Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Objection 1: It would seem that Christ should have committed His doctrine to writing. For the purpose of writing is to hand down doctrine to posterity. Now Christ's doctrine was destined to endure for ever, according to Lk. 21:33: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Therefore it seems that Christ should have committed His doctrine to writing.

Objection 2: Further, the Old Law was a foreshadowing of Christ, according to Heb. 10:1: "The Law has a shadow of the good things to come." Now the Old Law was put into writing by God, according to Ex. 24:12: "I will give thee" two "tables of stone and the law, and the commandments which I have written." Therefore it seems that Christ also should have put His doctrine into writing.

Objection 3: Further, to Christ, who came to enlighten them that sit in darkness (Lk. 1:79), it belonged to remove occasions of error, and to open out the road to faith. Now He would have done this by putting His teaching into writing: for Augustine says (De Consensu Evang. i) that "some there are who wonder why our Lord wrote nothing, so that we have to believe what others have written about Him. Especially do those pagans ask this question who dare not blame or blaspheme Christ, and who ascribe to Him most excellent, but merely human, wisdom. These say that the disciples made out the Master to be more than He really was when they said that He was the Son of God and the Word of God, by whom all things were made." And farther on he adds: "It seems as though they were prepared to believe whatever He might have written of Himself, but not what others at their discretion published about Him." Therefore it seems that Christ should have Himself committed His doctrine to writing.

On the contrary, No books written by Him were to be found in the canon of Scripture.

I answer that, It was fitting that Christ should not commit His doctrine to writing. First, on account of His dignity: for the more excellent the teacher, the more excellent should be his manner of teaching. Consequently it was fitting that Christ, as the most excellent of teachers, should adopt that manner of teaching whereby His doctrine is imprinted on the hearts of His hearers; wherefore it is written (Mt. 7:29) that "He was teaching them as one having power." And so it was that among the Gentiles, Pythagoras and Socrates, who were teachers of great excellence, were unwilling to write anything. For writings are ordained, as to an end, unto the imprinting of doctrine in the hearts of the hearers.

Secondly, on account of the excellence of Christ's doctrine, which cannot be expressed in writing; according to Jn. 21:25: "There are also many other things which Jesus did: which, if they were written everyone, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written." Which Augustine explains by saying: "We are not to believe that in respect of space the world could not contain them . . . but that by the capacity of the readers they could not be comprehended." And if Christ had committed His doctrine to writing, men would have had no deeper thought of His doctrine than that which appears on the surface of the writing.

Thirdly, that His doctrine might reach all in an orderly manner: Himself teaching His disciples immediately, and they subsequently teaching others, by preaching and writing: whereas if He Himself had written, His doctrine would have reached all immediately.

Hence it is said of Wisdom (Prov. 9:3) that "she hath sent her maids to invite to the tower." It is to be observed, however, that, as Augustine says (De Consensu Evang. i), some of the Gentiles thought that Christ wrote certain books treating of the magic art whereby He worked miracles: which art is condemned by the Christian learning. "And yet they who claim to have read those books of Christ do none of those things which they marvel at His doing according to those same books. Moreover, it is by a Divine judgment that they err so far as to assert that these books were, as it were, entitled as letters to Peter and Paul, for that they found them in several places depicted in company with Christ. No wonder that the inventors were deceived by the painters: for as long as Christ lived in the mortal flesh with His disciples, Paul was no disciple of His."

Reply to Objection 1: As Augustine says in the same book: "Christ is the head of all His disciples who are members of His body. Consequently, when they put into writing what He showed forth and said to them, by no means must we say that He wrote nothing: since His members put forth that which they knew under His dictation. For at His command they, being His hands, as it were, wrote whatever He wished us to read concerning His deeds and words."

Reply to Objection 2: Since the old Law was given under the form of sensible signs, therefore also was it fittingly written with sensible signs. But Christ's doctrine, which is "the law of the spirit of life" (Rm. 8:2), had to be "written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart," as the Apostle says (2 Cor. 3:3).

Reply to Objection 3: Those who were unwilling to believe what the apostles wrote of Christ would have refused to believe the writings of Christ, whom they deemed to work miracles by the magic art.

Articulus 4

Argumentum 1

Ad quartum sic proceditur. Videtur quod christus doctrinam suam debuerit scripto tradere. Scriptura enim inventa est ad hoc quod doctrina commendetur memoriae in futurum. Sed doctrina christi duratura erat in aeternum, secundum illud Luc. XXI, caelum et terra transibunt, verba autem mea non transibunt.

Ergo videtur quod christus doctrinam suam debuerit scripto mandare.

Argumentum 2

Praeterea, lex vetus in figura christi praecessit, secundum illud Heb. X, umbram habet lex futurorum bonorum.

Sed lex vetus a deo fuit descripta, secundum illud Exod. XXIV, dabo tibi duas tabulas lapideas, et legem ac mandata quae scripsi.

Ergo videtur quod etiam christus doctrinam suam scribere debuerit.

Argumentum 3

Praeterea, ad christum, qui venerat illuminare his qui in tenebris et in umbra mortis sedent, ut dicitur Luc. I, pertinebat erroris occasionem excludere, et viam fidei aperire. Sed hoc fecisset doctrinam suam scribendo, dicit enim Augustinus, in I de consens. Evang., quod solet nonnullos movere cur ipse dominus nihil scripserit, ut aliis de illo scribentibus necesse sit credere. Hoc enim illi vel maxime Pagani quaerunt qui christum culpare aut blasphemare non audent, eique tribuunt excellentissimam sapientiam, sed tamen tanquam homini. Discipulos vero eius dicunt magistro suo amplius tribuisse quam erat, ut eum filium dei dicerent, et verbum dei, per quod facta sunt omnia.

Et postea subdit, videntur parati fuisse hoc de illo credere quod de se ipse scripsisset, non quod alii de illo pro suo arbitrio praedicassent.

Ergo videtur quod christus ipse doctrinam suam scripto tradere debuerit.

Sed Contra

Sed contra est quod nulli libri ab eo scripti habentur in canone Scripturae.

Corpus

Respondeo dicendum conveniens fuisse christum doctrinam suam non scripsisse. Primo quidem, propter dignitatem ipsius. Excellentiori enim doctori excellentior modus doctrinae debetur. Et ideo christo, tanquam excellentissimo doctori, hic modus competebat, ut doctrinam suam auditorum cordibus imprimeret.

Propter quod dicitur Matth. VII, quod erat docens eos sicut potestatem habens.

Unde etiam apud gentiles Pythagoras et socrates, qui fuerunt excellentissimi doctores, nihil scribere voluerunt. Scripta enim ordinantur ad impressionem doctrinae in cordibus auditorum sicut ad finem. Secundo, propter excellentiam doctrinae christi, quae litteris comprehendi non potest, secundum illud Ioan. Ult., sunt et alia multa quae fecit iesus, quae si scribantur per singula, nec ipsum arbitror mundum capere eos qui scribendi sunt libros.

Quos, sicut Augustinus dicit, non spatio locorum credendum est mundum capere non posse, sed capacitate legentium comprehendi non posse.

Si autem christus scripto suam doctrinam mandasset, nihil altius de eius doctrina homines existimarent quam quod Scriptura contineret. Tertio, ut ordine quodam ab ipso doctrina ad omnes perveniret, dum ipse scilicet discipulos suos immediate docuit, qui postmodum alios verbo et scripto docuerunt. Si autem ipsemet scripsisset, eius doctrina immediate ad omnes pervenisset.

Unde et de sapientia dicitur, Prov. IX, quod misit ancillas suas vocare ad arcem.

Sciendum tamen est, sicut Augustinus dicit, in I de consens. Evang., aliquos gentiles existimasse christum quosdam libros scripsisse continentes quaedam magica, quibus miracula faciebat, quae disciplina christiana condemnat.

Et tamen illi qui christi libros tales se legisse affirmant, nulla talia faciunt qualia illum de libris talibus fecisse mirantur. Divino etiam iudicio sic errant ut eosdem libros ad Petrum et Paulum dicant tanquam epistolari titulo praenotatos, eo quod in pluribus locis simul eos cum christo pictos viderunt.

Nec mirum si a pingentibus fingentes decepti sunt. Toto enim tempore quo christus in carne mortali cum suis discipulis vixit, nondum erat Paulus discipulus eius.

Ad 1

Ad primum ergo dicendum quod, sicut Augustinus dicit, in eodem libro, omnibus discipulis suis tanquam membris sui corporis christus caput est. Itaque, cum illi scripserunt quae ille ostendit et dixit, nequaquam dicendum est quod ipse non scripserit.

Quandoquidem membra eius id operata sunt quod, dictante capite, cognoverunt. Quidquid enim ille de suis factis et dictis nos legere voluit, hoc scribendum illis tanquam suis manibus imperavit.

Ad 2

Ad secundum dicendum quod, quia lex vetus in sensibilibus figuris dabatur, ideo etiam convenienter sensibilibus signis scripta fuit.

Sed doctrina christi, quae est lex spiritus vitae, scribi debuit, non atramento, sed spiritu dei vivi, non in tabulis lapideis, sed in tabulis cordis carnalibus, ut apostolus dicit, II Cor. III.

Ad 3

Ad tertium dicendum quod illi qui Scripturae apostolorum de christo credere nolunt, nec ipsi christo scribenti credidissent, de quo opinabantur quod magicis artibus fecisset miracula.