Edition Hide
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

1.

Faustus dixit: Si natus non est Iesus, nec passus est; si autem passus est, ergo et natus est. p.737,27 Non vobis expedit, mihi credite, in his rebus consequentiam quaerere naturae; alioquin infirmabitur omnis vestra fides. Nam et vos Iesum ex virgine natum sine viri coitu creditis et, si ex consequentibus priora probanda sunt, erit hoc falsum. Poterit enim et vobis responderi in hunc modum, quia si natus est ex femina Iesus, ergo et seminatus ex viro est; si vero seminatus ex viro non est, ergo nec natus ex femina est. Potuit autem, ut vos creditis, nasci non satus; quare ergo non potuerit et pati non partus?

Translation Hide
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

1.

Faustus said: If Jesus was not born, He cannot have suffered; but since He did suffer, He must have been born. I advise you not to have recourse to logical inference in these matters, or else your whole faith will be shaken. For, even according to you, Jesus was born miraculously of a virgin; which the argument from consequents to antecedents shows to be false. For your argument might thus be turned against you: If Jesus was born of a woman, He must have been begotten by a man; but He was not begotten by a man, therefore He was not born of a woman. If, as you believe, He could be born without being begotten, why could He not also suffer without being brought forth?