Instructions 1.32–2.19

To the self-satisfied. If place or time favors you, or a person comes your way, be a new judge. Why are you now puffed up by it? You blaspheme, unteachable one; you never look to him by whose excellence you live in such frailty. Greedy, you presume on fortune through rank and gain; you have no law, nor do you know yourself in prosperity. Though you always dine off gold with a crowd of chorus-players, if you have not worshiped the crucified Lord, you have perished. Place and time and person are given to you, now, if only you believe; but if not, you will fear for it. Humble yourself before Christ and bow your neck to him: there honor remains, and full assurance in all things. When time now flatters you, be more careful. Not foreseeing the last things of fate, which must come to you, without Christ you can never have (life).

To the Gentiles. Fierce people without a shepherd, do not wander any longer. I too, who warn you, was once ignorant and wandering. So now take on the likeness of your Lord; put away your wild and embittered hearts: come into the stalls, you wild bulls, to the mangers, and stay safe from robbers under the royal roof. In the forest there are wolves; so flee to shelter. You make war, you rage, and you do not see where you are living. Believe in the one God, with whom you can live when dead and rise in the kingdom, since there is also a resurrection for the righteous.

Again, to the ignorant Gentiles. The untamed neck refuses to bear the yoke for work, and then it delights to feed on greens in rich fields. And yet the useful mare is tamed against her will, and once tamed she grows less fierce. Gentile, man, my brother, do not be a wild beast; pull yourself out at last and think it over with yourself: you were not born a beast or a brute but a man; tame yourself, wise one, and come under shelter. The idols you follow are nothing but the vanity of the age. Light hearts are leading you to the pit of punishment. There you carry gold, clothes, and silver in your arms; there is fighting there, and then love songs are sung in place of psalms. You think it life, where you play or watch such things; you cast lots, ignorant one, you seek dead, golden things. You will not escape destruction by it, though you do your own divining. The grace which the Lord sent on earth to be read, you do not seek it, but wander like a beast. If you believe, golden ages will come to you after death, so that you may begin again to live immortal forever. This too is given you to know: what you were before. Submit yourself to God, who governs all things.

On the tree of life and of death. So that Adam, the first-formed, might shun God's commands, Belial was the watcher, out of envy of the creature. Whatever the leader of our birth did, whether good or evil, he would have passed on to us; and so we die through him, since he himself was made an exile from the divine word. When six thousand years are finished, we shall be immortal. When the fruit of the tree was tasted, death entered the world; by this tree of death let us seek the tree of the life to come. On the tree hung life, bearing fruits, the commandments: take now (from there) the life-giving fruits, you who believe. The law given from the tree was to be feared by the first man, and from it came death when the first law was neglected. Now stretch out your hand and take from the tree of life. The Lord's best law, the one that followed, came forth from the tree; the first law was lost. The one who worships forbidden gods tastes, from where he is allowed, the evil joys of life. Reject that taste; it will be enough to know what it was. If you want to live, give yourselves to the second law; shun the worship of temples, the shrines of demons. Turn to Christ, and you will be God's companions. Holy is God's law, which says that the dead live. The Lord commanded that a hymn be offered to him alone. Shun, all of you, entirely the devil's law.

On the folly of the cross. I have spoken of the twofold tree, from which death came forth, and from which again life comes forth in abundance. But the cross is folly to the adulterous race. The King of eternity, by the cross, overshadows the cruel, so that they may not believe in him: O you fools, living in death! Cain, found wicked, killed his younger brother; from him, it is said, the offspring of Enoch were born, the Canaanites. So a wicked race grew up in the world, which never changes its mind to believe in the Lord's cross. It fell into error, and they say they live rightly. The first law was in a tree, and from there came the second, which with peace went before the terrible first law. In savage perversity the wicked rushed headlong: they refuse to recognize the Lord pierced with nails, and when they come to his judgment, there they will recognize him. But the race of Abel now believes in the kind Christ.

Fanatics who judaize. What? Do you want to be half Jew, half pagan? You will not escape Christ's judgment by it when you are dead. You were blind yourself, and you go in to the blind, you fool; so the blind man leads the blind back into the ditch. You go where you do not know, and you go back from there unknowing. Learners go to the learned, to come away learned; but you, such as you are, go where you can learn nothing: you go out of the doors, and from there you go off to the idols. Ask first what is commanded in the law; let them tell you whether it is commanded to worship gods. For what we chiefly exist for is unknown to them; but since they are guilty of that very offense, they tell nothing of God's commandments except wonders. Then, blind as they are, they lead you with them into the ditch. They are corpses; it is too much to report everything about them, or rather I am held to the narrow furrow of the plough. The Almighty did not want them to understand the King; he himself fled from so great a crime of the bloodthirsty. He gave himself to us, adding a (new) law; hence now, abandoned by the King, they bark at us. But if you think there is hope for you in them, you are wholly wrong, if you worship both God and the temples.

To the Jews. Always wicked and kicking back with stiff necks, you do not want to be won over; so you will be disinherited. Isaiah said that your heart had grown fat. You look to the law which Moses dashed down in anger; and the same Lord gave him a second law. In it he placed hope, which you mock with your heads held high. So, therefore, you will not be worthy of the heavenly kingdom.

Again, to the Jews. See that Leah was a type of the synagogue, with her weak eyes, whom Jacob received as a sign; and yet he served again for the younger, the beloved, a true mystery and type of our church. Consider the word from heaven to Rebekah when she was with child, so that you may believe in Christ … Then come to Tamar's bearing of twins; look to Cain, the first tiller of the earth, and to Abel the shepherd, the ancient spotless offerer, who was slaughtered in sacrifice by his brother. Understand thus, then, that the younger are the ones approved by Christ.

Once more to them. There is no unbelieving people but yours, you wicked ones, rejected in so many places and so often by the law of those who cry out. The Most High spurns your sabbaths and has cut off entirely all your new moons from the law, so that you should not offer the sacrifices commanded to him — he who said he would lay a stone for you to stumble on. If any of you does not believe that he perished by an unjust death, another part of the law cries out: “You will see your life hanging on a tree, and you will not believe him.” God himself is life; he himself hung for us; but you, with hardened heart, mock him.

On the time of the Antichrist. Isaiah said: “This is the man who shakes the world and so many kings, under whom the earth will become a desert.” Listen, since the prophet foretold it of him; I have said nothing of my own composing, but from reading the law. Then indeed the world comes to an end, when he appears and has conquered three rulers in the world. But when Nero has been raised from hell, Elijah will come first to seal the beloved … For seven years the earth will tremble everywhere; but Elijah will hold half the time, and Nero half. Then Babylon the harlot (will be) burned to ashes; from there he will go on to Jerusalem, and the Latin conqueror will then say: “I am the Christ, to whom you always pray”; and indeed the deceived first people praise him, since his false prophet does many signs. Above all, so that they may believe him, the image will speak. The Almighty grants that … Going back over the Scriptures after that, the Jews cry out together to the Most High that they have been deceived.

1. On the hidden holy people of the almighty (Christ), the living God. 2. On the end of this age. 3. On the first resurrection. 4. On the day of judgment. 5. To catechumens. 6. To the faithful. 7. You faithful, beware of evil. 8. To penitents. 9. Those who have apostatized from God. 10. On infants. 11. Deserters. 12. To the soldiers of Christ. 13. On those who flee. 14. On the seed of the weeds. 15. To the dissembler. 16. Worldly things are to be shunned altogether. 17. What a Christian should be. 18. To the matrons of the church of the living God. 19. Again to them. 20. In church, to all the people of God. 21. To one who wishes for martyrdom. 22. The daily war. 23. On the jealousy of desire. 24. Those who give out of wrongdoing. 25. On deceitful peace. 26. To readers. 27. To ministers. 28. To the pastors of God. 29. I speak to the elders. 30. Visit the sick thus. 31. To the poor who are healthy. 32. Children are not to be mourned. 33. On funeral pomp. 34. To clergy. 35. On idle talkers and silence. 36. To drunkards. 37. To the pastor. 38. To one who prays. 39. The name of the man of Gaza.

On the hidden holy people of the almighty Christ, the living God. There remains a last holy (people), hidden, and indeed unknown to us as to where it lives. They themselves live by nine tribes and a half; the two tribes and a half that were left behind are ours. And Christ commanded those of old to live by the law. Let us all live now — the tradition of the new law — as the law itself teaches! I point it out to you more openly. Two tribes and a half were left behind: why? Why half a tribe from these? So that they might be martyrs, when the enemy brought war on his elect in the world; or rather, so that the chorus of the holy prophets might rise up against that people, to put a bridle on them, whom obscene horses trampled to death with lashing hooves; nor will they ever rush to take hold of peace. These tribes have been set apart so that all the mysteries of Christ might be fulfilled through them in the whole age. But they were born from the crime of two brothers, under whose lead they followed the crime. Were not such bloodstained men rightly scattered? They come together again in camp for the sake of the mysteries. Then the things told in the law hasten to be fulfilled. Almighty Christ comes down to his elect, who have been hidden from us for so long, grown to so many thousands; that is the true heavenly nation. There no one dies before his father, nor do they feel pains or sores arising in their bodies; resting on their beds, they depart in ripe old age, fulfilling all the law, and so they are protected. They are commanded to cross over to the Lord from those parts; he dries up the river for them, as for those who crossed before, and the Lord himself leads them out with them. He has crossed over to our parts; they come with the heavenly King. What shall I say of their journey, on which God leads them out? The mountains sink down before them and springs burst out: creation rejoices to see the heavenly people. This people hastens to defend its captive mother. But the wicked one who holds her, when he hears it, flees to the north and gathers everyone. But when the tyrant dashes himself against the army of God, his soldiers are laid low by heavenly terror; he himself is seized, with the unspeakable false prophet; by the Lord's decree they are handed over alive to Gehenna. After that the chief men and leaders are ordered to serve. Then the saints will come to the breasts of their ancient mother, so that at last those too may be refreshed whom that evil one tortured with various punishments to make them believe in him. The end has come: to take away the stumbling blocks from the world, the Lord will begin to give judgment by fire.

On the end of this age. The trumpet gives the signal from heaven, when the lion has been taken away, and suddenly there is darkness with the crash of the sky. The Lord casts down his eyes, so that the earth trembles, and he cries out, so that all in the world may hear: “Behold, I have long kept silent, bearing with your deeds for so long a time!” They cry out together, lamenting, groaning too late; there is howling and weeping, and no respite is given to the wicked. What will a mother do for the child at her breast, when she herself is burning? In the flame of fire the Lord will judge the wicked; but the fire will not touch the righteous; rather, it will lick them. They live under one roof, but one part will weep at the sentence. So great will be the heat that the very stones will melt; the winds drive on in lightning, heavenly wrath will rage, so that wherever the ungodly man flees, the fire catches him; there will be no help (then), not even from a ship's stern. Yet the flame, keeping the nations halved and divided, spares them, so that for a thousand years they may render their bodies to the saints. For after the thousand years they are handed over to Gehenna, and they are burned together with the frame of the world to which they belonged.

On the first resurrection. The city comes down from heaven in the first resurrection. And what shall we tell of so great a heavenly structure? We rise again to him, we who have been devoted to him; and they will then be incorruptible, living without death; nor will there be any pain or groaning in it. Those too will come who win strong martyrdoms under the Antichrist; they too live for all time and receive good things, since they suffered evil; and they themselves marry and beget children through the thousand years. All the produce of the earth is gathered there, because the earth, renewed, pours out abundantly without end. There is no rain there, no cold in the golden camp, no sieges as now, and no robberies. That city needs no lamplight: it shines from its author, and night does not appear there. It is twelve thousand stadia broad, long, and as high; its root is on the earth, but its head reaches the height of heaven. Before the gates of the city the sun or the moon will shine. The evil one is shut up in anguish, for the sake of the righteous who are to be nourished. But after the thousand years God carries all things away.

On the day of judgment. I add something about the day of judgment for the sake of unbelievers. God's fire, sent forth again, will hold sway; the earth then groans at the last end of things, since all the unbelieving nations are then on the earth; and yet the fire avoids the camp of his saints. All nature is turned into one flame; the earth is burned from its depths and the mountains melt; nothing of the sea remains, it will be overcome by the mighty fire; this heaven perishes and this earth is changed; a new heaven and an everlasting earth are framed. Then those who deserve it are sent into the second death, but the righteous are placed in the dwellings within.

To catechumens. All of you who believe in Christ, having left idols behind, I admonish in a few words for your salvation. What you did in earlier times through error … leave it all; and once you know God, be a good, tested recruit, and let virgin modesty dwell with you in the Lamb. Let your mind watch for good things: take care not to sin from now on; in the baptism of new birth only the (former) things are forgiven you. For if anyone sins as a catechumen, he is marked with a penalty; you may live distinguished by that baptism, but you do not remain without loss. The sum of it for you: always avoid grave sins.

To the faithful. I admonish the faithful not to harbor hatred against their brothers: ungodly hatreds are reckoned to martyrs as fuel for the fire; the martyr whose confession is of that kind is destroyed, and we are taught that his evil is not expiated even by shed blood. The law is given to the wicked, so that he can restrain himself; so you too, once washed, must likewise take care. You sin twice against God, you who drag out a lawsuit against a brother. You will not escape sin by it, following your old ways. You have been washed once: can you be dipped again?

You faithful, beware of evil. Birds and the beasts of the forest are caught with birdlime; those who have the reason of a mind are charmed by jests and deceived by a trick as they follow the bait; they do not know how to avoid evil and are not held by the law. The law has been given to man, and the teaching of life to be read, from which he may remember to live carefully, and his own place, and death's, and set aside the things that are. Whoever offends against the king condemns himself heavily: either bound in iron, or cast down from his rank, or deprived of life, he loses what he ought to have enjoyed. Warned by this example, do not sin gravely; after the washing, have love instead, and keep far away from the bait of the mousetrap, where death is. There are many martyrdoms without the shedding of blood. Not to covet another's goods … ; you ought to curb your tongue, to make yourself humble, not to do violence of your own accord nor repay violence done to you; if you have been patient in mind, understand that you are a martyr.

To penitents. You have become a penitent: pray night and day; but do not go far away from your mother, and the Most High will be able to have mercy on you. The shame of your guilt will not then be in vain, when you weep in your guilt in open squalor. If you have a deep wound, seek the physician too; and yet by penance you will be able to lessen your losses. For I will confess that I am one of you, and that I too once felt the terror of ruin. Therefore I admonish the wounded to walk more carefully, to defile beard and hair in the dust of the earth, to roll in sackcloth, and to ask the highest King to help you, so that you may not perish from among the people.

Those who have apostatized from God. When war is waged or the enemy floods in, whoever can conquer or hide wins great trophies; but unhappy will be the one who is captured by them. He loses both his country and his king — it comes to him deservedly — who would not fight for his country or for his life. He should have died rather than go under a barbarian king, submitting in lawless slavery to the enemy. If you die fighting for your land, you have conquered; but if you surrender, though unharmed, you have perished by the law. The enemy crosses the river: hide (yourself) in a hiding place, or, if he can get in … Make yourself safe on every side, and your family too: you have conquered; and act watchfully, so that no one breaks in on them. It will be a disgrace to the King if anyone gives himself up to the enemy. The fool who does not know how to conquer and runs to hand himself over has left praise neither to himself nor to his country; he refused to live then, when life itself was lost. Then, if he flees back from the enemy, destitute or profane, like sounding bronze, or like deaf asps, such a man ought to pray enough, or hide himself.

On infants. When the enemy suddenly comes flooding in with war and, before they could flee, has seized the helpless little ones, they are not to be reproached, though they seem to have been captured. Nor do I excuse them: perhaps they deserved it through the sins of their parents, and so God handed them over. Yet I urge the grown ones to run back into the hall and be born as it were anew from their mother's womb. Let them flee the terrible nation, always bloodthirsty, ungodly, unteachable, living a beastly life; for when another war perhaps has to be waged, whoever can conquer, or at least now knows how to take care, …

Deserters. Deserters are spoken of as of more than one kind: one is worthless, another withdraws in part; but true judgments decide for each. See, we are serving as soldiers: you obey Christ as you obey Caesar. Seek the King's refuge, if you have offended; implore him, fall down and confess to him: he will grant everything; everything is ours. Restored to the camp, take care not to offend any further. Do not wander long, soldier, through the dens of wild beasts. Let it be a mighty deed for you to stop sinning afterward.

To the soldiers of Christ. When you have enlisted in the army, you are held by a bridle. Begin, then: give up your former deeds, avoid luxuries, since toil awaits you under arms. The King's command must be obeyed with all your strength, if you wish to reach the happy last times. As a good soldier, always wait to enjoy them. Do not flatter yourself; give up all idleness; take care to be present before your officer every day; at dawn look to the standards. When you see war, take up the contest close at hand; this is the King's glory, to see his soldier ready. The King is present when he is longed for; he fights for your hope; he prepares gifts, he gladly receives you for the victory and makes you his own guardsman. Besides, do not spare yourself in the blows; be rather tireless, so that he may repay you with glory for death.

On those who flee. The souls of the damned rightly separate themselves; from this they run back again to their own protector. The Canaanite root, the accursed seed, breaks out and flees into a servile nation under a barbarian king; eternal flame will torture them on the appointed day. The profane vagrant wants to wander without discipline, to roam through the jaws of wild beasts, freed from the law. Such men, then, whom no punishment has compelled, if they will not (withdraw) from idols, ought to be rejected.

On the seed of the weeds. Those who stand mixed in the church from the seed of the weeds are separated from the crop when the times of the harvest are fulfilled. The weed has sprung up which the lord (of the field) had not sown; the farmer gathers it all and separates it. The law is our field: whoever does good in it, to us the Ruler himself surely grants true rest; but the weed is burned with fire. If, then, you thought that because you live under one roof you were safe, you are wrong: I declare you barren Christians. The fig tree without fruit was cursed at the Lord's word, and at once it withered. You do no works, you prepare no gift for the treasury: and do you, empty ones, think you deserve the Lord in this way?

To the dissembler. You pretend not to know the law, brought with such proclamation, crying out as though present with a trumpet and a heavenly voice. If only (one) prophet had declared it to the world, the Lord's voice through him would surely have been enough for me. In so many volumes of the prophets the Lord's voice proclaims it; yet no one puts away malice from a fair heart. You want to see good things, and you seek to live by fraud. Why, then, did the law itself come forth with such labor? You abuse the Lord's commands and call yourself a son; if that is what you are, you trust without cause, I say. The Almighty seeks gentle sons for himself, upright, good of heart, devoted to the divine law; but you know already where he has plunged the ungentle.

Worldly things are to be shunned altogether. Some teachers, while they wait for your gifts or fear persons, relax every rule for you; I do not teach so, but I am compelled to speak the truth. With the crowd of the Evil One you go to the empty shows, where the pomp is prepared by Satan amid the din. You persuade yourself that whatever pleases you is allowed. The offspring of the Most High mixed with the sons of the devil! Do you now want to look back to the former things which you renounced? You are busy with them again: what good will the One do you? Or if what you foolishly profane was given for sickness … “Do not love the world or its display”: so great is God's voice, and it seems a light thing to you. You keep a man's command and avoid God's; you trust in the gift with which teachers stop their mouths, so that they are silent and do not tell you the divine commands. Since you are held by my telling the truth, look to the Most High: you were his son; hand yourself over to him, foul as you are. If, a man of faith, you seek to live like a Gentile, the joys of the world remove you from the grace of Christ; undisciplined, you presume that whatever you like is allowed, and you seek the choruses of the theater and musical songs, and you do not care that your children run wild with such license. While you think you are enjoying life, you go astray, not looking ahead. The Most High commands, and you avoid his just precepts.

What a Christian should be. Since the Lord says that bread is to be eaten in groaning, why do you now act this way here, wanting to live merrily? You seek to overturn the sentence handed down by the Most High; see in the first-formed man the bridle of the law going forth. If God almighty commanded us to live by the sweat of the brow, you who make merry are therefore now a stranger to him. Scripture says the Lord was angry with the Jews: “Refreshed with food, the sons rose up to play.” Why, then, do we now follow those who went astray of their own accord? From the thing by which they perished we must take care. The greater part of you appears given over to luxuries. You transgress the law when you put yourself among the musicians. The apostle cries out, or (rather) God cries out through him: “Your license,” he says, “ruins you in it.” Be, then, such as Christ wants you to be: gentle and cheerful in him, but sad to the world. Run out, toil, sweat, fight with sadness; hope comes with toil, and, once you are given the palm of victory — if you want to refresh your soul, go to the martyrs! Wait for the rest of the things to come through the passage of death.

To the matrons of the church of the living God. You want to be a Christian matron while learning from the world: you surround yourself with gold or silk clothing, modest woman; you send the terror of the law out of your ears to the wind; you strive after vain things, all of them from the devil's pomp; you arrange at the mirror the curls turned back from your forehead; you also put false cosmetics on your cheeks and antimony on your pure eyes, a perverse beauty; or you dye your hair so that it is black at all times. God is an inspector who pierces every heart. Besides, these things are not necessary for the modest. Pierce your breast with a chaste and modest mind; the law of God testifies that such women depart from the law. Let it be enough for a woman who believes from the heart to be approved by her husband, not for her adornments but for a good mind. Put on the clothes you ought to, to keep off cold or too much sun, only so that you may be approved as modest; and show among God's people the gifts of your means. Tabitha, once most famous, gives you an example: lying lifeless, she was raised by the prayers of the widows. She deserved to be raised by her giving, not by her adornments. You good matrons, flee the beauty of vanity: the attire of the brothel suits (unchaste) women. Conquer the evil one, you modest women of Christ; show all your riches in giving.

Again to them. Hear the voice, you who want to remain a Christian woman: how the blessed Paul commanded women to pray. And Isaiah, the heaven-speaking teacher and author, detests those who follow the love of the world: “The daughters of Zion,” he says, “were exalted and have fallen.” It is not right before God for a faithful Christian woman to be adorned. Do you seek to approach God's holy things in the Gentile manner? The heralds of God, crying out in the law, condemn such women, saying that women who adorn themselves this way are unrighteous. You dye your hair, you smear your eyes with black, you curve your little locks, painted step by step on your forehead; you doctor your cheek with a coat of red; earrings hang of heavy weight; you bury your neck in pearls, gems, and gold; you bind hands worthy of God with evil omens. Why should I mention your clothes, or the whole pomp of the devil? You reject the law; you would rather please the world; you dance in houses and sing love songs instead of psalms. Though you may be chaste, you are not cleansed while following the wrong way: therefore Christ ranks such women with the Gentiles. The holy woman of God shows her riches in her heart. Serve Christ with a hymn-singing choir, pleasing to him; eager for his favor, offer Christ a sweet fragrance.