In this and the following paragraph, Augustin deals with the rendering given to these words by the Manichæans in support of their heresy, stated in section 10. The words “pater ejus” (ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ), taken by themselves, might of course mean either “his father” or “the father of it” [i.e. of falsehood]. Both the Greek idiom and the context require the latter, but the Manichæans adopted the former, and made the passage run, “for he [i.e. the devil] is a liar, and [so is] his father.” Hence the question they are made to put afterwards, “Who was his [the devil’s] father?” and our author’s exposition of the passage.—Tr.
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