Now this is the kind of thing that I would say. Joshua (Jesus) as I have often said already, whose name was Oshea, he who was sent with Caleb into Canaan as a spy of the land, was called Joshua (Jesus) by Moses. You (Trypho) do not ask the reason why he did this; you feel no difficulty about it; you make no serious investigation of it. Accordingly Christ remains hid from you, and when you read you do not understand, and, not even now, when you hear that Jesus is our Christ, do you argue that the name was not given him idly or by chance.
But you discuss the theological reasons why one ‘a’ was added to the first form of the name of Abraham, and you likewise solemnly debate why one ‘r’ was added to that of Sarah, but you do not make any such enquiry why the family name of Oshea the son of Nun was completely changed to Joshua (Jesus).
Since not only was his name changed, but also having become Moses’ successor, he, the only one of his contemporaries who had come forth from Egypt, led the people that survived into the Holy Land. And just as he, not Moses, led the people into the Holy Land, and as he divided it by lot to them that entered with him, so also will Jesus the Christ turn the Dispersion of the people, and will distribute the good land to each, though not again in the same manner.
For the one (Joshua) gave them the inheritance for a time, for he was not Christ our God, nor Son of God, but the other (Jesus), will, after the holy resurrection, give us our possession for ever. He (Joshua) made the sun stand still, for he had earlier been surnamed by the name of Jesus, and had received might from His Spirit. For I have shown that it was Jesus who appeared to Moses and to Abraham, and in fact to’ all the other prophets, and conversed with them, ministering to the will of His Father. He also came to be born man by the Virgin Mary, and is man for ever.
For this is He of whom the Father (made) the heaven and the earth, and by whom He will restore them. This is He who is to shine in Jerusalem as an everlasting light. This is He who is always King of Salem and everlasting- Priest of the Most High, according to the order of Melchizedek.
He (Joshua) is said to have circumcised the people with knives of stone as their second circumcision (which was a proclamation of that circumcision wherewith Jesus Himself circumcised us, thus cleansing us from stones and all other idols) and making heaps of them who in every place were circumcised from their uncircumcision, that is to say from the error of the world, with knives of stone, (namely) the words of our Lord Jesus. For it has been proved by me that Christ was proclaimed by the prophets in parables as Stone and Rock.
And we shall understand therefore the stone knives as His words, by which so many who were in error have been circumcised from their uncircumcision, with the circumcision of their heart, wherewith God ordered from that time onwards, by means of Joshua (Jesus), that they also who had the circumcision which took its origin in Abraham should be circumcised, for He said that Joshua even circumcised them who entered into that holy land with a second circumcision, by knives of stone.