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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

7.

Quae quia singula percurrere longum est, unum pro multis ostendam, id est quia christianarum haeresium pars maxima et, quod est in promptu, catholici nihil eorum servare curant, quae Moyses scribit. p. 446,4 Quod ipsum si non de errore descendit aliquo, sed ex vera illa Christi et discipulorum eius traditione, vos omnino fateamini necesse est, contraria invicem sibi Iesum docuisse atque Moysen, idcircoque nec creditum Christum a Iudaeis, quia fidem vellent exhibere Moysi. Quorsum ergo falsum non erit illud Iesum dixisse ad eos: Si crederetis Moysi, crederetis et mihi, cum sit longe manifestum idcirco magis eos non credidisse Iesu, quia Moysi crederent, potuisse autem fidem Christo habere, si Moysi credere destitissent. Tu tamen, ut dixi ubinam Moyses de Christo aliquid scripserit, quaeso nos doceas. <

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

7.

Not to enumerate all the points of difference, it is enough to mention this one fact, that most Christian sects, and, as is well known, the Catholics, pay no regard to what is prescribed in the writings of Moses. If this does not originate in some error, but in the doctrine correctly transmitted from Christ and His disciples, you surely must acknowledge that the teaching of Jesus is opposed to that of Moses, and that the Jews did not believe in Christ on account of their attachment to Moses. How can it be otherwise than false that Jesus said to the Jews, "If ye believed Moses, ye would believe me also," when it is perfectly clear that their belief in Moses prevented them from believing in Jesus, which they might have done if they had left off believing in Moses? Again I ask you to show me anything that Moses wrote of Christ.