Letter 765

To Irenaeus the Presbyter. The most wise Solomon says in a riddling manner that every drunkard and whoremonger will become poor, and that every sleepy man will clothe himself in things torn and ragged [Proverbs 23:21] - calling "sleepy" the one who is sluggish, and slack, and idle toward every useful task. For when someone has held the divine commandments in contempt, he abandons the wholly seamless tunic of holy knowledge - woven from above, as John the evangelist writes [John 19:23] - and the garment of the light of incorruption. But the torn, much-patched, and unsightly patchwork cloak of foolish and unprofitable inquiries, and of shamefulness, and of bad character, he puts on instead.

Ὁ σοφώτατος Σολομὼν φησιν αἰνιγματωδῶς, ὅτι πᾶς μέθυσος καὶ πορνόκοπος πτωχεύσει, καὶ ἐνδύσεται διεῤῥωγότα καὶ ῥακώδη πᾶς ὑπνώδης, ὑπνώδη καλῶν τὸν νωχελῆ τε, καὶ χαῦνον, καὶ ἀργὸν πρὸς πᾶν χρήσιμον πρᾶγμα. Καταφρονήσας γάρ τις τῶν θείων προσταγμάτων, τὸν δι’ ὅλου ἄῤῥαφον, ὡς γράφει Ἰωάννης ὁ εὐαγγελιστής, καταλιμπάνει τῆς γνώσεως τῆς ἁγίας χιτῶνα, τὸν ἄνωθεν καθυφασμένον, καὶ τὸ τοῦ φωτὸς τῆς ἀφθαρσίας ἱμάτιον. Τὸ δὲ διεῤῥωγὸς, καὶ πολύῤῥαφον, καὶ ἄσχημον τῶν μωρῶν, καὶ ἀκερδῶν, ζητημάτων, καὶ τῆς αἰσχρότητος, καὶ τῆς κακοηθείας ἀμφιέννυται κεντώνιον.