And what I mean is this. Jesus, as I have often said before, who was called Hoshea—that one who, with Caleb, was sent as a spy into Canaan to the land—Moses called Jesus (Joshua). This you do not inquire for what reason he did, you are not at a loss, nor are you eager to learn; therefore Christ has escaped you, and reading you do not understand, nor even now, hearing that Jesus is our Christ, do you reckon that the name was given to that man not idly nor by chance.
But why one alpha was added to the first name of Abram, you theologise; and why one rho to Sarah's name, you likewise speak grandly; but why the patronymic name of Hoshea, the son of Nun, was wholly changed to Joshua (Jesus), you do not likewise inquire.
And since not only was his name changed, but also, having become Moses' successor, he alone of those who came out from Egypt being of such an age, led the surviving people into the holy land; and as that one led the people into the holy land, not Moses, and as he distributed it by lot to those who entered with him, so also Jesus the Christ shall turn back the dispersion of the people and distribute the good land to each, though no longer in the same way.
For the one gave them a temporary inheritance, since he was not Christ who is God, nor the Son of God; but the other, after the holy resurrection, will give us the eternal possession. That one made the sun stand still, having first been renamed by the name Jesus and having received strength from His Spirit. For that it was Jesus who appeared to and conversed with Moses and Abraham and, in short, all the other patriarchs, ministering to the will of the Father, I have shown; who also came to be born as man through the virgin Mary, and exists for ever.
For this is He from whom and through whom the Father is about to renew both heaven and earth; this is He who is to shine as an eternal light in Jerusalem; this is He who, according to the order of Melchizedek, is King of Salem and the eternal Priest of the Most High.
That one 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 circumcised us from the stones and the other idols, making heaps of those who from uncircumcision—that is, from the error of the world—were in every place circumcised with knives of stone, the words of Jesus our Lord. For that Christ was proclaimed in parables by the prophets as a stone and a rock, has been demonstrated by me.
And so we shall understand the knives of stone to be His words, by which so many of those who were wandering in uncircumcision were circumcised with the circumcision of the heart—which God, through Jesus, exhorted those also who had received the circumcision that took its origin from Abraham to be circumcised with from that time on; and He said that Jesus circumcised those who entered into that holy land with a second circumcision with knives of stone.