Letter 547

To Epiphanius the Lector. You wished to learn what, then, is signified by the mantle [the sheepskin cloak] that was cast down from on high by Elijah upon Elisha. Learn, then. For that sheepskin cloak was a deadener of every earthly fantasy, and one that did away with every innate motion of Elisha's members; through it, not only then in a perceptible manner, but even now in a spiritual manner, it casts the salt of the grace of God upon fleshly souls steeped, as with the death of sin and impiety, in ailing Jericho, and it reshapes all who believe toward godliness and toward the bearing of the virtues as children.

Ἠθέλησας μαθεῖν, τί ἄρα παραδηλοῖ τὸ δέρας τὸ ἐξ ὕψους παρὰ τοῦ Ἠλιοῦ τῷ Ἐλισαίῳ ἐπιῤῥιφέν. Μάθε τοίνυν. Ἡ γὰρ μηλωτὴ ἐκείνη νεκροποιὸς ὑπῆρχε παντοίας γεώδους φαντασίας, καὶ ἐξαφανί- ζουσα πᾶσαν ἔμφυτον κίνησιν τῶν μελῶν Ἐλισαίου, δι’ ἧς οὐ μόνον τὸ τηνικαῦτα αἰσθητῶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ νῦν νοητῶς ταῖς σαρκώδεσι ψυχαῖς ὡς θανάτου ἁμαρ- τίας καὶ ἀσεβείας μεμεστωμέναις ἐν τῇ νοσουμένῃ Ἰεριχὼ ἐπιβάλλει τοὺς ἅλας τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ χάριτος, καὶ πρὸς θεοσέβειαν τε καὶ πρὸς τὸ τεκνογονεῖν ἀρετὰς μεταῤῥυθμίζει πάντας τοὺς πιστεύοντας.