De Moor IX:22: The Cause of the Wickedness of Demons, Part 2

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Although they were made Good Mutably:  which the Event abundantly showed in their Fall, since we have already evinced that they were not created Evil.

Not very long after their Creation they were changed, which is indicated ἐν πλάτει, in a broad way, by the passages in John 8:44; 1 John 3:8.  In John 8:44 it is said of the Devil, that ἐκεῖνος ἀνθρωποκτόνος ἦν ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, he was a murderer from the beginning.  Now, the seduction of man, whereby the Devil appeared as the cause of death to him, presupposes the internal wickedness of the Devil, which hence was most certainly present to the Devil ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, from the beginning:  hence in a general way in the other passage, 1 John 3:8, we have, ὅτι ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς ὁ διάβολος ἁμαρτάνει, for the Devil sinneth from the beginning.  Indeed, that ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, from the beginning, is not to be referred to the Beginning of the Angelic Fall, wherein He became the Devil, so that thus the Lord in John 8 might mean that the Devil, as soon as he sinned, seduced man to sin also, without any further determination of that time in which he sinned.  For, although perhaps this might be able to be admitted to some extent in John 8:44, that exposition does not at all agree with the other passage in 1 John 3:8:  for in 1 John 3:8 it would yield no sense to expound ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς ὁ διάβολος ἁμαρτάνει, the Devil sinneth from the beginning, as the Devil sins from the time when he sins; he sinned as soon as he sinned.  Nevertheless, since in both passages the same expression occurs, in the writings of the same Apostle, it would be better to explain the same expression in the same way in both places, since it is able aptly to be done:  but thus by ἀρχὴν/beginning we shall understand rather the Beginning of the World, which is wont to be noted as absolutely by ἀρχὴν/beginning, Matthew 19:4, 8; John 1:1, 2; Hebrews 1:10; 1 John 1:1; 2:13, 14; as by ἀρχὴν κόσμου, the beginning of the world, Matthew 24:21, and ἀρχὴν κτίσεως, the beginning of creation, Mark 10:6; 13:19; 2 Peter 3:4:  just as that was verily the beginning of all created things and is thus called by Moses, Genesis 1:1.  The expression ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, from the beginning, shall signify, that what John relates happened about the very Beginning of the World, not so many days after the Creation begun and consummated:  such that, on the one hand, the mutable State of the goodness of Devils did not continue for years, or many months; nor, on the other hand, is their Fall not necessarily by that expression to be said to have happened within that first hexameron or week.  And indeed, 1.  the Beginning is not necessarily restrained to the first six or seven days alone, even if sometimes the Jews speak more restrictedly in this way; but it is able to be understood more broadly of the first times of the World, as thus we most aptly say, that in the very Beginning of the World, comparatively to the later times before and after the Flood, men cultivated the earth and begat children, and Cain killed his brother, which were not therefore conducted within the first hexameron.  2.  What is said to have happened ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, from the beginning, did not therefore immediately appear ἐν ἀρχῇ, in the beginning, in the very first Beginning; but the preposition ἀπὸ/from rather argues some sequence after that Beginning, which is able to be somewhat shorter or longer in accordance with the subject matter.  As, when we speak of the beginning of a day, month, year, age, kingdom, or other things, that expression from the beginning also has some latitude in common speech, in such a way that it does not always indicate the very first point of them, but more frequently has regard also to some notable progression.  And thus ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, from the beginning, in those passages is able to be distinguished from ἐν ἀρχῇ, in the beginning, John 1:1, 2;[1] and thus ‎בְּרֵאשִׁית, in the beginning, which in Genesis 1:1,[2] from ܡܶܢ ܒ݁ܪܺܫܺܝܬ݂, from the beginning, which the Syriac has in John 8:44, and ܡܶܢ ܪܺܫܺܝܬܳܐ, from the beginning, which the same version has in 1 John 3:8.  The things to be said next are able to be compared with § 24, and our AUTHOR’S Historia Paradisi, book III, chapter VII, § 2, 5, 9, pages 626, 637, 647, 648.

Moses presupposes this Fall of Devils, when he relates that men were seduced to sin by the Devil, Genesis 3.  And yet no explicit narration of the Angelic Fall is given by Moses, because he has a different purpose, says our AUTHOR:  for the Scope of Moses in writing the book of Genesis was not to narrate the destinies of Angels, but of men, especially of the Church militant.  Others add, that consequently the sin of the Evil Angels is not so clearly related in Genesis or even elsewhere, as indeed we see the Fall of man set forth; because there is no repentance, no hope of salvation, for the renegade Angels; but, with the sin of man and the declaration of the deserved punishment made to him, the promise of the remedy is immediately set forth.  The sin of Angels is passed over in silence, because incurable:  the sin of Man is revealed, because it is to be cured:  see ODÉ, de Angelis, section IV, chapter II, § 16, page 486.

[1] John 1:1, 2:  “In the beginning (ἐν ἀρχῇ) was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning (ἐν ἀρχῇ) with God.”

[2] Genesis 1:1:  “In the beginning (‎בְּרֵאשִׁית; ἐν ἀρχῇ, in the Septuagint; ܒܪܺܝܫܺܝܬ, in the Syriac) God created the heaven and the earth.”