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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

21.

Unde mirabiliter istorum est ridenda vecordia, qui tamquam impossibile a nobis quaerunt, quomodo per Iudaeorum libros fidem christianam velit discere homo gentilis, cum tanta devotione et tanta celebritate omnes gentes istorum librorum fieri discipulas cernat (cernant ?), eo ipso nimirum fortius atque firmius, quod ex manibus inimicorum tanta de Christo testimonia proferuntur; in quibus ideo gentes, quae credunt, nihil de illo ad tempus possunt putare confictum, quia in eis libris inveniunt Christum, quibus a tot saeculis serviunt, qui crucifixerunt Christum et quos in tanto apice auctoritatis habent, qui cotidie blasphemant Christum. p. 463,18 Si enim ab eis proferrentur prophetiae de Christo, qui praedicant Christum, ab eis ipsis confictae putarentur; nunc vero id exponit, qui praedicat, quod recitat, qui blasphemat. Ad aliquem namque usum sanctorum ordinatur omnis caecitas impiorum a summo deo, qui pro sui regiminis aequitate bene utitur etiam malis, ut qui suo arbitrio iniuste vivunt, illius iudicio iuste disponantur. Ergo ne testimonia prophetiae Christi nascituri, mira facturi, indigna passuri, morituri, resurrecturi, ascensuri, per omnes gentes evangelium vitae aeternae disseminaturi illi finxisse crederentur, qui eum populis adnuntiarent, p. 464,1 magnum aliquid actum est in usum nostrum de infidelitate Iudaeorum, ut idem ipsi, qui haec propter se non haberent in cordibus, propter nos haberent in codicibus. Nec inde auctoritas illis libris minuitur, quod a Iudaeis non intelleguntur, immo et augetur; nam et ipsa eorum caecitas ibi praedicta est. Unde magis non intellegendo veritatem perhibent testimonium veritati, quia cum eos libros non intellegunt, a quibus non intellecturi praedicti sunt, etiam hinc eos veraces ostendunt.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

21.

In view of the multitudes from all nations who have become zealous believers in these books, it is laughably absurd to tell us that it is impossible to persuade a Gentile to learn the Christian faith from Jewish books. Indeed, it is a great confirmation of our faith that such important testimony is borne by enemies. The believing Gentiles cannot suppose these testimonies to Christ to be recent forgeries; for they find them in books held sacred for so many ages by those who crucified Christ, and still regarded with the highest veneration by those who every day blaspheme Christ. If the prophecies of Christ were the production of the preachers of Christ, we might suspect their genuineness. But now the preacher expounds the text of the blasphemer. In this way the Most High God orders the blindness of the ungodly for the profit of the saint, in His righteous government bringing good out of evil, that those who by their own choice live wickedly may be, in His just judgment, made the instruments of His will. So, lest those that were to preach Christ to the world should be thought to have forged the prophecies which speak of Christ as to be born, to work miracles, to suffer unjustly, to die, to rise again, to ascend to heaven, to publish the gospel of eternal life among all nations, the unbelief of the Jews has been made of signal benefit to us; so that those who do not receive in their heart for their own good these truths, carry, in their hands for our benefit the writings in which these truths are contained. And the unbelief of the Jews increases rather than lessens the authority of the books, for this blindness is itself foretold. They testify to the truth by their not understanding it. By not understanding the books which predict that they would not understand, they prove these books to be true.