Quoting Scripture Like the Devil

Why, then, you heretic, did you not quote in this way the whole passage you had read? You see that the apostle laid down that the Lord was “without mother” in the same way that he laid down that he was born “without father,” so that we might know he is “without mother” in the same sense in which we understand him to be “without father.” And as it is impossible to believe that he is altogether “without father,” so we cannot understand that he is altogether “without mother.” Why, then, you heretic, did you not quote what you had read in the apostle in this way, whole and uncut? Instead you put in part and leave out part, and you garble the words of truth so that you can build up your false ideas by this wicked act. [a]

I see who your teacher was. We must believe you had your instruction from the one whose example you are following. For this is what the devil did in the Gospel when he tempted the Lord. He said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written that he will give his angels charge concerning you, to keep you in all your ways.” And when he had said this, he left out what follows and belongs with it: “You will walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you will trample underfoot the lion and the dragon.” He cunningly quoted the earlier verse and left out the later one. He quoted the one to deceive the Lord, and kept quiet about the other so as not to condemn himself, for he knew that he himself was meant by the asp and the basilisk, the lion and the dragon, in the prophet’s words. So you too bring forward a part and leave out a part. You quote the one to deceive, and you leave out the other for fear that, if you quoted the whole, you might condemn your own deception.

But it is now time to move on to other matters. Dwelling too long on single points, as the wish to give a full answer leads us to do, we are going beyond the limits even of a fairly long book.