Letter 115: Elias. “What have you to do with the way to Egypt with a view to drinking Nile water?

Who, then, does your learning consider worthy of fame and good reputation: the one who has done nothing noble but happens to enjoy prosperity, wealth, and seemingly brilliant offices? Or the one who has left undone nothing of which he was capable, but has accomplished everything that would both proclaim him and benefit others? The answer is obvious to all who value substance over appearance.

“What have you to do with the way to Egypt with a view to drinking Nile[17] water?”, the prophet said to the turnabout people, or rather God by means of him. What have you to do with the confusion from which you were separated by God’s mighty hand and outstretched arm? How is it that having laid hold on virtue and tasted the summit of philosophy, you revert to wickedness, and do not have in mind the word of Scripture, that “He who turns away from justice towards sin, the Lord will prepare him for the sword. Flee the billow and flee the waves. Christ has rebuked the wind[18], and no experience of storm will engulf you, if you hold fast to Christ, the harbour.[19]

ΘΕΟΔΩΡΟ ΣΧΟΛΑΣΤΙΚΩ. Ποῖος ἄρα δοκεῖ τῇ σῇ παιδεύσει εὐκλείας καὶ δό-ξης ἀγαθῆς δίκαιος εἶναι τυχεῖν, ὁ μηδὲν μὲν προ-θυμηθεὶς γενναῖον διαπράξασθαι, ἐν εὐημερίᾳ δὲ τυγχάνων καὶ πλούτῳ, καὶ τοῖς δοκοῦσι λαμπροῖς ἀξιώμασιν; Ἡ ὁ μηδὲν μὲν, ὧν οἷός τε ἦν ἐλλιπών, ἀλλὰ πάντα πράξας, ὅσα αὐτόν τε ἀναῤῥήσεως ἄξιον εἶναι ποιεῖ, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους εἰς ἀρετὴν διεγείρει, δυσπραγῶν δὲ καὶ πενίᾳ συζῶν; Ἐμοὶ μὲν οὗτος δοκεῖ· εἰ δὲ καὶ σοὶ, μὴ ταναντία φαίνου ψηφιζόμενος. ΡΛΒ΄. – ΚΟΜΙΤΙ Διὰ τὴν ἀνάγκην τῶν κακῶν αἱ ἀρεταὶ ἀναφαίνονται.