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The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen
56.
But our writers, we shall be told, have put forth these statements with false effrontery; they have extolled 1 small matters to an inordinate degree, and have magnified trivial affairs with most pretentious boastfulness. And 2 would that all things could have been reduced to writing,--both those which were done by Himself, and those which were accomplished by His apostles with equal authority and power. Such an assemblage of miracles, however, would make you more incredulous; and perhaps you might be able to discover a passage from which 3 it would seem very probable, both that additions were made to facts, and that falsehoods were inserted in writings and commentaries. But in nations which were unknown to the writers, and which themselves knew not the use of letters, all that was done could not have been embraced in the records or even have reached the ears of all men; or, if any were committed to written and connected narrative, some insertions and additions would have been made by the malevolence of the demons and of men like to them, whose care and study it is to obstruct 4 the progress of this truth: there would have been some changes and mutilations of words and of syllables, at once to mar the faith of the cautious and to impair the moral effect of the deeds. But it will never avail them that it be gathered from written testimony only who and what Christ was; for His cause has been put on such a basis, that if what we say be admitted to be true, He is by the confession of all proved to have been God.
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According to Rigaltius the ms. reads ista promiserunt in immensum--"have put forth (i.e., exaggerated) these things to an immense degree falsely, small matters and trivial affairs have magnified," etc.; while by a later hand has been superscribed over in immensum, in ink of a different colour, extulere--"have extolled." ↩
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So the ms., 1st ed., and Hildebrand, while all others read atqu-i--"but." ↩
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So LB., reading quo for the ms. quod. ↩
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So most edd., reading intercip-erefor the ms. intercipi--"it is that the progress be obstructed," etc. ↩
Translation
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Gegen die Heiden (BKV)
Nr. 56
Allein unsere Schriftsteller haben dieß lügenhaft erzählt, geringe Thaten in's Allgemeine zu erheben und kleinliche Dinge durch genugsam partheiliche Anpreisung auszubreiten. Wenn sie doch gleichwohl in ihren Schriften sämmtliches hätten berichten können, was von Ihm gethan, wie auch, was von seinen Predigern mit gleichem Rechte und derselben Macht beendigt worden. Noch vielmehr machte solche Macht in Wunderkraft euch dann ungläubig, oder ihr vermöchtet vielleicht zu begreifen, was der Wahrheit am ähnlichsten zu seyn scheint, sowohl im hinzugefügten Anwuchs der Thatsachen, wie auch in den hergebrachten Fälschungen der Schriften und Aufsätze: denn weder konnte Alles aufgeschrieben werden, noch in Aller Ohren kommen bei unwissenden und des Gebrauchs der Schrift unkundigen Völkern: oder, wenn etwa desselben durch Schrift und Aufsätze bekannt gemacht worden ist, so hat es der Haß der Dämonen, deren Sorge und Bestreben das Verderben dieser Wahrheit ist, und ihnen ähnlicher Menschen (der Ketzer) einigermaßen verfälscht und gemehrt, theilweise verändert und in Worten wie Sylben verringert, damit er den Glauben der Einsichtsvollen hemme, der Thaten Ansehen vernichte. Niemals wird es ihnen aber zu Gute kommen, daß man, wer Christus gewesen, aus schriftlichen Zeugnissen folgert. Diese sind nur um deßwillen erlassen, damit, wenn gerecht, was wir aussagen, als wahr bestand, durch Aller Bekenntniß, Er sey Gott gewesen, dargethan werde.