Chapter XVI.—Circumcision given as a sign, that the Jews might be driven away
for their evil deeds done to Christ and the Christians.
“And God himself proclaimed by Moses, speaking thus: ‘And circumcise the hardness
of your hearts, and no longer stiffen the neck. For the Lord your God is both Lord of lords,
and a great, mighty, and terrible God, who regardeth not persons, and taketh not rewards.’218
And in Leviticus: ‘Because they have transgressed against Me, and despised Me, and because
they have walked contrary to Me, I also walked contrary to them, and I shall cut them off
in the land of their enemies. Then shall their uncircumcised heart be turned.219 For the
circumcision according to the flesh, which is from Abraham, was given for a sign; that you
may be separated from other nations, and from us; and that you alone may suffer that which
you now justly suffer; and that your land may be desolate, and your cities burned with fire;
and that strangers may eat your fruit in your presence, and not one of you may go up to
Jerusalem.’220 For you are not recognised among the rest of men by any other mark than
your fleshly circumcision. For none of you, I suppose, will venture to say that God neither
did nor does foresee the events, which are future, nor foreordained his deserts for each one.
Accordingly, these things have happened to you in fairness and justice, for you have slain
the Just One, and His prophets before Him; and now you reject those who hope in Him,
and in Him who sent Him—God the Almighty and Maker of all things —cursing in your
synagogues those that believe on Christ. For you have not the power to lay hands upon us,
on account of those who now have the mastery. But as often as you could, you did so.
203
Wherefore God, by Isaiah, calls to you, saying, ‘Behold how the righteous man perished,
and no one regards it. For the righteous man is taken away from before iniquity. His grave
shall be in peace, he is taken away from the midst. Draw near hither, ye lawless children,
seed of the adulterers, and children of the whore. Against whom have you sported yourselves,
and against whom have you opened the mouth, and against whom have you loosened the
tongue?’221
218 Deut. x. 16 f.
219 Lev. xxvi. 40, 41.
220 See Apol., i. 47. The Jews [By Hadrian’s recent edict] were prohibited by law from entering Jerusalem on
pain of death. And so Justin sees in circumcision their own punishment.
221 Isa. lvii. 1–4.
Chapter XVI.—Circumcision given as a sign, that the Jews might be driven away for their evil deeds done to Christ and the Christians.
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Chapter XVI.—Circumcision given as a sign, that the Jews might be driven…