On the Divination of Demons · §2 · Augustine of Hippo

God permits injustice for the damnation of the doers

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Augustine is answering the objection that if God permits demonic predictions, they cannot be evil or displeasing to God.

And when it was reported to me: “Then divinations of this kind are not evil, and they do not displease God—otherwise the Almighty and the righteous God would not permit such things to happen, if they were evil and unjust”—I answered that these things should not for that reason be considered just, because the most almighty and most righteous God permits them to happen. For many other things are also done most manifestly unjustly, such as murders, adulteries, thefts, robberies, and others of this kind. Although these things, because they are unjust, without doubt displease the righteous God, yet the same Almighty permits them to happen by a sure reckoning of his judgment—not at all with impunity, but for the damnation of those by whom are done the things that displease the righteous God.

Latin

Et cum mihi referretur: non ergo sunt malae diuinationes huius modi nec deo displicent — alioquin omnipotens et iustus ista fieri non permitteret, si mala et iniusta essent — respondi non ideo haec uideri iusta debere, quod ea fieri permittit omnipotentissimus et iustissimus deus; nam et alia multa manifestissime iniuste fieri, sicut homicidia, adulteria, furta, rapinas et cetera huius modi: quae quamuis iusto deo eo quod iniusta sint sine dubitatione displiceant, idem tamen omnipotens ea fieri certa iudicii sui ratione permittit non utique inpune, sed ad eorum damnationem, a quibus fiunt quae displicent iusto.

About this text

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) wrote this treatise for Christian laymen and for pagan critics of the Christian religion.

The specific question was why a demon had successfully predicted the destruction of the temple of Serapis in Alexandria, which had been destroyed in 391.

Augustine argues that God permits unjust acts such as murders and thefts not because they please him but for the damnation of those who do them. He explains that demons predict the future not by divine power but by the keen senses and swiftness of their airy bodies and by long experience, and that they are often deceived. A reader will meet the pagan god Serapis, whose temple was destroyed, and will hear quotations from the Roman poet Virgil, from the prophet Zephaniah, from the Psalms, and from the apostle Paul. The Psalms are cited according to the Septuagint numbering, which differs from the Hebrew numbering used in most modern English Bibles.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from CSEL 41 (1900) (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.