Dialogue with Trypho

Since you have read, Trypho, as you yourself admitted, the teachings of our Savior, I do not think I have acted foolishly in adding some of His brief sayings to the prophetic statements. So, wash and cleanse yourselves, and remove iniquity from your souls, as God commands you to be washed in this laver, and be circumcised with the true circumcision. We would also follow the physical circumcision, the Sabbaths, and all the feasts, if we did not understand why they were commanded to you—specifically, because of your transgressions and the hardness of your hearts. If we patiently endure everything plotted against us by wicked people and demons, so that even amid unimaginable cruelties, death, and torments, we pray for mercy for those who inflict such things upon us, and do not wish to retaliate against anyone, just as the new Lawgiver commanded us, then how is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites that do not harm us—speaking of physical circumcision, Sabbaths, and feasts?