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"Noe was five hundred years old when he had three sons, Shem, Cham and Japheth. Human beings began to be numerous on earth, and daughters were born to them."
HE [185] LEFTOVERS OF YESTERDAY'S MEAL I would like to put before you today—but don't get upset,
S| dearly beloved, at the mention of leftovers: while in the case of material viands after a day or two they frequently lose their freshness and are useless as nourishment; in the case of a spiritual meal there is no cause for anything like that. On the contrary, no matter how much time elapses, it gives all the more evidence of grace and is found to be fresher and more potent. So come now, let us put into effect the promise we made yesterday, discharge our debt of teaching and give evidence of gratitude. You see, the teaching proves to be of advantage not only to those who receive it, as in the case of debts, but also to me as I discharge my debt. Why do
I say, to me as I discharge my debt? The nature of this spiritual debt is such that the more it is discharged, the more it grows and brings about an increase in the remainder as well as untold wealth both for the debtor and for the creditors. Do you recognize the new kind of debt and the unusual form of payment? This is the way, you see, with spiritual things: they increase all the more with distribution, and the remainder grows in direct ratio to the number who share in it; the debtor feels no effect of his payment—instead, what he retains increases while the recipients find themselves also in better circumstances.
(2) So, since this is the nature of these spiritual goods, let us in our turn show all zeal and enthusiasm about payment i. Gen 5.325 Ol:
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while you ready your ears for receiving it so that with the recesses of your mind set at rest you may receive the words we Say, and in this way go off home. You see, I have in mind once again to bring to the fore the subject of Noe, of God's ineffable love and his longsuffering that surpasses all description. You learnt yesterday how right from his birth [186] this just man was given his name by his father and thus went about providing everyone of that period with a warning of their fate, as if he were shouting aloud and saying in his own words, Refrain from evil, turn to virtue, fear the impending punishment—a deluge will engulf the whole world without exception; the excess of God's anger is extreme, since extreme also is the swell of wickedness. He went on doing this not for a year or two or three, but he kept up this exhortation for five hundred years. Do you see the Lord's longsuffering?
Do you see the excess of his goodness? Do you see the intensity of wickedness? Do you see the degree of ingratitude?
(3) It was at this point, as you recall, that our instruction yesterday came to a close; so today we must discover how the loving Lord in fidelity to his own goodness did not stop short at five hundred years but demonstrated a further extension of his care for the people who had sinned in that way. "Noe was five hundred years old," the text says. Sacred Scripture gave us an indication of the significance of the good man's age so that we might learn how long a time he lived exhorting them and how they chose the way of evil and were consumed in it, whereas the good man took a path at variance with them all, displayed the highest degree of virtue and so won favor from God and, while all the others became liable to punishment, he escaped it along with his kin. From this we learn that, provided we remain on the alert and do not lose heart, we will not only come to no harm from dealing with evil people but will even be rendered more careful about virtue. You see, the reason why the loving God arranged things in such a way that everyone good and evil should be in the same situation was in order that the wickedness of the evil might be thwarted, the virtue of the good might shine more brightly, and the slothful might gain benefit from association with the
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zealous, if they so wished. Consider, after all, I ask you, the height of this man's virtue, how among such a multitude of people rushing into evil he alone took the opposite direction, placing greater value on virtue than on wickedness and not being made uncertain on the way of virtue by the unanimity of others or their great number; instead, he fulfilled in anticipation the statement due to be made by blessed Moses, that "'you will not join many in evildoing.'"?
(4) The strange and remarkable feature is that despite having so many people—everyone, in fact—urging him to evildoing and the practice of wickedness, and despite there being no one to encourage him to virtue, of his own accord he attained to such heights with such a degree of fervor as to proceed in a direction contrary to the vast multitude, without fear or regard for their evil concurrence and without entertaining any notions of the kind that the slothful do. When they see a lot of people displaying the same kind of unanimity, they make this a pretext and excuse for their own sloth in the words, Why should I, tell me, take it into my head to venture something out of step with all these people by differing from such a crowd? After all, surely I don't happen to be better than all these people, do I? What would I gain from opposition of that kind? What benefit would their hatred be to me? Noe had no idle ideas like that and gave them no thought; instead, once more he fulfilled in anticipation that statement of the inspired author, "Better one person doing the Lord's will than a lawless host." After all (he is saying), surely fellowship with this multitude and associating with it in its headlong career into evil will not suffice to deliver me from punishment? He was aware, you see, he was well aware that each of us will be held responsible for our own salvation, and that it is out of the question for someone else to undergo punishment on the sinner's behalf or to have the good for2. Exod 23.2.
3. Sir 16.3. Chrysostom's text of the LXX here corresponds to the expanded version written in the margin of Codex Sinaiticus by a corrector, according to Rahlfs—a matter of significance for those endeavoring to isolate
Chrysostom's LXX tradition.
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tune [187] to receive a reward. Consequently, just as a spark that happens to be burning in the middle of the sea not only is not extinguished but even gives out its light more brilliantly day by day, so the just man proved to be a teacher to everyone by means of his behavior.
(5) Do you see how the Lord created our nature to enjoy free will? I mean, how did it happen, tell me, that while those people showed enthusiasm for wickedness and rendered themselves liable to punishment, this man opted for virtue, shunned association with them and thus felt no effect of punishment?
Is it not crystal clear that each person chose wickedness or virtue of his own volition? You see, if that were not the case and independence did not have its roots in our nature, those people would not have been punished nor the others receive reward for their virtue. Since, however, everything has been allowed to remain with our choice owing to grace from on high, punishment duly awaits the sinners, and reward and recompense those who practice virtue. "Noe was five hundred years old when he had three sons, Shem, Cham and Japheth."
Notice the precision of Sacred Scripture: when it detailed to us the good man's age, it revealed the excess of the Lord's longsuffering out of a desire to make clear to us again the extremity of the Lord's tolerance and the strong drive of human beings' wickedness.
(6) Let us, however, listen to the very words coming from Moses: speaking under influence of the Spirit, he intends to teach us everything with precision. "Human beings began to be numerous on earth," the text says, "and daughters were born to them." It was not idly that he added the clause, "and daughters were born to them"; rather, its purpose was that we might get an indication of the great multitude. After all, when the mass of roots is as great as that, it follows there must be a great number of branches growing. "Now, when the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, they took wives for themselves from them all just as they were inclined."* Let us study each expression of this statefem GennG:2:
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ment closely so that nothing of what is hidden below the surface may pass us by. You see, there is need to make a careful study of this passage and confute the fanciful interpretations of those people whose every remark is made rashly—firstly, to repeat what they presume to say, and by demonstrating the absurdity of what is said by them to teach your good selves the true sense of Scripture so that you will not lend your ears idly to people uttering those blasphemies and presuming to speak in a way that brings their own persons into jeopardy. I mean, they claim that this remark is made not about human beings but about angels; these (they say) he called sons of God. Let them demonstrate firstly where angels are called sons of God; they would not, however, be able to show this anywhere. While human beings are called sons of God, angels are nowhere so called. On the contrary, it speaks about angels in these terms: "He makes the winds his angels, fire and flame his ministers,"> whereas about human beings, "I said,
You are [188] gods,"® and again, "Sons have I begotten and raised,"' and again, "Israel my firstborn son"*—but an angel is nowhere called son, or son of God. What in fact do they claim? To be sure, they really were angels, but because they fell into this lawless way, they lost their status.
(7) Furthermore, another interpretation even more fanciful: Is this not true, then—that they are now fallen, and that this is the cause of their fall? Scripture in fact teaches us differently, that before the creation of the firstformed human being the devil fell from that dignity and with him those whose pretensions outstripped their state, as a sage has also remarked, "Through the devil's envy death entered the world."®
I mean, tell me: if he had not fallen before the creation of the human being, how could he have envied the human being while retaining his former status? After all, what sense does it make for an angel to envy a human being, the incorporeal being enjoying such great dignity to envy a creature encumbered with a body? Since, however, he had fallen from heav5. Ps 104.4.
6. Ps 82.6.
7 sades 8. Exod 4.22. g. Wis 2.24.
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enly glory into utter disrepute, and though incorporeal himself he saw the newly created human being enjoying such great esteem despite its bodily condition through the love of the Creator, his burning rage led him into envy, and by means of the deceit he practiced through the serpent he caused the human being to be liable to punishment of death.
This, you see, is what wickedness is like; it cannot take kindly to the prosperity of others. So it is plain for all to see that in times past the devil and all his company fell from that condition of glory and were numbered among the disreputable.
Is it not a particular hallmark of folly to claim that angels descended to have intercourse with women, and that. incorporeal nature of theirs was reduced to-association with corporeal creatures? Or do you not hear the words of Christ about the being of angels, "At the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God"?!" After all, it is not for that kind of incorporeal creature to ever feel the onset of desire. In response to these people we have to reach the same conclusion, that to admit this notion into one's mind is the height of absurdity. I mean, if the saints and people granted the gift of the Holy Spirit were unable to have a vision of angels (the man of passion, after all, caught sight of an angel's presence, not his being— how could he see an incorporeal being?—but rather underwent a transformation and came close to losing his life in the process, this man of such calibre and such eminence almost falling unconscious on the ground),'! who could be so utterly deranged as to admit this blasphemous remark and the folly it betokens, that this incorporeal and intellectual creature could tolerate intercourse with bodily things?
(8) Lest, however, in raising these matters we ourselves largely seem to be wasting time to no purpose—come now, since we have convinced your good selves through these proofs how this objection has been proved groundless—let us
10. Matt 22.30 in one MS tradition.
11. Chrysostom is here referring to Dan 10 in the Greek version of Theodotion, which differs from the LXX in details such as the mention of Daniel as "man of passion."
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teach you the truth of the material by reading again the words of Sacred Scripture. "Human beings began to be numerous on the earth," the text reads, "and [189] daughters were born to them. Now, when the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, they took wives for themselves from them all just as they were inclined." We made the point before in teaching you that it is customary with Scripture to call human beings sons of God. So since these people took their origin from Seth and from his son named Enosh
(the text, remember, saying, "He it was who hoped to invoke the name of the Lord God"!2), those descended from him in future were called sons of God by Sacred Scripture for the reason of their imitation of the virtue of their ancestors up to his time. On the other hand, he gave the name sons of men to those born after Seth, the descendants of Cain and those taking their descent from him. "Human beings began to be numerous on the earth," the text says, "and daughters were born to them. Now, when the sons of God" (the descendants of Seth and Enosh) "saw that the daughters of men"
(those born to the other, whom he described by saying that "daughters were born to them") "were beautiful." See how through this expression he indicates to us all their licentiousness; it was not through a desire to raise families that they set about this behavior but out of sheer lechery—"Now, when they saw that the daughters of men were beautiful," the text says. Lust for a shapely figure brought them to this ruin, and a pretty face proved to be for them an occasion of debauchery and licentiousness.
(9g) Nor was this enough: the text adds, "They took wives for themselves from them all just as they were inclined." This likewise has the effect of conveying their great licentiousness in the fact that they were ensnared by beauty and had no intention of curbing their unbridled desire; instead, they were captivated and intoxicated by the sight of it, and through their illicit behavior they left themselves bereft of heavenly favor. So that we may learn that they behaved this way neither
12. Gen 4.26.
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by the dictates of marriage nor for the sake of raising a family, the text accordingly goes on, "When they saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, they took wives for themselves from them all just as they were inclined." Why was this so? Would anyone lay the blame on the sight of the eyes? Not at al]: it wasn't the eye that was the cause of the lapse but the carelessness of choice and the free rein of desire. You see, the purpose for which the eye was created was that through it one should descry God's creatures and praise their Maker. So it is the role of the eye to see, though malicious sight is due to reason, which directs from within. After all, the Lord created the limbs to be of use for us in doing good, and he allowed them to be directed by the spiritual being—I mean the soul. So whenever it inclines to negligence and loosens the reins, like a rider who, unequal to the task of checking the wild impulses of his mounts, gives them the bit and lets himself fall under the hooves of the horses pulling the chariot, our will in just the same manner surrenders itself to wild desires and surrenders itself whenever it is incapable of employing its faculties properly. Hence, when Christ our Lord saw the unreliability of our nature and the indifference of our will, he made a law to protect and curb our inquisitive sight so as to quench the blaze that springs up within us even at a great distance, saying as he did, [1g0] "The man who has looked at a woman so as to lust after her has already committed sin with her in his heart."!* Consequently, he is saying,
I am forbidding your sight to be unrestricted so that I may preserve you from improper behavior. Do not think, after all, he is saying, that association alone causes sin: it is the intention that brings our condemnation.
(10) So the people in our narrative saw the beauty and were captivated by what they saw. "They saw that they were beautiful," the text says, remember, "and took wives for themselves from them all just as they were inclined." But despite this improper behavior and unrestrained attitude, let us see God's goodness. "The Lord God said, 'My spirit is not to remain
13. Matt 5.28.
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forever with these human beings on account of their being carnal. Instead, they will have a life of one hundred and twenty years.'"'* Such depths of love can be seen in these few words: "The Lord God said," the text reads, "'My spirit is not to remain with these human beings on account of their being carnal.'" He called his exercise of providence his spirit in this verse where he foretells their destruction. So that you may learn that the remark was made to that effect, notice what is added: "'on account of their being carnal'"—that is to say, on account of their devoting themselves to carnal pursuits and not employing properly the properties of the soul, but passing their life just as if they were clad in flesh alone and deprived of soul. You see, it is the unfailing practice of Sacred
Scripture to call carnal people flesh, as also to describe people of virtue non-carnal, in the way Paul says, "You, however, are not in the flesh"!'—not because you are not clad in flesh but because despite being clad in flesh you rise above the thinking of the flesh. So, just as Scripture said to some, for reason of their scorning the concerns of the flesh, "You, however, are not in the flesh," so in the case of others, since they were constantly caught up in carnal concerns, it called them carnal.
"On account of their being carnal," I will not continue to allow them to be defiled by sin.
(11) Do you see the depth of his anger? Do you see the extent of the punishment he threatens? Consider how he mingled love with his anger and his threats. You see, this is what our Lord is like: he often threatens, not so as to put his threat into effect but that he may bring us round and never have to put his threat into operation. I mean, if he intended to punish us, why would he announce it beforehand? Since, however, this is not his intention, consequently he is forever delaying and postponing, and he announces it beforehand to give the guilty the opportunity to shun evil, choose virtue, and avoid experiencing punishment. So when he threatened to deliver them to complete disaster (this, after all, is the sense of "My spirit is not to remain with these human beings on account
14. Gen 6.3.
15. Rom 8.9.
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ta of their being carnal"—as if to say, "'I won't allow them to live any longer'"), he was not content with putting up with them for five hundred years, the whole lifetime of Noe, when they were instructed by the sound of his name. So he further withholds his anger at this point and sets another deadline for them in the words, I threatened, I spoke up, and I made clear my anger which must be let loose on you for all the sins you have committed; but because I intend to save even those who have committed irreversible wrong and want no one to be lost, accordingly I grant you a further period of a hundred and twenty years so that, provided you are prepared to expunge your sins [191] by conversion to a better way of life and option for virtue, you may avoid experiencing punishment. The text says, remember, ""They will have a life of a hundred and twenty years.'"
(12) The text goes on, "Now, the giants were on the earth in those days. Later, when the sons of God mated with the daughters of men, and children were born to them, these were the giants of old, people of renown."!® By "giants" in this verse I think Sacred Scripture is referring to men of great physical stature. From these people, the text says, their lines developed. Elsewhere, too, you see, you can find this stated: "Giants come to check my anger,"!" Scripture says.
Some people think that this number of a hundred and twenty years is the limit placed on their life; but this is not the point he is making—rather, his intention is to stress his longsuffering up to this point, which he has displayed in their regard even despite such terrible sins. So let us learn that, in spite of his anger, his threatening and his longsuffering shown them over such a long period of time with a view to their repentance, they not only profited nothing but even persisted in the same ways—hence the words, "When the sons of God mated with the daughters of men, and children were born to them, these were the giants of old, people of renown." Do you see the excess of their ingratitude? Do you see their un16. Gen 6.4.
17. Isa 13.3 in a variant of the LXX's preferred reading, "to execute my anger."
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responsive spirit? Neither fear of punishment nor the extent of God's longsuffering won them away from their evil behavior; instead, once they had plunged into the abyss and had been blinded in their mind's eye, they no longer had the will to be rescued, immersed as they were in evil desire as if in some intoxication—just as some sage has said, "When the godless fall to the depths of evil, they lose all sense of respect."'® It is a terrible thing, you see, dearly beloved, a terrible thing to fall into the clutches of the devil. I mean, the soul then, as though caught in a net, and like a boar trapped in the mire, is likewise caught up in pleasure and, swept along by its evil habits, it loses all sense of the foul odor of its sins.
Consequently, we must be awake and on our guard so as never to allow the evil demon any entrance at the outset, lest he cloud our reasoning, blind the sharp vision of our mind, and thus as if robbing us of sunlight render us unable to see the rays of the Sun of Justice and cause us to fall into the abyss—something that befell those people at that time.
(13) After all, give ear once more to the patience of God's goodness: "Now, the Lord God saw," the text goes on, "that the vices of human beings were multiplied on earth."!? What is meant by the expression, "Now, he saw'? Had the Lord been unaware? Not at all; rather, Sacred Scripture explains everything with our limitations in mind, and so as to teach us that even despite his extraordinary longsuffering they persisted in the same ways or even involved themselves in worse evils, it says, "Now, he saw that the vices of human beings were multiplied." You see, from this evil behavior, as from some spring, arose as well many other sins in them—hence it says, "the vices of human beings." I mean, where there is impurity and licentiousness and such intemperance, it is likely also that intoxication, drunken violence, extreme dishonesty, greed and countless other evils will arise. "Now, the Lord God saw," the text says, "that human beings' vices were multiplied on the earth, and everyone gave himself up wholly to pon18. Prov 18.3 in a variant of the LXX.
19. Gen 6.5.
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dering evil all day long." [192] See how each of the expressions reveals the magnitude of the sins. I mean, after making the sweeping statement, "Human beings' vices were multiplied on earth," it added, "Everyone." There is great significance in that word. It is not only the young, the text says, but also the elderly who practice the same vices as the young; not only man but also woman; not only slave but also free; not only rich but also poor.
(14) The word "pondered" also has great force: they were not coerced into this without warning, but gave themselves up to pondering it and made it their intention hour after hour, devoting themselves to evil eagerly, not just tripped up by sin accidentally and by chance once or twice but assiduously involving themselves in it and making a practice of evil—that is to say, it was done by them with great enthusiasm, not casually or carelessly; not for a short time, but day in day out they devoted the whole of their lives to it. Do you see the intensity of the evil? Do you see how they made the affair the object of their care, committing every evil assiduously, and how people of every age gave themselves to the practice of evil? "Everyone," it says—not some callow youth, or naive wretch, but everyone of them immediately and right from the outset took to this wicked contest, all striving to surpass their neighbor in the criminality of their behavior. | mean, consider here, I ask you, the good man's extraordinary wisdom in being able to avoid being harmed amidst such a consonance of evil and to feel no injurious effect from it all.
Instead, as though being possessed of a different nature, he adopted that kind of resolute attitude: of his own account he zealously undertook the practice of virtue, shunned their common acquiescence in evil, and remained proof against the ruinous fate descending on them all.
(15) "The Lord God reconsidered," the text goes on, "what he had done in creating the human being on the earth.""°
Notice again the considerateness evident in the concreteness of the expression. "He reconsidered," the text says, instead
20. Gen 6.6.
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of, "He regretted." Not that God regrets—perish the thought; rather, Sacred Scripture recounts it to us in human fashion so as to teach us that the excess of their sins aroused the loving God to such anger.?! "The Lord God reconsidered," the text says, "what he had done in creating the human being on the earth"—in other words, Surely by doing this I have not been responsible for making him fall into such disaster and become guilty of his own ruin? By doing this I placed him in a position of such dignity right from the very outset and showed such concern for him so that he might choose virtue and be saved from ruin. But since he did not cooperate with my loving kindness, it then proved better to put an end to his evil designs.
(16) "The Lord God thought about it and said, 'I will wipe off the face of the earth the human being I have made, everything from human being to cattle, everything from reptiles to birds of heaven, because I have reconsidered what I have done in creating them.'"*? All that lay within my power, he is saying, I have given evidence of: I have brought creatures from non-being to being, I have implanted in their nature the knowledge of what is to be done and not to be done, I have blessed them with free will, I have invoked longsuffering beyond all telling, and after that long period of time, my anger and the threats I have made, I also set another deadline in my desire to bring them [193] to a sense of their failings and to revoke my anger. But since they gained no benefit from all this, it was necessary to put threats into effect, to achieve their utter ruin, and to blot out their race like some
21. Anthropomorphisms posed a particular challenge to Chrysostom and his school in their efforts to maintain that balance between divine transcendence and the human character of the Scriptures, the latter representing
God's gracious synkatabasis, "considerateness" (of our limitations, as Chrysostom mentioned above in commenting on Gen 6.5). In this case it is the pachutés, the concreteness of the language employed in anthropomorphic expressions, that demonstrates that considerateness without undermining the correlative of God's transcendence. See my article, "sunkatabasis."
22. Gen 6.7. Again, as in the previous verse, the LXX seems reluctant to admit openly true regret on God's part, preferring the idea of his having second thoughts. But cf. James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford, 1961), pp. 252-53.
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pernicious leaven lest they become lessons in evil to succeeding generations. "The Lord God said, 'I will wipe off the face of the earth the human being I have made, everything from human being to cattle.'"
(17) Perhaps, however, someone may say, Why is it that in the case of the human being's decline into evil the wild animals too endure the same punishment? For good reason. I mean, surely the wild animals were not created to serve their own needs? Everything was brought into existence for human beings, so once they were removed from the circle, what need would there be of the animals? Hence they also share the punishment so that you may learn the degree of God's anger.
Just as in the beginning when the firstformed person sinned the earth received the curse, so too in this case when the human being was on the point of being blotted out the wild animals also share the punishment. Just as, on the other hand, when the human being is pleasing to God, creation also shares the human being's prosperity (as Paul also says, "Creation too will be set free from its servitude to decay with a view to the freedom of the children of God's glory"), so too in this case when the human being is about to be punished on account of the great number of sins and to be consigned to destruction, the cattle also and the reptiles and birds are likewise caught up in the deluge that is due to overcome the whole world. Just as in a household, when the chief steward incurs the wrath of the master, it is likely that all the servants also share in his shame, in just the same way in this case too as with the house, when people' fell by the wayside everything in the house and everything lying under the master's control necessarily incurs the same punishment.
(18) "'I have reconsidered," the text says, "'what I have done in creating them.'" What great considerateness this remark is filled with! Surely I did not intend, he is saying, to inflict on them such awful punishment? They themselves through the excess of their criminal behavior drove me to this great anger. Then, lest we think that the complete annihila23. Rom 8.21 with a slight variation in word order.
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tion of humankind is happening and that our race is being eradicated, instead of our learning the great evil that sin is and the great good that virtue is, and that one person doing the Lord's will is better than a thousand lawless people, the text proceeds, "Noe, on the contrary, found favor in the sight of the Lord God."24 Even if the whole multitude, the text is saying, fell into such terrible wickedness, still at the same time this good man kept alive the spark of virtue, speaking to them all during the whole of this period, exhorting them to give up evil, and keeping himself free of harm from them.
Just as they through their behavior drove the loving God to anger, so he too by choosing virtue "found favor in the sight of the Lord God." "God (you remember) is no respecter of persons;"®> rather, if he finds even one person in such a multitude doing what pleases him, far from scorning him he regales him with his particular providence and shows the greater care for him the more closely he has chosen the way of virtue at a time when there are others who are bent on evil.
(19) Understanding [194] this, then, let our eyes be on one thing alone—pleasing him and bringing ourselves to win grace from on high. Let us not be so beholden to friendship or so enslaved to habit that we neglect virtue; instead, let us take advantage of God's longsuffering as we ought, and while we still have time let us put aside all indifference, yearn after virtue and hate evil. You see, unless we devote ourselves to virtue with longing and enthusiasm and direct extreme hatred towards evil, we will be unable to shun the harm that comes from the latter and gain a hold upon the former. For proof that virtue is of advantage to those that long for it and burn with the desire for it, listen to the inspired author's words:
"The judgements of the Lord are true, utterly righteous, and to be desired beyond gold and much precious metal,"?6 not because these things are not so desirable but because with us you can find nothing else more sought after than these sub24. Gen 6.8.
25. Acts 10.34.
26. Ps 19.9-10.
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stances. Hence he went on to say, "And sweeter than honey and the honeycomb;" in this case also he did not use the comparison for the reason that it is possible to find something sweeter than honey. So, just as in amassing riches people lose their senses out of lust and frenzy, become excited in devoting all their energies to this enterprise, and never have their fill— avarice, after all, being an insatiable addiction, and just as with alcoholics the more wine they take into their system the greater the thirst they burn with—so too the avaricious are unable to check this irrepressible folly, but rather the more they see their wealth increasing, the more they enkindle their appetite, and do not rest from this evil desire until they have fallen to the very depths of wickedness.
(20) Consequently, if these people display to such an intense degree this mischievous enthusiasm, which has proved to be responsible for all those evils, much more should we constantly keep fresh in our mind the judgements of the Lord, more desirable as they happen to be than gold and much precious metal, and consider nothing preferable to virtue; rather, we should excise from our soul these ruinous passions and realize that the fleeting pleasure of this kind is likely to engender everlasting distress and torture without end, and not deceive ourselves nor think that our fortunes begin and end with this present life. You see, even if many people don't admit this in so many words, but claim to believe in the doctrine of the resurrection and future retribution, nevertheless I take notice not of their words but of what they do day by day. That is to say, if you are looking forward to resurrection and retribution, why go chasing the values of this life to such an extent? Why, tell me, do you put yourself to such trouble day in day out amassing more possessions than there is sand on the seashore, not to mention property and dwellings, as well as buying baths, often acquiring these things through robbery and greed, and thus fulfilling that saying from the inspired author, "Woe to those who add house to house, and join field to field so as to steal a march on their neighbor'??" Cannot this sort of thing be seen hap27. Isa 5.8, where the LXX differs from our Hebrew text.
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pening day after day? One person says, That house casts a terrible shadow on mine, and he invents countless pretexts to get hold of it, while another lays hold of a poor person's property and makes it his own. And what in fact is worse, remarkable and unheard of, and quite beyond excuse, is for a person comfortably situated in one locality being able to move elsewhere without any good reason for wanting to, either [195] on account of a change of circumstances or because constrained by physical disability; all over the place, in city after city, he is bent on procuring monuments to his own avarice and having timeless effigies of his own evil for all to see. He heaps all sins of this kind on his own head without feeling his heavy and troublesome burden, whereas enjoyment of them he leaves for others, not only after his departure from this life but even here before his demise. You see, no matter what he wishes, he is stripped of his possessions, they are all squandered, so to say, by his friends and left in tatters without the smallest part of them falling to him to enjoy. Yet why do I say enjoy? Even if he wanted, how could he with one stomach manage to dispose of such an abundance of good things?
(21) The cause of all evils, however, is vainglory and the desire to give one's own name to property, baths, houses.
What good is it to you, human being that you are, when in no time a fever comes upon you, your soul suddenly takes wings and leaves you alone and naked—or, rather, stripped of virtue but encumbered with injustices, robberies, acts of greed, groanings, lamentation, orphans' tears, plots, intrigues?
How could you, carrying those heavy burdens of sins weighing upon you, be able to pass through that narrow gate, which could not admit a load of that size? You would therefore have to remain outside, and lumbered with these burdens to repent all too late, already contemplating before your eyes the punishments prepared for you, that terrible fire that is never extinguished and the worm that does not die.?8 If, on the other hand, we have any sense of our own salvation, let us, while we still have time, abandon evil ways, concern our28. Cf. Mark 9.48; Isa 66.24.
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selves with virtue and despise vainglory. This, you see, is the reason why it is called vain, because it is quite empty and has no substance or stable foundation: it proves only to be a deceiver of the eyes before it disappears and flies away. Or do we not often see the case of a person who today is escorted by attendants and surrounded by bodyguards, whereas tomorrow he is incarcerated and lodged with brigands? What is more deceptive than this vain and empty glory? Even if in this present life the change in circumstances does not affect the person, death will come upon him to abolish his property completely, the person today swaggering in the public eye, who confines people to prison, the person seated on the throne with great ideas of his own importance, regarding all people as dust under his feet—in a trice he is next found stretched out a lifeless corpse, giving off a stench, the butt of countless insults from those he had wronged and those he had not wronged out of sympathy with their wrong. What could be more pitiable than such a person? While all his possessions are often divided up amongst his enemies and foes, the sins accruing to him from them he carries with him and an account of them is scrupulously required of him.
(22) So, I beseech you, let us shun this vainglory and long for the glory that is true and enduring. Let love of possessions not prove our undoing, nor the flame of passion [196] scorch us, nor hatred and envy consume us, nor rage reduce us to ashes. Instead, let us quench all these evil and ruinous passions in the dew of the Spirit, scorn the things of this life and long for future goods; let us set our thoughts on the future and give close attention to our lifestyle. After all, this was not the purpose of our being brought into this life, that we should only eat and drink. Living is not for eating and drinking, but eating and drinking for living. So let us not reverse the order, nor become slaves of the belly as though created for it nor slaves of the pleasures of the flesh; instead, let us consider the harm coming to us from that source, quell the movements of the flesh and not fall victims of sloth nor allow the flesh to rise up against the spirit. If Paul—a man of such calibre and stature, who traversed the whole world like
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a winged creature, who proved superior to bodily necessities and was privileged to hear those secret words that no one else to this day has heard—if he wrote these words, "I punish my body and bring it into subjection lest while preaching to others I myself become reprobate;"?? if then that man, the object of so great favor, despite such conspicuous prowess felt the need to punish his body, bring it into subjection, submit it to the authority of the soul and place its impulses under the virtue of the soul (people, after all, punish what is rebellious, and bring into subjection what is froward), what then would we say, deprived as we are of these goods, lumbered as we are with the burden of sins, and with nothing to show in addition to this beyond deep indifference?
(23) After all, this war admits of no truce, does it? It has no set time for the assault, does it? At all times there is need for watching and waiting and never being over-confident, since no time has been set for the assault by the one who is waging war and hostilities against us. Let us therefore have our wits about us to stay out of trouble, avoid the snares of the enemy and win God's loving kindness, thanks to the grace and mercy of his only-begotten Son, to whom with the Father and the Spirit be glory, power and honor, now and forever, for ages of ages. Amen.
29.
1 Cor 9.27.