Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani

Contents

Reading pages: 1–8 · 9–13 · 14–16 · 17–21 · 22–28

1. 1Against the Manichaean claim that Genesis 1 conflicts with John 1:10, Augustine argues that the Son, the Word through whom God said “Let it be,” is present in the creation account.
2. 2Augustine answers the claim that God's rest in Genesis 2 contradicts John 5:17: God ceased from creating but not from governing, and the Sabbath is kept spiritually by Christians.
3. 3Augustine reconciles Genesis 2 on marriage with Christ's call to leave a wife for the kingdom: both come from the Lord, a wife is left only if she hinders faith (1 Cor 7:15), and divorce is otherwise forbidden except for sexual immorality.
4. 4Augustine rejects the Manichaean contrast between Cain's curse of barren land and Christ's command not to worry about tomorrow, pointing to the cursed fig tree and Psalm 55:22.
5. 5Augustine reconciles man's creation in God's image with Christ calling unbelievers sons of the devil by distinguishing sonship by nature, teaching, and imitation.
6. 6Augustine reconciles the command to honor parents with Christ's “let the dead bury their dead”: parents are honored in their place but set aside for the love of God, as Deuteronomy 33:9 also teaches.
7. 7Augustine answers the charge that God's jealousy and punishment of children in Exodus 20 contradict Christ's teaching on kindness and forgiveness, arguing that both Testaments teach God's patience, pardon of the penitent, and justice.
8. 8Augustine explains “eye for eye” as a first step that limited revenge, which the gospel completes with full forgiveness, already foretold in the Psalms and Lamentations.
9. 9Augustine answers the claim that Old Testament theophanies contradict John 1:18: the Son, the Word, made the Father known through angels and visible creatures, while God himself is seen only by the pure in heart.
10. 10Against the claim that God's tabernacle contradicts Christ's words that heaven is God's throne, Augustine sets Isaiah 66:1 against Christ's cleansing of the temple to show that both Testaments say the same.
11. 11Augustine defends God's “jealousy” in Exodus as a figurative word for his just providence, comparing Cicero's use of “mercy,” and shows that both Testaments speak of God's jealousy and righteousness.
12. 12Augustine answers Adimantus's attack on the law's “the blood is the soul”: it concerns beasts, not human souls, and is a sign like “the rock was Christ,” while 1 Cor 15:50 refers to the transformation of the body at the resurrection.
13. 13Augustine answers Adimantus's contrast between the “devouring fire” and “jealous God” of Deuteronomy and “no one is good but God,” showing that both Testaments speak of God's goodness, severity, and fire.
14. 14Augustine answers the claim that Deuteronomy's permission to eat meat contradicts the New Testament: the law permits moderate eating, Paul's “good not to eat meat” concerns not offending the weak, and Manichaean abstention from meat as unclean is what 1 Tim 4:3 condemns.
15. 15Augustine shows that Adimantus's use of Matt 15:11 against the food laws of Leviticus refutes the Manichaeans' own abstinence from meat, since Christ told the disciples privately that no food defiles, while the food laws were figures of the Church.
16. 16Augustine answers Adimantus's use of Matt 23:15, 1 Cor 7:19 and Gal 4:10 against the Sabbath and circumcision: these were shadows rightly imposed and now understood spiritually, and Christ condemned the Pharisees' conduct, not the law.
17. 17Augustine answers the charge that the conquest commands contradict “love your enemies”: punishment can be given without hatred, as Paul, Peter, and even the Manichaeans' apocryphal Acts show, and David's sparing of Saul fulfilled Christ's command.
18. 18Augustine answers the claim that Deuteronomy's earthly blessings contradict Christ's call to self-denial: God gives earthly goods to the fleshly and heavenly goods to the spiritual, and both Testaments place true happiness in God alone.
19. 19Augustine answers the claim that God's promise of riches to his friends contradicts the beatitudes on poverty, showing that the gospel also promises the earth to the meek and the Old Testament also ranks wisdom far above wealth.
20. 20Augustine answers the claim that the earthly blessings of Leviticus 26 contradict Christ's sending out of the apostles without money: these were concessions, not commands, and temporal gifts taught a fleshly people to love God and prefigured eternal gifts.
21. 21Augustine answers the use of Deut 21:23 against Christ's call to take up the cross: the curse falls on the death and mortality Christ took on, as Paul teaches in Gal 3:13, prefigured by the bronze serpent.
22. 22Augustine answers the contrast between the Sabbath-breaker stoned in Numbers and Christ's Sabbath healing, and turns the Manichaeans' belief in plant souls against them with the withered fig tree.
23. 23Augustine briefly answers the contrast between Psalm 128's blessing of wife and children and Christ's praise of eunuchs, referring to his third chapter.
24. 24Augustine reads the ant of Proverbs 6 spiritually, as gathering God's word in peaceful times against tribulation, and shows that “do not think about tomorrow” forbids anxiety, not provision.
25. 25Augustine reads Hosea's curse of barren wombs figuratively, applying it to false teachers who bear no fruit, and shows that the reward of eunuchs is promised in Isaiah as well as in the gospel.
26. 26Augustine explains Amos 3:6 (“no evil … which the Lord will not do”) as evil suffered, that is, just punishment, which is good fruit of God's justice, and reads the good and bad trees of the gospel as people who can change their will.
27. 27Augustine reads Isaiah 45:7 (“I make peace and establish evils”) through Romans 11:22 as God's goodness and severity, and shows that each Testament contains what the Manichaeans praise and blame in the other.
28. 28Augustine answers the contrast between Isaiah's vision of God and Paul's “invisible King” by distinguishing bodily, spiritual (imaginative), and intellectual vision, and notes that Adimantus cut both texts short.