Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
For this reason angels bear the name sons of the devil, and sons of wickedness. Since, then, everything was made by God, and the devil turned himself, and the rest who fell away alongside him, into the cause of their own revolt, Scripture correctly declares that those persisting in revolt remain, without exception, offspring of the devil and messengers belonging to the wicked one. For the term "son," as one of our predecessors has likewise noted, carries two senses: one by nature, whereby a son is born; the other by what someone becomes, whereby he is reckoned a son — though a distinction stands between being born and being made. For one springs from the very substance of another, while the other is fashioned by him, whether through creation or through the imparting of teaching. For whoever receives instruction in the word from someone is termed the son of the one instructing him, and that instructor in turn is termed his father. Thus by nature — that is, by the fact of creation, if one may put it that way — every one of us counts among God's sons, since God made us all. Yet in terms of obedience and doctrine, not everyone is a son of God, but only those who trust him and carry out his will. Those, on the other hand, who withhold trust and refuse his will belong instead among the sons and messengers of the devil, in that they carry out what belongs to the devil. And that matters stand thus, he declared through Isaiah: "I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have despised me." And again, elsewhere, he names them estranged sons: "Strange children have dealt falsely with me." For by nature they remain sons, since he made them; yet by their deeds they are not.