that the Jews forbid the flesh of swine, so they declared it lawful and made it the badge of their religion. They saw that the Jews prohibit many kinds of animals and sacrifices, so they permitted everything—from the elephant down to the gnat—and said, “Eat whatever you wish (and leave whatever you wish) (1); there is no sin.” They saw that the Jews face Jerusalem in prayer, so they turned to face the east. They saw that the Jews hold it impossible for God to abrogate a law He has ordained, so they allowed their own bishops (2) and patriarchs to abrogate whatever they pleased, to declare lawful whatever they pleased, and to forbid whatever they pleased. They saw that the Jews venerate the Sabbath and refrain from work on it, so they themselves prohibited Sunday and made the Sabbath permissible—despite admitting that the Messiah used to honor and observe the Sabbath. They saw that the Jews recoil from the cross, for the Torah says, “Cursed is he who is hung on a cross” (3)(4)—a point the Christians themselves acknowledge—so they worshipped the cross.

Likewise, although the Torah explicitly bans pork, they made a devotion of eating it; and although it commands circumcision, they made a devotion of abandoning it—even while conceding that the Messiah said to his companions (5): “I have come only to uphold the Torah and the commandments of the prophets before me; I have not come to abolish but to complete them. For heaven to fall upon the earth is easier in God’s sight than that I should annul (anything of) (6) Moses’ law.” (7)

Thus the Christians proceeded to dismantle it, law after law, in their bid to spite the Jews.