Chapter X.—Of Some Who are Mad Enough to Suppose that the Books Were Inscribed with the Names of Peter and Paul.

15. Nay more, as by divine judgment, some of those who either believe, or wish to have it believed, that Christ wrote matter of that description, have even wandered so far into error as to allege that these same books bore on their front, in the form of epistolary superscription, a designation addressed to Peter and Paul. And it is quite possible that either the enemies of the name of Christ, or certain parties who thought that they might impart to this kind of execrable arts the weight of authority drawn from so glorious a name, may have written things of that nature under the name of Christ and the apostles. But in such most deceitful audacity they have been so utterly blinded as simply to have made themselves fitting objects for laughter, even with young people who as yet know Christian literature only in boyish fashion, and rank merely in the grade of readers.

16. For when they made up their minds to represent Christ to have written in such strain as that to His disciples, they bethought themselves of those of His followers who might best be taken for the persons to whom Christ might most readily be believed to have written, as the individuals who had kept by Him on the most familiar terms of friendship. And so Peter and Paul occurred to them, I believe, just because in many places they chanced to see these two apostles represented in pictures as both in company with Him.53    Simul eos cum illo pictos viderent. For Rome, in a specially honourable and solemn manner,54    The text gives diem celebrius solemniter, etc.; others give diem celebrius et solemniter; and three mss. have diem celeberrimum solemniter.—Migne. commends the merits of Peter and of Paul, for this reason among others, namely, that they suffered [martyrdom] on the same day. Thus to fall most completely into error was the due desert of men who sought for Christ and His apostles not in the holy writings, but on painted walls. Neither is it to be wondered at, that these fiction-limners were misled by the painters.55    A pingentibus fingentes decepti sunt. For throughout the whole period during which Christ lived in our mortal flesh in fellowship with His disciples, Paul had never become His disciple. Only after His passion, after His resurrection, after His ascension, after the mission of the Holy Spirit from heaven, after many Jews had been converted and had shown marvellous faith, after the stoning of Stephen the deacon and martyr, and when Paul still bore the name Saul, and was grievously persecuting those who had become believers in Christ, did Christ call that man [by a voice] from heaven, and made him His disciple and apostle.56    Acts ix. 1–30. How, then, is it possible that Christ could have written those books which they wish to have it believed that He did write before His death, and which were addressed to Peter and Paul, as those among His disciples who had been most intimate with Him, seeing that up to that date Paul had not yet become a disciple of His at all?

CAPUT X. Eosdem libros Petro et Paulo inscriptos quidam delirant.

15. Quid quod etiam divino judicio sic errant quidam eorum, qui talia Christum scripsisse vel credunt vel credi volunt, ut eosdem libros ad Petrum et Paulum dicant, tanquam epistolari titulo praenotatos. Et fieri potest ut sive inimici nominis Christi, sive qui ejusmodi exsecrabilibus artibus de tam glorioso nomine pondus auctoritatis dare se posse putaverunt, talia sub Christi et Apostolorum nomine scripserint: in qua fallacissima audacia sic excaecati sunt, ut etiam a pueris, qui adhuc pueriliter in gradu Lectorum christianas Litteras norunt, merito rideantur.

16. Cum enim vellent tale aliquid fingere Christum scripsisse ad discipulos suos, cogitaverunt ad quos potissimum scribere potuisse facile crederetur, tanquam ad illos qui ei familiarius adhaesissent, quibus illud quasi secretum digne committeretur: et occurrit eis Petrus et Paulus, credo quod pluribus locis simul eos cum illo pictos viderent; quia merita Petri et Pauli etiam propter eumdem passionis diem celebrius solemniter Roma commendat. Sic omnino errare meruerunt, qui Christum et Apostolos ejus non in sanctis codicibus, sed in pictis parietibus quaesierunt: nec mirum si a pingentibus fingentes decepti sunt. Toto enim tempore quo Christus in carne mortali cum suis discipulis vixit, nondum erat Paulus discipulus ejus, quem post passionem suam, post resurrectionem, post ascensionem, post missum de coelis Spiritum sanctum, post multorum Judaeorum conversionem et mirabilem fidem, post lapidationem Stephani diaconi et martyris, cum adhuc Saulus appellaretur, et eos qui in Christum crediderant, graviter persequeretur, de coelo vocavit, et suum discipulum atque apostolum fecit (Act. IX, 1-30). Quomodo igitur potuit libros, quos antequam moreretur eum scripsisse putari volunt, ad discipulos, tanquam familiarissimos, Petrum et Paulum scribere, cum Paulus nondum fuerit discipulus ejus?