Texts in Conversation
In Joshua, the Israelites are commanded to be circumcised with stone knives. In his Dialogue with Trypho, Justin interprets these knives as the teaching of Jesus that removes idolatry, connecting the material of the knives with Jesus as a stone.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Joshua 5:2–3
Hebrew Bible
1 When all the Amorite kings on the west side of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites while they crossed, they lost their courage and could not even breathe for fear of the Israelites. 2 At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites once again.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at the Hill of the Foreskins. 4 This is why Joshua had to circumcise them: All the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt died on the journey through the wilderness after they left Egypt. 5 Now all the men who left were circumcised, but all the sons born on the journey through the wilderness after they left Egypt were uncircumcised. 6 Indeed, for 40 years the Israelites traveled through the wilderness until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn by oath to their ancestors to give them, a land rich in milk and honey. 7 He replaced them with their sons, whom Joshua circumcised. They were uncircumcised; their fathers had not circumcised them along the way. 8 When all the men had been circumcised, they stayed there in the camp until they had healed. 9 The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have taken away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” So that place is called Gilgal even to this day.
Date: 6th century BCE (final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 113.6–7
Early Christian
6 The first is said to have circumcised the people a second time with knives of stone, which was a proclamation of this circumcision with which Jesus Christ Himself has circumcised us from stone idols and idols of other materials; and to have gathered into heaps those who were circumcised from the uncircumcision, that is, from the error of the world, everywhere by knives of stone, namely the words of our Lord Jesus. For I have shown that Christ was proclaimed by the prophets in parables as a Stone and a Rock. 7 So we will take the knives of stone to mean His words, by which so many who were astray have been circumcised from uncircumcision with the circumcision of the heart. With this circumcision God, through Jesus (Joshua), urged even those who had the circumcision that began with Abraham to be circumcised from that time on, when He said that Jesus (Joshua) circumcised a second time with knives of stone those who entered that holy land.
Date: 155–160 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... Though fully authorized by the OT, the apostles of Jesus also spoke, of
course, with the authority of their master by virtue of his commission to
them, and their authority may also be said to derive from his. ‘And when
they had seen Him ascending into heaven, and had believed and had
received power sent thence by Him upon them, and went to every race of
men, they taught these things and were called apostles’ (1Apol. 50. 12; cf.
1Apol. 37. 7; 42). Not only do they speak with Christ’s authority, but Justin
attests that Christ has spoken ‘through’ them (1Apol. 42. 1; Dial. 114. 4; cf.
119. 6, where it is God who speaks through them) in just the same way that
he says God, Christ, or the Spirit spoke through the prophets.189 The words
of Jesus, we are told, are the sharp knives of stone by which the Gentiles
have had the foreskins of their hearts circumcised. ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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