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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

45.

Nos tamen scripturas sanctas, non hominum peccata defendimus, sic autem de huius facti purgatione satagimus, quasi hoc deus noster aut fieri iusserit aut factum approbaverit aut ita iusti homines in illis libris appellentur, ut si voluerint peccare, non possint. Cum ergo in litteris, quas isti reprehendunt, deus huic facto nullum iustitiae testimonium perhibuerit, qua dementia temeritatis hinc illas litteras accusare contendunt, cum aliis earum locis apertissime inveniantur divinis praeceptis ista prohiberi? Unde in illa re gesta de opere filiarum Loth narrata ista sunt, non laudata. p. 637,11 Quaedam vero enuntiato iudicio dei, quaedam tacito narrari oportuit, ut quando promitur, quid inde iudicaverit deus, instruatur nostra imperitia; quando autem tacetur, vel exerceatur peritia, ut, quod alibi didicimus, recolamus, vel excutiatur pigritia, ut, quod nondum novimus, inquiramus. Deus ergo, qui novit et de hominum opere malo facere opera bona, gentes, quas voluit, ex illo semine propagavit, non scripturas suas propter hominum peccata damnavit. Prodidit quippe ista, non fecit, et cavenda admonuit, non proposuit imitanda.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

45.

But we are defending the sacred Scriptures, not man's sins. Nor are we concerned to justify this action, as if our God had either commanded it or approved of it; or as if, when men are called just in Scripture, it meant that they could not sin if they chose. And as, in the books which those critics find fault with, God nowhere expresses approval of this action, what thoughtless folly it is to bring a charge from this narrative against these writings, when in other places such actions are condemned by express prohibitions! In the story of Lot's daughters the action is related, not commended. And it is proper that the judgment of God should be declared in some cases, and concealed in others, that by its manifestation our ignorance may be enlightened, and that by its concealment our minds may be improved by the exercise of recalling what we already know, or our indolence stimulated to seek for an explanation. Here, then, God, who can bring good out of evil, made nations arise from this origin, as He saw good, but did not bring upon His own Scriptures the guilt of man's sin. It is God's writing, but not His doing; He does not propose these things for our imitation, but holds them up for our warning.