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of Zambri and the Midianite woman, which happened openly and shamelessly, with them not even covering up the unseemly sight of their shame, not enduring it, he used his anger for a necessary purpose, driving the spear through both of them. And did not Samuel, out of just anger, bring forth into the midst and kill Agag, the king of Amalek, who had been spared by Saul contrary to the command of God? Thus anger often becomes a servant of good deeds. And Elijah the zealot, with a reasoned and sober anger, for the benefit of all Israel, put to death four hundred and fifty men, priests of shame, and four hundred men, priests of the groves, who ate at Jezebel's table. But you are angry with your brother without a cause. For how is it not without a cause, when another is at work, you yourself are angry with someone else? And you do the 31.369 thing of dogs, who bite the stones, not touching the one who threw them. The one who is acted upon is pitiable; but the one who is at work is hateful.

Transfer your anger there, to the murderer, the father of lies, the worker of sin; and have compassion on your brother, because, if he persists in sin, he will be delivered with the devil to the eternal fire. And just as the names of rage and anger are different, so also the things signified by them differ very greatly from each other. For rage is a kind of flare-up and a quick boiling up of the passion; but anger is an abiding grief and a lasting impulse for retaliation against those who have done wrong, as the soul swells up for vengeance.

It is necessary, therefore, to know that in both these dispositions people sin: either being moved maniacally and impetuously against those who provoke them, or deceitfully and treacherously lying in wait for those who have grieved them; both of which we must guard against. How then might the passion not be moved toward what it ought not? How? If you were first taught the humility which the Lord both commanded in word and showed by deed; now saying: He who wishes to be first among you, let him be the last of all; and now meekly and unmovedly enduring the one who strikes him. For the maker and master of heaven and earth, who is worshipped by all intelligible and sensible creation, who upholds all things by the word of his power, did not send him alive into Hades, with the earth breaking open for the impious man, but he admonishes and teaches: If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness of the wrong; but if well, why do you strike me? For if you become accustomed to be the last of all according to the commandment of the Lord, when will you be indignant, as having been insulted beyond your worth? When a small child insults you, you make the insults an occasion for laughter; and when one out of his mind from madness utters dishonorable words, you consider him pitiable rather than worthy of hatred. Therefore, it is not in the nature of words to stir up grief, but our arrogance toward the one who insults us, and the conceit each has about himself. So that if you remove each of these from your own mind, the things that are brought against you are otherwise an empty, echoing noise.

Cease therefore from anger, and forsake wrath, so that you may flee the experience of the wrath which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. For if you are able to cut out with sober reasoning the bitter root of anger, you will destroy many of the passions along with this beginning. For indeed the deceitful and suspicious, and faithless and malicious, and treacherous and insolent, and the whole 31.372 swarm of such evils, are offshoots of this vice. Let us not then bring upon ourselves so great an evil: a sickness of soul, a darkening of thoughts, alienation from God, ignorance of kinship, a beginning of war, a fulfillment of calamities, an evil demon being born in our very souls, and like some shameless inhabitant preoccupying our inner parts, and closing off the entrance to the Holy Spirit. For where there are enmities, strife, outbursts of anger, disputes, contentions, tumults

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τοῦ Ζαμβρὶ καὶ τῆς Μαδιανίτιδος ἀναφανδὸν καὶ ἀπηρυθριασμένως γινομένην, οὐδὲ συγκαλυπτόντων αὐτῶν τῆς αἰσχύνης τὴν ἀσχή-μονα θέαν, οὐκ ἀνασχόμενος, εἰς δέον ἐχρήσατο τῷ θυμῷ, δι' ἀμφοῖν ἐλάσας τὸν σειρομάστην. Σαμουὴλ δὲ τὸν Ἀγὰγ τὸν βασιλέα τοῦ Ἀμαλὴκ ὑπὸ τοῦ Σαοὺλ παρὰ τὸ πρόσταγμα τοῦ Θεοῦ περισωθέντα οὐχ ὑπὸ δικαίας ὀργῆς εἰς μέσον ἀγαγὼν κατεφόνευσεν; Οὕτω γίνεται πολλάκις ὁ θυμὸς ἀγαθῶν πράξεων ὑπηρέτης. Ἠλίας δὲ ὁ ζηλωτὴς, πεντήκοντα καὶ τετρακοσίους ἄνδρας ἱερεῖς τῆς αἰσχύνης, καὶ τετρα-κοσίους ἄνδρας ἱερεῖς τῶν ἀλσῶν, ἐσθίοντας τράπεζαν Ἰεζάβελ, λελογισμένῳ θυμῷ καὶ σώφρονι εἰς ὄφελος παντὸς τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἐθανάτωσε. Σὺ δὲ ὀργίζῃ τῷ ἀδελφῷ σου εἰκῆ. Πῶς γὰρ οὐκ εἰκῆ, ἄλλου ἐνεργοῦντος, ἄλλῳ χαλεπαίνων αὐτός; Καὶ ποιεῖς τὸ 31.369 τῶν κυνῶν· οἳ τοὺς λίθους δάκνουσι, τοῦ βάλλοντος οὐ προσαπτόμενοι. Ὁ ἐνεργούμενος ἐλεεινός· ὁ δὲ ἐνεργῶν μισητός.

Ἐκεῖ τὸν θυμὸν μετάθες ἐπὶ τὸν ἀνθρωποκτόνον, τὸν τοῦ ψεύδους πατέρα, τὸν ἐργάτην τῆς ἁμαρτίας· τῷ δὲ ἀδελφῷ καὶ συμπάθησον, ὅτι, ἐὰν ἐπιμείνῃ τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, μετὰ τοῦ διαβόλου παραδοθήσεται τῷ αἰωνίῳ πυρί. Ὥσπερ δὲ τὰ ὀνόματα διάφορα θυμοῦ καὶ ὀργῆς, οὕτω καὶ τὰ ὑπ' αὐτῶν σημαινόμενα πλεῖστον ἀλλήλων διαφέρει. Ἔστι γὰρ θυμὸς μὲν οἷον ἔξαψίς τις καὶ ἀναθυμίασις ὀξεῖα τοῦ πάθους· ὀργὴ δὲ ἔμμονος λύπη καὶ ὁρμὴ διαρκὴς πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἠδικηκότων ἀντίδοσιν, ὥσπερ ὀργώσης τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς τὴν ἄμυναν.

Εἰδέναι οὖν χρὴ, ὅτι κατ' ἀμφοτέρας τὰς διαθέσεις πλημμελοῦσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι· ἢ μανικῶς καὶ ἐμπλήκτως κατὰ τῶν παροξυνόντων κινούμενοι, ἢ δολερῶς καὶ ἐπιβούλως τοὺς λυπήσαντας ἐνεδρεύοντες· ἅπερ ἀμφότερα φυλακτέον ἡμῖν. Πῶς ἂν οὖν μὴ κινοῖτο πρὸς ἃ μὴ δεῖ τὸ πάθος; Πῶς; Εἰ προπαιδευθείης τὴν ταπεινοφροσύνην, ἣν ὁ Κύριος καὶ λόγῳ διετάξατο, καὶ ἔργῳ ὑπέδειξε· νῦν μὲν λέγων· Ὁ θέλων ἐν ὑμῖν εἶναι πρῶτος ἔστω πάντων ἔσχατος· νῦν δὲ πράως καὶ ἀκινήτως τοῦ τύπτοντος ἀνεχόμενος. Ὁ γὰρ οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς ποιητὴς καὶ δεσπότης, ὁ παρὰ πάσης τῆς νοητῆς καὶ αἰσθητῆς κτίσεως προσκυνούμενος, ὁ Φέρων τὰ σύμπαντα τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ, οὐχὶ ζῶντα ἔπεμψεν αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν ᾅδην, τῆς γῆς ὑποῤῥαγείσης τῷ δυσσεβεῖ, ἀλλὰ νουθετεῖ καὶ διδάσκει· Εἰ κακῶς ἐλάλησα, μαρτύρησον περὶ τοῦ κακοῦ· εἰ δὲ καλῶς, τί με δέρεις; Ἐὰν γὰρ ἐθισθῇς πάντων ἔσχατος εἶναι κατὰ τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ Κυρίου, πότε ἀγανακτήσεις ὡς παρὰ τὴν ἀξίαν καθυβρισμένος; Ὅταν σε παιδίον νήπιον λοιδορήσῃ, γέλωτος ἀφορμὴν ποιῇ τὰ λοιδορήματα· καὶ ὅταν ὑπὸ φρενίτιδος ἐξεστηκὼς τὴν διάνοιαν φθέγγηται ῥήματα ἀτιμίας, ἐλεεινὸν ἡγῇ μᾶλλον ἢ μίσους ἄξιον. Οὐ τοίνυν τὰ ῥήματα πέφυκε τὰς λύπας κινεῖν, ἀλλ' ἡ κατὰ τοῦ λοιδορήσαντος ἡμᾶς ὑπεροψία, καὶ ἡ ἑκάστου περὶ ἑαυτὸν φαντασία. Ὥστε ἂν ἀφέλῃς τῆς ἑαυτοῦ διανοίας τούτων ἑκάτερον, ψόφος ἐστὶν ἄλλως διακενῆς ἠχῶν τὰ φερόμενα.

Παῦσαι οὖν ἀπὸ ὀργῆς, καὶ ἐγκατάλιπε θυμὸν, ἵνα φύγῃς τῆς ὀργῆς τὴν πεῖραν, τῆς Ἀποκαλυπτομένης ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ἀσέβειαν καὶ ἀδικίαν ἀνθρώπων. Ἐὰν γὰρ λογισμῷ σώφρονι ἐκτεμεῖν δυνηθῇς τὴν πικρὰν ῥίζαν τοῦ θυμοῦ, πολλὰ τῶν παθῶν τῇ ἀρχῇ ταύτῃ συναναιρήσεις. Καὶ γὰρ τὸ δολερὸν καὶ ὕποπτον, καὶ ἄπιστον καὶ κακόηθες, καὶ ἐπίβουλον καὶ θρασὺ, καὶ πᾶν τὸ τῶν τοιούτων 31.372 πονηρῶν σμῆνος, ταύτης τῆς κακίας ἐστὶν ἀποβλαστήματα. Μὴ δὴ οὖν ἐπεισάγωμεν ἑαυτοῖς κακὸν τοσοῦτον· ἀῤῥωστίαν ψυχῆς, σκότωσιν λογισμῶν, ἀπὸ Θεοῦ ἀλλοτρίωσιν, οἰκειότητος ἄγνοιαν, ἀρχὴν πολέμου, συμφορῶν πλήρωμα, δαίμονα πονηρὸν αὐταῖς ἡμῶν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἐντικτόμενον, καὶ ὥσπερ τινὰ ἔνοικον ἀναιδῆ προκατέχοντα ἡμῶν τὰ ἔνδον, καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι τὴν πάροδον ἀποκλείοντα. Ὅπου γὰρ ἔχθραι, ἔρεις, θυμοὶ, ἐριθεῖαι, φιλονεικίαι, θορύβους