
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
- 4 I see your eagerness
- 5 Some kinds of people sift dirt and Whoever seeks God will find
- 6 The idolatrous pagans, or, And we will also reveal something else
- 7 And let us also reprove
- 8 I answered
- 9 And after a few days
- 10 See how clearly revealed is the foolishness of pitiless people
- 11 Truly when I think
- 12 A priest will never cease
- 13 When the word says
- Part III The Christian's Struggle with Satan
- Part IV The Conflict with Gesios
- Bibliography
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
- Index of biblical passages
9 - And after a few days
from Part II - Shenoute as Pastor and Preacher
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
- 4 I see your eagerness
- 5 Some kinds of people sift dirt and Whoever seeks God will find
- 6 The idolatrous pagans, or, And we will also reveal something else
- 7 And let us also reprove
- 8 I answered
- 9 And after a few days
- 10 See how clearly revealed is the foolishness of pitiless people
- 11 Truly when I think
- 12 A priest will never cease
- 13 When the word says
- Part III The Christian's Struggle with Satan
- Part IV The Conflict with Gesios
- Bibliography
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
- Index of biblical passages
Summary
And after a few days, Count Caesarius received Taurinus the governor, and he came up as was his custom, both together with one another, and their lawyers, their dignitaries, and their kinsmen. When they had begun to speak about conditions in Alexandria due to the minor disturbance in the Church, they went forth through many words between them, inquiring, as if expecting us to give a defense for them.
When they saw that there was no profit in what they were thinking, and that they were leading us to say words ill-timed concerning the matters that we had previously spoken about – they were asking whether it was proper to be in communion with all people – I said to them, “If I speak with you about that myself, your wisdom is sufficient to understand what you are asking about. So listen. If I am good, be in communion with me. If I am not good, then don't be in communion. If I am upright, the visit you have paid to us is good and entirely useful. If I am not upright, do not parch yourselves in vain.”
I also said to them:
As for what you are discussing on the ships and in the taverns and the watering holes and in the cities and in other places as well, set them aside and consider words that belong to heaven. And when you go home, you will find them again, if they are useful to you. But they are not useful to you. Therefore, your wisdoms, I appeal that you not speak of them, but give voice to the holy words that will be of use to you.
For all these (disturbances) will pass, if God wills it. See the sun, that often the clouds that are a veil for it are abundant; not only do they not impede it in its course, but it also returns and shines. It is also the very same in its light. This is the way of the Church of Christ; it is very much the same.
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- Information
- Selected Discourses of Shenoute the GreatCommunity, Theology, and Social Conflict in Late Antique Egypt, pp. 130 - 131Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015