Chapter XII.—(29.) The Second Passage. Who May Be Said to Abstain from Every Evil Thing.

“They are in the habit of next quoting,” says he, “the passage: ‘Every man is a liar.’”120    Ps. cxv. 2. But here again he offers no solution of words which are quoted against himself even by himself; all he does is to mention other apparently opposite passages before persons who are unacquainted with the sacred Scriptures, and thus to cast the word of God into conflict. This is what he says: “We tell them in answer, how in the book of Numbers it is said, ‘Man is true.’121    If this refer to Num. xxiv. 3, 15 (as the editions mark it), the quotation is most inexact. The Septuagint words ὸ ἀνθρωπος ὸ ἀληθινως ορῶν is not a proposition equal to “homo verax,” as an antithesis to the proposition “omnis homo mendax.” While of holy Job this eulogy is read: ‘There was a certain man in the land of Ausis, whose name was Job; that man was true, blameless, righteous, and godly, abstaining from every evil thing.’”122    Job i. 1. I am surprised that he has brought forward this passage, which says that Job “abstained from every evil thing,” wishing it to mean “abstained from every sin;” because he has argued already123    See above, ii.(4). that sin is not a thing, but an act. Let him recollect that, even if it is an act, it may still be called a thing. That man, however, abstains from every evil thing, who either never consents to the sin, which is always with him, or, if sometimes hard pressed by it, is never oppressed by it; just as the wrestling champion, who, although he is sometimes caught in a fierce grapple, does not for all that lose the prowess which constitutes him the better man. We read, indeed, of a man without blame, of one without accusation; but we never read of one without sin, except the Son of man, who is also the only-begotten Son of God.

CAPUT XII.

29. «Iterum proponere solent,» inquit, «Omnis homo mendax (Psal. CXV, 2).» Neque hoc contra se ipsum a se ipso propositum solvit: sed commemorando alia velut contraria testimonia, apud eos qui non intelligunt sanctam Scripturam, divina eloquia in lite dimisit. Ait enim: Quibus respondendum est, quod in Numerorum libro scriptum est: «Homo verax» (Num. XXIV, sec. LXX). Et de sancto Job legitur ita: «Erat vir habitans in regione Ausitidae, nomine Job, verax, sine crimine, justus, Dei cultor, abstinens se ab omni re mala» (Job I, 1). Miror quod ausus est ponere hoc testimonium, ubi dictum est, Abstinens se ab omni re mala, cum hoc ab omni peccato vellet intelligi; cum superius dixerit, peccatum actum esse , non rem (Cap. 2, n. 4). Reminiscatur ergo quia etiam si actus sit, res potest dici. Abstinet se autem ab omni re mala, qui peccato, sine quo non est, vel nunquam omnino consentit, vel si aliquando premitur, non opprimitur; sicut luctator fortior, et si aliquando tenetur, non ideo perdit quo superior invenitur. Legitur sane homo sine crimine, legitur sine querela: 0307 at non legitur sine peccato, nisi Filius hominis, unus idemque Dei Filius unicus.