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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

6.

Hic forte dicant: Ostende nobis, ubi sit Christus ab Israhelitis prophetis praenuntiatus. Quasi parva sit ista auctoritas, qua dicunt apostoli ea, quae in Hebraeorum prophetarum litteris legimus, in Christo esse completa; vel quod dicit ipse dominus de se illa esse conscripta. Proinde quisquis hoc ostendere non potuerit, ipse non intellegit, non apostoli aut Christus aut sancti codices mentiuntur. Verumtamen ut multa non colligam et hoc unum commemorem, quod eodem loco apostolus consequenter dicit: p. 334,29 Non potest autem excidere verbum dei. Non enim omnes, qui ex Israhel hi sunt Israhelitae, neque qui sunt semen Abrahae, omnes filii, sed in Isaac vocabitur tibi semen: hoc est, non hi qui filii carnis, hi filii dei, sed filii promissionis deputantur in semen. Quid ad haec responsuri sunt, cum aperte alio loco de hoc semine ad Abraham dicatur: In semine tuo benedicentur omnes gentes terrae? Nam si eo tempore hinc disputaremus, quo tempore hoc exponebat apostolus dicens: Abrahae dictae sunt promissiones ‛ et semini eius’ – non dicit:‛ et seminibus’ tamquam in multis, sed tamquam in uno: ‘et semini tuo’, qui est Christus, fortasse aliquis non tam impudenter nollet hoc credere, antequam videret omnes gentes credere in Christum, qui praedicatur ex semine Abraham. p. 335,14 Nunc vero, cum hoc impleri videamus, quod tanto ante praenuntiatum legimus, cum omnes gentes iam benedicantur in semine Abrahae, cui dictum est ante annorum milia: in semine tuo benedicentur omnes gentes, quis tam pertinaciter insaniat, ut vel alium Christum, qui non sit ex semine Abrahae, conetur inducere, vel de isto vero Christo prophetias Hebraeas, cuius gentis pater est Abraham, nihil existimet praenuntiasse?

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

6.

Our opponents may perhaps ask us to point out passages where Christ is predicted by the prophets of Israel. One would think they might be satisfied with the authority of the apostles, who declare that what we read in the writings of the Hebrew prophets was fulfilled in Christ, or with that of Christ Himself, who says that these things were written of Him. Whoever is unable to point out the passages should lay the blame on his own ignorance; for the apostles and Christ and the sacred Scriptures are not chargeable with falsehood. However, one instance out of many may be adduced. The apostle, in the verses following the passage quoted above, says: "The word of God cannot fail. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of promise are counted for the seed." ¹ What can our opponent say against this, in view of the declaration made to Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed?" At the time when the apostle gave the following exposition of this promise, "To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He saith not, To seed, as of many, but as of one, To thy seed, which is Christ," ² a doubt on this point might then have been less inexcusable, for at that time all nations had not yet believed on Christ, who is preached as of the seed of Abraham. But now that we see the fulfillment of what we read in the ancient prophecy,--now that all nations are actually blessed in the seed of Abraham, to whom it was said thousands of years ago, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed,"--it is mere obstinate folly to try to bring in another Christ, not of the seed of Abraham, or to hold that there are no predictions of Christ in the prophetical books of the children of Abraham.