Letter 335

To Agatho the Decemvir [member of a board of ten]. The blessed David, when he had slain the slayers of Ishbosheth [son of Saul, murdered in his bed; cf. 2 Samuel 4], and had cut off their hands and their feet, hung them up over the spring and over the water. By these things he signifies that, through the baptism which takes place according to Christ, those demons are maimed and destroyed who before our coming to the faith had enslaved us and had slain our souls.

Τοὺς τοῦ Ἰσθοσθ ἀναιρέτας ὁ μάκαριος φονεύσας Δαυΐδ, καὶ χεῖρας τούτων καὶ πόδας ἀποκόψας, ἐπὶ τῆς κρήνης, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ ὕδατος ἐκρέμασεν. Σημαίνει διὰ τούτων, ὅτι τῷ κατὰ Χριστὸν γινομένῳ βαπτίσματι ἀκροτηριάζονται, καὶ ἀναιροῦνται οἱ πρὸ τῆς πίστεως ἡμᾶς δουλωσάμενοι, καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν ἀποκτείναντες δαίμονες.