His Words on the Judgment and the Devil

About the devil he frames his opinion like this: “We also affirm a judgment to come, in which judgment everyone is to receive what is due for his life in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil. And if among men the reward is according to their works, how much more will it be so in the case of the devil, who is the universal cause of sin. About the devil himself our belief is what is written in the Gospel: that both he and all his angels will possess the eternal fire as their inheritance, and with him those who do his works, that is, who become the accusers of their brothers. If anyone, then, denies that the devil is to be subjected to eternal fires, may he have his part with him in the eternal fire, so that he may know by experience the fact he now denies.” [a]

I will repeat the words one by one: “We also affirm a judgment to come, in which judgment,” and so on. I had made up my mind to say nothing about faults of language. But since his disciples admire their master’s eloquence, I will make one or two criticisms of it. He had already said “a judgment to come”; but being a cautious man, he was afraid to say simply “in which,” and so he wrote “in which judgment.” He feared that if he did not say “judgment” a second time, we would forget what had gone before and might have supplied the word “ass.” What he brings in afterward, “those who become the accusers of their brothers will possess the eternal fire as their inheritance with him,” is in a style of equal beauty. Who ever heard of “possessing” the flames? It is like “enjoying” tortures. I suppose that, being now a Greek, he tried to translate himself; and that for the Greek word kleronomesousin, which can be rendered in Latin by the single word hereditabunt, he wrote hereditate potientur, thinking it something more elaborate and ornate. His whole discourse teems with trifles and improper expressions like these. But to return to the meaning of his words.