The bishops have directed that the case of the prince of Tyre should be examined, to say something about merits and faults, and they have ordered also that I should return to the subject of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, on certain points. ^[1] LIKENED TO A CORRUPT ROMAN GOVERNOR.JEROME: If we want to regard the prince of Tyre having the same power as that public provincial authority that is entrusted him by God, let us look at the testimony: I say, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince.’^[1] For the provinces were handed over to them to be ruled, as judges, by the emperor; they besmeared his honor, as was recently the case with Heraclinus in Africa; they have been puffed up with the mind of a tyrant against the King and their Lord, so that, dispersed throughout the world, they assume for themselves the name of gods, gods that are really called idols and inflated with pride. They fall under the judgment of the devil, into the snare of which the Savior speaks in the Gospel, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.^{[2] [3]}

In the prophet Ezekiel the prince of Tyre is most plainly pictured as a certain spiritual power. When these, therefore, and other similar princes of this world, each having his own individual wisdom and formulating his own doctrines and peculiar opinions, saw our Lord and Savior promising and proclaiming that he had come into the world for the purpose of destroying all the doctrines (whatever they might be) of the knowledge falsely so called,^[1] they immediately laid snares for him, not knowing who was concealed within him. For the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.^[2] But their snares became known, and the plots that they had contrived against the Son of God were understood when they crucified the Lord of glory. Therefore the apostle says, We speak a wisdom among the perfect; yet a wisdom not of this world or of the rulers of this world, which are coming to naught . . . a wisdom that none of the rulers of this world knew. For had they known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.^[3]

Who then will pay the price for the shedding of the blood of him who came in human likeness, if not [Satan], who, clothing himself in a human form, betrayed him, not because he was able to condemn and betray him but because he wished to betray him? It was not [the Lord] who killed malice. It killed itself through its works. . . . If anyone shoots an arrow against his enemy that returns to strike him, he breaks the arrow and burns his bow. In the same way, Satan, seeing that the Son’s death was victory for the world and that his cross freed created beings, entered into Judas, his [chosen] vessel, and the latter went and put a cord around his neck and choked himself.

The devil has fallen into such madness and is excited in such a frenzy that he has called himself God, and he has persuaded people to offer worship to him instead.

Who would refuse the counsel of Daniel, of whom God said, Who is wiser than Daniel? How can people doubt about the minds of those to whom God has given such grace? By the counsel of Moses wars were brought to an end, and for his merit’s sake food came from heaven and drink from the rock. How pure must have been the soul of Daniel to soften the character of barbarians and to tame the lions! What temperance was his, what self-restraint in soul and body! Not unworthily did he become an object of admiration to all, when—and all people do admire this—though enjoying royal friendships, he looked not for gold or counted the honor given him as more precious than his faith. For he was willing to endure danger for the law of God rather than to be turned from his purpose in order to gain human favor.

This is the reason, if I am not mistaken, why in the prophet Ezekiel a certain most haughty person is asked, Are you then wiser than Daniel? Nor on this point can that be possibly said that some contend for in opposition to the Lord’s Prayer: For although, they say, that prayer was offered by the apostles, after they became holy and perfect and had no sin whatever, it was not on behalf of their own selves but for imperfect and still sinful people that they said, ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.’ They used the word our, they say, in order to show that in one body are contained both those who still have sins and themselves, who were already altogether free from sin. Now this certainly cannot be said in the case of Daniel, who (as I suppose) foresaw as a prophet this presumptuous opinion when he said so often in his prayer, We have sinned . . . he expresses himself in language so distinct and precise . . . and wanted above all things to commend it to our notice: My sins, says he, and the sins of my people. Who can contradict such evidence as this, but one who is more pleased to defend what he thinks than to find out what he ought to think?

Can anyone claim to be without sin, when Daniel confesses his own sins? I mean, some proud person or other was asked through the prophet Ezekiel, Are you wiser than Daniel? Again, the prophet also placed this Daniel among the three holy men in whom God signifies the three sorts of human beings he is going to deliver when the great tribulation^[1] comes on the human race.

Could we be better than Daniel himself, concerning whom the Lord said to the prince of Tyre by the prophet Ezekiel: Are you wiser than Daniel? He is unique in being included among the three just men whom God says he will deliver, doubtless showing three special types of just people, when he says he will so deliver them as not to deliver their sons with them, but they only shall be delivered: namely, Noah, Daniel and Job.^[1]

The same apostle writes that God alone is wise, although both Solomon and many other holy people are called wise, and it is said, according to the Hebrew, to the prince of Tyre, You are wiser than Daniel. Therefore, just as he alone is called the light, immortal and wise, although they are many who are immortal, and who are lights and who are wise, so also the human perfection that proceeds not from nature but from grace shows that those who seem to be perfect are imperfect.

We now find in the prophet Ezekiel two prophecies addressed to the prince of Tyre, the first of which might appear, before one had heard the second, to be spoken of some man who was prince of the Tyrians. For the present, therefore, we shall take nothing from the first one. But since the second is most evidently of such a kind that it cannot possibly refer to a man but must be understood of some higher power that fell from higher places and was cast down to lower and worse ones, we shall conclude that as an illustration that most clearly proves that these opposing and wicked powers were not so formed and created by nature but came from better conditions and changed for the worse; and [we shall conclude] that the blessed powers also are not of such a nature as to be unable to admit qualities the opposite of their own, supposing one of them should desire to do so and should become negligent and fail to guard with the utmost caution the blessedness of his condition. For when he who is called prince of Tyre is said to have been among the holy ones and without stain and set in the paradise of God, adorned with a crown of honor and beauty, how, I ask, can we suppose such a being to have been inferior to any of the holy ones? He is described as having been a crown of honor and beauty and as having walked in the paradise of God without stain. How then can anyone possibly suppose that such a being was not one of those holy and blessed powers that, dwelling as they do in a state of blessedness, we must believe are endowed with no other honor than this? . . . Who is there that, hearing such sayings as this, You were a signet of likeness and a crown of honor in the delights of the paradise of God, or this, from the time you were created with the cherubim, I placed you on the holy mount of God, could possibly weaken their meaning to such an extent as to suppose them spoken of a human being, even of a saint, not to mention the prince of Tyre? Or what fiery stones can he think of, in the midst of which any person could have lived? Or who could be regarded as stainless from the very day he was created and yet at some later time could have acts of unrighteousness found in him and be said to be cast forth into the earth? This certainly indicates that the prophecy is spoken of one who, not being on the earth, was cast forth into the earth, whose holy places also are said to be polluted. These statements, therefore, from the prophet Ezekiel concerning the prince of Tyre must relate, as we have shown, to an adverse power, and they prove in the clearest manner that this power was originally holy and blessed, and that he fell from this state of blessedness and was cast down into the earth from the time that iniquity was found in him and that his fallen condition was not due to his nature or creation. We consider, therefore, that these statements refer to some angel, to whom had been allotted the duty of supervising the Tyrian people, whose souls also were apparently committed to his care. But what Tyre, or what souls of Tyrians we ought to understand—whether it is the city that is situated in the territory of the province of Phoenicia or some other city of which the one we know on earth is a figure, and whether the souls are those of the actual Tyrians or of the inhabitants of that Tyre that we understand spiritually—there seems no need to inquire here. For we should appear to be investigating, in a casual manner matters whose importance and obscurity certainly demand a work and treatment of their own.

The Lord as follows to Ezekiel: Son of man, take up a lament over the prince of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. You experienced the pleasures of God’s paradise. Every precious stone was your covering: sardius, topaz and jasper, chrysolite and onyx and beryl, sapphire and carbuncle and emerald. Gold was the work of your beauty, and your pipes were prepared in the day that you were created. You were a cherub stretched out and protecting, and I set you in God’s holy mountain. You have walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day of your creation, until iniquity was found in you. By the multitude of your actions your inner parts were filled with iniquity and you have sinned; and I cast you out from the mountain of God, and destroyed you, O covering cherub, out of the midst of the stones of fire. And your heart was lifted up with your beauty. You have lost your wisdom in your beauty; I have cast you to the ground. I have set you before the face of kings that they might behold you. You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities and by the iniquity of your actions.

The sacred word mentioned kinds of metals that were different among themselves. How are different metals fused together in the same furnace? It is because by the variety of metals there is meant the different kinds of humanity. Even silver, which is a metal of more noble material, is treated in the same fires because people have condemned the gifts of a more noble nature by their degenerate lives.

The chief author of sin, then, is the devil, the author of all evil. Not I but the Lord has said, The devil sins from the beginning.^[1] Before him no one sinned. Nor did he sin because by nature he was of necessity prone to sin—or else the responsibility for sin would reflect on him who created him in this way—but after being created good, he became a devil by his own free choice, receiving that name from his action. Though he was an archangel, he was afterwards called devil (slanderer) from his slandering, and though he was once a good servant of God, he was afterwards rightly named Satan, for Satan is interpreted the adversary. This is not my teaching but that of the inspired prophet Ezekiel. For taking up a lament against him, he says, You were a seal of resemblance and crown of beauty; you were begotten in the paradise of God, and a little further on, Blameless you were in your conduct from the day you were created until evil was found in you.

We should notice that the nature of angels is not said to have been made in the likeness of God but as the seal of the likeness, since as its essential nature is finer, it is suggested that God’s image is expressed with greater likeness in it. The prophet immediately adds, every precious stone was your covering, carnelian, topaz and jasper, chrysolite, onyx and beryl, sapphire, carbuncle and emerald. He gave the names of nine stones, since there are nine ranks of angels. The first angel was adorned and covered with these nine since when it was set ahead of the whole multitude of angels, it was more illustrious in comparison with them. Why have I briefly listed these choirs of steadfast angels, if I am not also to comment more specifically on their functions? In Greek, angels are messengers, and archangels are the most important messengers. We should know too that the word angel is the name of a service, not of a nature. The holy spirits of our heavenly homeland are always indeed spirits, but they cannot always be called angels since they are only angels when some message is communicated by them. So the psalmist says, he makes his spirits angels,^[1] as if to say plainly, he who always possesses them as spirits makes them angels when he wishes. Those that communicate relatively unimportant messages are called angels and those that communicate the most important are called archangels. That is why it was not just any angel, but the archangel Gabriel, that was sent to the Virgin Mary.^[2] It was right that a most important angel should come on this mission, to communicate the most important message of all.

He fell, for his dwelling place was always in heaven. He is the one to whom the words of Ezekiel are addressed: You were stamped with the seal of perfection. Notice exactly what the prophet says: the seal of perfection. He did not say to the devil, you are the sign of perfection, but the seal of perfection. God had set his impression on you and made you like to himself, but you afterwards destroyed the resemblance. You were created in the image and likeness of God.

One of the angel powers, the marshal of one host, bore in himself no trace of natural evil from his Maker’s hand but had been created for good, yet by his own free and deliberate choice he turned aside from good to evil and was stirred up by madness to the desire to take up arms against his Lord God.

It If you turn to the prophecy of Ezekiel, you will at once perceive that this angel was both by creation good and by choice corrupt. For he speaks of the devil there in the person of the prince of Tyre.

It follows that the serpent in paradise was certainly not brought into being without the will of God. In the figure of the serpent we see the devil. That the devil existed even in paradise we are informed by the prophet Ezekiel, who in discussing the prince of Tyre says, You are in Eden, the garden of God. The prince of Tyre stands for the devil. Shall we, therefore, accuse God because we cannot comprehend the treasures—with the exception of those that he has deigned to reveal—of his majesty and wisdom that lie hidden and concealed in Christ? Yet he did reveal to us the fact that the wickedness of the devil is fruitful for humanity’s salvation. This would not be the devil’s intention, but the Lord makes the wickedness of him who stands in opposition to us contribute something to our salvation. The wickedness of the devil has caused the virtue and patience of one holy man to shine in a clearer light.

The Manichaeans do not understand that if the devil is evil by nature, there can be no question of sin at all. They have no reply to the witness of the prophets, for example, where Isaiah, representing the devil figuratively in the person of the prince of Babylon, asks, How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of the dawn?^[1] or where Ezekiel says, You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering. These texts indicate that the devil was for a time without sin.

Blessed is the poor person

who gazes on that place;

riches are poured in profusion

outside and around it;

chalcedony and other gems

lie there cast out

to prevent their defiling

the glorious earth of paradise;

should someone place there

precious stones or beryls,

these would appear ugly and dull

compared with that dazzling land. HYMNS

He who was nurtured in a paradise of delight as one of the twelve precious stones was wounded and went down to hell from the mount of God.

He had in himself the power of admitting either good or evil. Falling away from good, he turned with his whole mind to evil. There are other created beings who, while possessing the power to choose either, by the exercise of free will flee from evil and cleave to the good.

For the king who was anointed with the holy oil was called a cherub. And he was overshadowing all his people. . . . They were sitting in the shadow of the king, while he was standing at their head. And when the crown of their head fell, they were without shade. And if anyone should say that this word is spoken concerning Christ, let him accept what I write for him without dispute, and he will be persuaded that it was said with reference to the king.

Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?^[1] . . . The tent seems to me to be the church of this world. Now the churches that you see are tabernacles, for we are not here as permanent dwellers but rather as those about to migrate to another place. If this world as we see it is passing away,^[2] and it says elsewhere that heaven and earth will pass away,^[3] if, then, heaven and earth will pass away, how much more will the stones of the churches that we see also pass away? Now that is why churches are tabernacles, because we are going to migrate from them to the holy mountain of God. What is this holy mountain of God? It says in Ezekiel against the prince of Tyre, You have been cut off as one slain from the mountain of God.

What is more true than this? The fire of sin went forth from the midst of their sin, a fire that devoured the good fortune of former times.

He polluted the sanctification that he had received when he walked on the mountain and moved around in the middle of the fiery stones.