John Chrysostom, Fragments on Job

he lost all his children at once; and if at once, yet not by such a manner of death; and if by such a manner of death, yet he had friends to comfort him; and if he did not have comforters, yet not those trampling on him thus; and if they were trampling on him, yet not servants reproaching him; and if they were reproaching him, yet not spitting in his face; and if they were spitting in his face, yet he was not afflicted with such a disease; and if he was afflicted with such a disease, yet he enjoyed a dwelling and shelter, and did not sit upon a dunghill; and if he did sit upon a dunghill, yet he had those who would stretch out a hand; and if he did not have those to stretch out a hand, yet not those trampling on him; But this man endured all these things. For while he was in this state, and being scorched from every side, from within, from without, his wife worked her machinations, and his spouse becomes the weapon of the demon, and she shoots at her husband, having lent her tongue to the devil, and hurls words more bitter and more destructive than those already spoken. And not even here did his struggles come to an end, but it was again a beginning and a prelude to the battle-line; and he was struck ten thousand times by his friends with reproaches. Have you not grown weary hearing these successive calamities? But that man did not grow weary suffering. Therefore I entreat your charity to wait again; for we have not yet said everything, nor have we added the second exaggeration. For one was, that one body endured all the evils that exist among men. And another, that he endured them all at once, and did not even have a respite from suffering. But I want to mention a third as well; and what is this? That each of the things mentioned came not only at the same time, but also with much exaggeration and novelty; whether poverty, a poverty more grievous than any other, or disease, or his sitting down, or the loss of his children, or of all his possessions; for consider, someone has lost his possessions, but not so completely, nor in such a manner. He has lost children, but never all at once, nor so many, nor such ones. He has fallen into a disease, but not such a one, but either fevers, or leprosy, or some other common affliction. But that plague was a strange one, and clear only to the one suffering; 64.573 for no word could convey the bitterness of those sores, and the pain of the wounds; but it is sufficient only to name the one who caused it, and his unrestrained rage, to show the magnitude of the plague. And his sitting place was also new and strange; for there is not, there is not any poor man, who ever sat thus in the open air for all that time, as that man endured, naked of clothes, deprived of all shelter, sitting on a dunghill. Many a man has had a wicked wife, but no one was ever so wicked as to attack her husband in such a calamity, and to sharpen a sword against his soul, and to advise such counsels. And the matter of his friends was strange, and that of his servants; and the matter of his hunger was again newer still, that he did not partake of the table set before him. Shall I also mention a fourth exaggeration, I mean his former wealth and prosperity; for one who has lived in poverty from the beginning would have borne it more easily, having practiced the suffering; but he who was brought down from such great prosperity, because he was untrained and unpracticed, endures a more grievous sensation and a more bitter pain, and a greater disturbance. Shall I mention yet another exaggeration, one which especially crowns and proclaims that athlete, and shows his soul to be lofty and touching the heavens. What then is this? The difference in the time; for having lived before grace and before the law, he philosophized in such a way, not having enjoyed teaching, not having encountered writings, nor books, not having seen others like him, not being able to run back to former times and consider those who had succeeded; for there was not yet scripture, or a history handing down what had happened; but in an untrodden

παῖδας ἀθρόον ἀπώλεσεν ἅπαντας· εἰ καὶ ἀθρόον, ἀλλ' οὐ τοιούτῳ τρόπῳ τελευτῆς· εἰ δὲ καὶ τοιούτῳ τρόπῳ τελευτῆς, ἀλλὰ φίλους ἔσχε παρακαλοῦντας· εἰ δὲ οὐκ ἔσχε παρακαλοῦντας, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ οὕτως ἐπεμβαίνοντας· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐπεμβαίνοντας, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ οἰκέτας ὀνειδίζοντας· εἰ δὲ καὶ ὀνειδίζοντας, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ εἰς τὸ προσώπων αὐτοῦ ἐμπτύοντας· εἰ δὲ καὶ εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον ἐμπτύοντας, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ νόσῳ τοιαύτῃ περιεπάρη· εἰ δὲ καὶ νόσῳ τοιαύτῃ περιεπάρη, ἀλλὰ δομιτίου καὶ σκέπης ἀπήλαυσε, καὶ οὐκ ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας ἐκάθητο· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας ἐκάθητο, ἀλλ' ἔσχε τοὺς χεῖρα ὀρέγοντας· εἰ δὲ μὴ ἔσχε τοὺς χεῖρα ὀρέγοντας, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ ἐπεμβαίνοντας· οὗτος δὲ ἅπαντα ταῦτα ὑπήνεγκε. Ἐν τούτοις γὰρ ὄντος αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀποτηγανιζομένου πάντοθεν, ἔνδοθεν, ἔξωθεν, ἐποίει τῆς γυναικὸς τὰ μηχανήματα, καὶ γίνεται τοῦ δαίμονος ὅπλον ἡ σύνοικος, καὶ τοξεύει τὸν ἄνδρα, τὴν γλῶτταν δανείσασα τῷ διαβόλῳ, καὶ βάλλει τῶν εἰρημένων πικρότερα καὶ ὀλεθριώτερα. Καὶ οὐδὲ ἐνταῦθα τέλος ἐλάμβανε τὰ παλαίσματα, ἀλλ' ἀρχὴ πάλιν καὶ προοίμια τῆς παρατάξεως ἦν· καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν φίλων μυρίως ἐβάλλετο τοῖς ὀνείδεσιν. Ἆρα οὐκ ἐκάμετε ἀκούοντες τὰς ἐπαλλήλους ταύτας συμφοράς; ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνος οὐκ ἔκαμνε πάσχων. ∆ιὸ δὴ παρακαλῶ τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀγάπην ἀναμεῖναι πάλιν· οὐδέπω γὰρ τὸ πᾶν εἰρήκαμεν, οὐδὲ τὴν ἑτέραν προσεθήκαμεν ὑπερβολήν. Μία μὲν γὰρ ἦν, ὅτι πάντα τὰ ἐν ἀνθρώποις κακὰ, ἓν σῶμα ὑπέμεινεν. Ἑτέρα δὲ, ὅτι πάντα ὁμοῦ, καὶ οὐδὲ τὴν πάσχουσαν ἔσχεν ἀνακωχήν. Βούλομαι δὲ καὶ τρίτην εἰπεῖν· τίς δέ ἐστιν αὕτη; Ὅτι τῶν εἰρημένων ἕκαστον, οὐχ ὁμοῦ μόνον ἐπῆλθεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς ὑπερβολῆς, καὶ τῆς καινότητος· εἴτε πενία, πενίας ἁπάσης χαλεπωτέρα, εἴτε νόσος, εἴτε καθέδρα, εἴτε τῶν παίδων ἀπώλεια, εἴτε τῶν ὄντων ἁπάντων· σκόπει δὲ, ἀπώλεσέ τις τὰ ὄντα, ἀλλ' οὐχ οὕτως ὁλοσχερῶς, οὐδὲ τρόπῳ τοιῷδε. Ἀπέβαλε παῖδας, ἀλλ' οὐδέποτε ὑφ' ἓν ἅπαντας, οὐδὲ τοσούτους, οὐδὲ τοιούτους. Νόσῳ περιέπεσεν, ἀλλ' οὐ τοιαύτῃ, ἀλλ' ἢ πυρετοῖς, ἢ λώβῃ, ἢ ἑτέρῳ τινὶ πάθει συνήθει. Ἐκείνη δὲ ἡ πληγὴ ξένη τις ἦν, καὶ τῷ πάσχοντι μόνῳ σαφής· 64.573 λόγος γὰρ οὐδεὶς παραστῆσαι δύναιτ' ἂν τὸ πικρὸν τῶν ἑλκῶν ἐκείνων, καὶ τὸ τῶν τραυμάτων ὀδυνηρόν· ἀλλ' ἀρκεῖ μόνον τὸν ἐργασάμενον εἰπόντα, καὶ τὸν ἀκόλαστον αὐτοῦ θυμὸν, ἐνδείξασθαι τῆς πληγῆς τὸ μέγεθος. Καινὴ δὲ καὶ ἡ καθέδρα ἦν, καὶ ξένη· οὐ γάρ ἐστιν, οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδεὶς πένης, οὕτω ποτὲ καθεσθεὶς αἴθριος διὰ παντὸς τοῦ χρόνου, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος ὑπέμεινε γυμνὸς ἱματίων, στέγης ἀπεστερημένος ἁπάσης, ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας καθήμενος. Ἔσχε τις γυναῖκα πονηρὰν πολλάκις, ἀλλ' οὐδεμία οὐδέποτε ἐγένετο οὕτω πονηρὰ, ὡς ἐν τοιαύτῃ συμφορᾷ ἐπιτίθεσθαι τῷ ἀνδρὶ, καὶ ξίφος ἀκονῆσαι κατὰ τῆς ἐκείνου ψυχῆς, καὶ συμβουλεῦσαι τοιαύτας συμβουλάς. Καὶ τὸ τῶν φίλων δὲ ξένον, καὶ τὸ τῶν οἰκετῶν· καὶ τὸ τοῦ λιμοῦ δὲ καινότερον πάλιν, ὅτι παρακειμένης οὐκ ἀπεγένετο τῆς τραπέζης. Εἴπω καὶ τετάρτην ὑπερβολὴν, τὸν πλοῦτον λέγω, τὸν ἔμπροσθεν, καὶ τὴν εὐημερίαν· ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐν πενίᾳ ζήσας, εὐκολώτερον ἂν ταύτην ἤνεγκεν, ἅτε μελετήσας τὸ πάθος· ὁ δὲ ἐξ εὐημερίας τοσαύτης κατενεχθεὶς, διὰ τὸ ἀγύμναστον, καὶ ἀμελέτητον, χαλεπωτέραν ὑπομένει τὴν αἴσθησιν καὶ πικροτέραν τὴν ὀδύνην, καὶ μείζονα τὴν ταραχήν. Εἴπω καὶ ἑτέραν ὑπερβολὴν, μάλιστα στεφανοῦσαν, καὶ ἀνακηρύττουσαν τὸν ἀθλητὴν ἐκεῖνον, καὶ δεικνύουσαν αὐτοῦ ὑψηλὴν καὶ τῶν οὐρανῶν ἁπτομένην τὴν ψυχήν. Τίς οὖν ἐστιν αὕτη; Ἡ ἀπὸ τοῦ χρόνου διαφορά· πρὸ γὰρ τῆς χάριτος, καὶ πρὸ τοῦ νόμου γενόμενος, τοιαῦτα ἐφιλοσόφησεν, οὐ διδασκαλίας ἀπολαύσας, οὐ γράμμασιν ἐντυχὼν, οὐ βιβλίοις, οὐχ ἑτέρους τοιούτους θεασάμενος, οὐκ εἰς τὸν ἔμπροσθεν χρόνον ἀναδραμεῖν ἔχων, καὶ τοὺς κατορθωκότας ἐννοῆσαι· οὐδέπω γὰρ ἦν γραφὴ, ἢ ἱστορία τὰ γεγενημένα παραδιδοῦσα· ἀλλ' ἐν ἀτριβεῖ