The sum of the entire ascetic course consists in these three things—repentance, purity, and perfection.
What is repentance? Desisting from former sins, and feeling pain at them.
What is purity, in a nutshell? A heart which has compassion on every natural thing in creation.
What is perfection? Profound humility which consists in the abandoning of everything visible and invisible: visible meaning everything involved with the senses; invisible meaning all thinking about them. The same elder was asked on another occasion, ‘What is repentance?’, and he said, ‘A broken heart’. And what is humility? He replied ‘Embracing a voluntary mortification with regard to everything’. And what is a merciful heart? He replied, ‘The heart’s burning for all cration, for human beings, for birds and animals, and for demons, and everything there is. At the recollection of them and at the sight of them his eyes gush forth with tears owing to the force of the compassion which constrains his heart, so that, as a result of its abundant sense of mercy, the heart shrinks and cannot bear to hear or examine any harm or small suffering of anything in creation. For this reason he offers up prayer with tears at all times, even for irrational animals, and for the enemies of truth, and for those who harm him, for their preservation and being forgiven. As a result of the immense compassion infused in his heart without measure—like God’s–he even does this for reptiles.
What is prayer? The emptying of the mind of all that belongs here, and a heart which has completely turned its gaze to a longing for that future hope. Whosoever departs from this ideal is like someone who sows mixed seed in his furrow, or like someone who ploughs with an ox and an ass at the same time.
——Isaac of Nineveh, Discourse LXXIV. See pp. 250–251 in The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, introduced and translated by Sebastian Brock. Cistercian Publications, 1987.
This quote appears thanks to bibliomancy. I picked up the book, said ‘Fathers, give me a word’, flipped the pages, and randomly (or was it?) stopped on the pages predominated by the selection above. The selections included in the book are not only skilfully translated, but compassionately chosen. I recommend it to all who, like my own self, may need a reminder to care.
Just stumble upon this while digging up an old post of yours. I’m glad to see you’re still around! I pray that you’re well.
Nick! My goodness, how nice to hear from you. I went through a lengthy patch of ‘stuff’, let’s call it. I only recently revived the site and have yet to truly recover. Recent losses—deaths of family and dear friends—have distracted me. While I was recovering the site and correcting—as far as possible—broken links, I realized it would be a lovely thing to ‘get the band back together’, which band, of course, you belonged to. So many seem to have ceased blogging altogether, or perhaps they moved to some of the corporate platforms. Not a good idea at all. I’ve plans for a long and detailed series on the Christian Bible, with a focus on the Old Testament, particularly the Septuagint and its complicated development, and its importance as the original Christian Old Testament. As my particular training and fascination has been textual criticism, it will be heavy on that. I’m just working out the presentation at the moment. May you and yours all be blessed with health and joy!
So sorry for your losses, Kevin! May God continue to comfort you and bring you peace! I am, of course, ecstatic to hear that you plan to resume blogging! I gave it up for the most part when I got into Twitter many years ago. Now I’m off all social media (which was not good for me at all), and I have a YouTube channel. I fell in with a certain crowd over there—lewd fellows of the baser sort, if I had to describe them—but quickly grew disenchanted. I’d still like to produce some content, but my motivation is lacking and I don’t much feel like carving out the time to do it. You might be pleased to know that for the past several years I have been on a journey to holy Orthodoxy. I’m not there yet, but I will certainly end my days in the loving embrace of Christ’s Church. I covert your prayers as I travel this path. Please stay in touch! Feel free to email any time.
Thank you for your sympathy, Nick. just a few days after you last wrote, my father unexpectedly passed, just two months after my mother. It’s been a winter.
Like you, I need to work on motivation. It feels like I’ve been smacked in the head with a baseball bat a few times.
I’m glad to hear of your interest in Orthodoxy. Do you remember Fr Al Kimel? He’s now Orthodox, too, having taken a detour through one of the Anglican communions and Rome to get there, as I recall.
I’ll write soon. Thank you for writing, Nick.
Hi Mr Edgecomb! I’m happy to find you returned here. I do have a question for you, which if you are too busy to entertain, I do understand …
I was quite excited to get my Orthodox Study Bible because it had ALL the books and very nice pictures I love to look at. But you said this is not a good Bible and I believe you, though I don’t know your reasons (and might not understand them even were you to explain your objections). Can you recommend a better one for an Orthodox reader, who is too ill-educated to discern what would be better? Maybe the OSB is good enough for me at my level of understanding?
[I very much enjoy the Bibles I inherited from my scholarly sister* because they have so many diverting and instructive notes and cross references, but they are Not Quite The Thing (because protestant).] *Seventh Day Adventist … I KNOW … yikes!
Sharon, I’ll try to be concise. The Orthodox Study Bible is actually three phases of a publication. First was the NT & Psalms edition. Then came the project for the OlD Testament. The editor was Fr Jack Sparks, and various contributors agreed to produce completely new translations of all the various books of the Septuagint. There were even drafts of the various books made available to read online. Unfortunately, Fr Sparks was not well, and this second phase, which had gotten off to an excellent start, had to be abandoned. The third phase was a compromised: for the most part, the texts are based on the New King James Version, and adapted toward the Septuagint only where absolutely necessary. Only very few of the books, as I recall, are original translations (Isaiah is, I think). In cases where verse numbering differs between versions—in critical texts this is apparent in non-sequential chapters or verses—this new OSB renders the chapters and verses sequentially throughout, so that it is the only Bible with those particular chapter and verse numbers for those particular books. Also, I take issue with the removal of indentation and other white-spacing within the prophetic and other books. This was done to save paper, but it makes for an ugly page and difficult reading. In addition, the material quality of the full OSB is really not acceptable: the paper is very poor, and the ‘leather’ binding feels like cardboard. Lastly, the title page, listing the various scholars and hierarchs involved in the production of the OSB, is that of the first (NT + Psalms) edition unchanged. I spoke with two of the persons named thereon and they were not aware that their names were being used for something with which they were not involved. And the people who were, in fact, involved, are entirely uncredited. Effectively, that OSB went from legitimate translation to money-grab edition.
For a better, current translation, use the New English Translation of the Septuagint, edited by Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright, published by Oxford University Press. You can read it online here, or buy a hard copy. This is a very scholarly volume, produced by world-class experts, so the introductions are highly technical, but the texts themselves bear not too many footnotes, and are good translations.
Otherwise, both the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version include editions with Apocrphya which provide all the various books included in the Greek and Russian Orthodox biblical canons (they differ by the Greeks including 4 Maccabees and the Russians including 2 Esdras [alias 4 Ezra]). These apocrypha have been published in separate standalone volumes as well.
Thank you for the quotation from Isacc of Ninevah. It would be really nice to have some perfection around, but the part about humility is what we really need. And such a rare trait.
I have been looking off and on for English translations of Jerome’s prefaces to the books of the bible. I see one you have done for the Tertullian project. I am wondering where you took the Latin versions from? I am an amateur medievalist particularly interested in Christian art and manuscripts and many medieval mss have these prefaces. (https://www.themorgan.org/collection/gospel-book/119042/52) Unfortunately my Latin is not any good, (I am a retired banker) so I can’t translate them myself. And I know just enough about manuscripts to surmise that there is more than one version of what Jerome wrote. I encourage you to get on with the work on the Septuagint. I think many people would find that useful.
I am sorry that you have been having a difficult couple of years. Losing friends is very hard.
Thank you for your help. Best wishes.
Your kindness is much appreciated, Caroline. I took the texts from the fourth edition of the Stuttgart Vulgate, edited by Hanhart. I’ve not seen any major issues mentioned with the preface texts; the texts seem well-established. My own presentation, with references, etc, is here.