ACC ~ John 8 v44c
THE SERPENT IN EDEN
IRENAEUS: For those who tasted of the tree died. And the serpent is proved a liar and a murderer, as the Lord said of him: “For he is a murderer from the beginning, and the truth is not in him.” AGAINST HERESIES 5.23.2. [1]
[1] ANF 1:552**.
MURDER OF THE SOUL
AUGUSTINE: You are his children because of your desires, not because you are born of him. What are his desires? “He was a murderer from the beginning.” This explains why “your will is to do your father’s desires.” “You seek to kill me, a man who tells you the truth.” The devil, too, harbored ill will toward the human race and killed it. For the devil, in his envy of the human race, assumed the guise of a serpent and spoke to the woman, and from the woman he instilled his poison into the man. They died by listening to the devil, [1] who they would not have listened to had they but listened to the Lord. For man [humankind], having his place between [God], who created, and [the devil], who was fallen, should have obeyed the Creator, not the deceiver. Therefore “he was a murderer from the beginning.” Look at the kind of murder he did. The devil is called a murderer not as armed with a sword or steel. He came to humanity, sowed his evil suggestions and killed him. Do not think then that you are not a murderer when you persuade your brother to evil. If you persuade your brother to evil, you kill him. And to let you know that you kill him, listen to the psalm: “The sons of men [humankind], whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.” [2] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 42.11. [3]
[1] See Gen 3:1.
[2] Ps 57:4 (56:5 LXX, Vg).
[3] NPNF 1 7:238*.
KILLING OUR IMAGE OF GOD
ORIGEN: But notice also the statement “In Adam all die, and in Christ all shall be made alive.” [1] … By observing these words you will perceive the life of man according to the image. [2] And when you have understood what his life is, you will perceive in what manner the murderer killed the living man, and that he will correctly be called a murderer, not because he killed some particular individual but because he killed the whole race insofar as “in Adam all die.” COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.224. [3]
[1] 1 Cor 15:22.
[2] Gen 1:26.
[3] FC 89:253; SC 290:268.
THE DEVIL IS SELF-DECEIVED
ORIGEN: And the reason why truth is not in him is that he has been deceived and accepts lies, and he has himself been deceived by himself. On this basis he is considered to be worse than the rest of these who are deceived, since they are deceived by him, but he creates his own deception himself. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.244. [1]
[1] FC 89:257; SC 290:278.
SIN BEGAN IN THE DEVIL, AND HE WAS THE BEGINNING OF SIN
AUGUSTINE: Someone may object that the words of the Lord about the devil [here]… are to be understood as if he was not only a murderer from the beginning of the human race when human beings, whom he could kill by his deceit, were made; but also that he did not abide in the truth from the time of his own creation and was accordingly never blessed with the holy angels. Instead he refused to submit to his Creator and proudly exulted as if in a private lordship of his own. In this way he was deceived and deceiving…. But they do not notice that the Lord did not say, “The devil was naturally a stranger to the truth” but “The devil did not remain in the truth.” By this, he meant us to understand that the devil had fallen from the truth in which, if he had remained, he would have become a partaker and would have remained in blessedness along with the holy angels….
They [1] suppose [according to 1 John 3:8] that the devil was made with a sinful nature, but they misunderstand the passage; for if sin is natural, it is not sin at all. And how do they answer the prophetic proofs—either what Isaiah says when he represents the devil under the person of the king of Babylon, “How you are fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” [2] or what Ezekiel says, “You were in Eden, the garden of God…” [3] where it is meant that he was at some point without sin? For a little after, it is still more explicitly said, “You were perfect in your ways.” [4] And if these passages cannot be interpreted properly in any other way, then we must understand by this passage also, “He did not remain in the truth,” that he was once in the truth but did not remain in it. And from this passage, “The devil has sinned from the beginning,” it is not that he sinned from the beginning of his created existence; rather, sin began in him, and he was the beginning of sin. CITY OF GOD 11.13, 15. [5]
[1] HE WORD IN THE BEGINNING | JOHN 1:1
[2] Is 14:12.
[3] Ezek 28:13.
[4] Ezek 28:15.
[5] NPNF 1 2:213**.
ORDINARY PEOPLE LIE, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE DO NOT
ORIGEN: If one carefully considers human nature, which is not easily purified of false teachings, one sees that, as “everyone is a liar,” [1] not everyone has stood in the truth. If someone is not a liar and has stood in the truth, he is not an ordinary person but is like those to whom God says, “I have said, ‘You are gods, children of the Most High.’” [2] … But when the Holy Spirit or an angelic spirit speaks, it does not speak from its own resources but from the Word of truth itself and from wisdom. This is made clear in the Gospel according to John below where Jesus teaches about the Paraclete, saying, “He will receive from me and will declare it to you.” [3] Whenever the lie speaks, however, it speaks from its own resources…. We then who are human beings should hurry and flee with all our strength to become “gods” since, to the extent that we are human, we are liars, just as the father of the lie is a liar. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.241-42, 263-64, 266. [4]
[1] Ps 116:11 (115:2 LXX).
[2] Ps 82:6 (81:6 LXX).
[3] Jn 16:14.
[4] FC 89:257, 260-61**; SC 290:276-78, 286.
THE GENERATOR OF LIES AND THE FIRST TO USE LIES
THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: When Satan, he says, speaks lies and similar words, he does not use those of others but his own. He is the father of falsehood because he generated it and was the first to use it by speaking to Adam when he substituted certain words in place of others. The expression “He is a liar and the father of it” signifies that he is a liar and the father of lies. In other words, the devil not only generated lies. He was also the first to introduce them and to use them. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 3.8.44. [1]
[1] CSCO 4 3:176.
Jn