law and teaching, who came out of Jerusalem through the apostles of Jesus, resorted to the God of Jacob and the God of Israel, and each of us, having previously been filled with war, mutual murder and wickedness of every kind, throughout the whole earth changed weapons of war - our swords into plowshares and spears into agricultural tools - and we cultivate piety, righteousness, love for mankind, faith, hope given by the Father Himself through the Crucified, and We each sit under our own grapevine, that is, each of us has one lawful wife; for, you know, the prophetic word says: “and his wife is like a fruitful vine” 342. It is clear that no one terrifies or enslaves us who believe in Jesus throughout the whole earth. Although they cut off our heads, crucify us, throw us into beasts, into prison, into fire, and subject us to all sorts of other tortures, however, as is known, we do not deviate from our confession: but the more we are tortured in this way, the more the number of other believers and those who honor God through the name of Jesus increases. Like a grapevine, if someone cuts off its fruitful parts, it again produces other flowering and fruitful branches; This is exactly what happens to us; for the vine planted by God and the Savior Christ is His people. And the remaining words of the prophecy will be fulfilled at His second coming. As for the words: “broken and expelled,” those from the world, they indicate that every Christian, as much as he depends on you and on other people, is expelled not only from his possessions, but also from the whole world, so that you do not allow a single Christian to live. You say this has come true for your people. But if you were expelled as a result of the war, then you justly suffered this according to the testimony of all the Scriptures; we, who have not committed any such crime after we have come to know the truth of God, receive testimony from God that we are expelled from the earth together with the most righteous and only undefiled and sinless Christ. For Isaiah exclaims: “This is how the righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; and righteous people are destroyed, and no one thinks” 344. – I have already said 345 that the two comings of Christ were symbolically predicted back in the time of Moses - through the symbol of goats offered during Lent. And again the same thing was mysteriously foreshadowed and represented by what Moses and Jesus did. For one of them, with outstretched arms that were supported, remained on the hill until the evening - this is nothing more than a cross; and another, renamed Jesus, led the battle, and Israel was victorious. One might think that this was done by both holy men and prophets of God, because one of them could not imagine two sacraments together - I mean - the image of the cross and the image of the name; for this power is, was and will be characteristic only of the One, Whose name even all authorities are afraid of, feeling torment, because they will be destroyed by Him 346. So, our sufferer and crucified Christ was not cursed by the law, but showed that He alone will save those who do not depart from faith in Him. And those who were saved in Egypt, when the firstborn of Egypt were destroyed, were saved by the blood of the Passover, with which the doorposts and the lintel were anointed on both sides. For the Passover was Christ, who was afterwards sacrificed, just as Isaiah says: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.” It is even written that you took Him on the day of Passover and crucified Him also during Passover. And just as the blood of Easter saved those who were in Egypt, so the blood of Christ will save those who believed in Him from death. Would God have been deceived if there had not been this sign on the doors? No, I say; but through this He foreshadowed the salvation that would be through the blood of Christ for the human race. For the sign of the red rope 348, which the spies sent by Joshua gave to the harlot Rahab in Jericho, ordering her to tie the rope to the window through which she let them down in order to hide them from her enemies, also represented a symbol of the blood of Christ, through which among all nations those who were formerly fornicators and lawless people receive salvation by accepting the remission of sins and sinning no more. – And you, explaining this in a humiliating way, attribute great weakness to God if you understand this simply and do not examine the power of what was said. For in this way Moses will also be accused of breaking the law: having decreed that they should not make any likeness of either what is in heaven, or what is on Earth or in the sea, he himself then made a copper serpent, and having established it on a sign, he commanded those who were bitten to look at it, and they, looking at it, received healing. Should it really be thought that the people were then saved through the serpent, which, as I said, God cursed in the beginning and killed with a great sword, as Isaiah 349 says? and will we really understand this as unreasonably as your teachers believe, and not take it for symbols? Shall we not attribute this to the image of the crucified Jesus, when also Moses, with outstretched hands, together with the one who was called by the name of Jesus, brought victory to your people? Thus, at least we will not doubt what the legislator did. For he, not out of forgetfulness of God, convinced the people to place their hope in the beast, through which crime and disobedience began. This was done and said by the blessed prophet with great thought and mystery: and there is nothing in the words and deeds of all the prophets in general for which one could rightly reproach them, if you understand the meaning contained in them. But if all your teachers only explain to you why in this or that place female camels are not mentioned, or what female camels mean, or why so much wheat flour and so much oil are used in offerings, and they explain this in a low and petty manner, and they do not dare to speak or interpret about important and worthy of study subjects, and even advise you not to listen to our interpretations at all and not to enter into conversation with us: then will they hear unfairly? what was spoken to them by our Lord Jesus Christ? “Whitewashed coffins, which look beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead. You tithe the mint and devour the camel, you blind leaders! 350 Therefore, if you do not despise the instructions of those who exalt themselves and want to be called “teacher, teacher,” and do not approach the prophetic writings with such firmness and spirit that you will endure from your people the same thing that the prophets themselves endured, then you will not receive any benefit from the prophetic writings. “Here’s what I think: Jesus, as I said several times before, the same one who was called Absi and was sent with Caleb to see the land of Canaan, Moses called Jesus. You don’t look for the reasons why he did it, you don’t doubt, you don’t question; therefore Christ is hidden from you; and reading you do not understand, and even now, when you hear that Jesus is our Christ, you do not reason that this name was not given to him in vain and not by chance. But you theologize about why one “a” was added to the former name of Abraham, and you argue with importance why one “r” was added to the name of Sarah; and why the son of Nun’s father’s name Absi was changed into the name Jesus, you do not investigate in a similar way. Not only was his name changed, but he also became the successor of Moses; he, one of his peers who came out of Egypt, led the surviving people into the holy land, and just as he led the people into the holy land, and not Moses, and divided it according to the lot of those who entered with him: so Jesus Christ will return the dispersion of people and divide the good land to everyone, only in a different way. For the first gave them a temporary inheritance, because he was not Christ God, nor the Son of God; and Jesus Christ after the holy resurrection will give us eternal possession. The first stopped the sun, having been renamed in advance by the name of Jesus and receiving power from His Spirit. For I proved that Jesus appeared to Moses, Abraham and all the patriarchs in general and talked with them, fulfilling the will of the Father: He, I say, came to be born as a man from the Virgin Mary, and always remains. He is the One from whom 351 and through whom the Father has to renew heaven and earth; He is the One who will shine eternal light in Jerusalem; He is, according to the order of Melchizedek, the King of Salem and the eternal Priest of the Most High. The first, as you know, circumcised the people with the second circumcision using stone knives - this was an indication of the circumcision with which Jesus Christ Himself circumcised us from serving stones and other idols - and gathered a multitude of those who were from uncircumcision, i.e. from the deception of the world, they were circumcised in every place with knives of stone - according to the teaching of our Lord Jesus. That the prophets literally called Christ a stone and a rock, this has already been shown by me 352. By stone knives we will understand His teaching, through which so many erring people from uncircumcision were circumcised by the circumcision of the heart. With this circumcision God then commanded Jesus to circumcise even those who had carnal circumcision, which began with Abraham, when He said that Jesus should circumcise those who entered the holy land with the second circumcision with stone knives. – For sometimes, through the action of the Holy Spirit, that which was an image of the future was clearly accomplished; and sometimes He prophesied future events as if He were speaking about present or even past ones. If readers do not know this modus operandi, they will not be able to correctly understand the prophetic words. So that you understand my thought, I will give as an example some prophetic words. When the Holy Spirit speaks through Isaiah: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before the shearers” 353 ; then he speaks as if the suffering had already happened. And when he also says: “I have stretched out My hands to a rebellious and disobedient people,” and when he says: “Lord! who believed our rumor? 354; then this is said as if it were pointing to events that have already happened. I have already shown that Christ is often technically called a stone, and allegorically Jacob and Israel. And again, when he says: “I will see the heavens, the works of Your finger,” - if I do not here understand the action of His Word, then I will understand this passage unreasonably, like your teachers, who think that the Father of all and the unbegotten God has, like a complex being, hands and feet and fingers and a soul, and therefore they teach that the Father Himself appeared to Abraham and Jacob. Blessed then are we, circumcised with the second circumcision by means of knives of stone. For your first was and is now being accomplished through iron, because you have a coarse heart; and our circumcision, the second in a row, since it appeared after yours, is performed with sharp stones, i.e. in the words of the Apostles of That Cornerstone, Who was cut off without the help of hands and circumcises us from idolatry and all sin in general; and our hearts are so circumcised from evil that we even rejoice, dying for the name of that excellent Stone, which brings forth living water to the hearts that through Him have loved the Father of all, and gives drink to those who wish to drink the water of life. But you do not understand my words: for you do not understand what Christ was to do according to the prophecies, and you do not believe us when we bring you the Scriptures. Jeremiah says this: “Woe to you, because you have abandoned the living fountain and dug for yourselves broken wells that cannot hold water! Will there really be a desert where Mount Zion is? Because I gave a bill of divorce to Jerusalem in your sight 355 . – But you must believe Zechariah, who clearly shows the mystery of Christ and secretly proclaims it. These are his words: “Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Zion! For, behold, I come and will dwell among you, says the Lord. And many nations will be joined to the Lord in that day, and will be My people; And I will dwell among you, and they will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. And the Lord will rule over Judah and His inheritance in the holy land, and will choose Jerusalem again. Let all flesh fear the Lord, for He has arisen from the clouds of His saints. And He showed me Jesus, the great Priest, standing before the Angel of the Lord; and the devil stood at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said to the devil; May the Lord, who chose Jerusalem, rebuke you. Isn’t this a brand snatched from the fire?” 356. When Tryphon intended to object to me, I said: wait and listen first to what I say. For I do not intend, as you suggest, to explain this in such a way that there was no priest in the name of Jesus in the land of Babylon, where your people were carried into captivity. If I wanted to do this, I would prove that although Jesus was a priest among your people; but the prophet did not see him himself in his revelation, just as he did not see the devil and the angel of the Lord with his own eyes, being in a natural state, but saw them in a frenzy during the revelation that was to him. But now I say: just as, according to what I said before, the son of Nun accomplished through the name of Jesus the powers and works that foreshadowed what our Lord was about to do: so now I will prove that the revelation that was in Babylon under the priest Jesus among your people was a foretelling of what was about to be accomplished by our priest, God and Christ, the Son of the Father of all. It was surprising to me, I continued, why you were silent shortly before this, and did not interrupt me when I said that the son of Nun, one of his peers who came out of Egypt, entered the holy land along with the younger members of this generation. For you, like flies, gather and flock to wounds. If someone spoke beautifully about a thousand things, but said some little thing that you did not like or would not understand for you, or would not be accurate: then you, leaving without attention much that is excellent, seize on an insignificant word and try to present it as wickedness and lawlessness. That is why you, judged by the Lord by the same court, will give an account much more for your great insolence - whether for bad deeds, or for your false and perverse interpretations. For it is just that you should be judged by the same judgment with which you judge. But in order to give you an account of the revelation of the Holy Jesus, I resume my speech and say that this revelation applies to us who believe in Christ, the high priest crucified - to us, who, being given over to fornication and every generally vile deed, have stripped off by the grace bestowed by our Jesus according to the will of His Father, all that is unclean and evil in which we were clothed. The devil rises up against us, always acting against us and wanting to attract everyone to himself: but the Angel of God, i.e. the power of God, sent down to us through Jesus Christ, forbids him, and he moves away from us. And it’s as if we were snatched from the fire, because we were delivered both from previous sins and from the torment and flames that the devil and all his servants are preparing for us, and from which Jesus the Son of God again delivers us; He promised to clothe us in the garments prepared for us if we fulfill His commandments, and to give us an everlasting kingdom. For just as that Jesus, whom the prophet calls the Priest, appeared dressed in unclean clothes, because, as it is said, he took a harlot wife, and called it a brand snatched from the fire, because he received the forgiveness of his sins, while his adversary the devil received a rebuke; so we, who through the name of Jesus, as one man, believed in God, the Creator of all things, in the name of His firstborn Son, were put off from unclean clothing, i.e. sins, and being tempted by the word of His calling, we constitute the true high priestly race of God, as God Himself testifies, saying that in every place among the nations sacrifices are offered to Him, acceptable and pure. But God does not accept sacrifices from anyone except His priests. So, God testified in advance that He was pleased with all the sacrifices in His name that Jesus Christ commanded to be made, i.e. which in every place on earth are offered by Christians in the Eucharist of bread and cup. But He rejects the sacrifices offered by you and through those priests of yours, saying: “And I will not accept your sacrifices from your hands, because from the east of the sun to the west My name is glorified (among the nations, in every place My name is offered incense and a pure sacrifice, because My name is glorified) among the nations, says the Lord, and you desecrate it” 357. But even now, out of love for argument, you say that here God showed that He does not accept sacrifices from the so-called Israelites who then lived in Jerusalem, and the prayers offered by people from your people who were then in dispersion are pleasing to Him, and He calls their prayers sacrifices. I agree that only prayers and thanksgiving offered by worthy people are perfect sacrifices pleasing to God. This is precisely what Christians are taught to offer, and moreover, with remembrance during the reception of dry and liquid food, through which they remember the suffering suffered for them by the Son of God. Your bishops and teachers of your people tried to desecrate and blaspheme his name throughout the whole earth. But God will openly remove these unclean garments 358, which you have placed on all those who have become Christians in the name of Jesus, from us when He resurrects everyone, and will make some incorruptible, immortal and carefree in the eternal and indestructible Kingdom, and will send others to eternal torment by fire. You and your teachers deceive yourselves by interpreting that that passage of Scripture speaks of people from your people who were in dispersion, as if their prayers and sacrifices in every place were pure and pleasing to God. Know that you speak falsely and are trying in every possible way to deceive yourselves, especially when even now your people are not scattered from east to west; but there are nations among which none of your people lived. Meanwhile, there is absolutely not a single people - barbarians or Hellenes, or called by any other name, nomadic, or homeless, or leading a shepherd's life and living in tents 359, among whom prayers and thanksgiving would not be offered to the Father and Creator of all things in the name of the crucified Jesus. Moreover, you know that at the time when the prophet Malachi said this, you were not yet scattered throughout the whole earth, as you are now, which is clear from the Scriptures. Therefore, you had better give up the love of controversy, and repent before that great day of judgment comes, when, according to the prediction of the Scripture, as I have proven, all of your tribes who pierced this Christ will weep. I explained to you the meaning of the prophecy: “The Lord swore: you are a priest, according to the order of Melchizedek” 360. I have also already said that the prophecy of Isaiah: “His tomb was taken out of the midst” 361 refers to Christ, who was about to be buried and would rise again. I also spoke a lot about the fact that this Christ is the Judge of all the living and the dead. In like manner, Nathan spoke of Him to David thus: “I will be a Father to him, He will be My Son, and I will not remove My mercy from Him, as I did to those who were before him; and I will place Him in My house and in His kingdom forever.”362 And Ezekiel calls not anyone else the leader and in the house, but only this very Christ 363. For He is the chosen Priest, the eternal King, Christ, as the Son of God, and do not think that Isaiah and other prophets say that at His second coming blood sacrifices or drink offerings will be brought to the altar, but true and spiritual ones - praises and thanksgiving. It was not in vain that we believed in Him and were not deceived by those who taught us this way: but it was also arranged by the wonderful providence of God that through the calling of the new and eternal covenant, that is, Christ, we are both more reasonable and more pious than you, who are only imaginary reasonable and reverent of God, and not in reality. Wondering at this, Isaiah said: “And the kings will shut their mouths, because those to whom it was not announced about Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand. Lord! who believed our hearing: and to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed” 364? “Saying this, Tryphon,” I added, “I try as much as possible to repeat what I said before, albeit briefly and concisely, for the sake of those who came with you today. “You’re doing well,” said Tryphon, “and even if you repeated the same thing even more at length, rest assured that I and those present are very happy to listen.” “Do you think, my lords,” I began to speak again, “that we could ever understand this in the Scriptures if we had not received the grace to understand them by the will of the one who wanted to arrange this, so that what Moses said would come true: “They angered me with strangers, grieved me with their abominations, sacrificed to demons who were not called; new and recent gods appeared, whom their fathers had not called. You have abandoned the God who gave birth to you and forgotten the God who feeds you. And God saw and became jealous and grieved because of the anger of his sons and daughters, and said: I will turn My face away from them and show what will happen to them in the last days, because they are a corrupt generation, sons in whom there is no faith, they have provoked Me to jealousy because they are not God, they have grieved Me with their idols, and I will arouse in them jealousy because they are not a people, and I will grieve them because they are a foolish people. For the fire was kindled by My wrath; and it will burn even to hell, it will devour the earth and its products, it will burn the foundations of the mountains. I will heap disasters on them" 365. And after this Righteous One was killed, we, another people, flourished and grew like new blossoming ears of corn, as the prophets said: “and many nations will run to the Lord on that day among the people and will live in the midst of all the earth” 366. And we are not only a people, but also a holy people, as we have already shown: “and they will call them a holy people, delivered from the Lord” 367. So, we are not a despised mob, not a barbarian tribe, and not like the peoples of Caria and Phrygia, but God chose us and appeared to those who did not ask Him. “Behold,” He says, “I am God to the people who did not call on my name.” 368 This is the people about whom God once made a promise to Abraham and promised to make him the father of many nations, meaning not the Arabians, Egyptians or Edomites; for Ishmael also became the father of a great nation, and Esau; There are still a great number of ammonites. Noah was the father of Abraham himself and of the entire human race in general, and others were the ancestors of certain nations. What more does Christ give to Abraham here? That He called him with His voice by a similar name and commanded him to come out of the land in which he lived. And He called us all with the same voice - and we have now come out of the way of life that we led, living badly like other inhabitants of the earth. And together with Abraham we will inherit the holy land and receive an inheritance into endless eternity. since we are children of Abraham by the same faith with him. For just as he believed the voice of God and this was counted to him as righteousness, so we, having believed the voice of God, proven again by the apostles and foreshadowed to us by the prophets, renounced, even to death, everything in the world. Therefore, He promised him a people similar in faith, pious, righteous, pleasing to the Father, but not you, “in whom there is no faith.” Look how He promised the same thing to Isaac and Jacob. So He says to Isaac: “through your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed” 369, and to Jacob: “through you and through your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed” 370. He does not say this either to Esau, or Reuben, or anyone else, but only to those from whom Christ was to come through the economy through the Virgin Mary. And if you understand the blessing of Judas, you will know what I am saying. For the seed is separated from Jacob and passes through Judah, Perez, Jesse and David. This was a sign that some of your people will be found children of Abraham and in the part of Christ, and others, although children of Abraham, will be like the sand on the seashore - unproductive and barren, which is very large in quantity and innumerable, but does not bear any fruit, but only absorbs sea water: this exposes the great multitude of those in your people who drink into themselves the teaching of bitterness and wickedness, and reject the word of God. About Judah He says: “The prince from Judah will not fail, nor the ruler from His feet, until that which is laid up for Him comes, and He will be the hope of the nations.” 371 It is clear that this is said not about Judas, but about Christ, for all of us from all nations are waiting not for Judas, but for Jesus, who also brought your fathers out of Egypt. For the prophecy before the coming of Christ foreshadowed: “until the one for whom it was postponed comes; and He will be the hope of the nations.” So, He has come, as I have shown at length, and again that Jesus will come on the clouds, whose name you profane and are trying to desecrate throughout all the earth. I could, my lords,” I continued, “dispute with you about the saying that you explain by saying that it is said: “until what is set aside for Him comes”; for the seventy interpreters did not translate it that way, but: “until He comes; to whom it is postponed." But since the following words - they read like this: and He will be the hope of the nations - prove that they speak about Christ, then I do not enter into a dispute with you about an insignificant expression, just as I did not try to present evidence about Christ from passages of Scripture that are not recognized by you, which I cited above from the prophet Jeremiah, Ezra and David, but proved by those that are still recognized by you. If your teachers had understood these passages, then, rest assured, they would have destroyed them, as they did with the passage concerning the death of Isaiah, whom you sawed with a wooden saw. And this very thing was a mysterious indication of Christ, Who will divide your people into two, that is, He will reward those worthy with an eternal kingdom along with the holy patriarchs and prophets, and the rest, along with the unfaithful and unrepentant from all nations, as He has already said, will send them to be tormented by unquenchable fire. “They will come,” He said, “from the east and the west and will lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; and the sons of the Kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness" 372. And I told you this,” I added, “because I don’t think about anything other than telling the truth, and I would say this without fearing anyone, even if you were to tear me to pieces right now.” I did not look at any of my compatriots, I mean the Samaritans, when in a written petition I told Caesar 373 that they were being deceived by believing their fellow tribesman Simon the Magus, whom they considered God above all authority, power and strength. Since they were silent, I continued to say, “My friends!” God, speaking about this Christ through David, did not say: “through His seed the nations will be blessed,” but: “through Himself: His name will rise forever above the sun, and all nations will be blessed through Him” 374. If through Christ all nations are blessed, and we, who are made up of all nations, believe in this (Jesus): then he is Christ, and we are people blessed through Him. God first allowed the worship of the sun, as it is written 375, and, however, not a single person can be found who would dare to die for faith in the sun; but you can see people from every nation who have decided and are deciding to endure everything for the name of Jesus, so as not to renounce Him. For the word of His truth and wisdom burns and shines more than the powers of the sun and penetrates into the depths of the heart and mind. Therefore, Scripture says: “His name will rise above the sun” 376, and Zechariah also says: “His name is the East” 377. He said about Him this way: “tribe to tribe will weep” 378. If, at His first coming, inglorious, formless and humiliated, He shone so brightly and gained such power that there is not a single nation in which He was unknown, and everywhere people from every nation repented and turned from their former vicious way of life, so that even the demons obey His name, and all principalities and kingdoms tremble at His name more than all those who have died: then is it really possible that during His glorious coming He will not strike all those who hate Him and unjustly departed from Him, and He will not reassure His followers and give them all the expected benefits? So, it has been given to us to hear, and to understand, and to be saved through this Christ and to know everything that belongs to the Father. Therefore He said to Christ: “It is important for You to be called My servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to reverse the dispersion of Israel. I have made You the light of the nations, so that You may be their salvation to the ends of the earth.”379 You think that these words are spoken about the stranger 380 and the proselytes: but in fact they are spoken about us, enlightened through Jesus. For Christ would certainly have given testimony to them too; but now, as He himself says, “you are purely sons of Gehenna” 381. However, the quoted words of the prophets do not apply to them, but to us, about whom the Scripture says: “I will lead the blind along a path that they did not know, and they will walk along roads that were unknown to them. And I am a witness, says the Lord God, and my servant whom I have chosen.”382 So, to whom does Christ testify? It is clear that it is about those who believe. And your proselytes not only do not believe, but twice as many as you do, they blaspheme His name and try to put us who believe in Him to death and torment, for they strive to become like you in everything. And in another place He exclaims: “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and I will hold Your hand and strengthen You. And I will give You as a covenant for generations, as a light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of prison.”383 And this, my sirs, is said about Christ and the enlightened pagans. Or will you say again that this is what He says about the law and the proselytes? Then, as if in a theater, some of those who came on the second day shouted: - What? Isn't He talking about the law and those enlightened by it? This is the essence of proselytes. “It’s not true,” I said, turning to Tryphon. If the law had the power to enlighten the Gentiles and those who have it, then what need would there be for a New Testament? Since God foretold that He would send the New Testament and the eternal law and command, we should here understand not the Old Testament and its proselytes, but Christ and His proselytes, that is, us, the pagans, whom He enlightened, as He says in one place: “Thus says the Lord: I heard You in an acceptable time, and on the day of salvation I helped You; and gave You as a covenant to the nations, so that You would build the earth and receive the wilderness as an inheritance" 384. What is Christ's inheritance? Aren't they pagans? What is God's covenant? Isn't it Christ? - as He says in another place: “You are My son, today I gave birth to You; ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thy inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession.”385 Thus, just as all these prophecies were spoken about Christ and the pagans, so you should think the same about the first 386. Proselytes have no need of a covenant if the same law applies to all the circumcised, and about them the Scripture says this: “and the stranger will join them and will join the house of Jacob” 387 . Moreover, a stranger who is circumcised to join your people becomes like one of those born among you, but we, who have been honored with the name of a people, are nevertheless pagans, because we are uncircumcised. It is also ridiculous to think that the eyes of your proselytes are open, but yours are not, and that you are called blind and deaf, and they are enlightened. And it will be even funnier if you say that the law was given to the pagans, but you did not recognize this law. For otherwise 388 you would have feared the wrath of God and would not have been sons of lawless and lost ones and would have been afraid to hear His constant words: “sons in whom there is no faith,” and: “who is blind but My servants, and deaf except those who master them? And the servants of God became blind. You have seen often and not noticed; your ears were open, but you did not hear” 389. Is this praise from God good for you? and is it fitting for servants to have such testimony from Him? You are not ashamed to often hear such things and you are not afraid of God’s threats, but you are a reckless and hard-hearted people. “Therefore, behold, I intend to deport this people,” says the Lord, “and I will deport them, and I will take away the wisdom of their wise men and hide the understanding of the prudent.”390 And fair enough; for you are neither wise nor understanding, but cruel and crafty: you are wise only to do evil, but you are powerless to know the hidden will of God and the faithful covenant of the Lord, or to find the eternal ways. Therefore He says: “I will raise up for Israel and Judah the seed of men and the seed of beasts” 391 . And through Isaiah He speaks thus of the other Israel: “In that day there shall be a third Israel among the Assyrians and the Egyptians, blessed in the land which the Lord of hosts hath blessed, saying, Blessed shall be my people which are in Egypt and among the Assyrians, and Israel is my inheritance.”392 If God blesses this people and calls them Israel and His inheritance, how come you do not repent of deceiving yourself as if you were only Israel, and of cursing the people blessed by God? For when God spoke to Jerusalem and the surrounding countries, he also added the following: “And I will make men over you, my people Israel: and they will receive you as an inheritance, and you will be their possession, and you will no longer suffer from them.” 393 “So,” said Tryphon, “are you really Israel, and God says this about you?” “If we,” I answered him, “hadn’t talked about this a lot, then I might have thought whether you were asking about this out of ignorance; but since we considered this issue, and you agreed to it, I don’t think that you didn’t know what was said before, or wanted to argue again, but you challenge me to repeat the same proof for these listeners 394. When he expressed agreement with his gaze, I began to say: in Isaiah, if you listen with your ears, God, speaking about Christ, accurately calls Him Jacob and Israel. He says this: “Jacob is My servant, I will support Him, Israel is My chosen one, I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim judgment to the nations, He will not argue or shout, and no one will hear His voice in the streets; He will not break a broken reed or quench the smoking flax, but he will bear with the truth, he will accept judgment 395 and will not be crushed until he establishes judgment on earth; and in His name the nations will hope” 396. Therefore, just as from this one Jacob, who was also called Israel, your whole race is called Jacob and Israel: so we, who keep the commandments of Christ from Christ who begot us for God, are called not only Jacob, Israel, Judah, Joseph and David, but also true sons of God, and in fact are such. Since I noticed their confusion at the fact that I even called us sons of God, I preceded their question by saying: listen, my lords, to how the Holy Spirit speaks about these people, that they are all sons of the Most High, and this same Christ will be present in their assembly, bringing judgment to the entire human race. These words were spoken by David, as you translate them: “God stood in the assembly of the gods, and He judged the gods in the midst. How long will you finally judge unrighteously and show partiality to sinners? Do justice for the orphan and the needy, justify the needy and the needy. Deliver the poor, and free the needy from the hand of the sinner. They have not known or understood; they walk in darkness; all the foundations of the earth will be shaken. I said: you are gods and you are all sons of the Most High, but you die like men and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You will inherit among all nations.”397 The translation of the seventy says: “Behold, you die like men and fall like one of the princes” in order to show the disobedience of people, i.e. Adam and Eve, and the fall of one of the princes, i.e. the one who is called the serpent, who fell into a great crime because he deceived Eve. But since I did not now bring the psalm for this purpose, but to prove to you that the Holy Spirit reproaches people because, although they are created in such a way that if they keep His commandments, they will become, like God, passionless and immortal, and are worthy of the name of His sons, however, being like Adam and Eve, they cause death to themselves, then explain this psalm as you wish; nevertheless, it will remain true that all people are worthy to become gods and have the power to be sons of the Most High, and will be judged and condemned each for himself, like Adam and Eve. And that Christ is also called God has already been proven at length. Now I would like, my lords,” I continued, “to find out from you what the thought is in the name Israel.” They were silent. Then I added: I will tell you what I know, for I consider it unfair to remain silent about what I know, and I am not embarrassed by the suspicion that you may know, but out of hatred or inability you do not want to say, but I am expressing everything simply and artlessly, as my Lord said: “A sower went out to sow seed, and some fell on the road, another on thorns, another on rocky places, and another on good soil.” land" 398. Therefore, we must speak in the hope of finding good land somewhere, because this my Lord is strong and powerful, at His coming He will demand His from everyone, and will not condemn His steward when he finds out that he, knowing that his Master is strong and will demand His at His coming, gave everything he received at interest, and did not hide it for some reason. – So, the name Israel means: a person who overcomes power; for isra means a conquering person, and il means strength. That Christ, having become man, would accomplish this was predicted by the sacrament of the struggle in which Jacob fought with Him who had just appeared as a servant of the will of the Father, but in fact God, the Son, born before all creation. When He became a man, then, as I already said 399, the devil came to Him, that is, the power called the serpent and Satan, to tempt Him and overthrow Him, demanding Him to worship Him. But Christ defeated and deposed him, convicting him of being evil, demanding for himself, contrary to Scripture, Divine worship, and having become an apostate from the will of God, he answered him: “it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him alone” 400. Then the devil, defeated and convicted, left. But since our Christ had to be in weakness, that is, in labor and in the perception of suffering, when he was about to be crucified, He made a prediction about this by touching Jacob’s whip and by causing him numbness. But His name from the beginning was Israel: He renamed blessed Jacob into this name, blessing him with His name, and thereby indicating that all who resort through Him to the Father are blessed Israel. But you, not understanding any of this and not trying to understand it, hope to be completely saved only because you are children of Jacob by carnal origin. That in this too you are deceiving yourself, I have already proven in detail. - If you, Tryphon, knew who He is who is called the Angel of the great council, in Ezekiel - a Man, in Daniel - like the Son of Man, in Isaiah - a Child, in David - Christ and the Worshipful God, in many - Christ and the Stone, in Solomon - Wisdom, in Moses - Joseph, Judas and the Star, in Zechariah - the East, and even in Isaiah - the Sufferer, Jacob, Israel, the Rod, the Flower, the Cornerstone and the Son of God, if you knew this, you would not blaspheme the One who had already come, was born, suffered and ascended into heaven. Who will come again, and then your twelve tribes will mourn. If you understood the prophetic words, you would not deny that He is God, the Son of the One unbegotten and ineffable God. In one place in the book of Exodus it is said by Moses: “The Lord spoke to Moses and said to him: I am the Lord, and I appeared to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, their God, and did not declare My name to them, and established My covenant with them” 401. And the same one also says: “A man wrestled with Jacob,” and claims that it is God; for he declares that Jacob said: “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” 402 . Moses also wrote that the place where God fought with him, appeared and blessed him, was called by him “the sight of God.” And to Abraham also, according to Moses, God appeared at the oak tree of Mamre, when he was sitting at the door of his tent at noon. Then, having said this, Moses adds: “Looking with his own eyes, he saw, and behold, three men stood before him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them.” A little later, one of them promised Abraham a son: “Why did Sarah laugh, saying: Will I really give birth, since I am old? Is God's word powerless? By that time I will return to the clock and Sarah will have a son.” Then they depart from Abraham and it is also said about them: “The men got up from there and looked at the face of Sodom.” Then the One who is and was also says to Abraham: “I will not hide from My servant Abraham what I want to do” 403. And I repeated the further words of Moses, which I had already quoted and explained by which, I said, prove that He who, called God in Scripture, appeared to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and other patriarchs, is subordinate to the Father and the Lord and serves His will. I also added something that I had not said before: just as your people desired to eat meat and Moses did not believe Him who is here called an Angel, when He promised them satiation from God, then He, being both God and an Angel sent from the Father, as is related, said and did this. For the Scripture adds: “And the Lord said to Moses: Will the hand of the Lord be insufficient? Now you will know whether My word will be fulfilled on you or not” 404. And in another place (Moses) says this: “The Lord said to me: you will not cross this Jordan. The Lord your God, who goes before you, will Himself destroy the nations.”405 There are other similar sayings of this lawgiver and the prophets. I think I have sufficiently shown that when my God says: “God departed from Abraham,” or: “God spoke to Moses,” or: “The Lord came down to see the tower built by the sons of men,” or: “God shut the ark of Noah from without,” then you should not think that the unborn God Himself descended or ascended from any place. For the ineffable Father and Lord of all does not come to any place, does not walk, does not sleep or rise, but remains in His country, whatever it may be, sees and hears clearly, not with eyes or ears, but with unspeakable power, so that He sees everything and knows everything, and none of us is hidden from Him; He is motionless and unencompassed by any place, not even by the whole world, because He existed before the world was created. How could He speak to anyone or be visible to anyone or appear in the smallest part of the earth, when your people could not look at Sinai even at the glory of the one sent from Him, and Moses himself could not enter the Tabernacle that he built when it was filled with the glory of God, and the priest did not have the strength to stand before the temple when Solomon brought the ark into the house of Jerusalem that he himself built? So, neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor anyone else saw the Father and the ineffable Lord of all in general and Christ himself, but they saw the One who by His will is also God, His Son and at the same time His Angel according to the service of His will - Who, by His determination, was to become man from the Virgin, and Who once became even fire during a conversation with Moses from the bush. For if we do not understand the Scriptures in this way, it will turn out that the Father and Lord of all was not in heaven when Moses said: “And the Lord sent fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven into Sodom,” 406 and also when it was said by David: “Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates, and the King of glory will come in,” 407 and “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on My right hand until I will make Your enemies Your footstool." Above, I have proven in detail that Christ, Who is Lord and by nature God, the Son of God, who by His power appeared before as a man and an Angel, and even in the form of fire, as it was in the bush, also appeared at the judgment of Sodom. - And I repeated everything that was written out before from the book of Exodus, about the vision that happened in the bush and about the name of Jesus, and added: you do not think that I often repeat this out of idle talk; but I know that some want to forestall my explanations and say that that Power, which appeared from the Father of all to Moses or Abraham or Jacob, is called Angel because of its approach to people, since through it commandments from the Father are announced to people, - Glory, since sometimes it appears in an immense vision, - then man and man, because by the will of the Father it takes on such images, and finally, Word, because brings messages from the Father to people; but this Power is inseparable and inseparable from the Father, just as the sunlight on earth, they say, is inseparable and inseparable from the sun, which is in the sky, and when it sets, the light disappears with it: so the Father, when He wants, allows His power to appear, and when He wants, raises it into Himself. In the same way, they say, He creates Angels. But it has been proven that angels exist and always remain, and are not resolved again into that from which they came. And that the Power, which the prophetic word calls both God, as is also fully proven 409, and an Angel, is not only considered (different) by name, like the light of the sun, but also by number is something else, I already briefly discussed this when I said that this Power was born of the Father by His power and will, but not through cutting off, as if the essence of the Father was divided, like all other things that are divided and fragmented, and do not remain the same as the divisions were before; and as an example I took how we see that other fires are kindled from fire, while the fire from which many fires can be kindled has not diminished at all, but remains the same. Now I will repeat the scriptures that I cited to prove this. When he says: “The Lord brought down fire from heaven” 410, then by this the prophetic word indicates two in number: one who is on earth, who, says Scripture, came down to see the cry of Sodom, and the other who is in heaven, who is the Lord of the Lord who was on earth, as Father and God, and the Author of the fact that He is powerful and is Lord and God. Again, when Scripture says that in the beginning God said: “Behold, Adam was made like one of Us,” 411 the words “like one of Us” also indicate a number, but do not allow for an allegorical explanation, as the sophists try to interpret, unable to either speak or understand the truth. And in the book of Wisdom 412 it is said: “If I tell you what happens daily, I will enumerate what has been since the beginning. The Lord made Me the beginning of His ways for His works. He founded Me before the age, in the beginning, before He created the deeps, before there were springs of water, before the mountains were established, before all the hills He begat Me.” Having said this, I added: you, listeners, understand, if only you paid attention, that according to the testimony of Scripture, this Generation was born of the Father before all creatures; and that the Begotten is different in number from the Begetter, everyone will agree with this. When they all expressed their consent, I said: but it would be desirable for me now to introduce some more places that I did not mention before. They were secretly said by Moses, the faithful servant: “Heaven, rejoice with Him, and let all the Angels of God worship Him”; then he added further words: “The nations rejoice with His people, and may all the angels of God be strengthened in Him, because He avenges and will avenge the blood of His sons and will take vengeance on His enemies, and will reward those who hate Him, and the Lord will cleanse the land of His people” 413. With these words He declares that we, the nations, rejoice with His people, i.e. with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the prophets and in general with all those who pleased Him from among your people, as we recognized above 414. But we must not understand this about all of your people, because through Isaiah we know that the members of criminals will be devoured by the worm and by unquenchable fire, remaining immortal so that they will be a spectacle for all flesh. Moreover, my lords,” I said, “I want to offer you some other passages from the same Scriptures of Moses; from them you can also understand that God in ancient times scattered all people among nations and languages; and out of all nations He chose for Himself your people, useless, rebellious and unfaithful, and showed that people from every nation who obey His will through Christ, whom He called Jacob and Israel, they must also be Jacob and Israel, as I have said at length before. For having said: “Rejoice, ye nations, with His people,” He separates them from the same inheritance and gives them the same name, and if He calls them nations, and nations rejoicing with His people, then He says this as a reproach to your people. Just as you angered Him with your idolatry, so He honored the idolaters themselves so that they would know His will and receive an inheritance from Him. I will give you words from which it is clear that God divided all nations. Here they are: “Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders and they will tell you, when the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he established the borders of the nations according to the number of the children of Israel, and His people Jacob became a part of the Lord, Israel was the inheritance of His inheritance” 415. To this I added: seventy interpreters translated: “he established the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the Angels of God.” But since again this does not diminish my proof in the least, I cited the words according to your interpretation. If you want to recognize the truth, then you must agree that we, who are called through the humiliated and reproachful sacrament of the cross, - who for confession, obedience and piety are subjected to torment, even to death, by demons and the army of the devil as a result of your service to them - who endure everything because we do not even deny with a word, from Christ who called us to the salvation prepared by the Father - we are more faithful than you in relation to God than you, who by a high arm and a visit of great glory were delivered from Egypt, when the sea was split for you and there became a dry path, on which God destroyed those who pursued you with great power and magnificent chariots, pouring out on them the sea that was dried up for you. (We are more faithful to God than you), with whom a pillar of light shone, so that you, not like any other people in the world, could use your own unfading and unfading light. For you, God sent bread characteristic of heavenly Angels for food, i.e. manna so that you will not need to bake bread, and water will be sweetened in Marah. You were given the sign of him who was to be crucified and among the snakes that bit you, as I said above - because God gave you the sacraments before their time, and you always turned out to be ungrateful to Him - and through the image of the outstretched hands of Moses, and through him who, having been renamed Jesus, fought with Amalek: this event God commanded to be written down in a book and to put in your ears the name of Jesus, saying that He has destroy the memory of Amalek from the earth. It is known, however, that the memory of Amalek remains even after the death of the son of Joshua, but God declares that through Jesus crucified, whose all deeds were foreshadowed in these symbols, the demons who will fear His name will be destroyed, and that all principalities and kingdoms will also fear Him, and from every nation who believe in him will show themselves to be pious and peaceful people, as this is proven, Tryphon, by what I said before. Moreover, when you wanted to eat meat, you were given such a multitude of quails that it was impossible to count them; God brought water out of the rock for you; a cloud followed you, covering you from the heat and protecting you from the cold and foreshadowing the image of another new sky; Even the straps of your boots did not fray, your boots themselves did not wear out and your clothes did not become dilapidated, but they even grew with the age of the children 416. Despite such good deeds, you shed the calf, willingly committed adultery with foreign daughters and worshiped idols, and this after the earth was given to you with such power that you saw how, at the command of this man, who was called by the name of Jesus, the sun stood still and did not set for almost thirty hours, and you saw all the other miracles that happened to you in due time; Of these, I consider it necessary to mention one now; for it leads you to know from it Jesus, whom we recognize as Christ, the Son of God, who was crucified, resurrected, ascended into heaven and will come again to judge all people in general, starting with Adam. And so know, I said, when the enemies of the Azotians stole the tabernacle of meeting and were struck by a terrible and incurable ulcer, they decided to put it on a chariot drawn by recently calved cows, trying to find out whether by the power of God they were struck for the tabernacle, and whether God wanted it to be returned to where it was taken from. And when they had done this, the cows, unguided by anyone, came not to the place from which the tabernacle had been stolen, but to the field of one man called Absi, the same name of the man who was renamed by the name of Jesus, as was said before, and who brought the people into the land and divided it among them. When the cows came to this field, they stopped. Through this it is also shown to you that he was led by a powerful name, just as before the people who remained from those who came out of Egypt were brought into the earth by one who received the name Jesus, and before that was called Absi. But despite the fact that these and all similar extraordinary miracles were performed for you and were visible to you in their time, you are convicted by the prophets even because you sacrificed your children to demons, and above all this you dared to rebel against Christ and are now rebelling - in all this may your salvation be in the mercy of God and His Christ. God, foreseeing such deeds of yours, thus cursed you through the prophet Isaiah: “Woe to their souls: they conceived an evil plan against themselves, saying: We will bind the Righteous One, because he is unworthy for us; for this they eat the fruits of their deeds. Woe to the wicked: evil will befall him according to the works of his hands. My people, your enforcers are robbing you, and the exactors will rule over you. My people! those who please you deceive you and disturb the path of your ways. But now the Lord will bring His people to judgment, and the Lord Himself will come to judgment with the elders of the people and with their princes: why have you burned My grapes, and the spoils of the poor in your houses? Why do you insult my people and bring shame to the face of the humble?” 417. And again in another place the same prophet for the same purpose said: “Woe to those who drag down their sins as with a long rope, and their iniquities as with the strap of a young woman’s yoke, who say: Let His speed draw near, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put light for darkness and darkness for light, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who have understanding in themselves and are wise in their own eyes. Woe to your mighty men who drink wine, and to your nobles who mix strong wine, who justify the wicked for gifts and take away the right of the righteous. For this reason, as stubble is burned by a fiery coal and burned by a burning flame, their root will be like dust, and their color will come up like dust; for they did not desire the law of the Lord of hosts, but provoked the word of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. And the Lord of hosts was filled with wrath, and laid hands on them, and smote them, and was angry with the mountains; and their corpses became like dung in the middle of the road: and in all this they did not turn away, but their hand was still high” 418. Indeed, your hand is high for doing evil, because you, having killed Christ, do not yet repent, but you hate us, who through Him have believed in God and the Father of all, and kill us when you have power. You constantly curse both Him and those who are from Him, although we all pray for you and for all people in general, as we were taught to do by our Christ and Lord, who commanded us to pray even for our enemies and to love those who hate us and to bless those who curse us. Therefore, if you are put to shame by the teaching of the prophets and God himself, then it would be better for you to follow God than your foolish and blind teachers, who even now allow you to have four or five wives each; and when one of you, having seen a beautiful woman, wishes to have her, then they talk about the actions of Jacob and the other patriarchs and claim that those who do such things do not sin against them at all. They are unhappy and unreasonable in this. For, as I said above, in each such action of theirs the dispensations of great mysteries were accomplished. I will tell you what kind of economy and prediction there was in the marriages of Jacob, so that you will learn from here that your mentors always looked not at the Divine intention for the sake of which every action was performed, but more at earthly and destructive passions. So, pay attention to what I say. The marriages of Jacob were images of what was to be accomplished through Christ. Jacob could not marry two sisters at once; Therefore, he served Laban on behalf of his daughters, and being deceived in the younger one, he served him for another seven years. Leah is your people and synagogue, and Rachel is your church, Christ serves to this day for them and for the servants of both of them. If Noah gave the seed of his third son into slavery to his two sons, now Christ came to restore both free children and their slaves, considering all who kept His commandments worthy of the same rights, just as those born to Jacob from free wives and those born from slave women were all sons of equal honor; and according to their order and foresight it was foretold what each of them would be. Jacob served Laban for his motley and varied cattle, and Christ suffered slavery even to the cross for various people from every nation, having acquired them with his blood and the sacrament of the cross. Leah's eyes were weak, and your soul's eyes are very weak. Rachel stole the gods of Laban and hid them even to this day: and our paternal and material gods perished for us. Jacob was hated by his brother at all times; and now we, and our Lord himself, are hated by you and all other people, although we are all brothers by nature. Jacob was called Israel: and Christ, by name and substance Jesus, is proved also to be Israel. And when the Scripture says: “I am the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, who has shown Israel to be your King,” 419 should you not in truth understand Christ as the eternal King? For you know that Jacob the son of Isaac was never a king; therefore the Scripture, explaining to us who it means by Jacob and Israel the King, says this: “Jacob is My servant, I will support Him; and My chosen Israel, My soul will embrace Him. I have put My spirit on Him, and He will pronounce judgment on the nations. He will not shout and His voice will not be heard outside. He will not break a broken reed, nor quench the smoking flax, until He brings victory, accepts judgment and will not be crushed, until He establishes judgment on earth; and in His name the nations will trust” 420. Is it really in Patriarch James, and not in Christ, that the pagans, and even you yourself, trust? Just as, therefore, Scripture calls Christ Israel and Jacob, so we, as if cut off from the womb of Christ, constitute the true race of Israel. But let us better listen to the very words of Scripture: “And I will bring forth,” it says, “a seed from Jacob and from Judah, and they will inherit My holy mountain, and My chosen ones and My servants will inherit it, and they will live there; and in the forest there will be fences for the flocks, and the valley of Ahorkaya (will be) a resting place for the cattle for the people who have sought Me. But you who forsake Me and forget My holy mountain and prepare a meal for demons and fill the dissolution of the demon - I will give you over to the sword, you will all fall by murder, because I called you and you did not listen, I spoke and you did not listen, and you did evil before Me and chose what I did not want” 421. These are the words of Scripture; and of course you yourself understand that there is some other seed from Jacob, which is now spoken of, and no one will think that it is said here about your people. For it is impossible that the descendants of Jacob should leave a beginning for the seed of Jacob, and that the One who reproached a people as unworthy of the inheritance should, on the other hand, promise it to the same people as if he approved of it. But as the prophet says: “And now you, house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord; for He left His people, the house of Jacob, because their land was filled, as from the beginning, with fortune-telling and predictions,” 422 so here we must understand the two seeds of Judah and two families, like the two houses of Jacob, one born of blood and flesh, the other of faith and the Spirit. You see how He now speaks to the people; after saying: “Just as a berry is found on a bunch of grapes, and they say, “Do not spoil it, for blessing is on it,” so will I do for the sake of him who serves Me: for his sake I will not destroy them all,” He adds: “And I will bring forth seed from Jacob and from Judah.” 423 It is clear that if He is angry with them and threatens to leave the smallest number of them, He promises to produce some others who will live on His grief. About them He said that He would sow and give birth to them; but you do not tolerate Him when He calls you, you do not listen to Him when He speaks, but you have even done evil before the Lord. The most extreme measure of your malice is that you hate even the Righteous One whom you killed, and those who from Him became what they are - pious, righteous and philanthropic. Therefore, “woe to their soul,” says the Lord, “for they have conceived an evil plan against themselves, saying: Let us kill the Righteous One, since he is no good for us” 424 . You did not offer sacrifices to Baal, like your fathers, you did not offer preserves in groves or in high places to the army of heaven, but you did not accept the Christ of God. For whoever does not know Him does not know the will of God, and whoever insults and hates Him also hates and insults Him who sent Him; and whoever does not believe in Him does not believe the sermons of the prophets who preached the gospel and preached about Him to everyone. Do not say, brothers, anything bad against Him who was crucified, and do not mock at His stripes, by which all can be healed, just as we were healed. It would be great if you believed the Scriptures and accepted the circumcision of your hardness of heart, and not that which you have according to the opinion established in you, because your circumcision was given as a sign, and not as a work of righteousness, as the Scriptures convince us of. Agree with us, do not mock the Son of God and do not, following your teachers the Pharisees, mock the King of Israel, as the rulers of your synagogues teach you to do after prayer. For if he who touches people who are displeasing to God, as it were, touches the apple of God, how much more does he who touches His Beloved. And that this is our Christ is sufficiently proven. Since they were silent, I continued talking. – Now, my friends, I quote some passages from the Scriptures as 70 interpreters translated them; when I cited them before 425 as you read them, I wanted to test your way of thinking. Citing the passage of Scripture that says: “Woe to them, because they intended evil against themselves, saying”... I added, according to the translation of the 70, “Let us destroy the Righteous One, because he is worthless to us,” whereas at the beginning of the conversation I brought it, as you want to read: “Let us bind the Righteous One, because he is worthless to us” 426 . But you were busy with something and seemed not to listen to my words attentively. Since now the day will soon end, the sun is already in the west, I will add one remark to what has been said and conclude; although it has already been said by me, I find it fair to turn to it again. “You know, my lords,” I said, “that in Isaiah God said to Jerusalem: “during Noah’s flood I saved you” 427. These words of God mean that in the flood there was a mystery of people being saved. For righteous Noah at the flood with other people, that is, with his wife, his three sons and their wives, numbering 8 people, were a symbol of that day on which our Christ appeared, rising from the dead, and which is the eighth in number, but always the first in power. Christ, the firstborn of all creation, also became the beginning of a new race, reborn by Him through water and faith, and the tree containing the sacrament of the cross, just as Noah was saved on the tree, floating on the waters with his family. Therefore, when the prophet says, “In the time of Noah I saved you,” then, as I noticed, God is here speaking to a people who are similarly faithful to Him and have these symbols. For Moses also, with a rod in his hand, led your people through the sea. You think that this was said only about your people or land. But the Scripture says that the whole earth was drowned, and the water rose 15 cubits above the mountains, so that, obviously, God spoke this not to your land, but to the people who obey Him, for whom He prepared rest in Jerusalem, as was previously shown by all the symbols at the flood. I mean that through water and faith and wood, those who have prepared and repent of their sins will escape the coming judgment of God. And another mystery, which you do not know, was foreshadowed by an event in the time of Noah. It is as follows. In the blessings with which Noah blessed his two sons, he also pronounced a curse on his grandson; for the prophetic Spirit did not want to curse that son whom God blessed along with other sons, but since the punishment for sin was supposed to pass on to the entire generation of the son who mocked the nakedness (of the father), he carried out the curse, starting with his son. 428 But in what Noah said, he predicted that the descendants of Shem would possess the wealth and dwellings of Canaan, and after that the descendants of Japheth would take for themselves the acquisitions and dwellings of the Semites, which the latter took possession of from the Canaanites, depriving them of the descendants of Shem, just as the Semites themselves took possession of them, taking them away from the tribe of Canaan. And listen to how exactly this came true. You, descended from the tribe of Shem, according to the definition of God, went to the land of the sons of Canaan and took possession of it; and it is known that the descendants of Japheth, in turn, by the judgment of God, attacked you, took your land, and possess it. It was said this way: “And Noah became sober from the wine, and learned what his youngest son had done to him, and said: Cursed is the servant of Canaan, he will be a servant to his brothers. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. May the Lord spread Japheth, and may he dwell in the dwellings of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant." 429 Thus, how two nations were blessed, the sons of Shem and Japheth, and first it was determined for the sons of Shem to possess the dwellings of Canaan, and from them the same possessions were, according to prophecy, to be received in turn by the sons of Japheth: and how one people, the people of Canaan, was given into slavery to those two nations; then Christ came according to the authority given to Him from the Almighty Father and, calling people to friendship and blessing and repentance and corporate life, promised them, as was shown, possession that would be in the same land of saints. Therefore, people of all countries, whether slaves or free, if they believe in Christ and recognize the truth in His words and in the words of His prophets, they know that they will be with Him in that land, and will receive an eternal and incorruptible inheritance. Therefore Jacob, who himself was, as I said 430, the image of Christ, entered into cohabitation with two slaves of his two free wives, and begot sons from them, in order to foretell that Christ would accept all the descendants of Canaan who are among the tribe of Japheth, along with free sons, and would have them all as children and joint heirs; such are we: but you cannot understand this, because you cannot drink from the living water of God, but from “broken wells that cannot store water,” as Scripture says 431. Such broken wells, which do not retain water, have been dug for you by your teachers, who, as Scripture clearly says, “teach doctrines, the commandments of men.”432 And besides, they deceive both themselves and you, thinking that those who in the flesh are descended from the seed of Abraham, even if they were sinners and unbelievers and disobedient to God, will undoubtedly be given His eternal kingdom - the injustice of which is proven by the Scriptures themselves. Otherwise, Isaiah would not have said this: “and if the Lord of hosts had not left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah” 433. And Ezekiel: “If Noah, and Jacob, and Daniel ask for their sons or daughters, it will not be given to them. But neither the father will die for the son, nor the son for the father; but everyone will perish for his own sin, and everyone will be saved by his own right actions” 434. And Isaiah again: “They will look at the members of those who have sinned against Me; their worm will not rest, and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a spectacle for all flesh” 435. And our Lord, according to the will of the Father and Lord of all who sent Him, would not have said: “They will come from the east and the west and lie down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness” 436. However, as I have already proven 437, those who are foreknown as evil will be so - both angels and people are wicked not through the fault of God, but through their own fault, each is what he turns out to be. But so that you could not have an excuse to say that Christ certainly had to be crucified, or that there were criminals among your people, and that it could not be otherwise, I said briefly that God, who wanted angels and people to follow His will, was pleased to create them with free power to do righteousness and with reason to know Him by whom they were created and through Whom they exist, who previously did not exist, and with such a law that they will be judged by Him when they act contrary to right reason. And through our own fault, we, both people and angels, will be convicted of sins if we do not hasten to repent. If the word of God predicts that some, men and angels, will be punished, it is because God foreknew that they would certainly become wicked, and not because He made them so. Therefore, everyone who wants, if they repent, can receive mercy from God - and Scripture calls them blessed, saying: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin” 438; that is, having repented of his sins, he will receive forgiveness from God; but not as you deceive yourselves and some others like you in this, who say that although they are sinners, they know God, and the Lord will not impute sin to them. As proof of this we have one crime of David, which occurred from his pride, which was later forgiven when he cried and grieved as it is written. If such a person was not given forgiveness before repentance, but only when he, the great king, anointed one and prophet, cried and behaved like that; then how can the unclean and extremely criminal, if they do not grieve and cry and do not repent, hope that the Lord will not impute sin to them? And this one crime of David with Uriah’s wife proves, my lords, I said, that the patriarchs had many wives not for the sake of fornication, but that through them certain dispensations and sacraments were performed; because if it were allowed to take a wife, whichever one wants, how he wants and how many wives he wants to have, as your fellow tribesmen do throughout the world, wherever they arrive or go, taking women under the name of marriage, but even more so would David be allowed to do so.” Having said this, dear Marcus Pompey, I stopped speaking. After being silent for some time, Tryphon said: you see that we did not intentionally enter into a conversation about these subjects; and I confess that I am extremely pleased with our meeting, and I think that these friends of mine feel the same; because we found more than we expected and could ever expect. But if we could do this more often, we would receive even more benefit by examining these very words (Scriptures): but since,” he said, “you are ready to leave us and are daily waiting for the ship, do not consider it a labor to remember us as your friends when you depart from here.” “For my part,” I answered, “if I had remained here, I would have wished to do the same thing daily, but now having in mind, by the will and help of God, to board the ship, I urge you, turn to this great work for your own salvation, and take care to prefer Christ Almighty God to your teachers.” After this they left me, praying for my salvation from the dangers of the journey and from every calamity. And I prayed for them, and said: I cannot wish for a greater good for you than that, having learned that in this way wisdom is given to every person, you can undoubtedly believe with us that our Jesus is the Christ of God. So eg. Isa.1:9 n. 1 ap. 53 and Razg. 140; Isa.66:1 n. 1 ap. 37 and Razg. 22; Ps.18:6 n. 1 ap. 54 and Razg. 69; Matthew 7:15 Wed. 1 ap. 16 and Razg. 35; Luke 6:1, n. 1 ap. 15 and Razg. 96. See Semisch, Iustin der Martyr. 1. 75–100. Conversation of St. Justin with Tryphon the Jew was not translated into Russian. In the last century, it was published in translation in a dialect close to Church Slavonic, by Rev. Irenaeus, Tver and Kashinsky. This Xystus (sn. ch. 9) was, according to the testimony of Eusebius (Ts. Ist. IV, 18), in Ephesus. This was the name given by the Greeks to the covered gallery in gymnasiums, which served for physical exercise in winter, as well as for walking. See Pape, Handwört. d. Griech. Sprache. Of course, the philosophical mantle, which Justin continued to wear after accepting Christianity. See Evsev. C. East. IV, II. War was raised by Varkokhev against Roman rule (132–135 AD) Justin means both the contemporary philosophers and the Stoics, who neglected the knowledge of God, and although they recognized providence, it was as if the gods cared only about the important and despised small things. See Cic. de nat. deor. II. With. 66. Justin means the Platonists, who are discussed below in ch. 5. According to Maran, this is the name given here to those who have deviated from the teachers of practical philosophy. Otto finds it best to understand the skeptics, or the followers of Pyrrho, who, while examining everything, do not decide or affirm anything. According to some, of course, or Flavius ​​Naples, the birthplace of Justin, but more likely Ephesus. In Greek: φιλολóγια. This word, as well as another one used by the elder - the teacher φιλολóγος, are accepted by Justin and the elder in different senses: the first understands by it serious philosophical studies (λóγος, reason), and the second, in his question to Justin, understood it as if we were talking about purely verbal studies (λóγος, word) and reasoning, alien to reality. Those. that she saw God. The teaching of St. Justin about the immortality of the soul is similar to the teachings of Tatian. “The soul by its own nature is not immortal, but it does not die.” (Contr. grace. p. 13). And St. Justin denies that it is immortal, in the sense of an unconditional incapacity for destruction: this can only be affirmed about that Being that cannot but exist, has always been and will be, and therefore is called by St. Paul the One Immortal. I Tim. VI, 16. The last words do not give reason to assume that Justin, or the elder-teacher, to whom he puts these words into his mouth, doubted or rejected the eternity of torment; they are said in the sense that souls do not exist on their own, but according to the will of God, on which it depends to destroy them when it pleases. St. says in a similar way. Irenaeus (adv. haer 11.34); “everything created has a beginning of being and continues to exist as long as God wills it to exist.” Justin clearly speaks about the eternity of torment in other places of his writings: I ap. Ch. 8, 28. Unfolding with Trif. Ch. 130. Sn. Cohort. ad gentil. P. 23. See similar things in St. Irenea (adv. Haer. II, 16). In translating this passage, we follow the edition of Otto, who attributes the entire tirade to Justin himself speaking to the elder. This is the answer of St. Justin to Tryphon's question in Chapter I: what is your philosophy? Here Justina meant baptism, or in general the perfection of life, complete adherence to Christ’s teaching. Those. Mark Pompey, to whom the conversation with Tryphon is dedicated. St. mentions these slander against ancient Christians by their enemies. Justin back in the 1st Apol. Ch. 26, and in the 2nd ap. Ch. 12, and after him Tertullian (apolog. 1, 7), Origen (contr. Gels. VI, 27) and others. The reason for the accusation against them was the nightly meetings of Christians for worship and the supper of love, expressions about eating the flesh and blood of the Savior in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and finally the names: brothers and sisters, which Christians used in relation to each other. St. Justin alludes here to the words of Jeremiah quoted above in ch. II. Thirlby believes that this refers to murderers, for immediately after this in ch. 13 talks about murder and other sins. Those. Christian baptism. There is no direct commandment about preparing new leaven after seven days in Scripture, but it is implied in God’s command that the leaven from all parts of the Jews should be removed after seven days. Maran. He also expresses his opinion about the ugliness of the body of Jesus Christ in Chapter. 49. 85. 88. 100. 110. 121. For the twofold coming of Christ, see 1 Apol. Ch. 52. Here Justin mistakenly named Hosea instead of Zechariah (see XII, 10). Here, instead of: ἱάματα (healing) there is ἱματία (clothing), which is explained by the ancient Latin writers of the church about the resurrection of the body, for example. at Tertul. de resurr. With. 27. See the message of Barnabas ch. 3. St. Justin sees the ways of Providence in the fact that while many of the provisions of the law could not be observed anywhere except Jerusalem, the very circumcision, which could be performed in another place, served to punish the Jews, prohibiting them from entering Jerusalem. For more details, see Tertullian (adv. iud. c. 3). Justin reproaches the Jews for this in ch. 47, 93, 96, 108, 117, 137. According to Otto, the Jews are in the habit of cursing Christians to this day. See Buxtorf, Synag. iud. p. 46. The Roman government, under whose authority the Jews were and therefore could not execute Christians by death. Maran, Thirlby in Otto, instead of φυλασσομεν, find the most correct reading φυλασσετε, and these words are attributed to Tryphon, not Justin. The same proof is used by Tertullian (adv. iud. c. 2), Cyprian (adv. iud. c. 11, 8), Lactantius (Instit. div. IV, 18). The same view for the establishment of sacrifices is expressed in the Apostolic Constitutions (1, 6, VI, 20), in Clement’s “Date” (1, 35), in Irenaeus (adv. haer. IV, 14 and 15) and in Chrysostom (against the Jews II). That is, Molech, to whom the Israelites sacrificed their children. Otto. This is taught by Barnabas (ch. 10), Clement of Alexandria (Paed. II, p. 1 § 14–17), Tertullian (p. Marc. II, 18), Decree. Apostle (VI 20). The words: ελιτάνθη (fatified) are not in the text of the 70s, but Chrysostom cites this place just like Justin, in his 1st conversation with the Jews. Maran. Gen.9:3. Not only the Jews objected to the Christians with these words of Scripture, but also the heretics, who rejected the consumption of meat, used them in defense of their false teaching, as can be seen from Basil the Great in letter 236. Maran. Deut.32:20; St. Jer.4:22. In houses (ἐνδωμασιν): this is read in two manuscripts of the works of Justin and two codes of the 70, which is consistent with the subsequent speech about the first-born boy. But Stefan and other publishers accepted the reading Εν δóμασιν (in gifts). Otto. Maran thinks that Christian proselytes are meant here. Those. the elder who converted Justin to the Christian faith (see above chapters 3–8). Thirlby and Otto translate the word: στοιχεîα as “stars”. Those. with the pagans who turned to faith in Christ. Ps.105:37; demolished Isa.57:5,6; I:15,23. Ps.13:2-9, 139:4; Isa.59:7,8; n. Rom3:11–17. For the circumcision of the Egyptians and other nations, see the Epistle of Barnabas, ch. 9. According to Cotelier (Patres Apostol.), circumcision, given by God to Abraham, passed through his sons to the rest of humanity, through Isaac to the Jews and Samaritans, through Ishmael to the Ishmaelites, through the children of Keturah to the peoples of the East, and through Esau or Edom to the Edomites, and from them was adopted by neighboring nations. Justin's idea about the uselessness of circumcision for the Egyptians, etc. Cotelier explains that these peoples performed it at their own discretion, and not like the Israelites - they did not observe the eighth day and did not allow it to everyone, but only to their priests and scientists. According to the law about not lighting a fire on the Sabbath (Exod. 16:23), Jews were allowed to drink on this day water that had been boiled only the day before. This psalm (18), for the sake of brevity, is omitted here either by Justin himself or by the scribes, meanwhile Justin explains some passages from this psalm, as if he had cited it before. Maran. The formula for such prayer is found in the liturgy, in the Apostolic Constitutions, book. VIII, ch. II. The bishop prays for the faithful: “keep them unchanged, blameless, blameless, so that they may be holy in body and soul. Save them from the fear of the enemy, from the arrow that flies by day, from the plague that walks in the darkness.” Οικονομία. Some understand here precisely the sign of the cross of Christ. Abraham had not yet been circumcised when Melchizedek met and blessed him (Gen. XIV. XVII). A similar error is repeated in Tertullian (adv. iud. c. 3; adv. Marc. V, c. 9). Jer.31:31. St. Hebrews 8:7,8. Nowhere in Scripture does Solomon say that he committed idolatry in Sidon. Therefore, learned publishers have presented various conjectures regarding this place. Maran suggests reading: τοîς ẻν Σιδῶνι ẻιδώλοις ẻλατρéνeι, i.e. worshiped Sidonian idols, for example, Astarte, the Sidonian goddess (3 Kings XI, 15). Thirlby thinks it should be read: ẻν Σιῶνι. If we do not allow Justin to make mistakes here, examples of which are found in 1st Apol. Ch. 31, 42, 62; then Otto’s opinion is more likely that the word: ẻν Σιδῶνι entered the text from the margins, because Tertullian (adv. Marc. V, 9) does not have such an expression in words that are close to the thought of Justin. It is obvious that Justin is talking about those heretics (Gnostics) who recognized Jesus as the Christ and Lord, but denied that He was predicted by the prophets of the Creator and God of the Jews, whom they rejected along with His prophecies and the entire Old Testament. Maran. What is implied here is that the heretics ate food sacrificed to idols and participated in the festivals of the pagans. Sn. Irin. With. haer. c. 6. § 3. Maran. Мαρкiανоι. Scholars disagree about who Justin means here—either the followers of Mark, one of the school of Valentinus, usually called Μαρχωσίοι, or the Marcionists, followers of Marcion. Otto, paying attention to the form of the word, is inclined to the first opinion. Maran expressed the second, in favor of which is: a) that St. Epiphanius, speaking about the followers of Marcion, uses the names indifferently about them: Мαρкiωνeς and Мαρкiωνισται, just as he sometimes calls the followers of Valentinus Οὐαλεντινοί; b) the name of Mark was not as famous as the name of Marcion, whose followers were almost everywhere and about whom Justin speaks more than once in another of his works (1 Apol. ch. 26 and 58); c) Eusebius preserved (Ts. ist. IV, 22) a passage from Egezinpa, almost literally similar to the words of Justin, which lists the heretics descended from Simon Magus and his disciples - Menandrians, Marcionists, Carpocratians, Valentinians, Basilidians and Saturnilians - Justin in this place mentions the heads of the Gnostic sects who lived in the 2nd century and taught - Basilides in Alexandria, Saturninus in Antioch, Valentine in Alexandria and Rome, and Marcion in the latter city. The septenary number of the gifts of St. The Spirit has its basis in the words of Isaiah 11:2. Sn. 1 Corinthians 12:7–10. See Cohortat. ad gent. c. 32. Sn. Irenea avd. haer. IV, 23, Lactation Instit. biv. IV, 26, Kirill Alex. avd. Julian. 1. Deut.16:5,6 – Many other Christian writers, such as Tertullian (adv. iud. 5), used such proof of the not eternal, but transitory significance of the Jewish ritual law. Eusebius (demonstr. Evang. 1, 6), John Chrysostom in his speech against the Jews, Cyril Alex. (adv. Julian. IX). The same explanation is originally found in the epistle of Barnabas, ch. 7. The identity of goats is not mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. Scripture. Probably Barnabas, Justin and others talk about this on the basis of unwritten Jewish customs. Neither Scripture (Is. 27:33) nor Josephus (Antiquit. III, 7) mentions twelve bells on the high priest’s robe. Tertullian (adv. Marc. IV. 13) says that the twelve apostles were represented by twelve stones on the priestly clothing of Aaron (sch. XXNIII, 9 ff.). Maybe Justin mixed the bells with these stones. Otto. So, instead of: Ιὼβ, found in the 70, it appears in the handwritten codices of Justin and in other places in the Conversation, namely: - in ch. 45 and 140. According to Maran, the name of Jacob in this place was very opportune for overthrowing the arrogance of the descendants of Jacob. Except for Jerusalem, and Jews were then forbidden to enter this city. Here Justin makes it clear how unfairly the Jews considered the ritual decrees of the law eternal. ΄Εν οἶς ἂν ύμᾶς καταλάβω (I will capture, I will catch), ἐν τούτοις καὶ κρινῶ. According to Grabe (Specileg.), a similar saying is found in Clement Alexander. (Quis dives salvetur, § 40), who ascribes it not to Christ, but to God the Father speaking through a certain prophet, and John Climacus (Scala paradise, degree VII) attributes it to the prophet. Ezekiel (del. VII, 8; XVIII, 30; XXIV, 14; XXXIII, 20). However, Grabe himself and Maran behind him think that the above words are borrowed from some apocryphal gospel and, more likely, from the gospel of the Jews. According to Otto, one can see in them a not quite accurate rendering of the Savior’s words: as I hear, I judge (John V, 30; fn. VIII, 16). Those. from Christians, who are here opposed to the Jewish race. The heretics of whom Justin speaks are the Ebionites. Here the name Zachary is mistakenly placed instead of Malachi (IV, 5). Here Justin mixed the words of God about the 70 elders (Num. 11:17) with what is said (Num. 27:18 and Deut. 34:9) about the election and consecration of Joshua. Those. was not violated or insulted through such a message to John the Baptist. Maran. Instead of ἱερείс, as it appears in the text, Thirlby and Maran believe that it should read: ἁιρἑσειс, for above in ch. 35 Justin quotes the words of Christ like this: “there will be schisms and heresies.” Sn. 1st Apology Ch. 32 and 54, as well as 120 ch. this conversation, where Justin, adapting to the Jewish interpretations, reads: τα ἀποκείμενα αὐτῷ, but adds that the true reading of the 70 is: ῷ ἀποκείται. ̓Αφ̓ ού έπαθεν. These words or Justin's error, similar to the anachronism in 1st ap. Ch. 31, or the scribal gloss, which was included after and in the text. However, translators (Otto and others) find it possible to translate these words: after which he suffered, referring to a similar use of the preposition απο below in Chapter. 88 and 113. Αριθμώ λέϒω ὰλλ οὐ ϒνώμη. In a similar way, Origen says (c. Cels. VIII, 12): “we honor the Father of truth and the Son of truth, who are two in relation to hypostasis, but one in oneness of mind and agreement and the identity of the will.” Sn. Tert. adv. Prax. With. 22. Ps.109:1. See above ch. 32. Gen. 18:13, 14, 16, 17, 20–23. Gen. 18:33, 19:1, 10, 16, 25 Ps.77:25. – Clement Alex also taught that manna is the food of angels. (Paedag. 1, 6, 41) and Tertullian (de carne Chr. c. 6. and adv. Iud. c. 3). In handwritten codes and printed publications it is written: ἄϒϒελος. But Otto prefers to read according to the Bible (ἄνθρωπος), based on the words of Justin himself in ch. 126, etc. Under. see Tatian (orat. c. grace.c. 5), Athenagoras (Apol. p. 10), Tertullian (adv. Hermog. p. 18; adv Prax. p. 7). Such comparisons are found in Tatian (ibid), Tertullian (Apolog. c. 21; adv. Prax. c. 8) and Lactantius (Instit. div. IV. c. 29). More strict and distrustful of human reason in knowing the secrets of the Divine, St. Irenaeus does not approve of such analogies (adv. haer. II, p. 13). Those. the objects of our desires are received from the Lord. Those. God the Father, Who is the Author of the incarnation of the Son of God and the calling of the pagans. Maran. Ps.98:1–7. Justin explains this psalm about Christ on the basis of the position he had previously proven, that it was not God the Father who appeared to Moses, but the Son of God. Maran. Sn. 1 apol. Ch. 54, note. 119. That is on the cross. See 1 Apol. Ch. 69. These words are not in our Bible codes either. However, they, with a slight change, are also given by Lactantius (Instit. divin. IV, 18). Probably these words were inserted into the text of the Bible by one of the Christians; and St. Justin, out of ignorance, blames the Jews for their destruction. Jeremiah 11:19. This passage is now found in all copies of the Bible - handwritten and printed. However, Justin says that it remained intact in some lists of the Jews. These words are not in our Bible codes. St. Irenaeus cites the same words (adv. haer. III, p. 20.) under the name of St. Isaiah, and in another place (IV, p. 22) repeats them, attributing them to St. Jeremiah. The words “from the tree” (Sn. 1 Apol. Ch. 41) are not in the present biblical text and, except for Justin, they are not cited by any of the Greek church writers; but they are used by many Latin writers - Tertullian, Ambrose, Augustine, Leo, Gregory, etc. Tertullian (adv. iud. c. 10) says: age nunc, si legisti penes prophetam in psalmis: Dominus regnavit a lingo. – Compar. last Barnabas ch. VIII: “the kingdom of Jesus on the tree.” Here is an obvious omission in the manuscripts of Justin's conversation. The conversation, as can be seen from Chap. 78, 85, 92, 94, 18, lasted two days, and St. Justin in ch. 78 mentions what he said on the 1st day of the conversation. Therefore, the pass, as most scholars think (Grabe, Thirlby, Galland), consists of ending the conversation of the 1st day and resuming it on the second day with a few words connecting the next passage from Deuteronomy with the previous speech. Maran believes that only a few words are missing. Justin also says below in ch. 106, 113, 132. On the transformative meaning of the name of Joshua, see Barnabas (chap. 12), Tertullian (adv. Marc. III, 16; adv. iud. 9), Clement Alex. (Paed. 1, 7, § 60), Lactation (Inst. divin. IV, 17). Eusebius (Church history 1, 3) and Cyril Alex. (contra Iui. VIII). Luke 10:19. – Scolopendra is a thousand-legged insect, probably poisonous. Ps. 109:3 and 71:5, 17. See above ch. 63. Justin relates this saying to God’s definition of the human birth of the Son of God from the Virgin. The words of Tertullian are remarkable (adv. Marc V, 9): it is said that Christ was born from the womb of Mary before the morning star, because he was born at night. The same interpretation is stated by Tertullian (adv. Marc. III. 13; adv. iud. c. 9). Matthew 11:2, 5, 6. Micah 5:2. Sn. Luke 2:1–7. – St. Luke does not mention the cave as the birthplace of Christ the Savior. But this is accepted by unknown authors of apocryphal tales: the First Gospel of Jacob, the story of Joseph the treemaker, etc. (see Tischendorf's Tvangelia apocrypha). Of the most ancient teachers of the church, besides Justin, Origen speaks about the cave: “and now they show in the country of Bethlehem the cave where (Christ) was born and in the cave of the manger where He was given birth (Orig. p. Cels. I, 51). See chap. 70. – Isa.33:13–19. Egezinn in Eusebius (C. history IV, 22) and Kpiphanius list seven Jewish sects, of which they give three almost the same names as those mentioned here by Justin: Sadducees, Pharisees and Imerobaptists or simply Baptists (the latter formed a department of the Pharisees, differing from them only in the point about daily ablutions and sacrifices). As for the other Jewish sects mentioned by Justin, the Galileans, as is known, descended from Judas the Galilean, who incited his compatriots to retain their former political freedom; It is not entirely known who the genists and merists were. Isidore (Origg. VIII, 4) says that “the Genists were so named because they boasted of their pure descent (genere) from Abraham, since after moving to Babylon many married the local women, while others strictly adhered to the Jewish tribe and upon returning to their fatherland separated themselves from the rest of the people.” The Merists divided the Scriptures and did not accept all the prophets (from μέρος, part). Hellenian Scaliger descends from the heresiarch Hellenius; and Thirlby suggests the reading: Ellilian, after the famous Jewish teacher Gellel. Otto. Instead of πλεονάσουσιν e 70 it reads: παλανώσουσιν, dilapidated. Gen.2:17. – Justin’s thought apparently is this: Adam, who was told by God that he would die on the day on which he ate from the tree, did not survive for a thousand years; This means that the day of the Lord corresponds to a thousand years. - Irenaeus (adv. haer. V, 23, § 2) says: “Some believe the death of Adam in the year of a thousand years, because the day of the Lord is like a thousand years, and Adam did not pass a thousand years.” Matthew 10:21–22, 24:5, 9, 11, 24. Isaiah 37:33–38 and 2 Kings 19:32–37. This brief summary of the history of Christ the Savior may indicate ancient formulas of incantatory prayer. Origen (c. Cels. 1, 6) says: “Christians have power not through enchantments, but in the name of Jesus with the proclamation of events from His life τῶν περἰ α ὐτòν ἰστοριῶνˊ.” Καταδέσμοις. Scientists disagree among themselves regarding the meaning of this word. Thirlby means by it verses, by the power of which the demon, expelled by incense from the person possessed by him, was bound so that he could not return to him again. Maran based on II Apol. Ch. 6, here means some kind of drug or drink (αρμάκεισ). According to Otto, Justin is talking about some kind of magical bandages or chains with which the evil spirit was bound and submitted to the will of the caster. This reading was adopted by Otto on the basis of the handwritten codes of Justin; but in other printed editions of Justin, according to 70, it reads: ϕωνἠ ὲκ ναοῡ (voice from the church). This is said by mistake instead of: the Red Sea. Sn. Exodus 15:27 and Numbers 33:9. St. Irenaeus (adv. haer. IV, 25) explains this in relation to the calling of the pagans and the rejection of the Jews. The individual powers of the Holy Spirit are not the same as the Spirit itself, as a hypostasis. Justin here is not talking about the absorption of the personality of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, but that Christ took those powers of the Spirit, which before His incarnation were communicated to the prophets of the Old Testament, into Himself and became the source for communicating them to all believers, and at the same time put an end to the Old Testament economy, the fulfillment of its prophecies and prototypes. Tertullian says (adv. iud. 8): the fullness of the Old Testament gifts of the Spirit ceased in Christ, with whose coming all acts and all prophecies were fulfilled. Justin, the idea of ​​the ignition of fire in the Jordan at the baptism of the Lord, apparently accepted from some apocryphal writings of his time. In the gospel used by the Ebionites, according to the testimony of Epiphanius (Haer. 30, 13), it is said that after the baptism of Jesus “immediately a great light illuminated that place.” The writer of the essay “de baptism haeretico rum”, placed in the works of Cyprian, says that in the apocryphal book “The Sermon of Paul” it is found: “when Christ was baptized, we saw fire on the water.” Otto. John 1:20, 23; Luke 3:16; Matthew 3:11. Mark 6:3. Details about the Savior's carpentry activities are reported in apocryphal legends; Evangelium infantiae Salvat. arab. and Evang, Thomae. See Tischendorf in his edition of the Apocrypha. Ps.2:7. See below, chapter 103. Sn. Luke 3:22. Augustine testifies that in the same way as in Justin, the words of the voice from heaven that was at the baptism of Christ were set out in some copies of the N. Testament, saying, however, that the most ancient Greek codes agree with St. Luke (De consensus evang. II, 14). Epiphanius (haer. XXX. 13) quotes the following passage from a fragment of the Ebionite Gospel: “and there was a voice from heaven saying: You are My beloved Son, I am well pleased in You, and also: This day I have given birth to You.” Like Justin, the words of a voice from heaven are conveyed by Clement Alex. (Paed 1, 6, § 25), Methodius (Conv. virgg.), Lactantius (Inst. divin. c. 15) and Augustine (Enchirid ad Eaurent. 49). Otto. Those. that Joshua was a type of Christ. Deut.21:23. Sn. Gal.3:13. Thus Tertullian explains the prayer of Moses with outstretched hands during the battle of Jesus with Amalek (adv. iud. 10; adv. Marc. III, 18). Sn. Barnabas last Ch. 12 and Cyprian (Exhortatio martyr. 8). Sn. Tertullian adv. iud. 10; adv. Marc. III, 18. Irenaeus says (abv. haer. II, 24, § 4): “the form of the cross has five ends: two in length and two in width and one in the middle, on which the one who is nailed rests.” Deut.32:4; n. Ps.24:10; 91:15. Luke 10:27. See Mark 12:30–31. What is meant here is the copper serpent and the outstretching of Moses’ hands, in the form of a cross, against Amalek. Those. on the cross. See 1 Apol. Ch. 60. Time. with Tr. Ch. 72, 91, 111. Deut.27:26. Sn. Gal.3:10. Deut.21:23; n. Gal.3:13. Those. He knew what would follow with Him. See chap. 36 and 75; 52 and 91. This comparison between the Virgin Mary and Eve is revealed in some detail in Irenaeus (abv. haer. III, 22, § 4, V, 19, § 1) and in Tertullian (de carne Chr. p. 17). Matthew 19:16 ... Mark 10:17 ... See Luke 18:18 et seq. Matthew 27:39–40, 43. Luke 23:35. See Matthew 27:13–14. Mark 15:4–5. Luke 23:9. Justin probably thought that the Jews attacked Christ from some part of the mountain while Christ was in the valley below the mountain. Maran. Sn. Matthew 36:30, Mark 14:26, Luke 22:39. Hos.10:6. The same in Tertullian (adv. Marc. IV, 42) and in Cyril hierus. (pronounced XIII, 7). Σατανᾶς. According to Otto, Justin, judging by the Greek ending of this word, derived it from the Hebrew words: שחג (reject, retreat) and חםש (serpent). Matthew 26:39. n. Luke 22:42. In handwritten codices it stands: μετὰ ὲν ἄλλεις τεσσαἠάκοντα τρεις ρμέρας, i.e. in (others say forty) three days. But Justin usually follows the text of the 70, which simply reads three, but in the Hebrew and in the translations of Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion it reads forty. Therefore, the words: “according to the other forty,” as introduced into the text of Justin, probably by one of the copyists, we omitted in accordance with Otto’s edition. In handwritten and printed codices it is written: σικυῶνα, which Maran translates with the word: ivy (hedera). But Otto believes that Justin, like Aquila and Theodotion, used: κικυῶνα, and here means the castor bean tree (ricinus). For 70 it reads: κολὸκυνθα, pumpkin. See Hieronymus Epist. ad August. 74. They also say - the writer of the epistle to Diognetus (chap. 6 and 7), Tertullian (Apol. c. 50): “your most refined cruelty achieves nothing, rather it favors our society, our number increases to the extent that you reduce it, the blood of Christians is the seed”... Lactantius: the Divine religion spreads, the more it is oppressed (Instit. div. V, 19). Justin here implies not only the power of evil angels, but also kings and rulers of the earth, who, in his opinion about the thousand-year reign of Christ, will be defeated by Him along with the Antichrist. Irenaeus (adv. haer. V) and Lactantius (Iust. div. lib. VII) talk about this in more detail. Sn. Clementa Rome. 1st last Ch. 12. Gen.3:14; Isa.27:1. See chap. 91. That is from (or since) His incarnation. See chap. 34, 70, 76, 86, 100. Jeremiah 2:12–13; Isa.16:1; Jer.3:8. Mal.1:10–12. The words placed in brackets are not in the manuscripts, because it is likely that they were omitted by the copyist; but they are required here in the course of speech. This is what Justin also calls false slander against Christians in 2 Apol. Ch. 18. Maran. The Scythians are called nomadic (ἁμαέὸβιοι) (Horac. od. III. Pliny Hist. nat. IV. 12). The homeless (ᾶοικοι) are the nomads who lived in India, Ethiopia and Numidia. The inhabitants of Arabia were mainly called those living in tents. Otto. Gen.49:10. See above ch. 52. Justin points here to his apologies, in which he speaks at length about Simon the Magus and the Samaritans. See 1 app. Ch. 26 and 2 ap. Ch. 15. Γηόραν. This word, taken from the Hebrew language, is found among the 70 in two places (Ex. 12:19 and Is. 14:1), in which Aquila, Symmachus and Phaedotion use προσήλυτος and also means that the last Greek word, i.e. a stranger, or foreigner, turning to Jewish law. Those. about the prophecies given in chapter 121. Those. if they knew the law. Deut.32:20; Isa.42:19–20. Those. for those who came on the second day - see chap. 122. In the text of the 70 it reads like this: He will bring judgment truly, He will appear and will not be crushed. Ps.81. Justin cited this psalm as the Jews translated it, and contrasts them with the translation of one expression “like men” from 70 interpreters; Meanwhile, according to the surviving text of Justin’s conversation, no difference is visible here. Maran resolves this difficulty by the fact that, in his opinion, in the first case it is necessary to read ως ὰνθρωπος (man - in the singular), as it stands in Hebrew, and in the second - ως ὰνθρωποι (people), and Justin uses the last reading to prove the disobedience of people, i.e. Adam and Eve. Those. in the Proverbs of Solomon (VIII, 21-25), which in ancient times were called Wisdom, as, for example, in the apostolic decrees, in Clement of Alexandria and in many others, as Eusebius testifies (C. Ist. IV, 22). This Jewish tradition was born from a reinterpretation of Deuteronomy VIII, 5 and XXIX, 5. Isa.42:1–4. See above ch. 123. The reading “we will destroy” attributed to Justin 70 is found in Egesitz (Evs. Ts. Ist. II, 28); Klimenta Alex. (Strom. V, 14, 109) and Tertullian (adv. Marc. III, 22). But at present, in all codes of the text of the 70 it is read “we will bind”, which is also used in the last. Barnabas ch. 6. Otto. These words are literally not found in Isaiah or in all of Scripture. Probably Justin freely conveys here the thought of the words of Isaiah LXV, 8 and gave. Those. Canaan, Son of Ham, grandson of Noah. You might be interested in: