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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

91.

Of the prophetic significance of the spoiling of the Egyptians, which was done by Moses at the command of the Lord his God, who commands nothing but what is most just, I remember to have set down what occurred to me at the time in my book entitled On Christian Doctrine; ¹ to the effect that the gold and silver and garments of the Egyptians typified certain branches of learning which may be profitably learned or taught among the Gentiles. This may be the true explanation; or we may suppose that the vessels of gold and silver represent the precious souls, and the garments the bodies, of those from among the Gentiles who join themselves to the people of God, that along with them they may be freed from the Egypt of this world. Whatever the true interpretation may be, the pious student of the Scriptures will feel certain that in the command, in the action, and in the narrative there is a purpose and a symbolic meaning.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

91.

Quod vero exspoliavit Aegyptios iussu domini dei sui, nihil nisi iustissime iubentis, quid praefiguraverit iam in quibusdam libris, quos de doctrina christiana praenotavi, quantum mihi tunc occurrit, me recolo posuisse, quod auro et argento et veste Aegyptiorum significatae sint quaedam doctrinae, quae in ipsa consuetudine gentium non inutili studio discantur. p. 698,2 Sed sive hoc significet sive illud, quod ex ipsis gentibus animae pretiosae tamquam vasa aurea et argentea cum suis utique corporibus – quod vestes significant – adiungunt se populo dei, ut simul de hoc saeculo tamquam de Aegypto liberentur: sive hoc ergo sive illud sive aliquid aliud hinc fuerit figuratum, certum est tamen eis, qui has litteras pie legunt, non frustra neque sine praenuntiatione futurorum esse illa iussa, facta, conscripta.