Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

26.

Quis alius in angelo cum Iacob luctatus, cum sibi praevalentem quasi fortiorem infirmior victusque victorem partim benedicit, partim latitudinem femoris eius claudam reddit, nisi qui praevalere adversus se passus populum Israhel quosdam, qui crediderunt, benedixit in eis? Latitudo autem femoris Iacob in multitudine carnalis populi claudicavit. Quis alius lapis positus ad caput Iacob, ut nominatim quodam modo exprimeretur, etiam unctus est nisi caput viri Christus? Quis enim Christum nescit ab unctione appellare? p. 354,16 Qui etiam hoc ipsum in evangelio commemorans et de se figuratum apertissime testificans, cum quendam Nathanahelem dixisset vere Israhelitam, in quo dolus non esset, et cum ille tamquam lapidem illum habens ad caput confessus eum esset filium dei et regem Israhel – ista confessione quodam modo unguens lapidem, id est ipsum esse confitens Christum – ibi oportune dominus etiam illud commemoravit, quod tunc vidit Iacob, qui per benedictionem appellatus est Israhel. Amen dico vobis inquit videbitis caelum apertum et angelos dei ascendentes et descendentes super filium hominis. Hoc enim Israhel viderat, cum illum lapidem ad caput habebat, a terra in caelum scalas, per quas ascendebant et descendebant angeli dei; in quibus significati sunt evangelistae, praedicatores Christi, ascendentes utique, cum ad intellegendam eius supereminentissimam divinitatem excedunt universam creaturam, ut eum inveniant in principio deum apud deum, per quem facta sunt omnia; descendentes autem, ut eum inveniant factum ex muliere, factum sub lege, ut eos, qui sub lege erant, redimeret. p. 355,6 In illo enim scalae a terra usque ad caelum, a carne usque ad spiritum, quia in illo carnales proficiendo velut ascendendo spiritales fiunt; ad quos lacte nutriendos etiam ipsi spiritales descendunt quodam modo, cum eis non possunt loqui quasi spiritalibus, sed quasi carnalibus. Sic et ascenditur et descenditur super filium hominis: Filius enim hominis sursum in capite nostro, quod est ipse salvator, et filius hominis deorsum in corpore suo, quod est ecclesia; ipsum et scalas intellegimus, quia ipse dixit: Ego sum via. Ad ipsum ergo ascenditur, ut in ecclesiis (excelsis?) intellegatur, et ad ipsum descenditur, ut in membris suis parvuli nutriantur, et per illum ascenditur et descenditur. p. 355,18 Exemplum quippe eius sequentes praedicatores eius non solum se erigunt, ut eum sublimiter [ex]spectent, sed etiam humiliant, ut eum temperanter adnuntient. Videte apostolum ascendentem: Sive inquit mente excessimus, deo; videte et descendentem: Sive inquit temperantes sumus, uobis. Dicat et per quem ascenderit et descenderit: Caritas enim inquit Christi compellit nos iudicantes hoc, quoniam unus pro omnibus mortuus est; ergo omnes mortui sunt; et pro omnibus mortuus est, ut qui vivunt, iam non sibi vivant, sed ei, qui pro ipsis mortuus est et resurrexit*.

Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

26.

Who in the angel striving with Jacob, on the one hand is constrained to give him a blessing, as the weaker to the stronger, the conquered to the conqueror, and on the other hand puts his thigh-bone out of joint, but He who, when He suffered the people of Israel to prevail against Him, blessed those among them who believed, while the multitude, like Jacob's thigh-bone, halted in their carnality? Who is the stone placed under Jacob's head, but Christ the head of man? And in its anointing the very name of Christ is expressed, for, as all know, Christ means anointed. Christ refers to this in the Gospel, and declares it to be a type of Himself, when He said of Nathanael that he was an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile, and when Nathanael, resting his head, as it were, on this Stone, or on Christ, confessed Him as the Son of God and the King of Israel anointing the Stone by his confession, in which he acknowledged Jesus to be Christ. On this occasion the Lord made appropriate mention of what Jacob saw in his dream "Verily I say unto you, Ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." ¹ This Jacob saw, who in the blessing was called Israel, when he had the stone for a pillow, and had the vision of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, on which the angels of God were ascending and descending. ² The angels denote the evangelists, or preachers of Christ. They ascend when they rise above the created universe to describe the supreme majesty of the divine nature of Christ as being in the beginning God with God, by whom all things were made. They descend to tell of His being made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law. Christ is the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, or from the carnal to the spiritual: for by His assistance the carnal ascend to spirituality; and the spiritual may be said to descend to nourish the carnal with milk when they cannot speak to them as to spiritual, but as to carnal. ³ There is thus both an ascent and a descent upon the Son of man. For the Son of man is above as our head, being Himself the Saviour; and He is below in His body, the Church. He is the ladder, for He says, "I am the way." We ascend to Him to see Him in heavenly places; we descend to Him for the nourishment of His weak members. And the ascent and descent are by Him as well as to Him. Following His example, those who preach Him not only rise to behold Him exalted, but let themselves down to give a plain announcement of the truth. So the apostle ascends, "Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God;" and descends, "Whether we be sober, it is for your sake." And by whom did he ascend and descend? "For the love of Christ constraineth us: for we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died; and that He died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them, and rose again." ⁴