Letter 603

To Zeno the Decemprimus [a decemprimus was one of the ten leading councillors of a city]. It is utterly godless and impious to say that evil things exist by nature and not by choice. For even though the Scripture says that "the mind of man is intently set upon wicked things from his youth" [Genesis 8:21], you ought to know the interpretation of the phrase: that man is not bound to blameworthy things according to his nature, nor by reason of those natural reflections which were sown in our mind from the beginning by God-far from it!-but it is written "from the youth of man" in order to show that we have acquired our base traits from the after-sowing of the devil, and that, being readily charmed rather by the enemy, we incline toward evil; for "an enemy, a man, sowed the tares," says the Lord in the Gospel [Matthew 13:25, the parable of the wheat and the tares].

Ἄθεον παντελῶς, καὶ ἀσεβὲς τὸ λέγειν, φύσει ὑπάρχειν τὰ κακά, καὶ οὐχὶ προαιρέσει. Κἂν γὰρ ἡ Γραφὴ λέγει, ὅτι « Ἔγκειται ἡ διάνοια τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐπιμελῶς τοῖς πονηροῖς ἐκ νεότητος αὐτοῦ, » εἰδέναι ὀφείλεις τὴν ἑρμηνείαν τῆς φράσεως, ὅτι οὐ κατὰ φύσιν τοῖς ψεκτοῖς πρόσκειται ὁ ἄνθρωπος, οὐδὲ ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν παρὰ Θεοῦ ἐξ ἀρχῆς τῇ διανοίᾳ ἡμῶν κατασπαρέντων φυσικῶν ἐνθυμιῶν μὴ γένοιτο· ἀλλ’ ἐκ νεότητος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου γέγραπται, ἵνα δειχθῇ, ὅτι ἐξ ἐπισπορᾶς τοῦ διαβόλου τὰ φαῦλα κεκτή- μεθα, καὶ ῥᾳδίως μᾶλλον ὑπ’ ἐχθροῦ θελγόμενοι πρὸς τὸ κακὸν ῥέπομεν· «Ἐχθρὸς γὰρ ἄνθρωπος ἐπ- έσπειρε τὰ ζιζάνια,» φησὶν ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ ὁ Κύ- ριος.