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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

12.

Deinde subiungis ipsum te audisse dicentem fures fuisse et latrones omnes, qui venerunt ante se. Unde illum audisti hoc dicentem nisi ex evangelio? At si hoc, quod ita credis ex evangelio, ut tamquam ex ore domini audisse te dicas, alius falsum esse contendat atque hoc dixisse Christum neget, quo ibis? Quid facies? p. 450,26 Nonne evangelicam auctoritatem quantis potueris viribus praedicabis? Miser, illic scriptum est, quod non vis credere, ubi didicisti quod ita credis, ut hoc te ab ipso Christo dicas audisse. Ecce nos utrumque credimus, quia evangelio sancto credimus, ubi utrumque scriptum est, et de Christo scripsisse Moysen et omnes, qui ante Christum venerunt, fures fuisse et latrones. Venisse quippe ita vult intellegi, quia missi non sunt; nam qui missi sunt, sicut Moyses et sancti prophetae, non ante ipsum, sed cum ipso venerunt, quia non eum per superbiam praecedere voluerunt, sed eum per ipsos loquentem humiliter portaverunt. Vos autem, qui haec verba domini sic intellegitis, secundum vestrum intellectum satis confitemini nullos vos habere prophetas, qui venturum Christum prophetaverunt, et ideo vobis eum sicut voluistis ita finxistis. p. 451,12 Nam si aliqui sunt vestri, quibus quidem propterea fides habenda non est, quia nonnisi a vobis proferuntur, tamen si aliqui sunt, quos dicere audeatis prophetasse Christum falsa carne venturum, falsa morte passurum, falsas cicatrices dubitantibus discipulis oblaturum, non dico ex hoc ipso, quam sint detestandi atque fugiendi, quamque non possint esse veraces, quibus de mendacio Christus placet: ut hoc non dicam, certe, ut dicere coeperam, secundum istum intellectum vestrum fures fuerunt et latrones, quoniam ante Christum venerunt, qui eum venturum quoquo modo praedicaverunt. Porro si ille intellectus est verus, ut ipsi ante Christum venisse dicantur, qui cum Christo, id est cum verbo dei venire noluerunt, sed cum eos non miserit deus, mendacia sua hominibus attulerunt, p. 451,25 vos quoque ipsi, quamvis post Christi passionem et resurrectionem in hoc mundo nati fueritis, fures et latrones estis, quia, priusquam vos ipse illuminaret, ut veritatem ipsius praedicaretis, eum antevenire voluistis, ut vestram fallaciam iactaretis.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

12.

You go on to quote Christ's words, that all who came before Him were thieves and robbers. How do you know that these were Christ's words, but from the Gospel? You profess faith in these words, as if you had heard them from the mouth of the Lord Himself. But if any one declares the verse to be spurious, and denies that Christ said this, you will have, in reply, to exert yourself in vindication of the authority of the Gospel. Unhappy being! what you refuse to believe is written in the same place as that which you quote as spoken by the Lord Himself. We believe both, for we believe the sacred narrative in which both are contained. We believe both that Moses wrote of Christ, and that all that came before Christ were thieves and robbers. By their coming He means their not being sent. Those who were sent, as Moses and the holy prophets, came not before Him, but with Him. They did not proudly wish to precede Him, but were the humble bearers of the message which He uttered by them. According to the meaning which you give to the Lord's words, it is plain that with you there can be no prophets. And so you have made a Christ for yourselves who should prophesy a Christ to come. If you have any prophets of your own, they will have, of course, no authority, as not being recognized by any others; but if there are any that you dare to quote as prophesying that Christ would come in an unreal body, and would suffer an unreal death, and would show to His doubting disciples unreal marks of wounds, not to speak of the abominable nature of such prophecies, and of the evident untruthfulness of those who commend falsehood in Christ, by your own interpretation those prophets must have been thieves and robbers, for they could not have spoken of Christ as coming in any manner unless they had come before Him. If by those who came before Christ we understand those who would not come with Him,--that is, with the Word of God,--but without being sent by God brought their own falsehoods to men, you yourselves, although you are born in this world after the death and the resurrection of Christ, are thieves and robbers. For, without waiting for His illumination that you might preach His truth, you have come before Him to preach up your own deceits.