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Dialogue with Trypho
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Chapter 67: Trypho Compares Jesus with Perseus; He Would Rather Say That Jesus Was Chosen to be Christ Because of His Observance of the Law. Justin Discusses the Law in Its Former Context.
AND TRYPHO REPLIED: "The Scripture doesn't say, 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,' but rather, 'Behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son,' just as you quoted. The entire prophecy actually refers to Hezekiah, and it has been proven that it was fulfilled in him according to the terms of this prophecy. Moreover, in the myths of those known as Greeks, it is written that Perseus was born of Danae, who was a virgin, after Zeus descended on her in the form of a golden shower. You should feel ashamed when you make claims similar to theirs, and instead say that this Jesus was born as a man from men. If you can prove from the Scriptures that He is the Christ, and that due to leading a life that conformed to the law and was perfect, He deserved the honor of being chosen as the Christ, that's acceptable. But do not attempt to speak of incredible phenomena, lest you be found guilty of speaking foolishly like the Greeks."
THEN I SAID TO THIS: "Trypho, I wish to persuade you, and everyone else, of this: even if you speak worse things in ridicule and in jest, you will not sway me from my firm resolve; I will always use the words you believe support your views to demonstrate what I have stated, alongside the testimony of the Scriptures. However, you are not acting fairly or truthfully by trying to undo those things about which we have consistently agreed; namely, that certain commands were instituted by Moses because of the hardness of your people's hearts. For you said that, because of His living according to the law, He was chosen and became Christ, if indeed He were proven to be so."
AND TRYPHO SAID: "You admitted to us that He was both circumcised and followed the other legal ceremonies commanded by Moses."
AND I REPLIED: "I have admitted it, and still do: yet I have admitted that He endured all these not as if He were justified by them, but fulfilling the plan which His Father, the Maker of all things, and Lord and God, wanted Him to complete. For I admit that He endured crucifixion and death, and the incarnation, and the suffering of as many afflictions as your nation placed upon Him. But since you again disagree with what you recently agreed to, Trypho, answer me: Are those righteous patriarchs who lived before Moses, who followed none of those ordinances which, as the Scripture shows, began with Moses, saved, and have they attained the inheritance of the blessed?"
AND TRYPHO SAID: “The Scriptures force me to admit it.”
"Similarly, I ask you again," I said, "did God command your fathers to present the offerings and sacrifices because He needed them, or because of the hardness of their hearts and tendency to idolatry?"
"The latter," he said, "the Scriptures likewise compel us to admit."
"Similarly," I said, "didn't the Scriptures predict that God promised to provide a new covenant in addition to the one given at Mount Horeb?"
HE REPLIED THAT THIS: too, had been predicted.
THEN I SAID AGAIN: "Wasn't the old covenant given to your fathers with fear and trembling, so that they couldn't listen to God?"
HE CONFESSED IT:
"What then?" I asked. "God promised that there would be a new covenant, not like the old one, and said it would be established among them without fear, trembling, or lightning. It would reveal the kind of commands and deeds that God knows to be eternal and appropriate for every nation, and which commandments He gave, adapting them to the hardness of your people's hearts, as He also declares through the prophets."
"To this also," he said, "those who love truth and not conflict must surely agree."
THEN I REPLIED: "I don't know how you speak of people very fond of strife, since you yourself were often clearly acting in this very manner, frequently contradicting what you had agreed to."