The Jews then evaded this question, began to talk about something else, and said:

- Whoever kept the law of Moses pleased God. Therefore, we, too, by observing it, hope to be pleasing to God. But you hold fast to the new law, which you have invented for yourselves, and you despise the old law.

"By adopting the new law," replied the philosopher, "we did well. For even Abraham, if he had not accepted circumcision, but only fulfilled the covenant of Noah, would not have called himself a friend of God. Likewise, Moses, after Abraham, not being satisfied with the laws previously given to Noah and Abraham, wrote a new law. We are following their example.

We shun only everything that is not written on the Mosaic tablets, for example: circumcision, sacrifice of the dumb and the like. They were only a shadow and likeness of the new law that was to come, and therefore with its coming they had to be abandoned. What need is there to keep a shadow when we have the thing itself in our hands?

"If what you say about the old testament," the Jews objected, "the statutes and covenants, except for the tablets of Moses, were only a shadow and likeness of your new covenant, then the ancient legislators would have known this and would have spoken about your new law, which will be in the future time. After all, shadow and likeness should depict the thing that is expected to be seen with the eyes. Your law was not expected by the legislators, and therefore all the Old Testament statutes and covenants, like the Mosaic tablets, are not shadow and likeness, but the very truth (thing), which you, like what is written on the Mosaic tablets, must be preserved as truth.

Against this, the philosopher replied as follows:

- If the ancient lawgivers who were in the Old Testament did not know that according to their law a new law would come, then I would ask you: when God first gave Noah the covenant of which we spoke earlier, did He then declare to him that He would give another law after it to His saint Abraham? Of course not, but He confirmed the first covenant to exist in eternal generations. Did he also announce to Abraham, when he gave him a covenant, that he would later give another law to Moses? As for our new covenant, He proclaimed in detail through His holy prophets. So listen to Jeremiah saying, "Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not such a covenant as I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. that covenant of mine they have broken, though I have remained in union with them, saith the Lord" (Jeremiah 31:3132). You see the well-known prophecy about our new covenant. Likewise, the prophet Isaiah foretold about the new covenant in the presence of the Lord, saying: "But you do not remember the former things, neither do you think of the old things. I create new things, but now they shall appear" (Isaiah 43:1819). Thus, the ancient legislators knew about the newly-graced law, waited for it and prophesied about it. Therefore, your Old Testament decrees and covenants are a shadow and likeness of our expected law, and not the truth itself, and therefore they must be discarded as unnecessary.

"Every Jew acknowledges as truth that there will be a new law," said the Jews, "but the time has not yet come for the Anointed One to appear.

"What are you waiting for?" answered Constantine. - Has not the power of your kingdom and principality, which, according to the prophecy of the forefather Jacob, should exist only until the coming of Christ the Messiah, ceased, has not Jerusalem been destroyed, have not the sacrifices been rejected, has not the glory of the Lord been transferred from you to the Gentiles, as the prophet Malachi clearly prophesied, saying: "I have no favor with you, saith the Lord Almighty, neither will I accept sacrifices from your hands? For in the east of the sun and unto the west my name shall be great, and in every place they shall offer incense to my name, a pure sacrifice; great shall be my name among the nations, saith the Lord Almighty" (Mal. 1:1011).

"We understand this passage," the Jews answered, "that the Gentiles will be blessed through us, as we, the seed of Abraham, are blessed, will be circumcised in the city of Jerusalem.

"Through Whom the seed of Abraham is blessed," answered Constantine, "through Him also we, namely through the Messiah, who came from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesse, and David. For God said to Abraham: "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3), and to Isaac: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 26:4), and the same to Jacob (Gen. 28:14); And David says, "In him the nations shall be blessed; all nations delight him" (Psalm 71:17). And that the Messiah had to come both for the sake of the tribe of Abraham and for the salvation of the Gentiles, Jacob, blessing Judah, once said thus: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from his loins, until the Mediator comes, and to him the obedience of the nations" (Gen. 49:10). And the prophet Zechariah, announcing to the daughter of Zion, Jerusalem, the coming of the meek King, sitting on the donkey and the colt, says: "Then will I destroy the chariots of Ephraim, and the horses of Jerusalem, and the bow of war shall be broken, and he shall proclaim peace to the nations" (Zech. 9:10). You see, not only for the sake of you, Jews, but also for the sake of the Gentiles, the Messiah had to come. It seems to me that He came more for the sake of the Gentiles than for your sake, for you did not receive Him, but the Gentiles received Him, you killed Him, but the Gentiles believed in Him, you rejected Him, and the Gentiles loved Him; therefore he also rejected you, but called the Gentiles, and is glorified in them. And that the truly awaited Messiah has already come, you can be convinced of this through the holy prophet Daniel [39]. To this prophet in Babylon, in the first year of the reign of Darius, the angel of the Lord Gabriel appeared and from that time until the coming of the Messiah into the world appointed 7 weeks. Each week contains 70 years, and all 490 years. So does your Talmud. How long have these years passed? If you look at it, you will find that more than 800 years have passed since the weeks spoken to Daniel were fulfilled (Dan. 2).

"I will ask you also," said Constantine, "what do you think was the kingdom of iron, of which Daniel spoke to Nebuchadnezzar when he explained to him the dream of the great image?"

"The iron kingdom meant the Roman kingdom," the Jews answered.

"And who," the philosopher asked, "does the stone mean that was torn from the mountain without human hands and crushed this image?"