But when they ceased, I began to address them again as follows:
Is there any other fault you find with us, my friends, save this, that we do not live in accordance with the Law, and do not circumcise the flesh as did your forefathers, and do not keep the sabbath as you do? Or are also false accusations against our life and morals made among you? I say this, lest you too have believed of us that we eat human beings, and after a banquet put out the lights and wallow in promiscuous lust. Or do you condemn us for this alone, that we pay heed to doctrines such as I have stated, and hold an opinion which, you think, is not true?
Yes, this is what surprises us, said Trypho, for the popular tales are not worthy of credence. They are far too unlike human nature. I know too that the commands given you in what is called the Gospel are so admirable and great, that I suspect that no one can keep them. For I took some trouble to read them.
But we are especially at a loss about this, that you, saying you worship God, and thinking yourselves superior to other people, separate from them in no respect, and do not make your life different from the heathen, in that you keep neither the feasts nor the sabbaths, nor have circumcision, and, moreover, though you set your hopes on a man that was crucified, you yet hope to obtain some good from God, though you do not do His commandments. Now have you not read: That soul shall be cut off from his people Genesis 17:14 which shall not be circumcised on the eighth day? The charge refers alike to strangers and to purchased slaves.
It follows that when you have directly despised this covenant you neglect the commands that come afterwards, and as persons who know God you attempt to persuade us, though you practise none of these things which they who fear God do. If therefore you have any defence to make with reference to these points, and can show us how you have any hope at all, even though you do not keep the Law, we would very gladly hear from you. Afterwards let us examine the other points in the same way.