33. The judges
said: He has given demonstration enough of the origin of the
devil. And as both sides admit that there will be a judgment, it
is necessarily involved in that admission that every individual is
shown to have free-will; and since this is brought clearly out, there
can be no doubt that every individual, in the exercise of his own
proper power of will, may shape his course in whatever direction he
pleases.1758
| 1758
This appears to be general sense of the very corrupt passage,
“Quo videntur ostenso nulli dubium est unusquisque in quamcunque
elegerit partem propria usus arbitrii potestate.” In Migne
it is amended thus: “Quo evidenter ostenso, nulli dubium
est, quod unusquisque in quamcunque elegerit partem, propria usus
fuerit arbitrii potestate.” |
Manes
said: If (only) the good is from (your)
God, as you allege,
then you make
Jesus Himself a
liar.
1759
| 1759
Adopting the emendation, “si a Deo bonus, ut asseris, mendacem
esse dixisti Jesum.” In the Codex Casinensis it stands
thus: “sic a Deo bonus ut as mendacem esse dixisti
Jesus.” But Routh would substitute “si a Deo
diabolus” = if the devil is from God. |
Archelaus said: In the
first place, admit that the account of what we have adduced is true,
and then I will give you
proof about the “
father of
him.”
1760
| 1760 The
argumentation throughout this passage seems to rest on the fact that,
in support of the dogma of the evil deity, Manes perverted, among other
passages, our Lord’s words in John viii. 44, as if they were not only
“Ye are of your father the devil” but possibly also,
“Ye are of the father of the devil;” and again, “He
is a liar, and the father of him is the same.” Thus
what Manes urges against Archelaus is this: If only what is good
proceeds from the Deity, and if He is the Supreme Good Himself, you
make out Jesus to have spoken falsely, when in John’s Gospel He
uses expressions which imply that the devil’s father is a liar,
and also the Creator of the lying devil. |
Manes
said: If you
prove to me that his
father is a
liar, and yet
show me that for all that you ascribe no such (
evil) notion to
God,
then credit will be given you on all points.
Archelaus
said: Surely when a full account of the
devil has once been
presented, and the dispensation set forth, any one now, with an
ordinarily vigorous understanding, might simply, by turning the matter
carefully over in his own
mind, get an idea of who this is that is here
called the
father of the
devil. But though you give yourself out
to be the Paraclete, you come very
far short of the ordinary sagacity
of men. Wherefore, as you have
betrayed your ignorance, I shall
tell you what is meant by this expression, the “
father of the
devil.”
Manes said: I say so
1761
| 1761 There
are some words deficient in this sentence. The text reads,
“Manes dixit:…dico: et adjecit, Omnis qui conditor
est vel Creator aliquorum pater eorum…condiderit
appellatur.” It is proposed to supply jam before
dico, and quæ before condiderit. |
…;
and he added: Every
one who is the founder or
maker of anything may be called the
father,
parent, of that which he has made.
Archelaus
said: Well, I am verily
astonished that you have made so
correct an admission in reply to what I have said, and have not
concealed either your intelligent apprehension of the affirmation, or
the real
nature of the same. Now, from this
learn who is this
father of the
devil. When he fell from the
kingdom of
heaven, he
came to dwell upon
earth, and there he remained, ever watching and
seeking out some one to whom he might attach himself, and whom, through
an
alliance with himself, he might also make a partner in his own
wickedness. Now as long, indeed, as man was not yet existent, the
devil was never called either a murderer or a
liar together with his
father. But subsequently, when man had once been made, and when
further he had been
deceived by the
devil’s
lies and
craftiness,
and when the
devil had also introduced himself into the body of the
serpent, which was the most sagacious of all the
beasts, then from that
time the
devil was called a
liar together with his
father, and
then
1762
| 1762
Reading et effectum for the ut effectum of the codex. |
also the
curse
was made to
rest not only on himself, but also on his
father.
Accordingly, when the
serpent had received him, and had indeed admitted
him wholly into its own being, it was, as it were, rendered pregnant,
for it bore the burden of the
devil’s vast
wickedness; and it was
like one with
child, and under the strain of parturition, as it sought
to eject the agitations
1763
| 1763 Or
it may be “cogitations,” reading cogitata for
agitata. |
of his malignant suggestions. For
the
serpent, grudging the
glory of the first man, made its way into
paradise; and harbouring these pains of parturition in itself,
1764
| 1764
Conceptis in se doloribus. |
it began to
produce mendacious addresses, and to generate
death for the men who had
been fashioned by
God, and who had received the
gift of
life. The
devil, however, was not able to manifest himself completely through the
serpent; but he reserved his
perfection for a time, in order that he
might demonstrate it through
Cain, by whom he was generated
completely. And thus through the
serpent, on the one
hand, he
displayed his hypocrisies and deceits to
Eve; while through
Cain, on
the other
hand, he effected the beginning of
murder, introducing
himself into the firstlings of the “fruits,” which that man
administered so badly. From this the
devil has been called a
murderer from the beginning, and also a
liar, because he
deceived the
parties to whom he said, “Ye shall be as gods;”
1765
for those very
persons whom he falsely declared destined to be gods were afterwards
cast out of
paradise. Wherefore the
serpent which conceived him
in its
womb, and bore him, and brought him forth to the
light of day,
is constituted the
devil’s first
father; and
Cain is made his
second
father, who through the conception of
iniquities produced pains
and parricide: for truly the taking of
life was the perpetrating
of
iniquity,
unrighteousness, and impiety all together.
Furthermore, all who receive him, and do his
lusts, are constituted his
brothers.
Pharaoh is his
father in
perfection. Every
impious man is made his
father.
Judas became his
father, since he
conceived him indeed, though he miscarried: for he did not
present a
perfect parturition there, since it was really a
greater person who was
assailed through
Judas; and consequently, as I say, it
proved an
abortion. For just as the
woman receives the man’s
seed,
and thereby also becomes sensible of a
daily growth within her, so also
did
Judas make
daily advances in
evil, the occasions for that being
furnished him like
seed by the
wicked one. And the first
seed of
evil in him, indeed, was the
lust of
money; and its increment was
theft, for he purloined the moneys which were deposited in the
bag. Its
offspring, moreover, consisted of less vexations, and
compacts with the
Pharisees, and the scandalous bargain for a
price;
yet it was the
abortion, and not the
birth, that was witnessed in the
horrid noose by which he met his
death. And exactly in the same
way shall it stand also with you: if you bring the
wicked one to
light in your own
deeds, and do his
lusts, you have conceived him, and
will be called his
father; but, on the other
hand, if you cherish
penitence, and
deliver yourself of your burden, you will be like one
that brings to the
birth.
1766
| 1766 The
text gives parturies. Routh suggests
parturiens. The sense then might be, But if you repent,
you will also deliver yourself of your burden like one who brings to
the birth. |
For, as in
school exercises, if
one gets the subject-matter from the master, and then
creates and
produces the whole body of an
oration by himself, he is said to be the
author of the compositions to which he has thus given
birth;
1767
| 1767
Reading Domine for Dominum, which is given in the
text. |
so he who has
taken in any little
leaven of
evil from the prime
evil, is of necessity
called the
father and procreator of that
wicked one, who from the
beginning has
resisted the
truth. The case may be the same,
indeed, with those who
devote themselves to
virtue; for I have heard
the most valiant men say to
God, “For Thy
fear, O
Lord, we have
conceived in the
womb, and we have been in
pain, and have brought forth
the spirit of
salvation.”
1768
And so those, too, who conceive
in respect of the
fear of the
wicked one, and bring forth the spirit of
iniquity, must needs be called the fathers of the same. Thus, on
the one
hand, they are called sons of that
wicked one, so long as they
are still yielding obedience to his service; but, on the other
hand,
they are called fathers if they have attained to the
perfection of
iniquity. For it is with this view that our
Lord says to the
Pharisees, “Ye are of your
father the
devil,”
1769
thereby making
them his sons, as long as they appeared still to be perturbed
1770
by him, and
meditated in their
hearts evil for good toward the
righteous.
Accordingly, while they deliberated in such a spirit with their own
hearts, and while their
wicked devices were made chargeable
upon
1771
themselves,
Judas, as the head of all the
evil, and as the person who carried out
their iniquitous
counsels to their consummation, was constituted the
father of the
crime, having received at their
hands the recompense of
thirty pieces of
silver for his impious
cruelty. For “after
the sop
Satan entered into him”
1772
completely. But, as we have said,
when his
womb was
enlarged, and the time of his
travail came on, he
delivered himself only of an abortive burden in the conception of
unrighteousness, and consequently he could not be called the
father in
perfection, except only at that very time when the conception was still
in the womb; and afterwards, when he betook himself to the
hangman’s rope, he showed that he had not brought it to a
complete birth, because remorse
1773
followed.
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