Chapter 43 [XXXVII.]—Why Scripture Has Not Mentioned the Sins of All.

“But perhaps,” says he, “they will ask me: Could not the Scripture have mentioned sins of all of these?” And surely they would say the truth, whoever should put such a question to him; and I do not discover that he has anywhere given a sound reply to them, although I perceive that he was unwilling to be silent. What he has said, I beg of you to observe: “This,” says he, “might be rightly asked of those whom Scripture mentions neither as good nor as bad; but of those whose holiness it commemorates, it would also without doubt have commemorated the sins likewise, if it had perceived that they had sinned in anything.” Let him say, then, that their great faith did not attain to righteousness in the case of those who comprised “the multitudes that went before and that followed” the colt on which the Lord rode, when “they shouted and said, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,”114    Matt. xxi. 9. even amidst the malignant men who with murmurs asked why they were doing all this! Let him then boldly tell us, if he can, that there was not a man in all that vast crowd who had any sin at all. Now, if it is most absurd to make such a statement as this, why has not the Scripture mentioned any sins in the persons to whom reference has been made, especially when it has carefully recorded the eminent goodness of their faith?

CAPUT XXXVII.

43. Cur non omnium peccata Scriptura commemoraverit. «Dicent forsitan,» inquit, «Numquid omnium potuit Scriptura commemorare peccata?» Et verum ei dicent, quicumque dicent: 0268 nec eum contra hoc aliquid validum video respondisse; quamvis videam tacere noluisse. Quid enim dixerit, quaeso, attendite. «Hoc,» inquit, «recte potest dici de his quorum neque bonorum neque malorum Scriptura sit memor: de illis vero quorum justitiae meminit, et peccatorum sine dubio meminisset, si qua eos peccasse sensisset.» Dicat ergo non pertinuisse ad justitiam tantam illorum fidem, qui magna multitudine praecedentes et consequentes cum laudibus Domini asellum, etiam inter frementes quare hoc facerent inimicos, clamabant dicentes, Hosanna filio David ; benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini (Matth. XXI, 9). Audeat ergo dicere iste, si potest, neminem fuisse in tanta illa multitudine, qui ullum haberet omnino peccatum. Quod si absurdissimum est dicere, cur nulla peccata eorum Scriptura commemoravit, quae tantum bonum fidei ipsorum commemorare curavit?