Letter 621

To Philo the Presbyter. The narrative of the holy Scriptures is a robe of gold: golden are the warp-threads, golden the weft. Do not weave into it the webs of spiders, unraveling what is fitting. And by "spiders' webs" I mean the feebleness of your reasonings, and your debased interpretation, and the vain syllogisms and sophisms of the wisdom of the Greeks [the pagans], which you have dared to introduce into the venerable Church, just as Manasseh [king of Judah, 2 Kings 21] once set up certain abominable idols in the temple of God. Cease, therefore, from setting the fables of the Manichaeans [followers of Mani, a dualist sect] before the people of the Lord under the pretense, forsooth, of spiritual teaching, in the Church that lies in the far borderland. For your folly has now become manifest to all, and there have been uncovered, according to the divine Scripture, the hidden things of Esau, and the hidden things of the darkness of your crooked soul.

Πέπλον ὑπάρχει χρυσοῦν τῶν ἁγίων Γραφῶν ἡ διήγησις, οἱ στήμονες χρυσοῖ, ἡ κρόκη χρυσῆ. Μὴ παρύφαινε τῶν ἀραχνῶν τὰ ὑφάσματα, ἐκδαίνων τὰ πρέποντος. ᾿Αραχνῶν δὲ ὑφάσματα νομίζω τὴν τῶν σῶν λογισμῶν ἀσθένειαν, καὶ τὴν ἠχρειωμένην διά- ληψιν, καὶ τοὺς ματαίους συλλογισμούς τε, καὶ φι- φισμοὺς τῆς τῶν Ἑλλήνων σοφίας, οὕσπερ εἰσηγή- σαι τετόλμηκας τῇ σεπτῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ, ὥσπερ ποτὲ ὁ Μανασσῆς εἴδωλά τινα βδελυρὰ καθίδρυσεν ἐπὶ τὸ ναὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ. Πέπαυσο τοίνυν ἐν προσποιήσει δῆθεν διδασκαλίας· πνευματικῆς τὰ Μανιχαίων μυθεύματα παρατιθέμενος τῷ λαῷ τοῦ Κυρίου, ἐπὶ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν τῇ ἐσχατιᾷ. Ἡ γὰρ ἀφροσύνη σου ἐκδηλοῦς πᾶσιν ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος γεγένηται, καὶ ἀποκέκαλυπται, κατὰ τὴν θείαν Γραφὴν τὰ κρυπτὰ τοῦ Ἠσαῦ, καὶ τὰ κρυπτὰ τοῦ σκότους τῆς σῆς σκολιᾶς ψυχῆς.