Dialogus de vita Joannis Chrysostomi
honor, but he who is called by God. Thus 5 also Aaron, he says, did not glorify himself to become high priest. For although there were six hundred
the flight of concord, most of us who are active and eager for it have become fugitives from the country, being unable to live safely and without trou
he met with us, he did not share in words, nor in prayer, nor in communion but disembarking from the ship and running past the doors of the church, h
to share in the suffering and to do everything, so as to stop these evils. For he put a stop to none of their lawlessness here, but even after this he
and lamentations and fountains of tears in the marketplaces and the houses and in the desolate places and the whole part of the city was filled with
you are exhorted to contribute zeal from yourselves. For thus you will gratify not only us, 16 but also the community of the churches, and you will re
had fled on account of the threat contained in the imperial decree, that If anyone is not in communion with Theophilus and Arsakius and Porphyry, let
of Bishop John of the Constantinopolitans and, as it seems, it has not been accomplished. Therefore, I wrote again through the bishops and presbyters
savagery. This also the Savior God did, illuminating them with various revelations, so that also to Paul, the deacon of Saint Emilius, a most gentle
He who speaks a lie is not of God, and again from David, Because the mouth of those who speak unjust things was stopped. For he who lies truly wro
by his own choice, he was trained in the discourses for the ministry of the divine oracles. From there, being in the eighteenth year of his physical a
of those who have believed in him will be bound. {THE DEACON} But where did they recognize the presence of the Savior? {THE BISHOP} When they cried ou
of the rich, cutting away the abscesses of the soul, teaching them humility, to be of a humble mind towards other people, obeying the apostolic word,
she gives one thousand gold pieces, having made him swear by the table of the Savior that he would buy clothes and clothe the poorer women of the Alex
with his own hands on his neck, and after inflicting blows on his jaws, with clenched fingers he bloodied his nostrils, shouting 38 with a loud voice:
by an excess of conceit. But those men, driven by great necessity because they were changing places from place to place, arrive at the camp, where Bis
of the church, Dioscorus the bishop, who had grown old in the church but to the bishop John he writes: I think you are not ignorant of the decree of
of John for unlawful offenses, he took advantage of their fickleness and persuades them to submit bills of accusation against John, promising them to
Elijah was taken up did not Elisha prophesy? Paul was beheaded did he not leave behind Timothy, Titus, Apollos and ten thousand others? After these
these of the council but if as accusers, set them up for the trial, so that I may know how I should contend, whether as against adversaries or as jud
(for he is impetuous by nature, and rash and bold and exceedingly contentious—for there is nothing that appears to him by sight, <towards> which he do
brother Acacius and Antiochus whom they put forward as canons of the orthodox, because We are of the faith of those who set them forth, and our doub
reading the oracles, and others baptizing the catechumens, as was fitting because of Easter. These very things the corruptors of minds and deceivers o
a proof of the diligence of teachers, unceasingly setting right the unconquerable quality of their resolve. Theodore said: {THE DEACON} You have spoke
near him to the west), but in the western part, where the gate of the church is, the mule-team, on which he was accustomed to sit, having ordered it t
of a hierophant, a man more silent than a fish and more idle than a frog (for there are times when even action speaks, especially when the good is don
terrifying, just as bogeymen do children? Alas! Those who are clothed in worldly powers and ecclesiastical wealth with authority, with command even of
on the one hand, that he ate alone but I did not wish you, most harmonious Theodore, to ask about the things of gluttonous infants. For being a man,
he says, urging us to imitation Do not forget hospitality, he says, for by this some have entertained angels unawares. But the host must have the
fell from blessing? was it not when he served his belly, deceived by the food? When did Saul fall from the kingdom? was it not when he ate the best of
to eat bread and to put on a garment, all that you give me, I will tithe a tenth of it to you -he did not say, I will consume it at tables. That sp
to give glory to God <in> persecutions. in the refutations of error, is there any mention of a table? But again to Titus, the bishop of Crete, let us
they were seeking luxury. It was absurd to squander the food of the sick or the poor on the intemperance of the healthy. And what sort of law is this,
from seeing evil. For many of the so-called bishops, wishing to cut off the reasonable hatred directed at them on account of their own ways and their
First, that having melted down treasures he fashioned a silver object in the name of his son second, that having taken marbles from the entrance of t
love of money is a source of evils. For he who took bribes against the innocent and thought to sell the distribution of the Holy Spirit for silver,
Antoninus dies, with whom Eusebius had the lawsuit. Again a decree comes from Asia, this one from the clergy of the church of the Ephesians, and this
to buy the priesthood. They say that the ravager and falsely-named patriarch of the Jews changes the rulers of the synagogue every year, or even more
of those who deposed him and concluded the trial. <CHAPTER 19> {THE DEACON.} Forgive me, father, such things surpass drunkenness and madness and sport
ambidextrous (for even his so-called left hand was better than the right hand of others) who at first, having served in letters, was found blameles
slandering their life, waiting to have help from God. To these things Theodore, being astonished, said: {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} I see the facts as contrary to the n
Or is it proper at all to cast out any disciple, much less a monk? 100 {THE DEACON} Because they provoked him or spoke ill of him. {THE BISHOP} And ou
having led them back from vice to virtue, it will be clear that their persecutor deserves not to be persecuted, but to be pitied, as one who always ab
having provoked the physician and enchanter of souls and removed his interpreter from the workshop of salvation, 105 they were handed over to the phys
imitating him who, having found the one crushed by robbers, half-dead, on the way down to Jericho, placed him on his own beast of burden, having broug
did he give? And when Optimus died in Constantinople, he closed his eyes with his own hands. In addition to these things, he also refreshed in no smal
desiring to chasten the herd of men for their various desires towards the more austere part of life, he became his own judge and lawgiver, being stren
toward the north, and each man's axe in his hand and one man in the midst of them, clothed in a full-length robe, and a sapphire belt on his loins a
in many ways Who will boast that he has a pure heart? Or who will boldly claim to be pure from sin? but yet the blessed John did not know how to us
happen to us anonymously and beneficially? sifting the reasons, not obeying him who said: Eat whatever is sold in the meat-market, asking no question
two? {THE BISHOP} Especially if it is an unprofitable and charlatan crowd such as the one who said to Jesus: Teacher, I will follow you wherever you
an intemperate old man, and an old man who loves learning above an unlearned younger man, and a poor layman above an educated lover of money, and a vi
enjoying his disease nor raging with the same desires. For this is a fitting way of life for a teacher, not to linger with the crowds, but in quiet an
having subjected his body to shameful tortures by the cruelty of judges, to the point of knocking out his teeth, as the story goes, 127 they confined
knocking, they made the two-day journey into one, arriving late in the evening and departing in the dark of dawn, so that the stomach could not even k
and that these things are done and are prolonged and are strong, and that the good are afflicted and plundered, brings me to shudder at his approachin
Why shall I not be angry? looking upon me, marvel, and lay your hand upon your jaw. For if I remember, I am troubled, and pains take hold of my flesh.
when reviled, we bless when persecuted, we endure when slandered, we entreat we have become as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all thi
sleepless or troubled in sleep, he suspects plots even from his own family, not trusting even himself, distrusting everyone as liars. Being such a per
each other, for which it was also fitting, having learned something, did you not decide to be quiet and remain still by yourselves even for the future
to his father and to his mother, I have not seen you, and his brothers he did not acknowledge he guarded your oracles, and kept your covenant. He d
foot-soldiers' machinations for the hindering of those who travel for the truth). How then do they dare to say: By God's economy John has been cast o
to eat bread and to put on a garment, all that you give me, I will tithe a tenth of it to you" -he did not say, "I will consume it at tables." That spokesman of God and faithful servant Moses, what sort of table did he prepare when he called the people to assembly on the mountain? And what mixing bowls of drink did he have? He who milked the rock with his staff because of the people's unbelief, the leader of six hundred thousand, he carried tablets of the law for the correction of the people, or did he set before those being instructed transparent bowls, sows' wombs and birds from Phasis and fish from the sea and strained wine from Tyre and washed loaves, or the word? {THE DEACON} But someone will raise this objection to you, father: "Give me manna and that water, and I will seek nothing more." 76 {THE BISHOP} And who is so troublesome as to prefer perceptible manna and flowing water to spiritual teaching? Then Samuel, the teacher of the people, who lived in quiet at Armathaim for twenty-five years, whom did he ever turn from the table of idols, and not by the word? And when did the king, at once prophet and psalmist, set up a table of luxury? -he who says, "I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping." The creator of a universal fast, who prepared an involuntary abstinence from food for the gluttonous for three years and six months, by what table did Elijah the Tishbite deliver them from sin? And what cooks did he have? Did he not receive his daily cake by means of ravens? The wise Daniel, an eyewitness of future events, by what table did he instruct the Assyrians? Was it not by fasting and prayer that he destroyed the dragon and overthrew Bel and muzzled the lions and persuaded the king to renounce his ancestral gods by confession of the truly existing God? What tables, what fine eating did the chorus of the other prophets or apostles use? Were they not teachers? Were they not entrusted with the whole world? Are we not their successors? Does not the word want us to be imitators of them, paying attention to their ways, as Paul teaches, saying: "Considering the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith"? What honey-cakes did the herald of repentance, John the Baptist, have in the wilderness, who not only prepared no feasts for those who came to him, but even offered them a bitter encounter with rebuke? For not only by his sharp gaze did he shake their defiled conscience, but also by his very appearance, and much more, like a sword, with his word he cut out the abscesses of their souls: ""Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance," and do not rely only on baptism or on being children of Abraham." What about the teacher of the nations, the destroyer of circumcision, that he might establish the circumcision of faith, "the 77 chosen instrument," Paul? Is he ever found to have leisure for a table, he who was more a debtor of this than anyone, and who ought to have first established a relationship with unbelieving gentiles by means of a table? And what does he write to Timothy, bishop of Ephesus: "Attend" to the munificence of the table or "to reading, to exhortation, to teaching" (in which the blessed John was especially tireless and vigorous)? -"be ready in season and out of season," he says, "convince, rebuke, exhort" (no one instructing him that two are bitter and one is pleasant, and perhaps he added that one sparingly; but the "convince, rebuke," being intensely bitter, are in the "exhort," and not "flatter"; which, when done skillfully, is more bitter to pleasure-lovers and the indolent, the reproofs being found more burdensome. For in that case, the soul, perhaps resisting under some anger, is insensible to the words of the reproof; but in this case, being gently and little by little burned by the reasonable words with truth, it is cut to the quick, as if by a gentle fire). And of what does he remind him: of banquets and feasts or of the solemn accounts of afflictions? -saying: ""For you have followed my way of life," how I was disposed with the purpose of all things for
ἄρτον φαγεῖν καὶ ἱμάτιον περιβαλέσθαι, πᾶν ὃ ἐὰν δῷς μοι, δεκάτην ἀποδεκατώσω αὐτά σοι" -οὐκ εἶπεν, "τραπέζαις καταναλώσω."
ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑποφήτης καὶ πιστὸς θεράπων Μωϋσῆς ἐκεῖνος, ποίαν τράπεζαν εὐτρεπίσας ἐξεκλησίασεν λαὸν ἐν τῷ ὄρει; τίνας δὲ καὶ
κρατῆρας πομάτων εἶχεν; ὁ πέτραν ῥάβδῳ ἀμέλξας διὰ τὴν τοῦ λαοῦ ἀπιστίαν, ὁ ἑξακοσίων χιλιάδων ἀφηγητής, πυξία νόμου ἐβάσταζεν
εἰς διόρθωσιν τοῦ λαοῦ, ἢ φιάλας ἀεροφανεῖς ὑστέρας τε χοίρων καὶ ὄρνεις ἐκ Φάσιδος καὶ ἰχθὺν ἐκ πελάγους καὶ οἶνον διϋλισ
μένον ἐκ Τύρου καὶ ἄρτους πλυτοὺς προβαλλόμενος τοῖς παι δευομένοις, ἢ λόγον; {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} Ἀλλ' ἀνθυποίσει σοί τις πρὸς ταῦτα,
πάτερ· "Κἀμοὶ δὸς μάννα κἀκεῖνο τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ οὐδὲν ἐπιζητῶ πλέον." 76 {Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} Καὶ τίς οὕτως ἀργαλέος, ἵνα προκρίνῃ τῆς
πνευματικῆς διδασκαλίας μάννα αἰσθητὸν καὶ ὕδωρ ῥευστόν; εἶτα Σαμουήλ, ὁ διδάσκαλος τοῦ λαοῦ, ἐπὶ εἴκοσι καὶ πέντε ἔτη ἐν
Ἁρμαθάϊμ ἡσυχάσας, τίνα ποτὲ τραπέζῃ τῶν εἰδώλων ἀπέστησεν καὶ οὐ λόγῳ; πότε δὲ ὁ βασιλεύς, ὁμοῦ καὶ προ φήτης καὶ ψαλμῳδός,
τρυφῆς ἐστήσατο τράπεζαν; -ὁ λέγων, ὅτι "Σποδόν, ὡσεὶ ἄρτον ἔφαγον, καὶ τὸ πόμα μου μετὰ κλαυθ μοῦ ἐκρίνων." ὁ τῆς οἰκουμενικῆς
νηστείας δημιουργὸς τρία ἔτη καὶ μῆνας ἓξ ἀσιτίαν ἀκουσίως τοῖς γαστριμάργοις παρα σκευάσας, ποίᾳ τραπέζῃ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀπήλλαξεν
ὁ Θεσβείτης Ἠλίας; τίνας δὲ καὶ ὀψοποιοὺς εἶχεν; οὐχὶ διὰ κοράκων τὴν ἐπιούσιον ἐδέχετο μᾶζαν; ὁ σοφὸς ∆ανιὴλ καὶ τῶν μελλόντων
αὐτόπτης, ποίᾳ τραπέζῃ τοὺς Ἀσσυρίους ἐπαίδευσεν; οὐχὶ νηστείᾳ καὶ προσευχῇ τὸν δράκοντα ὤλεσεν καὶ τὸν Βὴλ κατέ στρεψεν καὶ
τοὺς λέοντας ἐφίμωσεν καὶ τὸν βασιλέα ἔπεισεν τοὺς πατρῴους θεοὺς ἀπαρνήσασθαι ὁμολογίᾳ τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος Θεοῦ; τίσι τραπέζαις,
ποίᾳ δὲ χρηστοφαγίᾳ ἐχρήσατο ὁ χορὸς τῶν λοιπῶν προφητῶν ἢ ἀποστόλων; οὐκ ἦσαν διδάσκαλοι; οὐ τὴν ὑπουράνιον ἐπιστεύθησαν;
οὐ τούτων ἐσμὲν διάδοχοι; οὐ μιμητὰς ἡμᾶς τούτων εἶναι βούλεται ὁ λόγος, προσέχοντας τοῖς τρόποις, καθὼς ὁ Παῦλος διδάσκει
λέγων· "Ὧν ἀναθεω ροῦντες τὴν ἔκβασιν τῆς ἀναστροφῆς μιμεῖσθε τὴν πίστιν"; ποῖα μελίπηκτα εἶχεν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ὁ κήρυξ τῆς μετανοίας,
ὁ βαπτιστὴς Ἰωάννης, ὁ τοῖς προσερχομένοις οὐ μόνον εὐτρε πίσας ἄριστα, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴν τὴν συντυχίαν πικρὰν μετ' ἐπιπλήξεως
παρέχων; οὐ μόνον γὰρ δριμεῖ τῷ βλέμματι τὸ μεμολυσμένον συνειδὸς αὐτῶν σείων, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτῷ τῷ σχή ματι, πολλῷ δὲ μᾶλλον
καθάπερ ξίφει τῷ λόγῳ τὰ τῶν ψυχῶν ἀποστήματα τέμνων· ""Γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, τίς ὑπέδειξεν ὑμῖν φυγεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς;
ποιήσατε οὖν καρποὺς ἀξίους τῆς μετανοίας," καὶ μὴ μόνῳ τῷ βαπτίσματι ἐπερείδεσθε ἢ τῷ τέκνα εἶναι τοῦ Ἀβραάμ." τί δαὶ ὁ διδάσκαλος
τῶν ἐθνῶν, ὁ τῆς περιτομῆς καταλυτής, ἵνα περιτομὴν πίστεως στήσῃ, "τὸ 77 σκεῦος τῆς ἐκλογῆς," Παῦλος; ὅλως εὑρίσκεται σχολὴν
ἄγων τραπέζης, ὁ πάντων μᾶλλον χρεώστης τούτου, καὶ ὀφείλων ὡς ἔθνεσιν ἀπίστοις πρότερον τὴν διὰ τραπέζης ποιεῖσθαι σχέσιν;
τί δαὶ καὶ γράφει τῷ Τιμοθέῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Ἐφέσου· "Πρόσεχε" τῇ τῆς τραπέζης φιλοτιμίᾳ ἢ "τῇ ἀναγνώσει, τῇ παρακλήσει, τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ"
(ἐν οἷς μάλιστα ἄοκνος ἦν καὶ εὔτονος ὁ μακάριος Ἰωάννης); -"ἀκαίρως, εὐκαίρως ἐπίστηθι," λέγων, "ἔλεγξον, ἐπιτίμησον, παρακάλεσον"
(μηδενὸς αὐτῷ ἐπισκήπτ οντος, ὅτι δύο μὲν τὰ πικρὰ καὶ ἓν τὸ προσηνές, ἴσως κἀκεῖνο μετὰ φειδωλίας ἐπάγοντος· τὸ δέ, "ἔλεγξον,
ἐπιτίμησον," πικρῶν ὄντων σφοδρῶς, ἐν τῷ "παρακάλεσον," καὶ οὐ "κολάκευσον"· ὅπερ ἐπιστημονικῶς γιγνόμενον, πικρότερόν ἐστι
τοῖς φιλη δόνοις καὶ ἀναπεπτωκόσι φορτικωτέρων εὑρισκομένων τῶν ἐλέγχων. ἐκεῖ μὲν γὰρ ἴσως ὑπό τινος θυμοῦ ἀντιβαίνουσα ἡ
ψυχὴ ἀναισθήτως ἔχει πρὸς τὰ λεγόμενα τοῦ ἐλέγχου· ἐν ταῦθα δὲ ἡσύχως καὶ κατὰ μικρὸν τοῖς ἐπιεικέσι μετὰ τῆς ἀληθείας λόγοις
αἰσθητικῶς, ὡς ὑπὸ πυρὸς μαλακοῦ, καιομένη διαπρίεται). τί δὲ καὶ ὑπομιμνήσκει αὐτόν· τὰ συμπόσια καὶ τὰς εὐωχίας ἢ τὰ τῶν
θλίψεων σεμνολογήματα; -λέγων· ""Σὺ γὰρ παρηκολούθηκάς μου τῇ ἀγωγῇ," ὅπως διετέθην τῇ προθέσει τοῦ πάντα εἰς
