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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

11.

Exigis a me, ut ostendam, quaenam scripserit de Christo Moyses. Iam quidem superius multa demonstrata sunt, sed quis possit omnia demonstrare? Praesertim quia, si quaedam commemorem, paratus videtur iste perversus vel in alium sensum ea conari pervertere uel, si fuerit evidentia clarioris veritatis oppressus, dicere se illa tamquam de mari salso suavem piscem capere nec ideo se ad totam scripturam Moyseos velut ad aquam marinam bibendam cogi oportere. p. 449,18 Quapropter sufficere arbitror huic operi, ut ea ipsa, quae reprehendenda secerpsit de scriptura legis Hebraeorum, ad Christum praedicandum pertinere, si recte intellegantur, ostendam. Ex quo satis appareat multo magis cetera vel statim pronuntiata vel diligenter ac veraciter perscrutata christianae fidei conuenire, si ea, quae deridenda atque damnanda obicit inimicus, eis ipsis convincatur christiana veritate damnandus. p. 449,25 Quapropter, o plene omni fallacia, cum dominus in evangelio dixerit: Si crederetis Moysi, crederetis et mihi; de me enim ille scripsit, nihil est, quod te in ingenti aestu positum fingas et cogi videaris in alterum e duobus, ut aut falsum pronunties capitulum hoc aut mendacem Iesum. Sicut enim hoc capitulum verum est, ita et verax est Iesus. Rectius visum est inquit scriptoribus ascribere falsitatem quam veritatis auctori mendacium. Itane tu Christum credis veritatis auctorem, quem praedicas carnis et mortis et vulnerum et cicatricum simulatorem? Volo mihi ostendas, unde auctorem veritatis didiceris Christum, si eis, qui de illo scripserunt, quorum auctoritas recenti memoria commendata atque firmata in posteros emanavit, audes adscribere falsitatem. Non enim vidisti Christum, aut quemadmodum cum apostolis locutus est tecum, aut de caelo te sicut Saulum vocavit. 450,13 Quid de illo sentire, quid credere possumus, nisi quod scriptum testatur? Porro si mendax est evangelium disseminatum et notum omnibus gentibus et ab initio praedicationis nominis Christi in ecclesiis omnibus in tanto sanctitatis culmine collocatum, quae scriptura proferri potest, cui de Christo fides habenda sit? Quid poteris proferre scriptum, quod non ille, qui hoc non vult credere, dicat esse confictum, si tanta evangelii notitia venit in dubium?

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

11.

You ask me to show what Moses wrote of Christ. Many passages have already been pointed out. But who could point out all? Besides, when any quotation is made, you are ready perversely to try to give the words another meaning; or if the evidence is too strong to be resisted, you will say that you take the passage as a sweet fish out of the salt water, and that you will not therefore consent to drink all the brine of the books of Moses. It will be enough, then, to take those passages in the Hebrew law which Faustus has chosen for criticism, and to show that, when rightly understood, they apply to Christ. For if the things which our adversary ridicules and condemns are made to prove that he himself is condemned by Christian truth, it will be evident that either the mere quotation or the careful examination of the other passages will be enough to show their agreement with Christian faith. Well, then, O thou full of all subtilty, when the Lord in the Gospel says, "If ye believed Moses, ye would believe me also, for he wrote of me," ¹ there is no occasion for the great perplexity you pretend to be in, or for the alternative of either pronouncing this verse spurious or calling Jesus a liar. The verse is as genuine as its words are true. I preferred, says Faustus, to attribute falsehood to the writers, rather than to the Author of truth. What sort of faith can you have in Christ as the author of truth, when your doctrine is that His flesh and His death, His wounds and their marks, were feigned? And where is your authority for saying that Christ is the author of truth, if you dare to attribute falsehood to those who wrote of Him, whose testimony has come down to us with the confirmation of those immediately succeeding them? You have not seen Christ, nor has He conversed with you as with the apostles, nor called you from heaven as He did Saul. What knowledge or belief can we have of Christ, but on the authority of Scripture? Or if there is falsehood in the Gospel which has been widely published among all nations, and has been held in such high sacredness in all churches since the name of Christ was first preached, where shall we find a trustworthy record of Christ? If the Gospel is called in question in spite of the general consent regarding it, there can be no writing which a man may not call spurious if he does not wish to believe it.