Dialogue with Trypho

Then I said, "Since I bring both the proofs and their teachings from the Scriptures and the facts themselves, do not delay or hesitate to believe me, even though I am an uncircumcised man; you have so little time left to become converts. If Christ returns before you do, your repentance and tears will be in vain, for He will not listen to you. Jeremiah cried out to the people, ‘Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among thorns.

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart.’ So do not sow among thorns or in untilled ground, where you cannot bear fruit. Know Christ; the good, rich, and fertile unplowed ground is in your hearts. 'For behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'that I will visit all those who are circumcised only in their flesh; Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Moab. For all nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in their hearts.' Do you see how God does not mean the physical circumcision, which is given as a sign? It is of no use to the Egyptians, the sons of Moab, or the sons of Edom.

But even if a man is a Scythian or a Persian, if he knows God and His Christ and keeps the everlasting righteous decrees, he is circumcised with the good and useful circumcision, and is a friend of God, and God rejoices in his gifts and offerings.

But I will lay before you, my friends, the very words of God when He said to the people through Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, ‘I have no pleasure in you,' says the Lord, 'and I shall not accept your sacrifices from your hands: for from the rising to the setting of the sun, My name shall be glorified among the Gentiles; and in every place, a sacrifice is offered to My name, even a pure sacrifice: for My name is honored among the Gentiles,’ says the Lord, ‘but you profane it.’ And through David, He said, 'A people whom I have not known serve Me; as soon as they hear of Me, they obey Me.'"