Barlaam and Ioasaph 1 part 11/18

'And who,' he said, 'is the cause of these evils for me, but I myself, who have been so disposed toward you and have done for you such things as none of the fathers has ever done? Therefore the crookedness and contentiousness of your mind, having gained power added to authority, has made you rage against my head'

'Justly, then, at your birth the astrologers said you would turn out a dire and utterly wicked man, boastful and disobedient to your parents'

'But now, if you nullify my counsel and depart from your sonship to me, being disposed toward me as an enemy, I will do to you such things as no one has shown even to enemies'

He answered again, 'Why, O king, have you been kindled to anger? Are you grieved that I have been deemed worthy of such goods? And what father was ever seen to be vexed at his son's good fortune? Or how could such a one be reckoned a father, and not an enemy? Therefore I too will no longer call you my father henceforth;'

'but I will withdraw from you, as one flees from a serpent, if I know that you begrudge my salvation, and instead thrust me by violent hand toward destruction'

'For if you should wish to use force and tyranny against me, just as indeed you have said, you will gain nothing else, be well assured, except to be called, instead of father, a tyrant and murderer only;'

'since it would be easier for you to overtake the eagle's tracks and fly through the very air, than to change my faith in Christ, and the good confession which I have confessed to him'

'But understand, O father, and, shaking off the rheum and mist from the eyes of your mind, look up to see the light of my God shining upon all, and be yourself too at last illumined by this sweetest light'

'For why have you altogether given yourself over to the passions and desires of the flesh, and there is no turning back? Know that all flesh is grass, and all glory of man is as the flower of grass;'

'the grass has withered and its flower has fallen, but the word of my Lord, which has been preached as good news to all, will remain forever'

'Why then do you so madly cling to and hold fast a glory that withers and vanishes like spring flowers, and to loathsome and foul-smelling luxury, and to the most defiled passions of the belly and beneath the belly, which for a time sweeten the senses of the senseless, but afterward produce more bitter belchings of bile, when these shadows and dreams of this vain life shall have passed away, and their lovers, and the workers of lawlessness, shall be shut up in the continual pain of unquenchable and dark fire, where the sleepless worm devours them unendingly, and the fire burns them unceasing and unquenchable for boundless ages? Among whom, alas, being yourself also shut up and grievously tormented, you will greatly repent of your dire counsels, and greatly seek after these present days, and remember my words;'

'but there will be no benefit from repentance'

'for in Hades there is no confession and no repentance;'

'but the present time has been appointed for labor, and the time to come for recompense'

'For if the present pleasures were not subject to vanishing and to flux, but were to endure forever together with their masters, not even so ought these to be preferred to the gifts of Christ and the goods beyond conception;'

'for in the measure that the sun is brighter and more radiant than deep night, by so much and far more are the promised goods for those who love God more glorious and magnificent than every earthly kingdom and glory, and it was altogether necessary to prefer the greater to the meaner'

'But since all things here are fluid and subject to corruption, and pass away and vanish like a dream and a shadow and a vision in sleep, and it is more possible to trust in breezes that do not stand still, and in the wake of a ship sailing the sea, than in the prosperity of men, what great simplicity — or rather, to speak more truly, folly and madness — it is to prefer the corruptible and perishable, weak and worthless things, to the incorruptible and eternal, unspoiled and unending, and by the temporary enjoyment of these to be deprived of the unceasing enjoyment of those goods! Will you not understand these things, O father? Will you not run past the things that run past, and attach yourself to the things that remain? Will you not prefer dwelling to sojourning, light to darkness, the spirit to the flesh, eternal life to the shadow of death, the things that are not dissolved to the things that flow away? Will you not escape the harsh slavery of the dire ruler of this world — the wicked devil, I mean — and become akin to the good and compassionate and all-merciful Master? Will you not, having departed from the worship of the many and falsely-named gods, serve the one true and living God? For even if you have sinned against him, having blasphemed much and destroyed his servants with terrible torments, yet he, the Good One, will receive you, I know well, if you turn to him, and will remember none of your offenses;'

'for he does not desire the death of the sinner, but rather that he should turn and live — he who came down from heights beyond description in search of us who had gone astray, and endured cross and scourges and death for our sake, and'

'with his precious blood bought us who had been sold under sin'

'to him be glory and praise forever'

The king, being seized at once with astonishment and anger — astonishment at the boy's understanding and his unanswerable words, anger that he never ceased to slander the gods and to mock and deride his whole way of life — did not receive the brightness of the discourse, because of the thickness of the darkness within him, and being unable, through natural affection, to punish him or treat him ill in any way, and having wholly despaired of changing his mind by threats, and fearing lest, by provoking more words from him while he spoke freely and derided and mocked the gods, he himself, kindled to greater rage, might do something against him of the things opposed to fatherly love — rising up in anger, he withdrew, saying, 'Would that you had never been born at all, nor come forth into the light, since you were destined to become such a one — a blasphemer against the gods and an apostate from paternal friendship and admonition'

'But you shall not mock the unconquered gods forever, nor shall the adversaries rejoice for long, nor shall their sorceries prevail'

'For unless you become obedient to me and well-disposed to the gods, having first delivered you to many and various torments, I will put you to a most cruel death, disposed toward you not as toward a son, but as toward some enemy and apostate'

When the father had thus threatened and withdrawn in anger, the son, entering his own bedchamber, and lifting his eyes to his own Judge of the contest, cried out from the depth of his heart, 'Lord my God, sweet hope and unfailing promise, the mighty refuge of those devoted to you, behold the contrition of my heart with a gracious and kindly eye, and do not forsake me, nor depart from me;'

'but, according to your unfailing promise, be with me, unworthy and lowly as I am;'

'for I know and confess you as maker and provider of all creation'

'do you yourself, then, strengthen me to remain in this good confession until my last breath;'

'look upon me and have mercy on me, and stand by, keeping me unharmed from all satanic activity;'

'for my soul is strongly set aflame with longing for you, and is inflamed as with thirst in the heat of a waterless place, yearning for you, the fountain of immortality'

'do not deliver to the beasts a soul that confesses you;'

'do not forget the soul of your poor one forever;'

'but grant me, sinner that I am, throughout my whole life, to suffer all things for your name and for your confession, and to sacrifice my whole self to you;'

'for when you give strength, even the weak shall prevail, for you alone are an unconquered ally and a merciful God, whom all creation blesses, glorified forever'

Having thus prayed, he perceived a divine consolation visiting his heart, and, filled with courage, he continued in prayer the whole night

The king, having conferred with his friend Arachēs about the affairs of his son, and having shown him the boy's abrupt frankness and unchangeable resolve, Arachēs devises a plan — to hold, above all, a friendly and gentle conversation with him, hoping perhaps by flatteries to draw him over

He comes, then, the next day to his son;

and sitting closer, he summoned him near

then, embracing him, he kissed him, gently and mildly coaxing him, saying, 'O most longed-for and beloved child, honor your father's gray hairs, and, having heard my entreaty, come forward and offer sacrifice to the gods'

'for thus you will have them well-disposed toward you, and length of days, and you will receive from them a share of all glory and unmolested kingship and all manner of good things, and to me, your father, you will be beloved throughout your whole life, and to all men honored and...'

'for it is a matter of great praise to obey one's father, and especially when it is for the good and out of goodwill toward the gods'

'But what, child, did you suppose? That I willingly turned aside from the good way and chose to go the opposite path, or that through ignorance and inexperience of the good I gave myself over to ruinous things? But if you think that I willingly prefer evils to what is advantageous, and prefer death before life, you seem to me, child, to have strayed very far from right judgment'

'Or do you not see with how much hardship and toil I often give myself up, in campaigns against enemies, or occupied with other duties of public administration, so as, when it was necessary, not to spare myself hunger and thirst, marching on foot and sleeping on the ground? And such is my disdain and contempt for wealth and money, that I have sometimes freely emptied all the treasuries of my palace to rebuild the greatest temples of the gods and to adorn them with every kind of splendor, or to distribute abundantly to the armies the treasures of money'

'Sharing then in such disdain for pleasures and such endurance in hardships, if I knew the religion of the Galileans to be better than the one at hand, how great a zeal would I not have judged the matter worthy — to despise all things and secure my own salvation? But if you condemn me for ignorance and inexperience of the good, understand how many sleepless nights I have often spent, when some question was set before me — sometimes even one not very necessary — allowing myself no rest at all, until I found a clear and most fitting solution to what was sought'

'If then I hold not even the smallest of these temporal matters to be lightly despised, until all things are accomplished profitably and to the advantage of all, and by no one else more accurately, as I think, is the investigation of hidden things searched out under the whole sky, as has been testified to me by all — how should I have reckoned divine things, and those which it is right to revere and speak of theologically, as things to be lightly despised, and not have occupied myself with every zeal, every power, with the whole soul and the whole mind, in the search for these, to find what is true and most fitting? And indeed I sought it laboriously, spending many nights equal to the days in these matters, and calling together many wise and learned men for this counsel, and conversing with many also of those called Christians'

'and by tireless inquiry and fervent search the way of truth was found by me, testified to by wise men honored for both eloquence and understanding, that there is no other faith except the one we walk in today, serving the greatest gods and holding fast to the sweet and pleasurable life, granted by them to all men — a life filled with the greatest delight and gladness — which the leaders and mystagogues of the Galileans have foolishly rejected, readily casting away also this sweet light and all the pleasant things which the gods have graciously given us for enjoyment, for the hope of some other unclear life, not knowing what they say or concerning what they make their assertions'

'But you, dearest son, obey your father, who through exact and most true inquiry has found what is truly good'

'For behold, it has been demonstrated that neither willingly, nor indeed through a manner of ignorance, did I miss the good, but I found it and embraced it;'

'and I long that you too should not err foolishly, but follow me'

'Reverence, then, your father'

'Or do you not know what a good thing it is to obey one's father and to gratify him in all things? As, conversely, it is ruinous and accursed to embitter one's father and to count his commands as nothing? For as many as have done this have perished evilly in evil ways;'

'among whom may you, child, not be numbered;'

'but, doing what is pleasing to the one who begot you, may you attain all good things, and become heir of my blessing and kingdom'

Now the high-minded and truly noble young man —

— having heard his father's redundant speech and foolish entreaty, and recognizing the crooked serpent's devices, how it had prepared a snare at his feet on the right hand, contriving to bend down his god-like soul and to hinder it from the prize set before it, set before his eyes the Master's command: 'I came not to bring peace,' he said, 'but war and a sword;'

'for I came to divide a son against his father, and a daughter against her mother,' and so forth

and, 'He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,' and, 'Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven'

Having reasoned thus, and having fettered his soul with divine fear, and strengthened it with longing and love, he took up, quite fittingly for the occasion, that Solomonic saying: 'There is,' it says, 'a time to love and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace'

And first, having prayed in his mind, he said, "Have mercy on me, Lord; O God, have mercy on me, for my soul has trusted in you, and in the shadow of your wings I will hope, until the iniquity passes by."

"I will cry out to God the Most High, to the God who has done good to me" — and the rest of the psalm.

Then he says to the king:

To serve one's father and yield to his commands, ministering with goodwill and affection, our common Master teaches us, having implanted in us such natural affection.

But when the relation and affection of parents brings danger upon the soul itself and puts it far from the Creator, we are commanded to cut this off entirely, and in no way to yield to those who separate us from God, but rather to hate them and turn away from them, even if it be a father who commands the detestable things, even a mother, even a king, even the lord of life itself.

For these reasons, to suffer the loss of God for the sake of paternal relationship is, for me, among the things impossible.

Therefore, do not trouble yourself, nor trouble me;

but rather be persuaded, and let us both serve the living and true God.

For the things which you now worship are idols, works of human hands, devoid of breath and dumb, procuring nothing at all for those who worship them except destruction alone and eternal punishment.

But if you do not wish this, do to me whatever seems good to you;

for I am a slave of Christ, and neither by flatteries nor by punishments will I be removed from his love, just as I told you the day before, invoking in the midst the name of my Master and confirming my word most securely.

But since you said that you neither willingly do evil, nor indeed err from the good through ignorance, but rather that through much laborious inquiry you came to know this — the worship of idols and being nailed to the pleasures of the passions — to be truly good, I cannot say that you do evil willingly.

But that a great mist of ignorance is poured about you, and that, walking as in palpable darkness, you do not see even the smallest glimmer of light at all, so that having lost the straight path you have wandered among cliffs and terrible ravines — this too I know for certain, and I wish you, father, to know it as well.

Therefore, holding darkness instead of light, and clinging to death as though to life, you think you have taken counsel advantageously and pondered profitably;

but these things are not so — they are not.

For neither are the things you worship gods, but rather images of demons, containing within them all their abominable activity;

nor does that life which you call sweet and pleasurable, and which you think is filled with delight and gladness, have such a nature; rather it is loathsome, according to the word of truth, and detestable.

For a season it sweetens and smooths the throat, but afterward it produces the belching of more bitter gall, as my teacher said, and it is sharper than a two-edged sword.

And how could I recount to you its evils? I would number them, and they would be multiplied beyond the sand.

For it is the hook of the devil, having the loathsome pleasure wrapped about it as bait, by which those...

...who are deceived by it, it drags down into the depths of Hades.

But the good things promised by my Master, which you called the hope of an uncertain life, are unlying and unchangeable; they know no end, they are not subject to corruption.

There is no word able to set forth the greatness of that glory and the power of its delight, the joy that is unspeakable, the gladness that is unceasing.

For we all, as you yourself see, die, and there is no man who shall live and not see death;

but we are all about to rise again, when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shall come in unspeakable glory and fearful power, he who alone is King of kings and Lord of lords, to whom every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth;

and he will then produce such astonishment that even the heavenly powers themselves will be struck with awe;

and there will stand before him in trembling a thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand angels and archangels, and everything will be filled with fear and trembling.

For one of the archangels will sound the trumpet of God, and immediately the heaven will be rolled up like a scroll, and the earth, being torn open, will send up the dead bodies of all men who have ever lived, from the first man Adam who came into being, until that day.

And then all who have died since the beginning of the ages, in the twinkling of an eye, will stand living before the judgment seat of the immortal Master, and each will give an account for what he has done.

Then the righteous will shine like the sun, those who believed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and who completed the present life in good works.

But how shall I describe to you the glory that is to succeed them then? For even if I compare their brightness and beauty to the light of the sun, or to the brightest lightning, I would say nothing worthy of that brightness.

For eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him, in the kingdom of heaven, in the unapproachable light, in the ineffable and endless glory.

And the righteous will obtain such good things, and such blessedness;

but those who denied the God who truly exists, and did not know the fashioner and creator, and served polluted demons, and gave worship to dumb idols, and desired the pleasures of this vain life, and wallowed like swine in the mire of the passions, and made their own souls a base of operations for every wickedness, will stand naked and exposed, ashamed and downcast, pitiable both in appearance and in fact, a reproach set before all creation;

and all their deeds — in word, in deed, in thought — will come before their face;

then, after that most grievous shame and that unbearable reproach, they will be condemned to the fire of Gehenna, unquenchable and lightless, to the outer darkness, the gnashing of teeth, and the venomous worm.

This is their portion, this is their lot, in which they shall abide for endless ages, being punished — because, having rejected the good things that were promised, they chose eternal punishment for the sake of a fleeting pleasure of sin.

For the sake of these things — that one might attain that unspeakable joy and enjoy that ineffable glory, and shine back in response to the angels, and stand with boldness before the good and sweetest Master, and escape those most bitter, endless punishments and that grievous shame — how much ought one not to give up, both possessions and bodies, or rather even the souls themselves? Who is so ignoble, who so senseless, as not to endure countless temporary deaths, that he might be delivered from the eternal and endless death, and inherit the blessed and imperishable life, and be illumined by the light of the blessed and life-originating Trinity?

Having heard these words, the king, and seeing the boy's firmness and unyieldingness, yielding neither to flatteries, nor to the persuasion of arguments, nor to threats of punishment, marveled at the persuasiveness of his speech and his irrefutable answers, but was reproved by his own conscience, which showed him that the boy spoke true and just things;

but he was dragged back by evil habit, and by the passions that had become fixed as habit within him, by which he was held as though by muzzle and bridle, not being permitted to look upon the light of truth.

Wherefore, moving every stone, as the saying goes, he held to his old purpose, wishing to bring into effect the scheme he had premeditated together with Arachēs.

And he says to the boy: "You ought, my child, to have yielded simply to all my commands in everything;

but since, being hard and disobedient, you have so strongly resisted me, insisting on making your own opinion more authoritative than all others, come now, let us both bid farewell to vain contention, and conduct ourselves by persuasion.

And since Barlaam, who deceived you, happens to be bound in iron chains with me, having convened a great assembly, and called together to the same place both our own people and the Galileans, and having proclaimed by heralds explicitly that none of the Christians should be afraid, but that all should come in without fear, let us deliberate together with a common mind.

And either, having persuaded us, you together with your Barlaam will obtain what you have been eager for;

or, being persuaded yourselves, you will be willing with a ready mind to yield to my commands.

But the young man, who was truly prudent and sensible, having been forewarned of the king's stratagem through the vision that had been revealed to him from God, said:

"Let the will of the Lord be done, and let it be as you have commanded;

for may the good God and Master himself grant that we not be led astray from the straight path;

for my soul has trusted in him, and he himself will have mercy on me."

Then, indeed then, the king commanded that all be gathered together, both idol-worshippers and Christians — letters having gone forth everywhere, and heralds crying throughout all the towns that none of the Christians should be afraid so as to suffer anything unexpected, but that all should fearlessly come together, each by company and kindred, to the same place, for a truth-loving and unforced inquiry, together with their leader and guide, who was to be Barlaam.

Likewise he also summoned together the initiates and temple-wardens of the idols, and the sages of the Chaldeans and Indians who were throughout all his dominion, and certain augurs, sorcerers, and diviners, so that they might prevail over the Christians.

And indeed there came together to the king a great multitude of his abominable religion;

but of the Christians only one was found who came to the aid of the man supposed to be Barlaam, by name Barachias.

For some of the faithful had already died, slaughtered by the madness of the rulers throughout the city;

and others were hiding in the mountains and caves, for fear of the terrors that threatened them;

and others feared the king's threat, and did not dare to bring themselves out into the light;

but they were worshippers by night, serving Christ in secret, and in no way making themselves known openly.

But he alone, being noble in soul, came forward into the joint struggle for the truth.

The king, therefore, having taken his seat upon a high and lofty tribunal, commanded his son to sit in council beside him;

but he, out of reverence and honor toward his father, not wishing to do this, sat on the ground near him.

There stood forth, then, the experts of that wisdom which God had made foolish, whose senseless heart was led astray, even as the Apostle says:

"Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of mortal men, four-footed beasts, and creeping things."

...the king's son and those around him — and there was fulfilled concerning them the saying of the proverb, that a gazelle joined battle against a lion.

For the one had made the Most High his refuge, and had hoped in the shadow of his wings;

but the others trusted in the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing, and in the ruler of the darkness of this world, to whom they had subjected themselves pitiably and wretchedly.

So then Nachor is brought forward, impersonating Barlaam;

and those around the king held to this same purpose;

but another, wise providence was arranging things differently from above.

For when all these were present, the king says to his orators and philosophers — or rather, to those who lead hearts astray and are senseless:

Behold, indeed, a contest lies before you, and the greatest of contests.

For one of two things will befall you:

either you will confirm our cause, and, having refuted Barlaam and those with him as being in error, you will obtain the greatest glory and honor from us and from the whole senate, and be crowned with crowns of victory;

or, being defeated, you will be put to death most miserably with all disgrace, and all your possessions will be given to the people, so that your memory may be utterly removed from the earth.

For I will give your bodies as prey to wild beasts, and I will enslave your children in perpetual servitude.

When the king had spoken these things, his son said:

"You have today judged a just judgment, O king;

may the Lord confirm this resolve of yours.

And I too say the same things to my teacher.

And turning, he says to Nachor, who was thought to be Barlaam:

"Do you know, O Barlaam, in what glory and luxury you found me?

And with a great many words you persuaded me to abandon my ancestral laws and customs, and to worship an unknown God, drawing my mind by promises of certain ineffable and eternal goods to follow your teachings and to embitter my own father and master? Now, then, consider yourself as standing upon a balance-scale.

For if, winning the contest set before you, you show that your teachings which you taught me are true, and refute as being in error those who oppose us today, you will be glorified as none who has ever lived, and will be called a herald of truth, and I will abide in your teaching and will worship Christ, even as you proclaimed, until my last breath;