Edition ausblenden
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput IV: Quid sit secundum hominem, quid autem secundum deum uiuere.

Cum ergo uiuit homo secundum hominem, non secundum deum, similis est diabolo; quia nec angelo secundum angelum, sed secundum deum uiuendum fuit, ut staret in ueritate et ueritatem de illius, non de suo mendacium loqueretur. nam et de homine alio loco idem apostolus ait: si autem ueritas dei in meo mendacio abundauit. nostrum dixit mendacium, ueritatem dei. cum itaque uiuit homo secundum ueritatem, non uiuit secundum se ipsum, sed secundum deum. deus est enim qui dixit: ego sum ueritas. cum uero uiuit secundum se ipsum, hoc est secundum hominem, non secundum deum, profecto secundum mendacium uiuit; non quia homo ipse mendacium est, cum sit eius auctor et creator deus, qui non est utique auctor creatorque mendacii, sed quia homo ita factus est rectus, ut non secundum se ipsum, sed secundum eum, a quo factus est, uiueret, id est illius potius quam suam faceret uoluntatem: non ita uiuere, quemadmodum est factus ut uiueret, hoc est mendacium. beatus quippe uult esse etiam non sic uiuendo ut possit esse. quid est ista uoluntate mendacius? unde non frustra dici potest omne peccatum esse mendacium. non enim fit peccatum nisi ea uoluntate, qua uolumus ut bene sit nobis uel nolumus ut male sit nobis. ergo mendacium est, quod cum fiat ut bene sit nobis, hinc potius male est nobis, uel cum fiat ut melius sit nobis, hinc potius peius est nobis. unde hoc, nisi quia de deo potest bene esse homini, quem delinquendo deserit, non de se ipso, secundum quem uiuendo delinquit? quod itaque diximus, hinc extitisse duas ciuitates diuersas inter se atque contrarias, quod alii secundum carnem, alii secundum spiritum uiuerent: potest etiam isto modo dici quod alii secundum hominem, alii secundum deum uiuant. apertissime quippe Paulus ad Corinthios dicit: cum enim sint inter uos aemulatio et contentio, nonne carnales estis et secundum hominem ambulatis? quod ergo est ambulare secundum hominem, hoc est esse carnalem, quod a carne, id est a parte hominis, intellegitur homo. eosdem ipsos quippe dixit superius animales, quos postea carnales, ita loquens: quis enim scit, inquit, hominum, quae sunt hominis, nisi spiritus hominis, qui in ipso est? sic et quae dei sunt, nemo scit nisi spiritus dei. nos autem, inquit, non spiritum huius mundi accepimus, sed spiritum qui ex deo est, ut sciamus quae a deo donata sunt nobis; quae et loquimur, non in sapientiae humanae doctis uerbis, sed doctis spiritu, spiritalibus spiritalia conparantes. animalis autem homo non percipit quae sunt spiritus dei; stultitia est enim illi. talibus igitur, id est animalibus, paulo post dicit: et ego, fratres, non potui loqui uobis quasi spiritalibus, sed quasi carnalibus; et illud et hoc eodem loquendi modo, id est a parte totum. et ab anima namque et a carne, quae sunt partes hominis, potest totum significari, quod est homo; atque ita non est aliud animalis homo, aliud carnalis, sed idem ipsum est utrumque, id est secundum hominem uiuens homo; sicut non aliud quam homines significantur, siue ubi legitur: ex operibus legis non iustificabitur omnis caro, siue quod scriptum est: septuaginta quinque animae descenderunt cum Iacob in Aegyptum. et ibi enim per omnem carnem omnis homo, et ibi per septuaginta quinque animas septuaginta quinque homines intelleguntur. et quod dictum est: non in sapientiae humanae doctis uerbis, potuit dici: non in sapientiae carnalis; sicut quod dictum est: secundum hominem ambulatis, potuit dici: secundum carnem. magis autem hoc apparuit in his quae subiunxit: cum enim quis dicat: ego quidem sum Pauli, alius autem: ego Apollo, nonne homines estis? quod dicebat: animales estis, et: carnales estis, expressius dixit: homines estis, quod est: secundum hominem uiuitis, non secundum deum, secundum quem si uiueretis, di essetis.

Übersetzung ausblenden
The City of God

Chapter 4.--What It is to Live According to Man, and What to Live According to God.

When, therefore, man lives according to man, not according to God, he is like the devil. Because not even an angel might live according to an angel, but only according to God, if he was to abide in the truth, and speak God's truth and not his own lie. And of man, too, the same apostle says in another place, "If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie;" ¹ --"my lie," he said, and "God's truth." When, then, a man lives according to the truth, he lives not according to himself, but according to God; for He was God who said, "I am the truth." ² When, therefore, man lives according to himself,--that is, according to man, not according to God,--assuredly he lives according to a lie; not that man himself is a lie, for God is his author and creator, who is certainly not the author and creator of a lie, but because man was made upright, that he might not live according to himself, but according to Him that made him,--in other words, that he might do His will and not his own; and not to live as he was made to live, that is a lie. For he certainly desires to be blessed even by not living so that he may be blessed. And what is a lie if this desire be not? Wherefore it is not without meaning said that all sin is a lie. For no sin is committed save by that desire or will by which we desire that it be well with us, and shrink from it being ill with us. That, therefore, is a lie which we do in order that it may be well with us, but which makes us more miserable than we were. And why is this, but because the source of man's happiness lies only in God, whom he abandons when he sins, and not in himself, by living according to whom he sins?

In enunciating this proposition of ours, then, that because some live according to the flesh and others according to the spirit, there have arisen two diverse and conflicting cities, we might equally well have said, "because some live according to man, others according to God." For Paul says very plainly to the Corinthians, "For whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk according to man?" ³ So that to walk according to man and to be carnal are the same; for by flesh, that is, by a part of man, man is meant. For before he said that those same persons were animal whom afterwards he calls carnal, saying, "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the animal man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him." ⁴ It is to men of this kind, then, that is, to animal men, he shortly after says, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal." ⁵ And this is to be interpreted by the same usage, a part being taken for the whole. For both the soul and the flesh, the component parts of man, can be used to signify the whole man; and so the animal man and the carnal man are not two different things, but one and the same thing, viz., man living according to man. In the same way it is nothing else than men that are meant either in the words, "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified;" ⁶ or in the words, "Seventy-five souls went down into Egypt with Jacob." ⁷ In the one passage, "no flesh" signifies "no man;" and in the other, by "seventy-five souls" seventy-five men are meant. And the expression, "not in words which man's wisdom teacheth" might equally be "not in words which fleshly wisdom teacheth;" and the expression, "ye walk according to man," might be "according to the flesh." And this is still more apparent in the words which followed: "For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not men?" The same thing which he had before expressed by "ye are animal," "ye are carnal, he now expresses by "ye are men;" that is, ye live according to man, not according to God, for if you lived according to Him, you should be gods.