"But if some even now wish to live keeping the things ordained through Moses, and yet believe in this crucified Jesus, recognizing that He is the Christ of God and that to Him has been given the judging of all without exception and that His is the eternal kingdom—can they too be saved?" he inquired of me.
And I again said: "Let us also consider this—whether it is now possible to keep all the things ordained through Moses." And he answered: "No; for we know, as you said, that it is not possible to sacrifice the Passover lamb anywhere else, nor to offer the goats commanded at the fast, nor, in a word, all the other offerings." And I said: "Tell me yourself, I pray, which of them it is possible to keep; for you will be persuaded that one can be saved without keeping or having practiced these eternal ordinances." And he said: "I mean keeping the Sabbath, and being circumcised, and observing the monthly periods, and being baptized after touching any of the things forbidden by Moses, or after sexual intercourse."
And I said: "Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Noah and Job, and any others who lived before these or after them, equally righteous—I mean also Sarah the wife of Abraham, and Rebecca the wife of Isaac, and Rachel the wife of Jacob, and Leah, and the rest of such women down to the mother of Moses the faithful servant—who kept none of these things, do they seem to you to be saved?" And Trypho answered: "Was not Abraham circumcised, and those after him?"
And I said: "I know that Abraham and those after him were circumcised; but why circumcision was given to them, I have said in many of the things stated above. And if what is said does not abash you, let us examine the matter again. But that until Moses no righteous man at all kept any of these things concerning which we were inquiring, nor received a commandment to keep them—except that circumcision took its beginning from Abraham—you know." And he said: "We know, and we confess that they are saved."
And I again said: "It was on account of the hardness of heart of your people that you understand God to have enjoined upon you, through Moses, all such commandments—that through these many things you might in every action always have God before your eyes, and not begin to act unrighteously or impiously. For indeed He commanded you to put on a scarlet thread, that through this you might not be overtaken by forgetfulness of God; and a phylactery, in fine membranes upon which certain letters were written—which we hold to be altogether holy—He ordered you to wear about you, and through these things, putting you to shame, that you might always keep remembrance of God, and at the same time have a reproof in your hearts."
"Yet you do not even keep a small remembrance of being godly, and not even so were you persuaded not to commit idolatry; but in the time of Elijah, naming the number of those who had not bowed the knee to Baal, He said they were seven thousand in number, and in Isaiah He reproves you for having even made your children a sacrifice to the idols."
"But we, rather than sacrifice to those to whom we formerly sacrificed, endure the utmost punishments, and being put to death we rejoice, believing that God will raise us up through His Christ and will make us incorruptible and free from suffering and immortal. And we know that the things ordained on account of the hardness of heart of your people contribute nothing to righteous conduct and piety."