of possessions, but to banish from the soul the notions about possessions, the affection for them, the excessive desire, the anxiety and sickness concerning them, the cares, the thorns of life, which choke the seed of life. 11.3 For neither is it a great or enviable thing to be simply without possessions unless it is for the sake of life (for otherwise those who have nothing at all, but are destitute and beg for their daily bread, the poor cast out on the roads, who "are ignorant" of God and "God's righteousness," would by the mere fact of being utterly destitute and helpless for a living and wanting for the least things be most blessed and most beloved by God and the only ones having 11.4 eternal life) nor is it a new thing to have renounced wealth and given it to the poor or to one's country, which many have done before the coming of the Savior, some for the sake of leisure for study and a dead wisdom, others for empty fame and vainglory, such as Anaxagoras and Democritus and Crates.

12.1 What then does he enjoin as new and peculiar to God and alone life-giving, which

did not save those before? But if the "new creation," the Son of God, reveals and teaches something choice, he does not commend the outward act, which others have done, but something else signified by this, something greater and more divine and more perfect, namely to strip the soul itself and the disposition of the underlying passions and to cut out and cast away by the roots what is alien to the mind. For this is the particular lesson of the believer 12.2 and the teaching worthy of the Savior. For those who came before, despising external things, left their possessions and squandered them, but the passions of their souls I think they even intensified; for they were filled with arrogance and boastfulness and vainglory and contempt for other men, as if they themselves had accomplished something superhuman. 12.3 How then would the Savior advise those who are to live forever to do things that are harmful 12.4 and destructive to the life which he promises? And again there is this: it is possible for someone who has cast off his possessions to no less still have the desire and longing for possessions ingrained and living with him, and to have cast away the use of them, but being in want and at the same time longing for what he has squandered, he is doubly grieved, both by the absence of what they provide and 12.5 by the presence of regret. For it is impossible and impracticable for one who is in need of the necessities of life not to be distracted in his mind and diverted from better things, trying to procure them somehow and from somewhere.

13.1 And how much more useful is the opposite: for one who has sufficient means both not to struggle himself about

his possessions and to help those to whom it is fitting? For what fellowship would be left among men, if no one had anything? 13.2 And how would this teaching not be found to be manifestly opposed to and at war with many other and excellent teachings of the Lord? 13.3 "Make for yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings." "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in 13.4 and steal." How could anyone feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty and clothe the naked and shelter the homeless—for not doing which he threatens fire and the outer darkness—if each one were himself first to be in want of these things? 13.5 And indeed he himself is a guest with Zacchaeus and Levi and Matthew, who were rich men and tax collectors, and he does not command them to give up their possessions, but imposing a righteous use and removing the unrighteous, 13.6 he declares: "Today salvation has come to this house." He so praises the use of them that with this addition he commands fellowship, to give drink to the thirsty, to give bread to the hungry, to 13.7 receive the homeless, to clothe the naked. But if it is not possible to fulfill these needs without possessions, and he commands to give up possessions, what else would the Lord be doing than giving the same

χρημάτων, ἀλλὰ τὰ δόγματα τὰ περὶ χρημάτων ἐξορίσαι τῆς ψυχῆς, τὴν πρὸς αὐτὰ συμπάθειαν τὴν ὑπεράγαν ἐπιθυμίαν, τὴν περὶ αὐτὰ πτοίαν καὶ νόσον, τὰς μερίμνας, τὰς ἀκάνθας τοῦ βίου, αἳ τὸ σπέρμα τῆς ζωῆς συμπνίγουσιν. 11.3 οὔτε γὰρ μέγα καὶ ζηλωτὸν τὸ τηνάλλως ἀπορεῖν χρημάτων μὴ οὐκ ἐπὶ λόγῳ ζωῆς (οὕτω μέν γ' ἂν ἦσαν οἱ μηδὲν ἔχοντες μηδαμῇ, ἀλλὰ ἔρημοι καὶ μεταῖται τῶν ἐφ' ἡμέραν, οἱ κατὰ τὰς ὁδοὺς ἐρριμμένοι πτωχοί, "ἀγνοοῦντες" δὲ θεὸν καὶ "δικαιοσύνην θεοῦ", κατ' αὐτὸ μόνον τὸ ἄκρως ἀπορεῖν καὶ ἀμηχανεῖν βίου καὶ τῶν ἐλαχίστων σπανίζειν μακαριώτατοι καὶ θεοφιλέστατοι καὶ μόνοι ζωὴν ἔχοντες 11.4 αἰώνιον) οὔτε καινὸν τὸ ἀπείπασθαι πλοῦτον καὶ χαρίσασθαι πτωχοῖς ἢ πατρίσιν, ὃ πολλοὶ πρὸ τῆς τοῦ σωτῆρος καθόδου πεποιήκασιν, οἳ μὲν τῆς εἰς λόγους σχολῆς καὶ νεκρᾶς σοφίας ἕνεκεν, οἳ δὲ φήμης κενῆς καὶ κενοδοξίας, Ἀναξαγόραι καὶ ∆ημόκριτοι καὶ Κράτητες.

12.1 Τί οὖν ὡς καινὸν καὶ ἴδιον θεοῦ παραγγέλλει καὶ μόνον ζωο ποιοῦν, ὃ

τοὺς προτέρους οὐκ ἔσωσεν; εἰ δὲ ἐξαίρετόν τι ἡ "καινὴ κτίσις", ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, μηνύει καὶ διδάσκει, οὐ τὸ φαινόμενον, ὅπερ ἄλλοι πεποιήκασι, παρεγγυᾷ, ἀλλ' ἕτερόν τι διὰ τούτου σημαινόμενον μεῖζον καὶ θειότερον καὶ τελεώτερον, τὸ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτὴν καὶ τὴν διάθεσιν γυμνῶσαι τῶν ὑπόντων παθῶν καὶ πρόρριζα τὰ ἀλλότρια τῆς γνώμης ἐκτεμεῖν καὶ ἐκβαλεῖν. τοῦτο γὰρ ἴδιον μὲν τοῦ πιστοῦ 12.2 τὸ μάθημα, ἄξιον δὲ τοῦ σωτῆρος τὸ δίδαγμα. οἱ γάρ τοι πρότεροι, καταφρονήσαντες τῶν ἐκτός, τὰ μὲν κτήματα ἀφῆκαν καὶ παραπ ώλεσαν, τὰ δὲ πάθη τῶν ψυχῶν οἶμαι ὅτι καὶ προσεπέτειναν· ἐν ὑπεροψίᾳ γὰρ ἐγένοντο καὶ ἀλαζονείᾳ καὶ κενοδοξίᾳ καὶ περιφρονήσει τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων ὡς αὐτοί τι ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον ἐργασάμενοι. 12.3 πῶς ἂν οὖν ὁ σωτὴρ παρῄνει τοῖς εἰς ἀεὶ βιωσομένοις τὰ βλάψοντα 12.4 καὶ λυμανούμενα πρὸς τὴν ζωήν, ἣν ἐπαγγέλλεται; καὶ γὰρ αὖ κἀκεῖνό ἐστι· δύναταί τις ἀποφορτισάμενος τὴν κτῆσιν οὐδὲν ἧττον ἔτι τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν καὶ τὴν ὄρεξιν τῶν χρημάτων ἔχειν ἐντετηκυῖαν καὶ συζῶ σαν καὶ τὴν μὲν χρῆσιν ἀποβεβληκέναι, ἀπορῶν δὲ ἅμα καὶ ποθῶν ἅπερ ἐσπάθησε διπλῇ λυπεῖσθαι, καὶ τῇ τῆς ὑπηρεσίας ἀπουσίᾳ καὶ 12.5 τῇ τῆς μετανοίας συνουσίᾳ. ἀνέφικτον γὰρ καὶ ἀμήχανον δεόμενον τῶν πρὸς τὸ βιοτεύειν ἀναγκαίων μὴ οὐ κατακλᾶσθαι τὴν γνώμην καὶ ἀσχολίαν ἄγειν ἀπὸ τῶν κρειττόνων, ὁπωσοῦν καὶ ὁθενοῦν ταῦτα πειρώμενον ἐκπορίζειν.

13.1 Καὶ πόσῳ χρησιμώτερον τὸ ἐναντίον, ἱκανὰ κεκτημένον αὐτόν τε περὶ

τὴν κτῆσιν μὴ κακοπαθεῖν καὶ οἷς καθῆκεν ἐπικουρεῖν; τίς γὰρ ἂν κοινωνία καταλείποιτο παρὰ ἀνθρώποις, εἰ μηδεὶς ἔχοι μηδέν; 13.2 πῶς δ' ἂν τοῦτο τὸ δόγμα πολλοῖς ἄλλοις καὶ καλοῖς τοῦ κυρίου δόγμασιν οὐχὶ φανερῶς ἐναντιούμενον εὑρίσκοιτο καὶ μαχόμενον; 13.3 "ποιήσατε ἑαυτοῖς φίλους ἐκ τοῦ μαμωνᾶ τῆς ἀδικίας. ἵν' ὅταν ἐκλίπῃ, δέξωνται ὑμᾶς εἰς τὰς αἰωνίους σκηνάς." "κτήσασθε θησαυροὺς ἐν οὐρανῷ, ὅπου μήτε σὴς μήτε βρῶσις ἀφανίζει μήτε κλέπται διορύσ 13.4 σουσι." πῶς ἄν τις πεινῶντα τρέφοι καὶ διψῶντα ποτίζοι καὶ γυ μνὸν σκεπάζοι καὶ ἄστεγον συνάγοι, ἃ τοῖς μὴ ποιήσασιν ἀπειλεῖ πῦρ καὶ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον, εἰ πάντων αὐτὸς ἕκαστος φθάνοι τούτων 13.5 ὑστερῶν; ἀλλὰ μὴν αὐτός τε ἐπιξενοῦται Ζακχαίῳ καὶ Λευεὶ καὶ Ματ θαίῳ τοῖς πλουσίοις καὶ τελώναις, καὶ τὰ μὲν χρήματα αὐτοὺς οὐ κελεύει μεθεῖναι, τὴν δὲ δικαίαν χρῆσιν ἐπιθεὶς καὶ τὴν ἄδικον ἀφελὼν 13.6 καταγγέλλει· "σήμερον σωτηρία τῷ οἴκῳ τούτῳ." οὕτω τὴν χρείαν αὐτῶν ἐπαινεῖ, ὥστε καὶ μετὰ τῆς προσθήκης ταύτης τὴν κοινωνίαν ἐπιτάσσει, ποτίζειν τὸν διψῶντα, ἄρτον διδόναι τῷ πεινῶντι, ὑπο 13.7 δέχεσθαι τὸν ἄστεγον, ἀμφιεννύναι τὸν γυμνόν. εἰ δὲ τὰς χρείας οὐχ οἷόν τε ἐκπληροῦν ταύτας μὴ ἀπὸ χρημάτων, τῶν δὲ χρημάτων ἀφί στασθαι κελεύει, τί ἂν ἕτερον εἴη ποιῶν ὁ κύριος ἢ τὰ αὐτὰ διδό