Letter 49: Spiritual eldership comes by virtue and knowledge, not age.

Blessed be God, who entrusted to you the holy presbyterate: to baptize souls in virtue and in the knowledge of God. This is truly a spiritual presbyterate: to receive spiritual knowledge and call souls back from vice to virtue, and from ignorance to the knowledge of Christ. One mind is not older than another in time, for what is bodiless is also outside time. A mind becomes elder by excelling in virtue and knowledge. I am unworthy of this. I have been cast into the desert as into exile, to endure punishment for my many lawless acts. But you, I ask you, intercede for me, so that I may be able to pay the tax and escape the adversary and the torments that come through him.

Greek retroversion from Syriac transmission (Frankenberg 1912, TAN/TEI CC BY 4.0): ευλογητος ο θεος ο σοι το αγιον πρεσβυτεριον εμπιστευσας ψυχας εν αρετηι και γνωσει θεου βαπτισαι· τουτο γαρ ως αληθως πνευματικον πρεσβυτεριον εστι πνευματικην γνωσιν δεχεσθαι τε και ψυχας απο κακιας προς αρετην ανακαλειν και απο αγνωσιας προς γνωσιν Χ. ου γαρ κατα χρονον νους νοος πρεσβυτερος· το γαρ ασωματον και αχρονον, πρεσβυτερευει δε αρετηι και γνωσει υπερεχον. εγω δε τουτου αναξιος εν τηι ερημωι ως εν εξοριαι αποβεβλημαι του υπομενειν δικας υπερ των πολλων μου ανομιων· συ δε υπερ εμου ικετευε δεομαι σου ινα εχω τον φορον αποτελειν τε και τον αντιδικον και τους δι' αυτου βασανισμους αποφευγω Syriac transmission available in the linked TAN/TEI source. The complete corpus is Syriac-transmitted; Greek survives only fragmentarily, so this display text is a retroversion witness.