45

when they brought him, they did not say, "This man worships the crucified one," but, "He speaks against the holy place and the law." And they made this accusation against Jesus also, that He was breaking the law. Therefore Paul says: If it is granted to be circumcised, the contention against you is resolved; no 61.668 enmity then remains toward the cross and the preaching; but if day by day they rage against us, how do they bring this charge against us? At any rate, they attacked me for this reason, that I brought an uncircumcised man into the temple. "Am I then so foolish," he says, "that when circumcision was conceded, I should rashly and in vain have undertaken so much harm, and placed so great a scandal for the cross?" For you see, that they war against us for nothing so much as for circumcision.

Was I then so foolish, as to be afflicted for nothing, and to scandalize others? And he called it a scandal of the cross, since the word of the cross also enjoined this, and this especially was what scandalized the Jews, and hindered them from accepting the cross, being commanded to depart from their ancestral customs. I would that they who are unsettling you would even cut themselves off. See how bitter he is here against those who have deceived. For at the beginning he turned the accusation against those who had been deceived, calling them foolish, both once and a second time; but since he has instructed and corrected them well, he turns then to those who have deceived. But we must also see from this his wisdom, how he admonishes and disciplines these as his own children, and as able to receive correction; but those who have deceived, as strangers and incurably sick, he cuts off; on the one hand saying, "He will bear his judgment, whoever he is," and on the other, cursing them and saying, "I would that they who are unsettling you would even cut themselves off." And well did he say, "Unsettling." For having abandoned their own country and freedom and kinship which is above, they compelled them to pursue that which is foreign and strange, casting them out from the Jerusalem above and the free woman, and forcing them to wander like captives and exiles. Therefore he curses them. And what he says is this: "I care nothing about them; for, 'A heretical man after a first and second admonition, reject.' If they wish, let them not only be circumcised, but also be mutilated. Where then are those who dare to cut themselves off, both drawing the curse upon themselves, and slandering the creation of God, and acting in concert with the Manichaeans? For they say that the body is treacherous and of evil matter; but these through their works give occasion to these harsh doctrines; for as an enemy and treacherous thing they cut off the member. Should not one then much rather blind the eyes? For through the eyes desire enters into the soul. But neither the eye nor any other member is the cause, but only the evil will. But if you do not accept this, why not also the tongue because of blasphemy, and the hands because of robbery, and the feet because of their running to evil, and, so to speak, cut up the whole body? For the hearing, charmed by the flute, has often softened the soul, and the nostrils, receiving a sweet scent, have bewitched the mind, and driven it to frantic pleasure. Therefore let us cut off everything, both ears and hands and nostrils. But these things are of the utmost lawlessness, 61.669 and of satanic madness. For when it is necessary only to correct the disorderly impulse of the soul, as if the craftsman were at fault, the evil demon, who continually delights in murder, has persuaded men to break the instrument. "How then," one says, "when the body is fattened, is desire kindled?" Behold again the sin of the soul; for the fattening of the flesh is not of the flesh, but of the soul. For if it wished to waste away, it has all the power. But you do something similar, as if someone seeing a man lighting a fire, and putting wood on it, and setting a house on fire, should let the

45

προσενεγκόντες, οὐκ εἶπον, ὅτι Οὗτος τὸν ἐσταυρωμένον προσκυνεῖ, ἀλλ' ὅτι Κατὰ τοῦ τόπου καὶ τοῦ νόμου λέγει τοῦ ἁγίου. Καὶ τῷ Ἰησοῦ τοῦτο ἐνεκάλουν, ὅτι τὸν νόμον παραλύει. ∆ιό φησιν ὁ Παῦλος· Εἰ συγκεχώρηται περιτέμνεσθαι, λέλυται ἡ φιλονεικία ἡ πρὸς ὑμᾶς· οὐ 61.668 δεμία λοιπὸν ἔχθρα μένει πρὸς τὸν σταυρὸν καὶ τὸ κήρυγμα· εἰ δὲ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν φονῶσι καθ' ἡμῶν, πῶς τοῦτο ἐγκαλοῦσιν ἡμῖν; Ἐμοὶ γοῦν διὰ τοῦτο ἐπέθεντο, ὅτι εἰσήνεγκα ἀκρόβυστον εἰς τὸν ναόν· Ἆρ' οὖν οὕτως ἀνόητός εἰμι, φησὶν, ὡς συγκεχωρημένης περιτομῆς, εἰκῆ καὶ μάτην τοσαύτην ἀναδέξασθαι βλάβην, τοσοῦτον σκάνδαλον θεῖναι τῷ σταυρῷ; Ὁρᾶτε γὰρ, ὅτι δι' οὐδὲν ἡμῖν πολεμοῦσιν οὕτως, ὡς διὰ τὴν περιτομήν.

Οὕτως οὖν ἀνόητος ἤμην, ὡς ὑπὲρ τοῦ μηδενὸς θλίβεσθαι, καὶ σκανδαλίζειν ἑτέρους; Σταυροῦ δὲ σκάνδαλον ἐκάλεσεν, ἐπειδὴ καὶ ὁ τοῦ σταυροῦ λόγος τοῦτο ἐπέταττε, καὶ τοῦτο μάλιστα ἦν τὸ σκανδαλίζον Ἰουδαίους, καὶ κωλύον τὸν σταυρὸν ἀναδέξασθαι, τὸ κελεύεσθαι τῶν πατρῴων ἀφίστασθαι ἐθῶν. Ὄφελον καὶ ἀποκόψονται οἱ ἀναστατοῦντες ὑμᾶς. Ὅρα πῶς ἐστι πικρὸς ἐνταῦθα κατὰ τῶν ἠπατηκότων. Παρὰ μὲν γὰρ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἠπατημένους τὴν κατηγορίαν ἔτρεπεν, ἀνοήτους καλῶν, καὶ ἅπαξ καὶ δεύτερον· ἐπειδὴ δὲ καλῶς αὐτοὺς ἐπαίδευσε καὶ διώρθωσε, πρὸς τοὺς ἠπατηκότας τρέπεται λοιπόν. ∆εῖ δὲ ἡμᾶς συνιδεῖν καὶ ἐντεῦθεν αὐτοῦ τὴν σοφίαν, πῶς τούτους μὲν ὡς παῖδας οἰκείους, καὶ δυναμένους λαβεῖν διόρθωσιν, νουθετεῖ καὶ σωφρονίζει· τοὺς δὲ ἠπατηκότας, ὡς ἀλλοτρίους καὶ ἀνίατα νοσοῦντας, ἐκκόπτει· τοῦτο μὲν λέγων, Βαστάσει τὸ κρῖμα, ὅστις ἂν ᾖ, τοῦτο δὲ ἐπαρώμενος αὐτοῖς, καὶ λέγων, Ὄφελον καὶ ἀποκόψονται οἱ ἀναστατοῦντες ὑμᾶς. Καὶ καλῶς εἶπεν, Ἀναστατοῦντες. Τὴν γὰρ οἰκείαν πατρίδα καὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν καὶ τὴν συγγένειαν ἀφέντες τὴν ἄνω, τὴν ἀλλοτρίαν καὶ ξένην μεταδιώκειν ἠνάγκασαν, ἀπὸ μὲν τῆς ἄνω Ἱερουσαλὴμ καὶ τῆς ἐλευθέρας ἐκβάλλοντες, βιαζόμενοι δὲ καθάπερ αἰχμαλώτους καὶ μετανάστας πλανᾶσθαι. ∆ιόπερ αὐτοῖς ἐπαρᾶται. Ὃ δὲ λέγει, τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν· Οὐδέν μοι μέλει περὶ ἐκείνων· Αἱρετικὸν γὰρ ἄνθρωπον μετὰ πρώτην καὶ δευτέραν νουθεσίαν παραιτοῦ. Εἰ βούλονται, μὴ περιτεμνέσθωσαν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ περικοπτέσθωσαν. Ποῦ τοίνυν εἰσὶν οἱ τολμῶντες ἀποκόπτειν ἑαυτοὺς, καὶ τὴν ἀρὰν ἐπισπώμενοι, καὶ τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ δημιουργίαν διαβάλλοντες, καὶ τοῖς Μανιχαίοις συμπράττοντες; Ἐκεῖνοι μὲν γάρ φασι τὸ σῶμα ἐπίβουλον εἶναι καὶ ὕλης τῆς πονηρᾶς· οὗτοι δὲ διὰ τῶν ἔργων τοῖς χαλεποῖς δόγμασι τούτοις διδόασιν ἀφορμήν· ὡς γὰρ ἐχθρὸν καὶ ἐπίβουλον ἀποκόπτουσι τὸ μέλος. Οὐκοῦν πολλῷ μᾶλλον τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς πηρῶσαι ἐχρῆν· διὰ γὰρ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν εἰς τὴν ψυχὴν κάτεισιν ἡ ἐπιθυμία. Ἀλλὰ οὔτε ὀφθαλμὸς οὔτε τι ἄλλο μέλος αἴτιον, ἀλλ' ἡ πονηρὰ προαίρεσις μόνον. Εἰ δὲ οὐκ ἀνέχῃ, διὰ τί μὴ καὶ γλῶτταν διὰ τὴν βλασφημίαν, καὶ χεῖρας διὰ τὴν ἁρπαγὴν, καὶ πόδας διὰ τοὺς ἐπὶ πονηρίαν δρόμους, καὶ πᾶν, ὡς εἰπεῖν, τὸ σῶμα κατακόπτεις; Καὶ γὰρ ἀκοὴ καταυλουμένη πολλάκις κατεμάλαξε τὴν ψυχὴν, καὶ ῥῖνες ὀσμὴν ἡδεῖαν δεξάμεναι κατεγοήτευσαν τὴν διάνοιαν, καὶ πρὸς ἡδονὴν ἐξεβάκχευσαν. Οὐκοῦν πάντα περικόψωμεν, καὶ ὦτα καὶ χεῖρας καὶ ῥῖνας. Ἀλλ' ἐσχάτης ταῦτα παρανομίας, 61.669 καὶ σατανικῆς παραπληξίας. ∆έον γὰρ διορθῶσαι μόνον τὴν ἄτακτον τῆς ψυχῆς ὁρμὴν, ὡς τοῦ τεχνίτου διαμαρτάνοντος, τὸ ὄργανον συντρίβειν ἀνέπεισεν ὁ πονηρὸς δαίμων καὶ φόνοις χαίρων διηνεκῶς. Πῶς οὖν τοῦ σώματος πιαινομένου, φησὶν, ἐκκαίεται ἐπιθυμία; Ἰδοὺ πάλιν τὸ ἁμάρτημα τῆς ψυχῆς· τὸ γὰρ πιαίνειν τὴν σάρκα, οὐ τῆς σαρκός ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ τῆς ψυχῆς. Εἰ γὰρ βούλοιτο κατατήκειν, αὐτὴ τὴν ἐξουσίαν ἅπασαν ἔχει. Σὺ δὲ παραπλήσιον ποιεῖς, ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις ὁρῶν τινα πῦρ καίοντα, καὶ ἐπιτιθέντα ξύλα, καὶ οἰκίαν ἐμπιπρῶντα, ἀφεὶς τὸν