Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 27.--Of the Male, Who Was to Lose His Soul If He Was Not Circumcised on the Eighth Day, Because He Had Broken God's Covenant.

When it is said, "The male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people, because he hath broken my covenant," ¹ some may be troubled how that ought to be understood, since it can be no fault of the infant whose life it is said must perish; nor has the covenant of God been broken by him, but by his parents, who have not taken care to circumcise him. But even the infants, not personally in their own life, but according to the common origin of the human race, have all broken God's covenant in that one in whom all have sinned. ² Now there are many things called God's covenants besides those two great ones, the old and the new, which any one who pleases may read and know. For the first covenant, which was made with the first man, is just this: "In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die." ³ Whence it is written in the book called Ecclesiasticus, "All flesh waxeth old as doth a garment. For the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shall die the death." ⁴ Now, as the law was more plainly given afterward, and the apostle says, "Where no law is, there is no prevarication," ⁵ on what supposition is what is said in the psalm true, "I accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators," ⁶ except that all who are held liable for any sin are accused of dealing deceitfully (prevaricating) with some law? If on this account, then, even the infants are, according to the true belief, born in sin, not actual but original, so that we confess they have need of grace for the remission of sins, certainly it must be acknowledged that in the same sense in which they are sinners they are also prevaricators of that law which was given in Paradise, according to the truth of both scriptures, "I accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators," and "Where no law is, there is no prevarication." And thus, be cause circumcision was the sign of regeneration, and the infant, on account of the original sin by which God's covenant was first broken, was not undeservedly to lose his generation unless delivered by regeneration, these divine words are to be understood as if it had been said, Whoever is not born again, that soul shall perish from his people, because he hath broken my covenant, since he also has sinned in Adam with all others. For had He said, Because he hath broken this my covenant, He would have compelled us to understand by it only this of circumcision; but since He has not expressly said what covenant the infant has broken, we are free to understand Him as speaking of that covenant of which the breach can be ascribed to an infant. Yet if any one contends that it is said of nothing else than circumcision, that in it the infant has broken the covenant of God because, he is not circumcised, he must seek some method of explanation by which it may be understood without absurdity (such as this) that he has broken the covenant, because it has been broken in him although not by him. Yet in this case also it is to be observed that the soul of the infant, being guilty of no sin of neglect against itself, would perish unjustly, unless original sin rendered it obnoxious to punishment.

Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXVII: De masculo, qui si octauo die non fuerit circumcisus , perit anima eius, quia testamentum dei dissipauit.

Item potest mouere, quomodo intellegi oporteat quod hic dictum est: masculus, qui non circumcidetur carnem praeputii sui octauo die, interibit anima illa de genere eius, quia testamentum meum dissipauit, cum haec nulla culpa sit paruuli, cuius dixit animam perituram, nec ipse dissipauerit testamentum dei, sed maiores, qui eum circumcidere non curarunt; nisi quia etiam paruuli, non secundum suae uitae proprietatem, sed secundum communem generis humani originem omnes in illo uno testamentum dei dissipauerunt, in quo omnes peccauerunt. multa quippe appellantur testamenta dei exceptis illis duobus magnis, uetere et nouo, quod licet cuique legendo cognoscere. testamentum autem primum, quod factum est ad hominem primum, profecto illud est: qua die ederitis, morte moriemini. unde scriptum est in libro, qui ecclesiasticus appellatur: omnis caro sicut uestis ueterescit. testamentum enim a saeculo: morte morieris. cum enim lex euidentior postea data sit, et dicat apostolus: ubi autem non est lex, nec praeuaricatio, quo pacto in psalmo quod legitur uerum est: praeuaricatores aestimaui omnes peccatores terrae, nisi quia omnes legis alicuius praeuaricatae sunt rei, qui aliquo peccato tenentur obstricti? quamobrem si etiam paruuli, quod uera fides habet, nascuntur non proprie, sed originaliter peccatores, unde illis gratiam remissionis peccatorum necessariam confitemur, profecto eo modo, quo sunt peccatores, etiam praeuaricatores legis illius, quae in paradiso data est, agnoscuntur; ut uerum sit utrumque, quod scriptum est, et: praeuaricatores aestimaui omnes peccatores terrae, et: ubi lex non est, nec praeuaricatio. ac per hoc, quia circumcisio signum regenerationis fuit et non inmerito paruulum propter originale peccatum, quo primum dei dissipatum est testamentum, generatio disperdet, nisi regeneratio liberet, sic intellegenda sunt haec uerba diuina, tamquam dictum sit: qui non fuerit regeneratus, interibit anima illa de genere eius, quia testamentum dei dissipauit, quando in Adam cum omnibus etiam ipse peccauit. si enim dixisset: quia hoc testamentum meum dissipauit, nonnisi de ista circumcisione intellegi cogeret; nunc uero, quoniam non expressit cuiusmodi testamentum paruulus dissipauerit, liberum est intellegere de illo testamento dictum, cuius dissipatio pertinere posset ad paruulum. si autem hoc quisquam nonnisi de ista circumcisione dictum esse contendit, quod in ea testamentum dei, quoniam non est circumcisus, dissipauerit paruulus, quaerat locutionis aliquem modum, quo non absurde possit intellegi, ideo dissipasse testamentum, quia licet non ab illo, tamen in illo est dissipatum. uerum sic quoque animaduertendum est nulla in se neglegentia sua iniuste interire incircumcisi animam paruuli nisi originalis obligatione peccati.