Letter 38: Knowing full well that indulgence breeds passions and gluttony drags a person toward sexual immorality, I think you...

To Thalassios. Since, as you have written, a certain Jew, full of want of learning, made trouble for you by condemning as excessive the saying of the divine evangelist, ‘I suppose that not even the world itself could contain the books that should be written’ [John 21:25], it is necessary to bring forward into the open the things said hyperbolically from the Old Testament, which he too accepts and regards as divine, so that that man may know that the evangelist as well, following that Old Scripture, wrote what he wrote. Let us therefore learn what is written. Concerning the cities of the Canaanites: ‘There are cities walled up to heaven’ [Deuteronomy 1:28]; and concerning their land it is said, ‘A land flowing with milk and honey’ [Exodus 3:8]. And concerning those who sail: ‘They go up to the heavens, and they go down to the depths’ [Psalm 106 (107):26]. Let that rustic sage, then, interpret these things—not taking refuge in contemplation [theoria, the deeper spiritual sense], nor attempting to read them figuratively, but expounding the facts themselves. But if he cannot (for he is compelled to say either that they were spoken hyperbolically, or that they require interpretation), for what reason, bringing forth a proof against himself of the utmost ignorance, did he think he could lay hold of the evangelist—who, even if he seemed to use hyperbole, tempered it by having said, ‘I suppose’? For there the hyperbole is unmixed, but here it is even tempered. For he did not let it stand simply, but tempered it. And he who tempers his hyperboles does two things: he both shows his own longing, and lays hold of the truth. And it is likely that it was not even spoken hyperbolically. For it was not said that Jesus performed many other signs as well in this world, but that he performed them without limit. And there are other works of his more ancient than the world, which cannot be handed down either in writing or in books—not only because of their multitude and magnitude, but also because they are beyond word and mind. For who will be able to recount the nature of the heavenly peoples, their order, their good arrangement, their rhythm, their harmony, their love, their peace, and all the rest which it is not even possible to number? And if one were to extend what was said to the greatness and loftiness of doctrines, he would not miss the truth. The apostles, then, wrote what they could contain, as Peter, the leader of the choir, plainly declared in his own Acts: ‘What we could contain, we wrote’; but the world did not contain even the things that were written. For the lover of money did not contain the teaching about being without possessions; nor the lecher the teaching about temperance; nor the greedy man the teaching about righteousness; nor the cruel man the teaching about love of mankind; nor the wrathful man the teaching about gentleness. What therefore the apostles perhaps could contain, the world did not contain (and Christ cries out that ‘My word finds no room in you’ [John 8:37], while Paul says, ‘Make room for us’ [2 Corinthians 7:2]); and what not even the apostles perhaps could contain, how could the world contain it? By ‘the world’ he means the crowd that is excited about worldly and earthly affairs—of which it was said, ‘And the world did not know him’ [John 1:10]. And the world spoken of does not contain it—not in respect of places, nor of manners; not because of the multitude of writings, but because of the magnitude of the matters.

Ἐπειδὴ, ὡς γέγραφας Ἰουδαῖός τις ἀπαιδευσίας ἀνάπλεως, ὡς ὑπερβολὴν καταγνοὺς τοῦ εἰρηκότος θείου εὐαγγελιστοῦ, ‹Οὐδ’ αὐτὸν οἶμαι τὸν κόσμον χωρῆσαι τὰ γραφόμενα βιβλία,› πράγματά σοι παρέσχεν· ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστιν ἐκ τῆς Παλαιᾶς Διαθήκης, ἥν καὶ αὐτὸς ἐγκρίνει καὶ θείαν ἡγεῖται, τὰ ὑπερβολικῶς εἰρημένα εἰς μέσον ἀγαγεῖν, ἵνα εἰδῇ ἐκεῖνος, ὅτι καὶ ὁ εὐαγγελιστὴς τῇ Παλαιᾷ ἐκείνῃ ἑπόμενος Γραφῇ, γέγραφεν ἃ γέγραφε. Τί οὖν γέγραπται, μάθωμεν. Περὶ μὲν τῶν πόλεων τῶν Χαναναίων, ‹Πόλεις τετειχισμέναι ὑπάρχουσιν ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ·› περὶ δὲ τῆς γῆς αὐτῶν λέλεκται, ‹Γῆν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι.› Περὶ δὲ τῶν πλεόντων, ‹Ἀναβαίνουσιν ἕως τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ καταβαίνουσιν ἕως τῶν ἀβύσσων.› Ἑρμηνευέτω τοιγαροῦν ἐκεῖνος ταῦτα ὁ ἀγροικόσοφος, μὴ καταφεύγων εἰς θεωρίαν, μηδὲ τροπολογεῖν πειρώμενος, ἀλλ’ αὐτὰ φράζων τὰ πράγματα. Εἰ δ’ οὐ δύναται (ἀνάγκην γὰρ αὐτὸν λέγειν ἢ ὑπερβολικῶς εἰρῆσθαι, ἢ ἑρμηνείας δεῖσθαι), τίνος ἕνεκεν ἀμαθίας ἐσχάτης καθ’ ἑαυτοῦ δεῖγμα φέρων ἐδόξεν ἐπιλαμβάνεσθαι τοῦ εὐαγγελιστοῦ, τοῦ καὶ εἰ δόξαντος ὑπερβολῇ χρήσασθαι κολάσαντος αὐτήν, διὰ τοῦ εἰρηκέναι, Οἶμαι; ‹Ἐκεῖ μὲν γὰρ ἀκρατός ἐστιν ἡ ὑπερβολή, ἐνταῦθα δὲ καὶ κεκραμένη. Οὐ γὰρ ἀφῆκεν αὐτὴν ἁπλῶς, ἀλλ’ ἐκόλασεν. Ὁ δὲ τὰς ὑπερβολὰς κολάζων, δύο ποιεῖ· καὶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ δεικνύει πόθον, καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας ἅπτεται. Εἰκὸς δὲ μηδὲ ὑπερβολικῶς εἰρῆσθαι. Οὐ γὰρ ἐῤῥέθη, πολλὰ καὶ ἄλλα σημεῖα πεποιηκέναι τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ, ἀλλὰ ἀδιορίστως πεποιηκέναι. Ἔστι δὲ αὐτοῦ ἄλλα τὰ ἔργα τοῦ κόσμου πρεσβύτερα, ἅτινα οὔτε γραφῇ, οὔτε βιβλίοις παραδοθῆναι οἷόν τε, οὐ μόνον διὰ τὸ πλῆθος καὶ τὸ μέγεθος, ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τὸ ὑπὲρ λόγον καὶ νοῦν εἶναι. Τίς γὰρ δυνήσεται διηγήσασθαι τῶν οὐρανίων δήμων τὴν φύσιν, τὴν τάξιν, τὴν εὐκοσμίαν, τὸν ῥυθμόν, τὴν ἐμμέλειαν, τὴν ἀγάπην, τὴν εἰρήνην, καὶ τἆλλα πάντα ἅπερ οὐδ' ἀριθμῆσαι δυνατόν; Εἰ δὲ καὶ εἰς δογμάτων τις μέγεθος καὶ ἀκρότητα ἐκλάδοι τὸ εἰρημένον, οὐκ ἂν διαμάρτοι τῆς ἀληθείας. Οἱ μὲν οὖν ἀπόστολοι, ἃ ἐχώρησαν ἔγραψαν, καθὼς Πέτρος ὁ κορυφαῖος τοῦ χοροῦ ἐν ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ πράξεσι σαφῶς ἀπεφήνατο· Ἃ ἐχωρήσαμεν, ἐγράψαμεν· ὁ δὲ κόσμος οὐδὲ τὰ γραφέντα ἐχώρησεν. Ὁ γὰρ φιλοχρήματος οὐκ ἐχώρησε τὸν περὶ τῆς ἀκτημοσύνης λόγον· οὐδ' ὁ λάγνος τὸν περὶ σωφροσύνης· οὐχ ὁ πλεονέκτης τὸν περὶ δικαιοσύνης· οὐχ ὁ ὠμὸς τὸν περὶ φιλανθρωπίας· οὐχ ὁ θυμώδης τὸν περὶ πραότητος. Τε τοίνυν & οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἴσως ἐχώρησαν, ὁ κόσμος οὐκ ἐχώρησε (καὶ βοᾷ ὁ μὲν Χριστός, ὅτι «Ὁ λόγος ὁ ἐμὸς οὐ χωρεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν»· ὁ δὲ Παῦλος, Χωρήσατε ἡμᾶς)· ἃ μηδ' οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἴσως ἐχώρησαν, πῶς ἂν ὁ κόσμος ἐχώρησε; Κόσμον δὲ καλεῖ, τὸν περὶ τὰ κοσμικὰ καὶ γήϊνα πράγματα ἐπτοημένον ὄχλον· περὶ οὗ ἐρρέθη· «Καὶ ὁ κόσμος αὐτὸν οὐκ ἔγνω». Οὐ χωρεῖ δὲ ὁ εἰρημένος κόσμος (94)· οὐ τόπων, οὐ τρόπων· οὐ διὰ πλῆθος γραφῶν, ἀλλὰ διὰ μέγεθος πραγμάτων.