Letters 1 part 27/32

For I judge the war waged by those of our own kind to be more grievous, because it is easy to guard against enemies who have been openly proclaimed, but against those mingled among us we are of necessity exposed, defenseless, to every harm;

For your fathers too were persecuted, but by idolaters;

and their livelihood was plundered, and their houses were overturned, and they themselves were driven into exile by those who openly warred against us because of the name of Christ.

But the persecutors who have now appeared hate us no less than those did, yet to deceive the majority they put forward the name of Christ, so that those who are persecuted may not even have the consolation that comes from confession — the many and more guileless people admitting that we are being wronged, yet not reckoning our death for the sake of the truth to be a martyrdom for us.

they had that too, and awaited the reward from God as well; but for us, even for equal achievements, honors from the peoples do not exist;

so that it is likely that the recompense for our labors on behalf of piety is laid up manifold in the age to come.

And whether bishops of the Churches have been driven out, let this not shake you;

or whether traitors have sprung up among the clergy themselves, do not let this either undermine your confidence toward God.

For it is not names that save us, but our moral choices, and the true love toward him who created us.

Remember that even in the conspiracy against our Lord, it was chief priests and scribes and elders who devised the deceit, while few of the people were found who genuinely received the word; and that it is not the multitude that is saved, but the elect of God.

Therefore, let the great crowds of the people never terrify you — those who, like the water of the sea, are driven about by the winds.

For even if only one is saved, as Lot was in Sodom, he ought to remain firm in right judgment, holding his hope in Christ unshaken, because the Lord will not forsake his holy ones.

Greet all the brotherhood in Christ on my behalf;

pray sincerely for my wretched soul.

For truly it is no small proof of love, first to remember us who are so small and worthy of nothing, and then also to send brothers to visit us who are fit to be bearers of letters of peace.

For there is no sight rarer than this nowadays, since all are now disposed suspiciously toward all.

For nowhere is there compassion, nowhere sympathy, nowhere a brotherly tear for a brother in distress.

Neither persecutions for the truth's sake, nor Churches groaning as one whole people, nor this long catalogue of hardships that surround us, can move us to care for one another.

Instead, we leap upon those who have fallen, we scratch open their wounds; we who seem to share the same conviction intensify the insults inflicted by the heretics, and those who agree on the most essential points are altogether at variance with one another over some one thing or other.

How then can we not marvel at one who, amid such circumstances, displays a pure and guileless love toward his neighbor, and who, across so great a sea and so great a stretch of land separating us bodily, bestows upon our souls all the care that is possible? I marveled also at this in you, that you received with sorrow the discord among the brothers at the Mount of Olives, and that you desire some reconciliation to come about between them.

And that not even the pretexts devised by certain persons, which produced disturbances among the brotherhood, escaped your notice, but you also took upon yourself concern about these matters — this too I welcomed.

But this I no longer considered worthy of your good sense, that you should entrust to us the correction of matters of such importance — to men neither led by the grace of God, because they live in sin, nor possessed of any power in words, because, while they have gladly withdrawn from vanities, they have not yet acquired the fitting habit in the doctrines of truth.

in reply to what was written to us by them: that we are able to add nothing to the faith set forth at Nicaea, not even the smallest thing, except the doxology to the Holy Spirit, because our Fathers made mention of this point only in passing;

since the question concerning this had not yet been raised at that time.

As for the doctrines woven in addition to that faith concerning the Incarnation of the Lord, we have neither examined nor accepted them, regarding them as too deep for our comprehension, knowing that once we disturb the simplicity of the faith, we shall find no end to our arguments, since controversy will always drive us further on, and we shall trouble the souls of the more guileless by the introduction of strange novelties.

As for the Church at Antioch (I mean, of course, the one that agrees in the same conviction), may the Lord one day grant us to see her united.

For she, above all, runs the risk of having borne the brunt of the enemy's schemes, since he bears her a grudge because it was there that the name 'Christians' was first established.

And the heresy is split off from orthodoxy, but orthodoxy itself is also split against itself.

As for us, since it was the most reverend bishop Meletius who was the first to speak boldly on behalf of the truth and to contend through that noble contest in the days of Constantius, my Church has held him in communion, having loved him exceedingly for that steadfast and unyielding constancy, and we hold him in communion to this day, by the grace of God, and we shall continue to do so, God willing.

Since also the most blessed Pope Athanasius, when he arrived from Alexandria, was very desirous that communion with him be established, but through the malice of certain counselors their union was deferred to another time;

But of those who have come forward most recently, we have not yet admitted any to communion — not judging them unworthy, but having as yet no grounds on which to pass judgment on this matter.

And yet we heard many things about the brothers, but we did not accept them, because the accused had not been confronted with their accusers, according to what is written: 'Does our law judge a man unless it first hears him and knows what he is doing?'

Therefore we are not yet able to write to them, most honored brother, nor ought we to be compelled to do so.

It would befit your peaceable purpose not to join one part while tearing apart another, but rather to bring what has been separated into the union already existing.

Therefore, first pray, and then also, as far as you are able, exhort them, casting ambition out of their souls, to come to agreement with one another, for the sake of restoring strength to the Church and bringing down the arrogance of her enemies.

That too greatly comforted my soul, namely, what your Accuracy added to the other points that were well and precisely stated in theological terms;

namely, that it is necessary to confess three hypostases.

Let the brothers at Antioch, therefore, also be taught this by you — though no doubt they have already been taught it.

For clearly you would not have chosen communion with them without first securing precisely this point above all in their case.

As for the nation of the Magusaeans (concerning whom you deigned to inform us in your other letter), they are numerous among us, scattered throughout almost the whole country, colonists having been brought in among us long ago from Babylonia.

They observe distinctive customs of their own, keeping themselves unmixed with other men;

and to reason with them, inasmuch as they have been taken captive by the devil to do his will, is altogether impossible.

For they have neither books nor teachers of doctrine among them, but are reared in an irrational custom, the child inheriting impiety from the father.

Now besides those things which are observed by everyone, they refuse animal sacrifice as a defilement, having the animals needed for use slaughtered by the hands of others;

they are mad after unlawful marriages, and they consider fire to be a god, and other such things.

...spun tales concerning the Magi, but they proclaim for themselves a certain Zarnuas as the founder of their race.

And I have always desired to become an arbiter of peace, but failing in this, I am indeed grieved;

For how could I not be? Yet I cannot bear enmity toward anyone on this account, knowing that the good of peace was taken away from us long ago.

But if the cause of the division lies with others, may the Lord grant that those who cause the dissensions may cease.

I do not, however, demand your continual presence among us.

Therefore do not make excuses to me on this account.

For I know that men who have chosen a life of toil, and who are always providing their necessities for themselves by the labor of their hands, cannot be away from their own affairs for a long time.

But wherever you may be, remember us and pray, that we ourselves at least may have peace among ourselves and toward God, with no disturbance dwelling in our thoughts.

TO OPTIMUS, BISHOP. Even otherwise I was glad to see these good young men, both because of the stability of character beyond their years and because of their close relation to your Reverence, from which indeed one may expect something great concerning them; but since I saw them coming to me bearing your letters, I doubled my affection for them.

When I read the letter and saw in it both the providential care of your disposition for the Churches, and also the diligence concerning the reading of the divine Scriptures, I gave thanks to the Lord and prayed for good things upon those who bring us such letters, and even before them, upon the very one who wrote to us.

You asked about that oft-repeated saying, bandied about by everyone everywhere, high and low: what solution it has — the text, "Whoever kills Cain shall pay a sevenfold penalty."

Then also you have roused us, though we are old men, already benumbed both by age and by bodily weakness and by the multitude of afflictions which, many as they now are, stirred up around us, have weighed down our life; yet, fervent in spirit, you have raised us, chilled as we are like hibernating animals, to a moderate wakefulness and vital activity.

Now the saying can be understood simply in this way, and can also admit of a more varied interpretation.

The simpler meaning, then, which can occur to anyone at first glance, is this: that Cain must pay a sevenfold penalty for the sins he committed.

For it is not the mark of a just judge to fix retributions equal to equal, but the one who first commits wrong must of necessity pay what is owed with an added increase, if he is to be made better by the punishments, and to make the rest more prudent by his example.

Therefore, since it has been ordained that Cain pay the penalty of his sins sevenfold, "whoever kills him," it says, "will discharge this sentence decreed against him by the divine judgment."

This is the meaning that occurs to us at once from the first reading.

Are the things sinned seven, or is the sin one, but the punishments upon that one thing seven? Now Scripture always limits the number of the forgiveness of sins to seven.

"How often," it says, "shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?" (It is Peter speaking to the Lord.) "Up to seven times?" Then comes the Lord's reply:

"I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."

For the Lord did not pass over to another number, but by multiplying the seven, he fixed within it the limit of forgiveness.

And after seven years the Hebrew was released from servitude.

And seven weeks of years constituted the celebrated jubilee among the ancients, in which the land kept sabbath, debts were cancelled, release from servitude was granted, and, as it were, a new life was established anew — the ancient order in a certain way receiving its consummation in the number of sevens.

The "seven times," then, is on account of the kinship with this world, since it is fitting that men who love the world should above all be penalized by the very things for the sake of which they chose to do evil.

As for "the things avenged" — whether you take it to mean the sins committed by Cain, you will find them to be seven;

or whether you take it to mean the penalties determined against him by the Judge, in that way too you will not miss the sense.

Among the offenses ventured by Cain, the first sin is envy, at the preference shown to Abel;

third, murder, an addition to the evil;

fourth, that it was also the murder of a brother — a greater aggravation;

fifth, that Cain was also the first murderer, leaving behind a wicked example for human life;

sixth, the wrong that he caused grief to his parents;

seventh, that he lied to God;

for when asked, "Where is Abel your brother?" he said:

Seven things, then, avenged, were discharged in the slaying of Cain.

For since the Lord said, "Cursed is the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood," and "groaning and trembling shall you be upon the earth," Cain said:

"If you drive me out today from the face of the earth, I shall also be hidden from your presence, and I shall be groaning and trembling upon the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me."

In response to this the Lord says:

"Whoever kills Cain shall pay a sevenfold penalty."

For since Cain supposed himself vulnerable to everyone, because he had no security from the earth (for the earth was cursed on his account) and had been bereft of help from God, God being angered with him for the murder, so that neither from earth nor from heaven was any assistance left to him —

he said, "It shall be that anyone who finds me will kill me."

The Word refutes his error, saying:

"Not so" — that is, you shall not be slain.

For death is a gain to those under punishment, bringing release from their sorrows.

But you shall be prolonged in life, so that the punishments may be meted out to you in proportion to what you have done wrong.

Now since "the thing avenged" is understood in two ways — both the sin for which the vengeance is exacted, and the manner of punishment through which the vengeance is exacted — let us see whether seven modes of torment were brought upon the evildoer.

The seven sins of Cain, then, the discourse has already enumerated above.

Now let us inquire whether the things brought upon him for punishment are also seven, and we say this: after the Lord's question —

when he had denied it, the Lord makes a swift refutation, saying:

"The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me."

So the question, "Where is Abel your brother?" gave him an occasion to become conscious of his sin; it was not meant to convey information to God.

For if he had not received a visitation from God, he would have had an excuse, as one abandoned and given no occasion for repentance —

a physician, so that the sick person may take refuge in him.

But he not only hides the wound, but also adds another evil to the murder, attaching to it a lie, saying:

"Am I my brother's keeper?" From this point, then, the text enumerates the punishments.

"Cursed is the ground because of you."

For a certain ineffable necessity was yoked to him, compelling him to the work of the earth, so that it was not possible for him to rest even when he wished, but he was continually forced to toil upon that hostile earth of his, which he had made accursed to himself by staining it with a brother's blood.

Life with those who hate you — to have a hostile companion dwelling with you, an unceasing enemy.

"You shall till the ground" — that is, straining yourself with labors of husbandry, you shall have no respite at any time, being relieved from your toils neither by night nor by day, but having, harsher than any bitter master, that ineffable necessity rousing you to labor.

"And it shall not continue to yield its strength to you."

And yet, even if the ceaselessness of the labor had some fruit, the toil itself would still be no small torment to one continually strained and wearied.

But since the affliction concerning the earth was both ceaseless and fruitless (for it did not yield its strength), this is the third punishment: the fruitlessness of his labors.

"Groaning and trembling shall you be upon the earth."

Unceasing groaning and trembling of body, the support of the limbs failing for lack of strength.

For since he made evil use of the strength of his body, his vigor was taken from him, so that he was shaken and convulsed, unable easily to bring bread to his mouth or to convey drink to it, since his wicked hand, after the unholy deed, was no longer permitted to serve even his own necessary bodily needs.

Another punishment, which Cain himself disclosed, saying:

"If you drive me out now from the earth, I shall also be hidden from your presence."

"If you drive me out from the earth" — that is, if you separate me from the benefit that comes from it.

For he was not being transferred to another place, but was being estranged from the good things upon it.

"And I shall be hidden from your presence."

The heaviest punishment, to those who are of sound mind, is separation from God.

"And it shall be," he says, "that anyone who finds me will kill me."

He conjectures this from what naturally follows the things said before.

"If I have been driven out from the earth, if I shall be hidden from your presence, it remains that I be killed by everyone."

What then does the Lord say? "Not so."

But he set a mark upon him.

This is the seventh punishment: that his punishment should not even be hidden, but that it should be publicly proclaimed to all by a manifest sign, that this is the perpetrator of unholy deeds.

For indeed, to one who reasons rightly, shame is the heaviest of punishments — the very thing we have also learned concerning the Judgment, that "these shall rise to eternal life, and those to eternal shame and reproach."

A related question follows upon this: the words spoken by Lamech to his wives:

"For I have slain a man for wounding me, and a young man for bruising me."

that vengeance shall be taken sevenfold for Cain, but seventy-sevenfold for Lamech

And some think that Cain was slain by Lamech, since he survived until that generation, in order that he might undergo a longer punishment.

"I have slain a man, and a young man;"

the man to my wounding, and the young man to my bruising

"Wound", then, is one thing, and "bruise" another.

And "man" is one thing, and "young man" another.

That vengeance was taken sevenfold for Cain, but seventy-sevenfold for Lamech.

I am liable to undergo four hundred and ninety punishments, if indeed God's judgment upon Cain was just, in that it made him pay sevenfold the penalty.

For he had not learned murder from another, and just so he had not seen a murderer undergo punishment.

But I, having before my eyes the one who groaned and trembled, and the greatness of the wrath of God, was not brought to my senses by the example.

Therefore I deserve to undergo four hundred and ninety punishments.

they have advanced such a statement, which is not out of harmony with the teaching of the Church:

that from Cain until the flood seven generations passed, and immediately punishment was brought upon all the earth, because sin had become greatly multiplied.

But the sin of Lamech does not need a flood for its healing, but rather him who takes away the sin of the world.

Count, then, the generations from Adam to the coming of Christ, and you will find, according to Luke's genealogy, that the Lord was born in the seventy-seventh succession.

These matters, then, have been examined to the extent possible, though many points that could have been examined were passed over, lest we should carry our discourse beyond the proper measure of a letter;

but for your understanding even these brief seeds suffice.

As for Simeon's words to Mary, they contain nothing intricate or profound.

For Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother:

"Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against,"

"yea, a sword shall pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." In these words I marveled at this: that, passing over the preceding words as though clear, you sought an explanation of this one alone, "and a sword shall pierce through your own soul also."

And yet to me it seems no less difficult how the same one is set both for a fall and a rising, and what the sign that is spoken against is, and thirdly, how a sword shall pierce through Mary's soul.

I hold, then, that the Lord is set for the fall and rising not of some falling and others rising, but of the worse part in us falling and the better part rising up.

For the Lord's manifestation is destructive of the passions of the body, but arousing of the proper qualities of the soul.

"When I am weak, then I am strong" — the same person is both weak and strong, but weak in the flesh, while strong in the spirit.

So too the Lord does not provide occasions of falling to some and of rising to others,

for those who fall clearly fall from the standing in which they once were.

But the unbeliever never stood, being always dragged along the ground with the serpent.

He has, then, no place from which to fall, because he has already been cast down by unbelief.

the one who stands in sin must fall and die, and then live to righteousness and rise, faith in Christ granting us each of these.

Let the worse things fall, that the better things may find occasion for their rising.

Unless fornication falls, chastity does not rise.

Unless irrationality is shattered, the rational faculty in us will not flourish.

Thus, then, "for the fall and rising of many."

And "for a sign that shall be spoken against."

We know that, properly speaking, in Scripture the "sign" is used of the cross.

"For Moses," it says, "set the serpent upon a sign," that is, upon a cross — a sign that indicates something paradoxical and unseen: seen with the eyes by them, but understood by those keen of mind.

Since, then, they do not cease wrangling about the Incarnation of the Lord — some maintaining that he assumed a body, others that his coming among us was bodiless; some that his body was capable of suffering, others that he fulfilled the economy through the body by a kind of appearance; some saying an earthly body, others a heavenly body; and some that his existence was before all ages, others that it took its beginning from Mary — for this reason it is said, "for a sign that shall be spoken against."

By "sword" he means the word that tests, that discerns the thoughts, that pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow.

Since, then, every soul at the time of the Passion was subjected, as it were, to a certain testing, according to the Lord's own word, when he said:

"All of you will be made to stumble because of me," Simeon prophesies also concerning Mary herself, that:

"after the ineffable knowledge of the divine conception, after the great display of miracles, there will come also upon your own soul a certain turmoil."

For it was necessary that the Lord should taste death for everyone, and, having become a propitiation for the world, should justify all in his own blood.

Therefore even upon you yourself, who had been taught from above the things concerning the Lord, a certain testing shall lay hold — that is, a sword.

"That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed" hints that, after the scandal that occurred at the cross of Christ, a swift healing will follow, both for the disciples and for Mary herself, from the Lord, confirming their heart in faith toward him.

For thus we have seen Peter too, after being made to stumble, hold fast more firmly to faith in Christ.

The frailty of what is human, then, was exposed, that the strength of the Lord might be shown.

TO THE PEOPLE OF SOZOPOLIS. I have read your letter, most honored brothers, which you sent concerning the matters that concern you.

And that you took us as partners in your concern for the care of matters necessary to you and worthy of earnest attention, we gave thanks to the Lord.

But we groaned when we heard that, in addition to the disturbance brought upon the Churches by the Arians and the confusion they have caused concerning the doctrine of the faith, yet another empty talk has appeared among you, throwing the brotherhood into great distress, as you wrote to us — of men introducing things new and unaccustomed to the ears of the faithful, as though, forsooth, from the teaching of the Scriptures.

You wrote that there are some among you who, so far as lies in them, are undoing the saving economy of our Lord Jesus Christ, setting at naught the grace of the great mystery — the mystery kept silent from the ages, but manifested in its own proper times, when the Lord, having gone through all the measures pertaining to the care of the human race, at last graciously granted us his own personal coming.

For he benefited his own creation, first, through the patriarchs, whose lives were set forth as examples and standards for those willing to follow in the footsteps of the saints, and by a like zeal to arrive at the perfection of good works.

Then he gave the Law as a help, ordaining it through angels by the hand of Moses;

then prophets foretelling the salvation that was to come, judges, kings, righteous men, working mighty deeds by a hidden hand.

After all these, in the last days, he himself was manifested in the flesh, "born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those under the law, that we might receive the adoption."

If, then, the Lord's coming in the flesh did not truly occur, the Redeemer did not pay on our behalf the ransom to death, nor did he, by himself, break the reign of death.

For if what was reigned over by death was one thing, and what was assumed by the Lord another, then death would not have ceased working its own effect, the sufferings of the God-bearing flesh would not have become our gain, he would not have put sin to death in the flesh, we who died in Adam would not have been made alive in Christ, that which had fallen would not have been remolded, that which was broken would not have been set upright, and that which was estranged through the deceit of the serpent would not have been reconciled to God.

For all these things are annulled by those who say that the Lord came having a heavenly body.

beginning with the vain-minded Valentinus, who, tearing a few words of the Apostle out of context, fashioned for himself an impious fabrication, saying that Christ took the "form of a servant" and not the servant himself, and saying that the Lord came to be "in the fashion" of a man, but that the man himself was not assumed by him.

It seems that they utter things akin to these;

and one must lament, along with these men, over the newer blasphemies being introduced among you.

To say that human passions passed over onto the Godhead itself is by no means the mark of those who preserve consistency of thought, nor of those who know that the passions of the flesh are one thing, those of ensouled flesh another, and those of the soul making use of a body yet another.

It is proper, then, to flesh to be cut, diminished, and dissolved; and again, to ensouled flesh, to grow weary, to feel pain, to hunger, to thirst, and to be overcome by sleep; while to the soul making use of a body belong griefs, distresses, cares, and all such things.

Of these, some are natural and necessary to the living being, while others are introduced by a depraved choice, because of an undisciplined life untrained toward virtue.

Whence it appears that the Lord accepted the natural passions in confirmation of a true incarnation, not one merely in appearance, but rejected the passions arising from vice — as many as defile the purity of our life — as unworthy of the undefiled Godhead.

So that he took our flesh together with its natural passions, but he committed no sin.

But just as the death that was transmitted to us in the flesh through Adam was swallowed up by the Godhead, so too sin was consumed by the righteousness that is in Christ Jesus, so that we might receive back our flesh at the resurrection, liable neither to death nor answerable to sin.

These, brothers, are the mysteries of the Church; these are the traditions of the Fathers.