Letter 468: Theodore Studite, Letter 468; Greek heading: Νικήτᾳ τοποτηρητῇ.
Theodore Studite→Recipient in Theodore Studite Letter 468: Νικήτᾳ τοποτηρητῇ|c. 817 AD|Theodore Studite|From Studios Monastery, Constantinople|AI-assisted
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Since your commandment-loving right hand has bestowed upon us this gift and that, master, may it also receive the gifts that come from us, the lowly. Our offerings are prayers, thanksgivings, and, if it is right to add anything further, admonitions; and what are these? That you fear God, that you hold the right faith, that you abstain from carnal desires, from fornication, adultery, uncleanness, and every other licentiousness; that you choose rather to do the things of God, to have mercy on the poor, to be sparing toward your servants, to stretch out a hand to your neighbor, to be humble-minded, to be self-restrained and not dissipated in the senses, through which the death of sin comes up; to hold fast to contentment; not to be drunk with wine, in which, to speak in the words of the Apostle, is profligacy [Ephesians 5:18]; not to be a lover of money, in which is the root of all evils [1 Timothy 6:10]; to give yourself leisure for supplications, for readings, for psalmody, for the remembrance of death, over which come compunction of soul and tears (for the present life, O Christians, is for tears and not for laughter); to swear in no way at all, nor to carry as an oath upon your lips the most precious name of God (for it is not possible that the one who swears should be saved); to keep yourself pure from the envy of Cain, from ruinous slander, from the God-hating hatred, from the reviling that sets one outside the kingdom of heaven; to honor the emperor and your parents; to love your yokemate [your wife] as yourself and to know no other harlot's side, over which is the wrath of God (for God will judge fornicators and adulterers [Hebrews 13:4]); to rear your children in a godly manner and to set yourself as an example of their good understanding; and as many other things as the word of the commandment requires for the salvation of the soul. These things, O master, are the return-gifts for your good provisions, which may you not dishonor, even though they have been put forth from an unworthy mouth; for the commandments of God are more to be prized than all gold and precious stones [Psalm 19:10].
Since your commandment-loving right hand has bestowed upon us this gift and that, master, may it also receive the gifts that come from us, the lowly. Our offerings are prayers, thanksgivings, and, if it is right to add anything further, admonitions; and what are these? That you fear God, that you hold the right faith, that you abstain from carnal desires, from fornication, adultery, uncleanness, and every other licentiousness; that you choose rather to do the things of God, to have mercy on the poor, to be sparing toward your servants, to stretch out a hand to your neighbor, to be humble-minded, to be self-restrained and not dissipated in the senses, through which the death of sin comes up; to hold fast to contentment; not to be drunk with wine, in which, to speak in the words of the Apostle, is profligacy [Ephesians 5:18]; not to be a lover of money, in which is the root of all evils [1 Timothy 6:10]; to give yourself leisure for supplications, for readings, for psalmody, for the remembrance of death, over which come compunction of soul and tears (for the present life, O Christians, is for tears and not for laughter); to swear in no way at all, nor to carry as an oath upon your lips the most precious name of God (for it is not possible that the one who swears should be saved); to keep yourself pure from the envy of Cain, from ruinous slander, from the God-hating hatred, from the reviling that sets one outside the kingdom of heaven; to honor the emperor and your parents; to love your yokemate [your wife] as yourself and to know no other harlot's side, over which is the wrath of God (for God will judge fornicators and adulterers [Hebrews 13:4]); to rear your children in a godly manner and to set yourself as an example of their good understanding; and as many other things as the word of the commandment requires for the salvation of the soul. These things, O master, are the return-gifts for your good provisions, which may you not dishonor, even though they have been put forth from an unworthy mouth; for the commandments of God are more to be prized than all gold and precious stones [Psalm 19:10].
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.