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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

1.

Faustus dixit: Omnia munda mundis, immundis autem et coinquinatis nihil mundum; sed inquinata sunt eorum et mens et conscientia. Hoc quoque ipsum, utrum vobis expediat a Paulo dictum credere, considerandum est. Hactenus enim non tantum daemoniis exagitatos constabit (v.l.) Moysen et prophetas, cum tantas de ciborum differentiis tulerint leges, sed etiam quod immundi ipsi fuerint et coinquinati mente atque conscientia sua, ut congrue in ipsos et illud cadere possit, quod sequitur : Deum se scire profitentur, operibus autem negant. p. 756,11 Cui autem hoc magis competit quam prophetis atque Moysi, qui longe aliter vixisse probantur quam dei cognitoribus congruebat. Ego tamen nunc usque praeter adulteria et fraudes et homicidia nihil aliud esse putaveram, unde conscientias pollutas habuisse viderentur Moyses et prophetae; nunc autem hoc demonstrante capitulo scire iam datur etiam hinc eos inquinatae mentis fuisse, quia aliquid putaverint inquinatum. p. 756,18 Quorsum ergo talibus etiam nunc vos visionem divinae maiestatis contingere potuisse arbitramini, cum sit scriptum nisi eos, qui corde puri fuerint, deum videre non posse? At vero hi etiam si casti ab illicitis facinoribus exstitissent, sola tamen haec abstinendi a quibusdam escis superstitio, si mentem contaminat, divinitatis eis potuit negasse conspectum. Evanuit ergo iam atque exstincta simul est Danihelis quoque illa ac trium puerorum gloriatio, qui et ipsi usque ad hanc praedicationem, quae censet nihil immundum, castissimi plane ac bonae mentis iuvenes habiti sunt in Iudaismo, quia scilicet paternarum memores traditionum a gentium dapibus et maxime immolatis omni cum studio se conservaverint illibatos. p. 757,5 Nunc enim demum apparuit et ipsos contaminatos fuisse mentibus et conscientia tum maxime, cum os a sanguine et cibis feralibus abstinebant.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

1.

Faustus said: "To the pure all things are pure. But to the impure and defiled is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled." As regards this verse, too, it is very doubtful whether, for your own sake, you should believe it to have been written by Paul. For it would follow that Moses and the prophets were not only influenced by devils in making so much in their laws of the distinctions in food, but also that they themselves were impure and defiled in their mind and conscience, so that the following words also might properly be applied to them: "They profess to know God, but in works deny Him." ¹ This is applicable to no one more than to Moses and the prophets, who are known to have lived very differently from what was becoming in men knowing God. Up to this time I have thought only of adulteries and frauds and murders as defiling the conscience of Moses and the prophets; but now, from what this verse says, it is plain that they were also defiled, because they looked upon something as defiled. How, then, can you persist in thinking that the vision of the divine majesty can have been bestowed on such men, when it is written that only the pure in heart can see God? Even supposing that they had been pure from unlawful crimes, this superstitious abstinence from certain kinds of food, if it defiles the mind, is enough to debar them from the sight of deity. Gone for ever, too, is the boast of Daniel, and of the three youths, who, till now that we are told that nothing is unclean, have been regarded among the Jews as persons of great purity and excellence of character, because, in observance of hereditary customs, they carefully avoided defiling themselves with Gentile food, especially that of sacrifices. ² Now it appears that they were defiled in mind and conscience most of all when they were closing their mouth against blood and idol-feasts.