Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

1.

Faustus said: Christ, you say, could not have died, had He not been born. I reply, If He was born, He cannot have been God; or if He could both be God and be born, why could He not both be born and die? Plainly, arguments and necessary consequences are not applicable to those matters, where the question is of the account to be given of Jesus. The answer must be obtained from His own statements, or from the statements of His apostles regarding Him. The genealogy must be examined as regards its consistency with itself, instead of arguing from the supposition of Christ's death to the fact of His birth; for He might have suffered without having been born, or He might have been born, and yet never have suffered; for you yourselves acknowledge that with God nothing is impossible, which is inconsistent with the denial that Christ could have suffered without having been born.

Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

1.

Faustus dixit: Sed non poterat mori, nisi natus esset. p. 738,23 Et ego respondeo: Nec nasci poterat, nisi deus non esset; aut si potuit et deus esse et nasci, quare non et non nasci potuerit et mori? Vides ergo utile satis non esse in his consequentiam quaerere aut argumentis adniti, cum de rebus agitur, quae pertineant ad Iesum, sed quaerendum potius est, quid ipse de se quidve apostoli sui de eodem praedicarint, ipsaque adeo pertractanda genealogia est et videndum, si sibi conveniat, non ex coniectura passionis nativitatis eius exquirere veritatem, quia et pati non natus potuit et natus minime pati, praesertim ipsis vobis fatentibus deo esse impossibile nihil, p. 739,5 quod erit et ipsum falsum, si hoc constiterit non potuisse mori non natum.