The works of Nathaniel Lardner - The Christian Researcher - Home

380 Credibility of the Gospel History.
referred to those words in Philip, ii. 8, " And was found in
fashion as a man."
^Vhereas it was objected to them that* if Jesus had not
been born, and had not an human body, he could not have
been seen or heard by men : they answered that angels had
been seen, and had conversed with men, though they had
not human bodies.
XXII. As the Manichees did not believe that Christ was
born, or had a true body, so neither did they believe that he
Mas really crucified, or that he died. They did not deny"
that he was apprehended by the Jews, and so far as in them
lay, fastened to the cross, and that he seemed to die: but
they did not allow that he really died.
So Faustus says without any hesitation or ambig-uity :
' We" own that he suffered in appearance, but he did not
' really die.' Again :
' It'" is our opinion that Jesus did not
* die.' He likewise says: ' As'' from the beginning-, having-
' taken the likeness of man, he appeared to have all the
' infirmities of the human state; so, at the conclusion of his
' transaction here, it was not improper that he should seem
' to die.'
Mani himself in his fragment says: ' A^ simple nature
' does not die, nor is an appearance of flesh crucified.' And^
more to the like purpose.
Augustine^ passeth a just censure upon their notion of a
seeming- death, and an imag-inary, deceitful resurrection.
Nevertheless they often speak'' of Christ's being- made
* Nam illud quidem, quod saepe affirmare soletis, necessario eum esse
uatum, quia alias hominibus videri aut loqui non posset, ridiculum est ; cum
multoties, ut jam probatum a nostris est, angeli, et visi hominibus et locuti
esse monstrentur. Faust. 1. 29. c. i. f.
" See Beaus. T. i. p. 228, 229. " Denique nos specie tenus
passum confitemur, nee vere mortuum, Faust. 1. 29. c. i.
" Alioquin nobis nee Jesus mortuus est, nee est immortalis Elias. Id.
1. 26. c. 2. f.
* Ut enim ab initio, sumtahominis similitudine, omnes humanaeconditionis
simulavit affectus, sic ab re non erat, si in fine quoque consignandae CEConomiae
gratia, fuisset visus et mori. lb. 1. 26. c. i. f.
y 'AttXjj ^vaiQ «K aTro9vi](TKH, Kai (TKin (TapKOQ 8