Letter 20: Severa seeks Christ the bridegroom through good works and the narrow road.
Your spiritual purpose is welcome to me. I marvel at your love of learning, and I rejoice in your progress. You have put your hand to the plow and have not turned back toward what lies behind. You are not seeking the corruptible world and its passing things; you are fighting the good fight so that you may be crowned with the crown of righteousness and look upon Christ the bridegroom, whom you seek through good works.
This is the true seeking of the Lord: to seek him through deeds. No one who practices lawlessness seeks righteousness. No one who hates a neighbor seeks love. No one who lies seeks truth.
So this is the seeking of the Lord: keeping the commandments with sincere faith and knowledge of the truth. The writing we sent you teaches the pattern of these things. It shows you the narrow and hard-pressed road, yet it leads the person who obeys through works into the kingdom of heaven.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Greek retroversion from Syriac transmission (Frankenberg 1912, TAN/TEI CC BY 4.0):
δεδεκται μοι η πνευματικη σου προαιρεσις και θαυμαζω σου το φιλομαθες και επι τηι προκοπηι σου χαιρω οτι επιβαλουσα την κειρα επ' αροτρον ουχ εις τα οπισω αποστρεψασα τον διαφθαρτον κοσμον επιζητεις και τα προσκαιρα αλλα τον καλον αγωνα αγωνιζηι ωστε στεφανωι της δικαιοσυνης στεφανουσθαι τε και τον νυμφιον Χ. εφοραν ον δια αγαθων εργων ζητεις· αυτη γαρ εστιν αληθινη ζητησις δι' εργων ζητειν τινα τον κυριον· ουδεις γαρ ποιων ανομιαν ζητει δικαιοσυνην και μισων τον πλησιον ζητει αγαπην και ψευδομενος ζητει αληθειαν. αυτη αρα εστι ζητησις κυριου τηρησις των εντολων μετα πιστεως ειλικρινους και επιγνωσεως της αληθειας. τουτων δε ο τυπος τις εστι διδασχει σε ην σοι απεστειλαμεν γραφην γνωριζουσα σοι την στενην και τεθλιμμενην οδον, επαναγουσαν δε εις την βασιλειαν του ουρανου τον (δι' εργων) πειθομενον
Syriac transmission available in the linked TAN/TEI source. The complete corpus is Syriac-transmitted; Greek survives only fragmentarily, so this display text is a retroversion witness.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern evagrius ponticus tan tei 13 32 v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Arithmeticus/TAN-Evagrius/master/cpg2437/cpg2437.syr.1912.frankenberg.xml
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