Dialogue with Trypho

Moreover, the prescription that twelve bells be attached to the robe of the high priest, which hung down to the feet, was a symbol of the twelve apostles, who rely on the power of Christ, the eternal Priest; and through their voice, the whole earth has been filled with the glory and grace of God and His Christ.

Therefore, David also says: 'Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.' And Isaiah speaks as if representing the apostles when they say to Christ that they do not believe in their own report, but in the power of Him who sent them.

And so he says: 'Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have preached before Him as if He were a child, as if a root in a dry ground.' (And what follows in the order of the prophecy already quoted.) But when the passage speaks as from the lips of many, 'We have preached before Him,' and adds, 'as if a child,' it signifies that the wicked shall become subject to Him, and shall obey His command, and that all shall become as one child.

Such a thing as you may witness in the body: although the members are counted as many, all are called one, and form a body.

Indeed, a commonwealth and a church, though consisting of many individuals, are essentially one, called and addressed by one name. In short, gentlemen," I said, "by listing all the other appointments of Moses, I can demonstrate that they were types, symbols, and declarations of things that would happen to Christ, of those it was foreknown would believe in Him, and of things that would also be done by Christ Himself.

But since what I have now listed seems sufficient to me, I return to the order of the discourse.