Instruct us therefore also out of the Scriptures, he said, that we too may believe you. For we know He suffers, and is to be brought as a sheep. But prove to us whether He must even be crucified, and die in so disgraceful and dishonourable a fashion, by the death that in the Law is accursed. For we cannot come so far as even to suppose any such thing.
You know, I said, that what the prophets said and did, as you have already acknowledged, they revealed in parables and types, so that it is not easy for most of what they taught to be grasped by all, for they concealed in it the truth in such a way that those who seek must take trouble to find out and to learn.
They answered: We fully grant it.
Pray listen then, I said, to what comes next. For Moses was the first to exhibit this apparent curse of Him by the typical acts he performed.
As for example? Trypho said.
When the people, I said, was waging war with Amalek, and the son of Nun, who was surnamed Joshua (Jesus), was the leader of the battle, Moses himself prayed to God, stretching his hands out on either side. But Hor and Aaron supported them the whole day long, lest he should be weary and they should fall down. For if any of this figure that imitated the form of a cross had given way, the people, as is written in the writings of Moses, were defeated. But if he remained in this position, so long was Amalek overcome, and as he prevailed he prevailed by the cross.
Not because Moses prayed thus was the people therefore superior, but because the name of Jesus (Joshua) being at the head of the battle, he (Moses) was making the figure of the cross. For who of you does not know that prayer uttered with lamentation and tears, and the prayer of one who sinks down with body bent and on his knees, especially propitiates God? But in this fashion Moses never prayed nor any after him when seated on a stone. Now even the stone is symbolical of Christ, as I have shown.