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Against the Jacobites

A tome of John the humble monk of Damascus, as from the person of Peter the most holy bishop of Damascus, to the so-called bishop of

Daras the Jacobite. 1 "Even the good is not good, when it is not done well," is a certain wise saying of the wise. And the divine apostle also testifies to the children of the Hebrews that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, not placing his testimony in praise, but rather in blame. The zeal for piety is good, but when mingled with love; wickedness is hateful, but he who receives it is worthy of mercy. I hate the rot, but I care for the limb, as long as it is not yet completely useless, and "I move every rope," as the saying goes, and I seek out every art and contrive an alexipharmic drug and I call upon God as a helper, struck by reverence and longing for my kin and namesake and shaking off external blame. If, then, I persuade, thanks for the health to the one who gave it; but if I do not persuade, "Alas, alas for the evils, alas!" I deliver what is desired to the knife, in pain, yet still I deliver it, fleeing the association, so that the evil may not be spread, so that more things may not become useless, and with the prophet, not mocking but lamenting, I cry: "We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed." And I add the reason: "Because she was not willing." For both the disease and the acceptance of the cure are of one's own choice. These things have urged me to write: not strife, not zeal, not refutation, not desire for victory, not a manner of display, not hatred, but mercy springing from divine love and love of neighbor. "For if he shrinks back," it says, "my soul has no pleasure in him." For God has appointed us for this: to exhort, to admonish, to convert, to love what is good, to dig, to place dung around, to cure the barrenness. And we speak of barrenness and evil fruit-bearing just as we speak of a voiceless tragedian as cacophonous: "for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel," and if I bury the talent, becoming a useless and wicked servant through sloth, I shall be sent away from the joy of my lord. Receive, therefore, a word of healing, struck by the grace of the Spirit, so that God may be pleased, and you may make the church a partaker of the gladness. For the cross of the Lord has made this one church of heavenly and earthly beings. 2 Since our entire discussion has been struck concerning nature, we say this, that concerning the holy and super-essential divinity, that is, the monarchical and homoousial trinity, Arius and Eunomius and their polytheistic and no less atheistic faction openly babbled of three substances, cutting nature apart along with the hypostases, having known wrongly, and having thought nature to be the same as hypostasis, while Sabellius the Libyan foolishly spewed forth one hypostasis, wrongly contracting the three and blending them because of the monadic character of the substance into one hypostasis, having considered the hypostasis equal to the nature, -but concerning the exceedingly good and saving economy of the one of the holy trinity, God the Word, the only-begotten son of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, the evil man-worshipper Nestorius who perished evilly, and Diodore and Theodore of Mopsuestia, knowing two natures, divide also the hypostasis and say that there are also two hypostases, co-numbered with the natures, and the one son and Christ and lord into two

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Contra Jacobitas

̓Ιωάννου ταπεινοῦ μοναχοῦ ∆αμασκηνοῦ τόμος ὡς ἐκ προσώπου Πέτρου τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου ἐπισκόπου ∆αμασκοῦ πρὸς τὸν ἐπίσκοπον δῆθεν τοῦ

∆αραίας τὸν Ἰακωβίτην. 1 «Οὐδὲ τὸ καλὸν καλόν, ὅτε μὴ καλῶς γένηται», σοφῶν ῥῆσις σοφή τίς ἐστιν. Μαρτυρεῖ δὲ καὶ τοῖς Ἑβραίων παισὶν ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος ὡς ζῆλον μὲν θεοῦ ἔχουσιν, ἀλλ' οὐ κατ' ἐπίγνωσιν, οὐκ ἐν ἐπαίνῳ τὴν μαρτυρίαν τιθείς, ἀλλὰ δήπου μεμφόμενος. Καλὸν ὁ ζῆλος τῆς εὐσεβείας, ἀλλ' ἀγάπῃ συγκεκραμένος· στυγητὸν ἡ κακία, ἀλλ' ἐλέους ὁ ταύτην δεχόμενος ἄξιος. Μισῶ τὴν σηπεδόνα, τὸ μέλος δὲ περιέπω, ἕως οὔπω τέλεον ἄχρηστον, καὶ «πάντα μὲν δὴ κάλων κινῶ», τὸ δὴ λεγόμενον, καὶ τέχνην ἀνιχνεύω ἅπασαν καὶ ἀλεξίκακον μηχανῶμαι φάρμακον καὶ θεὸν ἐπιβοῶμαι συνέριθον αἰδοῖ καὶ πόθῳ τοῦ ὁμοφύλου καὶ τῆς ὁμωνυμίας βαλλόμενος καὶ τὸν θύραθεν μῶμον ἀποσειόμενος. Εἰ μὲν οὖν πείσω, τὴν ὑγίειαν τῷ δεδωκότι χάρις τῆς ὑγιείας· εἰ δὲ μὴ πείσω, «ἰατταταιὰξ τῶν κακῶν, ἰατταταῖ» τομῇ τὸ ποθούμενον παραδίδωμι, ἀλγῶν μέν, ἀλλ' ὅμως ἐκδίδωμι φεύγων τὴν συνουσίαν, ὡς ἂν μὴ διανεμηθείη τὸ κακόν, ὡς πλείονα γενέσθαι τὰ ἀχρειούμενα, καὶ μετὰ τοῦ προφήτου οὐκ ἐπιτωθάζων, ἀλλ' ὀδυρόμενος φθέγγομαι· «Ἰατρεύσαμεν τὴν Βαβυλῶνα καὶ οὐκ ἰάθη.» Καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν προστίθημι· «∆ιότι οὐκ ἠθέλησεν.» Αὐθαίρετος γὰρ ἥ τε νόσος καὶ τῆς θεραπείας ἡ εἰσδοχή. Ταῦτά με πρὸς τὸ γράφειν παρώρ μησεν· οὐκ ἔρις, οὐ ζῆλος, οὐκ ἔλεγχος, οὐ νίκης ἔφεσις, οὐκ ἐπιδείξεως τρόπος, οὐ μῖσος, ἀλλ' ἔλεος ἐκ πόθου θείου καὶ τοῦ πλησίον ὁρμώμενος. «Ἐὰν γὰρ ὑποστείλῃ», φησίν, «οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ἐν σοὶ ἡ ψυχή μου.» Εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ ἡμᾶς ὁ θεὸς ἔθετο· παρακαλεῖν, νουθετεῖν, ἐπιστρέφειν, φιλοκαλεῖν, σκάπτειν, κόπρον περιτιθέναι, θεραπεύειν τὴν ἀκαρπίαν. Ἀκαρπίαν δὲ καὶ τὴν κακοκαρπίαν φαμὲν ὥσπερ ἄφωνον τραγῳδὸν τὸν κακόφωνον· «οὐαὶ γάρ μοι, ἐὰν μὴ εὐαγγελίζωμαι», καὶ εἰ κατορύξω τὸ τάλαντον, ἀχρεῖος καὶ πονηρὸς διὰ τὸν ὄκνον γινόμενος ἀποπεμφθήσομαι τῆς χαρᾶς τοῦ κυρίου μου. ∆έξασθε τοίνυν λόγον ἰάσεως τῇ τοῦ πνεύματος κροτούμενον χάριτι, ὡς ἂν ἡσθῇ μὲν θεός, κοινωνὸν δὲ τῆς εὐφροσύνης τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ποιήσητε. Μίαν δὲ ταύτην ἐπουρανίων καὶ ἐπιγείων ὁ σταυρὸς τοῦ κυρίου εἰργάσατο. 2 Ἐπειδὴ περὶ φύσεως ὁ σύμπας ἡμῖν λόγος κεκρότηται, τοῦτό φαμεν, ὡς ἐπὶ μὲν τῆς ἁγίας καὶ ὑπερουσίου θεότητος ἤτοι τῆς μοναρχικῆς καὶ ὁμοουσίου τριάδος, Ἄρειος μὲν καὶ Εὐνόμιος καὶ ἡ τούτων πολύθεος καὶ οὐδὲν ἧττον ἄθεος συμμορία τρεῖς οὐσίας ἀναφανδὸν ἐφληνάφησαν, ταῖς ὑποστάσεσι τὴν φύσιν συνδιατέμνοντες, κακῶς εἰδότες, καὶ τῇ ὑποστάσει ταὐτὸν τὴν φύσιν νοήσαντες, Σαβέλλιος δὲ ὁ Λίβυς μίαν ἀφρόνως ὑπόστασιν ἐξηρεύξατο συναιρῶν κακῶς τὰς τρεῖς καὶ συναλείφων διὰ τὸ μοναδικὸν τῆς οὐσίας εἰς μίαν ὑπόστασιν ἴσον τῇ φύσει νομίσας καὶ τὴν ὑπόστασιν, -ἐπὶ δέ γε τῆς ὑπεραγάθου καὶ σωτηρίου οἰκονομίας τοῦ ἑνὸς τῆς ἁγίας τριάδος θεοῦ λόγου τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τοῦ πατρός, κυρίου δὲ ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὁ μὲν κακὸς κακῶς ἀπολόμενος ὁ ἀνθρωπολάτρης Νεστόριος καὶ ὁ ∆ιόδωρός τε καὶ ὁ Μομψουεστίας Θεόδωρος δύο τὰς φύσεις εἰδότες διαιροῦσι καὶ τὴν ὑπόστασιν καὶ συναριθμίους ταῖς φύσεσι δύο καὶ τὰς ὑποστάσεις φασὶ καὶ τὸν ἕνα υἱὸν καὶ Χριστὸν καὶ κύριον εἰς δύο