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of his own possessions, until he satisfied their unjust desire. But Paul, seeing not wells being filled up with stones, but his own body, not only yielded like that one, but coming in, he strove to lead up to heaven those who were stoning him; for by as much as the spring was being buried, by so much more did it burst forth, and poured out more rivers into patience. 1.8 But does the Scripture admire his son for his endurance? And what adamantine soul could possibly show the patience of Paul? For he did not serve for twice seven years, but his whole life for the bride of Christ, not only being scorched by the heat of the day and the frost of the night, but enduring countless snowstorms of temptations, now receiving stripes, now being stoned in the body, and now fighting with beasts, now boxing with the sea, and with continual hunger day and night, and with cold, and everywhere leaping over the hurdles, and snatching the sheep from the throat of the devil. 1.9 But was Joseph chaste? But I fear that it may be a laughing matter to praise Paul from this point of view, who crucified himself to the world, and saw not only the splendid things in bodies, but all things thus, as we see the dust and the ash, and as a dead man would be unmoved toward a dead man. Thus with precision quieting the stirrings of nature, he never suffered any human passion toward anything.

1.10 Are all men amazed at Job? And very rightly so; for he was a great athlete, and able to be compared to Paul himself, on account of his patience, on account of the purity of his life, on account of the testimony of God, on account of that steadfast battle, on account of the wonderful victory after the battle. But Paul lived thus, not striving for many months, but for many years, not melting clods of earth from discharge and sitting on a dung heap, but continually falling into the very spiritual mouth of the lion, and wrestling with countless temptations, he was firmer than any rock; not being reproached by three or four friends, but by all the unbelieving false brethren, being spat upon, being reviled. 1.11 But was the hospitality of Job great, and his care for those in need? We do not deny it; but we will find it as much inferior to Paul's as the body is distant from the soul. For what that one showed for those who were maimed in the flesh, this one did for those who were mangled in the soul, correcting all who were lame and crippled in their reasoning, and clothing the naked and unseemly with the robe of philosophy; and in bodily things also he so much surpassed him, by as much as it is greater to help those in need while living in poverty and hunger than to do this from abundance; and the one's house was open to everyone who came, but the other's soul was spread out to the whole inhabited world, and received entire peoples. Wherefore he also said: You are not constrained in us, but you are constrained in your own affections. And the one, though he had countless sheep and oxen, was generous toward those in need; but this one, possessing nothing more than his body, from this very thing provided for those in need, and he cries out saying: These hands have ministered to my necessities, and to them that were with me, possessing the labor of his body as an income for the hungry and starving. 1.12 But the worms and the wounds caused Job grievous and unbearable pains? I confess it too; but if the stripes of Paul over so many years, and the continual hunger, and the nakedness, and the chains, and the prison, and

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οἰκείων κτημάτων, ἕως αὐτῶν τὴν ἄδικον ἐκόρεσεν ἐπιθυμίαν. Ἀλλ' ὁ Παῦλος οὐ φρέατα λίθοις καταχωννύμενα ὁρῶν, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σῶμα, οὐ παρεχώρει καθάπερ ἐκεῖνος μόνον, ἀλλ' εἰσιὼν τοὺς λίθοις βάλλοντας αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνάγειν ἐφιλονείκει· ὅσῳ γὰρ κατεχώννυτο ἡ πηγή, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον ἐξερρήγνυτο, καὶ πλείους ἐξέχεε ποταμοὺς εἰς ὑπομονήν. 1.8 Ἀλλὰ τὸν παῖδα τὸν τούτου θαυμάζει τῆς καρτερίας ἡ Γραφή; Καὶ ποία ἀδαμαντίνη ψυχὴ τὴν Παύλου δύναιτ' ἂν ἐπιδείξασθαι ὑπομονήν; Οὐδὲ γὰρ δὶς ἑπτὰ ἔτη ἐδούλευσεν, ἀλλὰ τὸν πάντα βίον ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ νύμφης, οὐ συγκαιόμενος μόνον τῷ καύματι τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τῷ παγετῷ τῆς νυκτός, ἀλλὰ μυρίας νιφάδας πειρασμῶν ὑπομένων, νῦν μὲν μάστιγας λαμβάνων, νῦν δὲ λίθοις τὸ σῶμα βαλλόμενος, καὶ νῦν μὲν θηρίοις μαχόμενος, νῦν δὲ πελάγει πυκτεύων, καὶ λιμῷ διηνεκεῖ ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτός, καὶ κρυμῷ, καὶ πανταχοῦ ὑπὲρ τὰ σκάμματα πηδῶν, καὶ τὰ πρόβατα ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ διαβόλου φάρυγγος ἀφαρπάζων. 1.9 Ἀλλὰ σώφρων ὁ Ἰωσήφ; Ἀλλὰ δέδοικα μὴ γέλωςᾖ τὸν Παῦλον ἐντεῦθεν ἐγκωμιάζειν, ὃς ἐσταύρωσεν ἑαυτὸν τῷ κόσμῳ, καὶ οὐ τὰ λαμπρὰ ἐν τοῖς σώμασι μόνον, ἀλλὰ πάντα τὰ πράγματα οὕτως ἑώρα, ὡς ἡμεῖς τὴν κόνιν καὶ τὴν τέφραν, καὶ ὡς ἂν νεκρὸς πρὸς νεκρὸν ἀκίνητος γένοιτο. Οὕτω μετὰ ἀκριβείας τῆς φύσεως τὰ σκιρτήματα κατευνάζων, οὐδὲν οὐδέποτε πρὸς οὐδὲν ἀνθρώπινον πάθος ἔπαθεν.

1.10 Ἐκπλήττονται τὸν Ἰὼβ ἅπαντες ἄνθρωποι; Καὶ μάλα εἰκότως· καὶ γὰρ μέγας ἀθλητής, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν τὸν Παῦλον παρισοῦσθαι δυνάμενος, διὰ τὴν ὑπομονήν, διὰ τὴν τοῦ βίου καθαρότητα, διὰ τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ μαρτυρίαν, διὰ τὴν καρτερὰν μάχην ἐκείνην, διὰ τὴν θαυμαστὴν νίκην τὴν μετὰ τὴν μάχην. Ἀλλὰ Παῦλος οὐχὶ μῆνας πολλοὺς ἀγωνιζόμενος οὕτω διῆγεν, ἀλλ' ἔτη πολλά, οὐχὶ τήκων βώλακας γῆς ἀπὸ ἰχῶρος καὶ ἐπὶ κοπρίας καθήμενος, ἀλλ' εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦ λέοντος τὸ νοητὸν στόμα συνεχῶς ἐμπίπτων, καὶ μυρίοις παλαίων πειρασμοῖς, πάσης πέτρας στερρότερος ἦν· οὐχὶ παρὰ τριῶν φίλων ἢ τεσσάρων, ἀλλὰ παρὰ πάντων ὀνειδιζόμενος τῶν ἀπιστούντων ψευδαδέλφων, ἐμπτυόμενος, λοιδορούμενος. 1.11 Ἀλλ' ἡ φιλοξενία τοῦ Ἰὼβ μεγάλη, καὶ ἡ πρὸς τοὺς δεομένους κηδεμονία; Οὐδὲ ἡμεῖς ἀντεροῦμεν· ἀλλὰ τῆς Παύλου τοσοῦτον καταδεεστέραν εὑρήσομεν ὅσον ψυχῆς σῶμα ἀφέστηκεν. Ἃ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος περὶ τοὺς τὴν σάρκα πεπηρωμένους ἐπεδείκνυτο, ταῦτα οὗτος περὶ τοὺς τὴν ψυχὴν λελωβημένους ἔπραττε, πάντας τοὺς χωλοὺς καὶ ἀναπήρους τὸν λογισμὸν διορθούμενος, καὶ τοὺς γυμνοὺς καὶ ἀσχημονοῦντας περιβάλλων τῇ τῆς φιλοσοφίας στολῇ· καὶ ἐν τοῖς σωματικοῖς δὲ τοσοῦτον αὐτοῦ περιῆν, ὅσῳ πολλῷ μεῖζον τὸ πενίᾳ συζῶντα καὶ λιμῷ βοηθεῖν τοῖς δεομένοις τοῦ ἐκ περιουσίας τοῦτο ποιεῖν· καὶ τοῦ μὲν ἡ οἰκία παντὶ ἐλθόντι ἀνέῳκτο, τοῦ δὲ ἡ ψυχὴ πάσῃ τῇ οἰκουμένῃ ἥπλωτο, καὶ ὁλοκλήρους δήμους ὑπεδέχετο. ∆ιὸ καὶ ἔλεγεν· Οὐ στενοχωρεῖσθε ἐν ἡμῖν, στενοχωρεῖσθε δὲ ἐν τοῖς σπλάγχνοις ὑμῶν. Καὶ ὁ μέν, προβάτων αὐτῷ καὶ βοῶν ὄντων ἀπείρων, φιλότιμος περὶ τοὺς δεομένους ἦν· οὗτος δέ, οὐδὲν πλέον κεκτημένος τοῦ σώματος, ἀπ' αὐτοῦ τούτου τοῖς δεομένοις ἐπήρκει, καὶ βοᾷ λέγων· Ταῖς χρείαις μου καὶ τοῖς οὖσι μετ' ἐμοῦ ὑπηρέτησαν αἱ χεῖρες αὗται, τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος ἐργασίαν πρόσοδον τοῖς πεινῶσι καὶ λιμώττουσι κεκτημένος. 1.12 Ἀλλὰ οἱ σκώληκες καὶ τὰ τραύματα χαλεπὰς καὶ ἀκαρτερήτους παρεῖχον τῷ Ἰὼβ τὰς ὀδύνας; Ὁμολογῶ κἀγώ· ἀλλ' ἐὰν τὰς ἐν τοσούτοις ἔτεσι τοῦ Παύλου μάστιγας, καὶ τὸν λιμὸν τὸν διηνεκῆ, καὶ τὴν γυμνότητα, καὶ τὰς ἁλύσεις, καὶ τὸ δεσμωτήριον, καὶ