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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

28.

Regarding the Sabbath and circumcision, and the distinction in foods, in which you say the teaching of Moses differs from what Christians are taught by Christ, we have already shown that, as the apostle says, "all those things were our examples." ¹ The difference is not in the doctrine, but in the time. There was a time when it was proper that these things should be figuratively predicted; and there is now a different time when it is proper that they should be openly declared and fully accomplished. It is not surprising that the Jews, who understood the Sabbath in a carnal sense, should oppose Christ, who began to open up its spiritual meaning. Reply, if you can, to the apostle, who declares that the rest of the Sabbath was a shadow of something future. ² If the Jews opposed Christ because they did not understand what the true Sabbath is, there is no reason why you should oppose Him, or refuse to learn what true innocence is. For on that occasion when Jesus appears especially to set aside the Sabbath, when His disciples were hungry, and pulled the ears of corn through which they were passing, and ate them, Jesus, in replying to the Jews, declared His disciples to be innocent. "If you knew," He said "what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent." ³ They should rather have pitied the wants of the disciples, for hunger forced them to do what they did. But pulling ears of corn, which is innocence in the teaching of Christ, is murder in the teaching of Manichaeus. Or was it an act of charity in the apostles to pull the ears of corn, that they might in eating set free the members of God, as in your foolish notions? Then it must be cruelty in you not to do the same. Faustus' reason for setting aside the Sabbath is because he knows that God's power is exercised without cessation, and without weariness. It is for those to say this, who believe that all times are the production of an eternal act of God's will. But you will find it difficult to reconcile this with your doctrine, that the rebellion of the race of darkness broke your god's rest, which was also disturbed by a sudden attack of the enemy; or perhaps God never had rest, as he foresaw this from eternity, and could not feel at ease in the prospect of so dire a conflict, with such loss and disaster to his members.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

28.

Nam quicquid dicis de sabbato et de circumcisione carnis et de differentia ciborum aliam fuisse traditionem Moysi, aliud per Christum didicisse christianos, iam supra ostendimus, quia, sicut dicit apostolus, haec omnia figurae nostrae fuerunt. p. 473,9 Non ergo diversa doctrina est, sed diversum tempus. Aliud enim erat, quo haec oportebat per figuratas prophetias praenuntiari, et aliud est, quo haec iam oportet per manifestam veritatem redditamque adimpleri. Sed quid mirum, si Iudaei carnaliter intellegentes sabbatum Christo, qui iam hoc spiritaliter insinuabat, repugnaverunt? Tu apostolo responde, si potes, qui vacationem ipsius diei umbram futuri esse testatur. Sed si illi restiterunt Christo non intellegentes verum sabbatum, vos ei nolite resistere et intellegite veram innocentiam. Nam eo ipso loco, ubi praecipue destructor sabbati putatur Iesus, cum discipuli eius per segetem transeuntes et esurientes vellerent spicas et ederent, innocentes eos dixit respondens Iudaeis: p. 473,21 Si sciretis, quid sit: ‛Misericordiam volo quam sacrificium’, numquam condemnassetis innocentes. Magis enim esurientium misereri debuerunt, quia hoc illi coacti fame fecerunt. A vobis autem quisquis vulserit spicas, non ex traditione Christi, qui hanc innocentiam vocat, sed ex traditione Manichaei homicida deputatur. An forte misericordiam eisdem spicis exhibuerunt apostoli, ut inde membra dei manducando purgarent, sicut vestra fabula est? Vos ergo crudeles, qui hoc non facitis. Sed videlicet novit Faustus destruere sabbatum, quia scit virtutem dei semper atque infatigabiliter operari. Illi hoc dicant, qui intellegunt deum sine temporali voluntate universa tempora facientem. Hoc ad vos multum est, qui dei vestri requiem rebellatione gentis tenebrarum perhibetis excussam et hostium repentino impetu perturbatam. p. 474,7 An ex aeterno praevidens hoc futurum numquam habuit requiem, quia numquam securus fuit, qui se cogitabat tam grave bellum cum tanta membrorum suorum labe damnoque gesturum?