Letter 922

Nilus of AncyraPionius|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted

To Pionius.

Even if we have not yet acquired a pure heart, still make your own mouth pure; for from base words a stain comes both upon the one who speaks and upon the one who listens. For it is written: "Death and life are in the hand of the tongue" [Proverbs 18:21]. For a reviling tongue becomes a bed of the devil.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Κἂν μήπω καθαρὰν ἐκτησάμεθα καρδίαν, κἂν στόμα σαυτοῦ καθαρὸν κατασκεύασον, καὶ γὰρ καὶ τῷ λέγοντι, καὶ τῷ ἀκρωμηνῷ σπίλος γίνεται ἐκ τῶν φαύλων ῥημάτων. Γέγραπται γάρ· «Θάνατος καὶ ζωὴ ἐν χειρὶ γλώσσης.» Κοίτη γὰρ τοῦ διαβόλου γίνεται γλῶσσα λοίδορος.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import

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