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🎧 Dialogue with Trypho
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Chapter 90: The Extended Hands of Moses Represented the Cross Ahead of Time

"Lead us on, then," said [Trypho], "with the Scriptures, so we might also be persuaded by you; for we know that He should suffer and be led like a sheep. But show us whether He must be crucified and die in such a disgraceful and dishonorable way, by a death cursed in the law. For we cannot bring ourselves even to consider this."

"You know," I said, "that the prophets expressed their messages through parables and symbols, as you acknowledged to us; making it difficult for everyone to understand most of what they said, since they hid the truth in this way. This was so that those who are eager to discover and learn it might do so through much effort."

THEY REPLIED: "We admitted this."

"Listen, then," I say, "to what follows; for Moses first showed this apparent curse of Christ by the signs he performed."

"Which signs are you talking about?" he said.

"When the people," I replied, "fought against Amalek, and the son of Nave, named Jesus (Joshua), led the battle, Moses prayed to God, stretching out both hands, and Hur with Aaron supported them throughout the day, so they wouldn't fall when he became tired. If he let any part of this sign, which resembled the cross, drop, the people were defeated, as recorded in the writings of Moses; but if he maintained this position, Amalek was increasingly defeated, and victory belonged to the cross. It was not because Moses prayed that the people were stronger, but because, with one named Jesus (Joshua) leading the fight, he made the sign of the cross. For who among you doesn't know that prayer, combined with lamentation and tears, with the body prostrate or with bended knees, most effectively reconciles with God? But neither he nor anyone else prayed in this manner while sitting on a stone. Nor did the stone symbolize Christ, as I have shown."

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