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Against fornicators

BY GREGORY BISHOP OF NYSSA ON “BUT HE WHO COMMITS FORNICATION SINS AGAINST HIS OWN BODY”

The trumpet of the apostolic command is fearsome, in many other ways bearing witness to the army of piety, but especially driving it from the pits of shame, and indeed adding a military command at the end. For “Flee,” he says, “fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body.” For the soldiers of sensible wars devise their battle lines now using face-to-face combat, now using flight. There is also a war for souls managed by resistance and by flight. And Paul, knowing this, the master of the tactics of piety, leading the army through either skill, now commands persistence in the battle: “Stand, having girded your waist with truth,” and now he advises to outwit the enemy by flight: “Flee fornication.” If a war of unbelief attacks, resistance is useful against it; if a battle line of deceits threatens, steadfastness against these antagonists is good; if the bow of slander is brought forth, a 9.212 face-to-face encounter with the lie is advantageous; but when the form of fornication shoots its arrows, it is good to turn one’s back and to flee the face-to-face encounter; for fornication takes aim through the eyes, and one must remember the general commanding:

“Flee fornication.” For it has something more to be fled from than other wickednesses; for the other forms of sin seem to spare the flesh of those who do them, and the deed comes to rest only upon the one who receives the action. For instance, in robberies the loss is of the robbed alone; in the power of the envious the suffering breaks out upon the envied; in slanders, when they gain belief, the danger is again only of the slandered; likewise, for those who dare to commit murder, the misfortune is of the one who received the slaughter; anyone examining every unjust deed will find the part of the unjust gaining, and that of the wronged suffering loss, but fornication knows no such division, nor does it separate the action of the one who suffers from that of the one who acts, but it casts them down together to a common dishonor, and joins them in a bond of defilement. For the greedy it is possible, having caused loss to 9.213 another, to have suffered no loss themselves; but for fornicators it is not possible, having shamed a body, not to be shamed along with the one shamed; for murderers it is possible, having committed murder, not to be slain with the slain; but for fornicators it is not possible, having defiled flesh, to be clean from the defilement. And consider for me Paul’s subtle reasoning on this: “Flee,” he says, “fornication.” Why? Because “Every sin that a man does is outside the body” (that is, not ruining the nature of the body, not contracted in the outrage of the members, not being fulfilled in the defilement of the flesh, but operating outside the harm of the doer’s body), “but he who commits fornication sins against his own body”; not like the murderer who sins against another, keeping his own body unwounded, not like the greedy man who sins against another, guarding against harm to his own flesh, but the fornicator is a corrupter of himself, he is pierced by himself with the arrow of dishonor. The thief dares the transgression in order to feed his body, but the fornicator attends to the robbery of his own flesh; a money-loving thought incites the greedy man to robbery, but fornication is a loss of the body’s sanctity; for the envious man, another being glorified produces the passion, but the fornicator is the author of his own disgrace. For what is more dishonorable than a body bearing fornication? for every [part] of sin is inglorious

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Contra fornicarios

ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΝΥΣΣΗΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ Ο ∆Ε ΠΟΡΝΕΥΩΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ Ι∆ΙΟΝ ΣΩΜΑ ΑΜΑΡΤΑΝΕΙ

Φοβερὰ τῆς ἀποστολικῆς παραγγελίας ἡ σάλπιγξ, πολλὰ μὲν καὶ ἄλλα τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας μαρτυρομένη στρατόν, μάλιστα δὲ τῶν τῆς αἰσχρότητος βαράθρων ἐλαύνουσα, καὶ δὴ καὶ στρατιωτικὸν πρὸς τῷ τέλει παράγγελμα προστιθεῖσα. Φεύγετε γάρ, φησί, τὴν πορνείαν. πᾶν ἁμάρτημα, ὃ ἐὰν ποιήσῃ ἄνθρωπος ἐκτὸς τοῦ σώματός ἐστιν. οἱ γὰρ τῶν αἰσθητῶν στρατιῶται πολέμων νῦν μὲν ἀντιπροσώπῳ συμβολῇ νῦν δὲ φυγῇ κεχρημένοι τὰς παρατάξεις σοφίζονται. ἔστι καὶ πόλεμος ψυχαῖς ἀντιστάσει καὶ φυγῇ στρατηγούμενος. καὶ τοῦτο Παῦλος εἰδὼς ὁ τῶν τῆς εὐσεβείας τακτικῶν δι' ἑκατέρας ἄγων τὸν στρατὸν εὐτεχνίας νῦν μὲν τὴν μάχην ἐπιμονὴν παραγγέλλει· Στῆτε περιζωσάμενοι τὴν ὀσφὺν ὑμῶν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, νῦν δὲ φυγῇ σοφίζεσθαι τὸ πολεμοῦν συμβουλεύει· Φεύγετε τὴν πορνείαν. ἂν πόλεμος ἀπιστίας προσβάλῃ, χρήσιμος πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἀντίστασις, ἂν δόλων ἀπειλῆται παράταξις, καλὴ ἡ πρὸς τούτους τοὺς ἀνταγωνιστὰς προσδρεία, ἂν συκοφαντίας ἐπιφέρηται τόξον, λυσιτελὴς 9.212 ἀντιπρόσωπος συμβολὴ πρὸς τὸ ψεῦδος, ὅταν δὲ μορφὴ πορνικὴ τοξεύῃ, νῶτα διδόναι καλὸν καὶ τὴν ἀντιπρόσωπον φεύγειν· κατευστοχεῖ γὰρ ὀφθαλμῶν ἡ πορνεία καὶ δεῖ μεμνῆσθαι τοῦ στρατηγοῦ παραγγέλλοντος·

Φεύγετε τὴν πορνείαν. ἔχει γάρ τι τῶν ἄλλων πονηρευμάτων φευκτότερον· τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἄλλα τῆς ἁμαρτίας εἴδη φείδεσθαι δοκεῖ τῆς τῶν πραττόντων σαρκὸς καὶ τὸ πραχθὲν εἰς μόνον τὸν τὴν πρᾶξιν δεχόμενον ἵστησιν· οἷον ἐν ταῖς ἁρπαγαῖς τῶν ἁρπασθέντων τὸ ζημίωμα μόνων, ἐν τῇ τῶν φθονούντων ἰσχύϊ περὶ τοὺς φθονουμένους τὸ πάθος ἐκρήγνυται, ἐν ταῖς συκοφαντίαις, ὅταν τύχωσι πίστεως, μόνων αὖθις τῶν συκοφαντουμένων ὁ κίνδυνος, ἐν τοῖς τὸν φόνον ὡσαύτως τολμήσασι τοῦ δεξαμένου τὴν σφαγὴν τὸ δυσπράγημα· πᾶσαν ἄν τις ἔργων ἀδίκων ἐπερχόμενος πρᾶξιν εὑρήσει τὴν μὲν τῶν ἀδικούντων μερίδα κερδαίνουσαν, τὴν δὲ τῶν ἀδικουμένων ξημιουμένην, πορνεία δὲ τὴν τοιαύτην οὐκ οἶδε διαίρεσιν οὐδὲ χωρίζει τὴν τοῦ παθόντος τῆς τοῦ δράσαντος πρᾶξιν, ἀλλὰ συγκαταστρέφει πρὸς ἀτιμίαν ἐπίκοινον, συνάπ τει δὲ δεσμῷ μολυσμοῦ. τοῖς πλεονέκταις ἔστι ζημιώσασιν 9.213 ἄλλον ἐξημιῶσθαι μηδέν, τοῖς πόρνοις δ' οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδὲν καταισχύνασιν σῶμα μὴ τῷ καταισχυνθέντι συγκαται σχύνεσθαι· τοῖς πεφονευκόσιν ἔστιν ἐργασαμένοις τὸν φόνον τοῖς σφαγεῖσι μὴ συνεσφάχθαι, τοῖς πόρνοις δ' οὐκ ἔστι μολύνασι σάρκα τοῦ μολυσμοῦ καθαρεύειν. Καὶ σκόπει μοι τὴν εἰς τοῦτο τοῦ Παύλου λεπτολογίαν· Φεύγετε, φησί, τὴν πορνείαν. διὰ τί; ὅτι Πᾶν ἁμάρτημα, ὃ ἐὰν ποιήσῃ ἄνθρωπος, ἐκτὸς τοῦ σώματός ἐστι (τοῦτ' ἔστι τῇ τοῦ σώματος μὴ λυμαινόμενον φύσει, τῇ τῶν μελῶν μὴ συνεσταλμένον ὕβρει, τῷ τῆς σαρκὸς μολυσμῷ μὴ συμπληρού μενον, ἀλλ' ἔξω τῆς τοῦ πράξαντος σώματος ἐνεργούμενον βλάβης), Ὁ δὲ πορνεύων εἰς τὸ ἴδιον σῶμα ἁμαρτάνει· οὐχ ὥσπερ ὁ φονεὺς εἰς ἀλλότριον ἄτρωτον τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σῶμα συντηρῶν, οὐχ ὥσπερ ὁ πλεονέκτης εἰς ἕτερον τὴν τῆς ἰδίας σαρκὸς φυλαττόμενος βλάβην, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ φθορεὺς ὁ πόρνος, αὐτὸς ὑφ' ἑαυτοῦ τῷ τῆς ἀτιμίας περιπείρεται βέλει. ὁ κλέπτης, ἵνα θρέψῃ τὸ σῶμα, τολμᾷ τὸ πλημμέλημα, ὁ πόρνος δὲ τῇ τῆς ἰδίας σαρκὸς προσεδρεύει λῃστείᾳ· τὸν πλεονέκτην πρὸς ἁρπαγὴν ἐρεθίζει φιλοκερδὴς λογισμός, πορνεία δὲ τῆς τοῦ σώματος ζημία σεμνότητος· τῷ βασκάνῳ κατασκευάζει τὸ πάθος δοξαζόμενος ἕτερος, ὁ πόρνος δὲ τῆς ἰδίας ἐστὶν αὐτουργὸς ἀδοξίας. τί γὰρ ἀτιμότερον σκευοφόρου πορνείας; πᾶσα μὲν γὰρ ἄδοξος ἁμαρτίας