Letter 827: The priesthood is a sacred trust, not a career.

On the passage that is written: "Your tavern-keepers mix the wine with water." [Isaiah 1:22, Septuagint] Often have I marveled at those who misinterpret the divine Scriptures, and who try to put forward their own intention rather than what is set down in them. For the unmixed and pure intention that lies in the Scriptures, the intention able to gladden the soul, they dilute with the worthless and drained-off water of their own doctrines, and so dare to peddle the divine things like petty traders. And this is the meaning of: "Your tavern-keepers mix the wine with water." For even if it seems to some of these peddlers that the wine spoken of is the one understood in the obvious, surface sense (though that too is absurd), nevertheless, since the truth is thirsty, the saying seems to me to be spoken rather about those who peddle the divine oracles. For it was not said, "Your tavern-keepers mix water with wine" (which is what tavern-keepers are accustomed to do), but "the wine with water." For by diluting the unalloyed and pure meanings of the sacred Scripture with their own faded doctrines, they adulterate the teaching.

Εἰς τὸ γεγραμμένον· « Οἱ κάπηλοί σου τὸν οἶνον σμίσγουσιν [ἣ. μίσγουσιν] ὕδατι. » Πολλάκις ἐθαύμασα τῶν τὰς θείας παρερμηνευόν- των Γραφάς, καὶ τὸ οἰκεῖον μᾶλλον βούλημα, ἣ τὸ ἐν αὐταῖς κείμενον παριστᾶν πειρωμένων. Τὸ γὰρ ἄκρατον αὐτῶν καὶ εἰλικρινές, καὶ εὐφρᾶναι ψυχὴν δυνάμενον βούλημα, τῷ φαύλῳ καὶ ἐξητλημένῳ τῶν οἰκείων δογμάτων παρακιρνῶντες ὕδατι, τὰ θεῖα καπηλεύειν τολμῶσι. Καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι τό· « Οἱ κά- πηλοί σου μίσγουσι τὸν οἶνον ὕδατι. » Εἰ γὰρ καὶ δοκεῖ τισι τῶν καπηλευόντων τὴν ἐκ τοῦ προ- χείρου νοούμενον οἶνον λελέχθαι (ἄτοπον γὰρ κἀ- κεῖνο), ἀλλά γε ἀληθείας διψαούσης, μᾶλλον περὶ τῶν καπηλευόντων τὰ θεῖα λόγια δοκεῖ μοι εἰρῆσθαι. Οὐ γὰρ ἐῤῥέθη· Οἱ κάπηλοί σου μίσγουσιν ὕδωρ οἴνῳ (ὅπερ ποιεῖν εἰώθασιν οἱ καπηλεύοντες), ἀλλά, « τὸν οἶνον ὕδατι. » Τὰς γὰρ ἀκραιφνεῖς καὶ εἰλικρι- νέζ· τῆς ἱερᾶς Γραφῆς ἐννοίας τοῖς ἐξιτήλοις ἑαυτῶν παρακιρνῶντες δόγμασι, νοθεύουσι τὴν διδασκαλίαν.