|
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," 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 aUUels, 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. 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." 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 man have been called
angels; for of John it is written: "Behold, I send my messenger
(angel) before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way." And the
prophet Malachi, by a peculiar grace specially communicated to him,
was called an angel.
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." 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, 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." 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."
|
|