Lecture 6 — The father of lies

^8:44^ You are of your father the devil, and you will do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he did not stand in the truth, because the truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar and the father of lies. [n. 1239]

1239. After showing that the Jews had a certain spiritual origin, and after rejecting the origin they presumed they had, our Lord here gives their true origin, ascribing their fatherhood to the devil.

First, he makes his statement;

second, he gives its reason; at and you will do the desires of your father;

third, he explains this reason, at he was a murderer from the beginning.

1240. He says: you are of your father the devil, and you will do the desires of your father, that is, by imitating him: your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite (Ezek 16:3).

Here one must guard against the heresy of the Manicheans who claim that there is a definite nature called ‘evil,’ and a certain race of darkness with its own princes, from which all corruptible things derive their origin. According to this opinion, all men, as to their flesh, have come from the devil. Further, they say that certain souls belong to that creation which is good, and others to that which is evil. Thus they said that our Lord said, you are of your father the devil, because they came from the devil according to the flesh, and their souls were part of that creation which was evil.

But as Origen says, to suppose that there are two natures because of the difference between good and evil seems to be like saying that the substance of an eye which sees is different from that of an eye that is clouded or crossed. For just as a healthy and bleary eye do not differ in substance, but the bleariness is from some deficient cause, so the substance and nature of a thing is the same whether it is good or has a defect in itself, which is a sin of the will. And so the Jews, as evil, are not called the children of the devil by nature, but by reason of their imitating him.

1241. Then when he says, and you will do the desires of your father, he gives the reason for this, for their being of the devil. It is like saying: you are not the children of the devil as though created and brought into existence by him, but because by imitating him you will do the desires of your father. And these desires are evil, for as he envied and killed man—through the devil’s envy death entered the world (Wis 2:24)—so you too envy me and but now you seek to kill me, a man who has spoken the truth to you (John 8:40).

1242. Then when he says, he was a murderer from the beginning, he explains the reason he gave.

First, he mentions the characteristic of the devil that they imitate;

second, he shows that they are truly imitators of that, at but if I say the truth, you do not believe me (John 8:45).

With respect to the first it should be noted that two sins stand out in the devil: the sin of pride towards God, and of envy towards man, whom he destroys. And from the sin of envy towards man, because of which he injures him, we can know his sin of pride. And so

first, he mentions the devil’s sin against man;

second, his sin against God, he did not stand in the truth.

1243. His sin of envy against man lies in the fact that he kills him. So he says, he, that is, the devil, was a murderer from the beginning.

Here it should be noted that the devil kills man not with the sword, but by persuading him to do evil. Through the devil’s envy death entered the world (Wis 2:24). First, the death of sin entered: the death of the wicked is very evil (Ps 33:22); then came bodily death: sin came into the world through one man and death through sin (Rom 5:12). As Augustine says: do not think that you are not a murderer when you lead your brother into evil.

However, it should be noted with Origen, that the devil is not called a murderer with respect to only some particular person, but with respect to the whole race, which he destroyed in Adam, in whom all die (1 Cor 15:22). Thus he is called a murderer because that is a chief characteristic, and he is so indeed from the beginning, that is, from the time that a man existed who could be killed, who could be murdered; for one cannot be murdered unless he first exists.

1244. Then when he says, he did not stand in the truth, he mentions the devil’s sin against God, which consists in the fact that he turned away from the truth, which is God.

First, he shows that he is turned from the truth;

second, he shows that he is contrary to the truth, at when he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own.

As to the first he does two things:

first, he shows that the devil is turned from the truth;

second, he explains what he has said, because there is no truth in him, at because the truth is not in him.

1245. He says, he did not stand in the truth.

Here it should be noted that truth is of two kinds, namely, the truth of word and the truth of deed. The truth of word consists in a person saying what he feels in his heart and what is in reality: therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor (Eph 4:25); he who speaks truth from his heart, who does not slander with his tongue (Ps 15:3). The truth of deed, on the other hand, is the truth of righteousness, i.e., when a person does what befits him according to the order of his nature. Concerning this it says above: but he who practices truth comes to the light, so that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God (John 3:21). Speaking of this truth our Lord says, in the truth, namely, the truth of righteousness, he did not stand, because he abandoned the order of his nature, which was that he be subject to God, and through him acquire his happiness and the fulfillment of his natural desire. And so, because he wanted to obtain this through himself, he fell from the truth.

1246. The statement, he did not stand in the truth, can be understood in two ways. Either he never had anything to do with the truth, or that he once did, but did not continue in it.

Now never to have anything to do with the truth of righteousness has two meanings. One is according to the Manicheans, who say that the devil is evil by nature. From this it follows that he was always evil, because whatever is present by nature is always present. But this is heretical, for we read: God made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them (Ps 146:6). Therefore, every being is from God; but everything which is from God, insofar as it is, is good.

Consequently, others have said that the devil was created good in his nature by God, but became evil in the first instant by his own free choice. And this opinion differs from that of the Manicheans who say that the devils were always and by nature evil, whereas this opinion claims that they were always evil by free choice.

Someone might suppose that since an angel is not evil by nature but by a sin of his own will—and sin is an act—it is possible that at the beginning of the act the angel was good, and at the end of the evil act he became evil. For it is plain that the act of sin in the devil is subsequent to his creation, and that the terminus of creation is the existence of an angel; but the terminus of the act of sin is that he is evil. Consequently, according to this explanation, they conclude that it is impossible that an angel be evil in the first instant in which the angel came to exist.

But this explanation does not seem to be sufficient, because it is true only in motions that occur in time and that are accomplished in a successive manner, not in instantaneous motions. For in every successive motion the instant in which an act begins is not the one in which the action is terminated; thus, if a local motion follows upon an alteration, the local motion cannot be terminated in the same instant as the alteration. But in changes that are instantaneous, the terminus of a first and of a second change can occur together and in the same instant. Thus, in the same instant that the moon is illumined by the sun, the air is illumined by the moon. Now it is clear that creation is instantaneous, and likewise the act of free choice in the angels, since they do not go through the weighings and discoursings of reason. Thus, in the case of an angel there is nothing to prevent the same instant from being the terminus of creation, in which he was good, and the terminus of a free decision in which he was evil.

Some admit this, although they do not say that it so happened, but that it could have so happened. And they base themselves on the authority of Scripture, for under the figure of the king of Babylon it is said of the devil: how have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who did rise in the morning? (Isa 14:12); and under the person of the king of Tyre it says: you were in the pleasures of the paradise of God (Ezek 28:13). Accordingly, they say that he was not evil at the first instant of his creation, but that he was once good, and fell through his free choice.

But it must be said that he could not be evil at the first instant of his creation. The reason for this is that no act is sinful except insofar as it is outside the nature of the voluntary agent. But in order of acts, the natural act is first: thus in understanding, first principles are understood first, and through them other things are understood; and in willing, we likewise first will the ultimate perfection and ultimate end, the desire for which is naturally in us, and on account of this we seek other things. Now that which is done according to nature is not sin. Therefore, it is impossible that the first act of the devil was evil; consequently, at some instant the devil was good. But he did not stand in the truth, i.e., he did not remain in it.

Concerning the statement, the devil has sinned from the beginning (1 John 3:8), one may say that he did indeed sin from the beginning in the sense that once he began to sin he never stopped.

1247. Then when he says, because the truth is not in him, he explains what he has said. And this explanation can be understood in two ways.

In one way, according to Origen, so that it is an explanation of the general by the particular, as when I explain that Socrates is an animal by the fact that he is a man. It is then like saying: he did not stand in the truth, but fell from it, and this because the truth is not in him. Now there are two classes of those that do not stand in the truth: some do not stand in the truth because they are not convinced, but waiver: my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had well nigh slipped (Ps 73:2); others, on the other hand, because they have entirely recoiled from the truth. And this was the way the devil did not stand in the truth, but turned away from it in aversion.

But is there no truth at all in him? For if there is no truth in him, we would not understand himself or anything else, since understanding is concerned only with things that are true.

I answer that there is some truth in the evil spirits, just as there is something true. For no evil utterly destroys a good thing, since at least the subject in which evil is found is good. Thus Dionysius says that the natural goods remain intact in evil spirits. Thus there is some truth in them, but not the fulfilling truth from which they have turned, namely, God, who is fulfilling truth and wisdom.

1248. In a second way, this explanation is understood as a sign, as Augustine says. For it seems that he should rather have said the converse, namely, that there is not truth in him, because he did not stand in the truth. But just as a cause is sometimes shown by its effect, so our Lord wished to show that the truth is not in him because he did not stand in the truth; for truth would have been in him had he stood in the truth. A similar pattern of speech is found in I cried because you heard (Ps 16:6); as if to say that it is evident that I cried because you heard me.

1249. Then he shows that the devil is contrary to the truth, when he lies, he speaks of his own.

First, he makes this point;

second, he explains it, at for he is a liar and the father of lies.

1250. The contrary of truth is falsity and a lie. The devil is contrary to the truth because he speaks a lie. Thus he says that when he speaks***, he speaks a lie***.

Here we should note that, God excepted, whoever speaks on his own speaks a lie; although not everyone who speaks a lie speaks on his own. God alone, when speaking on his own, speaks the truth, for truth is an enlightenment of the intellect, and God is light itself and all are enlightened by him: he was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9). Thus he is truth itself, and no one speaks the truth except insofar as he is enlightened by him. So Ambrose says: every truth, by whomsoever spoken, is from the Holy Spirit. Thus the devil, when he speaks on his own, speaks a lie; man, too, when he speaks on his own, speaks a lie; but when he speaks from God, he speaks the truth: let God be true though every man be false (Rom 3:4). But not every man who tells a lie speaks on his own, for sometimes he gets this from someone else, not indeed from God, who is truthful, but from him who did not stand in the truth and who first invented lying. So in a unique way when the devil tells a lie, he is speaking on his own: I will go forth and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all prophets (1 Kgs 22:22); the Lord mingled (that is, allowed to mingle) a spirit of error in their midst (Isa 19:14).

1251. He explains this statement when he says, for he is a liar and the father of lies. The Manicheans did not understand this, and placed some kind of procreation in the evil spirits, with the devil as their father. They said that the devil is a liar and the father of lies. It should not be understood this way, as our Lord said that the devil is a liar and its father, the father of lies. Not everyone who lies is the father of his lie. As Augustine says, if you have learned a lie from someone else and you repeat it, you have indeed lied, but you are not the father of that lie. But the devil, because he did not learn from someone else the lie by which he destroyed humankind as with poison, is the father of the lie, just as God is the father of truth. The devil was the first to invent the lie, namely, when he lied to the woman: you will not die (Gen 3:4). Just how true this statement was, was proved by the outcome.

1252. Here we should note that the book Questions of the New and Old Testament takes the words you are of your father the devil, and applies them to Cain, in the sense that one is called a devil who performs the works of the devil, and you are imitating him; hence you are of your father the devil, that is, of Cain, who did the work of the devil, and you are imitating him. Cain was a murderer from the beginning, because he killed his brother Abel. And he did not stand in the truth, because the truth is not in him. This is obvious because when the Lord asked him, where is Abel your brother? he said, I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper? (Gen 4:9). Thus he is a liar. But the first explanation is better.