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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

5.

Again, we are not responsible for what is said of Abraham, that in his irrational craving to have children, and not believing God, who promised that his wife Sara should have a son, he defiled himself with a mistress, with the knowledge of his wife, which only made it worse; ¹ or that, in sacrilegious profanation of his marriage, he on different occasions, from avarice and greed, sold his wife Sara for the gratification of the kings Abimelech and Pharas, telling them that she was his sister, because she was very fair. ² The narrative is not ours, which tells how Lot, Abraham's brother, after his escape from Sodom, lay with his two daughters on the mountain ³ (better for him to have perished in the conflagration of Sodom, than to have burned with incestuous passion); or how Isaac imitated his father's conduct, and called his wife Rebecca his sister, that he might gain a shameful livelihood by her; ⁴ or how his son Jacob, husband of four wives--two full sisters, Rachel and Leah, and their handmaids--led the life of a goat among them, so that there was a daily strife among his women who should be the first to lay hold of him when he came from the field, ending sometimes in their hiring him from one another for the night; ⁵ or, again, how his son Judah slept with his daughter-in-law Tamar, after she had been married to two of his sons, deceived, we are told, by the harlot's dress which Tamar put on, knowing that her father-in-law was in the habit of associating with such characters; ⁶ or how David, after having a number of wives, seduced the wife of his soldier Uriah, and caused Uriah himself to be killed in the battle; ⁷ or how his son Solomon had three hundred wives, and seven hundred concubines, and princesses without number; ⁸ or how the first prophet Hosea got children from a prostitute, and, what is worse, it is said that this disgraceful conduct was enjoined by God; ⁹ or how Moses committed murder, ¹⁰ and plundered Egypt, ¹¹ and waged wars, and commanded, or himself perpetrated, many cruelties. ¹² And he too was not content with one wife. We are neither directly nor remotely the authors of these and similar narratives, which are found in the books of the patriarchs and the prophets. Either your writers forged these things, or the fathers are really guilty. Choose which you please; the crime in either case is detestable, for vicious conduct and falsehood are equally hateful.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

5.

Alioquin neque illa nos de Abraham scripsimus, quod habendae prolis insana flagrans cupidine et deo, qui id iam sibi de Sara coniuge promiserat, minime credens cum pelice volutatus sit sub conscientia, quo sit inhonestius, uxoris; nec quod matrimonii sui infamissimus nundinator idem avaritiae ac ventris causa duobus regibus, Abimelech et Pharaoni, diversis temporibus memoratam Saram coniugem suam sororem mentitus, quia erat pulcherrima, in concubitum venditavit; p. 594,15 nec quod Loth ipsius frater de Sodoma liberatus cum duabus filiabus suis in monte concubuit, qui honestius arsisset in Sodoma ictu fulminis quam in monte flagravit inconcessae libidinis flamma; sed nec quod Isaac eadem patri suo gessit ac paria erga Rebeccam coniugem suam, fingens et ipse eam sororem, quo per ipsam viveret turpiter; nec quod Iacob filius eius inter Rachel et Liam duas germanas sorores earumque singulas famulas, quattuor uxorum maritus, tamquam hircus erraverit, ut esset cotidie inter quattuor scorta certamen, quaenam eum venientem de agro prior ad concubitum raperet, interdumque etiam mercedibus in noctem ab invicem conducerent eum; item quod Iudas filius eius cum Thamar nuru sua dormierit post unius et alterius nuptias filii, deceptus, ut aiunt, prostitutionis habitu, in quem se transformaverat eadem, quae socerum suum bene nosset cum hoc genere feminarum semper habuisse commercium; p. 595,6 nec quod David post tot numero uxores mulierculam quoque Uriae militis sui moechatus sit ipsumque perdiderit in bello; nec quod Salomon filius eius trecentas uxores et septingentas concubinas habuerit et regum filias sine numero; nec quod Osee prophetarum primus de fornicaria muliere filios fecerit, cui turpitudini, quo sit deterius, ascribitur et consilium dei; sed nec illud, quod Moyses homicidium fecerit, quod spoliaverit Aegyptum, quod bella gesserit, quod crudelia multa et mandarit et fecerit, quod ne ipse quidem uno contentus matrimonio fuerit. p. 595,15 Haec, inquam, et horum similia, quae in diversis eorum habentur libris, nihil a nobis scriptum, nihil dictatum est, sed aut scriptorum vestrorum ista commenta sunt falsa aut patrum crimina vera. Vos utrum vultis eligite! Nam nos aut hos aut illos pariter detestari necesse est, quia tam malos et turpes odimus quam mendaces.