Letter 366

To Alexander, a Monk Formerly a Grammarian. "Come," says the prophet, "and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord." Not, "Come, and let us be cast down headlong into the ravine of the enemy." For in truth there is nothing more hollow than worldly wisdom, nor anything more groveling on the ground, even though out of shamelessness it pretends to soar aloft to lofty things. Therefore the divine Apostle [Paul] says that "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." For since the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God made foolish the wisdom of the wise, having subjected every nation and every tongue, both of Greeks and of barbarians, to the apostles, men unschooled in expression but possessing infallibility in knowledge. Hence each of those who come to the proclamation of true religion makes it his every endeavor, following the canons of the apostles, to imitate their stamp with exactness, and nowhere to swerve aside from their blameless tradition. It would therefore be of all things the most absurd that we, having betrayed the mountain of the lofty philosophy that is according to Christ, after spitting upon the Greek prattle and dishonoring their over-refined cleverness, should again be carried down into the most dark ravine of vainglory and idle toil, and that those perfect in mind should again play the child, and after the manner of lads make much of epic verses and iambics, of which no one had any need: not Apollos the learned Alexandrian, who gave drink to the disciples of Christ; not Clement the philosopher of the Romans; nor the countless other philosophers and scholars who are called second after the apostles -- lest through meter and versifying they should empty the cross of the Lord, and be caught offering up honey upon the altar contrary to the divine law. For "honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman" -- that is, from the eloquence of the Greeks, which, deceiving by its much persuasive discourse the man whom it has made over-refined, as Solomon says, binds him fast with the snares that come from her lips, and, having contrived to make him run aground away from the philosophy of God, will bring the wretch who has been miserably captured down to the very plank-trap and to the very bottom of Hades. Do not, then, be willing to give your attention to meter, even if you have acquired a very great familiarity and longing for it -- lest, having blotted out the divine stamp of the fishermen [the apostles], which formerly with much yearning you chose to copy onto yourself, you fall away into the utmost deformity, and it become plain that you neglect your own salvation through your zeal for epic verses, and become a precedent and a model and a snare for others -- as many as are disorderly and a mere rabble and dullards, who have no care for virtue at all, but spend all the days of their life chattering about these things, through accursed and dissolute vainglory choosing, forsooth, to win the small bread-praise of a few men, behaving in a slavish and exceedingly infantile manner, from which they will not be nourished in their soul at all, but will even starve. For one ought to seek from the God of hosts bread full of true glory and honor; but they do the opposite, supposing themselves to be fed from useless worldly wisdom. But the honor of a harlot woman is as it were that of a single loaf, full of dishonor and of much weakness. You, however, ask continually for the bread of the powers above; for "man ate the bread of heaven and the bread of angels" -- everyone, that is, "who lives by the Spirit and walks in line with the Spirit," and who, following the ecclesiastical ordinances, has partaken of the wisdom that comes down from above. Such a man, then, eats the bread of heaven and the bread of angels, not the bread of a harlot woman. Many of the heretics have composed many things, but they profited nothing. For their ears of grain were wind-blown, as the prophet says, a handful having no strength to make flour. But if you admire those who write epic verses, then it is high time for you also to admire Apollinaris [Apollinaris of Laodicea, condemned for his Christology], the impious innovator, who measured out very many verses, and versified, and toiled in vain, and at every season wore himself away in senseless words, and swelled up with the profitless epic verses, and grew inflamed, and became dropsical in his reasonings -- and "his tongue went through upon the earth," as David said.

« Δεῦτε, φησὶν ὁ προφήτης, καὶ ἀναβῶμεν εἰς τὸ ὄρος τοῦ Κυρίου. » Οὐχί, Δεῦτε, καὶ κατακρημνισθῶμεν εἰς τὴν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ φάραγγα. Οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀληθῶς ὑπάρχει κοιλότερον τῆς κοσμικῆς σοφίας, οὐδὲ χαμαιπετέστερον, κἂν ἐξ ἀναισχυντίας ἐπᾶσθαι δῆθεν ὑψηλὰ ἐπαγγέλληται. Διό φησιν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, ὅτι « Ἡ σοφία τοῦ κόσμου τούτου μωρία παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ ἐστιν. » Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὁ κόσμος οὐκ ἔγνω διὰ τῆς σοφίας τὸν Θεόν, ἐμώρανεν ὁ Θεὸς τὴν σοφίαν τῶν σοφῶν, τοῖς ἰδιώταις μὲν τῇ φράσει, τὸ ἀδιάπτωτον δὲ κατὰ τὴν γνῶσιν ἔχουσιν ἀποστόλοις, ὑποτάξας πᾶν ἔθνος, καὶ πᾶσαν γλῶσσαν Ἑλλήνων τε, καὶ βαρβάρων. Ὅθεν ἕκαστος τῶν τῷ κηρύγματι τῆς εὐσεβείας προσιόντων, σπουδὴν πᾶσαν τίθεται, τοῖς κανόσι τῶν ἀποστόλων ἑπόμενος, τὸν ἐκείνων χαρακτῆρα σὺν ἀκριβείᾳ μιμεῖσθαι, καὶ μηδαμοῦ παρατρέπεσθαι τῆς ἐκείνων ἀμώμου παραδόσεως. Τῶν ἀτοπωτάτων τοίνυν ἂν εἴη, προδάντας ἡμᾶς τῷ ὄρει τῆς κατὰ Χριστὸν ὑψηλῆς φιλοσοφίας, μετὰ τὸ διαπτῦσαι τὴν Ἑλληνικὴν τερεθείαν, καὶ ἀτιμάσαι τὴν κομψευθεῖσαν αὐτῶν, πάλιν εἰς τὴν τῆς κουφοδοξίας, καὶ τῆς ματαιοπονίας καταφέρεσθαι σκοτεινοτάτην φάραγγα, καὶ τοὺς τελείους τὴν φρένα πάλιν παιδαριεύεσθαι, καὶ δίκην μειρακίων περὶ πολλοῦ ποιήσασθαι τὰ ἔπη, καὶ τοὺς ἰάμβους, ὧν χρείαν οὐδεὶς ἔσχεν, οὐκ Ἀπολλὼς ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεὺς λόγιος ὁ ποτιστὴς τῶν Χριστοῦ μαθητῶν, οὐ Κλήμης ὁ Ῥωμαίων φιλόσοφος, οὐχ ἄλλοι μυρίοι φιλόσοφοι, καὶ γραμματισταὶ δεύτεροι τῶν ἀποστόλων λεγόμενοι, ἵνα μὴ διὰ τοῦ μέτρου, καὶ τῆς ἐποιποίας κενώσωσι τὸν σταυρὸν τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ φωραθῶσι παρὰ τὸν θεῖον νόμον τὸ μέλι ἀναφέροντες ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον. « Μέλι γὰρ ἀποστάζει ἀπὸ χειλέων γυναικὸς πόρνης, » δηλαδὴ τῆς Ἑλλήνων καλλιεπείας, ἥτις τῇ πολλῇ πιθανῇ ὁμιλίᾳ ἐξαπατῶσα τῶν κομψευθέντα, καθά φησιν ὁ Σολομῶν, βρόχοις τε τοῖς ἀπὸ χειλέων καταδεσμεῖ, καὶ ἐξοκεῖλαι παρασκευάσασα τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ φιλοσοφίας, εἰς αὐτὸ τὸ πέταυρον, καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν τὸν πυθμένα τοῦ ᾅδου καταβιβάξει τὸν ἀθλίως ἁλόντα. Μή τοίνυν θέλε προσανέχειν τῷ μέτρῳ, κἂν εἰ λίαν πρὸς αὐτὸ συνήθειαν καὶ ἵμερον κέκτησαι, ἵνα μὴ ἀφανίσας τῶν ἁλιέων τὸν θεῖον χαρακτῆρα, ὅνπερ σὺν πόθῳ πολλῷ πρῴην ἀναμάξασθαι προεῖλω, πρὸς τὴν ἐσχάτην μὲν ἐκπέσῃς ἀμορφίαν, δῆλος δὲ γένῃ ἀμελῶν τῆς ἑαυτοῦ σωτηρίας διὰ τῆς περὶ τὰ ἔπη σπουδῆς, πρόκριμα δὲ, καὶ τύπος, καὶ παγὶς δε- χοέης ἄλλοις, ὁπόσοι ἄτακτοι, καὶ συρφετοί, καὶ βλάκες ὑπάρχοντες, οὐδεμίαν δὲ φροντίδα τῆς ἀρετῆς ἔχουσιν, ὅλας δὲ τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς περὶ ταῦτα ἀδολεσχοῦσι, διὰ τῆς ἐπαράτου, καὶ παρασεσυρμένης κενοδοξίας, τὸν μικρὸν ἄρτον τῶν ὀλίγων ἀνθρώπων ἐπαινεῖν δῆθεν προαιρούμενοι, δουλοπρεπῶς τε, καὶ ἄγαν βρεφοπρεπῶς κομιζόμενοι, ἐξ οὗ μὴ τραφήσονται τὸ σύνολον τὴν ψυχήν, ἀλλὰ καὶ λιμώξουσιν. Δέον γὰρ ζητῆσαι παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν δυνάμεων, καὶ δόξης ἀληθοῦς, καὶ τιμῆς πλήρη ἄρτον· οἱ δὲ τοὐναντίον πράττουσιν, ἐκ κοσμικῆς σοφίας ἀνωφελοῦς οἰόμενοι τρέφεσθαι. Τιμὴ δὲ γυναικὸς πόρνης ὡσεὶ καὶ ἑνὸς ἄρτου, ἀτιμίας γέμοντος, καὶ ἀσθενείας πολλῆς. Σὺ δέ γε τῶν τῶν ἄνω δυνάμεων ἄρτον διηνεκῶς αἴτησον· ἄρτον γὰρ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγεν ἄνθρωπος, « πᾶς ὅστις πνεύματι ζῇ, καὶ πνεύματι στοιχεῖ, » καὶ τοῖς ἐκκλησιαστικοῖς θεσμοῖς ἐξακολουθῶν, τῆς σοφίας τῆς ἄνωθεν κατερχομένης μετέσχηκεν. Ἄρτον οὖν οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἄρτον ἀγγέλων, οὐχ ἄρτον γυναικὸς πόρνης ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐσθίει. Πολλῶν τῶν αἱρετικῶν πολλὰ ἐπι-συνέταξαν, ἀλλ’ οὐδὲν ὠφέλησαν. Διότι ἀνεμοφόρους εἶχον τοὺς στάχυας, ὡς φησιν ὁ προφήτης, δράγμα οὐκ ἔχον ἰσχὺν τοῦ ποιῆσαι ἄλευρον. Εἰ δὲ θαυμάζεις τοὺς γράφοντας τὰ ἔπη, ὥρα σοι καὶ Ἀπολλινάριον τὸν δυσσεβῆ καὶ καινοτόμον θαυμάζειν, πολλὰ λίαν μετρήσαντα, καὶ ἐποιησήσαντα, καὶ ματαιοπονήσαντα, καὶ παντὶ καιρῷ ἐν λόγοις ἀνοήτοις καταιτριδέντα, οἰδήσαντά τε τοῖς ἀκερδέσι τῶν ἐπῶν, καὶ φλεγμήναντα, καὶ ὑδεριάσαντα τοῖς λογισμοῖς, « καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα αὐτοῦ δῆλθεν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, » ὡς Δαυΐδ ἔλεγεν.