Dialogue with Trypho

And I replied, "Ask whatever you wish, as it comes to you; and I will try, after questions and answers, to continue and complete the discussion."

Then he said, "Tell me, then, will those who lived according to the law given by Moses live in the same way with Jacob, Enoch, and Noah, in the resurrection of the dead, or not?"

I replied to him, "When I quoted, sir, the words spoken by Ezekiel, that 'even if Noah, Daniel, and Jacob were to beg for sons and daughters, the request would not be granted to them,' but that each person shall be saved by their own righteousness, I also mentioned that those who lived by the law of Moses would be saved in the same way. For what in the law of Moses is naturally good, and pious, and righteous, and has been commanded to be done by those who follow it; and what was appointed due to the hardness of the people's hearts; was similarly recorded and done by those under the law.

Since those who did what is universally, naturally, and eternally good are pleasing to God, they shall be saved through this Christ in the resurrection equally with those righteous people who came before them, like Noah, Enoch, Jacob, and whoever else there may be, along with those who have known this Christ, Son of God, who existed before the morning star and the moon, and chose to become incarnate, and be born of this virgin from the family of David, so that, through this plan, the serpent that sinned from the beginning, and the angels like him, may be destroyed, and that death may be scorned and overcome at the second coming of Christ Himself, by those who believe in Him and live acceptably—and be no more: when some are sent to be punished eternally in judgment and condemnation of fire; but others shall exist without suffering, without decay, without grief, and in immortality."