Letter 77: Your blessed brother Timothy has departed from among us, leaving behind everything mortal in the earth but walking...

To Theophildos. On the text: "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, well-pleasing to God" [Romans 12:1]. Those men, my admirable friend, the divinely-inspired Paul defines as priests who fulfill piety not with sacrificial offerings but with their bare nature, and who alone pour out their libation purely from their own bodies, at home. For the finest sacrifice is to keep the mind undefiled and the flesh chaste. And this is why he said the very thing you wished to learn: "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, well-pleasing to God, your reasonable service." For it was not, as you suppose, to priests alone that he wrote and sent these words, but to the whole Church. For in this respect he enjoined that each man be a priest of himself. And if chastity ordains the subjects [the laity] as priests, lewdness plainly un-ordains the priests. The ordinances do indeed proclaim this; but it does not altogether come to pass, and for what reasons it is not for me to say. But those who have been crowned with the divine priesthood and have worthily obtained the office of presiding, if they should also guard the chastity of the body, are truly more priestly than the priests. For just as under the Old Testament it was not permitted to perform priestly service except for the priests alone, but at the season of the Passover all in a certain manner were honored with priesthood (for each man sacrificed the lamb), so also under the New [Covenant], an unbroken [priesthood]: they who are permitted to offer it hold, by special privilege, the priestly ministry of the bloodless sacrifice; but each man is ordained a priest of his own body, not so that, un-ordained, he may leap upon the rule over the subjects, but so that, ruling over wickedness, he may make his body a sanctuary or temple of chastity.

Εἰς τὸ, « Παραστήσατε τὰ σώματα ὑμῶν θυσίαν ζῶσαν, εὐάρεστον τῷ Θεῷ. » Ἐκείνους, ὦ θαυμάσιε, ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος ὁρί- ζεται ἱερέας, τοὺς μὴ θύμασι τὴν εὐσέβειαν, ἀλλὰ γυμνῇ πληροῦντας τῇ φύσει, καὶ μόνους καθαρῶς ἐκ σωμάτων οἴκοθεν σπένδοντας. Θῦμα γὰρ κάλλιστον, τὸ τὴν γνώμην ἔχειν εὐαγῆ, καὶ τὴν σάρκα ἁγνήν. Διὰ καὶ τοῦτ’ ἔφη, ὅπερ μαθεῖν ἠθέ- λησας· « Παραστήσατε τὰ σώματα ὑμῶν θυσίαν ζῶ- σαν, εὐάρεστον τῷ Θεῷ, τὴν λογικὴν λατρείαν ὑμῶν.» Οὐ γὰρ ἱερεῦσι μόνοις γράφων, ὡς ἡγῇ, ἐπέστειλε ταῦτα, ἀλλ’ ὁλοκλήρῳ Ἐκκλησίᾳ. Ἕκαστον γὰρ ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τούτῳ τῷ μέρει ἱερέα εἶναι προσέταξεν. Εἰ δὲ τοὺς ὑπηκόους ἡ ἁγνεία ἱερέας χειροτονεῖ, ἡ λαγνεία δηλονότι τοὺς ἱερέας ἀποχειροτονεῖ. Καὶ τοῦτο μὲν οἱ θεσμοὶ διαγορεύουσιν· γίνεται δὲ τοῦτο οὐ πάνυ· δι’ ἃς δ’ αἰτίας οὐκ ἐμὸν λέγειν. Οἱ δὲ τὴν θείαν ἱερωσύνην ἐστεμμένοι, καὶ τῆς προεδρίας ἀξίως τετυχηκότες, εἰ καὶ τὴν τοῦ σώματος ἁγνείαν φυλάξειεν, ὄντως ἱερῶν εἰσιν ἱερώτεροι. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς Παλαιᾶς Διαθήκης ἱερῶσθαι οὐκ ἐξῆν, εἰ μὴ τοῖς ἱερεῦσι μόνοις· ἐν δὲ τῷ καιρῷ τοῦ Πάσχα, πάν- α τεσ τρόπον τινὰ ἱερωσύνη ἐτιμῶντο (ἕκαστοσ γὰρ τὸ πρόβατον ἔθυσεν)· οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῆσ Καινῆσ καὶ ἀδιάδοχοσ, ἔχουσι μὲν κατ᾿ ἐξαίρετον τὴν ἱερουργίαν τῆσ ἀναίμακτου θυσίασ, οἷσ ἔξεστι ταύτην προσενεγκεῖν· ἕκαστοσ δὲ οἰκείου σώματοσ ἱερεὺσ χειροτόνηται, οὐχ ἵνα ἀχειροτόνητοσ ἐπιπηδῶν τῆι τῶν ὑπηκόων ἀρχῆι, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα τῆσ κακίασ ἄρξασ, τὸ σῶμα τέμενησ ἢ ἱερὸν τῆσ ἁγνείασ κατασκευάσῃ.