Lying and truthfulness in the early church

Didache 2.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · No perjury, false witness, slander, or grudges.
Didache 2.5Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Let your words be true and matched by deeds.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 3.1 (28.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Love truth, for the Lord who dwells in you is true.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 3.2 (28.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Liars rob God of the truthful spirit he entrusted to them.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 3.3 (28.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas weeps, confessing that he has always lied.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 3.4 (28.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · A servant of God must walk in truth and not grieve the spirit.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 3.5 (28.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · From now on speak only truth, and you will live.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 29Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · False witnesses gnaw their tongues with fire in their mouths.
First Apology 8Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians refuse to lie to save themselves; they expect Christ's judgment, with eternal punishment of body and soul.
Sentences of Sextus 158Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Love the truth.
Sentences of Sextus 159Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Use falsehood as you would poison.
Sentences of Sextus 165Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · It is better to be defeated when speaking the truth than to win by lying.
Sentences of Sextus 169Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · A soul that loves falsehood can never be made good.
Sentences of Sextus 393Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · To lie in life is to deceive and to be deceived.
Sentence 159 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Use falsehood like poison.
Sentence 165 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · It is better to be defeated speaking the truth than to prevail by deceit. One who wins by deceiving is defeated in character. False words become witnesses of evils. Great is the crisis in which a falsehood is fitting. When you would sin by speaking the truth, … then you will not sin by speaking falsehood. Deceive no one, above all one who needs counsel. By speaking with many you will see better what is beneficial.
Sentence 393 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Guard against lying; for it is both to deceive and to be deceived.
Miscellanies 7.8.50Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows neither lies nor swears: his whole life is his oath, and he answers simply “yes” or “no,” as Christ taught.
Miscellanies 7.9.53Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows speaks as he thinks; like Paul circumcising Timothy, he may accommodate himself to others for their salvation without hypocrisy, but he never lies deceitfully.
Letter to Aristides 1Julius Africanus · ca. 220–240 · Africanus rejects the view that the two Gospel genealogies mix priestly and royal lines to show Christ as priest and king, since a pious falsehood dishonours God.
Homilies on Joshua 5.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The forty thousand girded men are those girded with truth in God’s sight, and the battle they cross over to fight is waged within, against the evils that come from the heart.
Against Celsus 4.19Origen · ca. 248 · Christians hold that Christ's incarnation was real, not an illusion; yet even on Celsus's terms, a healing deception would not be absurd, since Christ came for sinners and enemies to make them God's friends.
To Quirinus 3.104Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Lying is an abomination to God.
Letter 45.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian refused to have Novatian's party's slanders against Cornelius read aloud in church, as Scripture forbids evil speech, and read only letters of sober character.
Apostolic Church Order 11Anonymous · ca. 300 · Against lying, love of money, grumbling and pride; be meek, merciful, humble, and accept what happens as from God.
Canon 74Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A false witness is excluded from communion for two or five years depending on the case.
Canon 75Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Someone who falsely accuses a cleric is refused communion even at death.
Church History 9.5.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · At Damascus a military commander forced prostitutes to testify falsely to Christian immorality, and the testimony was published everywhere.
Divine Institutes 3.16.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Goodness on the lips but not in the heart is a lie.
Divine Institutes 3.18.17Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Pythagoras lied to his followers as if they were children.
Divine Institutes 5.16.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Honesty is foolish, deception wise but bad.
Divine Institutes 6.18.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Never lie to deceive or harm.
Divine Institutes 6.18.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · There is no place for lying on the way of justice.
Divine Institutes 6.18.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Christian lies to no one, friend or foe.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.6.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius argues that oracles which lie and depend on the stars cannot be divine.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.6.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · A virtuous man would not lie even under torture, nor blame fate for lying.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.31.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato: a lawgiver may tell the young a beneficial falsehood.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.3.28Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · All gods and men hate the “true lie” in the soul.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.3.31Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · A lie in words can be useful as medicine against enemies or deranged friends.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.3.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · God has no reason to lie and is wholly free of falsehood.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 59.7Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The ban on false witness forbids all lying, even harmless lies.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 59.8Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The just man never flatters; truth in the end wins gratitude, not hatred.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 40.3Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · A Jewish prisoner was bribed with promises of pardon to testify falsely against them at Nicaea.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.3.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jesus’ teaching on truthfulness and his way of life show him to be divine, not a deceiver.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.5.95Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · By publishing their own failings, the apostles proved their truthfulness.
Theophany 5.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 5.41Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 5.43Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
On Saint Athanasius 2.2Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Quoting Jeremiah on glorying only in knowing the Lord, and Christ's words on the devil as a liar and murderer, Lucifer calls the emperor a liar for his charges against Athanasius and a murderer of the faithful.
On Saint Athanasius 2.31Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · From Ephesians 4 on putting off the old man and speaking the truth, Lucifer argues that the emperor walks like the Gentiles in blindness of heart and lied to the church like the serpent to Adam and Eve.
Homilies on the Psalms 14.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil expounds Ps 15:1–3: the sojourner treats the flesh as a lodging and life as exile; the holy mountain is the heavenly Zion; blamelessness and working righteousness, truth in the heart and guileless speech, and doing no harm or reproach to one's neighbor mark the perfect man.
Homilies on the Psalms 14.3Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 15:4 Basil explains that the just man despises the wicked however great and honors the God-fearing however lowly, and reconciles the psalm's praise of true swearing with the Gospel's “do not swear at all.”
Homilies on the Psalms 33.9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 34:12–13 Basil teaches that the true life is Christ and the good days are those of the age to come, not this evil age, and that the first commandment of that life is to restrain the tongue, source of the readiest and most varied sins.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 24Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's twenty-fourth rule: Christians must not lie but speak the truth.
Tractates on the Psalms 14.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Truth must be in the tongue and in deeds, so that our actions do not belie the faith we confess.
Tractates on the Psalms 14.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Hilary allows that some lies are necessary, such as protecting a fugitive or the sick; the psalm condemns deceit that harms a neighbour.
Tractates on the Psalms 140.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Since we will be judged by our words, the psalmist asks for a door and bar on his lips, as Sirach counsels a door, bolt, and measure for speech.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 2.36Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Falsehood, like darkness, has no substance; the possibility of lying exists so that truth may be freely chosen.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 2.37Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · God, who is light and truth itself, freely and unchangeably never wills to lie; falsehood is a human invention, while darkness is a useful work of the Creator.
Commentary on Ephesians 4.25Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Because believers are members of one body, the church, whose head is Christ, they must put away lying and speak the truth to one another.
Commentary on Ephesians 4:25Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Reborn in baptism as members of one body, believers must put away lying and speak truth to one another.
Letter 56.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine objects to Jerome's view, in his commentary on Galatians, that Paul's rebuke of Peter at Antioch was staged, arguing that admitting any 'useful lie' in Scripture destroys its authority.
Letter 56.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine asks Jerome to reconsider the passages cited in favor of a useful lie, lest the authority of Scripture become uncertain.
Letter 67.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine objects that Jerome's view of the dispute at Antioch makes Paul tell a 'well-meant lie' and so undermines the authority of Scripture.
Letter 67.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine urges Jerome to retract his view, as the truth of Scripture is worth more than Helen was to the Greeks.
Letter 84.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recounts his teachers (Apollinaris, Didymus, the Jewish scholar Baraninas), denies ever holding Origen's doctrines, and accuses the Origenists of hiding their teaching and permitting deceit.
Letter 112.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says that the earlier interpreters, answering Porphyry, taught an honorable policy rather than a lie, and challenges Augustine to offer a better explanation.
Letter 112.17Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers Augustine's argument from 1 Cor 9 that Paul acted from compassion, holding that Paul's conduct among Jews and Gentiles alike was a pretense for their sake.
Letter 116.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine argues that if Paul's account of rebuking Peter was a pretense, nothing Paul wrote could be trusted, since he swore that he was not lying.
Letter 116.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine rejects the view that it is better to suppose Paul untruthful than Peter at fault, since by that logic one would have to deny the Gospels' account of Peter's denial and the account of David's sin.
Letter 116.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine insists that the question is what Paul wrote, not what he did: if Peter acted rightly, Paul's canonical letter would contain a lie.
Letter 116.21Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine asks what Jerome's 'policy' can mean except a 'useful lie', and notes that whether a Christian may ever lie is itself a great question.
Letter 116.22Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine insists that the canonical writers never lied, so that Paul's account is true, and holds up Peter's humility in accepting correction as the better answer to Porphyry.
Letter 116.24Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine appeals to Ambrose and Cyprian but above all to Paul himself, who swore before God that his account of the dispute with Peter was no lie.
Letter 116.27Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine argues that Paul's accommodation to Jews, like his accommodation to Gentiles, was sincere, since he owed both love from a pure heart and unfeigned faith.
Letter 148.19Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer forbids lying and swearing and urges Celantia to keep her mind pure as God's temple.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.4.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Lying is forbidden.
On the Life of Moses 359Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The command to take the Egyptians’ goods cannot mean fraud; it means that Christians should take over the riches of pagan learning to adorn the Church, as Basil did; at the Red Sea, temptations assail new believers, and the leader must encourage them while speaking to God in his heart.
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.10Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Good faith must govern all contracts; Joshua, deceived by the Gibeonites, kept the peace he had sworn and punished their fraud only by servitude.
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.11Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Ambrose passes over the philosophers’ examples of fraud (the Syracusan fish trick) and shows from Ananias, the Gospel, and Doeg’s betrayal of Ahimelech that Scripture condemns all fraud.
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.16Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Tobit’s burial of the dead and Raguel’s honest warning to Tobias about his daughter surpass the philosophers’ debates about disclosing defects in a sale.
Letter 28.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine objects to Jerome's commentary on Galatians, which explains the clash between Paul and Peter as a staged pretence, arguing that admitting any lie in Scripture would destroy its authority.
Letter 28.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that if Paul could lie in rebuking Peter, heretics could claim his teaching on marriage was also a lie, and that Paul himself treats falsehood about God as a crime.
Letter 28.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Jerome to reinterpret the texts used to justify useful lies, and asks him to read and frankly criticize the writings Profuturus brings.
Letter 40.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine objects that Jerome's view of Gal 2, that Paul's rebuke of Peter was a dutiful pretence, would destroy the authority of Scripture.
Letter 40.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine holds that Paul truly rebuked Peter for compelling Gentiles to judaize, and that admitting a lie in Scripture would make it all doubtful.
Letter 75.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Jerome concludes that Peter and Paul both pretended to keep the law, defends the older interpretation as an honourable arrangement rather than a lie, and challenges Augustine to do better.
Letter 75.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Jerome mocks Augustine’s claim that Paul kept the law out of compassion rather than pretence, arguing that both views amount to Paul pretending to be what he was not.
Letter 75.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Jerome asks pardon for his long reply, denies teaching lying, and complains that Augustine’s letters circulate in Italy before reaching him.
Letter 82.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rejects the idea that it is better to think Paul wrote falsely than that Peter erred, since by that logic the Gospels and Kings would lie about Peter’s denial and David’s sin.
Letter 82.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns that admitting deliberate falsehood in the apostles would hand the Manichaeans an argument against Scripture.
Letter 82.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that either Paul lied in Galatians or Peter really acted wrongly, and he chooses to believe Paul wrote the truth.
Letter 82.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the old rites were to be read, not practised, by Christians, but were allowed to fade out honourably among Jewish believers; Peter erred by pretence, while Paul acted truthfully.
Letter 82.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that Jerome’s ‘arrangement’ (dispensatio) is simply a dutiful lie under another name.
Letter 82.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine insists that the authors of canonical Scripture never lie, and praises Paul’s just freedom and Peter’s humility in accepting correction as the better answer to Porphyry.
Letter 82.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine names Ambrose and Cyprian on his side but appeals above all to Paul’s own oath in Galatians that he does not lie.
Letter 82.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine clarifies that Paul acted truthfully, not in pretence, both when he conformed to Jewish custom and when he freed Gentiles from food laws.
Letter 82.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that Paul could not have been truthful with Gentiles and deceitful with Jews, since he owed both love with a pure heart and unfeigned faith.
Letter 141.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · A council of Catholic bishops (written by Augustine) warns the Donatist laity that their bishops' claim that the judge at the Conference of Carthage was bribed comes from men caught lying in their own mandate.
Letter 180.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Figurative speech, such as Christ's saying that the Son does not know the day, is not lying, as Hilary showed.
Letter 237.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says the Priscillianists accept all scriptures but twist them, hide their real teaching, and even have a precept permitting perjury to keep it secret.
Soliloquies 2.9Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Reason distinguishes what is false by intent to deceive or by invention from what is false because it tends to be something it is not, such as reflections, pictures, and dreams.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.21Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The octopus that takes the colour of the rock to trap fish is like the deceiver who changes his face to suit each company.
Tractates on Matthew 10.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that Christ forbids all swearing, since a Christian's every word must be true, and that God swears only for the sake of unbelievers.
On True Religion 33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine explains that bodies do not lie and the senses do not deceive, since they report only what affects them; error lies in the soul that judges wrongly and seeks to see God with the eyes.
Sermon 4.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Scripture and Christ call Jacob (Israel) a man without deceit; so what does it mean that he took the blessing "with deceit"?
Sermon 4.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Jacob's "deceit" was a figure, not a lie: having bought the birthright, he truly was the firstborn, and Isaac confirmed the blessing.
Sermon 8.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The eighth commandment against false witness is opposed by the plague of locusts, which harm by biting.
Sermon 16.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The "good days" of the Psalm are not the feasting days for which flatterers lie, but the days of the land of the living, for which one keeps from deceit even under threat of death.
Sermon 36.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The one poor in inner riches gives way to threats and bears false witness; the one rich within, like the martyrs, can lose only outward things and fears the lie that kills the soul more than death.
Sermon 81.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A stumbling block is a dear one who urges evil, as Peter urged Christ not to suffer; such a member must be “cut off” by refusing consent.
Sermon 81.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To the friend who says “every man is a liar,” the meek answer that a lying mouth kills the soul, and they fear God rather than those who kill the body.
Sermon 89.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Some events are both real and figurative, like Abraham’s two sons; figurative fiction, like the parable of the sower or Christ seeking fruit, signifies truth and is not a lie.
Sermon 107.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even a poor man faces the test of greed if a powerful man threatens to take his savings unless he bears false witness; Christ tells him to let his goods go, for no one can take Christ from him.
Sermon 107.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Beyond greed for money there is greed for life: one who is threatened with death unless he lies should let his body be killed rather than kill his soul by false witness, perhaps becoming a martyr.
Sermon 108.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The psalm that promises life and good days demands in return that we keep our tongues from evil and our lips from deceit; the wage of life without end is given only to those who work.
Sermon 108.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God’s command for so great a reward is light: to restrain the tongue from lies and slander, to speak as one thinks, to turn from evil and do good, and to seek peace.
Sermon 133.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine sets out the question of John 7:2–10: Jesus said he was not going up to the feast of Tabernacles, and then went up.
Sermon 133.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The danger is that Christ, the Truth, be thought to have lied; but one who promises in good faith and is prevented by circumstances does not lie.
Sermon 133.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Being mistaken comes from weakness, lying from iniquity; a man lies when he says as true what he thinks false, with a double heart. Whether lying is ever necessary is left for another time.
Sermon 133.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ can neither be mistaken nor lie; anyone who claims to teach the truth while calling Christ a liar destroys his own credibility.
Sermon 133.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever says Christ lied relies on the Gospel to prove it, yet the Gospel is only the stream from the fountain, Christ; John, who drank truth from the Lord’s breast, calls him the true light, full of grace and truth.
Sermon 133.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Jesus said he was not going up “to this feast,” meaning the day his brothers expected; he went later, as it were in secret, to give his weak disciples an example of caution, as when he fled to Egypt.
Sermon 148.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Ananias and Sapphira died for their lie, not for keeping their own money; their temporal death taught discipline, and Augustine believes that God may have spared them afterwards, as Paul speaks of those corrected by death so as not to be condemned.
Sermon 159.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Tempted to bear false witness for gold, a person must choose truth, just as he values a faithful slave; he should be faithful to the Lord who promises eternity.
Sermon 166.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul rebuked the Corinthians for being “men,” and the Psalm calls believers “gods”; lying belongs to the old man, Adam, and truth to the new man, Christ, so putting off Adam reconciles the two texts.
Sermon 166.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · One who remains a mere man speaks lies from his own; one who puts on Christ speaks truth received from God, which becomes his own when he loves it and gives thanks.
Sermon 166.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers are called not to be mere men but sons of God, made gods by grace and adoption, not by nature; truthfulness is God's gift, and the whole person, deified, will cling to unchanging truth in the resurrection.
Sermon 180.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Swearing is not itself sin, since God swore and the saints swore; perjury lies in the mind, as when one swears to what one thinks false, even if it proves true; because men are easily deceived and swear constantly, Scripture's shortcut is: do not swear.
Sermon 180.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Swearing truthfully is not sin, but it walks on the edge of the precipice of perjury, since human minds are easily deceived; only God swears securely, so the safe course is not to swear.
Sermon 180.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To swear is to render right to what one swears by, pledging it to God; perjuring oneself by God is worse than by one's child, for although God cannot be harmed, the perjurer harms himself and deceives his neighbor.
Sermon 257.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Every man is a liar” is no excuse for lying, since God destroys liars; it teaches that we are liars of ourselves and truthful only by fleeing to God.
Sermon 257.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Peter was truthful when he confessed Christ by the Father’s revelation and a liar of himself when he opposed the passion; so we must flee from ourselves to God, who alone is truthful.
Sermon 306.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even if death and sickness were taken away, we would still want truth, to know one another’s hearts without suspicion; the happy life is life with truth, and to reach the life where no one is deceived we must now live without deceiving.
Sermon 308.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine tells of Tutuslymeni of Hippo, who forced a debtor to swear falsely and in a dream was beaten by a heavenly judge, waking with the marks; such sin is worse for those warned, so the habit of swearing must be given up.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains “Do not give what is holy to dogs” as permission to conceal truths from those who would assail (dogs) or despise (swine) them, without lying, and discusses when and how to answer questioners, after Christ’s example.
On Lying 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Augustine introduces the difficult question of lying, including whether it is ever right to tell a merciful lie, and asks the reader to judge the whole.
On Lying 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Jokes are excluded from the discussion, since they are not lies, and the first task is to avoid calling something a lie that is not.
On Lying 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · A lie is saying one thing while holding another in the mind, with a double heart; saying something false that one believes true is error, not lying.
On Lying 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Using the case of warning a man about robbers on a road, Augustine tests definitions of lying and concludes that there is no lie when one states what one holds true and wishes to persuade only of that.
On Lying 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Those who allow useful lies cite Sarah, Jacob and the Hebrew midwives, and ask whether one should not lie to save a fugitive's life or to spare a sick man.
On Lying 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Those who forbid all lying cite the commandment against false witness, Wisdom 1:11, Psalm 5:6, Christ's 'Yes, yes; No, no', and Paul's command to put away lying.
On Lying 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Lies in the Old Testament are answered as figurative (and so not lies) or, like the midwives', approved only as progress relative to worse conduct.
On Lying 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · The New Testament offers no example of lying to imitate: Peter's pretense at Antioch was rebuked, while Paul's circumcising Timothy and keeping Jewish rites came from freedom, not pretense.
On Lying 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Since Scripture says God destroys all who lie and the lying mouth kills the soul, the case of lying to save someone's life fails: no one should lose eternal life for another's bodily life, any more than commit theft or adultery to save it.
On Lying 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Lying to escape sexual violation is not justified, since chastity belongs to the mind and is not lost by violence suffered without consent, while a lie corrupts the mind itself.
On Lying 11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Lying even to lead someone to the truth destroys the credibility of Christian teaching, which rests on faith; so the good must never lie.
On Lying 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Others argue that if a Christian may burn incense to idols to avoid being sexually violated, he may surely lie to avoid it.
On Lying 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Augustine sets out the argument that bodily defilement such as sexual violation may be avoided even by sin, so that a lie told to avoid it would not be sin.
On Lying 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Even to prevent sexual violation one may not lie in a way that harms another's reputation, and it is doubtful whether this is just even if the other consents.
On Lying 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · No lie may ever be told in the teaching of religion, even to make it easier to accept; one may conceal at times but never lie.
On Lying 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Lies that harm others unjustly are excluded, as are lies told for pleasure in lying or to please listeners, which harm the liars themselves.
On Lying 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · The 'kindly' lie that harms no one and helps someone is the real question, but allowing it would also excuse theft from the rich and false witness.
On Lying 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Even a lie that covers no sin, such as protecting someone's hidden money, remains a sin, since false witness is forbidden in its own right like theft.
On Lying 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Paul's words about being 'false witnesses of God' show that false witness is not limited to court testimony; the question remains whether a harmless, helpful lie is blameworthy.
On Lying 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Asked where a fugitive, guilty or innocent, is hiding, a Christian should neither lie nor betray, but keep silent or refuse to tell.
On Lying 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Bishop Firmus of Thagaste refused under torture either to lie or to betray a fugitive, and won his pardon; Augustine judges that he understood Scripture better than the timid.
On Lying 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · If asked whether a fugitive is in a certain place, one should say 'I know where he is, but I will never show you,' and bear the consequences bravely.
On Lying 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Augustine lists eight kinds of lies, from lies in religious teaching to lies told to protect someone from bodily defilement, and turns to the last case.
On Lying 31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Some argue that the 'mouth that lies' in Wisdom 1:11 is the mouth of the heart, so that one who speaks truth in the heart might say otherwise aloud to avoid a greater evil.
On Lying 34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Augustine sets out three readings of Sirach 7:13, 'Do not wish to lie any lie', one supporting the view that one must never lie and two allowing some lies.
On Lying 36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · False witness is lying to those entitled to the truth, such as a judge or a learner; lying to one who seeks what does not concern him is not false witness but is still a lie.
On Lying 37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Readings of Proverbs 30 (LXX) on the son who keeps the word are weighed, as referring to all lies, to lies of the heart, or especially to lies in religious teaching.
On Lying 38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Scripture never makes any lie lovable; people misjudge which evil is graver because they love temporal life more than eternal life.
On Lying 40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Bodily chastity, purity of the soul and truth of teaching are to be kept for holiness; violence suffered without consent is not unchastity, and the truth of teaching must be kept wholly free of lies.
On Lying 41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Though a harmless lie to protect bodily chastity might seem allowable, good faith belongs to the purity of the mind, which ranks above the body, so it should be preferred even to bodily chastity.
On Lying 42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Augustine concludes that Scripture forbids every lie, and goes through all eight kinds of lies, holding that none is permitted, though the first is gravest and the eighth least grave.
On Lying 43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Augustine rejects the claim that Paul lied in rebuking Peter in Galatians, since Paul swore he was not lying, and closes with 1 Corinthians 10:13.
On Christian Doctrine 1.36Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Whoever does not draw love of God and neighbor from Scripture has not understood it; one who misreads the author but builds up love errs harmlessly, yet should be corrected.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine defends Abraham's calling Sarah his sister as trust in God to guard her chastity, not a sale of her, noting that both kings returned her untouched.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine considers the view that Abraham, like Peter, faltered from fear, but holds that he told no lie, since he called Sarah his sister without denying she was his wife.
On the Trinity 15.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The inner word, not the spoken word, resembles the Word of God: as our word takes up voice without being changed into it, so the Word took flesh without being changed, and as works begin from a word, all things were made through the Word.
On the Trinity 15.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Our word, unlike the divine Word, can be false, is not our essence, and depends on passing thought, so only God has a Word eternal and coeternal with himself.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Differences in wording, order, fullness, or memory among the evangelists are not lies; what matters is the truth of the things and meanings, which they share.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.128Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Matthew's she-ass in the Zechariah quotation reflects the Hebrew, as the Septuagint's variations from the Hebrew, made by the same Spirit, keep God's meaning in different words.
Apology against Rufinus 1.18Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes Origen's lost Stromata 6, which follows Plato in allowing a useful lie as a medicine, to support his charge that Origenists tolerate lying.
Apology against Rufinus 3.19Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome denies writing anything shameful about Vigilantius and says his letter to Vigilantius answered Rufinus, who had stirred Vigilantius up.
Apology against Rufinus 3.43Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome refuses to keep silent about heretics, and answers Rufinus with a long chain of sayings from Proverbs and with Ps 58.
Apology against Jerome 2.1Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus begins Book 2 by denying Jerome's charge that Origenists are pledged to perjury by a teaching in Origen's Stromata, which he says he never possessed or read.
Apology against Jerome 2.2Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus quotes Jerome's comment on Eph 4:25, which itself restricts mysteries to the worthy, to show that Jerome holds what he condemns.
Dialogues 3.5Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Gallus names living witnesses for his stories because some doubt them, and declares that the dialogue form conceals a truthful history.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · 'No guile' does not mean that Nathanael was sinless, but that he had no double heart: as a sinner he confessed himself a sinner, and so the physician judged him curable.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 42.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Jews saw a lie with their father, while Christ saw with his Father the Truth, himself; they did not believe him though no one could convict him of sin.
City of God 4.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports Scaevola's division of gods into poetic, philosophical, and civil kinds, and criticizes the pontiff's view that it is expedient for states to be deceived in religion.
City of God 14.4Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · To live according to the flesh is to live according to man rather than God, which is a lie, since man was made to live by God's will; Paul's “carnal,” “animal,” and “men” all mean this.
City of God 16.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Abraham, calling Sarah his sister, did not lie, and trusted God to protect her chastity, which God did by afflicting Pharaoh.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.72Jerome · ca. 414-419 · In a time of universal deceit no brother can be trusted, as in times of persecution; God refines his people through tribulation like silver in fire.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 4.20.7Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The historians' figures are flattery.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 4.20.9Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The same lies shrink their own losses.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 19Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Books to a widow containing the disowned passages had circulated as Pelagius's for four years, so either he lied or they were falsely ascribed to him.
Letter 3, chapter 5Zosimus, bishop of Rome · 417–418 · Citing Psalm 119, John 7, Exodus 23, Sirach, Proverbs and Festus in Acts 25, Zosimus insists that no one should be condemned in absence on hearsay.
Against Lying 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Augustine answers Consentius, praising his zeal against hidden heretics but refusing to hunt them down by lies, since Scripture forbids doing evil that good may come and condemns all who speak a lie.
Against Lying 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · The Priscillianists make lying a doctrine, twisting Ps 15:2 and Eph 4:25 to permit lies to outsiders, and catholics must not share this evil.
Against Lying 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · If lying to outsiders were permitted, the martyrs should have denied Christ; Jehu, who feigned Baal worship to kill Baal's servants, is no model, and the martyrs confessed with their mouths.
Against Lying 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Lies differ in harm: believing a heretic who poses as a catholic harms no one's faith, but believing a catholic who poses as a heretic can make or confirm a heretic, so the catholic's lie is the more dangerous.
Against Lying 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Augustine imagines a catholic spy praising Priscillian and Dictinius's book the Libra to trap a Priscillianist, showing that such lies confirm the heretic and teach him that lying is blameless.
Against Lying 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Lying to catch Priscillianists would make their chief error, that one may lie to hide the truth, a doctrine shared with catholics, corrupting both sides.
Against Lying 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · A catholic who lies to catch heretics can never be trusted by those he converts, and such lying makes every brother suspect to every brother.
Against Lying 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · A catholic who, to trap a Priscillianist, says that the soul is part of God blasphemes knowingly, which is worse than the heretic's ignorant blasphemy.
Against Lying 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Priscillianists who pose as catholics at least say true things about God, while catholics posing as Priscillianists say only false things and blaspheme without the excuse of ignorance.
Against Lying 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · To pose as a Priscillianist is to deny Christ before men, which Christ warns he will repay by denying such a person before the Father.
Against Lying 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Christ sent his sheep among wolves without telling them to wear wolves' skins, and taught that false prophets are known by their fruits, not by our lies.
Against Lying 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Ps 15:2 means that truth must be believed in the heart as well as spoken, not that lies are allowed on the tongue, as the next verse forbids deceit with the tongue.
Against Lying 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Eph 4:25 does not permit lying to non-Christians, who are to be treated as neighbors; truths may sometimes be withheld from them, but falsehoods may not be told.
Against Lying 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · If blasphemous lies were just when meant to expose heretics, adultery with the same aim would be chaste; since it is not, lying with the tongue for that purpose is not allowed either, for the mind directs every member.
Against Lying 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Acts that are not sins in themselves take their goodness from their cause, but acts that are sins, such as theft, adultery, and blasphemous lies, may never be done for a good end.
Against Lying 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Concealing the truth by silence is not lying, as Christ's words in John 16:12 and Abraham's calling Sarah his sister show.
Against Lying 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Jacob's deception of Isaac was not a lie but a prophetic figure, just as metaphors, antiphrasis, and parables are not lies, since what they signify is true.
Against Lying 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Augustine urges Consentius to refute the Priscillianist doctrine that one may lie, even deny Christ, to conceal one's religion, by a threefold argument about the scriptural examples of lying.
Against Lying 26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · The supposed scriptural examples of lying come from the prophetic books, where deeds are figures; no apostle is shown lying, for Peter's pretense at Antioch was rebuked and Paul's becoming all things to all was compassion, not deceit.
Against Lying 28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Christ's making as though to go farther at Emmaus was a figure of his ascension, not a lie, just as parables, the fables of Horace and Aesop, and Jotham's fable of the trees are not lies.
Against Lying 30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · If Tamar's lie is taken as a model, Judah's sexual immorality would have to be too, and allowing compensating sins would open the way to every crime.
Against Lying 31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Since a sin is by definition contrary to justice and every lie is contrary to truth, no lie can be just, and scriptural examples of lying are either not lies or not to be imitated.
Against Lying 32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · God rewarded the Hebrew midwives and Rahab for their mercy, not for their lies, and pardoned the lies on account of the mercy; but one may not sin deliberately in order to do good.
Against Lying 33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · The midwives and Rahab received temporal rewards for their mercy, their lies being borne with in their ignorance, but the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, children of the truth, may not lie.
Against Lying 34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · The midwives could have refused and died for the truth, and Rahab could have been protected by God without lying, as Lot's guests were at Sodom; Rahab's hospitality and faith are to be imitated, but not her lie.
Against Lying 35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Every example of lying in Dictinius's Libra is to be treated by the rule that it is either not a lie or not to be imitated, and lies that creep in call for pardon, not justification.
Against Lying 36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Augustine admits he is moved by the case of a gravely ill man who asks whether his dead son is alive, but holds that truth is not a murderer, any more than chastity or the aroma of Christ.
Against Lying 37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Allowing even a kindly lie leads step by step to perjury, which some even try to regulate; at least in matters of religion no lie is permissible, and teaching that one may lie cannot be true.
Against Lying 38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · No one would commit sexual immorality to help people in danger, yet lying is equally against truth, and truth cannot teach anyone to lie.
Against Lying 39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Even if some lies are pardoned as weakness, no cause can justify perjury or blasphemy, the latter being worse since it says false things about God himself.
Against Lying 40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Not even to bring someone to baptism may one deceive his guards by a lie, just as one may not use sexual immorality for that end; the child of God keeps from lying as from sin, which will be wholly overcome at the resurrection.
Against Lying 41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · Lies must be avoided or repented of, never taught; perjury and blasphemy are never permitted, not even to bring someone to baptism, and Consentius should refute the Libra and never seek heretics by lies.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Error is thinking one knows what one does not; some errors, like Augustine's wrong turn that escaped a Donatist ambush, do no harm, yet error belongs to this wretched life, and the liar harms himself most.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Every lie is a sin, but lies differ greatly by intent and subject; lying about worldly matters is less evil than being deceived about matters essential to worshipping God.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Every lie is a sin, since speech exists to convey thought, and good results no more justify a lie than they justify theft or adultery; those who lie only to save life deserve pardon, not praise.
The Conferences 17.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Judas was condemned though his act served salvation, while Jacob’s deceit of his father was blessed because of his intention; God judges the aim of the mind, and Joseph asks why they made their promise.
The Conferences 17.15John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus objects that such teaching would give the weak an excuse to lie, which Scripture sternly forbids.
The Conferences 17.16John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Abba Joseph argues that the Old Testament accounts of saints' “dispensations” must not be denied or allegorized away merely because some misuse them.
The Conferences 17.17John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Joseph compares lying to hellebore, a poison that heals only in extreme need, and cites Rahab and Jacob as saints who lied for a good end.
The Conferences 17.18John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus objects that deceptions allowed in the Old Testament, like David's, are forbidden under the gospel, which rules out every lie.
The Conferences 17.19John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Joseph answers that lies were condemned in the Old Testament too, but that deceptions for another's safety, like Hushai's and the woman who hid David's messengers, are right even under the gospel.
The Conferences 17.20John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Joseph argues that Paul too practised useful pretence, becoming all things to all, and that truth told by Doeg brought ruin while Rahab's lie brought blessing.
The Conferences 17.23John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Joseph replies that the Egyptian elders held it better to yield to others and to conceal abstinence by a humble lie than to parade it by the truth.
The Conferences 17.24John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Joseph cites Abba Piamun, who broke his abstinence rather than reveal it, and elders who told their own deeds as others', like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12.
The Conferences 17.25John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Joseph gives many scriptural examples of saints who deceived for a good end and of decisions changed for a better reason, including God's own threats to Hezekiah, Nineveh and Saul.