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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

22.

Neque enim, sicut Faustus dixit, priores nostri Iudaei segregati a gentibus, cum templum haberent et immolationes et aras et sacerdotia, sculpturas solum dimiserunt, id est idola; poterant enim sicut nonnulli etiam sine idolorum sculpturis arboribus et montibus, postremo etiam soli ac lunae ceterisque sideribus immolare. p. 565,9 Quod si facerent per illum cultum, quae latria dicitur, creaturae potius quam creatori servientibus et ob hoc non parvo malo impiae superstitionis errantibus nihilominus daemonia se praeberent ad eos illudendos et ab eis sumenda, quae sic obtulissent. Illi quippe superbi et impii spiritus non nidore ac fumo, sicut nonnulli vani opinantur, sed hominum pascuntur erroribus, non sui corporis refectione sed malivola delectatione, cum quoquo modo decipiunt, vel arroganti fastu simulatae maiestatis, cum divinos sibi honores exhiberi gloriantur. Non ergo illi patres nostri sola gentium simulacra dimiserunt, sed neque terrae neque cuiquam terrenae rei neque mari neque caelo neque militiae caeli aliquid immolantes uni deo creatori omnium victimas obtulerunt; p. 565,22 quas sibi offerri voluit, per earum similitudinem promittens victimam veram, per quam nos sibi peccatorum remissione reconciliavit in Christo Iesu domino nostro, cuius capitis corpus effectos fideles Paulus alloquitur dicens: Obsecro autem vos, fratres, per misericordiam dei, ut exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam vivam, sanctam, deo placentem. Sed Manichaei corpora humana opificium dicunt esse gentis tenebrarum et carceres, quibus victus inclusus est deus. Unde longe aliud adnuntiat Faustus, aliud Paulus. Sed quoniam quisquis vobis evangelizaverit praeterquam quod accepistis, anathema sit, verum dicit Christus in Paulo, anathema sit Manichaeus in Fausto. p. 566,5

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

22.

Faustus is wrong in saying that our Jewish forefathers, in their separation from the Gentiles, retained the temple, and sacrifices, and altars, and priesthood, and abandoned only graven images or idols, for they might have sacrificed, as some do, without any graven image, to trees and mountains, or even to the sun and moon and the stars. If they had thus rendered to these objects the worship called latria, they would have served the creature instead of the Creator, and so would have fallen into the serious error of heathenish superstition; and even without idols, they would have found devils ready to take advantage of their error, and to accept their offerings. For these proud and wicked spirits feed not, as some foolishly suppose, on the smell of the sacrifice, and the smoke, but on the errors of men. They enjoy not bodily refreshment, but a malevolent gratification, when they in any way deceive people, or when, with a bold assumption of borrowed majesty, they boast of receiving divine honors. It was not, therefore, only the idols of the Gentiles that our Jewish forefathers abandoned. They sacrificed neither to the earth nor to any earthly thing, nor to the sea, nor to heaven, nor to the hosts of heaven, but laid the victims on the altar of the one God, Creator of all, who required these offerings as a means of foreshadowing the true victim, by whom He has reconciled us to Himself in the remission of sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul, addressing believers, who are made the body of which Christ is the Head, says: "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God." ¹ The Manichaeans, on the other hand, say that human bodies are the workmanship of the race of darkness, and the prison in which the captive deity is confined. Thus Faustus' doctrine is very different from Paul's. But since whosover preaches to you another gospel than that ye have received must be accursed, what Christ says in Paul is the truth, while Manichaeus in Faustus is accursed.