To Florus 6.23
‘That sin which changed the human being for the worse in paradise, because it is far greater than we can judge, is inherited by everyone born’ (Hebrews 13:4) (Augustine, Marriage and Sexual Desire 2.34.58). Who told you Adam’s sin was far greater than Cain’s? Far greater than the Sodomites’? Far more monstrous, finally, than yours and Mani’s? Certainly the history supplies no occasion for this empty claim. He had been commanded to abstain from eating the fruit of one tree. Inexperienced, unskilled, unwary, without experience of fear or an example of justice, at the woman’s suggestion he took food whose sweetness and beauty had enticed him (Genesis 3:6). Recognize here a transgression of a command.
A transgression was committed, one among the rest that sinners’ pursuits have perpetrated at different times. It was no greater than when the people of Israel ate forbidden animals (compare Leviticus 11). The cause of sin lay not in the fruit’s quality but in violating the command. What, then, did Adam do to justify your accusation that his sin exceeded human estimation? Unless perhaps, following Mani’s mysteries—he keeps his hands from plucking fruits and growing things, lest he tear a part of his god that he imagines enclosed in bark and plants—you too think Adam sinned gravely because by eating the fruit he tore your god’s substance. What madness!
‘Because that sin is far greater than we can judge,’ he says, ‘it is inherited by everyone born.’ So eating forbidden fruit was a greater crime than stabbing holy Abel out of murderous envy (Genesis 4:8); than violating the rights of guests and the order of the sexes in Sodom (Genesis 19:4–9); than sacrificing one’s children to demons even under the law (Psalm 106:37); than subjecting innocent children, aware of no exercise of will and newly made by God, to the devil’s kingdom and joining them to his deserts; than accusing God of injustice; than assigning honorable marriage to the prince of darkness; finally, than to regard infants as worse than all the ungodly, worse than all pirates, because they are born through their parents’ sexual pleasure?
I do not invent this; I draw the conclusion. You called that sin greater and weightier than all crimes, such that no guilt could equal it. And you assert that infants arrive full of this great evil, which outweighs all vices. We have therefore understood correctly: the greater the sin they share, the more they take precedence in condemnation over all criminals.
Latin
Illud ergo peccatum, quod ipsum hominem in paradiso in peius mutavit, quia multo est grandius quam iudicare nos possumus, ab omni nascente trahitur [n140] . Quis tibi dixit quoniam peccatum Adae multo fuerit grandius quam Cain? Multo etiam quam Sodomitarum? Multo postremo immanius quam tuum atque Manichaei? Certe in historia nulla istius vanitatis invenitur occasio. Iussum fuerat ut edulio unius arboris abstineret; rudis, imperitus, incautus, sine experimento timoris, sine exemplo iustitiae, suggestu mulieris usurpavit escam, cuius illexerat et suavitas, et venustas. Vide hic transgressionem fuisse mandati. Admissa est praevaricatio una de ceteris, quas diversis temporibus peccantium studia perpetrarunt; non fuit amplius, quam cum populus Israelis interdictis utebatur animalibus. Causa enim peccati haud in qualitate pomi erat, sed in transgressione mandati. Quid ergo tale fecit Adam, ut peccatum eius exstitisse supra aestimationem hominum crimineris? Nisi forte et hoc saecundum mysteria Manichaei, qui a decerptione pomorum et omnium nascentium manus cohibet, ne partem Dei sui laceret, quam corticibus et graminibus opinatur inclusam, tu quoque Adam graviter deliquisse, quia cum esu pomi, Dei tui substantiam laceraverit, arbitraris. O furorem! Quia multo est grandius illud peccatum, quam iudicare nos possumus, ab omni - inquit - nascente trahitur. Maius ergo fuit crimen pomum edere, cum non liceret, quam sanctum Abel parricidali livore confodere, quam hospitum in Sodomis et sexuum iura violare, quam filios suos iam sub lege demoniis immolare, quam innocentes postremo nullius conscios voluntatis, recens opus Dei, diaboli regno subdere, meritisque coniungere, quam Deum iniquitatis arguere, quam honorabiles nuptias tenebrarum principi deputare, postremo parvulos, quia nascantur per generantium non fingo, sed colligo; tu quippe illud peccatum ita universis criminibus maius grandiusque dixisti, ut nullo possit aequiparari reatu. Huius autem tam mali magni, quod omnibus vitiis praeponderat, plenos advenire parvulos asseveras. Bene itaque intelleximus, quod quanto maioris peccati participes sunt, tanto in condemnatione scelestis omnibus praeferantur.
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.