John Chrysostom, On 2 Timothy

of my brother? Esau again despised his 62.638 brother, and he despised God. For this reason God said, that "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." Wherefore Paul also says, "Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau." The brothers despised Joseph, and they despised God. The Israelites despised Moses; for this reason they also despised God. Thus also the sons of Eli despised the people, and they despised God. But do you want to see it also from the opposite side? Abraham spared his brother, and he obeyed God; and this is clear from his obedience in the case of his son Isaac, and from all his other virtue. Again Abel, being gentle toward his brother, was also devout toward God. Let us not, therefore, despise one another, lest we also learn to despise God; let us honor one another, so that we may also learn to honor God. The one who is insolent toward men, also becomes insolent toward God. But when love of money, and self-love, and arrogance come together at the same time, what else is left for complete destruction? The whole is corrupted, and a great mire of sins flows in. "Ungrateful," he says. For how will the lover of money be grateful? To whom will he show gratitude? To no one; he considers all men enemies, wanting to take what belongs to all. For even if you give up your entire substance, he feels no gratitude toward you; he is indignant that you did not have much, and that you have made him master of much. Even if you should make him lord of the world, he feels no gratitude toward you; for he considers that he has received nothing. His desire is insatiable. For it is the desire of a sickness. Such are the desires of sicknesses. 2. And he who has a fever can never be satisfied, but always being drunk with desire is never filled, he is always thirsty. So also he who is mad for money never knows how to satisfy his desire; and never being filled, however much you give, he will feel no gratitude toward you. For he will feel gratitude only to the one who has given as much as he wants; but this no one will be able to do; for what he wants has no measure; therefore he will feel gratitude to no one. Nothing is so ungrateful as a lover of money; nothing is so unfeeling as one fond of wealth; he is the enemy of the whole world; he is indignant that there are men; for he wishes all things to be full of desolation, so that he himself might have the property of all. And he imagines many such things; "If there were an earthquake in the city," he says, "and then with everyone buried, I alone were left, so that it might be possible to take the property of all; if a plague came, and destroyed everyone except for their gold; if there were a shipwreck, if a flood from the sea;" and he devises countless such things; nothing good, but he prays for earthquakes and thunderbolts and wars and plagues, and for all such things to happen. Tell me now, you wretched and miserable one, more of a slave than any household slave, if all things were gold, would you not have been destroyed by the gold, perishing from famine? if an earthquake happened, with the world swallowed up, you too would have perished by this destructive desire; for if there were no man on the earth, the necessities of life would not have been provided for you. For let us suppose that all men throughout the world have been utterly destroyed, and then that their gold and their silver have somehow come to you automatically (for they imagine foolish and impossible things), and that their wealth, the gold, the silver, the silk garments, all the things of gold, have come automatically into your hands; what is the gain? Thus death would most surely have overtaken you, there being no bakers, 62.639 no farmers, with wild beasts grazing about, and demons terrifying your soul. And now indeed demons possess it, and many of them; but then they would have driven you to madness, and would have destroyed you immediately. "But I would not wish that," he says, "but for there to be farmers and bakers also." "But they too would have to spend." "But I would not wish"

ἀδελφοῦ μου; Κατεφρόνησε πάλιν τοῦ 62.638 ἀδελφοῦ ὁ Ἡσαῦ, καὶ κατεφρόνησε τοῦ Θεοῦ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἔλεγεν ὁ Θεὸς, ὅτι Τὸν Ἰακὼβ ἠγάπησα, τὸν δὲ Ἡσαῦ ἐμίσησα. ∆ιὸ καὶ Παῦλός φησι· Μή τις πόρνος ἢ βέβηλος, ὡς Ἡσαῦ. Κατεφρόνησαν τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ, κατεφρόνησαν καὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Οἱ Ἰσραηλῖται κατεφρόνησαν Μωϋσέως· διὰ τοῦτο κατεφρόνησαν καὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Οὕτω καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ Ἠλεὶ κατεφρόνουν τοῦ λαοῦ, κατεφρόνουν καὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Βούλει δὲ καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου ἰδεῖν; Ὁ Ἀβραὰμἐφείσατο τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ, ὑπήκουσε καὶ τῷ Θεῷ· καὶ δῆλόν ἐστιν ἐκ τῆς ὑπακοῆς τῆς ἐπὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ Ἰσαὰκ, καὶ τῆς ἄλλης ἁπάσης ἀρετῆς. Πάλιν ὁ Ἄβελ ἐπιεικὴς ὢν πρὸς τὸν ἀδελφὸν, εὐλαβὴς ἦν καὶ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν. Μὴ τοίνυν καταφρονῶμεν ἀλλήλων, ἵνα μὴ μάθωμεν καὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ καταφρονεῖν· τιμῶμεν ἀλλήλους, ἵνα μάθωμεν καὶ τὸν Θεὸν τιμᾷν. Ὁ θρασὺς κατὰ ἀνθρώπων, καὶ κατὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ γίνεται θρασύς. Ὅταν δὲ καὶ φιλαργυρία, καὶ φιλαυτία, καὶ ἀπόνοια κατὰ ταυτὸν συνέλθῃ, τί λοιπὸν λείπεται πρὸς τελείαν ἀπώλειαν; τὸ πᾶν διέφθαρται, καὶ πολὺς τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἐπιῤῥεῖ βόρβορος. Ἀχάριστοι, φησί. Πῶς γὰρ ὁ φιλάργυρος εὐχάριστος ἔσται; τίνι εἴσεται χάριν; Οὐδενί· πάντας ἐχθροὺς ἡγεῖται, τὰ πάντων θέλων λαβεῖν. Κἂν γὰρ τὴν πᾶσαν οὐσίαν κενώσῃς, οὐδεμίαν οἶδέ σοι χάριν· ἀγανακτεῖ, ὅτι μὴ πολλὰ εἶχες, καὶ πολλῶν αὐτὸν πεποίηκας κύριον. Κἂν τῆς οἰκουμένης αὐτὸν δεσπότην ποιήσῃς, οὐκ οἶδέ σοι χάριν· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἡγεῖται εἰληφέναι. Ἀκόρεστος ἡ ἐπιθυμία τούτου. Νόσου γάρ ἐστιν ἐπιθυμία. Τοιαῦται δὲ αἱ τῶν νόσων ἐπιθυμίαι. βʹ. Καὶ ὁ πυρέττων οὐδέποτε ἐμφορηθῆναι δύναται, ἀλλ' ἀεὶ ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ μεθύων οὐδέποτε πληροῦται, ἀεὶ διψᾷ. Οὕτω καὶ ὁ περὶ χρήματα μαινόμενος, οὐδέποτε οἶδε τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ἐμπλῆσαι· μηδέποτε δὲ ἐμπιπλάμενος, ὅσα ἂν κενώσῃς, οὐκ εἴσεταί σοι χάριν. Ἐκείνῳ γὰρ εἴσεται μόνῳ τῷ δεδωκότι ὅσα βούλεται· τοῦτο δὲ οὐδεὶς δυνήσεται ποιῆσαι· οὐ γὰρ ἔχει μέτρον ἃ βούλεται· οὐκοῦν οὐδενὶ εἴσεται χάριν. Οὐδὲν οὕτως ἀχάριστον, ὡς φιλάργυρος· οὐδὲν οὕτως ἀναίσθητον, ὡς φιλοχρήματος· τῆς οἰκουμένης ἁπάσης ἐστὶν ἐχθρός· ἀγανακτεῖ ὅτι εἰσὶν ἄνθρωποι· βούλεται γὰρ πάντα ἐρημίας εἶναι μεστὰ, ὥστε τὰ πάντων ἔχειν αὐτός. Καὶ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα φαντάζεται· Εἰ ἐγένετο σεισμὸς ἐν τῇ πόλει, φησὶν, εἶτα πάντων καταχωσθέντων, ἐγὼ μόνος περιελείφθην, ὥστε τὰ πάντων λαβεῖν εἰ δυνατόν· εἰ ἐπῆλθε λοιμὸς, καὶ πάντας ἀπώλεσε τοῦ χρυσίου χωρίς· εἰ καταποντισμὸς ἐγένετο, εἰ θαλάττης ἐπίκλυσις· καὶ μυρία τοιαῦτα ἐπινοεῖ· χρηστὸν μὲν οὐδὲν, σεισμὸς δὲ καὶ σκηπτοὺς καὶ πολέμους καὶ λοιμοὺς, καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα γενέσθαι εὔχεται. Εἰπὲ δή μοι, ἄθλιε καὶ ταλαίπωρε καὶ παντὸς ἀνδραπόδου δουλικώτερε, εἰ πάντα ἦν χρυσὸς, οὐκ ἂν ἀπηλλάγης ὑπὸ τοῦ χρυσοῦ, λιμῷ διαφθαρείς; εἰ σεισμὸς ἐγένετο, τῆς οἰκουμένης καταποθείσης, ἀπωλώλεις ἂν καὶ σὺ ὑπὸ τῆς ὀλεθρίας ταύτης ἐπιθυμίας· οὐ γὰρ ὄντος ἀνθρώπου ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, οὐκ ἄν σοι τὰ τῆς ζωῆς συγκεκρότητο. Θῶμεν γὰρ πάντας ἄρδην ἠφανίσθαι τοὺς κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἀνθρώπους, εἶτα τὸ χρυσίον αὐτῶν καὶ τὸ ἀργύριον αὐτομάτως πως εἰς σὲ περιεληλυθέναι (καὶ γὰρ μωρὰ καὶ ἀδύνατα φαντάζονται), καὶ τὸν πλοῦτον ἐκείνων, τὸν χρυσὸν, τὸν ἄργυρον, τὰ ἱμάτια τὰ σηρικὰ, τὰ διάχρυσα πάντα αὐτομάτως εἰς τὰς σὰς χεῖρας ἐλθεῖν· τί τὸ κέρδος; οὕτως ἂν μάλιστα θάνατός σε κατέλαβεν, ἀρτοκόπων 62.639 οὐκ ὄντων, γεωργῶν οὐκ ὄντων, θηρίων ἐπινεμομένων, δαιμόνων ἐκδειματούντων σοι τὴν ψυχήν. Καὶ νῦν μὲν αὐτὴν κατέχουσι δαίμονες καὶ πολλοί· τότε δὲ ἄν σε καὶ εἰς ἔκπληξιν ἤγαγον, κἂν εὐθέως ἀπώλεσαν. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐβουλόμην, φησὶν, ἀλλ' εἶναι καὶ γεωργοὺς καὶ ἀρτοκόπους. Ἀλλ' ἔμελλον κἀκεῖνοι δαπανᾷν. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐβουλόμην