But you ought to believe Zechariah, who in a parable shows the mystery of Christ and proclaims it in a hidden way. And these are the things said: 'Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall be to me for a people; and I will dwell in the midst of you, and they shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.'
'And the Lord shall inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. Let all flesh be reverent before the face of the Lord, for He is roused up out of His holy clouds. And He showed me Jesus the great priest, standing before the face of the angel of the Lord; and the devil stood at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to the devil: The Lord rebuke you, He who has chosen Jerusalem. Behold, is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?'
And when Trypho was about to answer and contradict me, I said: First wait and hear what I say. For I am not going to make the interpretation you suppose, as though there had been no priest named Jesus in the land of Babylon, where your people were captive. For even if I were doing so, I have shown that there was indeed a Jesus, a priest in your race; but it was not this man himself that the prophet saw in his revelation, just as he did not see the devil and the angel of the Lord by direct sight, being in his right mind, but in an ecstasy, a revelation having been made to him.
But now I say that, just as he declared that, through the name of Jesus given to the son of Nun, certain powers and deeds were wrought that proclaimed beforehand the things to be done by our Lord, so also I now come to show that the revelation made in the case of Jesus the priest who was among your people in Babylon was a foretelling of the things to be done by our Priest and God and Christ, the Son of the Father of all things.
Indeed I was wondering, I said, why a little while ago you kept silence while I was speaking, and how it was you did not take me up when I said that the son of Nun, alone of those of like age who came out of Egypt, entered into the holy land, together with those of that generation who are recorded as being under age. For like flies you run to and flit about the sores.
For though one should say countless good things well, if there be but one little point of any kind that is not pleasing to you, or not understood, or not exact, you take no heed of the many good things, but lay hold of the little phrase and zealously try to make it out to be an impiety and a wrong—so that, being judged by the same equal judgement by God, you may give account much more for your great presumptions, whether of evil deeds or of base interpretations which you give by perverting them. For with what judgement you judge, it is just that you be judged.