singular verb for neuter plural subject; so 1 follow suit, on the principle of translating scriptural
446 The Literal Meaning of Genesis received, but from something he would have received had he been willing to submit to God; and because he assuredly refused to do this, he both fell from what he was about to receive and also failed to escape from the power and authority of the one beneath whom he refused to be. Thus the result forhim of the weight of his deserts was that he could neither be delighted by the light ofjustice nor delivered from its sentence.
Textsfrom lsaiah and Ezekiel, usually applied to the devil, more readilyfit his "body"
24, 31. So then we come to what is said against him through the mouth of the prophet lsaiah: How he hasfallenfrom heaven, Lucifer rising in the morning! He has been crushed into the ground, who used to send to all the nations. You, though, said in your thoughts: l will climb up to heaven, upon the stars ofheaven l will set my throne, l will take my seat on a lofty mountain above the lofty moun tains to the north, l will climb up above the clouds, l will be like the Most High. Now, however, you shall climb down to the netherworld, etc. (ls 14:12-15). This is all generally understood as being said against the devil under the figure of a king, supposedly of Babylon. But most of it is better suited to his "body," which he also gathers together from the human race, and chiefly to those members of it who stick to him through pride, by apostatizing from the commandments of God. Just as the one who was really the devil, you see, has also been called a man, as in the gospel: An enemy man has done this (Mt 13:28), so too one who was really a man has been called the28 devil, as again in the gospel: Have lmyself not chosen you twelve, and one ofyou is the devil? (Jn 6:70).
And just as the body of Christ, which is the Church, is called Christ, as in that text: You all are the seed ofAbraham, when he had just said a little earlier on: lt was to Abraham that the promises were made and to his seed. lt does not say
"and to seeds, " as thoughfor many, but as thoughfor one, "and to your seed, " which is Christ (Gal 3:29.16); and again: For just as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, though they are many, is29 one body, so also Christ (1 Cor 12:12). ln the same way the devil's body too, of which the devil is the head, that is to say, the multitude of the godless, and supremely of those who fall away from Christ or from the Church as from heaven, is called the devil, and many things are said figuratively against him
28. Of course it should be "a" devil; but in this passage Augustine is clearly talking about "the" devil. We have the benefit in English of definite and indefinite articles which were not at his disposal in Latin. But he usually confines diabolus to "the devil." Satan, and for lesser members of the diabolic confraternity will almost always use the words demones, or demonia. 29. Yes, it should be "are"; but Augustine's Latin text is slavishly reproducing the Greek idiom of singular verb for neuter plural subject; so 1 follow suit, on the principle of translating scriptural quotations as literally as possible.