Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

2.

Sed esto, licuerit in praeteritum errasse. Quid nunc tandem? Placetne ire sub legem, si eam Christus non tam solvit sed adimplevit? Placet circumcidi, id est pudendis insignire pudenda et deum credere sacramentis talibus delectari? Placet suscipere sabbatorum otium et Saturniacis manus insertare catenis? Placet in ingluviem Iudaeorum daemonis –neque enim dei – nunc tauros, nunc arietes, nunc etiam hircos, ut non et homines dicam, cultris sternere, ac propter quod idola simus exosi, id nunc exercere crudelius sub prophetis ac lege? p. 491,10 Placet denique feralium ciborum quaedam existimare munda, quaedam in immundis et contaminatis habere, ex quibus inquinatiorem porcinam lex asserunt et prophetae? Negabis profecto horum quicquam faciendum nobis volentibus perseverare esse, quod sumus, quoniam quidem Christum dicentem audias dupliciter filium gehennae fieri eum, qui fuerit circumcisus, sabbatum vero nec ipsum servasse videas nec usquam mandasse servandum, de cibis item ipsum asseverantem audias nullo eorum inquinari hominem, quae in os ingrediuntur, sed ea potius, quae de ore procedunt, polluere, p. 491,19 de sacrificiis item frequentem ipsius esse sermonem deum misericordiam velle, non sacrificium. Haec igitur si ita sunt, ubi illud erit non eum venisse solvere legem et prophetas, sed adimplere? Quod si dixit, aut aliud significans dixit aut, quod absit, mentiens dixit aut omnino non dixit. Sed Iesum quidem mentitum esse nullus dicat dumtaxat christianus; ac per hoc aut aliter dictum est aut omnino nec dictum.

Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

2.

But grant that we have been in the wrong hitherto. What is to be done now? Shall we come under the law, since Christ has not destroyed, but fulfilled it? Shall we by circumcision add shame to shame, and believe that God is pleased with such sacraments? Shall we observe the rest of the Sabbath, and bind ourselves in the fetters of Saturn? Shall we glut the demon of the Jews, for he is not God, with the slaughter of bulls, rams, and goats, not to say of men; and adopt, only with greater cruelty, in obedience to the law and the prophets, the practices on account of which we abandoned idolatry? Shall we, in fine, call the flesh of some animals clean, and that of others unclean, among which, according to the law and the prophets, swine's flesh has a particular defilement? Of course you will allow that as Christians we must not do any of these things, for you remember that Christ says that a man when circumcised becomes twofold a child of hell. ¹ It is plain also that Christ neither observed the Sabbath himself, nor commanded it to be observed. And regarding foods, he says expressly that man is not defiled by anything that goes into his mouth, but rather by the things which come out of it. ² Regarding sacrifices, too, he often says that God desires mercy, and not sacrifice. ³ What becomes, then, of the statement that he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it? If Christ said this, he must have meant something else, or, what is not to be thought of, he told a lie, or he never said it. No Christian will allow that Jesus spoke falsely; therefore he must either not have said this, or said it with another meaning.