Letter 734
To Irenaeus the Chartularius. [a chartularius was an official record-keeper or secretary]
Consider the flattery of sin and its titillation, which masquerade as a congenial delight of one's own, to be a most bitter killing. For just as some venomous serpent creeps in, seemingly with great quietness, but once it has grown strong, it bites; so too sin cries out against the heart, taunting and reproaching: "Well done, well done! For I have succeeded."
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Τὴν κολακείαν τῆς ἁμαρτίας καὶ τὸν γαργαλισμὸν, οἰκείαν φιλοτονίαν, καὶ ἀναίρεσιν πικροτέραν ὑπολάμβανε εἶναι. Ὡς μὲν γάρ ὄφις τις ἐπεισέρχεται ἰοβόλος, δῆθεν μεθ' ἡσυχίας πολλῆς· ἐπὰν δὲ ἰσχύσῃ, δάκνει. Κράζει οὖν κατὰ καρδίας ἐπονείδιζων· Εὖγε, εὖγε· ἐπέτυχον γάρ.
Revision history
- 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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