Nilus of Ancyra→Valerius|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To the Same Person.
You have told me that I busy myself too much with the things recorded in the historical sense (for these are easy to take in at a glance), but you say that I should rather scrutinize eagerly the meaning of what is written, and should gladly choose to interpret Scripture according to its spiritual senses. Understand, then, the "horn of salvation" [Luke 1:69] as dispassion [apatheia, freedom from the passions, the goal of the ascetic life], and the "house of David" as the Church. If, then, you too belong to the house of the David understood in this spiritual sense, practice dispassion and the perfecting of the soul; for it is possible for this to be brought to completion even in the midst of the world, as it was in the case of Joseph and of Daniel.
You have told me that I busy myself too much with the things recorded in the historical sense (for these are easy to take in at a glance), but you say that I should rather scrutinize eagerly the meaning of what is written, and should gladly choose to interpret Scripture according to its spiritual senses. Understand, then, the "horn of salvation" [Luke 1:69] as dispassion [apatheia, freedom from the passions, the goal of the ascetic life], and the "house of David" as the Church. If, then, you too belong to the house of the David understood in this spiritual sense, practice dispassion and the perfecting of the soul; for it is possible for this to be brought to completion even in the midst of the world, as it was in the case of Joseph and of Daniel.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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.