and more sharpened than a double-edged sword. It possesses the kiss of the harlot, and it possesses the hidden and concealed [poison]. Why, therefore, do you pursue a pleasure that carries with it condemnation, that brings forth destruction, that inflicts an incurable wound, when it is possible to be happy and suffer nothing dreadful? For in the case of a free woman, there is harmony, and pleasure, and security, and relief, and honor, and adornment, and a good conscience; but there, there is much bitterness, much harm, and constant accusation. For even if no human sees you, your conscience will never cease to accuse you; but wherever you go, it will follow, accusing and crying out loudly, this accuser of yours. Hence, if anyone pursues pleasure, let such a person especially flee the company of harlots. For there is nothing more bitter than that habit, nothing more unpleasant than that intercourse, nothing more foul than those manners. A Let the deer of friendship and the foal of your favors converse with you; let your fountain of water be your own fountain. Having a pure fountain of water, why do you run to a pit full of mire, stinking of Gehenna and unspeakable punishment? What excuse will you have? What forgiveness? For if those who give themselves to fornication before marriage are punished and pay the penalty—just like that man who was clothed in filthy garments—much more so are those who do so after marriage. B For here the crime becomes double or triple, because while enjoying consolation, they have leaped into that lewdness, and because the act is considered not merely fornication, but also adultery, which is more grievous than every other sin. Let us, therefore, repeatedly say these things to ourselves and to our wives, and let us continue in this way; wherefore I also shall conclude my discourse with these words: "But because of fornications, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection that is due, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband; likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife" (1 Cor. 7. 2-4). Having kept these words with precision, both in the marketplace and in the house, both by day and by evening, and at the table, and in the marriage bed, let us meditate on them everywhere, and let us instruct our wives, to speak them to us and to hear them from us, so that having lived this present life temperately, we may also attain the kingdom of heaven, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
CONCERNING THE PASSAGE
"A wife is bound by the law for as long a time as her husband lives; but if he dies, she is free to marry whom she wishes, only in the Lord. But she is happier if she remains so" (1 Cor. 7. 39, 40).1. Recently the blessed Paul gave us instruction concerning marriage and the laws of marriage, writing and saying to the Corinthians: "But concerning the things about which you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman; but because of fornications, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband" (1 Cor. 7. 1, 2). For this reason, we spent our entire discourse on these words. It is therefore necessary also today to discourse with you again upon the same subject, since today the same Paul is discoursing about the same things. For you heard him crying out and saying: "A wife is bound by the law for as long a time as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is free to marry whom she wishes, only in the Lord. But she is happier if she remains so, according to my opinion; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 7. 39, 40). Let us therefore follow him today as well, and let us discourse regarding this subject; for by following Paul, we shall certainly follow Christ through him, since he too, not following himself but Him, wrote everything. C For marriage is no insignificant matter, just as it becomes a cause of countless calamities for those who do not use it as they ought. For just as the wife is a helper, so she often becomes a schemer. Just as marriage is, therefore, a harbor, so it is also a shipwreck—not because of its own nature, but because of the judgment of those who use it badly. For he who executes it according to the inherent laws finds in his home and his own wife a certain consolation and release from the evils of the marketplace and all evils everywhere; but he who handles the matter simply and haphazardly, even if he enjoys much serenity in the marketplace, will follow after rocks and crags once he enters his home. Since, therefore, the danger we face is not regarding trifling matters, it is necessary to pay attention to what is said with precision, and for the man who is about to take a wife to do so in accordance with the laws of Paul, or rather, in accordance with the laws of Christ. I know indeed that to many what is said seems new and paradoxical; nevertheless, I shall not be silent because of this, but having first read the law to you, I shall thus attempt to resolve the apparent contradiction. What then is the law that Paul has set for us? "A wife," he says, "is bound by the law." Therefore, it is not permitted to separate while the husband is alive, nor to introduce another bridegroom, nor to engage in second marriages. And see how he has used the very nature of the words with precision. For he did not say, "Let her live with her husband for as long as he lives"; but what? "A wife is bound by the law for as long a time as her husband lives"; so that even if she gives a bill of divorce, and leaves the house, and goes to another, she is bound by the law, and such a woman is an adulteress. If, therefore, the husband wishes to cast out the wife, or the wife to leave the husband, let her remember this utterance, and let her think that Paul is present and pursuing her, crying out and saying, "A wife is bound by the law." For just as runaway D servants, even if they leave their master's house, have the chain dragging along with them; so also women, even if they leave their husbands, have the law condemning them in place of...
the chain, both of the one who follows after and of the one who accuses her, and also of him who has taken her, saying: "Her husband still remains, and this crime is adultery. For the woman is bound to the law as long as her husband lives. And everyone who marries a woman who has been dismissed commits adultery." A Wait, when? When she has been delivered from the chain, when the man shall die. Therefore, declaring this, he did not add, "If her husband shall have died, she is free to marry whom she wishes," but, "If her husband shall have fallen asleep," as if comforting the widow and persuading her to remain with the former, and not add a second husband. "Your husband is not dead," he says, "but he has fallen asleep." Who does not wait for one who is asleep? Therefore he said, "If he shall have fallen asleep, she is free to marry whom she wishes." B He did not say, "Let her marry," so as not to appear to be using force and compelling; nor did he forbid one wishing to contract second nuptials, nor did he encourage one who was unwilling, but he read the law, saying: "She is free to marry whom she wishes." But saying that she is free after the death of the man, he shows that she was a slave to him while he was still alive; for she who is a slave, and subject to the law, even if she receives a bill of divorce a thousand times, will be bound by the law of adultery. For while it is permitted for slaves to change masters while they are alive, for a wife it will not be permitted to change husbands while her own is alive; for that would be adultery. C Do not read to me laws established by outsiders, which command a bill of divorce to be given, and for there to be separation. For God is not going to judge you on that day according to them, but according to those which He Himself established. Even the external laws did not posit this simply and absolutely; for they themselves also punish the act, and from this it is clear that they took the sin very ill. Whence they cast out naked and despoiled of her assets the one who was the cause of the divorce, and they punish the one by whom the occasion of the dissolution was given with the loss of property; and surely by doing this, they were not commending that act, but for this very same reason were punishing it. But you, hear Christ saying, "Unless your righteousness shall have abounded more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:20). Hear Him again saying, "Whoever shall dismiss his wife, except for the cause of adultery, makes her commit adultery; and whoever shall marry one who has been dismissed, becomes an adulterer" (Matt. 5:32). D For this reason the only-begotten Son of God came, for this reason He took the form of a servant, for this reason He poured out His precious blood, destroyed death, extinguished sin, and gave a more abundant grace of the Spirit, that He might lead you to a greater study of philosophy.
Otherwise, Moses did not enact this law so simply, but when being compelled to attune himself to the infirmity of those to whom he was giving the law. For since they were prone to slaughter, and were filling their houses with blood, and were sparing neither their own nor strangers, in order that they might not kill their wives indoors, who were ungrateful, he commanded that they be cast out, so that a graver evil, namely the facility of homicides, might be removed. Surely that they were homicides, hear the prophets saying: "Building Zion in blood, and Jerusalem in injustices" (Micah 3:10); and again: "They mix blood with blood" (Hosea 4:2); and again: "Your hands are full of blood" (Isa. 1:15). And that they raged not only against outsiders, but even against their own, the prophet was thus making manifest: "They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons" (Ps. 105:37). But those who did not spare their children, would certainly not have spared their wives. That this, therefore, might not happen, he permitted that.
Inseparable matrimony from the beginning
Wherefore also Christ, to the Jews asking and saying: "How then did Moses permit giving a bill of divorce?" (Matt. 19:7)? showing that He did not write thus by introducing a law contrary to his own, said: "Moses spoke according to the hardness of your hearts, but from the beginning it was not so" (Ibid. v. 8); "but He who made them from the beginning, made them male and female" (Ib. v. 4). If this had been good, he said, He would not have made one man and one woman, but with one Adam created, He would have made two women, if He had wished one indeed to be accomplished, and another to be brought in; but now indeed, by the very mode of formation, He introduced the law which I now write. And what is that? This indeed: "Let each one keep for himself that wife whom he was allotted in the beginning." This law is more ancient than that concerning the bill of divorce, and by as much, as Adam is older than Moses. And therefore I am now enacting nothing new, nor do I bring forward foreign decrees, but ones more ancient and prior to Moses.
But it will be of interest also to hear that law of Moses which he posited concerning this matter: "If anyone," he says, "shall have taken a wife, and shall have lived with her; and it shall be, if she shall not have found grace before him, because he found in her a matter of turpitude, he shall write for her a bill of divorce, and shall give it into her hands" (Deut. 24:1). See, he did not say, "Write and give," but what? He shall write for her a bill of divorce, and shall give it into her hands. There is a great difference, however, between this and that: for to say, "Let him write a bill of divorce, and let him give it into her hands," is of one commanding and ordering; but to say, "He shall write a bill of divorce, and he shall give it into her hands," is of one declaring the fact, and not introducing his own law. Therefore, "If anyone," he says, "shall cast out his wife and shall dismiss her from his house: and when she shall have departed, if she shall have been to another man, and the latter husband also shall have hated her, and shall have written for her a bill of divorce, and shall have given it into her hands, and shall cast her out of his house: if her husband who had taken her as his wife shall have died, the former husband, who had dismissed her, shall not be able to take her back to himself as his wife" (Ib. v. 2-4). Then showing that he does not laud the act, nor consider it to be matrimony, but to be attuning himself to their infirmity, after he said: "The former husband shall not be able to take her to himself as his wife," he added, "After she has been polluted" (Ib. v. 4): declaring through the mode of this word that second nuptials, while the former husband is alive, are a pollution rather than matrimony: for this reason he did not say, "After he shall have taken her as his wife." Do you see how consonantly he speaks with Christ? Then he also added the cause, "Because it is an abomination before God" (Ib. v. 4). And Moses indeed thus; but the prophet Malachi demonstrates this much more manifest than Moses; or rather not Malachi, but God through Malachi, in these words: "Is it a thing worthy to look at your sacrifice? Or to receive it acceptable from your hands?" (Ma
Malach. 2:13) And since he had said this, "Wherefore have you forsaken the wife of your youth?" (Ibid. v. 14) afterward to show how great is the evil, and how unworthy of any forgiveness the one who has done this is, in what follows he increases the accusation, saying: "And she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant, and the remnant of your spirit, and no other has made it." (Id.) See how many justifications he sets forth; first age, saying: "The wife of your youth;" then the partnership of life, saying: "And she is your companion;" after that the mode of formation, saying: "The remnant of your spirit." [For it was not formed from the earth as Adam was, but was fashioned from the earth, and this is that which was said, *exterity*, and "the remnant of his spirit."] A
3. Beyond all these, what is greater than all these, the dignity of the Creator. This is what is meant by "No other has made it." You cannot, he says, say that you were made by God, but she was not, but by some other inferior to Him; but one and the same [God] brought both into existence; so that, if nothing else, at least by revering this, preserve the love toward her. For if for servants, who are often quarreling with one another, this becomes a cause of mutual affection—that they must both serve one and the same master—much more ought this to happen among us, when we both have the same Creator and Master. You see how even in the Old Testament it was already receiving the origins and preludes of the new philosophy? For since they had been reared for a long time in the Law, and ought to have been traveling toward more perfect commandments, and since to them already the end of the polity was meeting, the prophet leads them to this philosophy at the appropriate time. Let us therefore obey this good law, and free ourselves from all shame; and let us neither cast out our own, nor accept those cast out by others. B For with what expression will he look upon the husband of the woman? With what eyes [will he look upon] his friends, or his servants? For if, upon the death of one living in wedlock, someone taking his wife, and then seeing the image of him alone lying there, suffered something and was disturbed, as if seeing the husband of her who was cohabiting with him alive, what kind of life will one live? How will he go home? With what intention, with what eyes will he see his own wife, who is another’s? C Or rather, one could not justly call such a one [a wife] for him, or even his own; for the adulteress is nobody’s wife. For she has trampled upon the covenants with him, and has not come to you according to the proper laws. What madness must it be to bring into the house a matter teeming with so many evils? For is there a scarcity of women? Why, when there are many whom it is permitted to take with proper laws and with a clear conscience, do we run to those that are forbidden, overturning houses, and introducing civil wars, and preparing enmity for ourselves from every direction, opening the mouths of ten thousand accusers, and disgracing our own lives, and, what is most grievous of all, gathering up for ourselves inescapable punishment on the day of judgment? For what shall we say then to Him who is about to judge us, when He brings the law into the midst and reading it, says: "I commanded that one should not take a divorced woman, saying that the matter is adultery." How then did you dare to go to a forbidden marriage? What shall we say, and what shall we answer? For one must not put forward there the laws laid down by those outside, but there is a necessity that they pass on, silent and bound, into the fire of Gehenna along with the adulterers, and those who have committed the injustice of wronging marriages; for both he who puts away a wife without the cause of fornication, and he who marries a woman who has been put away while the husband is living, are punished equally with her who has been cast out. Therefore, I entreat, and I beg, and I beseech, that husbands do not cast out wives, nor wives leave husbands, but hear Paul saying: "A wife is bound by the law for as long a time as her husband lives; but if the husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, [only] in the Lord." (1 Cor. 7:39) For what forgiveness could they have, who, when Paul even grants a second marriage after the death of the one living with her, and provides such license, dare to do this before the death? What apology could they attain, either those who take the wives of men who are still living, or those who, while having a wife inside, consort with harlots? For just as the woman who has a husband, even if she gives her body to a servant or to some free man not having a wife, is caught by the laws of adultery, so also the man, even if he sins with a common harlot, or with another woman who does not have a husband, when he has a wife, the matter is deemed adultery. Let us therefore flee this manner of adultery. For what will we have to say, or what [excuse] can we put forward daring such things? What decent pretext shall we offer? The desire of nature? But the wife allotted to you is present, depriving us of this excuse. For this reason a marriage has been introduced, that you might not commit fornication; or rather, not the wife only, but many others who share the same nature as us deprive us of this forgiveness. For when your fellow servant, having the same body, possessing the same desire, pushed by the same necessity, sees not another woman, but remains content with his own alone, what excuse will you have, putting forward the desire? And why do I speak of those who have wives? Consider for me those who live throughout in virginity, and have not socialized at all with marriage, and have displayed much temperance. When, therefore, others without marriage are temperate, what forgiveness will you obtain, committing fornication after marriage? Let both men and women hear these things, and widows, and those who have been married; for Paul speaks to all, and this law is the one saying: "A wife is bound by the law for as long a time as her husband lives; but if he has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord." Both to those having husbands, and to those not having them, and to those living in widowhood, and to those introducing a second bridegroom, and to all simply, this word is useful. D For she who has a husband will not choose, while he is alive, to be another’s, having heard that while he is alive she is bound; and she who has lost him, again, if she wishes to engage in second marriages, does not do this simply, nor as it happens, but with the laws laid down by Paul, who says, "She is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord," that is, with temperance, with modesty. But if she should choose to keep the covenants toward the one who has departed, she will hear of the crowns laid up for her, and she will receive greater eagerness. For "She is more blessed," he says, "if she remains so." (Ibid. v. 40)
A For since many women, upon the death of their first husbands, have committed adultery and led others into it, and have devised many other petty pretexts, he added this: "Only in the Lord." That no second marriage may bring disgrace, he thus provides for it to be free from reproach. It is better for all to await the one who has departed, to keep the promises made to that person, and to persevere in self-control, and by raising the children left behind, to obtain even greater favor from God. But if someone should wish to bring in a second husband, let her do so with modesty and dignity, observing the proper laws; for even this is permitted, as only fornication and adultery are forbidden.
Let us flee from this, both those who have wives and those who are unmarried, lest we shame our own life, lest we lead a ridiculous life, and lest we defile the body and bring an evil conscience into our own mind. For how will you be able to come into the church after intercourse with harlots? How will you dare to stretch out to heaven those hands with which you touched a harlot? How will you stir your tongue and call upon Him with that mouth with which you kissed a harlot? With what eyes will you look upon honorable friends? And why do I speak of friends? Even if no one is conscious of it, you yourself are compelled above all others to be suffused with shame and confusion, and above all others to loathe your own body. For if this were not so, why do you run to the bath after that sin, unless because you judge yourself to be filthier than all mire? What greater proof of your uncleanness, then, do you seek, or what sentence of judgment do you expect God to give when you yourself, who have done wrong, hold such an opinion about your own deeds?
B That they consider themselves to be unclean, I strongly praise and approve; but that they do not possess the proper method of cleansing, I disapprove and therefore rebuke. For if it were a bodily stain, you would rightly cleanse the body itself with the purifications of the bath; but when you have defiled and made the soul unclean, seek such a purification as will be able to wash away its stain. And what is the bath for that stain? Hot fountains of tears, groans ascending from the depth of the heart, constant compunction, continuous prayers, almsgiving, and abundant almsgiving; [the resolve] of not attempting these deeds anymore, and of condemning what has been done. Thus the nature of sin is washed away; thus the stain of the soul is purged. And so, if we do not do this, even if we went down into all the rivers, we would not be able to wash away even a small part of that sin.
The better course, indeed, is to not even attempt this abominable sin. If, however, someone is ever tripped up, let him apply these remedies, promising first that he will not lapse into them again. Certainly, if we condemn what we have already done, but then attempt the same things again, there will be no benefit from the purification. For he who is washed and then defiled again with the same mud, and he who pulls down what he has built, and builds again only to destroy, gains nothing from it other than working in vain and being miserable. Therefore, let us not waste our life in vain or for nothing; let us purge our former sins, and let us spend the remainder of our life in self-control and character.
and let us pass the rest of our time in virtue, so that, having God favorable to us, we may attain the kingdom of heaven, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
PRAISE OF MAXIMUS, AND WHAT KIND OF WIVES SHOULD TAKE
A 1. Maximus, colleague of Chrysostom, is praised. — That I was missed by you at the previous gathering, I was sorry; but that you partook of a richer table, I was glad. For he who pulls the yoke with me recently furrowed the field for us and cast the seeds with lavish tongue, and with great care cultivated your souls. You saw a tongue purified, you heard a word molded [well], you partook of water leaping up to eternal life, you saw a spring sending forth rivers of pure gold. They say a certain river brings flakes of gold to the people living around it, not because the nature of the water produces gold, but because it happens that the sources of the river flow through metallic mountains; flowing through those mountains and dragging along the gold-bearing earth, the river becomes a treasure to those dwelling nearby, providing wealth already prepared. This teacher also imitated that river previously, as if through metallic mountains—the [books of the] Scriptures—bringing forth, for your souls, thoughts more precious than any B gold. And I know that mine appear poorer to you today. For one who is accustomed to a frugal table, if he chances upon richer fare in the meantime, and then returns again to his own, he perceives its poverty all the more. Yet I will not for this reason set out any more sluggishly. For you know, being discipled by Paul, both to be full and to be hungry, and to abound and to suffer need, and to admire the rich, and not to loath the poor. And just as those who love wine and are fond of drink welcome the better wine, but do not despise the inferior; so you, being frantic for the hearing of divine oracles, welcome the wiser of the teachers, but also afford no small effort and zeal to the more commonplace ones. For the loose and dissolute are nauseated by the more sumptuous table, but those who are awakened and sober, and are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, run even to the poorer table with great eagerness. And that these words are not flattery, you showed this most clearly from the discourse that occurred before you. Since we made many arguments to you concerning marriages, showing that it is a finished adultery to cast out wives, or to take those who have been cast out while their former husbands were still alive, and [since we were] reading the law of Christ which says, "Whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery; and whoever divorces a wife, except for the cause of fornication, makes her commit adultery," I saw many bowing their heads, striking their faces, and unable even to look up; then, indeed, looking to heaven, I said: "Blessed be God, that we are not sounding into dead ears, but the hearing [of the audience] is receiving the words C spoken with much readiness." For it is better not to sin at all; but it is a small thing for the sake of salvation to be pained, to condemn the sinner against his own soul, and to scourge the conscience with great accuracy, for such condemnation is a part of righteousness, and leads entirely to no longer sinning. For this reason Paul also rejoiced after he had grieved those who had sinned, not because he grieved them, but because he corrected them by his grief. "For you were grieved," he says, "not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved unto repentance: for godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation not to be repented of" (2 Cor. 7. 9, 10). For whether you were pained for your own sins then, or for those of others, you would be worthy of ten thousand praises. For when anyone is pained for the sins of others, he is shown to have apostolic bowels, and imitates that holy one who says: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I do not burn?" (2 Cor. 11. 29). And when he is stung for his own, he has extinguished the punishment for those things already dared, and made himself safer for the future through this grief. Because of these things I, seeing you bowing, and sighing, and striking your faces, rejoiced, considering the fruit from this grief. For this reason also I will discourse to you today concerning the same subject; so that those who wish to enter into marriage may make much provision for this matter. For if, being about to buy houses and servants, we are careful and excessively busy about those who sell, and those who acquired them before, and of the things sold, both their construction, and the state of the body, and the disposition of the soul of some; much more, being about to take wives, is it necessary to show such and much greater care. For it is permitted to sell back a house that is bad, and it is permitted D to return a servant who has been proved malicious back to the one who sold him; but to return a wife, once taken, to those who gave her away, is not possible, but there is every necessity to have her with you to the end, or, casting her out because she is wicked, to be caught in adultery according to the laws of God. When, therefore, you are about to take a wife, do not read only the laws from without, but also, before those, the ones lying among us; for according to those, and not according to those [others], God will judge you on that day; and those [laws], being transgressed, frequently brought damages upon finances, but these [divine laws], having suffered this in the soul, bring about the inescapable punishments and that unquenchable fire.
2. But you, when you are about to take a wife, run to the secular lawyers with much zeal, and, sitting beside them, investigate with all accuracy, "What will be, if the wife dies childless, what if she has a child, what if two or three, and how [is it] if she has a father, and how if she does not have, for their..."