Letter 895

Nilus of AncyraJulian|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted

To Julian.

You will be reckoned faithful at that time, when, not yet having received the eternal good things, you remain expecting, and awaiting that you will most certainly receive the eternal good things and the divine promise in the age to come. For if the Lord now, readily and on the spot, were to furnish the recompenses for good work, the affair would amount to trade rather than to godliness; for then we would consent to be righteous, not on account of piety, but on account of gain.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

Τότε πιστὸς λογισθῇς, ὅταν μήπω κομισάμενος τὰ αἰώνια ἀγαθά, μένεις προσδοκῶν, καὶ ἀπεκδεχόμενος λήψεσθαι πάντως τὰ αἰώνια ἀγαθά, καὶ τὴν θείαν ἐπαγγελίαν ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τῷ μέλλοντι. Εἰ γὰρ νῦν ἑτοίμως, καὶ παραχρῆμα ὁ Κύριος τὰς ἀμοιβὰς παρεῖχε τῆς ἀγαθοεργίας, ἐμπορεία μᾶλλον τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐτύγχανε, καὶ οὐ θεοσέβεια. Ἐδέξαμεν γὰρ ἂν εἶναι δίκαιοι, οὐ διὰ τ’ εὐσεβές, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ κερδα-λέον.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import

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