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
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 virtuous man of the world above an inactive monk. These things, perhaps, are called insults by those who seek honors; although Scripture also contains insults in some way, with John saying to those who came 123 to be discipled: "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?" and Paul again saying in the Acts to the high priest: "God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall"; and the Savior sometimes to the Jews: "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign"; and sometimes to all the apostles: "O foolish ones, and slow of heart"; and sometimes calling Peter, Satan: "Get behind me, Satan, for you are a stumbling block to me"; -there being no grave cause on account of which the insults occurred. Let us therefore embrace the love of learning in silence, being unable to judge spiritual men. For neither do they insult out of hatred, nor do they love solitude out of pride, but practice all useful things out of love. For this reason, then, all those who have been recorded for us as zealous in the sacred writings, are found shunning and turning away from the crowd of the uneducated, lest in time, through familiarity, they might either diminish something of their virtue or draw some of their vice. Sarah first advised her husband Abraham to banish the son of the maidservant, while he was still quite young, from their common hearth; for she deemed it unworthy for him to play with her son Isaac, lest by the pleasant association he be drawn into his practices and habits. And Jacob himself procures his salvation by flight, having set out on a journey to Mesopotamia. And Lot is urged by the angels to move away from the impious Sodomites; but also Moses, as I said before, "when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter," provides for his separation from the tyrant and his guards and urges those of like mind with him to depart together and to take care of the exodus. And the prophets, avoiding the crowd of the wicked, were mostly sought in the wilderness, concerning whom the apostle also says: "Wandering in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth," because of the mixing with the lawless, and otherwise knowing, that familiarity is able to deceive and to draw down to the same things those who spend their days together; not only that, but also that conversation in itself is blameworthy and poisonous, and in addition, shameful. For it is not in its nature for that which is not pleased with 124 someone to endure, even for a short time to associate with him; for always "like is dear to like," as it is also said: "Every animal loves its like"; but the unlike is hostile and foreign. For who will ever persuade the seed-eating dove or turtledove to graze with the flesh-eating kites or ravens, or the grass-eating goose and crane to flock with bone-gnawing vultures? -"for what fellowship has light with darkness," or virtue with vice, or the bad with the good? {THE DEACON.} How then does the apostle say, that "I have become all things to all men, to the Jews as a Jew, that I might win the Jews; to the weak as weak, that I might win the weak; to the lawless as lawless, that I might win the lawless"? {THE BISHOP.} This testimony, my good sir, does not contribute to what is being said; for Paul did not say: "I became negligent to the negligent, or a babbler to the babblers, or a lover of money to the lovers of money," or any other such thing, but "I became *as* this or that," not "this" (for "as this" is not the same as "this"). "Such" is what is said or done by the apostle; whose condescension, even if it did not produce great gain, at least did not cause harm; for "I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might win the Jews." And yet he was from the Jews, being circumcised; how then does he say, "as a Jew" and not "a Jew"? For he was often found observing the Sabbath with them and fasting with them, not corrupting the doctrines of the Savior, so that by familiarity and by walking with them he might draw them to a more perfect knowledge; just as physicians with the sick are not always with them, nor of
ἀκόλαστον γέροντα καὶ γέροντα φιλομαθῆ ὑπὲρ νεώτερον ἀμαθῆ καὶ ἀκτήμονα ἰδιώτην ὑπὲρ πεπαιδευμένον φιλάργυρον καὶ κοσμικὸν
ἐνάρετον ὑπὲρ μοναχὸν ἄπραγον. ἃ ἴσως ὕβρεις λέ γουσιν οἱ τὰς τιμὰς ἐπιζητοῦντες· καίπερ τῆς Γραφῆς καὶ τὰς ὕβρεις ποσῶς ἐχούσης,
Ἰωάννου μὲν λέγοντος τοῖς προσελθοῦσι 123 μαθητευθῆναι· "Γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, τίς ὑμῖν ὑπέδειξεν φυγεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς;"
Παύλου δὲ πάλιν λέγοντος ἐν ταῖς Πράξεσι τῷ ἀρχιερεῖ· "Τύπτειν σε μέλλει ὁ Θεός, τοῖχε κεκο νιαμένε"· τοῦ δὲ Σωτῆρος πῆ μὲν
τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις· "Γενεὰ πονηρὰ καὶ μοιχαλὶς σημεῖον ἐπιζητεῖ"· πῆ δὲ πᾶσι τοῖς ἀποστόλοις· "Ω ἀνόητοι καὶ βραδεῖς τῇ καρδίᾳ"·
πῆ δὲ τὸν Πέτρον Σατανᾶν ὀνομάζων· "Ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, Σατανᾶ, ὅτι σκάνδαλόν μου εἶ"· -οὐκ οὔσης οὐδεμιᾶς αἰτίας βαρείας, ἐφ'
ἧς γεγόνασιν αἱ ὕβρεις. ὡς γοῦν σιγῇ τὴν φιλομάθειαν ἀσπασώμεθα, οὐ δυνά μενοι τοὺς πνευματικοὺς ἀνακρίνειν. οὔτε γὰρ μισοῦντες
ὑβρί ζουσιν οὔτε φυσιούμενοι φιλερημοῦσιν, πάντα ἐξ ἀγάπης τὰ χρήσιμα ἀσκοῦντες. τούτου τοίνυν ἕνεκα καὶ πάντες ὅσοι σπου
δαῖοι ἡμῖν ἀνεγράφησαν ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς λόγοις, ἐκκλίνοντες καὶ ἐκτρεπόμενοι τὸν τῶν ἀπαιδεύτων ὅμιλον εὕρηνται, τοῦ μὴ τῷ χρόνῳ
διὰ τῆς συνηθείας ἢ μειῶσαί τι τῆς ἀρετῆς ἢ σπάσαι τῆς ἀπ' αὐτῶν κακίας. Σάῤῥα πρώτη παρῄνει τῷ ἀνδρὶ αὐτῆς Ἀβραὰμ τὸν τῆς
θεραπαινίδος παῖδα, ἔτι κομιδῇ νέον ὄντα, ἐξορίζειν τῆς κοινῆς ἑστίας· συμπαίζειν γὰρ τῷ υἱῷ αὐτῆς Ἰσαὰκ ἀπαξιοῖ, μή πως τῷ
συνασμενισμῷ ὑποσυρῇ τοῖς αὐτοῦ ἐπιτηδεύμασί τε καὶ ἤθεσιν. καὶ Ἰακὼβ δὲ αὐτὸς φυγῇ τὴν σωτηρίαν πορίζεται, τὴν εἰς Μεσοποταμίαν
στειλάμενος ἀποδημίαν. καὶ Λὼτ δὲ προτρέπεται ὑπὸ τῶν ἀγγέλων ἐξοικίζεσθαι τῶν δυσσεβῶν Σοδομιτῶν· ἀλλὰ καὶ Μωϋσῆς, ὡς προεῖπον,
"μέγας γενόμενος καὶ ἀρνησάμενος λέγεσθαι υἱὸς θυγατρὸς Φαραώ," τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ τυράννου καὶ τῶν δορυφόρων αὐτοῦ προνοεῖται διαζεύξεως
καὶ προτρέπεται τοὺς συμφρονοῦντας αὐτῷ συναπάραι καὶ τῆς ἐξόδου ἐπιμελεῖσθαι. καὶ οἱ προφῆται δὲ τὸν τῶν μοχθηρῶν ὄχλον περιϊστάμενοι
ἐν ἐρημίαις τὰ πολλὰ ἐζητήθησαν, περὶ ὧν καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολός φησιν· "Ἐν ἐρημίαις καὶ ὄρεσι καὶ σπηλαίοις πλανώμενοι καὶ ταῖς ὀπαῖς
τῆς γῆς," διὰ τὴν τῶν ἀνόμων ἐπι μιξίαν, καὶ ἄλλως ἐπιστάμενοι, ὅτι ἱκανὸν ἡ συνήθεια ἐξαπατῆ σαι καὶ εἰς τὰ αὐτὰ καθέλκειν
τοὺς συνημερεύοντας· οὐ μόνον, ἀλλ' ὅτι καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὴν ἡ ὁμιλία ἐπίψογός τε καὶ δηλητήριος, πρὸς δὲ καὶ αἰσχρά. οὐ γὰρ φύσιν
ἔχει τὸ μὴ ἡδόμενον ἐπί 124 τινι ὑπομεῖναι, κἂν ἐπὶ βραχὺ τούτῳ συνδιατρίβειν· ἀεὶ γὰρ "τὸ ὅμοιον τῷ ὁμοίῳ φίλον," ὡς καὶ
λέγεται· "Πᾶν ζῶον τὸ ὅμοιον ἀγαπᾷ"· τὸ δὲ ἀνόμοιον ἐχθρὸν καὶ ἀλλότριον. τίς γάρ ποτε πείσει τὴν σπερμολόγον περιστερὰν ἢ
τρυγόνα ἰκτῖσιν ἢ κόραξι συννεμηθῆναι τοῖς κρεοφάγοις, ἢ τὸν ποηφάγον χῆνα καὶ γέρανον γυψὶν ὀστογλύφοις συναγελάσαι; -"τίς"
γὰρ "κοινωνία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος," ἢ ἀρετῇ πρὸς κακίαν, κακοῖς δὲ πρὸς καλούς; {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} Πῶς οὖν ὁ ἀπόστολος λέγει, ὅτι "Ἐγενόμην
τοῖς πᾶσι τὰ πάντα, τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ὡς Ἰουδαῖος, ἵνα Ἰουδαίουςκερδήσω· τοῖς ἀσθενέσιν ὡς ἀσθενής, ἵνα ἀσθενεῖς κερδήσω· τοῖς
ἀνόμοις ὡς ἄνομος, ἵνα ἀνόμους κερδήσω"; {Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} Αὕτη ἡ μαρτυρία, ὦ βέλτιστε, οὐ συντελεῖ πρὸς τὰ λεγόμενα· οὐ γὰρ εἶπεν
ὁ Παῦλος· "Ἐγενόμην τοῖς ἀμελέσιν ἀμελής, ἢ τοῖς φλυάροις φλύαρος, ἢ τοῖς φιλαργύροις φιλάρ γυρος," ἢ ἕτερόν τι τῶν τοιούτων,
ἀλλ' "Ἐγενόμην ὡς τὸ ἢ τό," οὐχὶ "τό" (τὸ γὰρ "ὡς τὸ" οὐ ταὐτόν ἐστι τῷ "τό"). "τοιοῦτον" δέ ἐστι τὸ λεγόμενον ἢ γινόμενον
παρὰ τοῦ ἀποστόλου· οὗ ἡ συγκατάβασις κἂν μὴ μέγα κέρδος ἐνεποίει, ἀλλ' οὖν γε οὐ παρεῖχε βλάβην· "ἐγενόμην" γὰρ "Ἰουδαίοις
ὡς Ἰουδαῖος, ἵνα Ἰουδαίους κερδήσω." καίπερ ἐξ Ἰουδαίων ἦν, ἐμπερίτομος ὤν· πῶς οὖν λέγει, "ὡς Ἰουδαῖος" καὶ οὐχὶ "Ἰουδαῖος";
συσσαββατίζων γὰρ καὶ συννηστεύων πολλάκις εὑρίσκετο, μὴ παραφθείρων τὰ δόγματα τοῦ Σωτῆρος, ἵνα τῇ συνηθείᾳ καὶ τῷ συμβαδισμῷ
ἐφελκύσηται αὐτοὺς εἰς τελειοτέραν ἐπίγνωσιν· καθάπερ οἱ ἰατροὶ τοῖς νοσοῦσιν οὐκ ἀεὶ συνόντες, οὔτε τοῦ
