Letter 343

To Charisius the Bishop. Your honored soul inquires of me what could be the meaning of what is written by the Apostle [Paul], that "the power of sin is the law of Moses" [1 Corinthians 15:56]. It is not that the divine law is productive of transgressions, as certain uneducated persons have wrongly supposed; nor that it is accustomed to strengthen sin; far be it. Is it not rather of such a nature as to cut back, or even to do away with, sins? Rather, it is so called because, being mighty, it has reproved the absurdity of things wickedly done, and has made public the absurdity of unseemly deeds, and so it stops the shameless mouth of the Jews, who, while priding themselves on the divine writing and being continually in a corybantic frenzy [a wild, ecstatic raving, after the frenzied dance of the Corybantes], yet work every sin without restraint, and through the transgression of the law dishonor the lawgiver. For it is precisely against those who boast openly in the law and act arrogantly that the divine Apostle is accustomed to utter these and such-like things.

Πυνθάνεταί μου ἡ τιμία σου ψυχὴ, τί ἂν εἴη τὸ γεγραμμένον ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου, ὅτι « Δύναμις τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὁ νόμος ἐστὶ Μωσέως; » Οὐχ ὅτι πταισμάτων ὁ θεῖος νόμος ὑπάρχει ποιητικὸς, ὥσπερ τινὲς ἀπαίδευτοι κακῶς νενομίκασιν· οὐδ’ ὅτι ἰσχυροποιεῖν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν εἴωθε· μὴ γένοιτο. Μὴ οὖν μᾶλλον καὶ περικόπτειν, ἢ καὶ ἐξαφανίζειν τὰς ἁμαρτίας πέφυκεν· ἀλλ’ ὅτι δυνατὸς ἐλέγξας τὴν τῶν φαύλως δρωμένων ἀτοπίαν, καὶ δημοσιεύσας τὴν τῶν ἀπρεπῶν, ἐμφράττει τὸ ἀναίσχυντον στόμα τῶν Ἰουδαίων σεμνυνομένων μὲν ἐπὶ τῷ θείῳ γράμματι, καὶ κορυβαντιώντων διηνεκῶς, πᾶσαν δὲ ἁμαρτίαν ἀφόδως ἐργαζομένων, καὶ διὰ τῆς παραβάσεως τοῦ νόμου, τὸν νομοθέτην ἀτιμαζόντων. Πρὸς γὰρ δὴ τὸ πρόσωπον τῷ νόμῳ ἐγκαυχωμένων, καὶ ἀλαζονευομένων, ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος ταῦτά τε καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἀποφθέγγεσθαι εἴωθεν.