Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of figures
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- Introduction: Shenoute's life, times, and Discourses
- Part I Heretics and Other Enemies of the Church
- Part II Shenoute as Pastor and Preacher
- Part III The Christian's Struggle with Satan
- Part IV The Conflict with Gesios
- 18 Not because a fox barks
- 19 Let our eyes
- 20 A26
- 21 God says through those who are his
- 22 God is blessed
- Bibliography
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
- Index of biblical passages
18 - Not because a fox barks
from Part IV - The Conflict with Gesios
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2015
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of figures
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- Introduction: Shenoute's life, times, and Discourses
- Part I Heretics and Other Enemies of the Church
- Part II Shenoute as Pastor and Preacher
- Part III The Christian's Struggle with Satan
- Part IV The Conflict with Gesios
- 18 Not because a fox barks
- 19 Let our eyes
- 20 A26
- 21 God says through those who are his
- 22 God is blessed
- Bibliography
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
- Index of biblical passages
Summary
Shenoute's conflict with Gesios
Not because the fox – that is, you, the slave of mammon – barks with loud noises does the lion – that is, I, the slave of Christ – become afraid. I know that it is not I whom you fight against; rather, you fight against Jesus, who lives in the Christians. Moreover, Jesus is a match for you – you and your father, the devil, who lives in you and in whom you hope – and they (the Christians) too and their father, who lives in them, Jesus, in whom they put their trust. No person who has Jesus is ever “shamed,” as you have said. As for the “shame” of this place, the “glory” of this place, I have renounced them. For I know the one to whom I look. As for those who have glory and honor from Jesus, what do they have to do with human glory or honor?
For just as there is no “robbery” for those who truly have Jesus – with respect to what you have said about me because I took your gods secretly and because I caused your disgrace and shame to be attached to the doorposts of your house, written on sheets of papyrus, after your jars of urine, bottled as if it were wine, were broken upon the steps of your house and into your doorway and the door of those who resemble you – (so too) there is no “freedom” for those who put their trust in Kronos, namely, you and those who imitate you in acts of disbelief and all uncleanness.
What deed (of yours) or which assertion among the things you have said does not bear witness against you, that you belong to Satan? There are the letters that you tore up. Don't I know before I send them that you're going to tear them up, you co-worker of those who cut with the scribe's penknife and cast onto burning coals the columns of the scroll containing the words that the prophets sent to them in God's name?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Selected Discourses of Shenoute the GreatCommunity, Theology, and Social Conflict in Late Antique Egypt, pp. 201 - 205Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015