Word on the Gospel saying:

Treatise of St. Nile of Sinai “A homily on the Gospel saying: “He who has a vagina, let him also take the fur; but he who has not, let him sell his robe and buy a knife” (Luke 22:36)” consists of 10 chapters of exegetical content. The exact date of writing is unknown, the work dates back to 390-430. St. Neil gives an allegorical interpretation of the Gospel text: “Now whoever has a bag, take it, and also the scrip; but if anyone does not, sell his clothes and buy a sword (Luke 22:36).” He talks about the seeming contradiction between Christ's commandment about complete poverty and his command to take a purse, scrip, or even a sword on the road. To eliminate this contradiction, it is necessary to interpret the Gospel words in the highest spiritual sense. Thus, by clothing we mean virtue (meekness and humility), and by the sword we mean the study of the Word of God (a powerful weapon in the fight against the enemies of the Christian faith). *The title of the work in Greek is Λόγος εἰς τὸ ῥητὸν τοῦ ᾿Ευαγγελίου τὸ φάσκον: Νῦν ὁ ἔχων βαλάντιον. *The title of the work in Latin is Sermo in illud: Nunc, qui habet sacculum, tollat. Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 At first glance, the proposed saying seems to contain a great contradiction and is contrary to other instructions of the Lord, but in a sublime sense it represents something useful for those being taught, and it shows the care of the One who teaches, namely: that He makes His instructions to spiritual ages for prosperity and improvement as they grow, in accordance with each state. For why does he now command those who have already learned to offer their cheeks to those who strike to take a knife? Why does he order to sell the robe and buy a knife for those who, after accepting the commandment not to have two clothes, actually had one robe that they were wearing? Did the Lord really want the Apostles to walk naked, which, admittedly, is indecent and inconsistent with the traditions of the Lord? He who cared about their spiritual freedom and the lack of His property, who gave them a carefree life, could not also neglect decency, commanding them to walk with their bodies naked. For just as it is uncharacteristic of wisdom to stretch beyond what is necessary and burden the soul with unnecessary vain worries, so it is insane and alien to the state of chastity to deny the body the services it needs. Therefore, we must find a solution consistent with both commands, and show what directly follows from both commandments, namely: that the first commandment is appropriate for beginners, and the second for perfect ones. For if it is indecent to have a naked body in the literal sense, then in the contemplative sense it is not only decent, but also extremely useful. Therefore, whoever defends the literal meaning of this saying can eliminate the difficulty presented in it as follows: To the Apostles, who were still approaching godliness, the Lord commanded non-covetousness, wanting them to engage only in the study of Divine lessons, but also knowing that for the imperfect it is only dangerous to acquire property; those who are successful and no longer suffer harm from property are allowed to fearlessly use their property, since they are no longer partial to money, like many others, and are not overcome the charm of the love of money, and says: “When you sent without a vagina and without fur, ... did you quickly deprive yourself of food?” (Luke 22:35). And now I say to you: “Whoever has a vagina, let him also take the fur” (Luke 22:36). For at first they had to, without carrying anything with them, experience the power of the Teacher, who every day, without their worries, gave them what they needed for the body (and not even this one thing, but also what we said shortly before), so that, having actively learned non-covetousness, they acquired an unchangeable skill for it, gradually succeeding in impartiality towards themselves, because the love of money has ruined many - it has plunged into the abyss of betrayal and Judas, who was accustomed to money because of the “ark” entrusted to him to serve the faithful (cf. John 12:6). But I don’t know how anyone who defends the literal meaning of the words will defend himself: “Whoever has a knife, let him take it, and whoever doesn’t have it, let him sell his robe... and buy a knife,” when the Lord everywhere demands that his disciples be peaceful and meek. Let us therefore see how this command, although it relates to the body and is literally impossible, is possible and useful in the spiritual sense. Already approaching suffering and preparing to ascend to the Cross, both by the malice of the Jews and by his own will for the sake of the saving Economy, the Lord says this to the disciples, preparing them for the struggle with those who oppose the truth, but not for the struggle on unimportant pretexts, where the disposition of those who fight is controlled by irritation, but for competition in a feat that is inspired by God out of fiery zeal for godliness. For the Lord has already seen that the shameless Jews are furiously rebelling against the Divine teaching and are in a hurry to put an end to the saving sermon, and therefore, raising up his disciples to this feat with the Jews, he commands them to put aside their former meekness, and, armed with a strong word, go to denounce those who are trying to overthrow the truth. Although a Christian, first of all, needs the necessary attire, befitting the name of his title, because no less than clothes a Christian is adorned with a sedate serenity of spirit and a modest disposition, however, during the struggle with opponents, he also needs the weapon of speech. “Therefore,” says the Lord, “at the time when I sent you as teachers to Israel, you did well, showing a peaceful state of mind and with such behavior attracting the disobedient to obedience, with meekness bringing them to obedience, because for conviction, a right life is more effective than a strong word, in itself presenting to those who know it a convincing reason to admit that they are disgraced. But since after My Ascension the enemies of truth will attack it, then let each of those who care about moral well-being put aside care about maintaining peace and prepare for the competition, for there is no incongruity for the most important to leave the less important for a while and, putting aside meekness, become a warrior.” The Prophet also advises this, saying: “Let the meek be brave” (Joel 3:11). And just as according to the prophetic word: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isa. 2:4), that is, after the end of the battle with the passions, they will turn their spiritual powers into agricultural tools, and vice versa: when the battle calls, it is good to put aside the appropriate decoration, prepare for the fight and take the sword in your hands for the Lord’s commandments, taking off your vestments moral virtues, if he must fight naked, for such, perhaps, in battle will be safer than one clothed in a robe. The Prophet makes this clear, saying: “And the flight will perish from the swift, and the strong will not hold on to his strength, and the brave will not save his soul, and the swift will not survive his feet” (Am. 2:14–15); he adds: “Naked shall he flee in that day” (Amos 2:16). The Lord wants the one who sells the robe and the one who buys the knife to be naked, without renouncing, because of the truth of what is signified, what seems indecent in the literal sense. For, wanting people to always conform to what is useful for them, he often gives opposite advice, as we have already said in advance: sometimes he teaches to accept blows and not show indignation, sometimes he commands to carry a sword, showing a warlike appearance, challenging himself to battle and, before entering into it, intimidating enemies with one appearance. And when one Prophet commanded that military weapons be converted into agricultural tools, soon after him another Prophet gave, on the contrary, the command to convert agricultural tools into military weapons. One says: “Cut your swords into plowshares and your spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4), and the other: “Cut your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into pruning hooks” (Joel 3:10). And although this advice is disgusting in letter, it is not disgusting in understanding. For one instructs what beginners should do to fight the passions, and the other, what to do for those who have put their enemies to flight. Therefore, for the time being it is good to be clothed in clothes and then to take off the clothes when you need to buy a knife instead of a robe, because for safety it is not so much the robe that serves as a knife: in clothes there is decoration, not security, and a knife is a great protection for the fighter. since such a robe is useful only until the time of reaching perfection and ascending to the shelter of speculation, it is forbidden to return back. For the Lord clearly teaches, saying: “Let him who is on the roof not come down to take... his garments” (Matthew 24:17–18). But there are also shelters of exaltation, the ascendants of which are condemned by the prophetic word, saying: “What will happen to you, since now you are all looking up to vain churches?” (Isa. 22:1). For this church was not the height of virtue, which has a solid foundation, but the arrogance of empty pride, slippery for one who asserts his stay at such a height. But the roof of truth stands unshakably, has unshakable virtue, based on a moderate way of thinking, it is impossible to fall from it, because the very crown of the roof is safe, the mountain that has ascended, as in paradise, keeps naked and innocent. If someone does not take off such a robe after reconciling the battle with passions and does not replace work on moral virtues with efforts to acquire the power of speech, does not even want to free the body from untimely labor, when the one who annoys the body with voluptuousness has already passed by, then he is subject to reproach for putting off, when he no longer should, the sale of the robe and the purchase of a knife. And this can be heard from the Pritotochnik, who says: “Put off your robe, for the troublemaker pass away” (Proverbs 27:13). For the diligence of asceticism in Divine words exhausts the body no less than rigor in active life, and even more helps the one who works for purity, because the thought does not have time to go back and engage in passions that are ready to disturb it, since the thought is incessantly directed towards the better. The work of a strict life, exhausting the body, perhaps still gives the passions time to move idle thought to that which constitutes the proper substance of the passions. Speculation, while keeping the whole mind drawn to itself, does not give room, not to say passion, but even to human thought, which perhaps calls for a necessary need. Not only does passionate voluptuousness overcome the pleasure of speculation, in which the pleasant is mixed with the useful, but also natural need. Knowing this, Paul also says: “Bodily training is useful for a little, but godliness is profitable for everything” (1 Tim. 4:8); Thus, it testifies to the benefit of the former over time, and attributes to the latter an everlasting and constant benefit, because bodily feat ceases in the Future Age, and knowledge receives an increase in perfection, extending from seeing the hoped-for blessings “through a mirror in fortune-telling” to seeing “face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12). Therefore, bodily exercise must be taken off as a robe, and its labors as the price of what was sold in order to acquire the sword of piety, which will be useful in protecting and bringing to safety what we have. This sword also becomes a praise - praise, that is, not the destructive pride of arrogant arrogance, but a grateful feeling of God's help, as it was said to someone: “Your helper will protect, and your sword will be your praise: and your enemies will lie to you, and you will tread on their neck” (Deut. 33:29). This is how a robe is sold, this is how a knife is bought: the robe is sold, serving to acquire something that did not exist before, and itself remaining in the ability to act, although, as one looks, it ceases to be effective. For the ability to act, although it does not carry out the work ahead of it, nevertheless, having strong strength, when it wants, it usually acts unhindered, like that artist who shows the fullness of his knowledge in substances and, in the absence of them, remains idle, while his knowledge is silent and not destroyed. Why does one who has taken off such a robe and again, out of condescension towards the imperfect, forced to use it in action, says: “I have taken off my robe as soon as I put on naked” (Song. 5:3), if such a robe did not remain, not showing its effectiveness, however, retaining the power of the ability to act? Why does someone who sells a chasuble certainly buy a knife, both without destroying it first and acquiring the last one? And what kind of knife does he buy? The one about whom Christ says: “I did not come to create the world, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34), calling the word of preaching a sword. For just as a knife divides an accreted and connected body into pieces, so the word of the sermon, brought into the house, in each of them, united for evil by unbelief, cut off friend from friend, separating son from father, daughter from mother, daughter-in-law from mother-in-law, cutting nature itself, showed the purpose of the Lord's command, namely: that for the great benefit and good of people He commanded the Apostles to take a knife. Therefore, Peter immediately responds, saying that they have two knives, which the Lord said were sufficient for the task ahead. These knives, as the Apostle says, are the reproof of the opposite and the consolation of believers. For in the Epistle to Titus he entrusts them to the teachers, saying: “Let him be able to console those who oppose him in sound teaching and to reprove those who oppose him” (Titus 1:9), which is what divides the word into two types: for one type is the word of teaching to the faithful and the other is the word of truth to the enemies; and one is the denunciation of lies, and the other is the confirmation of the truth. And what the word calls a sword is obvious to everyone, since everyone remembers the often repeated saying of Scripture: “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb. 4:12). For here too the double action of the word is spoken of. But another may call clarity and truth two swords, for when they are combined in a word, they are enough to subdue those who oppose. That is why the high priest, in the word that was in his hands, had the mysteriously assigned “appearance and truth” (Ex. 28:30): appearance to clarify what is being said and truth to overthrow lies. Therefore, Peter, having openly used a knife when he cut the ear of the high priest’s servant, turns out to have done this both mysteriously and significantly. For at the beginning of the sermon the Apostles also fulfilled what was prescribed by the law, when they brought to the Door, that is, to Rexham: “I am the Door” (John 10:7), those who declared to themselves that they loved the dominion of the Law, and, taking the “awl” of learning, tried to “test” (cf. Deut. 15:17) slavish hearing into freedom of obedience. When the Jews recognized themselves as unworthy of Eternal Life and the need arose to turn to the pagans, then the Apostles, using the word of the Spirit, completely cut off their hearing, as being unworthy of the word of freedom for disobedience. For to say: “You should not have spoken the word of God first” (Acts 13:46) - meant to turn the slave’s hearing into freedom, and then to add: “Because... you are unworthy to create for yourself an eternal life, behold, we are turned into tongues” (Acts 13:46) - it meant to completely cut off their hearing. Paul says the same thing to the Jews: “Those who were justified by the law have fallen away from grace” (Gal. 5:4). For to fall from grace meant the same thing as to be cut off from the word of freedom. Why does the Lord say: “Go and teach all languages” (Matthew 28:19), after cutting the ear of the Jews, opening the ear of the Gentiles to obedience. The Old Testament Scripture testifies to this long before and from ancient times, clearly prophesying about both, namely: that the ear of the Jews will be cut off and that it will be added to the pagans. For Ezekiel also says to the Jewish congregation: “Your nostrils and your ears will be circumcised” (Ezek. 23:25), because they did not accept the fragrance of the world of Christ, like the one who says: “Into the stench of your world we flow” (Song. 1:3), and after the cutting and taking away from them of the main instruments of feelings, they did not want, like sheep, to listen to the voice of the Shepherd. And Isaiah introduces the very church of the pagans, which says: “Apply my ear to hear, and the punishment of the Lord will open my ears” (Isaiah 50:4–5). So the Lord gave an ear to the pagan church and cut off the ear of the Jewish church. And this is enough said about those who sold the robe and took the knife. Let's see if we all, when we wear such a robe, wear it right? For about others it is written: “For they will give up every garment to flattery and a robe with reconciliation” (Isaiah 9:5), and about others: “They bind their garments with snakes, they make veils that hold on to treasuries” (Am. 2:8). Therefore, do we not have the flattery of those who, lying in wait for the simple-minded in heresies, dress in the garments of moral virtues, but put on them as if they were strangers, not in the truth, but more to maintain a good opinion of them, and are transformed, taking on a meek and modest appearance, which is how they ensnare those who fall for this trap into destruction? In the Future Age they will “give up with reconciliation” (Is. 9:5) such garments, because they will not receive rewards for their labors, but will suffer punishment and torment for deception from God, who takes vengeance “on all those clothed in strange garments” (Zeph. 1:8), as He says in the Prophet. For everything that is done not for the sake of good itself, but for the sake of something else, not only remains without reward, but is also subject to responsibility, and especially when these machinations are set up by those who see it, serving as a disastrous bait for the simple-minded. Just as vanity makes the work of virtue useless and deprives the worker of eternal rewards, serving for itself as a low-value reward for great labors, a fleeting praise for difficult deeds, a quick-perishing honor that fades before it matures as it should, so the image of piety, feignedly acceptable for deception, makes the work not only in vain, but also dangerous, condemned not only by the deprivation of reward, but for a long and extremely painful punishment. So to some who exhausted themselves and endured such labor, the Apostle said: “How much have you suffered? And even more sharply and tuna!” (Gal. 3:4), with the word “tune” meaning deprivation of rewards, and with the words “even to the point and tune” - the lamentability of the expected torment. “The veils that hold fast the curtains, bind the garments with snakes” (cf. Amos 2:8) are perhaps also done by some of the ministers of the Church, who hypocritically imitate those who officiate immaculately under the veil inside the sanctuary. For one thing is a veil (καταπέτασμα) and another a covering (παραπέτασμα), although the similarity of names hides the difference of things. The veil is hung wherever it is, for a while, as necessary, so as not to do something openly before the eyes of everyone that requires secrecy, and it is attached on both sides diagonally with ties from the right hand to the left, without having anything above it, and the cover descends on ties attached from above, just like the name itself, according to word production, shows the fall of the fabric from above; and, perhaps, we are signified by it when we accept the work of virtues for the sake of the Master who sees in secret, hiding what we do from the eyes of men, we reveal it to the One who sees from above. And the Proposal has a cause for grief, depending on pleasing God, just as the veil hangs down, extending from above. When we do good, we perform sacred acts under cover. But when, putting out an image of chastity or non-covetousness, we secretly do the opposite and, spreading the veil of snakes of sins, we imprint another image on ourselves, and cover ourselves with another image, giving an honest appearance to secretive shame and deceiving the eyes of people in order to become famous for piety and virtue, then under the veil of secrets to our reproach is that if opens up, he will deserve condemnation. For just as virtue practiced in secret has praise from God, and practiced openly is loudly proclaimed, so vice, while hidden, is threatened only by punishment and torment, and when exposed, final condemnation is ready. But although such corrupt undertakings are not obvious here, hiding behind a pious appearance, they will certainly be exposed there when their imaginary glory is taken away from them, and the truth is revealed and the truth shines by itself. For about them, perhaps, Isaiah says: “The Lord will reveal their shame (τό σχημα) on that day” (cf. Is. 3:17–18). But those who practice goodness are not all like this, although some, in order to grasp the glory of man, pass the title of piety uncleanly. And because of deceivers, the thrifty should not be slandered. For those who have truly dedicated themselves to virtue and have not lied to their vow by deeds, but have also likened the hidden to the visible, in whom appearance serves as the interpretation of the thing itself, and who do not appear only to be what they claim to be, but, as they say, are such in reality, or try better, not in the opinion of others, but in themselves, to be such, with the help of Him who searches everything, even the depths of the heart, and who rewards each according to his own. His deeds, and not according to the preconceived notion of Him. On the other hand, some of them also deviate from the true goal, becoming arrogant and thinking that they have acquired the adornment of virtue through their own efforts. For it is a rare and extremely difficult thing to bear the greatness of virtue, without being exalted in thought, without being puffed up by successes, remaining humble and, as someone says, unleavened, because what is unleavened does not inflate even near fire, but remains in a humble form and he who thinks modestly about himself does not become proud, practicing virtue, being kept from arrogance by reverence arrogance. The Lawgiver advises them to have the fear of God before their eyes, appointing it forever as a guardian of unreasonable exaltation and a holy mentor in chastity. For the command to make tassels on the edges of the robe from “spun ya sin yago” (Num. 15:38) and for those looking on to have in this a constant reminder of the Divine commandments, it seems to me, significantly makes this very thing clear, because just as the tassel is the beginning of the robe, so the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Therefore, he must be sought at every peak of virtue (because the peaks are slippery, the weak-minded are seduced into arrogance), so that, constantly wavering before the eyes of the soul, he restrains him from arrogance with success and teaches the valiant that although he himself sought a robe for himself, yet God gave him wisdom for such searching; and it is proper to attribute all power to the Author of knowledge, and not to the doer. In this way, virtue will be more brilliant, being recognized as the work of God, and its acquisition for the acquirer will be brought into safety by the fear of God, as always protected by reverence for our God Himself. To him be glory and power forever! You might be interested in: