Edition Hide
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

5.

Equidem ego quantum arbitror, quatenus id iam persuasum esse voluistis, ut sit ex deo etiam testamentum vetus, commodius satis atque excusatius vobis est non servantibus eius mandata, si fateamini incongruis esse adiectionibus vitiatum, quam si inviolatum idem spernatis et incorruptum. p. 764,14 Proinde hanc de vobis ego sententiam habui semper et habeo, quotiens quaeritur, cur praevaricemini testamenti veteris iussa, quod enim aut ut sapientes contemnitis falsa aut ut contumaces et indevoti neglegitis vera. Interim quia me ad credenda omnia, quae novi testamenti monumentis inserta sunt, cogis, si ipsum accipiam, scias et te, quantum ad animum, multa non credere, quae in vetere sint testamento, quamvis ipsum te profitearis accipere. - Neque enim et illud in confessis ex eodem habes et credibilibus esse maledictum omnem, qui pependerit in ligno, quia id utique pertineat et ad Iesum, - aut eum quoque in maledictis haberi, qui non suscitaverit semen in Israhel, quia id virgines quoque omnes comprehendat et pueros dei; - aut funditus interiturum eum de genere suo, qui non fuerit carnem praeputii circumcisus, quia hoc quoque ad omnem pertineat Christianum; - p. 765,2 - aut lapidibus extinguendum eum, qui solverit sabbatum ; - aut non parcendum ei, qui unumquodlibet testamenti veteris mandatum irruperit : quae omnia tu si credas firmumque habeas, quia sint eadem a deo mandata, mihi crede, manus prior iniecisses in Christum nec nunc irascerere Iudaeis, qui hunc animis ac viribus persecuti dei sui mandata complerint.

Translation Hide
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

5.

Since you hold to the divine authorship of the Old as well as of the New Testament, it would surely be more consistent and more becoming, as you do not obey its precepts, to confess that it has been corrupted by improper additions, than to treat it so contemptuously, if it is genuine and uncorrupted. Accordingly, my explanation of your neglect of the requirements of the Old Testament has always been, and still is, that you are either wise enough to reject them as spurious, or that you have the boldness and irreverence to disregard them if they are true. At any rate, when you would oblige me to believe everything contained in the documents of the New Testament because I receive the Testament itself, you should consider that, though you profess to receive the Old Testament, you in your heart disbelieve many things in it. Thus, you do not admit as true or authoritative the declaration of the Old Testament, that every one that hangeth on a tree is accursed, ¹ for this would apply to Jesus; or that every man is accursed who does not raise up seed in Israel, ² for that would include all of both sexes devoted to God; or that whoever is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off from among his people, ³ for that would apply to all Christians; or that whoever breaks the Sabbath must be stoned to death; ⁴ or that no mercy should be shown to the man who breaks a single precept of the Old Testament. If you really believe these things as certainly enjoined by God, you would, in the time of Christ, have been the first to assail Him, and you would now have no quarrel with the Jews, who, in persecuting Christ with heart and soul, acted in obedience to their own God.