Dist. 37
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/3/d/37/q/bon-sent-III-d37-littera
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### DISTINCTION XXXVII.

#### Ch. I. — *On the ten commandments, how they are contained in the two.*

But now the distribution of the Decalogue, which is completed in two commandments, must be considered. « For the Decalogue has ten precepts, which are the ten-stringed Psaltery; and they are so distributed that three, which are in the first table, pertain to God, namely to the knowledge and love of the Trinity; seven, which are in the second table, to the love of neighbor ».

The first in the first table is: *You shall not have strange gods; you shall not make for yourself a graven thing nor any likeness* etc. Origen says that these are two commandments, but Augustine that it is one. For this very thing, which he had said: *you shall not have strange gods*, he explains more fully when he forbids that fashioned things be worshiped, namely an *idol*, or a *likeness of some thing*; and these two Origen says differ thus, « that an *idol* is what has nothing similar to itself; but a *likeness* is what has the appearance of some thing; for example, if someone in gold or wood or some other material makes the appearance of a serpent or a bird or some thing and sets it up to be adored, he has made not an *idol* but a *likeness*. But he who makes an appearance which the eye has not seen, but which the mind fashions for itself, as if someone should form upon human limbs the head of a dog or of a ram, or in one figure of a man two faces; makes not a *likeness* but an *idol*, because he makes what has nothing similar to itself ».

#### Ch. II. — *Why an idol is said to be nothing in the world.*

« Therefore the Apostle says that *an idol is nothing in the world*. For no appearance is taken from existing things, but what an idle and curious mind devises. But there is a *likeness* when something is formed from those things which are either in heaven or on earth or in the waters ». — But Augustine expounds that text thus: *an idol is nothing in the world*, that is, among the creatures of the world there is no form of an idol. For God formed the matter, but the foolishness of men gave the form. Whatever things were made naturally were made through the Word; but the form of a man in an idol was not made through the Word, just as sin was not made through the Word, but is nothing; and men become nothing when they sin.

But it is asked how here the form of an idol is said not to have been made through the Word, when elsewhere it is read: « *Every form, every framing, every concord of parts was made through the Word* ». — But this is solved variously by various authors. For some say that every form, and whatever is, is from God, insofar as it is, and that the form of an idol, insofar as it *is*, or insofar as it *is a form*, is from God, but not insofar as it is *of an idol*, that is, set up to be adored. For in this there is not a creature, but a perversion of a creature. Just as that which is sin, insofar as it is sin, is nothing; and men, when they sin, become nothing, because they are separated from him who truly is. Hence Jerome: « What is not from God, who alone truly is, is said not to be ». And therefore sin, which leads us away from true being, is said to be nothing or not to be. — But others say that every form, namely which is naturally, and everything that is naturally, is from God; but the form of an idol is not naturally, because it does not serve the nature of righteousness. For that is said to be naturally which fights for the simple nature of righteousness, which is God, does not rebound against it, and does not vitiate the created nature.

The second precept is: *You shall not take the name of your God in vain*; which is to say according to the letter: you shall not swear the name of God for nothing; « but allegorically it is commanded that you not think a creature to be Christ, the Son of God, because every creature is subject to vanity, but equal to the Father ».

But the third is: *Remember to sanctify the Sabbath day*; where according to the letter the observance of the Sabbath is commanded; but allegorically, that you await rest here from the vices and in the future in the contemplation of God, from the Holy Spirit, that is from charity and the gift of God — not that the Holy Spirit works this without the Father and the Son.

#### Ch. III. — *Why remission of sins is properly said to be made in the Holy Spirit.*

« The Church has indeed received this gift, that in the Holy Spirit remission of sins should be made; and although the Trinity makes this remission, nevertheless it is properly said to pertain to the Holy Spirit, because he is the Spirit of the adoption of sons, he is the Love and Connection or Communion of the Father and the Son »; and therefore our justification and rest is attributed to him more often. — These are the three commandments of the first table pertaining to God; and the first

indeed, which is about worshiping the one God, pertains to the Father, in whom is unity or authority; the second to the Son, in whom is equality; the third to the Holy Spirit, in whom is the communion of both.

But in the second table there were seven commandments pertaining to the love of neighbor. « Of which the first refers to the carnal father, just as the first of the first table refers to the heavenly Father, which is: *Honor your father and your mother, that you may be long-lived upon the land* », namely of the living. And parents are to be honored thus, that due reverence be shown to them, and necessities be supplied.

The second is: *You shall not kill*; where according to the letter the act of homicide is forbidden, but according to the spirit even the will to kill. Hence to this commandment, according to the letter, an addition is made in the Gospel, because the letter of the Gospel expresses what the letter of the Law did not express.

#### Ch. IV. — *On the spiritual and carnal sense of the Law.*

The letter of the Gospel expresses the *spiritual understanding*, that is, which spiritual men have, and according to which one lives spiritually; the letter of the Law the *carnal sense*, that is, which carnal men have, and according to which one lives carnally; to which an addition has been made.

The third is: *You shall not commit adultery*, « that is, do not mingle with anyone, except in the covenant of matrimony. For by a part the whole is understood » : « Under the name of adultery, therefore, every illicit intercourse and the unlawful use of those members must be understood as forbidden ».

The fourth is: *You shall not steal*; where all *sacrilege* and *robbery* is forbidden. « For he who forbade theft did not permit robbery, but under the name of theft he willed every illicit usurpation of another's property to be well understood ». — « *Sacrilege* is committed in three ways, namely when either the sacred is taken from the sacred, or the non-sacred from the sacred, or the sacred from the non-sacred ». And whatever is dedicated to divine worship is called sacred, as the Church or the property of the Church. — Here also usury is forbidden, which is contained under robbery. Hence Jerome: « There is no difference whether one seeks usury, or defrauds, or robs. Lend to your brother, and receive what you gave, and seek nothing superfluous, because superabundance is reckoned as usury ». For usury is, as Augustine says, when someone exacts more, by injury or in any matter, than he had received. Likewise Jerome: « Some think that usury is only in money; but let them understand that superabundance is called usury, namely whatever there is, if from that which he gave there is more; as if in winter we should give ten measures, and at harvest receive fifteen ».

#### Ch. V. — *On theft.*

But if it is asked concerning the sons of Israel, who, at the Lord's command, borrowed from the Egyptians vessels of gold and silver and precious garments and carried them off, whether they committed theft; we say that those who did it in order to obey God's command did not commit theft nor sin at all. Hence Augustine: « The Israelites did not commit theft, but rendered a ministry to God who commanded it. For God commanded this, who gave the Law; just as the minister of a judge kills without sin the one whom the law prescribes; but if he does this of his own accord, he is a homicide, even if he kills the one whom he knows is to be killed by the judge ». « But the weak, who out of greed deceived the Egyptians, were rather *permitted* to do this to those who by right suffered such things, than *commanded* ». — Here it is objected that even the good sinned in that deed, because they transgressed the natural law, with which the Gospel and the moral law of precept agree, which is: do not do to another what you do not wish to be done to yourself; which Truth wrote in the heart of man, and because it was not read in the heart, he repeated it on the tablets, so that, the voice being applied from without, it might return to the heart and there find what it read outside. This, therefore, they seem to have transgressed in that deed, doing to others what they did not want to be done to themselves. — But there it must be understood: *unjustly*, namely that you not do unjustly to another what you do not wish to be done to yourself. Otherwise the judge is a transgressor of this, when he punishes a guilty man, not wishing anything such to be done to himself. So also that word of the Lord: *All things whatsoever you wish that men should do to you* etc.; must be taken of the good things which we ought to render to one another.

The fifth precept is: *You shall not speak false testimony against your neighbor*; where the crime of lying and of perjury is forbidden.

#### Ch. VI. — *On lying.*

« But it is usually asked whether every lie is forbidden. Some say that only that is forbidden which *harms* and does not *profit* the one to whom it is told. For such is not *against the neighbor*; so that on this account Scripture is thought to have added this ». — But concerning lying there is a great question and it cannot be quickly explained.

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