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him, saying: Forgive them their sin; for they know not what they do. What then? Did he forgive them their sin? He forgave, if they were willing to repent. For if he had not forgiven them their sin, Paul would not have become an apostle; if he had not forgiven them their sin, three thousand would not have immediately believed, and five thousand, and many myriads. For that many myriads of Jews believed, hear what the apostles say to Paul: You see, brother, how many myriads there are of Jews who have believed? Let us imitate the Master, therefore, and pray for our enemies. For I take up this exhortation again; today is the fifth day I am discoursing to you on this subject, not condemning your disobedience, may it not be so, but rather hoping that you will be persuaded. But if there are any who are hard and wrathful and intractable, so as to disobey what has been said about prayer, even if, ashamed at the number of days, they might at some point put away their enmity and small-mindedness. Imitate your Master; He was being crucified, and for those crucifying him he was speaking to the Father. And how can I, he says, imitate the Master? If you are willing, you can.

For if you were not able to imitate, how did he say, Learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart? If it were not possible to imitate, Paul would not have said: Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. But still you do not want to imitate the Master? Imitate your fellow servant, I mean Stephen the apostle; for he also imitated the Master. And just as Christ in the midst of those crucifying him, putting aside the cross, putting aside his own affairs, beseeches the Father for those crucifying him; so also the servant in the midst of those stoning him, being struck by all, receiving the blows of the stones, and putting aside the pains resulting from them, said: Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Did you see how the Son speaks? Did you see how the servant prays? That one says: Father, forgive them 49.406 this sin; for they know not what they do; but this one says: Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And that you may learn that he prays with earnestness, he does not simply pray standing while being stoned, but kneeling down he said it with compunction, with much compassion. Do you want me to show you also another fellow servant who suffered much greater things than that one? Paul says: By the Jews I was beaten with rods three times, once I was stoned, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. What then after these things? I wished, he says, that I myself were accursed for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Do you want to see another, not from the New, but from the Old? For this is especially wonderful, that where they were not commanded to love their enemies, but to cut out an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, and to repay evils with equal things, they attained an apostolic philosophy. Hear what Moses says, who was stoned by the Jews many times, and despised by them: If you will forgive them their sin, forgive it; but if not, blot me also out of the book which you have written. Do you see each one putting the safety of others before his own salvation? You have not sinned at all; and why do you wish to share in their punishment? Because I do not feel my prosperity very much, he says, while others are suffering ill. These examples, then, were sufficient for us; but that we might correct ourselves from an abundance, I will try another who philosophized in the same way. For David too, that blessed and meek one, when the whole camp rose up against him, and armed his son Absalom, and he had set upon the tyranny, and wanted to slay him, then when God was provoked by this (for what if He also added another pretext for the slaughter?) and sent the angel with a drawn sword, and inflicting the plague from above, seeing all perishing, what does he say? I the shepherd have sinned, and I the shepherd have done wickedly. Let your hand be on me, and on my father's house. Do you see

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αὐτὸν, λέγων· Ἄφες αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν· οὐ γὰρ οἴδασι τί ποιοῦσι. Τί οὖν; ἀφῆκεν αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν; Ἀφῆκεν, εἰ ἐβούλοντο μετανοῆσαι. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἀφῆκεν αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, οὐκ ἂν Παῦλος ἀπόστολος ἐγένετο· εἰ μὴ ἀφῆκεν αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, οὐκ ἂν εὐθέως τρισχίλιοι ἐπίστευσαν καὶ πεντακισχίλιοι καὶ πολλαὶ μυριάδες. Ὅτι γὰρ πολλαὶ μυριάδες Ἰουδαίων ἐπίστευσαν, ἄκουσον τί λέγουσιν οἱ ἀπόστολοι τῷ Παύλῳ· Θεωρεῖς, ἀδελφὲ, πόσαι μυριάδες εἰσὶν Ἰουδαίων τῶν πεπιστευκότων; Μιμησώμεθα τοίνυν τὸν ∆εσπότην, καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐχθρῶν εὐχώμεθα. Πάλιν γὰρ αὐτῆς ἐπιλαμβάνομαι τῆς παραινέσεως· πέμπτην ἔχω σήμερον ἡμέραν ὑπὲρ ταύτης ὑμῖν τῆς ὑποθέσεως διαλεγόμενος, οὐχὶ καταγινώσκων ὑμῶν παρακοὴν, μὴ γένοιτο, ἀλλὰ μάλιστα ἐλπίζων ὅτι πεισθήσεσθε. Εἰ δέ τινές εἰσι σκληροὶ καὶ ὀργίλοι καὶ δυσανάγωγοι, ὥστε παρακοῦσαι τῶν περὶ τῆς εὐχῆς ῥηθέντων, κἂν τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν ἡμερῶν αἰδεσθέντες ἀπόθωνταί ποτε τὴν ἔχθραν καὶ τὴν μικροψυχίαν. Μίμησαί σου τὸν ∆εσπότην· ἐσταυροῦτο, καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν σταυρούντων τῷ Πατρὶ διελέγετο. Καὶ πῶς δύναμαι, φησὶ, τὸν ∆εσπότην μιμήσασθαι; Ἐὰν θέλῃς, δύνασαι.

Εἰ μὴ γὰρ οἷός τε ἦς μιμήσασθαι, πῶς ἔλεγε, Μάθετε ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, ὅτι πρᾶός εἰμι καὶ ταπεινὸς τῇ καρδίᾳ; Εἰ μὴ δυνατὸν ἦν μιμήσασθαι, οὐκ ἂν ἔλεγεν ὁ Παῦλος· Μιμηταί μου γίνεσθε, καθὼς κἀγὼ Χριστοῦ. Πλὴν ἀλλ' οὐ βούλει τὸν ∆εσπότην μιμήσασθαι; μίμησαι τὸν σύνδουλον, Στέφανον λέγω τὸν ἀπόστολον· καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος τὸν ∆εσπότην ἐμιμήσατο. Καὶ καθάπερ ὁ Χριστὸς μεταξὺ τῶν σταυρούντων, ἀφεὶς τὸν σταυρὸν, ἀφεὶς τὰ καθ' ἑαυτὸν, ὑπὲρ τῶν σταυρούντων παρακαλεῖ τὸν Πατέρα· οὕτω καὶ ὁ δοῦλος μεταξὺ τῶν λιθαζόντων, βαλλόμενος ὑπὸ πάντων, δεχόμενος τὰς βολὰς τῶν λίθων, καὶ τὰς ὀδύνας τὰς ἐκ τούτων γινομένας ἀφεὶς, ἔλεγε· Κύριε, μὴ στήσῃς αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ταύτην. Εἶδες πῶς διαλέγεται ὁ Υἱός; εἶδες πῶς δέεται ὁ δοῦλος; Ἐκεῖνός φησι· Πάτερ, ἄφες αὐτοῖς τὴν 49.406 ἁμαρτίαν ταύτην· οὐ γὰρ οἴδασι τί ποιοῦσιν· οὗτος δέ φησι· Κύριε, μὴ στήσῃς αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ταύτην. Καὶ ἵνα μάθῃς ὅτι μετὰ σπουδῆς εὔχεται, οὐχ ἁπλῶς εὔχεται ἑστὼς καὶ καταλευόμενος, ἀλλὰ θεὶς τὰ γόνατα εἶπε μετὰ κατανύξεως, μετὰ πολλῆς συμπαθείας. Βούλει σοι δείξω καὶ ἄλλον σύνδουλον πολλῷ μείζονα ἐκείνου παθόντα; Ὁ Παῦλός φησιν· Ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων τρὶς ἐῤῥαβδίσθην, ἅπαξ ἐλιθάσθην, νυχθήμερον ἐν τῷ βυθῷ πεποίηκα. Τί οὖν μετὰ ταῦτα; Ηὐχόμην, φησὶν, αὐτὸς ἀνάθεμα εἶναι ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου, τῶν συγγενῶν μου κατὰ σάρκα. Θέλεις καὶ ἄλλον ἰδεῖν, οὐκ ἀπὸ τῆς Καινῆς, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῆς Παλαιᾶς; Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι μάλιστα τὸ θαυμαστὸν, ὅτι ὅπου οὐκ ἐκελεύοντο τοὺς ἐχθροὺς φιλεῖν, ἀλλ' ὀφθαλμὸν ἐκκόπτειν ἀντ' ὀφθαλμοῦ, καὶ ὀδόντα ἀντὶ ὀδόντος, καὶ τοῖς ἴσοις ἀμείψασθαι κακοῖς, πρὸς ἀποστολικὴν ἔφθασαν φιλοσοφίαν. Ἄκουσον τί φησιν ὁ Μωϋσῆς, ὁ λιθασθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰουδαίων πολλάκις, καὶ καταφρονηθεὶς ὑπ' αὐτῶν· Εἰ μὲν ἀφίης αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, ἄφες· εἰ δὲ μὴ, κἀμὲ ἐξάλειψον ἐκ τῆς βίβλου ἧς ἔγραψας. Ὁρᾷς ἕκαστον τὴν τῶν ἄλλων ἀσφάλειαν πρὸ τῆς οἰκείας σωτηρίας τιθέμενον; Οὐδὲν ἥμαρτες· καὶ τί βούλει κοινωνῆσαι αὐτοῖς τῆς τιμωρίας; Ὅτι οὐ σφόδρα αἰσθάνομαι, φησὶ, τῆς εὐπραγίας, ἑτέρων πασχόντων κακῶς. Ἤρκει μὲν οὖν καὶ ταῦτα ἡμῖν τὰ παραδείγματα· ἵνα δὲ ἐκ περιουσίας διορθώσωμεν ἑαυτοὺς, καὶ ἕτερον τὰ αὐτὰ φιλοσοφοῦντα πειράσομαι. Καὶ γὰρ ὁ ∆αυῒδ, ὁ μακάριος ἐκεῖνος καὶ πρᾶος, τοῦ στρατοπέδου παντὸς κατεξαναστάντος αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὸν υἱὸν καθοπλίσαντος τὸν Ἀβεσαλὼμ, καὶ ἐπιθεμένου τῇ τυραννίδι, καὶ βουληθέντος αὐτὸν σφάξαι, εἶτα τοῦ Θεοῦ διὰ τοῦτο παροξυνθέντος τί γὰρ εἰ καὶ πρόφασιν ἑτέραν ἐπέθηκε τῇ σφαγῇ; καὶ τὸν ἄγγελον πέμψαντος ῥομφαίαν ἐσπασμένον, καὶ τὴν πληγὴν ἐπιφέροντα ἄνωθεν, ὁρῶν ἀπολλυμένους ἅπαντας, τί φησιν; Ἐγὼ ὁ ποιμὴν ἥμαρτον, κἀγὼ ὁ ποιμὴν ἐκακοποίησα. Γενέσθω ἐπ' ἐμὲ ἡ χείρ σου, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρός μου. Ὁρᾷς