Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

15.

Quapropter quaeritur quidem inter scrutatores sanctarum scripturarum, utrum tantum profuerit antiquis iustis fides passuri et resurrecturi Christi quam vel revelationibus discebant vel in prophetis intellegebant, quantum nunc prodest fides passi et resuscitati, an ipsa effusio sanguinis agni dei, quae facta est, sicut ipse dicit, pro multis in remissionem peccatorum, aliquid utilitatis et purgationis vel dederit vel addiderit etiam his, qui hoc futurum credentes, antequam fieret, ex hac vita emigraverant, et utrum mors eius ad liberationem etiam mortuos visitaverit. p. 512,15 Sed nunc istam quaestionem vel pertractando discutere vel aliquid in ea repertum etiam confirmando definire et longum est et huic operi non necessarium.

Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

15.

It is a question among the students of the sacred Scriptures, whether the faith in Christ before His passion and resurrection, which the righteous men of old learned by revelation or gathered from prophecy, had the same efficacy as faith has now that Christ has suffered and risen; or whether the actual shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God, which was, as He Himself says, for many for the remission of sins, ¹ conferred any benefit in the way of purifying or adding to the purity of those who looked forward in faith to the death of Christ, but left the world before it took place; whether, in fact, Christ's death reached to the dead, so as to effect their liberation. To discuss this question here, or to prove what has been ascertained on the subject, would take too long, besides being foreign from our present purpose.