Letter 640

To Nikotychos the Scholasticus [a lawyer or advocate]. Whatever a man longs for and loves without yielding, this too he is compelled to speak of continually, with a mind that is never sated. So it is with your vanity and self-conceit. Having lately, to all appearances, withdrawn from the madness of the Greeks [i.e. the pagans] by being baptized in water, but not also in the Holy Spirit, you have rekindled your former impiety: you keep silent about the achievements of Christ and of His disciples, but you are forever bringing the foolish philosophers of the Greeks into the midst of your gatherings, and you applaud those men with a tongue that will not be silent, and you crown them with ill-fitting praises; while the priests of the Christians you mock, and find fault with, and slander unceasingly, even though they are brilliant and conspicuous in their manner of life, and you treat them as nobodies. And whenever someone is eager to recite some Greek [pagan] drama at table or even in the marketplace, you praise it and welcome it. But whenever someone utters some Christian doctrine, either you at once jeer, or, turning your face away, you muzzle him and look sullen. Yet, by some divine ordering of things, nearly everyone turns away from you and abhors your Greek [pagan] arguments, while they listen gladly and with great delight to the words of the Church. For they consider it profitable for themselves to be occupied in the sayings of the venerable teachers, even if those sayings be unadorned, and so to keep their mind blameless, rather than, busying themselves in the teachings of the Greeks, to be driven mad into uncleanness and profligacy. For it would surpass every baseness and ill-will that the fables of Philistion [a writer of low comic mimes] should be spoken both at home at table and publicly in the theaters, to the ruin of those who hear them, which you yourself are not ashamed to pursue, while the words of Scripture, by which we are led up to heaven, are buried in silence. But you have not escaped notice, you sorcerer! For you are charmed by the nonsense babbled by senseless people, who suppose that the moon is stolen away by certain magic spells, whenever it turns blood-red or is eclipsed, and that it is dislodged from the order of its house, and who cry out all together with one mouth, men and women alike: "You have not escaped notice, sorcerer!" For you have not escaped us, Nikotychos, even though you seemed to escape notice through your hypocrisy and through your abuse of the holy and most-honored name of Christ. You have not escaped us, you who are a complete Greek [pagan], and who, without restraint, have been molded by the vain teachings of the Greeks.

Ἅπερ τις ἐπιποθεῖ καὶ στέργει ἀνενδότως, ταῦτα καὶ λέγειν διηνεκῶς ἀναγκάζεται ἀκορέστῳ τῇ γνώμῃ· καθάπερ καὶ ἡ σὴ ματαιότης καὶ οἴησις, ἔναγχος τῆς τῶν Ἑλλήνων φρενοβλαβείας τῷ δοκεῖν ἀποστὰς διὰ τοῦ βεβαπτίσθαι τῷ ὕδατι, οὐ μὴν καὶ τῷ Πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ, ἀνεζωπύρησε τὴν πρώτην δυσσέβειαν, καὶ σιγᾷ μὲν τὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τῶν αὐτοῦ φοιτητῶν κατορθώματα, ἀεὶ δὲ τοὺς μωροὺς Ἑλλήνων φιλοσόφους ἐν ταῖς συντυχίαις εἰς τὸ μέσον παράγει, κἀκείνους κροτεῖ ἀσιγήτῳ τῇ γλώττῃ, καὶ στέφει τοῖς ἀναρμόστοις ἐγκωμίοις· τοὺς δὲ τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἱερέας καχίζει, καὶ ψέγει, καὶ διαβάλλει ἀπαύστως, κἂν λαμπροὶ καὶ διαφανεῖς τὸν βίον ὑπάρχωσιν, καὶ ἰδιῶτας, καὶ ὅταν μέν τις Ἑλληνικόν τι δρᾶμα ἐπὶ τραπέζης ἢ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγορᾶς λαλήσαι προθυμηθείη, ἐπαινεῖς καὶ ἀποδέχῃ. Ὅταν δέ τις λαλήσῃ Χριστιανικὸν τι δόγμα, ἢ σκώπτεις παραχρῆμα, ἢ τὴν ὄψιν ἀποστρέψας φιμοῦσαι, καὶ στυγνάζεις, πλὴν ὅτι πάντες σχεδὸν κατὰ θείαν τινὰ οἰκονομίαν, σὲ μὲν καὶ τοὺς Ἑλληνικοὺς ἀποστρέφον- ται καὶ βδελύττονται λόγους, τῶν δ’ ἐκκλησιαστικῶν ἡδέως καὶ σὺν περιχαρείᾳ ἀκροῶνται ῥημάτων. Συμφέρειν γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἡγοῦνται ἐν ταῖς λέξεσι τῶν σεπτῶν διδασκάλων, κἂν ἰδιωτικαὶ ὑπάρχωσιν, ἐμ- μελετῶντας καὶ διαγινομένους, ἀμεμπτον ἔχειν τὸ φρόνημα, ἢ ἐν ταῖς τῶν Ἑλλήνων διδασκαλίαις ἐν- ασχολουμένους, εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν καὶ ἀσωτίαν ἐκμαί- νεσθαι. Πάσης γὰρ εἴη φαυλότητος καὶ κακονοίας ὑπέρτερον, τὰς μὲν μυθολογίας Φιλιστίωνος, καὶ κατ’ οἶκον ἐπὶ τραπέζης, καὶ δημοσίᾳ ἐν τοῖς θεά- τροις λέγεσθαι, πρὸς λύμην τῶν ἀκουόντων, ὅπερ καὶ σὺ σπουδάζειν οὐκ αἰσχύνῃ, τὰ δὲ τῆς Γραφῆς ῥήματα, δι’ ὧν ἀγόμεθα εἰς οὐρανούς, τῇ σιγῇ καταχωννῦσθαι. Ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἔλαθες, φαρμακέ· ἐπιθέλγεσθαι γάρ σοι τὸ παραληρούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνοήτων, νομιζόντων γοητείαις τισὶ κλέπτεσθαι τὴν σελήνην, ἡνίκα ἂν φοινιχθείη, ἢ ἐκλείπῃ, καὶ τῆς οἰκίας ἀποκινείσθαι τάξεως, καὶ ἀνακεκραγότων ὁμοθυμαδὸν στόματι ἑνί, ἀνδρῶν τε καὶ γυναικῶν· Οὐκ ἔλαθες φαρμακέ. Οὐκ ἔλαθες γὰρ ἡμᾶς, Νικότυχε, κἂν λανθάνειν ἐδόκεις διὰ τῆς ὑποκρίσεως, καὶ τῆς καταχρήσεως τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ πολυτιμήτου ὀνόματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Οὐκ ἔλαθες ἡμᾶς ἀπηρτισμένος Ἕλλην ὑπάρχων, καὶ ἀκρατῶς, καὶ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν μεμορφωμένος ματαίοις διδάγμασι.