Правило 13 Петра Александрийского

Therefore, those who have left everything for the sake of saving their souls and gone away, let them not be accused of having others taken for them. For in Ephesus, instead of Paul, Gaius and Aristarchus, who accompanied Paul, were taken into disgrace, and when he wanted to come into the people, since confusion arose for him, as if he had bowed down and converted a multitude of people to piety: then, as it was said, his disciples did not allow him: yet there were no people from Asia, the chief, who was his friend, who sent to him, praying not to let himself in to shame (Acts 19:30, 31). If some will persist and argue with those who sincerely heed the saying: when you save, save your soul, and do not look back (Gen. 19:17): let such remember Peter, chosen among the apostles, already thrown into prison, and betrayed by four quartets of soldiers who met him, but who escaped at night and from the murderous hand Herod, and delivered from all the aspirations of the Jewish people, at the command of the angel of the Lord: “It came to pass,” he says, “to the day, without a small rumor among the soldiers, that Peter would come to pass.” Herod sought it and did not find it, and having tortured the guards, he ordered them to be killed (Acts. 12:18, 19): but for them no blame is placed on Peter. For it was possible for them, who saw what had happened, to run away, like all the children who were in Bethlehem and throughout its borders, if only their parents had known what was about to happen: but they were destroyed by the foul murderer Herod, for seeking for the destruction of the only Child, who also, at the command of the angel of the Lord, ran away, having soon begun to captivate and impudently to plunder, according to the name that was given to Him, as it is written: Narcis is His name: quickly captivate, brazenly plunder, before you know it more than the Child, calling father or mother, will receive the power of Damascus, and the covetousness of Samaria before the king of Assyria (Isa. 8: 3, 4) 131. Therefore, the Magi, as if they had already been captured and become prey, obediently and respectfully worship the Child, opening their treasures and bringing Him the most majestic and most fitting gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh, as the King and God and man. Why did they not want to return to the king of Assyria, helped by providence? The message is, says the Gospel, that having received it in a dream, you will not return to Herod, but will go back to your country by another route. Therefore, the bloodthirsty Herod, seeing that he was quickly reproached by the Magi, became very angry, and sent to kill all the children in Bethlehem, and in all its borders, from two years and lower, according to the known test from the Magi (Matthew 2:12,16). Having sought with them to kill another child born before him and not finding it, he killed his father Zacharias, between the church and the altar, while the baby ran away with his mother Elizabeth. But no one blames them for this. (Ap. 62; Ankyr. 3, 5; Gregory of Nyssk. 2). Book right: Saint Peter borrows the name of the king of Assyria from the prophecy of Isaiah cited above, and applies it to Herod, as being at enmity with the divine Youth Christ, but defeated by Him. Note You might be interested in: