Letters 4.173–4.202

To Elias the deacon. [On "He will order his words with judgment."] One must not count as men, most wise friend, those who praise to please and blame out of hatred, but those who both love and rebuke with judgment. That is why the Psalmist, proclaiming the righteous man, added this to his other advantages: "He will order his words with judgment." For nothing equals sound judgment. Those who lack it, following their own desires, flattering those who ought to be rebuked and reviling those who deserve praise, are the most servile of men, or rather would rightly be reduced to the nature of irrational beasts.

To Maron the bishop. [On the saying, "Behold, the fear of God is wisdom."] So, it seems to me, the celebrated Job, defining wisdom and knowledge, said, "Behold, the fear of God is wisdom, and to keep from evil is knowledge." For truly the highest wisdom is a right understanding of God, and the most divine knowledge is excellent conduct: the one thinks rightly of God, the other keeps from evil; the one speaks of God through realities, the other wins approval through actions. If, then, the one dear to God is both a lover of God and a man of knowledge, and has both the contemplative virtue and the practical, the one as soul and the other as body, why do we think we are philosophizing about things that are superfluous, neglecting the best way of life and caring only for eloquence? [Another letter.] [On "To him who strikes you on the right cheek."] If being struck and wronged were defeat, wise friend, Christ and Paul would not have said the opposite. For the Master decreed that we should also offer the other cheek to him who strikes the right one; and the Apostle exhorted, "Why not rather be wronged?" New is this law of wrestling, since newer is the kind of prizes: not the olive wreath, or meals in the town hall, or bronze statues gleaming with gold (those are pitiful and cheap prizes), but the kingdom of heaven and a life that knows no end. So do not think, if you give way and show philosophy, that you are defeated; but pursue the victory that lies in apparent defeat. If you wonder at what I say, I shall make it clear by an example. A certain king, it is said, who was about to fight a sea battle against his enemies, seeing that the enemy's ships were far more numerous, withdrew before them as they advanced and said, "I am not fleeing, but pursuing the advantage that lies behind me." If, then, here too advantage and victory lie in apparent defeat and withdrawal, let us not close with those who strike or wrong us, but give way to them. For this is the law of the heavenly contests.

To Eulogius. Moses, the revealer of sacred things, did not write a history merely able to entertain; but since he was going to give laws, he set first the Creator and Judge of all and the creation of the world, so that people should not give worship to the parts of the world; then, after adding the rewards of the holy and the punishments of sinners, he went on to legislate, so that, having confirmed from what had happened what is to come, he might urge those under him to piety and justice.

To Philitrius. [On "You ought to have put the money."] It is so far from shameful for one who does and says what is best to be unable to persuade, that the Judge himself gave his verdict and said to the one who had contributed nothing to the salvation of his neighbours, "You ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received it back"; that is to say, "You ought to have borne witness; you ought to have shown an irreproachable life." For to bring the achievement to completion clearly belongs not to the speaker but to the hearer, as the incorruptible verdict of Christ has shown.

To Dorotheus the scholasticus. [Encomium of Abraham, on the sacrifice of Isaac.] You can name no trophy more splendid, I say, or even equal to the one the patriarch Abraham set up; for he raised it not against tyrants but against nature, the most tyrannical of all. All his thoughts, armed not with spears but with natural affection, were wounding him, yet he remained unwounded; and one could see nature itself thrown to the ground with its arms and its armies, while he stood and raised his hand, holding not a crown but a knife brighter than any crown. That is why all his thoughts, cowering before the man's resolve, stood subject to him, trembling more than bodyguards before a king; for with a grim look he checked them all. And the host of angels applauded from above, and God proclaimed him. If you want to see that this is true, you can see it from affairs outside. If, when an athlete has won, not a herald standing below but the king himself, sitting above, should rise and proclaim the Olympic victor, would this not seem to him more splendid than his crowns? That is clear to all. When, then, not a mortal king but the Eternal himself proclaims him, not in a human theatre only but in one of angels, archangels, and the powers above, crying from heaven with a splendid voice, does this not surpass every limit of splendour? I would certainly affirm it. So if we too wish to be proclaimed and crowned, let us dedicate ourselves, and let no mortal or worldly passion dance within us; but let us bid farewell to everything, and both say and do what is worthy of heaven.

To Nilus. [On the Lord's saying, "Look to me."] No one, I think, has been so outraged as the King of heaven, when he came here, was outraged by those he came to save; he was not even preferred to a robber and murderer, but was even struck. And even if someone else has suffered similar things (let it be granted), the fact that the sufferers do not start from equal rank shows again that the sufferings are unequal. For it is not the same to outrage a king and a private citizen, a master and a slave; but what is done against a king, even if it is small, is judged great because of the dignity of the one who suffers it, while what is done against a private citizen, even if it is very great, cuts anger short and often looks toward pardon. I said this because you wrote asking what Christ's saying, "Look to me," means. What he says is, in brief, this. Since the Jews, who dared everything, raged and staged a tragedy that was dared against God but touched the flesh (for the divine is, properly speaking, impassible), and those who would be outraged afterwards would perhaps be indignant, as having fallen into such sufferings beneath their dignity, he said, "Look to me." "Above all," he says, "what the accursed Jews dared was unbearable; but let it be granted that it was bearable: what would one say about the traitor, who, glutted with my forbearance, turned his satiety against me?" Soothe and tame insults with these charms; for they yield easily to those who chant them.

To Theodosius the presbyter. [Why Christ, going to the cross, rebuked the women who were lamenting.] One should not lament a noble athlete who has gone down into the contest, covered in dust and taking blows; for his labours end in crowns. Nor should one bewail a champion who goes out to war and is about to endure wounds and slaughter; for he will return victorious and receive monuments and proclamations. But one should lament those who run to robbery and murder, above all when they do evil, and then too when they are punished. How then could you seek to learn why Christ, when he went to the cross as a victor, not only did not accept the lamenting women but even rebuked them? Clearly, to one who suffers unwillingly, sympathy is a consolation; but to one who suffers willingly, it brings insult. For sympathy is an insult to one for whom the suffering is not against his will. Since, then, he was going willingly to the passion, to extinguish death and to hamstring the devil, while they were lamenting one who deserved acclaim and applause, he, as some think, cursed them; but, as the truth is, he foretold the evils that were going to befall them. For it is not right to lament the one who routed sin and was hastening to put death to death and to bind the devil, but rather those who were caught by all these …

To Hierax the presbyter. [On "Do not give what is holy to the dogs," and what follows.] Truly admirable is the divine oracle which you urged me to interpret. "Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor throw your pearls before the swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you" brings forth some such sense as this. Since the divine word is holy and truly a most precious pearl, and the dogs and swine are those who stumble not only in doctrines but also in actions, the trampling is the strife and wrangling about these things, as some try to overturn the rightness of doctrines and others outrage the best way of life; and the tearing of those who champion the divine word and give the best counsel is the contempt and dishonour they meet from those who do not live rightly. That is why he said: "Do not throw the word about as something cheap and easily come by, lest it be abused and you be mocked by those who neither say nor do anything rightly." Some say, not off the mark, that he also forbids the priesthood to be given to the licentious and impure, lest they outrage it too and turn on those who ordained them, tearing apart the venerable reputation they had before. Consider too whether he forbids the divine mysteries to be given to lay people who sin. And consider whether he forbids divine baptism to be given to those who pretend to come to the faith but do not give up their present practices. [Another letter.] To Isidore the deacon. [From the Psalter. On the titles of the Psalms.] When the composer himself sang, the title was, "A psalm; a song of David." When he himself sang but another composed, or the song was sung by others about him, or referred to Christ, his descendant according to the flesh, the title was, "A psalm of David." For not all who composed songs sang them, nor did all who sang compose them; some did the one, some the other, and some did both, the divine Spirit assigning to each what was fitting.

To Paul the deacon. [On divine operation: that "How?" should have no place.] When divine power is at work, let "How?" have no place. For even though many things beyond nature and the sequence of reasoning have happened and do happen, nothing is beyond God, who easily brings about even what is beyond hope.

To Martianus, Zosimus, and Maron. [Third Kingdoms. That a lawbreaker will not escape justice, as Joab did not.] That a lawbreaker will not escape justice, but that it will be kept for him either here or there, and that many have been punished both here and there, is suggested not only by our reasoning but also by the divine oracles. I shall pass over the many and recall one who seemed to have contrived by a certain cleverness and villainy to escape justice, and could not. Joab, David's general, distinguished in generalship, in strength, and with the spear, who killed his fellow generals through envy and deceit, did not in the end escape justice. Thinking to ward it off by some art and method, he did not turn away from Adonijah, who was making himself king, but helped to raise him up, expecting not only to escape punishment for the murders he had committed, if he won the favour of the future king in advance, but even to receive gratitude. But for this very reason he was punished the more. For the very thing he feared would happen, and to prevent which he worked with the usurper, his contrivance brought upon him; by the means through which he thought to escape David's curses, he brought them into effect; his sophism became a snare; what he fled from suffering, he suffered in fleeing; and what was meant to avert pain was found to produce calamity. If, then, it is not possible to run away from justice, how do you, who are armed in soul with every cruelty and savagery, think to escape by deceits, devices, and generalship the punishments for the wrongs you have done?

To Peter the scholasticus. [On "Forgive, and you will be forgiven."] That you would have given to those in need if you had had money, I know well; but that you resent being asked for pardon, I wonder at. Yet this help that costs nothing usually benefits us no less than the costly kind. For our salvation is at risk in our reasonableness, and in our refusing to pardon those who sin against us. "Forgive, and you will be forgiven," cries the divine oracle.

To Olympiodorus. Where there is order, there must be one who orders; where cavalry is drawn up, a cavalry commander; where there is a ship, its builder is evident; and where there are musical instruments, so is the musician. So from the world too one must perceive the Invisible One with reasonings, not with eyes; with the mind, not with sight.

To Isaiah the soldier. [That those who provoke God after grace will pay a greater penalty than those who sinned of old.] It is truly among the shameful things, or rather the most shameful, that we not only put to death the natural seeds of virtue, which the ancients cultivated more reasonably, but also betray the help, beyond all words, that came to us through Christ's coming.

To Lucius, archdeacon of Pelusium. [On those sick with love of money.] The deacons of the venerable altar are the bishop's eyes; and you, who by God's permission rule over them, ought to be all eye, like the many-eyed living creatures, since you imitate them in nearness to God, not in your life, as I learn, but only in your ministry. You ought not to darken that honoured company and choir with base practices, and the bishop who trusts you without discernment, nor to stain the divine sanctuary with greed and gather revenues for yourself from the price of ordinations. For the Lord scourged those who sold doves and drove them out of the temple. So that you may not be thrust out with them, stop getting rich in this way and preparing fuel for the fire to come.

To Apollonius the bishop. [How the Pharisees criticized the Saviour for eating with tax collectors and sinners.] The Pharisees criticized the Saviour for feasting with tax collectors and sinners, since the law distinguished between holy and profane, not knowing that Christ offered a grace of love for humankind beyond the judgment of the law. For the law cut off evil, but grace changed it; witnesses are Zacchaeus and Matthew, and all who fought back after their defeats. [Another letter.] [On "Blessed are you when they revile you," and what follows. (It should be known that these letters were found later.)] Christ the Master blessed those who, for his sake, hear things that can and cannot be spoken, if those who say them are caught lying. One must know, then, that both must be present in one who is to reach the highest blessedness: suffering for his sake, and that what is said be false. If one of these is missing, the other does not benefit so much; it benefits, but not so much. For if we suffer for his sake but hear the truth, we must blush; approved in one respect, we are convicted in the other. If not for his sake, but the charges are false, we shall receive the reward of endurance; yet we shall not attain the highest blessedness, which we would attain if both came together. [Another letter.] To Athanasius the presbyter. He who not only suffers the most grievous disease, vice I mean, but does not even wish to be freed from it, and besides that mourns over those who have been freed, is more wretched and pitiable than anyone, even if through incurable negligence he calls himself blessed.

To Theodosius the scholasticus. [On "Marriage is honourable."] Let honourable marriage have its own praises, since it was given by God and is honoured by men; but let it not compete with virginity, but stay within its own bounds. For even if, wishing to adorn and dignify it beyond what is fitting, you said that heaven consorts with earth through the rains, that the sun gives light to the moon, that rivers mingle with the sea, and that all the kinds of land creatures, birds, and sea creatures, governed by it, are preserved by succession, yet it is defeated when compared with the way of life of the angels, for whom the need of marriage is superfluous and holds no attraction. We could show that many kinds even on earth are born without intercourse; but I will not do this. Rather, I define marriage as useful and necessary, if it looks to the begetting of children and not to licentiousness. But I would rather say this: that it could not rightly be compared with heavenly rank. Let marriage pride itself on worldly examples; let it not lay claim to superiorities above the world. Those who embrace it are, and are called, people of the world; but the genuine lovers of virginity have been enrolled in the ranks of the angels, drawn up in order. For the mystical Song says that awe belongs to them as to ranks drawn up for battle. Among them nothing is disorderly or uneven; all is adorned with order, rhythm, and harmony. Just as heaven differs from earth and the soul from the body, so virginity differs from marriage. By purity a man becomes like the angels; by marriage he differs in nothing from the beasts, for which intercourse is necessary, and by which the succession of the race seems to be contrived.

To Nilus. [On the woman who put in the two lepta.] In the affairs of this life, ability does not always follow the will, for great deeds exceed private means; but in spiritual matters ability follows the will. For what is achieved according to one's ability is shown to reach to heaven. So a widow who put two lepta into the sacred treasury is celebrated as having surpassed all kings and all queens; for the Judge did not judge what was put in, but crowned her intention, which dedicated her whole substance. [Letter 4.192] [On "Claiming to be wise, they became fools."] From the story they tell of a certain musician (for it is right to defeat them from their own nonsense), who set every melody in motion for the hunt but did not prevail over a chaste girl, from this the account they give of music is also refuted. Music charms (θέλγει), perhaps, that is (for one must also give the etymology) it leads the willing (θέλοντα ἄγει); it does not enslave the mind or force it, nor has it such strength as to overpower one who is unwilling. And since they also talk nonsense about birth-stars, as you say, say to them: "How did the one whom you call most prophetic, to whom you even falsely give the name of the sun, not know that the girl was chaste and would not be caught by pleasure? Whether from his prophecy, or from being wise and the most powerful of those who, as you say, bring these things about or signify them, he ought to have known. And if he was caught in misfortune through ignorance on every count, stop refuting yourselves, most clever men, by what you say." [Another letter.] To Timothy the reader. [That it is grievous if the passions of the body master us.] From the contests you pursue, admirable friend, be persuaded that the present life is set before us as an invisible arena, in which we wrestle not with beasts that the senses perceive but with passions that the mind perceives; and if these master our strength, they do not stop the danger at the body, but bring death to the soul itself. But if they are mastered or run away, we shall obtain crowns and great proclamations, often here, but certainly afterwards, since the age to come is entrusted with the prizes as this one is with the arenas. [Another letter.] To Daniel. [On wisdom, injustice, and insult: a citation, "If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness about the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike me?"] It is possible, admirable friend, not to be insulted when others insult, and not to be wronged when they do wrong. If this seems a riddle to you, I shall try to solve it quickly. One who practises philosophy and bears gently the insults and wrongs of his enemies is neither insulted by those who insult him nor wronged by those who do him wrong. But, to tell the truth, it is they who are wronged and insulted, since they are condemned and decried by people. The one who rises above insult and injustice will be crowned here with praises from all, having mastered not only his enemy but also his anger, and there he will receive the greatest rewards from God. If you say that bearing insult takes much sweat and toil, I would not deny it myself; but I would say this: the greatest labours give birth to crowns. And if you want to soothe the inflammation of your soul with a fitting example, think of this: when that foul hand struck that sacred face, he uttered words higher than philosophy: "If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness about the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike me?" And never stop healing your soul with this charm. [Another letter.] [On the Cappadocians.] I greatly wonder at your fickleness, that a slight and contemptible breath from the Cappadocian has so shaken you all like straw, and that you serve his impious contrivances for fear of suffering the same as those who have already suffered. If, then, you have resolved to stop when he stops and move off with him, you are right to plunder your homeland. But if he will stop and depart, while you will remain where you were born, keep away from what is hostile to it and hold fast to what is your own.

To Domitius the deacon. I once read a Persian history which contained something like this: that their boys learned neither to say nor to hear anything false; not to think the advantageous just, but the just advantageous; and that giving is more profitable than receiving. When they were about to be enrolled among the men, they swore an oath of very few words but of the greatest force, beyond all the philosophies of the Greeks. Each one swore: "I will despise all wicked gain; I will despise the pleasure of the body; I will despise empty glory; I will strive for virtue, and honour the divine and my parents, speaking the truth and doing good; and I will not transgress any of these knowingly or willingly." If, then, unable to bear the brightness of the divine Scriptures, as those with diseased eyes cannot bear the sun, you neither read them yourself nor allow your sons to, at least accustom yourself and your children to keep these words in memory. For I believe they will move you to read the divine words as well. [Letter 4.198] Here, my good friend, the two cannot go together, I mean the intensity of punishments and their duration. For the one wars against the other, because the nature of the body, being corruptible, cannot bear their combination. But there, when incorruption has forced its way in and banished corruption, this battle will be brought to an end, so that the excess of the torments will neither drive the soul from the body nor send the body into non-existence.

To Ophelius the grammarian. [Why Moses sent those who returned from war outside the camp to be purified.] If, among killings, those that happen in other ways are impure, but the defilement is absent from wars, why, you asked, did Moses send those who returned from war outside the camp to be purified? I say, then, that even if the slaughter of enemies in war seems lawful, and monuments to the victors are raised proclaiming their achievements, yet, when the close kinship of all people is examined, not even these killings are guiltless; that is why he commanded them to use purifications and sprinklings.

To Hermias. [On the resurrection.] If the soul alone had achieved virtue, let it alone be crowned. But if the body too shared in the contests, let it be crowned with the soul. For this is just, reasonable, fitting, and most proper.

To Alphius. The most divine Son and Word of the Father, the Creator of all, eternal and ineffable, coming here, interpreted the obscurity of the preaching by his own power; that is why the prophetic oracle foretold that all would be taught by God. So all who are not without mind and sense, being instructed by the highest wisdom, leave all human things behind, go higher than reasoning, and contemplate things above the world. [Letter 4.203] To Leontius the bishop. [On "His name endures before the sun."] The divine and pure Mind, whenever it wished to foretell something of the future, did not simply cast out a prophecy (for the uneducated Jews, who were uneducated even toward very clear things, would have laughed broadly), but mixed knowledge of the future with the present, and so dignified the prophecy, so that those who heard it then might enjoy some benefit, and those afterwards might learn its precise meaning from the outcome of events. And so as not to seem long-winded by going round all the prophecies, I shall set out one mode of prophecy and through it make the rest clear to the more intelligent. A psalm is written for Solomon, of which a few things look to Solomon, but most, and the greatest, to Christ. The obvious sense seemed to sing of Solomon; the purer and sharper-sighted sense, of the one who is truly peaceful; and it was both the greatest consolation to those living then and the best consolation to those to come. For "Before the sun his name endures, and before the moon for generations of generations," and all the other supernatural and God-befitting things, greater not only than any human but even than the powers above, were sung of Christ. But "And they shall pray for him continually" was said of Solomon. So let us not think that the pure Wisdom foretold knowledge of the future through the prophets in a simple way, but that it mixed the future with the present. And when we hear something lowly and foreign to the Saviour's divine coming, let us not think that it was said of him at all costs; nor let us think that the magnificent things, which befit the divine dignity alone, were said of Solomon, whose end was not even blameless. Let us not force the prophecies, nor fall into charlatans' story-making for the sake of smoothing out the prophetic passages; but let us understand with intelligence what is said according to history, and take what is prophesied according to contemplation, neither forcing what is clearly historical into contemplation, nor dragging down into history what ought to be splendidly contemplated, but fitting to both a suitable and appropriate sense. And if a prophecy is found that keeps the history fittingly and the contemplation without forcing, it should be used in both ways.