Letter 267

Nilus of AncyraYou|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted

Since the sharpness of the tongue is no small evil for those who babble rashly and in vain, for this reason holy Moses [the Old Testament prophet and lawgiver] set silence in the place of a door and a bolt; for it is on this account that we have received two ears but one tongue, so that we may hear more things unto salvation than what we speak, crying out rather through good deeds and through godly accomplishments. Well, then, did Moses himself, and the priests, and the Levites send word to all Israel, saying: "Be silent, Israel, and hear the words of the Lord." [Deuteronomy 27:9]

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

Ἐπειδὴ οὐ μικρὸν κακὸν τοῖς εἰκῇ καὶ μάτην φλυαροῦσιν ὑπάρχει τῆς γλώττης. ἡ ὀξύ της, τούτου χάριν ἀντὶ θύρας, καὶ μοχλοῦ τὴν σιωπὴν ἐτίθησιν ὁ ἅγιος Μωϋσῆς· διὰ γὰρ τοῦτο δύο εἰλήφαμεν ὦτα, μίαν δὲ γλῶσσαν, ἵνα πλείονα ἀκούωμεν πρὸς σωτηρίαν, ὅπερ λαλοῦμεν, διὰ πράξεων ἀγαθῶν μᾶλλον βοῶντες, καὶ θείων κατορθωμάτων. Καλῶς οὖν αὐτός τε ὁ Μωϋσῆς, καὶ οἱ ἱερεῖς, καὶ οἱ Λευῖται, παντὶ τῷ Ἰσραὴλ ἀπεστέλλοντο λέγοντες· « Σιώπα, Ἰσραήλ, καὶ ἄκουε τὰ λόγια Κυρίου. »

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import

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