Monday, January 13, 2014

"totally abstain from the company of the iniquitous"

"The same [elder] said:  'It is not good to keep company with the iniquitous [(Οὐ συμφέρει μετὰ παρανομούντων κολλᾶσθαι)], neither in church nor in the marketplace; neither in the council nor in court nor anywhere else at all.  One should totally abstain from the company of the iniquitous [(Χρὴ γὰρ εἰς τὸ παντελὲς τῆς τῶν παρανομούντων κοινωνίας απέχεσθαι)] for every one of them deserves to be avoided and is a partaker of eternal punishment."

     Anonymous saying of the Desert Fathers no. 737.  The anonymous sayings of the Desert Fathers:  a select edition and complete English translation,ed. & trans. John Wortley (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2013), 590-591.
     Yes, there is this emphasis in the Desert Fathers, too (though it must be admitted that κολλᾶσθαι, for example, can be a much stronger word than simply "to keep company").

No comments: