Julian excerpt in the intermediary document
Marriage 2.13.27
The apostle’s authority confirms this too. For when blessed Paul spoke of the resurrection of the dead, he said: “Fool, what you sow is not brought to life” (1 Corinthians 15:36); and below: “But God gives it a body as he wishes, and to each kind of seed its own body” (1 Corinthians 15:38). If, then, God gives human seed its own body, as he does to everything—a thing no wise or godly person denies—how will you prove that anyone is born guilty? I ask you at last to see the snares in which the claim of natural sin is strangled.
But come, I beg you, treat yourself more kindly. Believe me, God made you too; but, as must be confessed, a serious error has infected you. For what could be more irreligious than to say that God did not make the human being, or made the human being for the devil, as you say; or that the devil made God’s image, the human being (Genesis 1:26–27)? That is recognized as no less foolish than ungodly. Is God, then, so poor and so shameless that he had nothing to give holy people as a reward except what the devil poured into those he deceived as a vice?
Do you wish to know that God is shown to have given this power of procreation even to people who are not holy? When Abraham, frightened by a foreign people, called Sarah, his wife, his sister, Abimelech, the king of that region, is reported to have taken her for use at night. But God, concerned for the holy woman’s honor, came to Abimelech in a dream and restrained the king’s boldness, threatening death if he continued to violate the marriage. Then Abimelech said: “Lord, will you destroy an ignorant and righteous nation? Did they not themselves say they were brother and sister?” Abimelech rose in the morning, took a thousand silver double-drachmas, sheep, calves, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham. He sent the woman away from him untouched. Abraham prayed to God for Abimelech, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants (Genesis 20:2–7, 14–17).
At Abraham’s prayer God healed, by the power of his hidden providence, what had been removed from the sexual organs of those lowly women, because God had closed every womb in Abimelech’s household (Genesis 20:18). See, then, whether something should be called evil by nature when God sometimes removes it in anger and restores it when appeased. He makes the children of the godly and the ungodly alike. Their becoming parents belongs to nature, which rejoices in God as its Creator; their being ungodly belongs to the wickedness of their pursuits, which comes to each person from free will.
Latin
Attende cetera: "Hoc etiam - inquit - Apostoli confirmat auctoritas, cum enim beatus Paulus de mortuorum resurrectione loqueretur, ait: Insipiens, tu quod seminas non vivificatur 51, et infra: Deus autem dat illi corpus prout vult, et unicuique seminum proprium corpus 52. Si ergo Deus - inquit - humano semini, quod nemo negat vel prudentium vel piorum proprium sicut omnibus rebus corpus attribuit, unde quemquam reum natum probabis? Tandem oro respicias, quibus laqueis peccati naturalis suffocetur adsertio. Verum age - inquit - tecum, precor, mitius. Mihi crede, etiam te Deus fecit, sed, quod fatendum est, gravis error infecit. Quid enim potest profanius dici, quam quod Deus hominem aut non fecerit aut, ut dicis, diabolo fecerit, aut certe diabolus Dei sit imaginem, hoc est hominem fabricatus, quod non minus stultum dinoscitur esse quam impium? Ergo tam inops - inquit -tam inverecundus Deus est, ut non habuerit quod in praemium sanctis hominibus daret, nisi quod deceptis diabolus infudit in vitio? Vis autem scire, quod etiam in his, qui sancti non sunt, hanc generationum potentiam Deus tribuisse probetur? Eo igitur tempore, cum Abraham metu percussus gentis barbarae Sarram, quae uxor erat, sororem suam dixit, refertur Abimelech rex illius provinciae adduxisse eam in noctis usum. Sed Deus, cui curae erat honor sanctae mulieris, in somnis Abimelech veniens regiam frenavit audaciam comminatus interitum, si pergeret violare coniugium. Tunc Abimelech ait: Numquid, Domine, gentem ignorantem et iustam perdes? Nonne ipsi dixerunt se germanitate coniunctos? Surrexit ergo mane Abimelech et accepit mille didragma argenti et oves et vitulos et pueros et ancillas et dedit Abrahae atque a se mulierem remisit intactam. Oravit vero Deum Abraham pro Abimelech; et sanavit Deus Abimelech et uxorem et ancillas eius" 53. Cur autem haec tanta prolixitate narraverit, accipe breviter, in his enim quae secutus adiunxit: "Deus - inquit - orante Abraham curavit potentia dispensationis secretae, quae amota est verecundis vilium feminarum, quia clauserat Deus aforis omnem vulvam in domo Abimelech 54. Vide ergo - inquit - utrum naturaliter malum dici debet, quod interdum aufert exasperatus Deus redditque placatus. Ipse - inquit - facit et piorum filios et impiorum, quoniam quod fiunt parentes, ad naturam pertinet, quae Deo gaudet auctore; quod autem impii sunt, ad studiorum pravitatem, quae unicuique de libera voluntate contingit".
About this text
Intermediary extracts Augustine answered in Book Two — compiler framing labeled where needed. Latin context is on each section when recovered.
English follows the extracts Augustine answered in On Marriage and Concupiscence II. Compiler framing is labeled where needed.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Augustine, On Marriage and Concupiscence II (Latin · Extracts of Julian)
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.