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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

8.

Prophetias autem sic adimplevit, cum in eo veritas facta est promissio dei. Hoc paulo ante ex apostolo commemoravi dicente: Quotquot enim promissiones dei, in illo etiam. Idem rursus dicit: Dico enim Christum ministrum fuisse circumcisionis propter veritatem dei ad confirmandas promissiones patrum. Quod ergo in prophetis sive aperte sive per figuras vel locutionum vel actionum promittebatur, in illo adimpletum est, qui non venit solvere legem et prophetas, sed adimplere. Hoc autem vos non intellegitis, quia, si quaedam facta et celebrationes, quae figurae erant ventura praenuntiantes, adhuc a christianis fierent, nihil significaretur nisi nondum venisse, quae tum illis figuris praenuntiabantur. p. 506,4 Quod enim adhuc venturum praenuntiatur, aut nondum venit, aut si iam venit, superfluo vel fallaciter praenuntiatur. Quapropter unde vobis videtur Christus non implesse prophetas, quia non fiunt a christianis quaedam, quae per prophetas, ab Hebraeis ut fierent, instituta sunt, inde potius probatur implesse. Usque adeo enim quicquid per eiusmodi figuras prophetabatur, impletum est, ut iam per illas non prophetetur. Ad hoc pertinet etiam, quod ipse dominus ait: Lex et prophetae usque ad Iohannem. Lex enim, quae praevaricatores abundanti reatu concludebat in eam fidem, quae postea revelata est, gratia facta est per Iesum Christum, per quem superabundavit gratia; ac per hoc impleta est per gratiam liberantem, quae non implebatur per litteram iubentem. p. 506,16 Item in ipsa lege universa prophetia, quae non tantum verbis, sed etiam quarundam actionum figuris salvatoris promittebat adventum, veritas facta est per Iesum Christum. Lex enim per Moysen data est; gratia autem et veritas per Iesum Christum facta est. Ex cuius adventu iam regnum dei coepit adnuntiari, quia et lex et prophetae usque ad Iohannem, lex, ut reos faceret, qui desiderarent salutem, prophetae, ut promitterent salvatorem. Ceterum prophetas alios exstitisse iam in ecclesia post ascensionem Christi quis nesciat? De quibus Paulus dicit: Et quosdam constituit in ecclesia, primum apostolos, deinde prophetas, tertio doctores et cetera. Non itaque de illis dictum est: Lex et prophetae usque ad Iohannem, sed de iis, qui primum Christi adventum prophetaverunt; qui adventus impletus non utique adhuc posset prophetari. p. 507,5

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

8.

Christ also fulfilled the prophecies, because the promises of God were made good in Him. As the apostle says in the verse quoted above, "The promises of God are in Him yea." Again, he says: "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." ¹ Whatever, then, was promised in the prophets, whether expressly or in figure, whether by words or by actions, was fulfilled in Him who came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. You do not perceive that if Christians were to continue in the use of acts and observances by which things to come were prefigured, the only meaning would be that the things prefigured had not yet come. Either the thing prefigured has not come, or if it has, the figure becomes superfluous or misleading. Therefore, if Christians do not practise some things enjoined in the Hebrews by the prophets, this, so far from showing, as you think, that Christ did not fulfill the prophets, rather shows that He did. So completely did Christ fulfill what these types prefigured, that it is no longer prefigured. So the Lord Himself says: "The law and the prophets were until John." ² For the law which shut up transgressors in increased guilt, and to the faith which was afterwards revealed, became grace through Jesus Christ, by whom grace superabounded. Thus the law, which was not fulfilled in the requirement of the letter, was fulfilled in the liberty of grace. In the same way, everything in the law that was prophetic of the Saviour's advent, whether in words or in typical actions, became truth in Jesus Christ. For "the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." ³ At Christ's advent the kingdom of God began to be preached; for the law and the prophets were until John: the law, that its transgressors might desire salvation; the prophets, that they might foretell the Saviour. No doubt there have been prophets in the Church since the ascension of Christ. Of these prophets Paul says: "God hath set some in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers," and so on. ⁴ It is not of these prophets that it was said, "The law and the prophets were until John," but of those who prophesied the first coming of Christ, which evidently cannot be prophesied now that it has taken place.