Letter 260

260. To Optimus the Bishop

Even apart from this I look gladly upon your good young men, both for the steadiness of their character beyond their years, and for their close attachment to your reverence — from which one may expect something great in them. But since I saw them coming to me with letters from you as well, I doubled my affection for them. And when I read the letter and saw in it both the providence of your disposition for the Churches and your diligence in the reading of the divine Scriptures, I gave thanks to the Lord, and I prayed for good things upon those who brought us such a letter, and before them upon the one who wrote it to us.

You inquired what solution there is to that much-discussed text, bandied about by everyone up and down: "Everyone who slays Cain shall loose seven vengeances." By this, for the present, you have first commended your own self, keeping exactly what Paul handed down to Timothy — for it is plain that you give heed to reading; and then you have roused up even us, who are old and already grown numb both with age and with the weakness of the body and with the multitude of afflictions, which, many of them now stirred up about us, have weighed down our life. Yet you have stirred us up, and, fervent in spirit, you bring us, frozen as we are like animals lying in their dens, back to a moderate wakefulness and a vital activity.

This text, then, can be understood simply, and can also admit of a manifold interpretation. The simpler sense, which can present itself readily to anyone, is this: that Cain must render a sevenfold punishment for the sins he committed. For it is not the part of a just judge to fix recompenses equal to equal, but the one who began the evil must of necessity pay what is owed with an addition, if he himself is to be made better by the punishments, and to make the rest more prudent by the example. Since, then, it has been ordained that Cain shall pay the penalty for his sins seven times over, "he who slays him," it says, "shall loose" this sentence decreed against him by the divine judgment. This is the meaning that falls to us here from the first reading.

But since the mind of the more diligent is apt to search out the depths, it asks how justice is fulfilled in the sevenfold, and what the "vengeances" are — whether the sins are seven, or whether the sin is one and the punishments seven upon the one. Now Scripture always limits the number of forgiveness of sins within seven. "How often," it says, "shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?" (It is Peter speaking to the Lord.) "Until seven times?" Then the answer of the Lord: "I do not say to you, until seven times, but until seventy times seven." For the Lord did not pass on to another number, but, multiplying seven, set in it the bound of forgiveness. And after seven years the Hebrew was released from slavery; and seven weeks of years made the famous jubilee among the ancients, in which the land kept sabbath, debts were remitted, there was deliverance from slavery, and a new life was as it were established afresh from the beginning, the old in a manner receiving its consummation in the seven-fold number. And these things are figures of this present age, which, cycling round through the seven days, runs past us; in which the payments are made for the more moderate sins, according to the loving care of the good Master, that we may not be delivered over to the endless age for punishment. The "seven times," then, is on account of the kinship with this world — since those who love the world ought to be chastised most by the very things for the sake of which they chose to do wickedly. And as for the "vengeances," whether you take them as the sins committed by Cain, you will find seven; or as those brought upon him by the judge, in that case too you will not fail of the meaning. Now in the things ventured by Cain the first sin is envy at the preference of Abel; the second is the guile with which he conversed with his brother, saying, "Let us go out into the plain"; the third is the murder, an addition of evil; the fourth, that it was also the murder of a brother, a greater intensification; the fifth, that Cain was also the first murderer, leaving an evil example to life; the sixth wrong, that he made grief for his parents; the seventh, that he lied to God — for being asked, "Where is Abel your brother?" he said, "I do not know." Seven, then, were the vengeances that were to be loosed by the slaying of Cain. For when the Lord said, "Cursed is the earth, which opened to receive your brother's blood," and "Groaning and trembling shall you be upon the earth," Cain says: "If you cast me out today from the earth, and I shall be hidden from your face, and I shall be groaning and trembling upon the earth, then everyone who finds me shall kill me." To this the Lord says: "Not so; everyone who slays Cain shall loose seven vengeances." For since Cain thought he was easy prey for everyone, because he had no security upon the earth (for the earth was cursed because of him) and was bereft of help from God, who was angry with him for the murder, so that no succour was left him either from earth or from heaven — "Everyone who finds me," he says, "shall kill me" — the word convicts him of his error, saying "Not so," that is, "you shall not be slain." For death is a gain to those who are punished, bringing release from sorrows. But you shall be kept alive, that the chastisements may be meted out to you according to the desert of your sins. And since "that which is avenged" is understood in two ways — both the sin for which the vengeance is taken, and the manner of the punishment by which the vengeance is taken — let us see whether seven kinds of torments were brought upon the one who did the wickedness.

The seven sins of Cain, then, the argument reckoned up in what went before. Now we inquire whether there are seven punishments brought upon him for chastisement, and we say thus. After the question of the Lord, "Where is Abel your brother?" — which the loving Master brought forward not wishing to learn, but to provide him an occasion for repentance, as the very words show — for when he denied it, the Lord makes the conviction swift, saying, "The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me." So the "Where is Abel your brother?" gave that man an occasion for the awareness of his sin; it did not become for God the means of instruction. For if he had not met with God's visitation, he would have had a pretext, as one forsaken and given no occasion for repentance. But now the physician appeared to him, that the sick man might flee to him. Yet he not only does not hide the sore, but works another besides, joining a lie to the murder: "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" From here, then, count the punishments. "Cursed is the earth because of you." One punishment. "You shall till the earth." This is the second. For an unspeakable necessity was yoked to him, driving him to the tilling of the earth, so that not even when he wished was he permitted to rest, but he was forever to be wearied at his hostile earth, which he himself made cursed for himself, defiling it with a brother's blood. "You shall till the earth" — a dread punishment, the life among those who hate, to have an enemy for a housemate, a foe that never ceases. "You shall till the earth"; that is, strained by the labours of husbandry, you shall have no respite at any time, released from your toils neither by night nor by day, but having an unspeakable necessity harsher than some bitter master, rousing you to the work. "And it shall not yield to you its strength." And yet, even if the ceaseless labour had borne some fruit, the toil itself was no slight torment to one forever strained and wearied. But since the toil about the earth is both ceaseless and fruitless (for it did not give its strength), this is the third punishment, the fruitlessness of his toils. "Groaning and trembling shall you be upon the earth." He added two others to the three: continual groaning, and a trembling of the body, the limbs no longer having the support that comes from strength. For since he had used the power of the body wickedly, its vigour was taken from him, so that he shook and was convulsed, able neither easily to bring bread to his mouth nor to convey drink — the wicked hand, after the unholy deed, being no longer permitted to minister even to the body's own necessary needs. Another punishment, which Cain himself revealed, saying: "If you cast me out now from the earth, I shall also be hidden from your face." What is "If you cast me out from the earth"? That is, if you separate me from the benefit it gives. For he was not removed to another place, but estranged from its good things. "And I shall be hidden from your face." The heaviest punishment to the right-minded is separation from God. "And it shall be," he says, "that everyone who finds me shall kill me." He conjectures from the consequence of what went before: if I have been cast out from the earth, if I shall be hidden from your face, it remains for me to be slain by everyone. What then says the Lord? "Not so." But He set a sign upon him. This is the seventh punishment, that the punishment is not even hidden, but is proclaimed beforehand to all by a manifest sign, that this is the worker of unholy deeds. For to one who reasons rightly the heaviest of punishments is shame, which we have learned concerning the judgment as well: that "these shall rise to eternal life, and these to shame and everlasting reproach."

There follows upon this a kindred question, that which was said by Lamech to his wives: "I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt; for if Cain was avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy times seven." And some think that Cain was slain by Lamech, as having lasted to that generation, in order that a longer punishment might be given. But this is not true. For he is shown to have committed two murders, from his own account. "I have slain a man and a young man"; the man to a wound, and the young man to a hurt. So a wound is one thing and a hurt another; and a man is one thing and a young man another. "For if Cain was avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy times seven." I am liable to undergo four hundred and ninety punishments, if the judgment of God upon Cain is just, so that he should pay seven chastisements. For he, as he did not learn to murder from another, so neither did he see a murderer undergoing punishment; but I, having before my eyes the one groaning and trembling and the greatness of the wrath of God, was not made prudent by the example. Therefore I am worthy to pay four hundred and ninety chastisements.

Some have ventured upon such an interpretation, not out of tune with the doctrine of the Church: that from Cain to the flood seven generations passed, and the punishment was brought upon all the earth, because of the great outpouring of sin. But the sin of Lamech does not need a flood for its cure, but Him who takes away the sin of the world. Reckon, then, from Adam to the coming of Christ the generations, and you will find, according to the genealogy of Luke, that the Lord was born in the seventy-seventh succession.

These things, then, have been examined to the best of my power, many of the points that might be examined being passed over, that we may not carry the discourse beyond the measure of a letter; but for your understanding even a few seeds suffice. For "give occasion to the wise," it says, "and he will be wiser," and "the wise man, receiving a word, will praise it and add to it."

The words of Symeon to Mary have nothing manifold or deep. "For Symeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold, this one is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against. And a sword shall pass through your own soul also, that the reasonings of many hearts may be revealed." In which I marvelled at this: how, passing by the foregoing as clear, you inquired after this one thing, "And a sword shall pass through your own soul also." And yet to me it seems no less perplexing how the same one is set for falling and rising, and what the sign that is spoken against is, than, thirdly, how a sword shall pass through Mary's soul.

I hold, then, that the Lord is set for the falling and rising — not of some falling and others rising, but of the worse in us falling down and the better rising up. For the appearing of the Lord is destructive of the bodily passions and rousing of the properties of the soul. As when Paul says, "When I am weak, then I am strong," the same one both is weak and is strong, but he is weak in the flesh and strong in the spirit. So too the Lord does not provide to some the occasions for falling and to others for rising. For those who fall, fall from the standing in which they once were. And it is plain that the unbeliever never stands, being always dragged along the ground with the serpent whom he follows. He has therefore nothing from which to fall, because he has been already cast down by his unbelief. So the first benefit is for the one standing in sin to fall and to die, then to live to righteousness and to rise, faith in Christ granting us both. Let the worse fall, that the better may find occasion for the rising. If fornication does not fall, chastity does not rise; if irrationality is not crushed, the rational part in us will not flourish. So then, "for the falling and rising of many."

"And for a sign that is spoken against." We have learned that in Scripture the cross is properly called a sign. For "Moses set the serpent upon a sign," that is, upon a cross. Or a sign is what indicates some marvellous and unseen thing, seen by the simpler, but understood by those quick in mind. Since, then, men do not cease wrangling about the incarnation of the Lord — some defining that He took a body, others that His coming was bodiless; some that He had a body capable of suffering, others that He fulfilled the dispensation through a body only in some appearance; and some that the body was earthy, others that it was heavenly; and some that His existence was before the ages, others that He had His beginning from Mary — for this reason He is "for a sign that is spoken against."

By "sword" he means the testing word, the discerner of thoughts, which pierces even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of thoughts. Since, then, every soul at the time of the Passion was subjected, as it were, to a certain discrimination, according to the saying of the Lord, who said, "You shall all be made to stumble in me," Symeon prophesies concerning Mary herself: that standing by the cross and seeing the things done and hearing the voices, after the testimony of Gabriel, after the ineffable knowledge of the divine conception, after the great display of the miracles, there will come, he says, a certain tossing about your soul too. For the Lord had to taste death for every man, and, becoming a propitiation for the world, to justify all in His blood. You too, then, who have been taught from above the things concerning the Lord — some discrimination shall touch you; that is, the sword. "That the reasonings of many hearts may be revealed" — he hints that, after the stumbling that came about at the cross of Christ both to the disciples and to Mary herself, a swift healing will follow from the Lord, confirming their heart in the faith toward Him. For so we saw Peter too, after stumbling, holding more firmly to the faith in Christ. The human, then, was shown to be unsound, that the strength of the Lord might be displayed.