Letter 172: Even during the tyranny of Eusebius — as you have written — when the friends of virtue were being destroyed, no one...
"A great chasm has been fixed between us and you," Abraham replied to the rich man being punished, demonstrating the difference between the righteous and the transgressors. For the one was hospitable and a lover of the poor, receiving those who dwelt far away; the other was cruel and a lover of pleasure, ignoring the beggar at his gate. The chasm is not arbitrary but the natural consequence of lives lived in opposite directions.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
ΡΟΒ΄. - ΑΡΧΟΝΤΙΩ.
Εἰς τὸ εἰρημένον ὑπὸ τοῦ ᾿Αβραὰμ πρὸς τὸν
πλούσιον, « "Οτι μεταξὺ ἡμῶν καὶ ὑμῶν χάσμα
μέγα ἐστήρικται.»
Χάσμα μέγα ἐστήρικται μεταξὺ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τοῦ
πλουσίου τιμωρουμένου, ὁ Ἀβραὰμ ἀπεκρίνατο, τὴν
τῶν δικαίων πρὸς τοὺς πταίοντας διαφορὰν ἐνδεικνύ-
μενος. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ, φιλόξενος ἦν καὶ φιλόπτωχος,
τοὺς μακρὰν ἀπῳκισμένους δεχόμενος· ὁ δὲ (66)
πρὸ τῆς θύρας ἡλκωμένον, ἀνηλεος ἐκτρεπόμενος.
Ὥσπερ οὖν ἐναντίαι αἱ προθέσεις, οὕτως ἀμιγὴς ἡ
μετάστασις· τῶν μὲν, τὴν ἄνεσιν· τῶν δὲ, τὴν κό-
λασίν δεξαμένων.
ΥΒ΄. – ΦΙΛΩΝΙΔΗ ΣΟΦΙΣΤΗ
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