Übersetzung ausblenden
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

2.

Augustin replied: How and for what purpose the Old Testament is received by the heirs of the New Testament has been already explained. ¹ But as the remarks of Faustus were then about the promises of the Old Testament, and now he speaks of the precepts, I reply that he displays ignorance of the difference between moral and symbolical precepts. For example, "Thou shalt not covet" is a moral precept; "Thou shalt circumcise every male on the eighth day" is a symbolical precept. From not making this distinction, the Manichaeans, and all who find fault with the writings of the Old Testament, not seeing that whatever observance God appointed for the former dispensation was a shadow of future things, because these observances are now discontinued, condemn them, though no doubt what is unsuitable now was perfectly suitable then as prefiguring the things now revealed. In this they contradict the apostle who says, "All these things happened to them for an example, and they were written for our learning, on whom the end of the world is come." ² The apostle here explains why these writings are to be received, and why it is no longer necessary to continue the symbolical observances. For when he says, "They were written for our learning," he clearly shows that we should be very diligent in reading and in discovering the meaning of the Old Testament Scriptures, and that we should have great veneration for them, since it was for us that they were written. Again, when he says, "They are our examples," and "these things happened to them for an example," he shows that, now that the things themselves are clearly revealed, the observance of the actions by which these things were prefigured is no longer binding. So he says elsewhere, "Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon or of the sabbath-days, which are a shadow of things to come." ³ Here also, when he says, "Let no one judge you" in these things, he shows that we are no longer bound to observe them. And when he says, "which are a shadow of things to come," he explains how these observances were binding at the time when the things fully disclosed to us were symbolized by these shadows of future things.

Edition ausblenden
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

2.

Augustinus respondit: Quemadmodum et quare accipiatur testamentum vetus ab heredibus testamenti novi, iam supra diximus. p. 285,11 Sed quia paulo ante de promissis eius Faustus egit, nunc autem de praeceptis agere voluit, respondeo istos omnino nescire, quid intersit inter praecepta vitae agendae et praecepta vitae significandae. Exempli gratia: Non concupisces praeceptum est agendae vitae; circumcides omnem masculum octavo die praeceptum est significandae vitae.

Ex hac quippe imperitia Manichaei et omnes, quibus displicent litterae veteris testamenti, quicquid deus mandavit priori populo ad celebrandam umbram futurorum non intellegentes et ea modo non observari animadvertentes, ex more praesentis temporis illa reprehendunt, quae utique illi tempori congruebant, quo ista, quae nunc manifestata sunt, ventura significarentur. p. 285,23

Sed quid dicturi sunt adversus apostolum, qui ait: Haec omnia in figura contingebant illis; scripta sunt autem propter nos, in quos finis saeculorum obvenit. ? Ecce ipse aperuit, cur illae litterae accipiantur a nobis et cur illa rerum signa iam necesse non sit ut observentur a nobis! Cum enim dicit: Scripta sunt propter nos, procul dubio demonstrat, quanta nobis cura legenda et intellegenda et quanta auctoritate habenda sint, quia propter nos utique scripta sunt. Cum vero dicit: Figurae nostrae fuerunt et: In figura contingebant illis, ostendit iam non opus esse, ut, cum res ipsas manifestatas agimus, figurarum praenuntiantium celebrationi serviamus. Unde dicit alio loco: Nemo ergo vos iudicet in cibo aut in potu aut in parte diei festi aut neomeniae aut sabbatorum, quod est umbra futurorum. p. 286,9 Hic etiam cum dicit: Nemo vos in eis iudicet, declarat, quam non sit necesse, ut iam haec observentur; cum autem dicit: Quod est umbra futurorum, ostendit, quam oportuerit, ut illo tempore observarentur, quo ista, quae nobis iam manifestata eluxerunt, per tales umbras figurarum futura praedicebantur.