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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

84.

In Thamar ergo nuru Iudae intellegitur plebs regni Iudaeorum, cui de tribu Iuda reges tamquam mariti adhibebantur. Merito nomen eius amaritudo interpretatur; ipsa enim domino fellis poculum dedit. Duo autem genera principum, qui non recte operabantur in plebe, unum eorum, qui oberant, alterum eorum, qui nihil proderant, significantur in duobus filiis Iudae, quorum unus erat malignus vel saevus ante dominum, alter in terram fundebat, ne semen daret ad fecundandam Thamar. p. 687,9 Nec sunt amplius quam duo genera hominum inutilia generi humano: unum nocentium, alterum praestare nolentium et, si quid boni habent in hac terrena vita, perdentium tamquam in terram fundentium. Et quoniam in malo prior est, qui nocet, quam ille, qui non prodest, ideo maior dicitur malignus ille et sequens, qui fundebat in terram. Nomen quoque maioris, qui vocabatur Er, interpretatur pellicius, qualibus tunicis induti sunt primi homines in poenam damnationis suae dimissi ex paradiso; sequentis autem nomen, qui vocabatur Aunan, interpretatur maeror eorum. Quorum, nisi quibus nihil prodest, cum habeat, unde prodesse possit atque id perdat in terra? p. 687,20 Maius porro malum est ablatae vitae, quod significat pellis, quam non adiutae, quod significat maeror eorum. Deus tamen ambos occidisse dictus est, ubi figuratur regnum talibus hominibus abstulisse. Tertius vero filius Iudae, quod illi mulieri non iungitur, significat tempus, ex quo reges plebi Iudaeorum coeperunt de tribu Iuda non fieri. Et ideo erat quidem filius Iudae, sed eum maritum Thamar non accipiebat, quia erat eadem tribus Iuda, sed iam populo inde nemo regnabat. Unde et nomen eius, id est Selo, interpretatur dimissio eius. Non pertinent sane ad hanc significationem viri sancti et iusti, qui licet illo tempore fuerint, ad novum tamen pertinent testamentum, cui prophetando scienter utiles fuerunt, qualis David fuit. p. 688,8 Eo sane tempore, quo iam Iudaea coeperat reges ex tribu Iuda non habere, non est computandus Herodes maior in regibus eius tamquam maritus Thamar; erat enim alienigena nec ei sacramento illo mysticae unctionis tamquam coniugali foedere cohaerebat, sed tamquam extraneus dominabatur, quam potestatem a Romanis et a Caesare acceperat. Sic et eius filii tetrachae, quorum erat unus Herodes patris nomine appellatus, qui cum Pilato in passione domini concordavit. Isti ergo alienigenae usque adeo non deputabantur in regno illo mystico Iudaeorum, ut ipsi Iudaei publice clamarent frendentes adversus Christum: Nos non habemus regem nisi Caesarem. Neque hoc verum nisi illa universali dominatione Romanorum; quippe etiam Caesar rex erat non proprie Iudaeorum; sed ut Christum negarent et hunc adularent, ideo se tali voce damnarunt. p. 688,23

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

84.

In Tamar, then, the daughter-in-law of Judah, we see the people of the kingdom of Judah, whose kings, answering to Tamar's husbands, were taken from this tribe. Tamar means bitterness; and the meaning is suitable, for this people gave the cup of gall to the Lord. ¹ The two sons of Judah represent two classes of kings who governed ill--those who did harm and those who did no good. One of these sons was evil or cruel before the Lord; the other spilled the seed on the ground that Tamar might not become a mother. There are only those two kinds of useless people in the world--the injurious and those who will not give the good they have but lose it or spill it on the ground. And as injury is worse than not doing good, the evil-doer is called the elder and the other the younger. Er, the name of the elder, means a preparer of skins, which were the coats given to our first parents when they were punished with expulsion from paradise. ² Onan, the name of the younger, means, their grief; that is, the grief of those to whom he does no good, wasting the good he has on the earth. The loss of life implied in the name of the elder is a greater evil than the want of help implied in the name of the younger. Both being killed by God typifies the removal of the kingdom from men of this character. The meaning of the third son of Judah not being joined to the woman, is that for a time the kings of Judah were not of that tribe. So this third son did not become the husband of Tamar; as Tamar represents the tribe of Judah, which continued to exist, although the people received no king from it. Hence the name of this son, Selom, means, his dismission. None of those types apply to the holy and righteous men who, like David, though they lived in those times, belong properly to the New Testament, which they served by their enlightened predictions. Again, in the time when Judah ceased to have a king of its own tribe, the elder Herod does not count as one of the kings typified by the husbands of Tamar; for he was a foreigner, and his union with the people was never consecrated with the holy oil. His was the power of a stranger, given him by the Romans and by Caesar. And it was the same with his sons, the tetrarchs, one of whom, called Herod, like his father, agreed with Pilate at the time of the Lord's passion. ³ So plainly were these foreigners considered as distinct from the sacred monarchy of Judah, that the Jews themselves, when raging against Christ, exclaimed openly, "We have no king but Caesar." ⁴ Nor was Caesar properly their king, except in the sense that all the world was subject to Rome. The Jews thus condemned themselves, only to express their rejection of Christ, and to flatter Caesar.