Edition ausblenden
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXXIII: De duabus angelorum societatibus diuersis atque disparibus, quae non incongrue intelleguntur lucis et tenebrarum nominibus nuncupatae.

Peccasse autem quosdam angelos et in huius mundi ima detrusos, qui eis uelut carcer est, usque ad futuram in die iudicii ultimam damnationem apostolus Petrus apertissime ostendit dicens, quod deus angelis peccantibus non pepercerit, sed carceribus caliginis inferi retrudens tradiderit in iudicio puniendos reseruari. inter hos ergo et illos deum uel praescientia uel opere diuisisse quis dubitet? illosque lucem merito appellari quis contradicat? quandoquidem nos adhuc in fide uiuentes eorum aequalitatem adhuc sperantes, utique nondum tenentes, iam lux dicti ab apostolo sumus: fuistis enim, inquit, aliquando tenebrae, nunc autem lux in domino. istos uero desertores tenebras aptissime nuncupari profecto aduertunt, qui peiores esse hominibus infidelibus siue intellegunt siue credunt. quapropter, etsi alia lux in isto huius libri loco intellegenda est, ubi legimus: dixit deus: fiat lux, et facta est lux, et aliae tenebrae significatae sunt in eo quod scriptum est: diuisit deus inter lucem et tenebras: nos tamen has duas angelicas societates, unam fruentem deo, alteram tumentem typho; unam cui dicitur: adorate eum omnes angeli eius, aliam cuius princeps dicit: haec omnia tibi dabo, si prostratus adoraueris me; unam dei sancto amore flagrantem, alteram propriae celsitudinis inmundo amore fumantem; et quoniam, sicut scriptum est, deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam, illam in caelis caelorum habitantem, istam inde deiectam in hoc infimo aerio caelo tumultuantem; illam luminosa pietate tranquillam, istam tenebrosis cupiditatibus turbulentam; illam dei nutu clementer subuenientem, iuste ulciscentem, istam suo fastu subdendi et nocendi libidine exaestuantem; illam, ut quantum uult consulat, dei bonitati ministram, istam, ne quantum uult noceat, dei potestate frenatam; illam huic inludentem ut nolens prosit persecutionibus suis, hanc illi inuidentem, cum peregrinos colligit suos, - nos ergo has duas societates angelicas inter se dispares atque contrarias, unam et natura bonam et uoluntate rectam, aliam uero natura bonam, sed uoluntate peruersam, aliis manifestioribus diuinarum scripturarum testimoniis declaratas, quod etiam in hoc libro, cui nomen est genesis, lucis tenebrarumque uocabulis significatas existimauimus, etiamsi aliud hoc loco sensit forte qui scripsit, non est inutiliter obscuritas huius pertractata sententiae, quia, etsi uoluntatem auctoris libri huius indagare nequiuimus, a regula tamen fidei, quae per alias eiusdem auctoritatis sacras litteras satis fidelibus nota est, non abhorruimus. etsi enim corporalia hic commemorata sunt opera dei, habent procul dubio nonnullam similitudinem spiritalium, secundum quam dicit apostolus: omnes enim uos filii lucis estis et filii diei, non sumus noctis neque tenebrarum. si autem hoc sensit etiam ille qui scripsit, ad perfectiorem disputationis finem nostra peruenit intentio, ut homo dei tam eximiae diuinaeque sapientiae, immo per eum spiritus dei in commemorandis operibus dei, quae omnia sexto die dixit esse perfecta, nullo modo angelos praetermisisse credatur siue in principio, quia primo fecit, siue quod conuenientius intellegitur, in principio, quia in uerbo unigenito fecit, scriptum sit: in principio fecit deus caelum et terram; quibus nominibus uniuersalis est significata creatura, uel spiritalis et corporalis, quod est credibilius, uel magnae duae mundi partes, quibus omnia quae creata sunt continentur, ut primitus eam totam proponeret ac deinde partes eius secundum mysticum dierum numerum exsequeretur.

Übersetzung ausblenden
The City of God

Chapter 33.--Of the Two Different and Dissimilar Communities of Angels, Which are Not Inappropriately Signified by the Names Light and Darkness.

That certain angels sinned, and were thrust down to the lowest parts of this world, where they are, as it were, incarcerated till their final damnation in the day of judgment, the Apostle Peter very plainly declares, when he says that "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved into judgment." ¹ Who, then, can doubt that God, either in foreknowledge or in act, separated between these and the rest? And who will dispute that the rest are justly called "light?" For even we who are yet living by faith, hoping only and not yet enjoying equality with them, are already called "light" by the apostle: "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." ² But as for these apostate angels, all who understand or believe them to be worse than unbelieving men are well aware that they are called "darkness." Wherefore, though light and darkness are to be taken in their literal signification in these passages of Genesis in which it is said, "God said, Let there be light, and there was light," and "God divided the light from the darkness," yet, for our part, we understand these two societies of angels,--the one enjoying God, the other swelling with pride; the one to whom it is said, "Praise ye Him, all His angels," ³ the other whose prince says, "All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me;" ⁴ the one blazing with the holy love of God, the other reeking with the unclean lust of self-advancement. And since, as it is written, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble," ⁵ we may say, the one dwelling in the heaven of heavens, the other cast thence, and raging through the lower regions of the air; the one tranquil in the brightness of piety, the other tempest-tossed with beclouding desires; the one, at God's pleasure, tenderly succoring, justly avenging,--the other, set on by its own pride, boiling with the lust of subduing and hurting; the one the minister of God's goodness to the utmost of their good pleasure, the other held in by God's power from doing the harm it would; the former laughing at the latter when it does good unwillingly by its persecutions, the latter envying the former when it gathers in its pilgrims. These two angelic communities, then, dissimilar and contrary to one another, the one both by nature good and by will upright, the other also good by nature but by will depraved, as they are exhibited in other and more explicit passages of holy writ, so I think they are spoken of in this book of Genesis under the names of light and darkness; and even if the author perhaps had a different meaning, yet our discussion of the obscure language has not been wasted time; for, though we have been unable to discover his meaning, yet we have adhered to the rule of faith, which is sufficiently ascertained by the faithful from other passages of equal authority. For, though it is the material works of God which are here spoken of, they have certainly a resemblance to the spiritual, so that Paul can say, "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness." ⁶ If, on the other hand, the author of Genesis saw in the words what we see, then our discussion reaches this more satisfactory conclusion, that the man of God, so eminently and divinely wise, or rather, that the Spirit of God who by him recorded God's works which were finished on the sixth day, may be supposed not to have omitted all mention of the angels whether he included them in the words "in the beginning," because He made them first, or, which seems most likely, because He made them in the only-begotten Word. And, under these names heaven and earth, the whole creation is signified, either as divided into spiritual and material, which seems the more likely, or into the two great parts of the world in which all created things are contained, so that, first of all, the creation is presented in sum, and then its parts are enumerated according to the mystic number of the days.