Doctrine concerning the Opinions of Origen, Evagrius, and Didymus

OF SAINT BARSANUPHIUS UNDER AURELIAN, BISHOP OF GAZA: DOCTRINE REGARDING THE OPINIONS OF ORIGEN, EVAGRIUS, AND DIDYMUS

^BInterrogation. A certain brother asked the holy elder, the abbot Barsanuphius, saying: "I do not know, Father, how I chanced upon the books of Origen and Didymus, and the Gnostica of Evagrius, and the treatises of his school. They say that the souls of men were not created together with their bodies, but that they pre-existed as naked intelligences, that is to say, incorporeal; likewise, that the angels were naked intelligences, and the demons were naked intelligences; and that men, having transgressed, were condemned to this body; but that the angels became angels by preserving themselves; and that the demons became such out of great wickedness. And as for many other things which they say of this kind, and again that the future punishment must have an end; and that it will come to pass that men, angels, and demons shall return as they once were, naked intelligences, which they call the 'restitution.' Since, therefore, my soul is troubled by falling into double-mindedness as to whether these things are true, or—

^A I beseech you, master, show me the truth, so that I may stand firm and not perish. For none of these things is spoken of in Holy Scripture, just as Origen himself asserts in his commentary on the Epistle to Titus, that it is not of the apostles, nor a tradition of the Church, that the soul is older than the formation of the body, characterizing as heretical him who says these things. Furthermore, Evagrius himself testifies in his Gnostic Chapters that no one has revealed these things, nor has the Holy Spirit Himself explained them. For he records in the sixty-fourth chapter of the second Century of his Gnostic [writings]: "Of the former, no one gives indication; of the latter, He who spoke in Horeb has explained." And again in the sixty-ninth chapter of the same second Century, he says thus: "The Holy Spirit did not explain the first division of rational beings, nor the first substance of bodies." But that there shall be no restitution, nor an end to punishments, the Lord Himself declared in the Gospel, saying: "They shall go away into eternal punishment." And again: "Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." Whence, therefore, master, since neither the apostles have handed these things down, nor the Holy Spirit has provided explanation, as they themselves have testified, and since they are contrary to the Gospels, did these men set them forth? Show, therefore, the mercy of compassion, father, in accordance with my weakness, and reveal to me what these dogmas are. ^B

Response

Brother, woe and woe again upon our generation. What have we left behind, and what do we investigate? In what do we become negligent, and for what do we strive, in what do we grow dull? We have forsaken the straight paths and wish to walk in crooked ones, so that the word of Scripture might be fulfilled in us: "Woe to those who have left the straight paths to walk in crooked ways." In truth, brother, I have set aside the mourning for myself, and I now mourn for you. Where have you fallen? I have interrupted the weeping for my own sins, and I weep for you as for my own son. The heavens shudder when men curiously investigate such things; the earth is shaken while they search into things ^C that cannot be comprehended. These are the dogmas of the Greeks, these are the empty babblings of men who think themselves to be something, these things error has begotten. For it says: "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." And if you wish to learn, pay attention. Our Lord Jesus Christ, our light, our king, says: "By their fruits you shall know them." What kind of fruits, then, do they have? Pride, contempt, self-indulgence, negligence, stumbling-blocks, alienation from the law, or rather from the lawgiver God, and a dwelling-place of demons and of their leader, the devil. These things do not lead those who believe in them into the light, but into darkness; these things lead to hardness of heart; these things do not lead to progress according to God, but rather to progress according to the ^D devil; these things from the

^A devil; they do not pull one out of the mud, but rather plunge them into the mire. These are the weeds which the enemy sowed in the field of the master of the house; these are the thorns that have sprung up in the land cursed by the Lord God: all is falsehood, all is darkness, all is error, all is alien to God. Flee these things, brother, lest their word be established in your heart. They extinguish tears, they blind the heart, and in a word, they destroy the men who pay attention to them. Do not stand in them, do not meditate upon them; for they are full of bitterness, and they bear fruit unto death. And do not be led astray concerning the knowledge of future things. If you sow here, you will reap there; after moving hence, no one can make progress. God does not labor in creating the soul together with the body. As for the celestial orders, the divine Scripture closes the mouth of every man with these words: *He spoke and they were created; He commanded and they were made. He established them forever and for the age of the age* ^B. And what God has established does not change. For there is no change in Him, according to Scripture. For where have you found that the effort of some angel has brought him to progress? Brother, where there is work, there is also the reward; where there is the contest, there are the crowns. Brother, if you wish to be saved, do not cast yourself into such things. I bear witness to you in the sight of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, that you have fallen into the pit of the devil and into ultimate destruction. Depart, then, from these things, and follow the footsteps of the Fathers. Acquire for yourself humility and obedience, tears, ascetic practice, poverty, the denial of your own opinion, and whatever else is of this kind, such as you find in their words and in their lives. And produce fruits worthy of repentance; and do not pay attention to me who speaks but does not do. But pray that I too may one day come to the knowledge of the truth, to the glory of the holy, consubstantial, and life-creating Trinity, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Interrogation.

Response.

^A Question. The same brother asked the elder: "Ought we not, then, to read the writings of Evagrius?" Answer. Do not accept dogmas of that kind. Read, however, if you wish, such things from his writings as pertain to the salvation of the soul, according to the parable of the net in the Gospel, where it is written that they cast the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. Do you likewise.

Question. The same brother who asked these things was hesitating within himself, pondering and saying: "And how is it that some of the Fathers now living accept these things, and we hold them to be good monks who take heed to themselves?" And after some days, it happened that the same brother asked the great elder to pray for him, and then the elder of his own accord revealed to him the thought of his heart, so that the brother was amazed and struck with wonder.

Responsio Barsanuphii. Since you said and thought: "Why do some of the Fathers accept the Gnostic writings of Evagrius, and some brothers, as Gnostics, accept them, and did not beseech God to know if they are true, and God left them in this matter to their own knowledge?" ^B I, nevertheless, say to you that it is neither my business nor yours to inquire into these things; but it is our time to examine our passions, so that we may cure them with tears and mourning.

Question of the same and other brothers to the same great elder. Father, those who think these things do not hesitate to say concerning Saint Gregory of Nazianzus that he too asserts pre-existence in his own writings, namely in the Oration on the Nativity of the Lord and in the Oration on the Day of Pascha, interpreting certain of his sayings according to their own mind, and passing over those things which are there clearly stated regarding the first creation of man, of both his soul and his body, according to the tradition of the Church. For he speaks as follows: "Wishing ^C to demonstrate this, the Artificer Word creates man, one living being from both natures, I mean the invisible and the visible; and having taken the body from matter already pre-existing, He at once implanted from Himself life, which the Word knows to be a rational soul and an image of God." And in what follows you will often find clearly and unambiguously stated by him what concerns man, fashioned from pre-existing matter and a soul given by God; in which passages he also praises the nature of man in many ways, and calls it a gift worthy of God that body and soul should together attain salvation; nor does he say, as they boast, that the soul was bound to the body for the sake of condemnation, in order to pay the penalty for things it had sinned before. In his other various writings, too, his goal is revealed to be ^D entirely alien to and pure from this dogma. And likewise they babble, desiring to drag Saint Gregory [into this], that Saint Ba—

their brother had said the same thing, and taught about pre-existence, interpreting some of his sayings perversely. But he himself clearly, in the thirtieth chapter of his work on humanity, fights against and overturns this dogma of pre-existence, just as even the blessed David, and the holy John, Athanasius, and all the other luminaries and teachers of the Church. Concerning restoration, the same Gregory of Nyssa speaks clearly; but not concerning the one which they preach, namely that, the punishment ceasing, man shall be restored into that which he was at the beginning, that is, into pure intelligences. ^A Yet he does not say that the punishment will cease and come to an end. Tell us, therefore, Father, why such a man does not speak correctly, as it would befit a holy man who has been deemed worthy to speak by the Holy Spirit. For indeed, even concerning Paradise, some of the Fathers and teachers disagree, saying that it is not sensible, but intelligible. And in other chapters of Scripture, it is possible to find a certain disagreement. Explain this to us, therefore, Master, we beseech you, so that, having been enlightened by you, we may glorify God and not pass judgment upon our holy Fathers.

The Answer of Barsanuphius

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Amen. Brothers, I may opportunely say with the Apostle: I have become a fool, you have compelled me. For I am compelled ^B by you to examine things that exceed my measure, and to speak of things that do not greatly profit the soul, unless perhaps they even harm it. We set aside the Apostle Paul saying: Let all anger and wrath and clamor and blasphemy be put away from you with all malice. But I say, [let these be put away] along with gluttony, and fornication, and avarice, and the remaining diseases of the soul, over which we ought to lament and mourn day and night, so that by the abundance of tears the defilement of all these may be washed away, and we may be able to emerge from being defiled, pure; ^C from being sinners, righteous; from being dead, alive. Our exercise, however, is concerned with one word alone, concerning which we are about to render an account. For He says: Thou wilt render to each according to his works; and again: For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what he has done through the body, whether good or evil. We ought to care for these things, about which our Father Poemen and those who came after him were solicitous. This solicitude produces the result that we do not think of ourselves too highly, that we do not make ourselves out to be great, but that we esteem ourselves as earth and ashes. ^D That other solicitude, however, brings it about that one considers himself a Gnostic, that he brings about conceit, that one thinks of himself as exalted, and deems himself to be something great in all things, so that he departs from humility. Forgive me, but are you not idle; and is it for this reason that you occupy yourselves with these things? If it is so, go down into the marketplace, until the householder comes, and you

go to the marketplace, until the master of the house comes and takes you into his vineyard. If there were concern in your hearts regarding that meeting, you would not have had cause to mention these things. The prophet forgot to eat his bread; and had we not been extravagant and indifferent, we would not have fallen into these things because of them. God does not demand these things of you, but rather sanctification, purification, silence, and humility. But because I do not wish to leave you with these thoughts, and I have prayed to God that He might certify me regarding this matter—and suffered distress from both sides—I chose rather to embrace the affliction, that I might relieve you from it, remembering the saying: Bear one another's burdens. And hear what I received from God, three days before you wrote your question. May all the Fathers who have pleased God, the saints and righteous and true servants of God, pray for me. Do not think, however, that even if they are saints, they have been able to truly comprehend all the depths of God. For the Apostle says: We know in part, and we prophesy in part; and again: To one is given through the Spirit this and that, and not all things to the one man; but to one in this way, to another in that. But one and the same Spirit works all things. Knowing that the things of God are incomprehensible, the Apostle cried out, saying: O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who... ^{A B}

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