312

by the strength of its constitution. For it is possible for the one who made them alone to dissolve even immortal things. 29. What then is the devil, you will say. A spirit concerned with matter, just as was also said by Athenagoras, created by God, just as indeed the other angels were also created by him, and entrusted with the administration of matter and the forms of matter. For this was the constitution of the angels, to have been made by God for providence over the things arranged by him, so that God might have the complete and general providence of all things, himself holding the authority and power 2.447 of all, and guiding the universe unswervingly, like a ship with the rudder of wisdom, while the angels appointed for this purpose have the providence of the parts. But while the others remained in the state for which God made and appointed them, this one acted insolently and became wicked in the administration of what was entrusted to him, having conceived envy against us, just as also those after this lusted for flesh and consorted with the daughters of men for sensual pleasure. For God ordained that they too should have free will toward either course, just as in the case of men, so that either, obeying the Word, they might be with him and enjoy blessedness, or, disobeying, they might be judged. And the devil was also a morning star. "How has the morning star, that rises early, fallen from heaven?" He was rising with the angels of light, he was a morning star, but he fell and was dashed to the earth, having prescribed the opposite for man. For the divine is wroth with the proud and curtails arrogant thoughts. And it occurs to me also to speak in verse: O serpent, the beginning and end of all evils, and you, O error, that brings forth a heavy treasure of evils, guide of a blind life of ignorance, rejoicing in the laments and groans of mortals, you who for lawless outrages against kindred armed brother-hating arms persuaded Cain first to defile 2.448 the earth with crimson gore, and you contrived for the first-formed man to fall from the undefiled ages to the ground. 30. And such is the devil. But death was devised for conversion, just as for children just learning their letters beatings are for correction. For death is nothing else than the separation and division of soul from body. What then? Is God responsible for death? you will say. For the same argument comes back to us again. May it not be so, since neither are teachers primarily responsible for the children being pained by the beatings. Death, then, is a good thing, if it was devised like beatings for the conversion of children, not the death of sin, O most wise ones, but that of the unyoking of the flesh and of separation. For man, being possessed of free will and self-rule, and having received, as I said, a self-determining will and free choice for the selection of the good, and having heard, "You shall eat of every tree in paradise, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it; for in whatever day you eat of it, you shall surely die," yielding to eat from it to the devil persuading him to disobedience in various ways with deceptive wisdom, he transgressed the commandment of God; and this became for him a stumbling-block and a snare and a thorn. For God did not make evil, nor is he in sum, in whole, in any way at all the cause of evil; but whatever has been made 2.449 by him with free will for the purpose of guarding and keeping the law, which he himself justly ordained, is called evil when it does not keep it. And a most grievous harm is to disobey God, having transgressed the boundaries of the justice that is according to free will. Wherefore, since man was defiled and polluted, having apostatized from the decree of God, and wiped upon himself the stains of much wickedness, which the ruler of darkness and father of error brought forth, having conceived toil according to the scripture, so that he might always display and move man toward injustice, God the almighty, seeing him become an immortal evil by the plot of the devil, just as the devil also was a deceiver, the

312

ἰσχύϊ τῆς συστάσεως. τῷ γὰρ ποιήσαντι λῦσαι μόνῳ καὶ τὰ ἀθάνατα δυνατόν. 29. Τί οὖν ὁ διάβολος, λέξετε. πνεῦμα περὶ τὴν ὕλην ἔχον, καθάπερ ἐλέχθη καὶ Ἀθηναγόρᾳ, γενόμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ γεγόνασιν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἄγγελοι, καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τῇ ὕλῃ καὶ τοῖς τῆς ὕλης εἴδεσι πεπιστευμένον διοίκησιν. τοῦτο γὰρ ἦν ἡ τῶν ἀγγέλων σύστασις, τῷ θεῷ ἐπὶ προνοίᾳ γεγονέναι τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ διακεκοσμημένοις, ἵνα τὴν μὲν παντελικὴν καὶ γενικὴν ὁ θεὸς ἔχων τῶν ὅλων πρόνοιαν ᾖ, τὸ κῦρος καὶ τὸ κράτος 2.447 ἁπάντων αὐτὸς ἀνηρτημένος, καὶ ὥσπερ σκάφος τῷ τῆς σοφίας οἴακι διευθύνων ἀκλινῶς τὸ πᾶν, τὴν δὲ διὰ μέρους οἱ ἐπὶ τούτῳ ταχθέντες ἄγγελοι. ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν λοιποὶ ἐφ' οἷς αὐτοὺς ἐποίησε καὶ διέταξεν ὁ θεὸς ἔμειναν, ὁ δὲ ἐνύβρισε καὶ πονηρὸς περὶ τὴν τῶν πεπιστευμένων ἐγένετο διοίκησιν, φθόνον ἐγκισσήσας καθ' ἡμῶν, ὥσπερ καὶ οἱ μετὰ ταῦτα σαρκῶν ἐρασθέντες καὶ ταῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων εἰς φιληδονίαν ἐνομιλήσαντες θυγατράσιν. αὐθαίρετον γὰρ καὶ αὐτοῖς ἔχειν πρὸς ἑκάτερα διετάξατο βούλησιν ὁ θεός, οἷα καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἵν' ἢ πειθόμενοι τῷ λόγῳ συνῶσιν αὐτῷ καὶ ἀπολαύωσι μακαριότητος ἢ μὴ πειθόμενοι κρίνωνται. ἦν δὲ καὶ ὁ διάβολος ἀστὴρ ἑωσφόρος «πῶς ἐξέπεσεν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὁ ἑωσφόρος, ὁ πρωῒ ἀνατέλλων», ἦν μετὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων ἀνατέλλων τοῦ φωτός, ἦν ἄστρον πρωϊνόν, ἀλλ' ἐξέπεσε καὶ εἰς τὴν γῆν συνετρίβη, ἐπιτροπεύσας τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ τἀναντία. τὸ γὰρ θεῖον νεμεσᾷ τοῖς ὑπερηφάνοις καὶ τὰ αὐθάδη φρονήματα κολούει. ἐπέρχεται δέ μοι καὶ ἐμμέτρως εἰπεῖν· ὦ πᾶσιν ἀρχὴ καὶ πέρας κακῶν ὄφις, σύ τ' ὦ βαρὺν τίκτουσα θησαυρὸν κακῶν πλάνη τυφλοῦ ποδηγὲ ἀγνοίας βίου, χαίρουσα θρήνοις καὶ στενάγμασι βροτῶν, ὑμεῖς ἀθέσμους εἰς ὕβρεις ὁμοσπόρων τὰς μισαδέλφους ὁπλίσαντες ὠλένας Κάϊν μολῦναι φοινίῳ πρῶτον λύθρῳ 2.448 ἐπείσατον γῆν καὶ τὸν ἐξ ἀκηράτων πεσεῖν αἰώνων πρωτόπλαστον εἰς χθόνα ὑμεῖς ἐτεκτήνασθε. 30. Καὶ ὁ μὲν διάβολος οὕτως· ὁ δὲ θάνατος πρὸς ἐπιστροφὴν ηὑρέθη, καθάπερ καὶ τοῖς ἀρτιμαθέσι γραμμάτων παιδίοις πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν αἱ πληγαί. οὐδὲν γὰρ ἄλλο ὁ θάνατος ἢ διάκρισις καὶ διαχωρισμὸς ψυχῆς ἀπὸ σώματος. τί οὖν; παραίτιος ὁ θεὸς θανάτου; λέξετε. πάλιν γὰρ ὁ αὐτὸς ἡμῖν ἥκει λόγος. μὴ γένοιτο, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ οἱ διδάσκαλοι προκαθηγουμένως τοῦ ἀλγύνεσθαι ταῖς πληγαῖς τοὺς παῖδας αἴτιοι. καλὸν οὖν ὁ θάνατος, εἰ καθάπερ παισὶ πρὸς ἐπιστροφὴν δίκην πληγῶν ηὑρέθη, οὐχ ὁ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ὦ σοφώτατοι, ἀλλ' ὁ τῆς διαζεύξεως τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τοῦ χωρισμοῦ. αὐτεξούσιος γὰρ ὢν καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ ὁ ἄνθρωπος καὶ αὐτοδέσποτον βούλησιν καὶ αὐτοπροαίρετον πρὸς τὴν αἵρεσιν, ὡς ἔφην, τοῦ καλοῦ λαβών, ἀκούσας τε «ἀπὸ παντὸς ξύλου τοῦ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ φάγεσθε, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ξύλου τοῦ γινώσκειν καλὸν καὶ πονηρὸν οὐ φάγεσθε ἀπ' αὐτοῦ· ᾗ δ' ἂν ἡμέρᾳ φάγητε ἀπ' αὐτοῦ, θανάτῳ ἀποθανεῖσθε», ἐνδοὺς εἰς τὸ φαγεῖν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ τῷ διαβόλῳ δεδελεασμένῃ σοφίᾳ ποικίλως πρὸς παρακοὴν πείθοντι, ἠθέτησε τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ θεοῦ· καὶ ἐγένετο τοῦτο αὐτῷ εἰς σκάνδαλον καὶ παγίδα καὶ σκῶλον. οὐ γὰρ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς κακὸν οὐδ' ἔστι τὸ σύνολον ὅλως ἐκ παντὸς τὸ παράπαν αἴτιος κακοῦ· ἀλλὰ πᾶν ὅπερ ἂν αὐτεξούσιον 2.449 οὕτως ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γεγονὸς ᾖ πρὸς τὸ φυλάξασθαι καὶ τηρῆσαι νόμον, ὃν αὐτὸς δικαίως διεστείλατο, μὴ τηρῆσαν λέγεται κακόν. βαρυτάτη δὲ βλάβη τὸ παρακοῦσαι θεοῦ τοὺς ὅρους τῆς κατὰ τὸ αὐτεξούσιον ὑπερβάντα δικαιοσύνης. ὅθεν ἐπειδὴ κατερρυπώθη καὶ κατεμιάνθη τῆς ἀποφάσεως ἀποστατήσας ὁ ἄνθρωπος τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ κηλῖδας ἐναπεμάξατο κακίας πολλῆς, ἃς ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ σκότους ἀπεκύησε καὶ πατὴρ τῆς πλάνης, πόνον κατὰ τὴν γραφὴν συλλαβών, ἵνα τὸν ἄνθρωπον φαντάζειν ἀεὶ πρὸς ἀδικίαν ἔχῃ καὶ κινεῖν, ὁ θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ ἀθάνατον κακὸν ἐξ ἐπιβουλῆς τοῦ διαβόλου ἰδὼν αὐτὸν γεγενημένον, καθάπερ καὶ ὁ διάβολος πλάνος ἦν, τοὺς