Chapter XLIII.
Mark now, whether he who charges us with having committed errors of the most impious kind, and with having wandered away from the (true meaning) of the divine enigmas, is not himself clearly in error, from not observing that in the writings of Moses, which are much older not merely than Heraclitus and Pherecydes, but even than Homer, mention is made of this wicked one, and of his having fallen from heaven. For the serpent [4490] --from whom the Ophioneus spoken of by Pherecydes is derived--having become the cause of man's expulsion from the divine Paradise, obscurely shadows forth something similar, having deceived the woman [4491] by a promise of divinity and of greater blessings; and her example is said to have been followed also by the man. And, further, who else could the destroying angel mentioned in the Exodus of Moses [4492] be, than he who was the author of destruction to them that obeyed him, and did not withstand his wicked deeds, nor struggle against them? Moreover (the goat), which in the book of Leviticus [4493] is sent away (into the wilderness), and which in the Hebrew language is named Azazel, was none other than this; and it was necessary to send it away into the desert, and to treat it as an expiatory sacrifice, because on it the lot fell. For all who belong to the "worse" part, on account of their wickedness, being opposed to those who are God's heritage, are deserted by God. [4494] Nay, with respect to the sons of Belial in the book of Judges, [4495] whose sons are they said to be, save his, on account of their wickedness? And besides all these instances, in the book of Job, which is older even than Moses himself, [4496] the devil is distinctly described as presenting himself before God, [4497] and asking for power against Job, that he might involve him in trials [4498] of the most painful kind; the first of which consisted in the loss of all his goods and of his children, and the second in afflicting the whole body of Job with the so-called disease of elephantiasis. [4499] I pass by what might be quoted from the Gospels regarding the devil who tempted the Saviour, that I may not appear to quote in reply to Celsus from more recent writings on this question. In the last (chapter) [4500] also of Job, in which the Lord utters to Job amid tempest and clouds what is recorded in the book which bears his name, there are not a few things referring to the serpent. I have not yet mentioned the passages in Ezekiel, [4501] where he speaks, as it were, of Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar, or the prince of Tyre; or those in Isaiah, [4502] where lament is made for the king of Babylon, from which not a little might be learned concerning evil, as to the nature of its origin and generation, and as to how it derived its existence from some who had lost their wings, [4503] and who had followed him who was the first to lose his own.
[4490] Cf. Gen. iii.
[4491] to theluteron genos.
[4492] Cf. Ex. xii. 23.
[4493] Cf. Lev. xvi. 8.
[4494] enantioi ontes tois hapo tou klerou tou Theou, eremoi eisi Theou.
[4495] [Judg. xix. 22. S.]
[4496] [See the elaborate articles on the book of Job, by Canon Cook, in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. i. pp. 1087-1100. S.]
[4497] Cf. Job i. 11.
[4498] peristasesi.
[4499] agrio elephanti.
[4500] Cf. Job xl. 20.
[4501] Cf. Ezek. xxxii. 1-28.
[4502] Isa. xiv. 4 sqq.
[4503] pterorrhuesanton. Cf. supra, bk. iv. cap. xl. p. 516.
Chapter XLIV.
For it is impossible that the good which is the result of accident, or of communication, should be like that good which comes by nature; and yet the former will never be lost by him who, so to speak, partakes of the "living" bread with a view to his own preservation. But if it should fail any one, it must be through his own fault, in being slothful to partake of this "living bread" and "genuine drink," by means of which the wings, nourished and watered, are fitted for their purpose, even according to the saying of Solomon, the wisest of men, concerning the truly rich man, that "he made to himself wings like an eagle, and returns to the house of his patron." [4504] For it became God, who knows how to turn to proper account even those who in their wickedness have apostatized from Him, to place wickedness of this sort in some part of the universe, and to appoint a training-school of virtue, wherein those must exercise themselves who would desire to recover in a "lawful manner" [4505] the possession (which they had lost); in order that being tested, like gold in the fire, by the wickedness of these, and having exerted themselves to the utmost to prevent anything base injuring their rational nature, they may appear deserving of an ascent to divine things, and may be elevated by the Word to the blessedness which is above all things, and so to speak, to the very summit of goodness. Now he who in the Hebrew language is named Satan, and by some Satanas--as being more in conformity with the genius of the Greek language--signifies, when translated into Greek, "adversary." But every one who prefers vice and a vicious life, is (because acting in a manner contrary to virtue) Satanas, that is, an "adversary" to the Son of God, who is righteousness, and truth, and wisdom. [4506] With more propriety, however, is he called "adversary," who was the first among those that were living a peaceful and happy life to lose his wings, and to fall from blessedness; he who, according to Ezekiel, walked faultlessly in all his ways, "until iniquity was found in him," [4507] and who being the "seal of resemblance" and the "crown of beauty" in the paradise of God, being filled as it were with good things, fell into destruction, in accordance with the word which said to him in a mystic sense: "Thou hast fallen into destruction, and shalt not abide for ever." [4508] We have ventured somewhat rashly to make these few remarks, although in so doing we have added nothing of importance to this treatise. If any one, however, who has leisure for the examination of the sacred writings, should collect together from all sources and form into one body of doctrine what is recorded concerning the origin of evil, and the manner of its dissolution, he would see that the views of Moses and the prophets regarding Satan had not been even dreamed of either by Celsus or any one of those whose soul had been dragged down, and torn away from God, and from right views of Him, and from His word, by this wicked demon.
[4504] Cf. Prov. xxiii. 5. [See Neander's History of the Church, vol. ii. p. 299, with Rose's note. S.]
[4505] Cf. 2 Tim. ii. 5.
[4506] Cf. 1 Cor. i. 30.
[4507] Cf. Ezek. xxviii. 15.
[4508] Cf. Ezek. xxviii. 19.