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Translated by Bl. Jackson.
St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 71
4. It were better for him that a mill-stone had been hanged about his neck, and that he had been cast into the sea, than that he should have offended the virgin of the Lord. [2137] What slave ever reached such a pitch of mad audacity as to fling himself upon his master's bed? What robber ever attained such a height of folly as to lay hands upon the very offerings of God, not dead vessels, but bodies living and enshrining a soul made after the image of God? [2138]
Who was ever known to have the hardihood, in the heart of a city and at high noon, to mark figures of filthy swine upon a royal statue? He who has set at naught a marriage of man, with no mercy shewn him, in the presence of two or three witnesses, dies. [2139] Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and defiled His pledged bride and done despite unto the spirit of virginity? [2140] But the woman, he urges, consented, and I did no violence to her against her will. So, that unchaste lady of Egypt raged with love for comely Joseph, but the chaste youth's virtue was not overcome by the frenzy of the wicked woman, and, even when she laid her hand upon him, he was not forced into iniquity. But still, he urges, this was no new thing in her case; she was no longer a maid; if I had been unwilling, she would have been corrupted by some one else. Yes; and it is written, the Son of Man was ordained to be betrayed, but woe unto that man by whom He was betrayed. [2141] It must needs be that offences come, but woe to that man by whom they come. [2142]
[2137] cf. Luke xvii. 2.
[2138] St. Basil has no idea of the image and likeness of God being a bodily likeness, as in the lines of Xenophanes.
[2139] i.e. by the old Jewish law. Deut. xvii. 6. Adultery was not capital under the Lex Julia, but was made so by Constantine.
[2140] cf. Heb. x. 29.
[2141] cf. Mark xiv. 21.
[2142] cf. Matt. xviii. 7.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/letters.asp?pg=71
