City of God (Penguin Classics) (193 page)

40
. cf. Bk VII, 25n.

41
. cf. Bk VII, 35n.

42
. Magic secured indirect revelation, in which the divinity appeared in some material object (e.g. a flame, in lychnomancy’), or through a medium in a trance.
Sorcery (goetia)
secured indirect revelation by the use of material things, without the divinity being present in them. cf. A. J. Festugière,
La Révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste.
Paris, second edition, 1950, I, p. 283f.

43
. cf. ch. 28.

44
.2 Cor. 1l, 14.

45
. Virg.,
Ceorg.
, 4, 411.

46
. Anebo, an Egyptian priest, mentioned by Eusebius
(Praep.
Ev., 5, 7). A reply to Porphyry (De
Mystcriis)
is attributed to lamblichus.

47
. A Stoic writer of the first century ají. No works extant

48
. cf. Bk VI, 10.

49
. Exod. 33, 13.

50
. cf. Acts 7, 53; Gal. 3, 19.

51
. Legendary law-giver of Sparta to whom were ascribed the reforms which changed the character of that state c. 600 B.C.

52
. Enn. 3, 2, 13.

53
. The Platonic ‘idea’.

54
. Matt. 6, 28f.

55
. cf. Acts. 7, 53.

56
. Enn., 1, 6, 7.

57
. Val. Max., 1, 8, 7.

58
. Liv., 1, 36.

59
. Val. Max., 1, 8, 2.

60
. Ovid., Fast., 4, 305f.

61
. Val. Max., 8, 1, 5.

62
. Phars., 6, 506, cf. Virg., Eel., 8, 69.

63
. cf. Acts 7, 23; Gal. 3, 19.

64
. Exod. 13, 21; 40, 34f.

65
. Josh. 3, 16f.

66
. 1 Sam. 46.

67
. cf. ch. 14.

68
. Epicureans.

69
. Ps. 73, 28.

70
. Cyrenaics.

71
. Stoics.

72
. cf. Ps. 103, 20.

73
. Ps. 103, 20.

74
. cf. Exod. 22, 20; Judg. 13, 16; Rev. 19, 20; 22, 8f.

75
. Acts 14, 7ff.

76
. cf. ch. 11.

77
. Phil. 2, 6f.

78
. 1 Tim. 2, 5.

79
. cf. Rev. 6, 11.

80
. cf. Hebr. 12, 4.

81
. ‘Hero’ and Hera are unconnected. Heros is unknown. St Augustine evidently connects Hera with aêr(‘air’).

82
. cf. Eph. 2, 2.

83
.
Aen.
, 7, 310.

84
.
Aen.
, 3, 438f.

85
.1 Tim. 2, 5.

86
. Rom. 8, 3.

87
. Principles or ‘beginnings’ (Gk.
archai
). The Trinity of Neoplatonism is thus described by Cyril of Alexandria (c.
Jul.
, 8): ‘Plato said that the substance of God issues in three subsistences (hypostaseis, ‘persons’): the supreme God being the Good; after him, in the second place, the Creator (the Demiurge); then, in the third place, the Soul of the World.’

88
. cf. Enn., 45, 1.

89
. Enn., 45, 6.

90
. The Rule of Faith, cf. Bk
xv
, ch. 711.

91
. The ‘Modalist Monarchians’ of the third century, who explained the three Persons as successive modes of divine activity.

92
. John 1, 3.

93
. John 1, 14.

94
. John, 6, 57; 61; 64.

95
. Christ… the
‘principle’:
Christ’s answer to the question, ‘Who are you?’ is ambiguous in the Greek of John 8, 25. It could mean either ‘What I told you at the beginning’ or ‘Why do I speak to you at all?’ The Vulgate introduces another ambiguity, since princtpium (translating tên
archên
, ‘at the start’ or ‘at all’) could be nominative, as St Augustine takes it, making the reply ‘I am the beginning (principle).’

96
. cf. Acts 7, 53; Gal. 3, 19.

97
. Ps. 73, 28. St Augustine goes on to paraphrase and expound verses 17 to 28 of this psalm.

98
. Ps. 84, 3.

99
. Ps. 119, 81.

100
. Matt 23, 26.

101
. Rom. 8, 24f.

102
. Ps. 73, 26f.

103
. cf. ch. 9.

104
. cf. Bk
IX
, 8;
De Deo
Socr., 12.

105
. Christ is
represented
: The fourth Eclogue of Virgil, addressed to the consul Pollio, predicts a golden age of peace under a new-born child who will have the virtues of his father. Christian writers supposed that Virgil had been inspired to speak of the birth of Christ and the coming of the Christian era. Virgil was probably thinking of the expected child of Octavian and Scribonia.

106
. Ecl. 4, 13f.

107
.
The Sibyl of Cumae
: see Bk
XVIII
, 23n.

108
. cf. ch. 9.

109
. 1 Cor. 1, 24.

110
. According to an old tradition Porphyry was a renegade Christian (Socr., 3, 23).

111
. cf. Bk
VII
, 35.

112
. Is. 29, 14, cited 1 Cor. 1, 19.

113
. 1 Cor. 1.20–25.

114
. cf. ch. 24.

115
. cf. e.g.
Phaed.
, 66–7B.

116
. Tim. 3of.

117
.
Simplicianus
: d. A.D. 400. He prepared Ambrose for baptism in 373; and he was an important influence in the conversion of St Augustine when he recounted the story of the conversion of the Neoplatonist, Victorinus (cf.
Conf
.
VIII
, 2; and cf. Bk x, 29). Simplicianus became Bishop of Milan in 397.

118
. John 1, 14.

119
. cf. Flat,
Phaed
., 81E;
Phacdr
., 249B;
Rp
., 10, 619D-620B;
Tim
. 42c; Plot,
Enn
., 3, 4, 2.

120
. cf. Bk
XVIII
, 19.

121
. cf.
Phaed
., 70cf.

122
.
Aen
., 6, 75of.

123
. cf. ‘Plato is my friend; but truth is still more my friend.’ Cic.,
Tuse. Disp
., 1.17, 39.

124
. Tim., 41B.

125
. cf. Phil. 2, 8.

126
. The ‘gymnosophists’; cf. Bk Viii, 9n.; xiv, 17; xv, 20.

127
. Porphyry 233–301; persecution of Decius 249–51, of Valerian 257–60.

128
. Gen. 22,18.

129
. cf. Gal. 3,19.

130
. Ps. 67. 2f.

131
. John 14, 6.

132
. Is. 2, 2.

133
. Luke 24, 44f.

134
. cf. e.g. ch. 8.

1
. Ps.87,3; 48, 1, 2, 8; 46,4f.

2
. sc. angels; cf. Bk IX, 23; x, 1.

3
. 1 Tim. 2, 5.

4
. Wisd. 7, 27; Prov. 8, 27.

5
. Matt. 18, 10.

6
. sc. in the ‘Protevangelium’, Gen. 3, 15.

7
. A question posed by Epicureans (Cic.,
De
Nat. Deor., 1, 9, 21) and by Mani-cheans (Aug., De
Gen. C. Manich.
, 1, 3, 4).

8
. cf. Bk x 31.

9
. cf. Lucr. 2, 1048 f.

10
. Gal. 4, 26.

11
. 1 Thess. 5, 5.

12
. Ps. 148, 5; 33, 9.

13
. cf. Bk xxii, 30.

14
. Dan. 3, 57.

15
. Ps. 148, 1ff.

16
. job 38, 7.

17
. John 1, 9. There is an irreproducible pun here (as in Bk Vii, 26) on
mundus
(world) and the adjective mundus (pure) with its opposite,
immundus.

18
. Eph. 5, 8.

19
. cf. Plot., Enn., 3, 2, 5. ‘Evil is to be defined as the lack of good’; cf. also ch. 22, and
Enchir. 4
, ‘What is called evil is really the privation of good.’

20
. cf. 6k x, 24n.

21
. The view of Diogenes of Apollonia (cf. Bk Viii, 2n.) according to Aristotle (
De An.
, 1, 2, 15). The same notion is attributed to some Stoics.

22
. Wisd. 7, 22.

23
. Matt. 22, 30.

24
. Matt. 25, 46.

25
. John 8, 44.

26
.1 John 3, 8.

27
. Followers of the teaching of Manes (
c.
215–75) of Persia, who taught a radical dualism, with two ultimate realities of Good and Evil (Light and Darkness).

28
. Ps. 17, 6.

29
. Is. 14, 12.

30
. Ez. 28, 13f.

31
. Job 40,14.

32
. Ps. 104, 26 (
LXX
).

33
. Job 40, 14.

34
. Ps. 17, 6.

35
. 2 Cor. 6, 7ff.

36
. Ecclus. 33, 14f.

37
. cf. ch. 7.

38
. Gen. 1, 4f.

39
. Gen. 1, 14–18.

40
.
Tim
. 37c.

41
. cf. Plot,
Enn
., 5, 8, 8.

42
. Jas. 1, 17.

43
.
Tim
. 30.

44
. Rom. 1, 20.

45
. cf. ch. 9.

46
.
De Princ
., 1, 6.
Origen
: b. c.
A.D
. 185 in Egypt; he studied theology at Alexandria under Clement, whom he succeeded as head of the Catechetical School; he later studied philosophy under Ammonius Saccas, the Neoplatonist; he was imprisoned and tortured during the Decian persecution (250) and died soon after. A prolific author, his writings had wide influence, but some of his speculations became suspect, perhaps because they were misunderstood. He was accused of heresy in Trinitarian doctrine, of erroneous notions about the soul, of teaching metempsychosis (‘migration of souls’), and of treating Scripture as mere allegory. The controversy over ‘Origenism’ had flared up shortly before St Augustine started the
City of God
, and in
A.D
. 400 a council at Alexandria condemned certain doctrines ascribed to Origen. There was further controversy during the sixth century, and ‘Origenism’ was finally repudiated at the Second (Oecumenical) Council of Constantinople in 543.