§14Horum igitur tempora obseruantes et dies et menses et annos galaticamur? plane, si Iudaicarum caeremoniarum, si legalium sollemnitatum obseruantes sumus; illas enim apostolus dedocet compescens ueteris testamenti in Christo sepulti perseuerantiam et noui sistens.
Therefore, by observing these times and days and months and years, do we "galatianize"? Clearly, yes, if we are observers of Jewish ceremonies and legal solemnities; for those the Apostle unteaches, restraining the perseverance of the Old Testament buried in Christ, and establishing that of the New.
quod si noua conditio in Christo, noua et sollemnia esse debebunt: aut si omnem in totum deuotionem temporum et dierum et mensium et annorum erasit apostolus, cur pascha celebramus annuo circulo in mense primo? cur quinquaginta exinde diebus in omni exultatione decurrimus? cur stationibus quartam et sextam sabbati dicamus et ieiuniis parasceuen? quamquam uos etiam sabbatum, si quando, continuatis, numquam nisi in pascha ieiunandum secundum rationem alibi redditam.
But if there is a new creation in Christ, there must also be new solemnities; or if the Apostle completely erased all devotion of times and days and months and years, why do we celebrate Passover in the annual cycle in the first month? Why do we run through fifty days from then in all exultation? Why do we dedicate the fourth and sixth days of the week to stations, and the preparation day to fasts? Although you also, if ever, continue the fast through the Sabbath, which must never be fasted except at Passover, according to the reason rendered elsewhere.
nobis certe omnis dies etiam uulgata consecratione celebratur.
For us, certainly, every day is celebrated even with common consecration.
nec ergo apud apostolum differentiae ratio, distinguentem noua et uetera.
Therefore, there is no ground of distinction with the Apostle, who distinguishes between the new and the old.
sed et hic inaequalitas uestra ridebitur, cum uetustatum formam nobis exprobratis in quo causam nouitatis accusatis.
But here also your inconsistency will be laughed at, when you reproach us with the form of antiquities in that very matter in which you accuse us of the charge of novelty.
§15Reprobat etiam illos qui iubeant cibis abstinere, sed de prouidentia spiritus sancti, praedamnans iam haereticos perpetuam abstinentiam praecepturos ad destruenda et despicienda opera creatoris, quales inueniam apud Marcionem, apud Tatianum, apud Iouem, hodiernum de Pythagora haereticum, non. apud paracletum.
He also condemns those who command to abstain from foods, but out of the foresight of the Holy Spirit, pre-condemning already the heretics who would enjoin perpetual abstinence to destroy and despise the works of the Creator, such as I might find in Marcion, in Tatian, or in Jove, a contemporary heretic derived from Pythagoras, not in the Paraclete.
quantula est enim apud nos interdictio ciborum? duas in anno hebdomadas xerophagiarum nec totas, exceptis scilicet sabbatis et dominicis, offerimus deo abstinentes ab eis quae non reicimus, sed differimus.
For how small is the prohibition of foods among us? Two weeks of xerophagies in the year, and not even entire ones—Sabbaths and Sundays being of course excepted—we offer to God, abstaining from those things which we do not reject, but defer.
atqui ad Romanos scribens uos nunc compungit detractatores\' huius officii. ne.
And yet, writing to the Romans, he now pricks you, the detractors of this duty.
propter pabulum solueritis, inquit, opus dei. quod opus? de quo ait: bonum est carnem non edere et uinum non potare. nam qui in istis seruit, placabilis et propitiabilis deo nostro est.
"Do not," he says, "destroy the work of God for the sake of food." What work? Concerning which he says: "It is good not to eat meat and not to drink wine." For he who serves in these things is pleasing and acceptable to our God.
quidam credit omnia manducanda esse, quidam autem infirmus holera uescitur; qui manducat, ne nullificet non manducantem. tu quis es, qui alienum seruum iudicas? et qui manducat et qui non manducat, deo agit gratias. cum autem humano arbitrio uetet controuersiam fieri, quanto magis diuino? ita sciebat quosdam castigatores et interdictores uictus incusare, qui ex fastidio, non qui ex officio abstinerent, probare uero qui in honorem, non qui in conuicium creatoris.
"One believes that all things are to be eaten, but another, who is weak, eats vegetables; let him who eats not despise him who does not eat." "Who are you to judge another's servant?" "And both he who eats and he who does not eat gives thanks to God." But since he forbids controversy to be made by human judgment, how much more by divine? Thus he knew how to accuse certain chastisers and prohibitors of food who abstained out of disgust, not out of duty, but to approve those who did so to the honor, not to the abuse, of the Creator.
et si claues macelli tibi tradidit permittens esui omnia ad constituendam idolothytorum exceptionem, non tamen in macello regnum dei inclusit.
And if he delivered the keys of the meat-market to you, permitting all things for eating with the establishment of the exception of things offered to idols, he did not, however, shut up the kingdom of God in the meat-market.
nec enim, inquit, esus aut potus est dei regnum, et, esca nos deo non commendat, non ut de arida dictum putes, sed potius de uncta et accurata, siquidem subiciens: nec si manducauerimus, abundabimus, nec si non manducauerimus, deficiemus, tibi magis intonat, qui abundare te existimas, si edas, et deficere, si non edas, et ideo ista detractas.
For, he says, "the kingdom of God is not eating or drinking," and "food does not commend us to God"—not that you should think this was said of dry food, but rather of rich and carefully prepared food, since adding: "neither if we eat shall we abound, nor if we do not eat shall we lack," he thunders rather against you, who think that you abound if you eat, and lack if you do not eat, and therefore disparage these practices.
dominum quoque quam indigne ad tuam libidinem interpretaris passim manducantem et bibentem, sed puto, quod etiam ieiunarit, qui beatos non saturatos, sed esurientes et sitientes pronuntiarit, qui escam profitebatur, non quam discipuli existimarant, sed paterni operis perfectionem, docens operari escam quae permanet in uitam aeternam, in ordinaria etiam oratione panem mandans postulandum, non et Attalicas diuitias.
How unworthily also do you interpret the Lord to your own lust as eating and drinking everywhere! But I think that He also fasted, who pronounced blessed not the full, but those who hunger and thirst; who declared His food to be, not what the disciples had supposed, but the completion of His Father's work; teaching to work for the food which remains unto eternal life; commanding that in the ordinary prayer also, bread should be asked for, and not Attalic riches.
sic et Esaias non negauit deum elegisse ieiunium, sed quale non elegerit enumerauit.
Thus also Isaiah did not deny that God has chosen fasting, but enumerated what kind He did not choose.
in diebus enim, inquit, ieiuniorum uestrorum inueniuntur uoluntates uestrae, et omnes subiectos uobis succutitis aut ad conuicia et lites ieiunatis et caeditis pugnis. non tale ieiunium ego elegi, sed quale subiecit, et subiciendo non abstulit, sed confirmauit.
"For in the days," he says, "of your fasts, your own wills are found, and you oppress all who are subject to you, or you fast for quarrels and strifes, and strike with fists." "Not such a fast have I chosen," but the kind which he added; and by adding it, he did not take away fasting, but confirmed it.