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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

13.

Again, if you ask why, of all the kinds of food prohibited in the former typical dispensation, we abstain only from food offered to idols and from what dies of itself, you shall hear, if for once you will prefer the truth to idle calumnies. The reason why it is not expedient for a Christian to eat food offered to idols is given by the apostle: "I would not," he says, "that ye should have fellowship with demons." Not that he finds fault with sacrifice itself, as offered by the fathers to typify the blood of the sacrifice with which Christ has redeemed us. For he first says, "The things which the Gentiles offer, they offer to demons, and not to God;" and then adds these words: "I would not that ye should have fellowship with demons." ¹ If the uncleanness were in the nature of sacrificial flesh, it would necessarily pollute even when eaten in ignorance. But the reason for not partaking knowingly is not in the nature of the food, but, for conscience sake, not to seem to have fellowship with demons. As regards what dies of itself, I suppose the reason why such food was prohibited was that the flesh of animals which have died of themselves is diseased, and is not likely to be wholesome, which is the chief thing in food. The observance of pouring out the blood which was enjoined in ancient times upon Noah himself after the deluge, ² the meaning of which we have already explained, is thought by many to be what is meant in the Acts of the Apostles, where we read that the Gentiles were required to abstain from fornication, and from things sacrificed, and from blood, ³ that is, from flesh of which the blood has not been poured out. Others give a different meaning to the words, and think that to abstain from blood means not to be polluted with the crime of murder. It would take too long to settle this question, and it is not necessary. For, allowing that the apostles did on that occasion require Christians to abstain from the blood of animals, and not to eat of things strangled, they seem to me to have consulted the time in choosing an easy observance that could not be burdensome to any one, and which the Gentiles might have in common with the Israelities, for the sake of the Corner-stone, who makes both one in Himself; ⁴ while at the same time they would be reminded how the Church of all nations was prefigured by the ark of Noah, when God gave this command,--a type which began to be fulfilled in the time of the apostles by the accession of the Gentiles to the faith. But since the close of that period during which the two walls of the circumcision and the uncircumcision, although united in the Corner-stone, still retained some distinctive peculiarities, and now that the Church has become so entirely Gentile that none who are outwardly Israelites are to be found in it, no Christian feels bound to abstain from thrushes or small birds because their blood has not been poured out, or from hares because they are killed by a stroke on the neck without shedding their blood. Any who still are afraid to touch these things are laughed at by the rest: so general is the conviction of the truth, that "not what entereth into the mouth defileth you, but what cometh out of it;" ⁵ that evil lies in the commission of sin, and not in the nature of any food in ordinary use.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

13.

Si autem et hoc quaeritis, cur ex omnibus cibis, a quibus in umbra futurorum populus est ille prohibitus, nos morticino et immolaticio non vescimur, et hoc audite et calumniis vanitatis verum aliquando praeponite. Cur enim non expediat immolaticio vesci christiano, apostolus dicit: Nolo vos inquit socios fieri daemoniorum. Neque enim ipsam immolationem reprehendit, quam faciebant patres praefigurantes sanguinem sacrificii, quo nos Christus redemit, sed quae immolant gentes, daemoniis inquit immolant et non deo. p. 771,21 Deinde adiecit, quod dixi: Nolo vos socios fieri daemoniorum. Nam si natura ipsa immolaticiae carnis esset immunda, utique et nescientem contaminaret; neque enim eo minus ipsa esset, quo minus ab sciente acciperetur; sed propter conscientiam, ne daemonibus communicasse videatur, ‹abstineat›. Morticinum autem puto quod ad escam usus hominum non admisit, eo quod non occisorum, sed mortuorum animalium morbida caro est nec apta ad salutem corporis, cuius causa sumimus alimentum. Nam quod de effundendo sanguine antiquis in figura praeceptum est, id est ipsi Noe post diluvium – quod iam quid significaret ostendimus – plerique intellegunt et in actibus apostolorum hoc legi praeceptum ab apostolis, ut abstinerent gentes tantum a fornicatione et ab immolatis et a sanguine, id est ne quicquam ederent carnis, cuius sanguis non esset effusus. p. 773,1 Quod alii non sic intellegunt, sed a sanguine praeceptum esse abstinendum, ne quis homicidio se contaminet. Hoc nunc discutere longum est et non necessarium, quia et si hoc tunc apostoli praeceperunt, ut animalium sanguine abstinerent christiani, ne praefocatis carnibus vescerentur, elegisse mihi videntur pro tempore rem facilem et nequaquam observantibus onerosam, in qua cum Israhelitis etiam gentes propter angularem illum lapidem duos in se condentem aliquid communiter observarent, simul et admonere[nt] in ipsa arca Noe, quando deus hoc iussit, ecclesiam omnium gentium fuisse figuratam, cuius facti prophetia iam gentibus ad fidem accedentibus incipiebat impleri. p. 772,18 Transacto vero illo tempore, quo illi duo parietes, unus ex circumcisione, alter ex praeputio venientes, quamvis in angulari lapide concordarent, tamen suis quibusdam proprietatibus distinctius eminebant. At ubi ecclesia gentium talis effecta est, ut in ea nullus Israhelita carnalis appareat, quis iam hoc christianus observat, ut turdos vel minutiores aviculas non attingat, nisi quarum sanguis effusus est, aut leporem non edat, si manu a cervice percussus nullo cruento vulnere occisus est? Et qui forte pauci adhuc tangere ista formidant, a ceteris irridentur. Ita omnium animos in hac re tenuit illa sententia veritatis: Non quod intrat in os vestrum, vos coinquinat, sed quod exit, nullam cibi naturam, quam societas admittit humana, sed quae iniquitas committit peccata condemnans. p. 773,7