And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed fourscore men outside, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that lets him go, his life shall be for the life of him.
All Commentaries on 2 Kings 10:24 Go To 2 Kings 10
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
This opinion dishonors the holy martyrs; no, altogether removes the possibility of holy martyrdom. For, according to the Priscillianists, the martyrs would act more justly and wisely if they did not confess to their persecutors that they were Christians and by their confession make homicides of their persecutors, but rather, if by lying and by denying what they were, they preserved the advantage of the flesh and the intention of the heart and did not allow their persecutors to perform the wicked deed they had in mind. For these persecutors were enemies of the truth itself, not neighbors of theirs in the Christian faith to whom they were obliged to speak the truth with their tongue that they spoke in their heart. For if Jehu (whom as an example of lying they look on with greater show of prudence than on the others) falsely declared that he was a servant of Baal in order to kill the servants of Baal, how much more justly, according to the perversity of the Priscillianists, would the servants of Christ in time of persecution declare falsely that they are servants of demons in order that the servants of demons not kill the servant of Christ! And if Jehu sacrificed to Baal in order to kill people, how much more justly would they sacrifice to idols in order that people not be killed! Why, according to the remarkable doctrine of these liars, should it be prejudicial to them to profess falsely the worship of the devil in the open, provided they preserved the worship of God in their heart? But not in this manner have the true martyrs, the holy martyrs, understood the apostle. They have seen and kept what has been said, “With the heart a person believes unto justice, and with the mouth profession of faith is made unto salvation,” and, “In their mouth was found no lie.” So, they have departed irreprehensibly where they will no longer have to be on guard against being tempted by liars, because they will have no more liars, whether strangers or neighbors, in their celestial gatherings. As for Jehu, who by an impious lie and a sacrilegious sacrifice sought to kill the impious and the sacrilegious—him they would not imitate, not even if the same Scripture had said nothing about what kind of man he was. But, since it has been written that he did not have a righteous heart in the sight of God, what did it profit him to receive some transitory reward of temporal rule for some obedience that he displayed in utterly destroying the house of Ahab in accordance with his lust for Ahab’s dominion? I exhort you, brother, rather to defend the true opinion of the martyrs, that you may be against liars; not a teacher of falsehood, but an advocate of truth. Pay close attention, I beseech you, to what I say, in order that you may find out, despite your laudable zeal to apprehend and correct or else to shun the impious, how much you must be on guard against a doctrine that you are rather injudicious in thinking should be taught.
