Letter 662

To Eunomius the Presbyter. Your Godliness has asked me what it is that the Apostle writes to the Galatians, namely, that he who is circumcised is bound to fulfill the whole Mosaic Law [Galatians 5:3]. The reason is this: after their faith in Christ and the light of heavenly knowledge, the Galatians, being persuaded out of simplicity and frivolity by certain deceitful and soul-destroying men, fell into being circumcised, and were about thereafter to take up the whole of Judaism. (For a little leaven is wont to leaven the whole lump [Galatians 5:9; 1 Corinthians 5:6].) The blessed Paul, wishing them not to perish but to be saved, turns back those who had been deceived, and draws them away from this harmful undertaking and from unlawful circumcision, as if to say: If you wish to be circumcised, then keep the Sabbath also, and sacrifice, and sound the trumpet, and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, and beware of the mouse and the weasel [the unclean animals of Leviticus 11], and wash your bed together with all its coverings every single day, and dig down your hearth, and bind yourself fast with all the cords of Moses, and build up again wrongly that which the Lord rightly tore down, and renew the most burdensome Law that was given at a season suited to those who were infants in mind, which Christ the Savior abolished by the perfect and greatest doctrines of true religion. If, therefore, you love circumcision, just as the most foolish and most senseless of children love knucklebones, and rattles, and balls, and nuts, know this clearly: that you have no part with Christ, since you undo the will of Christ. And do not circumcise only the foreskin, but cut off also all the generative members entirely—which those who order circumcision ought to do—and for this reason stir up factions even against the Church. For such is the meaning of what is said, "I would that they who unsettle you were even cut off" [Galatians 5:12], they who once again make slaves of those who have been set free by Christ.

Ἠρώτησέ με ἡ θεοφιλία σου, τί ἐστιν ὅπερ Γαλάταις ὁ Ἀπόστολος γράφει, ὅτι ὁ περιτεμνόμενος ὀφείλει πάντα τὸν Μωσαϊκὸν νόμον πληρῶσαι. Ἐπειδὴ μετὰ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν πίστιν, καὶ τὸ φῶς τῆς οὐρανίου γνώσεως, δόλίοις τισὶ καὶ ψυχοφθόροις ἀνθρώποις Γαλάται ἐξ ἀφελείας καὶ κουφότητος παραπεισθέντες, κατέπεσαν εἰς τὴ περιτέμνεσθαι, καὶ τὸν Ἰουδαϊσμὸν ὅλον λοιπὸν ἔμελλον παραδέχεσθαι. (Μικρὰ γὰρ ζύμη ὅλον τὸ φύραμα ζυμοῖ εἰωθεν) βουλόμενος ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος μὴ ἀπολέσθαι, ἀλλὰ σωθῆναι αὐτούς, ἀναστρέφει τοὺς ἐξαπατηθέντας, καὶ ἀφίησι τῆς βλαβεράς ἐγχειρήσεως καὶ τῆς ἀδίκου περιτομῆς· ὡσανεὶ λέγων· Εἰ θέλεις περιτέμνεσθαι, οὐκοῦν καὶ σαββάτιζε, καὶ θῦε, καὶ σάλπιζε, καὶ σκηνοπηγίαν ἐπιτέλει, καὶ τὸ μῦν καὶ τὴν γαλην παραφυλάττου, καὶ τὴν κλίνην σὺν τοῖς ἐπιστρώμασιν ἅπασι καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀπόπλυνε, καὶ τὴν ἑστίαν κατάσκαπτε, καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς Μωσαϊκοῖς σχοινίοις σεαυτὸν κατάδησον, καὶ οἰκοδόμησον πάλιν κακῶς, ὅπερ καλῶς καθέλεεν ὁ Κύριος, καὶ ἀνανέωσον τὸν βαρύτατον νόμον τὸν δοθέντα καιρῷ, τινι ἁρμοδίῳ τοῖς νηπίοις τὴν φρένα, ὅπερ ὁ Σωτὴρ Χριστὸς τοῖς τελείοις καὶ μεγίστοις δόγμασι τῆς εὐσεβείας κατήργησεν. Εἰ τοίνυν φιλεῖς τὴν περιτομήν, καθάπερ τῶν παίδων οἱ ἀνοητότατοι καὶ ἀλογιστότατοι, ἀστραγάλους, καὶ σεῖστρα, καὶ σφαίρας, καὶ κάρυα, τοῦτο γίνωσκε σαφῶς, ὅτι οὐκ ἔχεις μέρος μετὰ Χριστοῦ, λύων τὸ βούλημα τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Καὶ μὴ μόνον ἀκροβυστίαν περιτέμῃς, ὅπερ καὶ ὅλα τὰ γεννητικὰ ἀπόκοψον μόρια, ὅπερ ὀφείλουσιν οἱ διαταττόμενοι περιτεμεῖν, καὶ στάσεις ἔγειρον διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας. Τοιοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ εἰρημένον, «Ὄφελον καὶ ἀποκόψονται οἱ ἀναστατοῦντες ὑμᾶς», καὶ δούλους πάλιν ποιοῦντες τοὺς ἐλευθερωθέντας ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ.