And he answered: Granting that even all this that you say is true, both that Christ was prophesied as about to be liable to suffering, and that He has been called a Stone, and after His first advent, in which, according to the proclamation, He was to appear in a state liable to suffering, He was to come in glory, and, further, as Judge of all, and to be everlasting Priest and King — yet prove that this is He about Whom all this was prophesied.
I said: As you desire, Trypho, I will come to these proofs which you desire, in the suitable place. But for the present you will permit me first to call to mind such prophecies as I desire, in proof that Christ is called in parable by the Holy Spirit both God and Lord of Hosts and Jacob, and that your expositors are, as God cries out, without understanding, when they say that these sayings do not refer to Christ but to Solomon, when he brought in the tabernacle of witness into the temple which he built.
Now one of David’s Psalms is as follows: The Lord’s is the earth and the fulness of it, the world and all that dwell in it. He Himself founded it upon seas, and on streams did He prepare it. Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? One innocent in hands and pure in heart, who never bare his soul in vanity, not swore in craft to his neighbour.
He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour. This is the generation of such as seek the Lord, as seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your gates, ye rulers, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, mighty, and powerful in war. Lift up your gates, ye rulers, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of glory.
That Solomon therefore is not the Lord of Hosts has already been demonstrated. Rather is our Christ, when He rose from the dead and went up into heaven — then they who were appointed by God rulers in the heavens are bid open the gates of the heavens, that this very One who is King of glory may enter in, and may go up and sit on the right hand of the Father, until He has set His enemies as His footstool, as has been made plain by another Psalm.
For when the rulers in heaven saw Him with His form without form, and without honour and glory, they did not recognize Him, and were enquiring: Who is this King of Glory? And the Holy Spirit answers them, either in the person of the Father or in His own person: The Lord of Hosts, He is this King of glory. For that none of those who stand at the gates of the temple of Jerusalem ever dared to say: Who is this King of glory, with reference to Solomon, glorious king as He was, nor with reference to the tabernacle of witness, every one will acknowledge.