Translation Hide
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

7.

To enumerate all the passages in the Hebrew prophets referring to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, would exceed the limits of a volume, not to speak of the brief replies of which this treatise consists. The whole contents of these Scriptures are either directly or indirectly about Christ. Often the reference is allegorical or enigmatical, perhaps in a verbal allusion, or in a historical narrative, requiring diligence in the student, and rewarding him with the pleasure of discovery. Other passages, again, are plain; for, without the help of what is clear, we could not understand what is obscure. And even the figurative passages, when brought together, will be found so harmonious in their testimony to Christ as to put to shame the obtuseness of the sceptic.

Edition Hide
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

7.

Quis autem potest, non dico una brevi responsione, quales in hoc opere habere coartamur, sed quolibet ingenti volumine omnia commemorare praeconia prophetarum Hebraeorum de domino et salvatore nostro Iesu Christo, quandoquidem omnia, quae illis continentur libris, vel de ipso dicta sunt vel propter ipsum! p. 335,25 Sed propter excitationem quaerentis et delectationem invenientis multo plura ibi per allegorias et aenigmata partim verbis solis insinuantur, partim etiam facta narrantur. Verumtamen nisi aliqua ibi manifesta essent, non comprehenderetur sensus, quo etiam obscura clarescerent. Quamquam et ex illis, quae figuris involuta sunt, si quaedam velut sub uno aspectu quasi contexta ponantur, ita coniungunt in contestatione Christi voces suas, ut cuiusvis obtunsi surditas erubescat.