Dialogue with Trypho

As I mentioned before, Jacob, being a representation of Christ, married the two servants of his two free wives and had sons with them. This was to show in advance that Christ would accept not only those among Japheth’s descendants, who are from Canaan, but also those who are free, making their children equal heirs. We are like these heirs, but you cannot understand this because you cannot drink from the living fountain of God but instead from broken cisterns that hold no water, as the Scripture says.

These broken cisterns, which hold no water, are teachings created by your own teachers, as the Scripture states explicitly: ‘teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ They deceive themselves and you, thinking that the everlasting kingdom will definitely be given to the dispersed descendants of Abraham, according to the flesh, even though they are sinners, faithless, and disobedient to God, which the Scriptures have shown is not true. For if it were true, Isaiah would not have said: ‘Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.’ And Ezekiel stated: ‘Even if Noah, Jacob, and Daniel prayed for sons or daughters, their request would not be granted.

No one will die for another’s sin, but each will be accountable for their own sin. Each will be saved for their own righteousness.’ Isaiah also said: ‘They shall gaze upon the carcasses of those who have transgressed: their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched; they shall be a horror to all people.’ Our Lord, according to the will of Him who sent Him, the Father and Lord of all, would not have said, ‘They will come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness.’ Furthermore, I have shown earlier that those foreknown to be unrighteous, whether human or angelic, are not made wicked by God’s doing, but each person, by their own actions, becomes what they will ultimately be.