Letter 652

To the Same Person. When Abraham had set before himself the purpose of sacrificing his own son to God, why does he say to the servants: "You sit here with the donkey; but I and the boy, when we have worshipped, will return" [Genesis 22:5]? For he believed that, even after the boy had been sacrificed, God would raise him up and present him alive to the one who had sacrificed him. Let us therefore, we too, believe that even now, from this point onward, we are raised up out of the more passion-ridden condition into the more dispassionate one.

Σκοπὸν προτεθείμενος ὁ Ἀβραὰμ θῦσαι τῷ θεῷ τὸν ἴδιον υἱόν, διατί φησι τοῖς δούλοις· « Κάθιστε ὑμεῖς αὐτοῦ μετὰ τῆς ὄνου· ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ τὸ παιδάριον προσκυνήσαντες ὑποστρέψομεν » ; Ἐπίστευεν γάρ, ὅτι καὶ μετὰ τὸ τεθῦναι τὸν παῖδα, ἀναστήσει αὐτὸν ὁ θεός, καὶ ζῶντα παραστήσει τῷ τεθυκότι. Πιστεύ σωμεν οὖν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη ἐξαναστῆναι ἡμᾶς ἐκ τοῦ ἐμπαθεστέρου εἰς τὸ ἀπαθέστερον.