Letter 505

To Noumenios, a Leading Man [proteuon, a leading citizen or municipal magistrate]. Without realizing it, you are being ambushed by the devil. For he himself suggests to you, through your thoughts, that you gain absolutely no benefit from reading, so that by means of great negligence and forgetfulness of the divine commandments he may gouge out and obliterate in you the right understanding, from which, beyond all doubt, deeds are born at the right moment. And this is the spiritual serpent. For "Nahash" is interpreted as "serpent" [Nahash the Ammonite, 1 Samuel 11:2], who once came up against the Israelites to gouge out every right eye of theirs, that is, to do away with every good reasoning. But people find many good things through the reading of the God-inspired Scriptures. If, then, you wish both to guard the eye of your soul and to overcome the most wicked counselor, and to render it sharp-sighted, and to be guided toward the most excellent deeds, against the Nahash, I mean, the Ammonite within you, do not shrink from devoting yourself to holy reading.

Λανθάνεις σαυτὸν ἐνεδρευόμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου. Αὐτὸς γάρ σοι ὑποτίθεται διὰ τῶν ἐνθυμιῶν, μηδὲν πάμπαν ὠφελεῖσθαι ἐκ τῆς ἀναγνώσεως, ὅπως τῇ πολλῇ ἀμελείᾳ, καὶ τῇ λήθῃ τῶν θείων προσταγμάτων, ἐξορύξῃ σου, καὶ ἀμαλδύνῃ τὸ δεξιὸν νόημα, ἐξ οὗπερ πάντως πράξεις δεξιᾷ καιρῷ τεχθήσεται. Οὗτος δ’ ὑπάρχει ὁ ὄφις ὁ νοητός. Ναὰς γὰρ ἑρμηνεύεται ὄφις, ὅστις τοῖς Ἰσραηλίταις ποτὲ ἐπῆλθε, πάντα δεξιὸν αὐτῶν ὀφθαλμὸν ἐξορύξαι, τουτέστι, πάντα λόγισμον ἀγαθὸν ἀφανίσαι. Πολλὰ δ’ ἀγαθὰ διὰ τῆς ἀναγνώσεως τῶν θεοπνεύστων Γραφῶν εὑρίσκουσιν ἄνθρωποι. Εἰ οὖν θέλεις τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τῆς Ψυχῆς φυλάττειν τε καὶ νικῆσαι τὸν κάκιστον σύμβουλον, καὶ ἀποτελέσαι ὀξυδερκῆ, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ κάλλιστα ποδηγεῖσθαι πράγματα, τὸν Ναάς λέγω, τὸν ἐν σοὶ Ἀμμώνιτην, μὴ ὀκνήσῃς τῇ ἁγίᾳ προσεδρεύειν ἀναγνώσει.