Catena in epistulam Juda (catena Andreae) (e cod. Oxon. coll. nov. 58)

The Epistle of Jude. Hypothesis. He writes this Epistle to those who have already believed. The occasion is this: certain persons had insinuated themselves and were teaching that sin is a matter of indifference, and were denying the Lord; he was compelled to write and to secure the brethren. And first he exhorts them to strive and to abide by the faith delivered to them; then he denounces such persons as deceivers, and commands that they have no communion with such persons, knowing that it is not enough merely to be called, unless we walk worthily of our calling. For the Lord, who led the former people out of Egypt, destroyed those who did not abide in the faith; and He did not spare even the angels who did not keep their own order. Therefore one must withdraw from such persons; for even Michael the Archangel did not endure the blasphemy of the devil. He then teaches that their destruction will be like that of Sodom; then he exhorts to good conduct, and having prayed for them for steadfastness of faith from the Lord, he concludes the Epistle.

Chapter 1 Concerning attention to faith in Christ because of the uprising of impious and licentious men. Jude, servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those sanctified in God the Father and preserved for Jesus Christ, the called: may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, making every effort to write to you concerning our common salvation, I have felt it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. And in what way will one of those who have once believed in the Lord Jesus Christ deny him? Yet we have accepted the doctrine of the incarnation. But if we say that the Son who is the Word from God the Father is one, and the one from the woman is another according to his own nature, we have denied the one Lord. For the Lord Jesus is one by economic union, that is, the union with the Word from God, his flesh ascending to the glory of the divinity. Therefore, Christ and Son is one; for he is the Lord of all. Of Cyril. Saying these things, he both secures us and at the same time brands the heretics. Therefore, one should not be astonished at the error and bad faith of the heretics; the Holy Spirit having foretold to us through the holy prophets and apostles their uprising. For through this prophecy he has made us more secure, so as not to be caught by their sophistries.

For some men have insinuated themselves, those long ago proscribed for this judgment, impious men, transforming the grace of our God into licentiousness. That is, they were foreknown; just as, for instance, the matters concerning Jude were forewritten. He speaks of the followers of Simon; for these were some gluttonous and licentious men who pretended the teaching of piety, in order to find through it an entrance into houses; and having done this, they fulfilled their own licentiousness and impurity, captivating women laden with sins; for having fabricated some nocturnal rites, they gave themselves over to beds and debaucheries. And the phrase “they transformed piety” means that under the pretext of pious teaching they fulfilled their own intemperance, working unlawful unions. Into this they cast themselves, practicing every fornication under the guise of religion. And they denied the only master and Lord of us, Jesus Christ. For their life being impure, as if with a great voice it denies Jesus; for what communion has light with darkness? Concerning their future punishment, after the likeness of the sinners and wicked of old.

I wish to remind you, knowing this once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people from the land of Egypt, the second time destroyed those who did not believe; and angels who did not keep their own beginning, but abandoned their own dwelling, he has kept for the judgment of the great day, in eternal bonds under darkness. And one who denied them shows this: that this is the one who led Israel out of Egypt, and in addition to this he threatens them with destruction, unless they choose to repent. For they are kept to fall into that final fire and the eternal bonds under darkness; for "he has kept" looks to the future time, just as Peter also wrote: "But the present heavens and earth are stored up by the same word, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of impious men." Therefore also the Lord, prefiguring in the Gospels the day of judgment, appears saying, "Go, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." "Beginning" of them, he says, is the bringing into existence. They were brought into existence for every good work, just as we also were.

The beginning of the angels who did not keep it is presumably the Word according to which they were created; or the natural power given to them for deification by grace; or again the order of their station according to the worth of grace. And this again is proof of the punishment reserved for them. For if He did not spare those who were redeemed because they reverted to evil, and the angels, though they were angels, having become wicked through their own negligence, and the cities in Sodom, clearly He will not spare those who sin unrepentantly. He also says that the angels who revolted from God “he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness.” From the Interpretation of the Psalms by Hesychius the Presbyter. The texts set before us: “Who will seek out his mercy and his truth?” For who can comprehend his philanthropy, or who can reckon his truth? For from truth He did not spare angels who sinned, but through philanthropy He brought prostitutes and tax collectors into the kingdom. From Maximus. The dwelling place is either heaven, or the wisdom of goods beyond understanding according to habit, which they were created to inhabit. For reason knows how to call wisdom a house; or the protective oversight of the pure divinity over the natural and acquired goods given to them, which they abandoned by usurping. The eternal bonds are the complete and perpetual immobility concerning the good according to their own will; by which they never at any time enjoy divine relief.

or again, for the sake of our salvation, restraining their madness against us according to the providence of God, not allowing the machinations of their wickedness against us to proceed further; darkness is the complete and total ignorance of divine grace, according to which, having been qualitatively formed throughout in their disposition, they have been deprived of the blessed and all-brilliant transmission of the pure light, having consumed all the intellectual power given to them by nature concerning that which is not. What they will suffer on the fearful day of judgment, the righteous judge knows, who assigns to each a just recompense according to merit, and appropriately distributes the form of judgment according to the measure of wickedness, and pronounces a fitting sentence for the unending ages with righteousness according to his good decrees. As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having committed fornication in a similar manner to these, and having gone after another flesh, lie as a spectacle, undergoing the penalty of eternal fire. I think that the Borborians, and the Estotians, and the Babylonians, and the Caianites are alluded to, whose lawlessness is lawless. Some men, having used flattery and sorcery under the guise of divine teaching, have crept in.

through their being hypocritically pre-scripted, that is, foreknown for this judgment, that what among themselves they judged to be delivered over to a reprobate mind, these, being unbridled on account of exceeding impiety, transferred the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into licentiousness, and through this very act of wantonness denied the only master Jesus Christ, the Lord of those called through the Gospel; then, in order to turn the faithful away from such wicked and impious persons, he shows what sort of magnitude belongs to the master whom they denied, having indicated that it is he who led the people out of Egypt, as also to extend salvation to them. But since some of them were fickle and changeable, still bearing the harm they had in Egypt, he destroyed them when they became faithless in the wilderness, even though they had been saved through faith from Egypt; lest, therefore, these be the hypocrites of divine teaching: those who preside over the heresy of the Nicolaitans, overlooking no form of licentiousness. For they perform shameful and exceedingly shameful acts, ostensibly in a mystical manner, and likewise those from Simon Magus; in addition, those from Marcion and Valentinus and the Sethians. And under the pretext of religion they do shameful things.

to licentiousness they would transform the grace of the Lord; through which licentiousness and its works they deny the only master and Lord of us, Jesus Christ. It has been said, then, before these things concerning him, that he is true God, this only master, the Lord Jesus Christ, who led the people out of Egypt through Moses; it follows that there is not another God of Moses; for there is no other besides the Trinity; whence Moses appears to serve him according to the saying, “That one wrote about me,” and, “Whom Moses wrote, we have found to be Jesus”; wherefore also, having spiritually foreseen the cross, he considered the reproach of Christ to be the greatest wealth, not another than the one saying, “Let it be for me to boast in the cross of the Lord Jesus.” Likewise, however, these, dreaming, defile the flesh, reject lordship, and blaspheme the glories. “Dreaming,” he says, that is, conceiving nothing true, but as in sleep fantasizing and dogmatizing utterances full of impiety. And the flesh, that is, our body, they say is the creation of the evil one, while blaspheming the one lordship and glory of the Holy Trinity; and to the Father they ascribe the beginningless and uncreated, but they number the Son and the Holy Spirit among the creations under time. These unholy doctrines belong to Manichaeus and Arius; wherefore the Apostle vehemently makes his denunciation against such doctrines.

They defile the flesh, not confessing that there is one God, the maker of both visible and invisible things, but deifying matter and darkness, and abhorring the flesh; they reject the lordship for this reason themselves; they blaspheme the glories. He called the two testaments "glories," as Paul says, "For if the ministry of condemnation is a glory, much more is the ministry of righteousness a glory." See how much wickedness of theirs he enumerates, saying that both their mind and their whole life have been corrupted; for they are both impure in life and most impious in speech. He said "dreaming" because they do not perform the licentious acts they commit with a sober and sound mind; in these they defile their own flesh and reject the lordship of the mystery according to Christ, performing their own licentiousness and demonic notions in the order of evangelical mysteries. And more prophetically he pillories the heresy of the most impious Borborians, who also took their beginnings from Simon. From Severus's letter to Thomas, Bishop of Germanicia. It must be known that he speaks about certain people who advocate pleasure, and pursue the pleasantness of the flesh and the fantasies in the world, and consider these to be religion, and blasphemously express themselves so as not to confess one lordship and divinity; for such were those seen from Valentinus and Marcion down to the most unholy and abominable times of the Manichaeans.

This then the Apostle says: just as they themselves, like those in Sodom who were burned because of the licentiousness they committed, "dreaming," that is, thinking of worldly things and stupefied in mind by transient fantasies, they defile the flesh. For such persons, life is night, and even when awake they sleep, and they see as dreams things that delight and pass away as soon as they appear. With this understanding, the great Paul, knowing the licentious life as night and such thoughts as deep stupor, when writing to the Romans exhorted and said: "The night has advanced, and the day has drawn near. Let us therefore put away the works of darkness, and let us put on the arms of light, so that we may walk decorously in the day, not with revelries and drunkenness," and so forth. And a little later: "Lordship

They reject the one divinity and lordship, not positing a single principle of all things, but rather that there is one God of the Old Testament, a wicked and punitive being who delights in blood, and another of the New, the one who spoke in the Gospels and Apostolic writings; or else they set up two principles opposed to each other, an evil and a good one, over all creation, and declare both unbegotten, the one being the opposite of good things, the other of evil things—which has especially become the offscouring of the mind of Manes. From him the wicked swarm of the Manichaeans is descended. Those who are thus disposed, and who reject the lordship, that is, the one and only Lord God over all, necessarily also blaspheme the glories; and by "glories" he means either the doctrines of piety, or the Old and New Testaments, proclaimed with divine glory. And a little later: Therefore it is clear from these things that he calls "glories" the two covenants that were ministered: one through the service of Moses, the other through the Lord and God and Savior himself, our Jesus Christ, who emptied himself and took the form of a servant, and said to his disciples, "For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Michael the Archangel, when disputing with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared to bring a charge of blasphemy, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you.” “Michael the Archangel, when disputing with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses,” and so forth. He shows that the Old Testament agrees with the New, and that both were given by one God; for the devil resisted, wishing to deceive, claiming that the body was his as master of matter, and he heard from the Angel, “May the Lord rebuke you,” that is, the Lord of spirits and of all flesh. For this reason he said shortly before, “Jesus, having saved a people from the land of Egypt, the God of the Old and New Covenant, glory to him.” Michael, not assuming authority, did not inflict upon him a punishment befitting the blasphemy, but left him to the judgment of his own master. For when he brought Moses to the mountain where the Lord was transfigured, then the devil said to Michael, “God lied, having brought Moses where he swore he would not enter.” Michael is said to have ministered concerning the burial of the body of Moses, with the devil opposing this, God permitting it and wishing to show through the visible to those who then saw dimly and were more coarsely disposed the invisible truth, that after our departure from here, the devil and the evil powers with him oppose our souls as they journey upward, seeking to cut off their course.

And they overcome those who have done evil deeds, but are defeated by the righteous through the alliance of angels. This also the blessed Antony beheld in a vision. From Severus, Archbishop of Antioch, in his letter to Thomas, bishop of Germanicia. Here through a bodily type God prefigured some mystery taking place concerning the soul. For when the soul is separated from the body, after its departure from here, both good angelic powers and a most wicked throng of demons meet it, in order that, according to the quality of the deeds they have done, both evil and good, they—either these or those—may convey it to the appropriate places, where they will be kept until the last day, on which we shall all be brought to judgment; and we shall be led either to eternal life or to the unending flame of fire. Wishing to indicate this also to the sons of Israel through some bodily type, God arranged that at the burial of Moses there should appear before their eyes, for the preparation of the body and the customary deposition in the earth, the evil demon resisting, as it were, and

acting against him, and Michael, being a good angel, met him and drove him away; and he did not rebuke him authoritatively, but left the judgment against him to the Lord of all, and said, "May the Lord rebuke you." So that through these things those being instructed may learn that there is some struggle for souls after departure from here, and that it is necessary through good deeds to prepare ourselves to partake of angelic alliance, while the demons hiss against us enviously and bitterly. And when this divine image appeared before their eyes, it is likely that some cloud or radiance of light then occurred at that place, darkening and walling off the sight from those standing around, so that they might not know his burial. Hence also in Deuteronomy the sacred text says, "And Moses, servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab by the word of the Lord; and they buried him in the land of Moab, near the house of Peor; and no one saw his death, that is, his burial, until this day." And after a little—"And this interpretation the passage seems to have, and thus we have understood it. But some have said that Jude called the body of Moses the law itself; and that when he came down, the devil opposed and acted against him, hindering the giving of the law, and disputing, and saying that the people were not worthy to receive it; wherefore also Michael, going before, drives away the opponent, crying out, 'May the Lord rebuke you.'

Others called the body of Moses the people he led, and said that as they were departing from the land of the Egyptians, the devil opposed and resisted them, as if in a trial, saying to Moses that his body, that is, the people, was not worthy to obtain freedom from the Egyptians. And Michael drove him away and stopped him from acting in opposition, exclaiming, "May the Lord rebuke you." From Severus, from the treatise against Alexandria: "He did not dare," he says, "to bring the judgment of blasphemy against him, but said only, 'May the Lord rebuke you,' that is, as a blasphemer and enemy of God from the beginning, from the time he fell into apostasy, and after that deceived Adam, having fought with cunning against the commandment of God, he did not dare to encompass him with a judgment and sentence of blasphemy, but said, 'May the Lord rebuke you.' For the matter of the sentence and judgment was reserved for the judge, that is, Christ. 'For he who condemned sin,' as Paul says, in his own flesh, since he had not even a trace of it in himself, condemned also through his own death death itself, and the devil who held power over death.

These men blaspheme what they do not know; and what they know by instinct, like irrational animals, in these things they are corrupted. Concerning doctrine, he says, being ignorant of the truth, they compose blasphemous arguments for themselves; but concerning pleasures they are such that they differ in nothing from irrational animals, but are considered either as mares mad for stallions, or as swine wallowing in the mire of debauchery. When Moses died on the mountain, Michael was sent to remove the body; then when the devil blasphemed against Moses, proclaiming him a murderer because he struck the Egyptian, the Angel, unable to bear the blasphemy against him, said to the devil, "May the Lord rebuke you." Therefore, what has been said is an indication of the extreme wickedness of those accused, since even an Archangel could not bear the blasphemy of a man, while they blaspheme God, who is over all. Chapter 2. A woe upon them for their error and impiety, and licentiousness and blasphemy and feigned hypocrisy, and for their bribe-taking for the purpose of deception.

Woe to them, for they walked the path of Cain, and were poured out in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in the contradiction of Korah. For they too are fratricides, through what they teach, slaying the souls of the deceived. Observe how he shows the extremity of their impiety; for he was not content to compare them to Cain the fratricide—since they also, through their abominable seed-murder, kill the potential man and brother—but also to Balaam and Korah: to Cain for the aforementioned reason; to Balaam, because for the sake of gain he came to curse the people of God, even if God turned his tongue to blessing; to Korah, because he seized a teaching office to which God had not appointed him. For as the Apostle says, "No one takes the honor for himself, but the one called by God." At the same time we are taught what the end of these men is, through the punishment of those to whom he likened them. Adam, God expelled from paradise, and he dwelt opposite the delight of paradise, and not in the land of Nod. But Cain, the Lord neither sent away nor expelled; rather, he himself departed from the face of the Lord. You may use the allowance of these expressions at some time, when one, with the Church laying claim, does not willingly depart from it, as in the case of Adam, when he is sent away reproachfully and disciplinarily by those set over it; but another, as self-willed and contemptuous, like Cain.

and the apostate often departs, sometimes even when called upon by those who admonish the disorderly, by those who comfort the faint-hearted, by those who support the weak. For you will say that this one, having willingly abandoned the Church, was like Cain from the evil one, having chosen to be from the evil one, and because of this he departed from the face of God. And the one who departs with a wicked purpose and a blameworthy life and contrary doctrines has departed from the Church, as Cain from the face of God. And such a one certainly dwells in the land of Naid opposite Eden, opposing the doctrines of the paradise of delight. Naid is [a place] where they kill, to Cain, of seed-eating, tongue, and they themselves, and against the apostate, of the Lord God, of God, of use, of joint use, claiming, because of the seated one, of those standing, comforting, supporting, wicked, blameworthy, that this one.

Salos” is interpreted as “turbulence.” Therefore, the one who flees from the face of God and has become outside of him, where would he dwell, if not in turbulence, storm-tossed and wave-tossed by the turbulence of the passions? These are the reefs in your love-feasts, feasting together without fear, pasturing themselves; rainless clouds, carried away by winds. The Apostle’s discourse was about men who err, concerning forgiveness for them—something loftier; it was not about stars and clouds, waves and trees. He has used these as examples, charging that what those things are by nature, men have suffered by choice. For just as the rainless clouds driven by winds, and the fruitless trees, which he said had died in a twofold manner, will not be punished—nor will the waves that foam up their own shame, being irrational and devoid of sensation—so also the so-called wandering stars do not inherit darkness, but men who sin by choice. It is concerning these that the examples were taken, so that the meaning is this: these men, about whom the discourse is, are like wandering stars, deviating from the straight path and walking the road opposite to virtue; therefore, darkness has been reserved for them, not as for stars, but as for men. For his discourse was not about stars or clouds or waves, as I said earlier, but about men who have fallen into bestiality, licentiousness, and arrogance, and who through their company also corrupt those who associate with them.

For if the course assigned to the stars through eternity, which they run, is not to be called productive of evils—for that would be impious and irrational—but even if, by hypothesis, it were granted, as some claim, that they are indicative, not even thus will they pay penalties, for neither did the prophets pay penalties when they foretold what was to be done by the Jews; for it is not that what they foretold came to pass because of their foretelling, but because it was going to happen, they foretold it. It is clear, therefore, as I think, that the discourse is not about stars, just as it is not about waves or trees or clouds, but about sinful men, for whom the darkness of shadow has been reserved for eternity; for, having begun from the examples, he concluded with those about whom his discourse was. Moreover, at that time, at the common meals held in churches, concerning which the Apostle also writes to the Corinthians, they gathered, not for the sake of partaking of the Lord’s supper, but to find an opportunity to entice unstable souls; for Peter also enumerates these in his second Epistle. “Autumnal trees, fruitless, twice dead, uprooted.” “Autumnal trees” he calls the impious heretics, who, chilled by wickedness, do not produce the fruit of righteousness. And he called them “twice dead,” as having been dead in both soul and body.

to the soul, as devising evil, and to the body, as executing sin. He says they were uprooted, as unworthy of being planted in the house of God, where the holy David, knowing himself rooted, said, "I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God," and so forth. He says this because again the righteous, pretending to be shady olive trees and even fruitful vines, compared themselves. He says, therefore, that some are unfruitful, and rather because of the fruit they destroy in the sowing of seed, they are not brought to life; and they are autumnal, that is, devoid of both leaves and fruit. For neither their life nor their teaching is a bright life-giving one. They are not fixed in a single opinion due to instability. Wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shames. Having killed the soul by a licentious life and impiety and by evil teachings; or thus: because before faith they had died in impiety, then, approaching the Gospel, they lived; but again

Having given themselves over to impiety and pleasure, they have died. He says that they have died twice. For one who is so guilty of evils as to be led by impiety and pleasures, what stability or root will he have, being assailed from every side? Their madness and ungovernable nature concerning blasphemies is signified; and the phrase "to spew forth their own shame" indicates that along with madness against God they also practice great baseness of life. Wandering stars, for whom the darkness of gloom has been preserved forever. This he said also at the beginning, those who were written against long ago. And the seventh from Adam, Enoch, also prophesied concerning them, saying, "Behold, the Lord has come with his holy myriads to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the impious concerning all their works which they have impiously done, and concerning all the harsh words which sinful impious ones have spoken against him." Even if, imitating their leader Satan who disguises himself as an Angel of light, they themselves wish to be transformed into teachers of truth, concerning whom it is said, "in whom you appear as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life," yet they are deceivers, corrupting the truth with the licentiousness of blasphemies, and later they will be punished with gloom and darkness and shadow, which is the outer darkness, which has been prepared for Satan and his Angels.

These are the grumblers, the fault-finders, proceeding according to their own desires, and their mouth speaks boastful things, admiring faces for the sake of gain. For they do not have the boldness to use their own teaching. For how is it without danger to make public their teaching with impiety and blasphemy? And the term "fault-finders" means that they slander the things of others and of the truth, in order to establish their own evils and licentious acts as best they can. But you, beloved, remember the words previously spoken by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: that they told you that at the end of the times mockers will come, proceeding according to their own desires of impieties. This was said by Peter; for Peter wrote the second Epistle concerning these things; and this concerning the things written by Paul; for he set forth many things about these in every Epistle. These are those who separate, the psychical, that is, those who make schisms in their blasphemies and licentious acts, and tear apart the members of the Church. Instead of having a demonic teaching, according to what is said, "This wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, psychical, demonic." Not having Spirit, the divine speaking in them, as do the true teachers of the right faith.

Chapter 3 Concerning their security in faith, compassion, and mercy toward the neighbor for salvation in sanctification. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, receiving the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life; and those whom you pity, you discern. That is, those who are separated from the truth by the words of false teaching. Concerning those who are separated, James says that "they resemble a wave of the sea stirred and fanned by the wind because of the instability of the soul. These, then, are both pitiable and wretched, carried about by every wind of teaching." And those whom you save in fear, snatching from the fire. If anyone, by the word of God, drawing up those who are already in the fire kindled by the fiery darts of the devil and held in some forbidden conflagration, can most swiftly snatch them from the fire, this one may snatch appropriately, not being accounted a robber among those accused by the Apostle. But if there are some among them able, he says, to receive the truth, presenting it to them, from the fire that is about to take hold of them. That is, instilling and placing fear in them, you prepare them to be seen as worthy of mercy when they repent. Hating even the garment stained from the flesh. Question of Maximus: What is the garment from the flesh? Answer.

A life stained by many transgressions arising from the passions of the flesh is a soiled garment. For from the manner of one’s conduct in life, as from a kind of covering, each person naturally appears, whether just or unjust: the one having a clean garment, that is, a virtuous life; the one having a life stained by evil deeds. Or rather, the garment more soiled from the flesh is that which, through memory, forms the soul by means of the evil motions and activities arising from the flesh, becoming a habit and disposition. The soul, seeing this always around itself like a garment, is filled with the stench of passions. For just as from the Spirit, through virtues woven together with one another according to reason, a garment of incorruption comes to be for the soul, which when it puts on becomes beautiful and glorious, so also in the case of the flesh, when passions are woven together with one another according to their proportion, a certain garment comes to be, impure and stained, which makes the soul known from itself, setting another form and image upon it in place of the divine.

Chapter 4 A prayer on their behalf for sanctification and pure confidence, together with a doxology of God. To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling and to set you blameless before his glory in exultation, the only wise God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, glory and majesty, power and authority, before all time, now and always and unto the ages. Amen. He speaks of the fornication and the impurity and the licentiousness which the followers of Simon practiced. You will not pity a poor man in a judgment; for one who is in need and begging ought to be pitied, but one who is accusing and prosecuting ought not; for he does not demand a favor, but insists that he is being wronged. The Epistle of Jude. Hypothesis. This epistle he writes to those who have already believed. And the occasion is this: some had crept in and were teaching that sin is a matter of indifference, and were denying the Lord; he was compelled to write and to secure the brethren. And first he exhorts them to strive and to abide by the faith delivered to them; then he denounces such persons as deceivers, and commands that they have no fellowship with such persons, knowing that it is not enough to be called, unless we walk worthily of the calling. For the Lord, having led the former people out of Egypt, destroyed those who did not abide by the faith; and of the angels who did not keep their own rank, he did not spare. Therefore one must withdraw from such persons; for even Michael the Archangel did not endure the blasphemy of the devil. He teaches, then, that their destruction will be like that of Sodom.

Then he exhorts them to the present matters, and having prayed for them for steadfastness of faith from the Lord, he concludes the Epistle. Chapter 1. Concerning attention to faith in Christ because of the uprising of impious and licentious men. Judas, slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those sanctified in God the Father and preserved for Jesus Christ, the called: may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, making every effort to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. And in what way will one who has once believed in the Lord Jesus Christ deny him? Yet we have accepted the doctrine of the incarnation; but if we say that the Son who is the Word from God the Father is one, and the one from the woman is another in his own right, we have denied the one Lord. For there is one Lord Jesus by economic union, that is, with the Word from God, his flesh ascending to the glory of the divinity; therefore there is one Christ and Son; for he is the Lord of all. Cyril. He says these things both securing us and at the same time condemning the heretics. Therefore we should not be astonished at the error and bad faith of the heretics; for the Holy Spirit foretold to us through the holy prophets and apostles their uprising; rather, through this prophecy he made us more secure, so as not to be caught by their sophistries.

For some men have insinuated themselves, those long ago condemned to this judgment, impious men, transforming the grace of our God into licentiousness. That is, they were foreknown; just as, for instance, the matters concerning Judas were also forewritten. He speaks of the followers of Simon; for these were some gluttonous and licentious men who pretended to teach piety, so that through it they might find a way to insinuate themselves into houses; and having done this, they fulfilled their own licentiousness and impurity, taking captive women laden with sins; for having fabricated some nocturnal rites, they gave themselves over to beds and debaucheries. And he says "they transformed piety" because, under the pretext of pious teaching, they fulfilled their own intemperance, working unlawful unions. Into which they cast themselves, practicing every fornication under the guise of religion. And they deny the only master and Lord of us, Jesus Christ. For their life, being impure, as if with a great voice denies Jesus; for what communion has light with darkness? Concerning their future punishment, after the likeness of the sinners and wicked of old.

I wish to remind you, who once know this, that the Lord, having saved a people from the land of Egypt, the second time destroyed those who did not believe; and angels who did not keep their own origin, but abandoned their own dwelling, he has kept for the judgment of the great day, in eternal bonds under darkness. And one who denies this shows that this is the one who led Israel out of Egypt, and in addition to this he threatens destruction to them, unless they choose to repent. For they are kept to fall into that final fire and the eternal bonds under darkness; for the word "has kept" looks to future time, just as Peter also wrote: "But the present heavens and earth are stored up by the same word, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of impious men." Therefore also the Lord, prefiguring in the Gospels the day of judgment, appears to say, "Go, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." "Their origin" he says is the bringing into being. They were brought into being for every good work, just as we also were.

The beginning of the angels who did not keep it is the Word according to which they were created; or the natural power given to them for deification by grace; or again the order of their station according to the dignity of grace. And this again is a proof of the punishment reserved for them. For if He did not spare those who were redeemed because they reverted to evil, and the angels, though they were angels, having become wicked through their own negligence, and the cities in Sodom, clearly He will not spare those who sin unrepentantly. He also says that the angels who revolted from God "he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness." Hesychius the Presbyter, from his Interpretation of the Psalms. The texts set before us: "Who will seek out his mercy and his truth?" For who can comprehend his philanthropy, or who can reckon his truth? For from truth He did not spare angels who sinned, but through philanthropy He brought prostitutes and tax collectors into the kingdom. Maximus. The dwelling place is either heaven, or the wisdom of goods beyond conception according to habit, which they were created to inhabit. For reason also knows how to call wisdom a house; or the protective oversight of the pure divinity over the natural and acquired goods given to them, which they abandoned by usurping. Eternal bonds are the complete and perpetual immobility concerning the good according to their own will, by which they never at any time enjoy divine relief.

or again, on account of our salvation, restraining their madness against us according to the providence of God, not allowing the machinations of their wickedness against us to proceed further; darkness is the complete and total ignorance of divine grace, according to which, having been qualitatively formed throughout in their disposition, they have been deprived of the blessed and all-bright dissemination of the pure light, having consumed all the intellectual power given to them by nature concerning that which is not. What they will suffer on the fearful day of judgment, the righteous judge knows, who assigns to each a just recompense according to merit, and fittingly distributes the form of judgment according to the measure of wickedness, and pronounces a sentence suitable for unending ages with righteousness according to his good decrees. As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having committed fornication in a similar manner to these, and having gone after another flesh, lie as an example, undergoing the penalty of eternal fire. I think that the Borborians, and the Estotians, and the Babylonians, and the Cainites are alluded to, whose lawless licentiousness is such. Some men, having used flattery and sorcery under the guise of divine teaching, have insinuated themselves.

through their being forewritten, that is, foreknown for this judgment, that what among themselves they judged, having been handed over to a reprobate mind, these, being some unbridled ones on account of exceeding impiety, transferred the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into licentiousness, and through this very act of wantonness denied the only master Jesus Christ, the Lord of those called through the Gospel; then, in order to turn the faithful away from such wicked and impious men, he shows what sort of magnitude the master is whom they denied, having made clear that he is the one who led the people out of Egypt, as also to offer them salvation. But since some of them were fickle and changeable, still bearing the harm they had in Egypt, he destroyed them when they disbelieved in the desert, even though they had been saved through faith from Egypt; lest therefore these be the hypocrites of divine teaching, those who preside over the heresy of the Nicolaitans, overlooking no form of licentiousness. For they perform shameful and exceedingly shameful acts, supposedly in a mystical manner, and also those from Simon Magus; in addition, those from Marcion and Valentinus and the Sethians. And under the pretext of religion they do shameful things.

to licentiousness they transform them, saying the grace of the Lord; through which licentiousness and its works they deny the only master and Lord of us, Jesus Christ. It has been said, then, before these things concerning him, that he is true God, this one the only master, the Lord Jesus Christ, who led the people out of Egypt through Moses; it follows that there is not another God of Moses; for there is no other besides the Trinity; whence Moses appears serving him according to the saying, “That one wrote about me.” And the saying, “Whom Moses wrote, we have found Jesus”; wherefore also having foreseen spiritually the cross, he considered the reproach of Christ to be the greatest wealth, not another than the one saying, “May it be for me to boast in the cross of the Lord Jesus.” Similarly, however, these also, dreaming, defile the flesh, reject the lordship, and blaspheme the glories. “Dreaming,” he says, that is, thinking nothing true, but as in sleep fantasizing and dogmatizing utterances full of impiety. And the flesh, that is, our body, they say is the creation of the evil one, while blaspheming the one lordship and glory of the Holy Trinity; and to the Father they ascribe the unoriginate and uncreated, but the Son and the Holy Spirit they number among the creations under time. These unholy doctrines belong to Manichaeus and Arius; wherefore the Apostle vehemently makes his denunciation against such doctrines.

They defile the flesh, not confessing that there is one God, maker of both visible and invisible things, but deifying matter and darkness, and abhorring the flesh; they “deny the lordship” on account of this themselves; “and they blaspheme the glories.” He called “the glories” the two covenants, as Paul says, “For if the ministry of condemnation is a glory, much more is the ministry of righteousness a glory.” See how great their wickedness he enumerates, saying that both their mind and their whole life are corrupted; for they are impure in life and most impious in speech. He said “dreaming” because they do not act with a sober and sound mind in the licentious acts they perform; in these they defile their own flesh and deny the lordship of the mystery according to Christ, performing their own licentious acts and demonic thoughts in the order of evangelical mysteries. More prophetically, he also brands the heresy of the most impious Borborians, who took their beginnings from Simon. From Severus’s letter to Thomas, Bishop of Germanicia. It must be known that he speaks about certain people who advocate pleasure, pursue the pleasantness of the flesh and the fantasies in the world, consider these to be religion, and blasphemously express themselves so as not to confess one lordship and divinity; such were those seen from Valentinus and Marcion down to the most unholy and abominable Manichaeans of later times.

This then the Apostle says: that they likewise, like those in Sodom who were burned because of the licentiousness they committed, “dreaming,” that is, thinking of worldly things and stupefied in mind by transient fantasies, “they defile the flesh.” For to such persons life is night, and while awake they sleep, and they see as dreams things that delight and pass by as soon as they appear. With this understanding, the great Paul, knowing the licentious life as night and such thoughts as deep stupor, in writing to the Romans exhorted and said: “The night has advanced, but the day has drawn near. Let us therefore put aside the works of darkness, and let us put on the arms of light, so that we may walk decorously in the day, not with revelries and drunkenness,” and so forth. And a little later: “Lordship

They reject the one divinity and lordship, not as the beginning of all things, but that there is one God of the Old Testament, a wicked and punitive one delighting in blood, and another of the New, the one who spoke in the Gospels and Apostles; or they set up two principles opposed to each other, an evil and a good one, over all creation, and they say both are unbegotten, and that one is opposed to good things, the other to evil things, which has especially become the offscouring of the mind of Manes. From this the evil swarm of the Manichaeans is derived. Those who are thus, and reject the lordship, that is, the one and only Lord God over all, necessarily also blaspheme the glories; and by glories he means either the doctrines of piety, or the Old and New Testaments, proclaimed with divine glory. And a little later: Therefore it is clear from these things that he calls the two administered covenants glories: one through the ministry of Moses, the other through the Lord and God and Savior himself, our Jesus Christ, who emptied himself and took the form of a servant, and said to his disciples, “For the Son of Man did not come to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Michael the Archangel, when he was disputing with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared to bring a judgment of blasphemy, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you.” “Michael the Archangel, when he was disputing with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses,” and so forth. He shows that the Old Testament agrees with the New, and that both were given by one God; for the devil resisted, wishing to deceive, saying, “The body is mine, as the one who rules over matter.” And he heard from the Angel, “May the Lord rebuke you,” that is, the Lord of spirits and of all flesh. For this reason he said a little earlier, “Jesus, having saved a people from the land of Egypt, the God of the Old and New Testament, glory to him.” Michael, not having authority, did not inflict upon him a punishment worthy of the blasphemy, but left him to the judgment of his own master. For when he brought Moses to the mountain where the Lord was transfigured, then the devil said to Michael, “God lied, having brought Moses where he swore he would not enter.” Michael is said to have ministered concerning the burial of the body of Moses, with the devil opposing this, with God permitting and wishing to show through the visible to those who then saw dimly and were more coarsely disposed, the invisible truth, that after our departure from here, the devil and the evil powers with him oppose our souls as they journey on the upward path, seeking to cut off their course.

and they overcome those who have done evil deeds, but are defeated by the righteous through the angelic alliance. This also the blessed Antony beheld in a vision. From Severus, Archbishop of Antioch, from the letter to Thomas, bishop of Germanicias. Here through a bodily type God prefigured some mystery taking place concerning the soul. For when the soul is separated from the body, after its departure from here, both good angelic powers and a most wicked throng of demons meet it, so that according to the quality of the deeds they have done, both evil and good, either these or those may convey it to the appropriate places, to be kept until the last day, on which we shall all be brought to judgment; and we shall be led either to eternal life or to the unending flame of fire. Wishing to indicate this also to the sons of Israel through some bodily type, God arranged that at the burial of Moses there should appear before their eyes, for the preparation of the body and the customary deposition in the earth, the evil demon resisting as it were,

acting against him, and Michael, being a good angel, met him and drove him away; and he did not rebuke him authoritatively, but left the judgment against him to the Lord of all, and said, "May the Lord rebuke you," so that through these things those being instructed might learn that there is some anguish for souls after departure from here, and that it is necessary through good works to prepare ourselves to partake of the angelic alliance, while the demons hiss against us, envious and bitter. And when this divine image appeared before their eyes, it is likely that some cloud or flash of light occurred in that place, darkening and walling off the sight of those standing around, so that they might not know his burial. Hence also in Deuteronomy the sacred text says, "And Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, by the word of the Lord; and they buried him in the land of Moab, near the house of Peor; and no one saw his death, that is, his burial, until this day." And after a little—"And this interpretation the passage seems to have, and thus we have understood it. But some have said that Jude called the body of Moses the law itself; and that when he came down, the devil opposed and acted against him, hindering the giving of the law, and disputing, and saying that the people were not worthy to receive it; wherefore also Michael, going before, drives away the opponent, crying out, 'May the Lord rebuke you.'

Others, however, called the body of Moses the people he was leading, and said that as they were departing from the land of the Egyptians, the devil opposed and arrayed himself against them, as if in a legal proceeding, saying to Moses that his body, that is, the people, was not worthy to obtain freedom from the Egyptians. And Michael drove him away and stopped him from acting in opposition, pronouncing the words, "May the Lord rebuke you." From Severus, from the treatise against Alexandria: "He did not dare," he says, "to bring the judgment of blasphemy against him, but said only, 'May the Lord rebuke you,' that is, as a blasphemer and enemy of God from the beginning, from the time he fell into apostasy, and after that deceived Adam, having fought through cunning against the command of God, he did not dare to encompass him with a judgment and sentence of blasphemy, but said, 'May the Lord rebuke you.' For the matter of the sentence and the judgment was reserved for the judge, that is, for Christ. 'For he who condemned sin,' as Paul says, in his own flesh, since he had not even a trace of it in himself, condemned also through his own death death itself, and the devil who held power over death.

These men blaspheme what they do not know, and in what they understand by instinct, like irrational animals, they are corrupted. Concerning doctrine, he says, being ignorant of the truth, they compose blasphemous arguments for themselves; but concerning pleasures, they are such that they differ in no way from irrational animals, but are considered either as mares mad for stallions, or as swine wallowing in the mire of debauchery. When Moses died on the mountain, Michael was sent to remove the body; then the devil, blaspheming against Moses and proclaiming him a murderer because he struck the Egyptian, the Angel, unable to bear the blasphemy against him, said to the devil, "May God rebuke you." Therefore, the saying is an indication of the extreme wickedness of those accused, since even an Archangel could not bear blasphemy against a man, while they blaspheme God who is over all. Jude, servant of Jesus Christ, brother of James, to those sanctified in God the Father and preserved for Jesus Christ, the called: mercy to you, and peace, and love.

...may it be multiplied. Beloved, making every effort to write to you concerning our common salvation, I was compelled to write to you, exhorting you to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. And in what manner will one who has once believed in the Lord Jesus Christ deny him? Yet we have accepted the doctrine of the incarnation; but if we say that the Son who is the Word from God the Father is one, and the one from the woman is another according to his own nature, we have denied the one Lord. For the Lord Jesus is one by economic union, namely, with the Word from God, his flesh ascending to the glory of the divinity; therefore, there is one Christ and Son; for he is the Lord of all. — Of Cyril. He says these things both to secure us and to brand the heretics. Therefore, one should not be astonished at the error and bad faith of the heretics; for the Holy Spirit foretold to us through the holy prophets and apostles their uprising; rather, through this prophecy he made us more secure, so as not to be caught by their sophistries. For certain men have insinuated themselves, long ago written down for this judgment, impious men, transforming the grace of our God into licentiousness. That is, foreknown; just as, for instance, the things concerning Judas were written beforehand. He speaks of those from Simon; for these, some gluttons and licentious men, pretended the teaching of piety, so that through it they might find a way into houses; and having done this, they fulfilled their own licentiousness and impurity.

...captivating women heaped up with sins; for some, having devised nocturnal rites, have given themselves over to beds and licentiousness. And the phrase “they altered piety” means that under the pretext of pious teaching they fulfilled their own intemperance, working unlawful unions. Into this they cast themselves, practicing every fornication in the guise of religion. And they deny the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ. For their life, being impure, as if with a great voice denies Jesus; for what communion has light with darkness? *Concerning their future punishment, in likeness of the sinners and wicked of old. And I wish to remind you, knowing this once, that the Lord, having saved a people from the land of Egypt, the second time destroyed those who did not believe; and angels who did not keep their own origin, but abandoned their own dwelling, he has kept for the judgment of the great day, in eternal bonds under darkness. And someone who denied them shows that this is the one who led Israel out of Egypt, and in addition to this he threatens them with destruction, unless they choose to repent. For they are kept to fall into that final fire and the eternal bonds under darkness; for “he has kept” looks to the future time, just as Peter also wrote.

...they say, “But now the heavens and the earth are stored up by the same Word for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of impious men.” Therefore the Lord, prefiguring in the Gospels the day of judgment, appears to say, “Go, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels.” They say “beginning” means their coming into being. They were brought forth for every good work, just as we were. A great voice. The eagle. “Now” is a superscripted word; “heavens” is added by a later hand in P. The two following scholia are omitted in B. The beginning of the angels who did not keep it is the Word, according to which they were created; or the natural power given to them by grace for deification; or again the order of their station according to the worth of grace. And this again is a proof of the punishment awaiting them. For if He did not spare those who were redeemed because they reverted to evil, and those who were angels but became wicked through their own negligence, and the cities in Sodom, clearly He will not spare those who sin impenitently. And it says that He has kept the angels who revolted from God “in eternal bonds under darkness.” From the Interpretation of the Psalms by the Presbyter Hesychius. The preceding texts: “Who will seek out His mercy and truth?” For who can comprehend His philanthropy, or who can reckon His truth? For from truth He did not spare sinning angels, but through philanthropy He brought prostitutes and tax collectors into the kingdom. From Maximus.

The dwelling-place is either heaven, or the wisdom of goods beyond conception, according to habit, for which they were created to inhabit. For the Word knows also how to name a house of wisdom; which is the guarding of the natural and acquired goods given to them, the oversight of the undefiled divinity, which they abandoned by tyrannizing. The eternal bonds are, according to their own judgment, the complete and perpetual immobility concerning the good; in accordance with which they never at any time enjoy divine release. This again, for the sake of our salvation, restrains their madness against us by the providence of God, not allowing the power of their wickedness to proceed to the devices against us. The darkness is the complete and total ignorance of divine grace; in accordance with which, having been qualitatively formed through their whole disposition, they are deprived of the blessed and all-brilliant diffusion of the pure light; having consumed all the intellectual power given to them by nature concerning that which is not. And what they will suffer at the terrible [judgment]...

The day of judgment, the righteous judge knows, who assigns to each a just recompense according to worth, and according to the measure of wickedness fittingly distributes the form of judgment, and brings forth a sentence suitable for the unending ages with righteousness according to his good decrees. Like Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, which in a similar manner committed fornication and went after another flesh, lie as an example, undergoing the penalty of eternal fire. I think he alludes to the Borborians and the Estotians and the Babylonians and the Cainites, whose licentiousness is lawless. Some men, using the divine teaching as flattery and sorcery, insinuated themselves; through pretending to be inscribed beforehand by it, that is, foreknown for this judgment, because those who were judged among themselves as delivered over to a reprobate mind, these, being some unbridled ones on account of excessive impiety, transferred the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into licentiousness, and through the act of lewdness itself denied the only master Jesus Christ, the Lord of those called through the Gospel. Then, in order to turn the faithful away from such wicked and impious men, he shows what kind of magnitude the master is whom they denied, having indicated that he is the one who led the people out of Egypt, as also to offer them salvation. But since some of them were changeable and fickle, still bearing the harm they had in Egypt, he destroyed them when they disbelieved in the desert, even though they had been saved through faith from Egypt; lest, therefore, these be the hypocrites of the divine teaching.

The leaders of the heresy of the Nicolaitans, who overlook no form of licentiousness—for they perform shameful and exceedingly shameful acts, ostensibly in a mystical manner—and those from Simon Magus; in addition to these, also those from Marcion and Valentinus and the Sethians. And under the pretext of religion, they do shameful things, turning them into licentiousness, so as to transfer the grace of the Lord to licentiousness; through which licentiousness and its works they deny the only master and Lord of us, Jesus Christ. It has been said, then, before these things concerning him, that he is true God, this one the only master, the Lord Jesus Christ, who led the people out of Egypt through Moses; it follows that there is not another God of Moses; for there is no other besides the Trinity. Hence Moses appears to serve him, according to the saying, “That one wrote about me,” and the saying, “Whom Moses wrote, we have found to be Jesus.” Therefore, having spiritually foreseen the cross, he considered the reproach of Christ to be the greatest wealth, not another than the one saying, “May it be for me to boast in the cross of the Lord Jesus.” Likewise, however, these also, dreaming, defile the flesh, reject lordship, and blaspheme the glories. “Dreaming,” he says, that is, thinking nothing true, but as in sleep fantasizing and dogmatizing words full of impiety.

and they say that the flesh, that is our body, is the creation of the evil one, while blaspheming the single lordship and glory of the Holy Trinity; and they ascribe to the Father the attribute of being without beginning and uncreated, but they number the Son and the Holy Spirit among the creations subject to time. These impious doctrines belong to Manichaeus and Arius; therefore the Apostle vehemently makes his denunciation against such doctrines. "They defile the flesh, not confessing that there is one God, the maker of both visible and invisible things, but deifying matter and darkness, and abhorring the flesh; they 'reject the lordship' for this reason themselves; 'and they blaspheme the glories.'" He called the two Testaments "glories," as Paul says, "for if the ministry of condemnation is a glory, much more is the ministry of righteousness a glory." See how much wickedness of theirs he enumerates, saying that both their mind and their entire life are corrupted; for they are impure in life and most impious in speech. And he said "dreaming" because they do not perform the licentious acts they commit with a sober and sound mind; in these they defile their own flesh and reject the lordship of the mystery according to Christ, performing their own licentious acts and demonic notions in the order of evangelical mysteries. And more prophetically he also brands the heresy of the most impious Borborians; these also took their beginnings from Simon.

From Severus, from the Letter to Thomas, Bishop of Germanicia. It should be known that he is speaking about certain people who advocate pleasure, and who pursue the pleasantness of the flesh and the fantasies of the world, and who consider these things to be religion, and who blasphemously express themselves so as not to confess a single lordship and divinity; for such were those seen from the followers of Valentinus and Marcion down to the most impious and abominable Manichaeans of later times. This, then, is what the Apostle says: that they likewise, like those in Sodom who were burned because of the licentiousness they committed, "while dreaming, that is, thinking of worldly things and being stupefied in mind by temporary fantasies, defile the flesh"; for to such people life is night, and while awake they sleep, and they see as dreams things that, as soon as they appear, delight and pass away. With this same understanding, the great Paul, knowing the licentious life as night and such thoughts as a deep stupor, when writing to the Romans exhorted and said: "The night has advanced, and the day has drawn near. Let us therefore put aside the works of darkness, and let us put on the weapons of light, so that we may walk decorously in the day, not with revelries and drunkenness;" and so forth. And a little later—"Lordship

…they reject the one divinity and lordship, not positing a single principle of all things, but rather that there is one God of the Old Testament—some evil, punitive being delighting in blood—and another of the New, the one who spoke in the Gospels and the Apostles; or else they set up two principles opposed to each other, an evil and a good one, over all creation, and declare both unbegotten, the one being the opposite of good things, the other of evil things—which has especially become the offscouring of the mind of Manes, from whom the evil swarm of the Manichaeans is derived. Those, then, who are in this state and reject the lordship—that is, the one and only Lord God over all—necessarily also blaspheme the doxai; and by “doxai” he means either the doctrines of piety or the Old and New Testaments, proclaimed with God-befitting glory. And a little later: Therefore it is evident from these things that he calls the two covenants “doxai,” the one through the ministry of Moses, the other through the Lord and God and Savior Himself, Jesus Christ, who emptied Himself and took the form of a servant, saying to the disciples, “For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His soul as a ransom for many.” And Michael the Archangel, when disputing with the devil concerning the body of Moses, dared to bring a charge of blasphemy, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you.” “And Michael the Archangel, when disputing with the devil concerning the body of Moses,” and so forth.

It shows also the Old Testament in harmony with the New, and both given by one God. For the devil resisted, wishing to deceive, claiming that the body was his as master of matter; and he heard from the Angel, “May the Lord rebuke you,” that is, the Lord of spirits and of all flesh. For this reason he said shortly before that Jesus, having saved a people from the land of Egypt, is the God of the Old and New Testament—glory to him. But Michael, not acting on his own authority, did not inflict upon him a punishment worthy of the blasphemy, but left him to the judgment of his own master. For when he brought Moses to the mountain where the Lord was transfigured, then the devil said to Michael, “God lied, having brought in Moses where he swore he would not enter.” Michael is said to have ministered concerning the burial of Moses’ body, with the devil opposing this, but God permitting it and wishing to show through the visible to those who then saw dimly and were more coarsely disposed, the invisible truth: that after our departure from here, the devil and the evil powers with him oppose our souls as they journey upward, seeking to cut off their course; and they overpower those who have done evil, but are defeated by the righteous through angelic assistance. This the blessed Antony also beheld in a vision. From Severus, Archbishop of Antioch, from the letter to Thomas, bishop of Germanicia.

Here through a physical type God prefigured something of a mystery that occurs concerning the soul. For when the soul is separated from the body, after its departure from here, both good angelic powers and a most wicked throng of demons meet it, in order to carry it off to the appropriate places, either these or those, according to the quality of the deeds, both evil and good, which they have done, to be kept until the last day, on which we shall all be brought to judgment; and we shall be led either to eternal life or to the endless flame of fire. Wishing to indicate this also to the sons of Israel through some physical type, God arranged that at the burial of Moses there should appear before their eyes, for the preparation of the body and the customary deposition in the earth, something resisting like the evil demon and opposing it. And to this Michael, being a good Angel, came to meet and drive it away; and not to rebuke authoritatively, but to yield to the Lord of all the judgment against it, and to say, “May the Lord rebuke you”; so that through these things those being instructed might learn that there is some struggle for souls after their departure from here, and that it is necessary through good deeds to prepare ourselves to partake of angelic alliance, while demons hiss against us, envious and bitter.

And when this divine image appeared before their eyes, it is likely that some cloud or flash of light then occurred in that place, obscuring and walling off the sight of those standing around, so that they would not know his burial. Hence also in Deuteronomy the sacred text says: “And Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, by the word of the Lord; and they buried him in the land of Moab, near the house of Phogor; and no one saw his death, that is, his burial, until this day.” And a little later: “This interpretation the passage seems to have, and we have understood it thus. But some have said that Jude called the body of Moses the law itself; and that when he was descending, the devil opposed and resisted him, hindering the giving of the law, and disputing, and saying that the people were not worthy to receive it; wherefore also Michael, taking the lead, repels the opponent, crying out, ‘May the Lord rebuke you.’ Others have called the body of Moses the people he led, and said that as they were departing from the land of the Egyptians, the devil opposed and arrayed himself against them, as if in a trial, saying to Moses that his body, that is, the people, was not worthy to obtain freedom from the Egyptians; and Michael repelled him and stopped his opposition, exclaiming, ‘May the Lord rebuke you.’” From Severus, from the treatise Against Alexandria: “He did not dare,” he says, “to bring against him the charge of blasphemy.

what to say, but only said, ‘May the Lord rebuke you,’ that is, as a blasphemer and enemy of God from the beginning, from the time he fell into apostasy, and after that deceived Adam through cunning, fighting against the commandment of God, he did not dare to surround him with a judgment and sentence of blasphemy, but said, ‘May the Lord rebuke you’; for the sentence and judgment were reserved for the judge, that is, for Christ. “For he who condemned sin,” as Paul says, in his own flesh, since he had not a single trace of it in himself, also condemned death through his own death, and the one who held power over death, the devil. But these people, concerning what they do not know, blaspheme; and concerning what they know by instinct, like irrational animals, in these things they are corrupted. Concerning doctrine, he says, being ignorant of the truth, they compose blasphemous words for themselves; but concerning pleasures, they are such that they differ in no way from irrational animals, but are considered either as mares in heat, or as pigs wallowing in the mire of debauchery. When Moses died on the mountain, Michael was sent to transfer the body; then, when the devil blasphemed against Moses and declared him a murderer because he struck the Egyptian, the angel, unable to bear the blasphemy against him, said to the devil, ‘May God rebuke you.’ Therefore, the saying is an indication of the extreme wickedness of those accused, since even an archangel could not bear the blasphemy of a man, while they blaspheme God, who is over all. Chapter 2.

A woe upon them for their error and impiety, and licentiousness and blasphemy, and feigned hypocrisy, and bribery for the sake of deception. Woe to them, because they walked the path of Cain, and were poured out for hire in the error of Balaam, and perished in the contradiction of Korah. b to B. but only in the margin. c through cunning. up to judgment is lacking in N. d of impiety B. e of the holy B. f nor B. For they too are fratricides, through what they teach, killing the souls of those deceived; but see how he shows the extremity of their impiety; for he was not content to compare them to Cain the fratricide—since they too, through their abominable seed-slaying, kill the potential man and brother—but also to Balaam and to Korah: to Cain for the aforementioned reason; to Balaam, because for the sake of gain he came to curse the people of God, even if God turned his tongue to blessing; to Korah, because he seized a teaching office to which God had not appointed him; for as the Apostle says, “No one takes the honor for himself, but the one called by God.” At the same time we are taught what the end of these also is, through the punishment of those to whom he likened them. Adam God cast out of paradise, and he dwelt opposite the luxury of paradise, and not in the land of Nod; but Cain the Lord neither sent away nor cast out; rather, he himself went out from the face of the Lord.

He will use the concession of words at some time, when one, while the Church is laying claim, does not willingly depart from her, as in the case of Adam, when he is sent forth reproachfully and disciplinarily by those who preside over her; but another, as self-willed and contemptuous like Cain, and an apostate, departs, often even when entreated by those who admonish the disorderly, who comfort the faint-hearted, who support the weak. For you will say that this one who willingly abandoned the Church, just as Cain was from the evil one, having willed to be from the evil one, and because of this he departed from the face of God. And the one who departs with a depraved choice and a blameworthy life and contrary doctrines has departed from the Church, as Cain from the face of God. And certainly such a one dwells in the land of Nod, opposite Eden, opposing the doctrines of the paradise of delight.

Σάλος is interpreted as “tumult.” Therefore, the fugitive from the face of God, having become outside of him, where would he dwell, except being storm-tossed and wave-tossed by the tumult of the passions? These are the ones who are reefs in your love-feasts, feasting together fearlessly, pasturing themselves; waterless clouds, carried aside by winds. The Apostle’s discourse was about men who err in need of pardon, concerning matters higher; not about stars and clouds, waves and trees; which examples he has used, accusing men of having suffered by choice what those things have by nature. For just as waterless clouds driven by winds, and barren trees, which he said have doubly died, will not be punished, nor do the waves that foam up their own shame, being irrational and devoid of sensation. So also the so-called wandering stars do not inherit darkness, but men who sin by choice; concerning whom these examples were taken, so that the saying is this: these men, about whom the discourse is, are like wandering stars deviating from the straight path, and walking the road opposite to virtue; therefore darkness has been reserved for them, not as for stars, but as for men. For his discourse was not about stars or clouds or waves, as I said earlier, but about men who have fallen into bestiality, licentiousness, and boastfulness, and through their association also corrupt those who approach them.

For if one must say that the course assigned to the stars through eternity is not productive of evils for them—for it is impious and irrational—but even if, by hypothesis, it were granted, as some claim, that they are indicative, not even thus will they pay penalties, just as the prophets did not pay penalties when they foretold the future deeds of the Jews; for it is not that what they foretold came to pass because of their foretelling, but because it was going to happen, they foretold it. It is clear, therefore, as I think, that the discourse is not about stars, just as it is not about waves or trees or clouds, but about sinful men, for whom the darkness of gloom has been reserved for eternity; for beginning from the examples, he concluded with those concerning whom his discourse was. Moreover, at that time, at the common meals taking place in churches, concerning which the Apostle also writes to the Corinthians, they gathered, not for the sake of partaking of the Lord’s supper, but in order to find an opportunity to entice unstable souls; for Peter also enumerates these in his second Epistle. “Autumnal trees, fruitless, twice dead, uprooted.” “Autumnal trees” refers to the impious heretics, who, chilled by wickedness, do not produce the fruit of righteousness. And he called them “twice dead,” as having been dead in both soul and body.

in soul, as devising evil, and in body, as executing sin. He says they were uprooted, as unworthy of being planted in the house of God, where, knowing himself to be rooted, the holy David said, "I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God," and so forth. He says this because again the righteous, pretending to be shady olive trees and even fruitful vines, compared themselves. He says, therefore, that some are fruitless, and rather because of the fruit from them which they destroy in seed-wasting, not being brought to life; and autumnal, that is, bereft of both leaves and fruit; for neither their life nor their teaching is a bright life-giving thing. They do not stand firm in one opinion because of instability. Wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shamefulness. Having killed the soul by licentious life and impiety and evil teachings; or thus: since before faith they had died in impiety, then, approaching the Gospel, they lived; but again

having given themselves over to impiety and pleasure, they have died. He says that they have died twice in this way. For one who is so guilty of evils, he says, as to be led by impiety and pleasures, what stability or root will he have, being assailed from all sides? The word "mad" signifies their manic and unbridled behavior concerning blasphemies; and "foaming forth their own shame" indicates that they, along with their madness against God, also practice great baseness of life. Wandering stars, for whom the darkness of shadow has been reserved forever. This he also said at the beginning, those who were previously written. And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied concerning these as well, saying, "Behold, the Lord has come with his holy myriads to execute judgment against all, and to convict all the impious concerning all their works which they impiously committed, and concerning all the harsh words which sinful impious ones spoke against him." Even if, imitating their chief Satan, who disguises himself as an angel of light, they themselves wish to be transformed into teachers of truth, concerning whom it is said, "in whom you appear as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life," yet they are deceivers, corrupting the truth with the licentiousness of blasphemies, and later they will be punished with gloom and darkness and shadow, which is the outer darkness, which has been prepared for Satan and his angels.

These are the murmurers, the fault-finders, proceeding according to their own desires, and their mouth speaks boastful things, admiring faces for the sake of gain. For they do not have the boldness to make use of their own teaching. For how is it without danger to publicize the licentiousness that comes with impiety and blasphemy? He says that they have died. As for "fault-finders," because they slander the things of others and the things of truth, in order to establish their own evils and licentious acts as far as possible. But you, beloved, remember the words spoken beforehand by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: that they told you that at the end of the times mockers would come, proceeding according to their own desires of impieties. This is from Peter; for Peter wrote the second Epistle concerning these things; and this is concerning the things written by Paul; for he set forth many things about these in every Epistle. These are the ones who separate, the psychical ones, that is, those who make schisms in their own blasphemies and licentious acts, and tear apart the members of the Church. Instead of having a demonic teaching, according to what has been said, "This wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, psychical, demonic." Not having Spirit. The divine speaking in them, just as the true teachers of the right faith. Woe to them, because they walked the way of Cain, and were poured out for hire in the error of Balaam, and perished in the contradiction of Korah.

And they themselves are fratricides, through their teachings killing the souls of those they deceive. Observe how he shows the extremity of their impiety; for he was not content to compare them to Cain the fratricide—since they too, through their abominable seed-shedding, kill the potential human being and brother—but also to Balaam and to Korah. To Cain, for the aforementioned reason; to Balaam, because for the sake of gain he came to curse the people of God, even if God turned his tongue to blessing; to Korah, because he seized a teaching office to which God had not appointed him. For as the Apostle says, “No one takes the honor for himself, but the one called by God.” At the same time, we are taught what the end of these men is, through the punishment of those to whom he likened them. Adam, God expelled from paradise, and he settled opposite the luxury of paradise, and not in the land of Nod. But Cain, the Lord neither sent away nor expelled; rather, he himself departed from the face of the Lord. You will use the allowance of these expressions at some time, when one person, when the Church is laying claim, does not willingly leave it, as in the case of Adam, when he is sent away reprovingly and disciplinarily by those set over it; another, as self-willed and contemptuous like Cain, and a rebel, often leaves, sometimes even when urged by those who admonish the disorderly, comforting the faint-hearted.

of those who hold to the weak. For you will say that this one, having willingly abandoned the Church, just as Cain was from the evil one, having chosen to be from the evil one, and because of this he went out from the face of God. And the one who went out with a depraved choice and a blameworthy life and contrary doctrines also went out from the Church, as Cain from the face of God. And such a one certainly dwells in the land of Nod, opposite Eden, opposing the doctrines of the paradise of delight. Now Nod is interpreted as "tumult." Therefore, the fugitive from the face of God, having become outside of him, where would he dwell except in tumult, storm-tossed and wave-tossed by the tumult of the passions? These are the reefs in your love-feasts, feasting together fearlessly, shepherding themselves; rainless clouds, carried about by winds. The Apostle's discourse was about men who err, concerning pardon for them, something higher than stars and clouds, waves and trees—which examples he uses, charging that what those things have by nature, men have suffered by choice.

For just as the waterless clouds driven by winds, and the barren trees, which he said died in two ways, will not be punished, nor will the waves that foam up their own shameful filth, being irrational and devoid of perception, so also the so-called wandering stars do not inherit darkness, but rather humans who sin by choice—concerning whom these examples were taken, so that the meaning is this: these humans, about whom the discourse is, are like wandering stars deviating from the straight path and walking the road opposite to virtue; therefore darkness has been reserved for them, not as for stars, but as for men. For his discourse was not about stars or clouds or waves, as I said earlier, but about humans who have fallen into bestiality, licentiousness, and boastfulness, and through their association also corrupt those who approach them. For if one were to say that the course prescribed to the stars through eternity is not productive of evils—for it is impious and irrational to say so—but even if it were granted hypothetically, as some claim, that they are indicative, not even then would they pay penalties, just as the prophets did not pay penalties when they foretold what was to be done by the Jews; for it is not that what they foretold happened because they foretold it, but they foretold it because it was going to happen. It is clear, therefore, as I think, that his discourse was not about stars, just as it was not about waves or trees or clouds.

The discourse pertains to the Apostle, as the sense of the entire Epistle indicates, but concerns sinful men, for whom the darkness of gloom has been reserved for eternity. For having begun from the examples, he concluded with those about whom his discourse was. Moreover, at that time, at the common meals held in the churches, concerning which the Apostle also writes to the Corinthians, they gathered, not for the sake of partaking of the Lord’s supper, but to find an opportunity to entice unstable souls. For Peter also enumerates these in his second Epistle. “Autumnal trees, barren, having died twice, uprooted.” By “autumnal trees” he means the impious heretics, who, chilled by wickedness, do not produce the fruit of righteousness. He called them “having died twice,” as having been dead in both soul and body: in soul, as devising evil; in body, as executing sin. He says they are “uprooted,” as being unworthy of being planted in the house of God, where, knowing himself to be rooted, the holy David said, “But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God,” and so forth. He says this because again the righteous, pretending to be like shady olive trees and also fruitful vines, compared themselves; he says, therefore, that some are barren, and especially because the fruit from them, which they destroy in seed-wasting, is not brought to life; and “autumnal,” that is, devoid of both leaves and fruit; for neither their life nor their doctrine is a bright, life-giving one. They are not steadfast in a single opinion due to instability.

Wild waves of the sea, foaming forth their own shameful acts. They killed the soul by a licentious life and impiety and by evil doctrines; or thus: since before faith they had died in impiety, then approaching the Gospel they lived; but again, having given themselves over to impiety and pleasure, they have died. He says that they have thus died twice. For he who is so guilty of evils, he says, as to be led by impiety and pleasures, what stability or root will he have, being assailed from all sides? It signifies their madness and unbridled nature concerning blasphemies; and the foaming forth of their own shameful acts declares that they, along with madness against God, also practice much baseness of life. Wandering stars, for whom the darkness of gloom has been reserved for eternity. This he also said at the beginning, those who were long ago proscribed. And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied also concerning these, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads to execute judgment against all, and to convict all the impious concerning all their works which they impiously did, and concerning all the harsh words which sinful impious men spoke against him.

Even though they imitate their own leader Satan, who disguises himself as an angel of light, and they themselves wish to be transformed into teachers of truth, concerning whom it is said, “in whom you appear as luminaries in the world, holding forth a word of life,” yet they are deceivers, corrupting the truth with the licentiousness of blasphemies, and later they will be punished in gloom and darkness and outer darkness, which is the darkness prepared for Satan and his angels. These are murmurers, fault-finders, proceeding according to their own desires, and their mouth speaks boastful things, admiring faces for the sake of gain. For they do not have the boldness to use their own teaching. For how is it safe to make public licentiousness with impiety and blasphemy? The phrase “fault-finders” means that they slander the things of others and of truth, in order to establish their own evils and licentious acts as best they can. But you, beloved, remember the words previously spoken by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they told you that at the end of the times mockers will come, proceeding according to their own desires of impieties. This was said by Peter; for indeed the second Epistle Peter wrote concerning these things. And this concerning what was written by Paul; for he set forth many things about these in every Epistle.

These are the ones who separate, the psychic, that is, those who make schisms in their own blasphemies and licentiousnesses, and tear apart the members of the Church, having instead a demonic teaching according to what is said, “This wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, psychic, demonic.” Not having Spirit, the divine speaking in them, as do the true teachers of the right faith. Chapter 3. Concerning their security in faith, compassion, and sparing of the neighbor for salvation in sanctification. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, receiving the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life; and those whom you pity, you discern. That is, those who are separated from the truth by the words of false teaching; concerning those who are separated, James says, “blameworthy,” “they think,” “and,” “all,” “in themselves.

He says: “They are like a surge of the sea stirred up by the wind and fanned, because of the instability of the soul. These, then, are both pitiable and wretched, carried about by every wind of teaching. ‘Whom you save in fear, snatching from the fire.’ If someone, by the word of God, drawing up those who are already in the fire kindled from the fiery darts of the devil, and held in some forbidden conflagration, can snatch them very swiftly from the fire, this one has snatched in a fitting manner, but is not accounted a plunderer among those accused by the Apostle. But if there are some among them able, he says, to receive the truth, by presenting this to them, from the fire that is about to overtake them. That is, by presenting and instilling fear in them, you prepare them to be seen as worthy of pity when they repent. ‘Hating even the garment stained from the flesh.’ Question of Maximus: What is the garment from the flesh? Answer: The life stained by many transgressions from the passions of the flesh is a stained garment, for as from some covering, each person is naturally revealed by their conduct in life, whether just or unjust: the one having a clean garment, the virtuous life, the one having life stained by evil deeds; or rather, the garment stained from the flesh is the habit and disposition that, through memory of the evil movements and activities from the flesh, forms the soul according to conscience, which, seeing this always around itself like a garment, is filled with the stench of passions.

For just as from the Spirit, when the virtues are woven together with one another according to reason, a garment of incorruption is produced for the soul, which, when it puts it on, becomes beautiful and glorious; so also in the case of the flesh, when the passions are woven together with one another according to analogy, a certain garment is produced, impure and stained, which shows the soul to be recognizable from it, having set another form and image for it concerning the divine. But you, beloved, building yourselves upon our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, receiving the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life; and those whom you pity, being divided. That is, those who are separated from the truth by the words of false teaching. Concerning those who are divided, James says: “They are like a surge of the sea stirred up by the wind and fanned, because of the instability of the soul. These, then, are both pitiable and wretched, carried about by every wind of teaching. Those whom you save in fear, snatching from the fire. If someone, by the word of God, drawing up those who are already in the fire kindled by the fiery darts of the devil and held in some forbidden conflagration, can very swiftly snatch them from the fire, this one may snatch fittingly, but is not a robber, being so named among those accused by the Apostle.

If there are some among them who are able, he says, to receive the truth, presenting this to them, from the fire that is about to take them. That is, presenting and placing fear before them, you prepare them to be seen as worthy of pity when they repent. Hating also the garment stained from the flesh. Question of Maximus: What is the garment from the flesh? Answer: A life stained with many transgressions from the passions of the flesh is a stained garment; for as from some covering, each person is naturally revealed by their conduct in life, whether just or unjust: one having a clean garment, the virtuous life, another having a life stained with evil deeds; or rather, the garment stained from the flesh is the state and disposition that forms the soul through memory of the evil movements and activities from the flesh, which, seeing it always around itself like a garment, is filled with the stench of passions. For just as from the Spirit, when the virtues are woven together with one another according to reason, a garment of incorruption is produced for the soul, which, when it puts it on, becomes beautiful and glorious; so also from the flesh, the passions fittingly interwoven with one another.

According to the proportion of things woven together, a certain tunic becomes unclean and stained, showing the soul as recognizable from it, placing another form and image upon it concerning the divine. Chapter 4. Prayer on their behalf for sanctification and pure boldness with doxology of God. To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling and to set you before his glory, blameless in exultation, to the only wise God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, glory and majesty, power and authority, before every age, now and always and unto the ages. Amen. He speaks of fornication and impurity and licentiousness, which the followers of Simon practiced. You will not pity a poor man in judgment; for one who is in need and supplicating must be pitied, but one who accuses and prosecutes, not; for he does not demand a favor, but insists that he is being wronged. To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling and to set you before his glory, blameless in exultation, to the only wise God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, glory and majesty, power and authority, before every age, now and always and unto the ages. Amen. He speaks of fornication and impurity and licentiousness, which the followers of Simon practiced. You will not pity a poor man in judgment; for one who is in need and supplicating must be pitied, but one who accuses and prosecutes, not; for he does not demand a favor, but insists that he is being wronged.