Saint Augustine (354-430)

Against Faustus

Translated by Richard Stothert

Book XVI

Chapter 4

What, then, shall we point to? Shall it be that passage which you often quote where the God of Moses says to him: “I will raise up unto them from among their brethren a prophet like unto thee”? But the Jew can see that this does not refer to Christ, and there is every reason against our thinking that it does. Christ was not a prophet, nor was He like Moses: for Moses was a man, and Christ was God; Moses was a sinner, and Christ sinless; Moses was born by ordinary generation, and Christ of a virgin according to you, or, as I hold, not born at all: Moses, for offending his God, was put to death on the mountain; and Christ suffered voluntarily, and the Father was well pleased in Him. If we were to assert that Christ was a prophet like Moses, the Jew would either deride us as ignorant or pronounce us untruthful.

Book XVI Chapter 3

Book XVI Chapter 5