27. There are some things of this sort even of our Saviour in the Gospel, because the Lord of the Prophets deigned to be Himself also a Prophet. Such are those where, concerning the woman which had an issue of blood, He said, “Who touched Me?”48    Luke viii. 45 and of Lazarus. “Where have ye laid him?”49    John xi. 34 He asked, namely, as if not knowing that which in any wise He knew. And He did on this account feign that He knew not, that He might signify somewhat else by that His seeming ignorance: and since this signification was truthful, it was assuredly not a lie. For those were signified, whether by her which had the issue, or by him which had been four days dead, whom even He Who knew all things did in a certain sort know not. For both she bore the type of the people of the Gentiles, whereof the prophecy had gone before, “A people whom I have not known hath served Me:”50    Ps. xviii. 44—“Servivit.” and Lazarus, removed from the living, did as it were in that place lie in significative similitude where He lay, Whose voice that is, “I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes.”51    Ps. xxxi. 22 And with that intent, as though it were not known by Christ, both who she was and where he was laid, by His words of interrogating a figure was enacted and by truthful signification all lying left apart.

CAPUT XIII.

27. Discutiuntur loca Evangelii quae videntur patrocinari mendacio. Christus figurate nescire se finxit quod sciebat. Item prophetice et figurate se finxit longius ire. Sunt quaedam ejusmodi etiam Salvatoris in Evangelio, quia et ipse Dominus Prophetarum Propheta esse dignatus est. Talia sunt illa, ubi de muliere quae fluxum sanguinis patiebatur, ait, Quis me tetigit (Luc. VIII, 45)? et de Lazaro, Ubi posuistis eum (Joan. XI, 34)? Sic quippe interrogavit, quasi nesciens quod utique sciebat. Ac per hoc nescire se finxit, ut aliquid aliud illa velut ignorantia sua significaret: quae significatio quoniam verax erat, mendacium profecto non erat. Eos namque significabant, sive illa fluxum sanguinis patiens, sive ille mortuus quatriduanus, quos etiam qui cuncta sciebat quodam modo nesciebat. Nam et illa typum gerebat plebis Gentium, unde praemissa fuerat prophetia, Populus quem non cognovi, servivit mihi (Psal. XVII, 45): et Lazarus remotus a viventibus tanquam ibi jacebat per significativam similitudinem, ubi ille cujus vox est, 0538 Projectus sum a facie oculorum tuorum (Psal. XXX, 23). Et ideo tanquam nesciretur a Christo, et illa quae fuerit, et iste ubi positus fuerit, verbis interrogantis est figuratum, et omne vitatum veraci significatione mendacium.