Aquinas on Satan as a Theologian-Exegete

Abstract

Aquinas on Satan as a Theologian-Exegete Mateusz Przanowski O.P. Recognizing in Satan some traits of a twisted theologian is quite a common theme. Pope Benedict XVI recalled this motif recently, while referring to A Short Tale of the Anti-Christ by Vladimir Soloviev: To lure Jesus into the trap, the devil quotes from the Holy Scripture. … The devil reveals himself to be an expert on the Scripture, who is able to cite the Psalm accurately. Indeed, this whole conversation during the second temptation of Christ seems like a dispute between two scribes: the devil appears to be a theologian.1 In the second temptation of Christ (Matt 4:6), Satan uses the words of Sacred Scripture against the One who—as the Eternal Word—has spoken those words first. Therefore, the crucial idea behind the theme of "Satan as a theologian" is to recognize his perverse will to turn theology—and especially exegesis—into the weapon against God himself. This theme may also be found in the works by St. Thomas Aquinas. It is discussed in more systematic way only in the passage from Lectura super Matthaeum, while in other works it appears only in the form of dispersed remarks. Still, these intuitions are so interesting that it is worthwhile to collect and discuss them. [End Page 625] Inanis Gloria Matthew describes the second temptation of Christ in the following way: Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will give angels charge of you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not tempt Lord your God.'" (Matt 4:5–7) While tempting Jesus, the devil quotes from Psalm 91[90]:11–12, misinterpreting it in a deceptive way. Hence, Satan acts here as a twisted theologian-exegete, who tempts the Saviour with false interpretation of Scripture. The devil's tactic in this second temptation is a very interesting and unique one when compared to other Biblical passages: it is one thing for the devil to deceive prophets by, for example, putting false prophecies into their mouths, but quite another to misinterpret the text which really comes from God. For, in the latter case, Satan is not creator of words but their deceptive commentator. It is worth noting that Holy Scripture not only mentions these two ways of destroying God's words by Satan (namely, by creating false words only attributed to God and by falsely interpreting authentic words of God), but teaches also about at least two others: the devil may "snatch" (rapit) the word (Matt 13:192) and distort the true word of God (Gen 3:1, against Gen 2:16–17). In the context of this paper, the most important way of manipulating God's words is, of course, the one where the devil presents himself as a theologian-exegete who explains these words. And precisely this perverse behavior drew the attention of Aquinas, who devotes a relatively large portion of Lectura super Matthaeum3 to this issue. Since this work is the main source to become acquainted with Aquinas's approach to this subject, I will refer mostly to this commentary4. [End Page 626] However, before discussing the main rules of such devil's exegesis, I would like to characterize briefly its wider context, constituted by the aim and place of the second temptation.5 Firstly I will analyze its goal, because it was the thing that determined the devil's choice of precisely such a place of temptation. a. The aim of the second temptation is to persuade Jesus to fall into the sin of desire of vainglory (inanis gloria).6 This temptation is similar to the one that took place in Paradise, where the serpent told Eve, "your eyes will be opened" (Gen 3:5). Aquinas believes that these words were used precisely to tempt to the desire of vainglory.7 Satan tempts Jesus to the same end with...