Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

3.

Verumtamen quaero ab eis: si nostra contentio terminatur, cum hoc dixerimus, cur hoc ipsi non dicunt? Cur [hoc] ipsi mortem non veram, sed imaginariam Christi affirmant, nativitatem autem non saltem talem, sed prorsus nullam dicere delegerunt? p. 745,24 Si auctoritatis evangelicae pondere erubuerunt et ideo non ausi sunt Christum non saltem imaginarie passum dicere, nativitatem quoque eius eadem evangelica testatur auctoritas. Etsi enim duo evangelistae ipsum partum Mariae narraverunt, nullus tamen evangelistarum tacuit, quod habuerit matrem Iesus. An ideo piguit etiam hoc praedicare simulatum, quia generationes alias Matthaeus, alias Lucas exequitur, unde videntur non sibi convenire? Sed da hominem, qui non intellegat: putabit etiam in multis, quae ad Christi passionem pertinent evangelistas sibi non convenire; da vero, qui intellegat, et ubique conveniunt. An quia mortem simulare honestum est, nativitatem autem etiam simulare turpe est? p. 746,9 Cur ergo nos hortatur hoc confiteri, quo possit nostra contentio profligari? Unde ergo mihi videtur nativitatem Christi nec saltem sicut mortem simulatam, sed prorsus nullam praedicare voluisse in consequenti sermone apparebit, ubi alteri respondebimus quaestioni.

Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

3.

But if we are to end the controversy by saying this, why do not our opponents themselves say it? While they assert the death of Christ to have been not real but feigned, why do they make out that He had no birth at all, not even of the same kind as His death? If they had so much regard for the authority of the evangelist as to oblige them to admit that Christ suffered, at least in appearance, it is the same authority which testifies to His birth. Two evangelists, indeed, give the story of the birth; ¹ but in all we read of Jesus having a mother. ² Perhaps Faustus was unwilling to make the birth an illusion, because the difference of the genealogies given in Matthew and Luke causes an apparent discrepancy. But, supposing a man ignorant, there are many things also relating to the passion of Christ in which he will think the evangelists disagree; suppose him instructed, he finds entire agreement. Can it be right to feign death, and wrong to feign birth? And yet Faustus will have us acknowledge the birth to be feigned, in order to put an end to the dispute. It will appear presently in our reply to another objection what we think to be the reason why Faustus will not admit of any birth, even a feigned one.