Chapter XVIII — The texts of Sacred Scripture which the ancients oppose in defense of lies, and more recent writers in defense of mental restrictions, are expounded

I. All the texts of Scripture which the ancients used to produce in favor of lies, more recent writers likewise adduce, so as to uphold mental restrictions. Those who wrote before Innocent XI alleged entirely the same texts for purely mental restrictions which the latest writers now praise for restrictions not purely mental — which ought to suffice to demonstrate that, from the aforesaid texts, nothing can be elicited either in favor of lies, or in favor of purely mental restrictions.

II. They object, then, several texts of Scripture. Caramuel reports very many texts of Scripture, in the book entitled Apoletas. We shall recount only those which can cause trouble. I. Abraham (Genesis 12, and 20) called Sarah his sister: "She is my sister" — who was nonetheless his wife. II. The same Abraham, when he was going to the mountain, having received a command from God, so as to sacrifice his son Isaac, said to his servants (Genesis 22): "Stay here with the ass; I and the boy will go with speed as far as yonder, and after we have worshipped, will return to you." III. He seems also to have lied, when he impersonated Esau, so as to obtain the paternal blessing (Genesis 27): "I am thy firstborn Esau." IV. The Egyptian midwives lied, when, Pharaoh complaining that they had not killed the Hebrew males as he had commanded, they answered: "The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: for they themselves are skilful in the office of a midwife; and they are delivered before we come to them" — for which reason God dealt well with the midwives, and, because the midwives feared God, he built them houses (Exodus 1). V. The Angel seems to have lied, addressing Tobias in these words: "I am Azarias, son of Ananias the great" (Tobit 5).

III. Before I answer each, I note, with St. Augustine, that many things are found in Sacred Scripture which seem to be absolutely lies; yet, as Augustine says, they are not lies, but mysteries; or, if lies, are by no means to be imitated. Here are St. Augustine's words (Book Against Lying, ch. 15), against the Priscillianists: "To you, then, it pertains, when refuting that detestable sect, to show these testimonies of the Scriptures to be so understood, that either it is declared not to be lies which are thought to be, if they are understood in the way in which they are to be understood; or, if it is manifest that they are lies, that they are not to be imitated.... To show, then, that what are thought to be lies in the Scriptures are not what they are thought to be, if rightly understood, seems to me to be no small avail against these men — since they find, not from the apostolic, but from the prophetic writings, as it were examples of lying. For those things which they mention by name, where each one is said to have lied, are read in those books in which not only deeds, but also many figured facts, are recorded — since they were done figuratively."

IV. Response: This teaching of Augustine's would suffice to resolve all the difficulties commonly objected from sacred Scripture. Nonetheless, for the greater confirmation of truth, we shall give a response to each. To the first, St. Augustine responds (Book Against Lying, ch. 5), in these words: "Those who assert that one must sometimes lie do not fittingly recall that Abraham did this concerning Sarah, whom he called his sister. For he did not say, 'She is not my wife,' but he said, 'She is my sister' — since she really was so near in kin, that she could be called sister without lying. And if afterward, she having already been restored to him by the one who had abducted her, he confirmed this, answering him, and saying, 'She is truly my sister by my father, not by my mother' — that is, of the paternal line, not the maternal — he kept silent about something true, he did not say something false, when he kept silent that she was his wife, and said she was his sister. This also his son Isaac did. For we know that he too took his kinswoman as his wife. It is not a lie, then, when, by keeping silent, the true is hidden, but when, by speaking, the false is uttered."

V. To the second, the same Augustine responds, that Abraham by no means lied, but prophesied: for he most certainly hoped that God, who had a little before said to him, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," would raise up that same Isaac from death, as Paul himself declares (Hebrews 11): "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaac... and offered up his only-begotten son, who had received the promises; to whom it was said: In Isaac shall thy seed be called; reasoning that God is able to raise up even from the dead." This interpretation Augustine declares (Bk. XVI, On the City of God, ch. 32): "He did not doubt that what could be restored to him, immolated, could be given, though not expected."

VI. To the third, the same Augustine responds (Book Against Lying, ch. 10): "That which Jacob did, at his mother's instigation, so that he seemed to deceive his father, if diligently and faithfully attended to, is not a lie, but a mystery: which, if we call lies, all parables also, and figures, of whatever things are to be signified, which are not to be taken according to the propriety of the words, but in which something else is to be understood from something else, will be said to be lies: which is far from being the case. For whoever thinks this can call even so many tropical locutions all of them by this calumny, that even that itself which is called metaphor — that is, the transfer of some word from its own proper matter to a matter not proper — could be called a lie. For when we say that the crops wave, that the vines put forth gems, that flowery youth, that hoary snow — without doubt we do not find in these things waves, gems, flowers, snow, since in these matters we find these words, which we have transferred from elsewhere, not proper to them; but they will be thought to be related from elsewhere as significative of something. But these are not lies; but locutions, and prophetic actions, are to be referred to the things which they are to signify, so that one piously seeking the sense may perceive it." Likewise (Bk. XVI, On the City of God, ch. 37): "Is it to be received as a blessing gained by fraud? What is the guile of a man without guile? What is a simple feint, which is not a lie of one lying, but a profound mystery of one signifying?" Formerly, then, some things happened figuratively, which are covered with figured garments, so that they may exercise, and not grow cheap by being naked and ready to hand. What is there in these lies? Assuredly, not only what the Patriarch Jacob did, or said, so that he might be blessed; but neither what Joseph spoke, deceiving with words, nor Joseph's brothers, nor that David feigned madness, nor other things of this kind — for these are not lies. But if it is not a lie, when something else is said for the understanding of truth, many both of the more recent Scripture-writers, as well as Catholics, teach that Jacob lied; but if it is so, that lie is not to be imitated.

VII. To the fourth, Augustine responds (Book Against Lying, ch. 15): "But because it is written that God dealt well with the Egyptian midwives, and with Rahab the harlot of Jericho, this was not done because they lied, but because they were merciful toward the men of God. It is not deceit, then, that is rewarded in them, but benevolence; the goodness of their intention, not the iniquity of their lying."

VIII. To the fifth I respond: that the Angel Raphael represented the person of a man, and spoke in human manner: for Tobias himself, addressing him, reckoned him not an Angel, but a man. Ignorant that he was an Angel of God, he greeted him. Consequently, Raphael, to Tobias the elder asking, "Tell me of what house, or of what tribe, art thou?" answered: "I am Azarias, son of Ananias the great" (Tobit 5). Since, then, as he wore the person of a man, so also, without a lie, he could put forth as much as bore the person of a man; and he called himself the son of the great Azarias, rather than of another, because Ananias, in Hebrew, as Santes Pagninus says, means "gift, and mercy, and glorification of God." Now all Angels are sons of God. Therefore, speaking in human manner, he assigned himself an Israelite father, and paternal lineage from an illustrious stock, which, at the same time, might make his own heavenly origin known to Tobias, and might close off the way to Tobias's suspicion. Wherefore his speech was, to speak with Augustine, not a lie, but a mystery. For just as the Confessor bears the person both of man, and of God, so too the Angel, who is dispatched on God's embassy under the appearance of man. And just as the Confessor can put forth something without a lie, as man, and as it were as a minister of God, so too the Angel, in human commerce, can speak in human manner without a lie.

Many other texts of Scripture, which Augustine weighs, I pass over. For if someone should even obstinately contend that one of the holy Patriarchs had lied, this would conclude nothing against our own, and the common, Catholic opinion — since we would then reject that lie as unworthy of imitation. It is worth transcribing Augustine's words from Book Against Lying, ch. 9: "Whence it may be established that we ought not to transfer into our own morals whatever we read to have been done by holy or just men; but also to learn from this how far, and to what extent, that reaches which the Apostle says (Galatians 6): 'Brethren, if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.'... In all our acts, however, compensatory sins disturb even the good, so that they are not even reckoned sins, if they have such causes for which they are done, and in which it seems rather that one sins, if they are not done."