48. See Lk 15:32, the conclusion of the parable of the prodigal son.
94 On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees by his creator's generosity, not by nature, if he had been willing to remain under his authority, that it says "of us," ex nobis, in the way one calls someone an ^-magistrate or ejc-governor who no longer is one.
But to what end has he become as if one of us? "For the knowledge of getting to know good and evil," so that this fellow might learn by experience what the difference is as he undergoes the evil, while God knows it by wisdom; and so that he might also learn by his punishment that there is no escaping the Almighty's authority, which he had refused to submit to by happily consenting to it.
34. And then, lest Adam stretch out his hand to the tree of life, and live for ever, God sent him awayfrom paradise (Gn 3:22-23). Notice the nice choice of words, he sent him away, not "he shut him out," so that he could be seen to be as good as shoved out by the pressure of his own sins to the only place he was fit for. This is something a bad man often experiences when he begins to live among good people and refuses to change his ways for the better; it is by the pressure of his bad habits and associations that he is driven out of the company ofthese good people; they don't exclude him against his will, but he is only too glad to be sent on his way by them.
As for its saying, lestAdam stretch out his hand to the tree of life, here too we have an ambiguous expression.47 This is how we speak, you see, when we say: "This is why I am admonishing you, lest you should do again what you have done," clearly wanting him not to do it; and again we can say: "This is why I am admonishing you, lest there be a chance of your being good"—that is, I am admonishing you because I don't despair of your being able to be good. That is how the apostle is speaking when he says: Lest there be a chance of God giving them repentance so as to come to know the truth (2 Tm 2:25).
So then it can appear that the reason the man was sent away to the wearisome labors of this life was in order that at some time or other he might indeed stretch out his hand to the tree of life and live for ever. The stretching out of the hand, surely, is an excellent symbol of the cross, through which eternal life is regained. Though even ifwe understand lesthe stretch out his handand livefor ever in that other way, it was an entirely fair punishment that he should be barred from access to wisdom after his sin, until by God' s mercy in the course of time the one who was dead might come to life again, and the one who was lost might be found.48
47. Again, the ambiguity lies in the Latin, in the negative conjunction ne; in English we don't really employ "lest" in the ambiguous way he goes on to illustrate. 1n the text he proceeds to quote from 2 Timothy the older versions, which stick close to the Greek and Latin, render the nequando of the Vulgate. Augustine's neforte, by "if peradventure." Even more than in the previous case of "ambiguity" (previous section and note), we do seem to have the recently retired professor of rhetoric displaying a misplaced professional ingenuity in reading ambiguity into his text. 48. See Lk 15:32, the conclusion of the parable of the prodigal son.