who ascribe to Him most excellent, but merely human,
wisdom. These say that the disciples made out the Master to be more
than He really was when they said that He was the Son of God and the
Word of God, by whom all things were made." And farther on he adds:
"It seems as though they were prepared to believe whatever He might
have written of Himself, but not what others at their discretion
published about Him." Therefore it seems that Christ should have
Himself committed His doctrine to writing.

_On the contrary,_ No books written by Him were to be found in the
canon of Scripture.

_I answer that,_ It was fitting that Christ should not commit His
doctrine to writing. First, on account of His dignity: for the more
excellent the teacher, the more excellent should be his manner of
teaching. Consequently it was fitting that Christ, as the most
excellent of teachers, should adopt that manner of teaching whereby
His doctrine is imprinted on the hearts of His hearers; wherefore it
is written (Matt. 7:29) that "He was teaching them as one having
power." And so it was that among the Gentiles, Pythagoras and
Socrates, who were teachers of great excellence, were unwilling to
write anything. For writings are ordained, as to an end, unto the
imprinting of doctrine in the hearts of the hearers.

Secondly, on account of the excellence of Christ's doctrine, which
cannot be expressed in writing; according to John 21:25: "There are
also many other things which Jesus did: which, if they were written
everyone, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the
books that should be written." Which Augustine explains by saying:
"We are not to believe that in respect of space the world could not
contain them . . . but that by the capacity of the readers they could
not be comprehended." And if Christ had committed His doctrine to
writing, men would have had no deeper thought of His doctrine than
that which appears on the surface of the writing.

Thirdly, that His doctrine might reach all in an orderly manner:
Himself teaching His disciples immediately, and they subsequently
teaching others, by preaching and writing: whereas if He Himself had
written, His doctrine would have reached all immediately.

Hence it is said of Wisdom (Prov. 9:3) that "she hath sent her maids
to invite to the tower." It is to be observed, however, that, as
Augustine says (De Consensu Evang. i), some of the Gentiles thought
that Christ wrote certain books