one of supercelestials, among whom the one that became the devil by falling was
Book XI 443 ones, and that so for rightly carrying out their duties as officers they could hope to receive that blessed and more exalted life, about which they could have the most perfect assurance. Rejoicing then in this hope, they might already not incongruously be called blessed.
lf it was from their number that the devil fell with his comrades in wicked ness, then this is like human beings also falling from the justice of faith by plowing a furrow made crooked by a similar pride.
26. But let those maintain these two kinds of good angels who think they can: one of supercelestials, among whom the one that became the devil by falling was never included, and another of angels of the world among whom he was. For my part, I confess l have not so far discovered any support from the scriptures for this position. But I have been constrained by the question whether he had any foreknowledge of his fall before he fell, to insist that not even for a moment were the angels uncertain of their blessedness. So l have said that one can have good reason to think that it was from the beginning of creation, from the very begin ning of time, that is, or from the moment he was himself created that he fell, and that he never stood in the truth.
The view that the devil was created in wickedness; a text ofJob misapplied
20, 27. So it is that some people think that it was not by a free choice of his will that he turned aside to this wickedness, but that he was quite simply created in it, though by the supreme Lord and true God and creator of all substantive natures; and they bring forward evidence from the book of Job, since it is written there, when there is talk of him:23 This is the beginning of the Lord'sfashioning, which he made for his angels to make fun o/(Job 40:19). This is matched by the sentence in the psalm: This dragon which youfashioned to makefun of him (Ps
104:26); but the difference is that here he said "which you fashioned," not as it is there, "This is the beginning of the Lord's fashioning," as though he fashioned him at the very beginning as evil, as jealous, as a seducer, so that the devil would quite simply not have turned crooked of his own free will, but would have been created like that.
23. 1n fact of Behemoth; it is more usually Leviathan, about whom God goes on to speak next, that is traditionally identified with the devil. Modern commentators usually identify these two monsters with the hippopotamus and the crocodile respectively. But an excellent article by J.V. Kinnier Wilson in Vetus Testamentum, January 1 975, "A return to the problems of Behemoth and Leviathan," gives a much more profound and fascinating explanation. 1n brief, first God challenges Job to do God's own work for him and create something—and the result is the absurd monstrosity of Behemoth. Next he invites him to tame Leviathan, who is a traditional mythical sea monster; see Job 3:8, 1s 27: 1 , and Ps 104:26, which is quoted next, and where "this dragon" translates "this Leviathan." Job, of course fails both tests, and repents in sackcloth and ashes. The Septuagint reading Augustine follows here, that the Lord made this monster for the angels to make fun of, suits Kinnier Wilson's reconstruction much better than the one in all modern translations.
444 The Literal Meaning of Genesis
21. 28. They do strive indeed to demonstrate how this opinion, that the devil did not turn crooked of his own accord but was made bad by the Lord God himself, does not go counter to where it is written, God made all things, and behold they were very good (Gnl:31). They assert, you see, and not without some show of wit and learning, that not only at the first establishment of the universe but even now, when there are so many crooked wills around, all things that have been created, that is, quite simply, the whole created universe, are nonetheless at the final count "very good." Not that the bad are in fact good in it, but that under the command, the power, the wisdom of God its administrator they do not succeed with their badness in disfiguring or upsetting at any point the beauty and order of the whole. Definite and suitable limits on what they have the power to do, you see, are set to the wills, even the bad ones, of each and every person, and their deserts are all weighed up, so that with them being fairly and squarely set in order the whole may remain beautiful.
That is the case they make;24 nonetheless, it would be manifestly contrary to justice—a truth surely obvious to anybody—for God to condemn in anyone, without any previous deserts, what he had himself created in them; and in any case the definite and evident sentence on the devil and his angels is passed in the gospel where the Lord announced beforehand what he would be going to say to those on his left: Go into the eternalfire, which has been preparedfor the devil and his angels (Mt 25 :4 1 ). On these grounds, therefore, it is to be firmly believed that in no way was it the nature in which God created him, but his own evil will that was to be visited with the punishment of eternal fire.
22. 29. Nor is it his nature that is signified by the words, This is the beginning of the Lord'sfashioning, which he madefor his angels to makefun of, but either the airy body which God suitably adapted to such a will, or his own plan ofmaking him useful to the good even against his will. Or else it may mean that while foreknowing he was going to turn out bad of his own free will, God still made him, not holding back his goodness in providing what was even going to be a noxious will with life and substantive being, at the same time foreseeing how much good use he was going to make of him by his own wonderful goodness and power.
However, he was not called the beginning of the Lord'sfashioning, which he madefor his angels to makefun o/because God made him before anything else, or made him bad at the beginning. But rather, while God knew he was going to turn out bad of his own free will and so do much harm to the good, he still created him to this end, that through the devil he himself might benefit the good. That,
24. 1 have added this short sentence, to make it quite clear where the argument for the defense ends, and where Augustine begins to state the prosecution's case. His opponents are not here the Manichees, but people who agreed with him that there was never a moment in which the devil "stood in the truth," when he was not the devil; but from this they concluded, too simply, that he was created as the devil. 1t is probable that they had little patience with Augustine's crucial distinction between God permitting and God causing evil, that is the evil of sin, ofa bad will.