The Epistle to Diognetus 3.4-5

I was once privileged to hear a colleague of mine, who
used to be at Edinburgh University, read a paper on
the pre-Nicene and post-Nicene view of sacrifices
offered to God in the OT. This historian pointed out
that the early church fathers generally tried to
justify the "slaying" of animals for the purpose of
immolation by arguing that God never really wanted
Israelite sacrifices to begin with but was merely
"accommodating" Himself to humanity to teach us that
what He really wanted was the sacrifice of His own
Son. In fact, some fathers seem to have concluded that
Israel was acting out of ignorance when they offered
up sheep, goats and bulls. Their worship, in other
words, was characterized by a certain primitiveness
that did not necessarily please God.

Whether one agrees with the fathers at this point or
not, I find it interesting what The Epistle of
Diognetus has to say about Jewish sacrifices mentioned
in the OT. I'd like to get some feedback on The
Epistle to Diognetus 3.4-5 which reads thus:

"For He that made heaven and earth, and all that is
therein, and gives to us all the things of which we
stand in need, certainly requires none of those things
which He Himself bestows on such as think of
furnishing them to Him. But those who imagine that, by
means of blood, and the smoke of sacrifices and
burnt-offerings, they offer sacrifices [acceptable] to
Him, and that by such honours they show Him
respect,-these, by supposing that they can give
anything to Him who stands in need of nothing, appear
to me in no respect to differ from those who
studiously confer the same honour on things destitute
of sense, and which therefore are unable to enjoy such
honours."

I've discovered that part of the text here is
doubtful. But most textual critics evidently do prefer the reading
above.