When I ceased Trypho said: Yet all the words of the prophecy which, Sir, you adduce, are ambiguous, and contain nothing decisive in proof of your argument.
I replied: If indeed prophets had not ceased in your race, Trypho, but still appeared, later than this John of whom we speak, perhaps the sayings might be considered ambiguous.
But if John came first crying out to men to repent, and Christ then came, while John was still stationed at the River Jordan, and made him cease prophesying and baptizing, and preached the Gospel, Himself saying that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and that He must suffer many things of the Scribes and Pharisees, and be crucified, and rise on the third day, and stated beforehand that He would come again in Jerusalem and then eat and drink with His disciples, and in the meantime before His Advent, as I have said already, that there could be heresies, and men who would prophesy falsely in His name — as is evidently the case — how is there still room for doubt, when you can be persuaded by facts?
Further, He spoke about there being no more a prophet in your race, and about recognizing the fact that the new Disposition, which had long since been proclaimed by God as about to be appointed, was now already present, that is, that He Himself was the Christ: The Law and the Prophets were until John the Baptist; from which time the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and violent men take it by force. And if ye choose to receive it, he is Elijah who was about to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.