To Florus 5.31
You thought it a powerful objection to ask where an evil will arose in the first man himself, or in the devil who had been created an angel. Yet you say it arose in God’s work—that is, in an angel or a human being—not because he was God’s work, but because he was made from nothing. Take care, then, that by different paths you too do not say the necessity of evil was eternal. If the cause of evil’s arising in God’s work was that the work had admittedly been made from nothing, then before what exists was made, this nothing always was. That is, before what exists was made, nothing had ever existed; what never existed is said to have been nothing. From eternity, therefore, what did not exist before being made by God—whose substance alone has no beginning—never existed. This emptiness, then, this nothing, always was before the existence of things brought it to an end. This nothing was not made; creatures were made, and the nothing ceased to be.
In a creature made from nothing, however, you invent the claim that evil arose precisely because it was made from nothing. You have therefore attributed the evil arising in a human being to his origin; and you say that origin—nothing—was sin’s cause. For you say: ‘Evil arose in a human being not because he had been made by God, but because he had been made from nothing.’ If evil therefore arose because the condition of the preceding nothing required it, and that nothing was eternal, you have fallen by altered paths and now hang entirely in your teacher’s snare: both of you confess evil to be from eternity. But here too he is more intelligent. Introducing natural sin, he said an eternal substance of darkness existed which compelled this evil to be present without the sinner’s will. He therefore gave an author to the thing he made necessary, so that the evil invading substances would appear to have something forcing it. You, however, with the unbearable leadenness of your mind, affirm the necessity of evil but deny an author of that necessity. As with infants, so with the very first doer of sin, you leave the deed in place, and say that some great mystery can be understood: that this nothing had immense power, although it was nothing.
Latin
Verum vehementem obiectionem puta sti, ut diceres unde in ipso primo homine vel in diabolo qui angelus factus fuerat, mala exstitisset voluntas; quam tamen ais ideo esse ortam in opere Dei, id est, vel in angelo, vel in homine, non quia Dei opus erat, sed quia de nihilo factus erat. Vide ergo ne et tu per alteras vias aeternam dicas fuisse mali necessitatem. Nam si haec fuit causa exoriendi mali in opere Dei, quoniam de nihilo id factum esse constabat; antequam fieret autem quod esset, hoc nihilum semper fuit, id est, antequam fieret id quod esset, numquam aliquid fuit, et hoc quod numquam fuit, nihil fuisse dicitur; ab aeterno ergo numquam fuit, quod non fuit antequam fieret a Deo, cuius substantia sola sine principio est; hoc ergo inane, id est, nihil, antequam per rerum finiretur existentiam, semper fuit. Non ergo factum est hoc nihilum; sed factae sunt creaturae, et illud nihil esse cessavit. In ea ergo creatura, quae facta de nihilo est, tu ideo malum commentaris exortum, quoniam de nihilo facta erat. Malum ergo in homine exortum origini reputavisti; atque origo, id est, nihilum, dicitur a te causa fuisse peccati. Non enim, inquis, propterea in homine malum exortum est, quoniam a Deo factus fuerat; sed quia de nihilo factus fuerat. Si ergo ideo malum exortum est, quia conditio nihili praecedentis id exegit; hoc autem nihilum aeternum fuit; immutatis semitis incidisti, et pendes omnino in praeceptoris tui laqueo, ut malum ambo ab aeterno esse fateamini. Sed in hoc quoque ille prudentior; inducens enim naturale peccatum, dixit aeternam fuisse substantiam tenebrarum, quae sine voluntate peccatoris malum hoc inesse compelleret. Rei ergo, cuius faciebat necessitatem, auctorem dedit, ut malum quod substantias pervadebat, videretur habere cogentem; tu vero plumbo ingenii non ferendo, confirmas necessitatem mali, sed negas necessitatis auctorem. Et sicut in parvulis, ita in ipso priore peccati operatore opus relinquis; ac dicis nescio quid magnum posse intellegi, ut illud nihil valuerit plurimum, cum nihil esset.
About this text
Julian’s six preserved books to Florus, quoted section by section in Augustine’s unfinished reply. Augustine’s refutations are omitted. Latin of Julian’s words is on each section.
Julian’s own books do not survive as a separate manuscript. English follows his words as Augustine quotes them in the Unfinished Work Against Julian. Augustine’s replies are omitted. We do not restore a Julian text independent of Augustine.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Augustine, Unfinished Work Against Julian (Latin · Julian’s words as quoted, Books 1–6)
- Checked print Augustinus.it Latin of the Unfinished Work (Latin · Same work)
- Checked print Migne PL 45 (Latin · Hard cases)
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.