Letter 827: The priesthood is a sacred trust, not a career.
To Isidore the Deacon. On the passage, "Your tavernkeepers mix the wine with water." I have often marveled at those who misinterpret the divine Scriptures and who attempt to establish their own intention rather than what lies within them. For they adulterate the divine things by mixing the pure and sincere intention of the Scriptures, which is capable of gladdening the soul, with the base and worthless water of their own doctrines. And this is the meaning of "Your tavernkeepers mix the wine with water." For even if it seems to some to have been said concerning those who adulterate the wine understood in the common sense (for that too is absurd), yet when truth judges the matter, it seems to me to have been said rather concerning those who adulterate the divine oracles. For it was not said, "Your tavernkeepers mix water with wine" (which is what those who adulterate normally do), but rather "the wine with water." For they corrupt the pure and sincere teachings of God by mixing them with their own base doctrines.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
ΡΚΕ΄. – ΙΣΙΔΩΡΟ ΔΙΑΚΟΝ.
Εἰς τὸ γεγραμμένον· « Οἱ κάπηλοί σου τὸν οἶνον σμίγουσιν [Γ. μίσγουσιν] ὕδατι. »
Πολλάκις ἐθαύμασα τῶν τὰς θείας παρερμηνευόν των Γραφὰς, καὶ τὸ οἰκεῖον μᾶλλον βούλημα, ἢ τὸ ἐν αὐταῖς κείμενον παριστᾷν πειρωμένων. Τὸ γὰρ ἄκρατον αὐτῶν καὶ εἰλικρινὲς, καὶ εὐφρᾶναι ψυχὴν δυνάμενον βούλημα, τῷ φαύλῳ καὶ ἐξιτήλῳ τῶν οἰκείων δογμάτων παρακιρνῶντες ὕδατι, τὰ θεῖα καπηλεύειν τολμῶσι. Καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι το· « Οἱ κάπηλοί σου μίσγουσι τὸν οἶνον ὕδατι. » Εἰ γὰρ καὶ δοκεῖ τισι περὶ τῶν καπηλευόντων τὸν ἐκ τοῦ προχείρου νοούμενον οἶνον λελέχθαι (ἅτοπον γὰρ κὰ-κεῖνο), ἀλλὰ γε ἀληθείας δικαζούσης, μᾶλλον περὶ τῶν καπηλευόντων τὰ θεῖα λόγια δοκεῖ μοι εἰρῆσθαι. Οὐ γὰρ ἐῤῥέθη· Οἱ κάπηλοί σου μέσγομσιν ὕδωρ οἶνῳ (ὅπερ ποιεῖν εἰώθασιν οἱ καπηλεύοντες), ἀλλὰ, · τὸν οἶνον ὕδατι. » Τὰς γὰρ ἀκραιφνεῖς καὶ εἰλικρι-
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