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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

5.

Augustin replied: The Catholic, which is also the apostolic, doctrine, is, that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is both the Son of God in His divine nature, and the Son of David after the flesh. This we prove from the writings of the evangelists and apostles, so that no one can reject our proofs without also rejecting these writings. Faustus' plan is to represent some one as saying a few words, without bringing forward any evidence in answer to Faustus' fertile sophistry. But with all his ingenuity, the proofs I have to give will leave Faustus no reply, but that these passages are spurious interpolations in the sacred record,--a reply which serves as a means of escaping, or of trying to escape, the force of the plainest statements in Holy Scripture. We have already in this treatise sufficiently exposed the irrational absurdity, as well as the daring profanity, of such criticism; and not to exceed all limits, we must avoid repetition. It cannot be necessary that we should bring together all the passages scattered throughout Scripture, which show, in answer to Faustus, that in the books of the highest and most sacred authority He who is called the only-begotten Son of God, even God with God, is also called the Son of David, on account of His taking the form of a servant from the Virgin Mary, the wife of Joseph. To instance only Matthew, since Faustus' argument refers to this Gospel, as the whole book cannot be quoted here, let whoever choose read it, and see how Matthew carries on to the passion and the resurrection the narrative of Him whom He calls the Son of David in the introduction to the genealogy. Of this same Son of David he speaks as being conceived and born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost. He also applies to this the declaration of the prophet, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted, God with us." ¹ Again, He who was called, even from the Virgin's womb, God-with-us, is said to have heard, when He was baptized by John, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." ² Will Faustus say that to be called God is less than to be called the Son of God? He seems to think so, for he tries to prove that because this voice came from heaven at the time of the baptism, therefore, according to Matthew, He must then have become the Son of God; whereas the same evangelist, in a previous passage, quotes the sacred announcement made by the prophet, in which the child born of the Virgin is called God-with-us.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

5.

Augustinus respondit: Fides catholica eademque apostolica est dominum nostrum et salvatorem Iesum Christum et filium dei esse secundum divinitatem et filium David secundum carnem. Quod ita probamus ex evangelicis et apostolicis litteris, ut nemo possit contradicere probationibus nostris, nisi qui ipsis litteris contradicit, non sicut sibi Faustus iste proposuit nescio quem pauca verba dixisse et contra eiusdem Fausti versipelles astutias nulla postea testimonia protulisse. Quod ego cum fecero, nihil ei quod respondeat remanebit nisi illud, quo vim manifestissimae veritatis in scripturis sanctis expresse illudere atque evitare conatur, ut falsa illa et divinis codicibus immissa respondeat. p. 710,21 Quam dementiam furiosamque prae-sumptionem et audaciam iam superius in hoc opere, quantum sufficere visum est, refutavi; nec eadem repetere oportet, ut modum sermonis etiam cogitemus. p. 710,24 Quid igitur opus est dispersa per scripturas omnes quaerere atque colligere testimonia, quibus contra istum probemus in libris maximae divinaeque auctoritatis eundem dici filium dei unigenitum semper deum apud deum, qui dicitur etiam filius David propter acceptam formam servi ex virgine Maria coniuge Ioseph? Nunc interim, quia de Matthaeo voluit disputare nec a me totus Matthaei liber huic sermoni inseri potest, legat qui voluerit et videat, quemadmodum Matthaeus eum, quem parentes eius enumeraturus dicit filium David, narrando usque ad passionem resurrectionemque perducat nec alium quam ipsum dicat a virgine Maria de spiritu sancto conceptum et natum. Cui rei adhibet et testimonium de propheta: Ecce virgo accipiet in utero et pariet filium et vocabunt nomen eius Emmanuhel, quod est interpretatum „nobiscum deus“. p. 711,10 Eundemque baptizatum a Iohanne audisse de caelo: Hic est filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi complacui, de quo dictum erat iam ex partu virginis nobiscum deus. Nisi forte visum sit Fausto minus esse, quod dictus est deus quam quod dictus est filius dei. Ex hoc enim conicere conatus est Matthaeo non esse visum, quod filius dei factus sit nisi ex baptismo, quia ibi facta est vox de caelo: Hic est filius meus, cum idem evangelista etiam superius adhibuerit divinum ex propheta testimonium, ubi ipse partus virginis appellatus est nobiscum deus.