Chapter XX.—The Marcionites Charged God with Having Instigated the Hebrews to Spoil the Egyptians. Defence of the Divine Dispensation in that Matter.

But these “saucy cuttles”623    Sepiæ isti.  Pliny, in his Nat. Hist. ix. 29, says: “The males of the cuttles kind are spotted with sundry colours more dark and blackish, yes, and more firme and steady, than the female. If the female be smitted with the trout-speare, they will come to succour her; but she again is not so kind to them: for if the male be stricken, she will not stand to it, but runs away. But both of them, if they perceive that they be taken in such streights that they cannot escape, shed from them a certain black humor like to ink; and when the water therewith is troubled and made duskish, therein they hide themselves, and are no more seen” (Holland’s Translation, p. 250). Our epithet “saucy cuttle” comes from Shakespeare, 2 Henry iv 2, 4, where, however, the word seems employed in a different sense. (of heretics) under the figure of whom the law about things to be eaten624    Deut. xiv. prohibited this very kind of piscatory aliment, as soon as they find themselves confuted, eject the black venom of their blasphemy, and so spread about in all directions the object which (as is now plain) they severally have in view, when they put forth such assertions and protestations as shall obscure and tarnish the rekindled light625    Relucentem, “rekindled” by the confutation. of the Creator’s bounty. We will, however, follow their wicked design, even through these black clouds, and drag to light their tricks of dark calumny, laying to the Creator’s charge with especial emphasis the fraud and theft of gold and silver which the Hebrews were commanded by Him to practise against the Egyptians. Come, unhappy heretic, I cite even you as a witness; first look at the case of the two nations, and then you will form a judgment of the Author of the command.  The Egyptians put in a claim on the Hebrews for these gold and silver vessels.626    Vasa = the jewels and the raiment mentioned in Ex. iii. 22. The Hebrews assert a counter claim, alleging that by the bond627    Nomine. [Here our author exhibits his tact as a jurisconsult.] of their respective fathers, attested by the written engagement of both parties, there were due to them the arrears of that laborious slavery of theirs, for the bricks they had so painfully made, and the cities and palaces628    Villis. which they had built. What shall be your verdict, you discoverer629    Elector. of the most good God? That the Hebrews must admit the fraud, or the Egyptians the compensation? For they maintain that thus has the question been settled by the advocates on both sides,630    For a discussion of the spoiling of the Egyptians by the Israelites, the reader is referred to Calmet’s Commentary, on Ex. iii. 22, where he adduces, besides this passage of Tertullian, the opinions of Irenæus, adv. Hæres. iv. 49; Augustine, contra Faust. ii. 71; Theodoret, Quæst. in Exod. xxiii.; Clement of Alex. Stromat. i. 1; of Philo, De Vita Moysis, i.; Josephus, Antiqq. ii. 8, who says that “the Egyptians freely gave all to the Israelites;” of Melchior Canus, Loc. Theoll. i. 4. He also refers to the book of Wisdom, x. 17–20. These all substantially agree with our author. See also a full discussion in Selden, De Jure Nat. et Gentium, vii. 8, who quotes from the Gemara, Sanhedrin, c. ii. f. 91a; and Bereshith Rabba, par. 61 f., 68, col. 2, where such a tribunal as Tertullian refers to is mentioned as convened by Alexander the Great, who, after hearing the pleadings, gave his assent to the claims of the advocates of Israel. of the Egyptians demanding their vessels, and the Hebrews claiming the requital of their labours. But for all they say,631    Tamen. the Egyptians justly renounced their restitution-claim then and there; while the Hebrews to this day, in spite of the Marcionites, re-assert their demand for even greater damages,632    Amplius. insisting that, however large was their loan of the gold and silver, it would not be compensation enough, even if the labour of six hundred thousand men should be valued at only “a farthing”633    Singulis nummis. [Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 23. Vol. II., p. 336, supra.] a day a piece. Which, however, were the more in number—those who claimed the vessel, or those who dwelt in the palaces and cities? Which, too, the greater—the grievance of the Egyptians against the Hebrews, or “the favour”634    Gratia Hebræorum, either a reference to Ex. iii. 21, or meaning, perhaps, “the unpaid services of the Hebrews.” which they displayed towards them? Were free men reduced to servile labour, in order that the Hebrews might simply proceed against the Egyptians by action at law for injuries; or in order that their officers might on their benches sit and exhibit their backs and shoulders shamefully mangled by the fierce application of the scourge? It was not by a few plates and cup—in all cases the property, no doubt, of still fewer rich men—that any one would pronounce that compensation should have been awarded to the Hebrews, but both by all the resources of these and by the contributions of all the people.635    Popularium omnium. If, therefore, the case of the Hebrews be a good one, the Creator’s case must likewise be a good one; that is to say, his command, when He both made the Egyptians unconsciously grateful, and also gave His own people their discharge in full636    Expunxit. at the time of their migration by the scanty comfort of a tacit requital of their long servitude. It was plainly less than their due which He commanded to be exacted. The Egyptians ought to have given back their men-children637    Ex. i. 18, 22. [An ingenious and eloquent defence.] also to the Hebrews.

CAPUT XX.

Sed enim sepiae isti, quorum figura illud quoque 0308B pisculentum de cibis Lex recusavit, ut traductionem sui sentiunt, tenebras hinc blasphemiae intervomunt, atque ita intentionem uniuscujusque jam proximam dispargunt, jactitando et asseverando ea quae relucentem bonitatem Creatoris infuscent. Sed et per istas caligines sequemur nequitiam, et in lucem extrabemus ingenia tenebrarum, objicientia Creatori vel maxime fraudem illam et rapinam auri et argenti, mandatam ab illo Hebraeis in Aegyptios. Age, infelicissime haeretice, teipsum expostulo arbitrum: cognosce in utramque gentem prius, et ita de auctore praecepti judicabis. Reposcunt Aegyptii de Hebraeis vasa aurea et argentea; contra Hebraei mutuas petitiones instituunt, allegantes sibi quoque eorumdem patrum nomine, ex eodem scripturae instrumento 0308C mercedes restitui oportere illius operariae servitutis, pro laterinis deductis, pro civitatibus et villis aedificatis. Quid judicabis, optimi Dei elector? Hebraeos fraudem agnoscere debere, an Aegyptios compensationem? 0309A Nam et aiunt ita actum per legatos utrinque; Aegyptiorum quidem repetentium vasa, Judaeorum vero reposcentium operas suas: et tandem vasis istis renuntiaverunt sibi Aegyptii. Hodie adversus Marcionitas amplius allegant. Hebraei, negantes compensationi satis esse quantumvis illud auri et argenti, si sexcentorum millium operae per tot annos vel singulis nummis diurnis aestimentur. Quae autem pars major? repetentium vasa, an incolentium villas et urbes? Querela ergo mare Aegyptiorum, an gratia Hebraeorum? Ut solo injuriarum judicio Hebraei Aegyptios repercuterent, liberi homines in ergastulum subacti, ut solas scapulas suas scribae eorum apud subsellia sua ostenderet flagellorum contumeliosa atrocitate laceratas: non paucis 0309B lancibus et scyphis, pauciorum utique divitum ubique, sed totis et ipsorum facultatibus, et popularium omnium collationibus satisfaciendum Hebraeis pronuntiasses ? Igitur si bona Hebraeorum caussa, bona jam et caussa, id est, mandatum Creatoris, qui et Aegyptios gratos fecit nescientes, et suum populum, in tempore expeditionis angusto, aliquo solatio tacitae compositionis expunxit. Plane minus exigi jussit: Hebraeis enim etiam filios Aegyptii restituere debuerant.