Friday, July 18, 2008

Friday is for Ad Fontes: Chrysostom on Scripture

I'm happily reading through Chrysostom's homilies in Colossians and found this quotation:

Tarry not, I entreat, for another to teach thee; thou has the oracles of God. No man teacheth thee as they; for he indeed oft grudgeth much for vainglory's sake and envy. Hearken, I entreat you, all ye that are careful for this life, and procure books that will be medicines for your soul. If ye will not any other, yet get you at least the New Testament, the Apostolic Epistles, the Acts, the Gospels, for your constant teachers. If grief befall thee, dive into them as into a chest of medicines; take thence comfort of thy trouble, be it loss, or death, or bereavement of relations, or rather dive not into them merely, but take them wholly to thee, keep them in thy mind. [For] this is the cause of all evils, the not knowing the Scriptures. We go into battle without arms, and how ought we to come off safe. Well contented should we be if we can be safe with them, let alone without them." (Hom. 9; NPNF, 13.300-1).

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