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Chapter 18OdoC.1.18

Caput XVI

The Murderer Hidden in Bad Example

Those who harm neighbors through bad example commit a graver violence than those who seize outward goods, for they wound the soul rather than possessions.

One person kills his brother; these people afflict their neighbors either by inflicting losses on them or by killing them through bad examples — as far as it depends on them. Hence it is written: 'Because of the multitude of oppressors they will cry out' (Job 35:9).✦ Clearly, it is in those whose depravity displeases the wicked that oppressors are rightly so called — not only those who seize outward possessions, but also those who, by the example of a reprobate life, strive to destroy what is within us. For the one who by living wickedly inflicts violence on our character brings a graver injury upon us than the one who violently heaps losses upon our possessions.

The Devil as Murderer from the Beginning

The Lord's words in John 8:44 reveal the devil as the archetypal murderer, whose envy of humanity inaugurated spiritual death.

Now each person of this kind is shown by the words of the Lord to be not only an oppressor but a murderer.✦ For he says of the devil: 'That one was a murderer from the beginning' (John 8:44),✦ that is, from the moment the man came into being whom he envied.✦ See what kind of murder John says it is.✦

How the Serpent Killed Without a Sword

The devil murdered Adam and Eve not with weapons but through deceptive words, sowing death by the ear as the evil one snatches the word from hearts.

He didn't come to the man armed with a sword or girded with iron; he came clothed in the serpent, spoke to the woman, and through her poisoned the husband.✦ By listening to him, they are dead.✦ The devil sowed the word and killed.✦

Scandal as Murder: The Case of Ishmael and Isaac

Whoever persuades another to sin by word or example is truly a murderer, as shown by Ishmael's mockery of Isaac, which Scripture calls persecution.

So don't think that a man isn't a murderer who persuades someone to do evil either by example or by word; because if he persuades a brother, he kills him.✦1 This is why that mocking of Ishmael toward Isaac is thought by the mother to be not play but mockery, and by the Apostle it is called persecution.✦✦2

Read the original Latin

Ille fratrem occidit, isti proximos aut damnis affligunt, aut exemplis necant, quantum in ipsis est. Unde scriptum est: Propter multitudinem calumniatorum clamabunt (Job XXXV, 9). Videlicet in quibus malorum pravitas displicet, calumniatores recte vocantur, non solum qui exteriora bona rapiunt; sed etiam qui vitae reprobae exemplo interna nostra dissipare contendunt. Graviorem namque calumniam nobis infert, qui male vivendo vim nostris moribus irrogat, quam is qui violenter damna rebus ingerit. Hujusmodi autem quisque non solum calumniator, sed homicida ex verbis Domini comprobatur. Ait enim de diabolo: Ille homicida erat ab initio (Joan. VIII, 44), id est, ex quo exstitit homo cui invidebat. Vide ut Joannes dicit genus homicidii.

Non gladio armatus, non ferro accinctus, ad hominem venit, serpente indutus, locutus est mulieri, et per illam venenavit virum. Illum utique audiendo mortui sunt. Diabolus verbum seminavit et occidit. Noli ergo putare hominem illum non esse homicidam, qui vel exemplo, vel verbo mala persuadet; quia, si fratri persuadet, occidit. Inde est quod ille lusus Ismaelis cum Isaac non lusio, sed illusio a matre putatur, et ab Apostolo persecutio nominatur.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Job.35.9 — Because of the abundance of oppression, they cry out; they call for help from the arm of the many.
  2. ↩John.8.44 — You are of your father the devil, and you desire to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.
  3. ↩John.8.44 — You are of your father the devil, and you desire to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.
  4. ↩John.8.44 — You are of your father the devil, and you desire to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.
  5. ↩John.8.44 — You are of your father the devil, and you desire to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.
  6. ↩Gen.3.1-Gen.3.6 — Now the serpent was more crafty than any other animal that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" Gen.3.2 — And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, Gen.3.3 — but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.' Gen.3.4 — But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not certainly die.' Gen.3.5 — for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Gen.3.6 — And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
  7. ↩Gen.2.17 — but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day you eat from it you shall surely die.
  8. ↩Matt.13.19;Mark.4.15 — When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one who was sown along the roadside. Mark.4.15 — And these are the ones along the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word sown in them.
  9. ↩Matt.5.21-Matt.5.22 — You have heard that it was said to the ancients, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' Matt.5.22 — But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever says to his brother 'Raca' will be liable to the council; and whoever says 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.
  10. ↩Gen.21.9 — Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.
  11. ↩Gal.4.29 — But just as at that time the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩'ergo' rendered as 'so' to capture the inferential force naturally in contemporary English.
  2. 2 ↩'a matre' likely refers to Sarah (the mother of Isaac), who perceived Ishmael's mockery as a serious threat (Genesis 21:9–10). 'ab Apostolo' refers to Paul's allegorical use of this episode in Galatians 4:29.

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