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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXIII: An credendum sit angelos substantiae spiritalis amore speciosarum mulierum captos earundem inisse coniugia, ex quibus gigantes sint creati.

Quam quaestionem nos transeunter commemoratam in tertio huius operis libro reliquimus insolutam, utrum possint angeli, cum spiritus sint, corporaliter coire cum feminis. scriptum est enim: qui facit angelos suos spiritus, id est eos, qui natura spiritus sunt, facit esse angelos suos, iniungendo eis officium nuntiandi. qui enim Graece dicitur ἄγγελος, quod nomen Latina declinatione angelus perhibetur, Latina lingua nuntius interpretatur. sed utrum eorum corpora consequenter adiunxerit dicendo: et ministros suos ignem ardentem, an quod caritate tamquam igne spiritali feruere debeant ministri eius, ambiguum est. apparuisse tamen hominibus angelos in talibus corporibus, ut non solum uideri, uerum etiam tangi possent, eadem ueracissima scriptura testatur. et quoniam creberrima fama est multique se expertos uel ab eis, qui experti essent, de quorum fide dubitandum non esset, audisse confirmant, Siluanos et Panes, quos uulgo incubos uocant, inprobos saepe extitisse mulieribus et earum adpetisse ac peregisse concubitum; et quosdam daemones, quos Dusios Galli nuncupant, adsidue hanc inmunditiam et tentare et efficere, plures talesque adseuerant, ut hoc negare inpudentiae uideatur: non hinc aliquid audeo definire, utrum aliqui spiritus elemento aerio corporati - nam hoc elementum etiam cum agitatur flabello sensu corporis tactuque sentitur - possint hanc etiam pati libidinem, ut, quomodo possunt, sentientibus feminis misceantur. dei tamen angelos sanctos nullo modo illo tempore sic labi potuisse crediderim; nec de his dixisse apostolum Petrum: si enim deus angelis peccantibus non pepercit, sed carceribus caliginis inferi retrudens tradidit in iudicio puniendos reseruari; sed potius de illis, qui primum apostatantes a deo cum diabolo suo principe ceciderunt, qui primum hominem per inuidiam serpentina fraude deiecit. angelos autem fuisse etiam dei homines nuncupatos eadem scriptura sancta locupletissima testis est. nam et dei Iohanne scriptum est: ecce mitto angelum meum ante faciem tuam, qui praeparabit uiam tuam, et Malachiel propheta propria quadam, id est proprie sibi inpertita gratia dictus est angelus. uerum hoc mouet quosdam, quod ex illis, qui dicti sunt angeli dei, et ex mulieribus, quas amauerunt, non quasi homines generis nostri, sed gigantes legimus esse natos. quasi uero corpora hominum modum nostrum longe excedentia, quod etiam supra commemoraui, non etiam nostris temporibus nata sunt. nonne ante paucos annos, cum Romanae urbis quod a Gothis factum est adpropinquaret excidium. Romae fuit femina cum suo patre et sua matre, quae corpore quodammodo giganteo longe ceteris praemineret? ad quam uisendam mirabilis fiebat usquequaque concursus. et hoc erat maxime admirationi, quod ambo parentes eius nec saltem tam longi homines erant, quam longissimos uidere consueuimus. potuerunt igitur gigantes nasci, et priusquam filii dei, qui et angeli dei dicti sunt, filiabus hominum, hoc est secundum hominem uiuentium, miscerentur; filii scilicet Seth filiis Cain. nam et canonica scriptura sic loquitur, in quo libro haec legimus, cuius uerba ista sunt: et factum est, postquam coeperunt homines multi fieri super terram, et filiae natae sunt illis; uidentes autem angeli dei filias hominum, quia bonae sunt, sumpserunt sibi uxores ex omnibus quas elegerunt. et dixit dominus deus: non permanebit spiritus meus in hominibus his in aeternum, propter quod caro sunt. erunt autem dies eorum centum uiginti anni. gigantes autem erant super terram in diebus illis et post illud, cum intrarent filii dei ad filias hominum, et generabant sibi; illi erant gigantes a saeculo homines nominati. haec libri uerba diuini satis indicant iam illis diebus fuisse gigantes super terram, quando filii dei acceperunt uxores filias hominum, cum eas amarent bonas, id est pulchras. consuetudo quippe scripturae huius est, etiam speciosos corpore bonos uocare. sed et postquam hoc factum est, nati sunt gigantes. sic enim ait: gigantes autem erant super terram in diebus illis et post illud, cum intrarent filii dei ad filias hominum. ergo et ante in illis diebus et post illud. quod autem ait: et generabant sibi, satis ostendit, quod prius, antequam sic caderent filii dei, deo generabant, non sibi, id est non dominante libidine coeundi, sed seruiente officio propagandi; non familiam fastus sui, sed ciues ciuitatis dei, quibus adnuntiarent tamquam angeli dei, ut ponerent in deo spem suam, similes illius, qui natus est de Seth, filius resurrectionis, et sperauit inuocare nomen domini dei; in qua spe essent cum suis posteris coheredes aeternorum bonorum et sub deo patre fratres filiorum. non autem illos ita fuisse angelos dei, ut homines non essent, sicut quidam putant, sed homines procul dubio fuisse, scriptura ipsa sine ulla ambiguitate declarat. cum enim praemissum esset, quod uidentes angeli dei filias hominum, quia bonae sunt, sumpserunt sibi uxores ex omnibus quas elegerunt, mox adiunctum est: et dixit dominus deus: non permanebit spiritus meus in hominibus his in aeternum, propter quod caro sunt. spiritu dei quippe fuerant facti angeli dei et filii dei, sed declinando ad inferiora dicuntur homines nomine naturae, non gratiae; dicuntur et caro, desertores spiritus et deserendo deserti. et septuaginta quidem interpretes et angelos dei dixerunt istos et filios dei; quod quidem non omnes codices habent, nam quidam nisi filios dei non habent. aquila autem, quem interpretem Iudaei ceteris anteponunt, non angelos dei, nec filios dei, sed filios deorum interpretatus est. utrumque autem uerum est. nam et filii dei erant, sub quo patre suorum patrum etiam fratres erant; et filii deorum, quoniam dis geniti erant, cum quibus et ipsi di erant iuxta illud psalmi: ego dixi: di estis et filii excelsi omnes. merito enim creduntur septuaginta interpretes accepisse propheticum spiritum, ut, si quid eius auctoritate mutarent atque aliter quam erat quod interpretabantur dicerent, neque hoc diuinitus dictum esse dubitaretur. quamuis hoc in Hebraeo esse perhibeatur ambiguum, ut et filii dei et filii eorum posset interpretari. omittamus igitur earum scripturarum fabulas, quae apocryphae nuncupantur, eo quod earum occulta origo non claruit patribus, a quibus usque ad nos auctoritas ueracium scripturarum certissima et notissima successione peruenit. in his autem apocryphis etsi inuenitur aliqua ueritas, tamen propter multa falsa nulla est canonica auctoritas. scripsisse quidem nonnulla diuine illum Enoch, septimum ab Adam, negare non possumus, cum hoc in epistula canonica Iudas apostolus dicat. sed non frustra non sunt in eo canone scripturarum, qui seruabatur in templo Hebraei populi succedentium diligentia sacerdotum, nisi quia ob antiquitatem suspectae fidei iudicata sunt, nec utrum haec essent, quae ille scripsisset, poterat inueniri, non talibus proferentibus, qui ea per seriem successionis reperirentur rite seruasse. unde illa, quae sub eius nomine proferuntur et continent istas de gigantibus fabulas, quod non habuerint homines patres, recte a prudentibus iudicantur non ipsius esse credenda; sicut multa sub nominibus et aliorum prophetarum et recentiora sub nominibus apostolorum ab haereticis proferuntur, quae omnia nomine apocryphorum ab auctoritate canonica diligenti examinatione remota sunt. igitur secundum scripturas canonicas Hebraeas atque Christianas multos gigantes ante diluuium fuisse non dubium est, et hos fuisse ciues terrigenae societatis hominum; dei autem filios, qui secundum carnem de Seth propagati sunt, in hanc societatem deserta iustitia declinasse. nec mirandum est, quod etiam de ipsis gigantes nasci potuerunt. neque enim omnes gigantes, sed magis multi utique tunc fuerunt, quam post diluuium temporibus ceteris. quos propterea creare placuit creatori, ut etiam hinc ostenderetur non solum pulchritudines, uerum etiam magnitudines et fortitudines corporum non magni pendendas esse sapienti, qui spiritalibus atque inmortalibus longe melioribus atque firmioribus et bonorum propriis, non bonorum malorumque communibus beatificatur bonis. quam rem alius propheta commendans ait: ibi fuerunt gigantes illi nominati, qui ab initio fuerunt staturosi, scientes proelium. non hos elegit dominus, nec uiam scientiae dedit illis; sed interierunt, quia non habuerunt sapientiam, perierunt propter inconsiderantiam.

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The City of God

Chapter 23.--Whether We are to Believe that Angels, Who are of a Spiritual Substance, Fell in Love with the Beauty of Women, and Sought Them in Marriage, and that from This Connection Giants Were Born.

In the third book of this work (c. 5) we made a passing reference to this question, but did not decide whether angels, inasmuch as they are spirits, could have bodily intercourse with women. For it is written, "Who maketh His angels spirits," ¹ that is, He makes those who are by nature spirits His angels by appointing them to the duty of bearing His messages. For the Greek word angelos, which in Latin appears as "angelus," means a messenger. But whether the Psalmist speaks of their bodies when he adds, "and His ministers a flaming fire," or means that God's ministers ought to blaze with love as with a spiritual fire, is doubtful. However, the same trustworthy Scripture testifies that angels have appeared to men in such bodies as could not only be seen, but also touched. There is, too, a very general rumor, which many have verified by their own experience, or which trustworthy persons who have heard the experience of others corroborate, that sylvans and fauns, who are commonly called "incubi," had often made wicked assaults upon women, and satisfied their lust upon them; and that certain devils, called Duses by the Gauls, are constantly attempting and effecting this impurity is so generally affirmed, that it were impudent to deny it. ² From these assertions, indeed, I dare not determine whether there be some spirits embodied in an aerial substance (for this element, even when agitated by a fan, is sensibly felt by the body), and who are capable of lust and of mingling sensibly with women; but certainly I could by no means believe that God's holy angels could at that time have so fallen, nor can I think that it is of them the Apostle Peter said, "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." ³ I think he rather speaks of these who first apostatized from God, along with their chief the devil, who enviously deceived the first man under the form of a serpent. But the same holy Scripture affords the most ample testimony that even godly men have been called angels; for of John it is written: "Behold, I send my messenger (angel) before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way." ⁴ And the prophet Malachi, by a peculiar grace specially communicated to him, was called an angel. ⁵

But some are moved by the fact that we have read that the fruit of the connection between those who are called angels of God and the women they loved were not men like our own breed, but giants; just as if there were not born even in our own time (as I have mentioned above) men of much greater size than the ordinary stature. Was there not at Rome a few years ago, when the destruction of the city now accomplished by the Goths was drawing near, a woman, with her father and mother, who by her gigantic size over-topped all others? Surprising crowds from all quarters came to see her, and that which struck them most was the circumstance that neither of her parents were quite up to the tallest ordinary stature. Giants therefore might well be born, even before the sons of God, who are also called angels of God, formed a connection with the daughters of men, or of those living according to men, that is to say, before the sons of Seth formed a connection with the daughters of Cain. For thus speaks even the canonical Scripture itself in the book in which we read of this; its words are: "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair [good]; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord God said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became the giants, men of renown." ⁶ These words of the divine book sufficiently indicate that already there were giants in the earth in those days, in which the sons of God took wives of the children of men, when they loved them because they were good, that is, fair. For it is the custom of this Scripture to call those who are beautiful in appearance "good." But after this connection had been formed, then too were giants born. For the words are: "There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men." Therefore there were giants both before, "in those days," and "also after that." And the words, "they bare children to them," show plainly enough that before the sons of God fell in this fashion they begat children to God, not to themselves,--that is to say, not moved by the lust of sexual intercourse, but discharging the duty of propagation, intending to produce not a family to gratify their own pride, but citizens to people the city of God; and to these they as God's angels would bear the message, that they should place their hope in God, like him who was born of Seth, the son of resurrection, and who hoped to call on the name of the Lord God, in which hope they and their offspring would be co-heirs of eternal blessings, and brethren in the family of which God is the Father.

But that those angels were not angels in the sense of not being men, as some suppose, Scripture itself decides, which unambiguously declares that they were men. For when it had first been stated that "the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose," it was immediately added, "And the Lord God said, My Spirit shall not always strive with these men, for that they also are flesh." For by the Spirit of God they had been made angels of God, and sons of God; but declining towards lower things, they are called men, a name of nature, not of grace; and they are called flesh, as deserters of the Spirit, and by their desertion deserted [by Him]. The Septuagint indeed calls them both angels of God and sons of God, though all the copies do not show this, some having only the name" sons of God." And Aquila, whom the Jews prefer to the other interpreters, ⁷ has translated neither angels of God nor sons of God, but sons of gods. But both are correct. For they were both sons of God, and thus brothers of their own fathers, who were children of the same God; and they were sons of gods, because begotten by gods, together with whom they themselves also were gods, according to that expression of the psalm: "I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High." ⁸ For the Septuagint translators are justly believed to have received the Spirit of prophecy; so that, if they made any alterations under His authority, and did not adhere to a strict translation, we could not doubt that this was divinely dictated. However, the Hebrew word may be said to be ambiguous, and to be susceptible of either translation, "sons of God," or "sons of gods."

Let us omit, then, the fables of those scriptures which are called apocryphal, because their obscure origin was unknown to the fathers from whom the authority of the true Scriptures has been transmitted to us by a most certain and well-ascertained succession. For though there is some truth in these apocryphal writings, yet they contain so many false statements, that they have no canonical authority. We cannot deny that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, left some divine writings, for this is asserted by the Apostle Jude in his canonical epistle. But it is not without reason that these writings have no place in that canon of Scripture which was preserved in the temple of the Hebrew people by the diligence of successive priests; for their antiquity brought them under suspicion, and it was impossible to ascertain whether these were his genuine writings, and they were not brought forward as genuine by the persons who were found to have carefully preserved the canonical books by a successive transmission. So that the writings which are produced under his name, and which contain these fables about the giants, saying that their fathers were not men, are properly judged by prudent men to be not genuine; just as many writings are produced by heretics under the names both of other prophets, and more recently, under the names of the apostles, all of which, after careful examination, have been set apart from canonical authority under the title of Apocrypha. There is therefore no doubt that, according to the Hebrew and Christian canonical Scriptures, there were many giants before the deluge, and that these were citizens of the earthly society of men, and that the sons of God, who were according to the flesh the sons of Seth, sunk into this community when they forsook righteousness. Nor need we wonder that giants should be born even from these. For all of their children were not giants; but there were more then than in the remaining periods since the deluge. And it pleased the Creator to produce them, that it might thus be demonstrated that neither beauty, nor yet size and strength, are of much moment to the wise man, whose blessedness lies in spiritual and immortal blessings, in far better and more enduring gifts, in the good things that are the peculiar property of the good, and are not shared by good and bad alike. It is this which another prophet confirms when he says, "These were the giants, famous from the beginning, that were of so great stature, and so expert in war. Those did not the Lord choose, neither gave He the way of knowledge unto them; but they were destroyed because they had no wisdom, and perished through their own foolishness." ⁹