Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 8:44

"Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof." — John 8:44 (ASV)

1. After showing that the Jews had a spiritual origin and rejecting the origin they presumed for themselves, our Lord here gives their true origin, ascribing their fatherhood to the devil.

1. He makes his statement.
2. He gives its reason, at the words and you want to carry out the desires of your father.
3. He explains this reason, at the words he was a murderer from the beginning.

2. He says, you are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out the desires of your father, that is, by imitating him: your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite (Ezekiel 16:3).

Here one must be on guard against the heresy of the Manicheans, who claim that there is a definite nature called ‘evil’ and a certain race of darkness with its own princes, from which all corruptible things derive their origin. According to this opinion, all people, regarding their flesh, have come from the devil. Furthermore, they say that certain souls belong to the good creation, and others to the evil one. Thus they claimed that our Lord said, you are of your father the devil, because they came from the devil according to the flesh, and their souls were part of the evil creation.

But as Origen says, to suppose that there are two natures because of the difference between good and evil is like saying that the substance of a seeing eye is different from that of a clouded or crossed eye. A healthy eye and a bleary eye do not differ in substance; the bleariness is from some deficient cause. In the same way, the substance and nature of a thing is the same whether it is good or has a defect in itself, which is a sin of the will. Therefore, the Jews, being evil, are not called children of the devil by nature, but because they imitate him.

3. Then when he says, and you want to carry out the desires of your father, he gives the reason for their being of the devil. It is like saying: you are not the children of the devil as if created and brought into existence by him, but because by imitating him you want to carry out the desires of your father. And these desires are evil, for just as he envied and killed man—through the devil’s envy death entered the world ()—so you too envy me and now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth (John 8:40).

4. Then when he says, he was a murderer from the beginning, he explains the reason he gave.

• He mentions the characteristic of the devil that they imitate.
• He shows that they are truly imitators of that, at the words but because I tell the truth, you do not believe me (John 8:45).

Regarding the first point, it should be noted that two sins stand out in the devil: the sin of pride toward God and of envy toward man, whom he destroys. And from the sin of envy toward man, because of which he injures him, we can know his sin of pride. And so:

• He mentions the devil’s sin against man.
• He mentions his sin against God, at the words he did not stand in the truth.

5. His sin of envy against man lies in the fact that he kills him. So he says, he, that is, the devil, was a murderer from the beginning.

Here it should be noted that the devil does not kill man with a sword, but by persuading him to do evil. Through the devil’s envy death entered the world . First, the death of sin entered: the death of the wicked is very evil (Psalms 34:21); then came bodily death: sin came into the world through one man and death through sin (Romans 5:12). As Augustine says: do not think that you are not a murderer when you lead your brother into evil.

However, it should be noted with Origen that the devil is not called a murderer with respect to only some particular person, but with respect to the whole human race, which he destroyed in Adam, in whom all die (1 Corinthians 15:22). Thus he is called a murderer because that is a chief characteristic, and he is so indeed from the beginning—that is, from the time that a man existed who could be killed, who could be murdered, for one cannot be murdered unless he first exists.

6. Then when he says, he did not stand in the truth, he mentions the devil’s sin against God, which consists in the fact that he turned away from the truth, which is God.

• He shows that the devil is turned from the truth.
• He shows that he is contrary to the truth, at the words when he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own authority.

As to the first point, he does two things:

• He shows that the devil is turned from the truth.
• He explains what he has said, at the words because there is no truth in him.

7. He says, he did not stand in the truth.

Here it should be noted that truth is of two kinds: the truth of word and the truth of deed. The truth of word consists in a person saying what he feels in his heart and what is in reality: therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor (Ephesians 4:25); he who speaks truth from his heart, who does not slander with his tongue (Psalms 15:2–3). The truth of deed, on the other hand, is the truth of righteousness, that is, when a person does what is fitting for him according to the order of his nature. Concerning this it says above: but whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God (John 3:21). Speaking of this truth our Lord says, in the truth, namely, the truth of righteousness, he did not stand, because he abandoned the order of his nature, which was that he be subject to God and through him acquire his happiness and the fulfillment of his natural desire. And so, because he wanted to obtain this through himself, he fell from the truth.

8. The statement, he did not stand in the truth, can be understood in two ways. Either he never had anything to do with the truth, or he once did, but did not continue in it.

Now, to have never had anything to do with the truth of righteousness has two meanings. One is according to the Manicheans, who say that the devil is evil by nature. From this it follows that he was always evil, because whatever is present by nature is always present. But this is heretical, for we read: God made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them (Psalms 146:6). Therefore, every being is from God; but everything which is from God, insofar as it has being, is good.

Consequently, others have said that the devil was created good in his nature by God, but became evil in the first instant by his own free choice. This opinion differs from that of the Manicheans, who say that the devils were always and by nature evil, whereas this opinion claims that they were always evil by free choice.

Someone might suppose that since an angel is not evil by nature but by a sin of his own will—and sin is an act—it is possible that at the beginning of the act the angel was good, and at the end of the evil act he became evil. For it is plain that the act of sin in the devil is after his creation, and that the end point of creation is the existence of an angel; but the end point of the act of sin is that he is evil. Consequently, according to this explanation, they conclude that it is impossible that an angel be evil in the first instant in which the angel came to exist.

But this explanation does not seem sufficient, because it is true only in motions that occur in time and are accomplished in a successive manner, not in instantaneous motions. In every successive motion, the instant in which an act begins is not the one in which the action is terminated. Thus, if a local motion follows an alteration, the local motion cannot be terminated in the same instant as the alteration. But in changes that are instantaneous, the end point of a first and of a second change can occur together and in the same instant. For example, in the same instant that the moon is illuminated by the sun, the air is illuminated by the moon. Now it is clear that creation is instantaneous, and likewise the act of free choice in the angels, since they do not go through deliberations and discursive reasoning. Thus, in the case of an angel, there is nothing to prevent the same instant from being the end point of creation, in which he was good, and the end point of a free decision, in which he was evil.

Some admit this, although they do not say that it happened this way, but that it could have happened this way. They base themselves on the authority of Scripture, for under the figure of the king of Babylon it is said of the devil: how you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! (Isaiah 14:12); and in the person of the king of Tyre it says: you were in Eden, the garden of God (Ezekiel 28:13). Accordingly, they say that he was not evil at the first instant of his creation, but that he was once good and fell through his free choice.

However, it must be said that he could not have been evil in the first instant of his creation. The reason for this is that an act is sinful only to the extent that it is contrary to the nature of the one who voluntarily performs it. But in the order of acts, the natural act is first. For example, in understanding, first principles are understood first, and through them, other things are understood. Likewise, in willing, we first will the ultimate perfection and final end—the desire for which is naturally in us—and because of this, we seek other things. Now that which is done according to nature is not sin. Therefore, it is impossible that the first act of the devil was evil; consequently, there was some instant in which the devil was good. But he did not stand in the truth, that is, he did not remain in it.

Concerning the statement, the devil has been sinning from the beginning (1 John 3:8), one may say that he did indeed sin from the beginning in the sense that once he began to sin, he never stopped.

9. Then when he says, because the truth is not in him, he explains what he has said. This explanation can be understood in two ways.

In one way, according to Origen, it is an explanation of the general by the particular, as when I explain that Socrates is an animal by the fact that he is a man. It is then like saying: he did not stand in the truth, but fell from it, and this is because the truth is not in him. Now there are two classes of those that do not stand in the truth: some do not stand in the truth because they are not convinced, but waver: my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped (Psalms 73:2); others, on the other hand, do not stand because they have entirely recoiled from the truth. And this was the way the devil did not stand in the truth, but turned away from it in aversion.

But is there no truth at all in him? For if there is no truth in him, he would not understand himself or anything else, since understanding is concerned only with things that are true.

I answer that there is some truth in the evil spirits, just as there is something true. For no evil utterly destroys a good thing, since at least the subject in which evil is found is good. Thus Dionysius says that the natural goods remain intact in evil spirits. So there is some truth in them, but not the fulfilling truth from which they have turned, namely, God, who is fulfilling truth and wisdom.

10. In a second way, this explanation is understood as a sign, as Augustine says. For it seems that he should rather have said the opposite, namely, that there is no truth in him because he did not stand in the truth. But just as a cause is sometimes shown by its effect, so our Lord wished to show that the truth is not in him because he did not stand in the truth; for truth would have been in him had he stood in the truth. A similar pattern of speech is found in I cry, for you will answer me (Psalms 17:6); as if to say that it is evident that I cried because you heard me.

11. Then he shows that the devil is contrary to the truth, when he lies, because he speaks on his own authority.

• He makes this point.
• He explains it, at the words for he is a liar and the father of lies.

12. The contrary of truth is falsity and a lie. The devil is contrary to the truth because he speaks a lie. Thus he says that when he speaks, he speaks a lie.

Here we should note that, God excepted, whoever speaks on his own speaks a lie, although not everyone who speaks a lie speaks on his own. God alone, when speaking on his own, speaks the truth, for truth is an enlightenment of the intellect, and God is light itself and all are enlightened by him: he was the true light, which enlightens everyone coming into this world (John 1:9). Thus he is truth itself, and no one speaks the truth except insofar as he is enlightened by him. So Ambrose says: every truth, by whomever it is spoken, is from the Holy Spirit. Thus the devil, when he speaks on his own, speaks a lie. Man, too, when he speaks on his own, speaks a lie; but when he speaks from God, he speaks the truth: let God be true though every one were a liar (Romans 3:4). But not every man who tells a lie speaks on his own, for sometimes he gets this from someone else—not indeed from God, who is truthful, but from him who did not stand in the truth and who first invented lying. So in a unique way, when the devil tells a lie, he is speaking on his own: I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets (1 Kings 22:22); the Lord has mingled (that is, allowed to mingle) a spirit of error in their midst (Isaiah 19:14).

13. He explains this statement when he says, for he is a liar and the father of lies. The Manicheans did not understand this and supposed some kind of procreation in the evil spirits, with the devil as their father. They said that the devil is a liar and the father of lies. It should not be understood this way, as if our Lord said that the devil is a liar and its father, the father of lies. Not everyone who lies is the father of his lie. As Augustine says, if you have learned a lie from someone else and you repeat it, you have indeed lied, but you are not the father of that lie. But the devil, because he did not learn from someone else the lie by which he destroyed humankind as with poison, is the father of the lie, just as God is the Father of truth. The devil was the first to invent the lie, namely, when he lied to the woman: you will not surely die (Genesis 3:4). Just how true this statement was, was proved by the outcome.

14. Here we should note that the book Questions of the New and Old Testament takes the words you are of your father the devil and applies them to Cain, in the sense that one is called a devil who performs the works of the devil, and you are imitating him. Hence, you are of your father the devil, that is, of Cain, who did the work of the devil, and you are imitating him. Cain was a murderer from the beginning, because he killed his brother Abel. And he did not stand in the truth, because the truth is not in him. This is obvious because when the Lord asked him, where is Abel your brother? he said, I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper? (Genesis 4:9). Thus he is a liar. But the first explanation is better.