The Serpent Pleasure

Ἥ τούτου χάριν, τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἡδονὴν πάθος ὅφις ὑπὸ τῆς Γραφῆς ὀνονμάζεται, ᾤ ἡ φύσιη ἐστὶν, εἰ ἡ κεφαλὴ πρὸς τὴν ἁμονίαν τοῦ τοίχου παραδυείη, πάντα τὸν κατόπιν ὁλκὸν συνεισάγεσθαι. Οἵον τι λέγω· Ἀναγκαίαν αὐτοῖς ἀνθρώποις ποιεῖ ἡ φύσις τὴν οἴκησιν· ἀλλὰ διὰ τῆς χρείας ταύτης, ἡ ἡδονὴ τῇ ἁρμονίᾳ τῆς ψυχῆς παραδευῖσα εἰς ἅμετρόν τινα καλλωπισμοῦ πολυτέλειαν· τὴν χρείαν παρέρεψεν, καὶ τὴν σπουδὴν μετεποίησεν· εἶτα πρὸς ἀμπελῶνας τινας, καὶ κολυμβήθρας καὶ παραδείσους καὶ τὰ τῶν κήκων ἐγκαλλωπίσματα, μεθέρπει τὸ θηρίον ἡ ἡδονή. Μετὰ ταῦτα ἐπικορυφοῦται τῇ ὑπερηφανίᾳ, καὶ τῷ τύφῳ περιελίσσεται, τὴν κατὰ τῶν ὁμοφύλων ἀρχήν ἑαυτῇ ὑποζεύξασα. Ἐπὶ τούτοις τὸν τῆς φιλοχρηματίας ὁλκὸν ἐπισύρεται, ᾦ κατὰ ἀνάγκην ἔπεται τὸ ἀκόλαστον, τὸ ἔσχατόν τε καὶ οὐρανῖον μέρος τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἡδονὴν θηριώσεως. Ἀλλ' ὥσπερ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ οὐραίου τῆς ῥαχίας τὸν ὄφιν ἀνελκυσθῆναι, φυσικῶς τῆς φολίδος πρὸς τὸ ἔμπαλιν τοῖς ἐφελκομένοις ἀντιβαινούσης· οὕτως οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τῶν τελευταίων ἄρξασθαι τῆς ψυχῆς ἐξοικίζειν τὴν τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐρπηδόνα, εἰ μή τις τῷ κακῷ τὴν πρώτην εἴσοδον ἀποκλείσειε.  Διὸ καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αῡτου ἐπιτηρεῖν ὁ τῆς ἀρετῆς ὑφηγητῆς ἐγκελεύεται, κεφαλὴν ὀνομάζων τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς κακίας, ἧς μὴ παραδεχθείσης, ἄπρακτόν ἐστι τὸ λειπόμενον.  Ὁ γὰρ καθόλου πρὸς τὴν ἡδονὴν πολεμίως προστεθυὶς, οὐκ ἄν ταῖς μερικαῖς προσβολαῖς τοῦ πάθους ὑπενεχθείη· ὁ δὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ πάθους ὑποδεξάμενος, ἅπαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸ θηρίον συμπαρεδέξατο. Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος Νύσσης, Εἰς Τον Ἐκκλησιασην, Ὁμιλια Δ'

Because of the affliction on account of pleasure, Scripture names it a serpent 1 whose entire body enters once it pokes its head through a hole in the wall. What do I mean? Nature makes a fitting habitation for man but passing through the needful pleasure disturbs the harmony of the soul with immoderate, extravagant need for ornamentation, and what is necessary it slides past and zeal creates. Then this beast pleasure seeks the attractions of vinyards and pools and beautiful gardens, vineyards, baths and fountains. And after priding itself on these adornments then the serpent winds back around in blindness to the beginning of the same things it has yoked to itself, dragging to the love of money which leads to the lack of all discipline, the last and most awful part of pleasure's savagery. But just as the serpent cannot pull with its tail because its rough scales naturally resist anything it draws, so we cannot cast out the slithering of pleasure from our soul's extremities if we do not close up evil's entrance. Because of this the teacher of virtue bids us to attend to the head of the serpent, the head being named the beginning of evil, which if it is not let in can achieve nothing. For a man hostile to pleasure is not subject to the individual assaults of passion, but one who has accepted the beginning of passion has taken in the whole beast. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On Ecclesiastes, Homily 4 1 Gen 3.1

Crowns and Victory

Corona victoriae non promittitur nisi certantibus. In divinis autem Scripturis assidue invenimus promitti nobis coronam, si vicerimus. Sed ne longum sit multa commemorare, apud apostolum Paulum manifestissime legitur: Opus perfeci, cursum consummavi, fidem servavi; iam superest mihi corona iustitiae. Debemus ergo cognoscere quis sit ipse adversarius, quem si vicerimus coronabimur. Ipse est enim quem Dominus noster prior vicit, ut etiam nos in illo permanentes vincamus. Et Dei quidem Virtus atque Sapientia, et Verbum per quod facta sunt omnia, qui Filius Dei unicus est, super omnem creaturam semper incommutabilis manet. Et quoniam sub illo est creatura etiam quae non peccavit, quanto magis sub illo est omnis creatura peccatrix? Ergo quoniam sub illo sunt omnes sancti Angeli, multo magis sub illo sunt omnes praevaricatores angeli, quorum diabolus princeps est. Sed quia naturam nostram deceperat, dignatus est unigenitus Dei Filius ipsam naturam nostram suscipere, ut de ipsa diabolus vinceretur, et quem semper ipse sub se habet, etiam sub nobis eum esse faceret. Ipsum significat dicens: Princeps huius mundi missus est foras. Non quia extra mundum missus est, quomodo quidam haeretici putant: sed foras ab animis eorum qui cohaerent verbo Dei, et non diligunt mundum, cuius ille princeps est; quia dominatur eis qui diligunt temporalia bona, quae hoc mundo visibili continentur: non quia ipse dominus est huius mundi, sed princeps cupiditatum earum quibus concupiscitur omne quod transit; ut ei subiaceant qui neglegunt aeternum Deum, et diligunt instabilia et mutabilia. Radix enim est omnium malorum cupiditas; quam, quidam appetentes, a fide erraverunt, et inseruerunt se doloribus multis. Per hanc cupiditatem regnat in homine diabolus, et cor eius tenet. Tales sunt omnes qui diligunt istum mundum. Mittitur autem diabolus foras, quando ex toto corde renuntiatur huic mundo. Sic enim renuntiatur diabolo, qui princeps est huius mundi, cum renuntiatur corruptelis, et pompis, et angelis eius. Ideoque ipse Dominus iam triumphantem naturam hominis portans: Scitote, inquit, quia ego vici mundum. Multi autem dicunt: Quomodo possumus vincere diabolum quem non videmus? Sed habemus magistrum, qui nobis demonstrare dignatus est quomodo invisibiles hostes vincantur. De illo enim dixit Apostolus: Exuens se carne, principatus et potestates exemplavit, fiducialiter triumphans eos in semetipso. Ibi ergo vincuntur inimicae nobis invisibiles potestates, ubi vincuntur invisibiles cupiditates: et ideo quia in nobis ipsis vincimus temporalium rerum cupiditates, necesse est ut in nobis ipsis vincamus et illum qui per ipsas cupiditates regnat in homine. Quando enim dictum est diabolo: Terram manducabis; dictum est peccatori: Terra es, et in terram ibis. Datus est ergo in cibum diaboli peccator. Non simus terra, si nolumus manducari a serpente. Sicut enim quod manducamus, in nostrum corpus convertimus, ut cibus ipse secundum corpus hoc efficiatur quod nos sumus: sic malis moribus per nequitiam et superbiam et impietatem hoc efficitur quisque quod diabolus, id est, similis eius; et subiicitur ei, sicut subiectum est nobis corpus nostrum. Et hoc est quod dicitur, manducari a serpente. Quisquis itaque timet illum ignem qui paratus est diabolo et angelis eius, det operam triumphare de illo in semetipso. Eos enim qui foris nos oppugnant, intus vincimus, vincendo concupiscentias per quas nobis dominantur. Et quos invenerint sui similes, secum ad poenas trahunt. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, De Agone Christiano

The crown of victory is not promised unless to those who struggle. In the Divine Scriptures continually we find a crown promised to us, if we conquer. But lest it take too long for many to recall these things, most manifestly in the Apostle Paul it says: The work completed, the course run, the faith kept, a crown of righteousness is ready for me. 1 We should therefore know who it is who is our adversary, him whom if we conquer we shall be crowned. He is the one over whom our Lord has been victorious, that even in Him remaining we might conquer. And certainly of God is virtue and wisdom, 2 and the Word through whom everything was made, 3 He who is the only Son of God, over every creature always unchangeably remaining. And because beneath him is every creature which has not sinned, how much more beneath him is every creature that is a sinner? Therefore, because beneath him are all the holy angels, much more beneath him are all the rebellious angels, of whom the devil is the prince. But because he ensnared our nature it is was right the Unbegotten Son of God himself take up our nature, that by it the devil might be conquered, and that he whom He always has beneath himself, He should make to be beneath us. He himself declares this, saying, 'The prince of this world is cast out.' 4 Not because he has been cast out from the world, which certain heretics think, but because he is outside of those souls who adhere to the word of God, and who do not love the world, of which he is the prince, for he rules those who delight in temporal things which this visible world contains, not because he is lord of this world, but because he is prince of their desires, by which they desire everything which passes; thus to him they are subject who neglect the eternal God and delight in things unstable and changeable. For the root of all evil is cupidity, which in its desires wanders from the faith, embroiling a man in many griefs. 5 Through this cupidity the devil rules over a man and he holds his heart. Such are all those who love this world. The devil is cast out when from the whole heart this world is renounced. So even is the devil renounced, who is prince of this world, when corruptible things are renounced, and pomp, and his angels. Therefore the Lord himself already bears the triumphant nature of man: 'Know,' He says, 'that I have conquered the world.' 6 But many say: 'How can we conquer the devil whom we do not see?' Yet we have a teacher, who thought it right to show to us how invisible enemies may be conquered. Concerning this the Apostle says, ' Putting off the flesh, despoiling the dominions and powers, faithfully triumphing over them in Himself'  7 There, then, the invisible hostile powers are conquered by us, where the invisible desires are conquered. And so that we conquer desires for temporal things in us ourselves, necessary it is that in us we conquer him who through desires rules a man. When it was said to the devil: 'Earth you shall eat,' it was said to the sinner, 'Earth you are and into earth you shall go.' 8 Thus the sinner is given as food to the devil. We are not earth if we are not eaten by the serpent. As even what we eat we convert into our own body so that the food be used in accordance with the body that we are, so by wicked ways, through evil and pride and impiety, a man is made like the devil, that is, similar to him, and subject to him, as our bodies are subject to us. And this is what it means to be eaten by the serpent. Whoever then fears that fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels, 9 let him work for the victory in himself. For those who oppose us without, within we conquer in the conquering of the desires by which they rule us. And those discovered to be like them, with them will be dragged off to punishment. Saint Augustine of Hippo, On The Christian Struggle 1 2 Tim 4. 7-8 2 1 Cor 1.24 3 Jn 1. 1-3 4 Jn 12.31 5 1 Tim 6.10 6 Jn 16.33 7 Col 2.15 8 Gen 3.14-19 9 Mt 25.41

The Only Enemy

Μίαν ἔχθραν ἐνομθέτησεν ἡμῖν ὁ τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν νομοθέτης, τὴν πρὸς τὸν ὄφιν λέγω· πρὸς οὐδὲν ἄλλο τὴν τοῦ μισεῖν δύναμιν ἐνεργεῖσθαι προστάξας, εἰ μὴ πρὸς τὴν ἀποστροφὴν τῆς κακίας. ' Ἔχθραν γὰρ θήσω, φησιν, 'ἀνὰ μέσον σοῦ, καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον ἐκείνου.' Ἐπειδὴ ποικίλη τος καὶ πολυειδής ἐστιν ἡ κακὶα, διὰ τοῦ ὄφεως ὁ λόγος ταύτην αἰνίττεται, τῇ πυκνῇ τῶν φολίδων θέσει τὸ πολύτροπον τῆς κακίας χαρακτηρίζων. Ἡμεῖς δὲ πρὸς μὲν τὸν ὄφιν ἔνσπονδοι, διὰ τοῦ τὰ θελήματα τοῦ ἀντικειμένου ποιεῖν, ἐγενόμεθα· τὸ δὲ μῖθος κατ' ἀλλήλων ἐτρέψαμεν· τάχα δὲ οὐδε καθ' ἡμῶν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τοῦ τὴν ἐντολὴν δεδωκότος. Ὁ μὲν γάρ φησιν, ' Ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου, καὶ μισήσεις τὸν ἐχθρόν σου· τὸν τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν πολέμιον μόνον ἐχθρὸν ἡγεῖσθαι προστάξας· πάντα δὲ τὸν κοινωνοῦντα τῆς φύσεως, πλησίον ἐκάστου εἴναι εἰπών· ἡ δὲ βαρυκάρδιος ἡμῶν γενεὰ τοῦ πλησίον ἡμᾶς διαστήσασα, θάλπειν τὸν ὄφιν ἐποίησε, καὶ τοῖς τῶν φολίδων αὐτοῦ στίγμασιν ἐπιτέρπεσθαι.   Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος Νύσσης, Ἐπιστολὴ Γ', Ευσταθίᾳ καὶ Ἀμβροσίᾳ καὶ τῇ κοσμιωτάτῃ καὶ σεμνοτάτῃ θυγατρὶ βασιλίσσῃ

One hatred the Lawgiver of our life has commanded us. I speak of the Serpent. For nothing else has He enjoined us to employ this ability of hatred but as a defence against wickedness. He says 'I will put hate between you and him.'1 Since wickedness is a diverse and varied thing, the Word speaks it as a serpent, the dense array of whose scales represents the manifold nature of evil. And we make alliance with the serpent by working the will of our enemy, and so turn the hatred against one another, and perhaps not among ourselves only, but against Him Who gave the commandment, for He says, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy,' 2 enjoining us to mark the foe to our nature as our only enemy, and declaring that all sharing that humanity are neighbours of one another. But this heavy hearted generation has separated us from our neighbour, has made us embrace the serpent, and take delight in his spotted scales. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Letter 3, To Eustathia and Ambrosia and the most discreet and noble daughter Basilissa 1 Gen 3.15  2 Mt 5.43

The Serpent Within

Tales quidem secundem eos sententiae sunt, a quibus, velut Lernaea hydra, multiplex capitibus fera de Valentini schola generata est. Quidam enim ipsam Sophiam serpentem factam dicunt: quapropter et contrariam exstitisse factori Adae, et agnitionem homnibus immisisse, et propter hoc dictum serpentem omnium sapientiorem. Sed et propter positionem intestinorum nostrorum, per quae esca infertur, eo quod talem figuram habent, ostendentem absconsam generatricem serpentis figurae substantiam in nobis. Sanctus Irenaeus Lugdunensis, Adversus Haereses, Liber I, Caput XXX Source: Migne PG 7.704a

Such are the opinions of these heretics, by whom, like the Lernaean hydra, a beast of many heads has been born from the school of Valentinus. For some of them assert that Wisdom herself became the serpent, on which account she was hostile to the creator of Adam, and implanted knowledge in men, and so the serpent was called wiser than all the rest. 1 And on account of position of our intestines, through which the food passes, by the fact they have such a shape, since this is in the shape of a serpent, it exhibits our hidden mother. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book 1, Chapter 30 1 Gen 3.1

Words and the Serpent's Wisdom

Serpens autem erat ibi prudentissimus quidem, sed omnium bestiarum quae erant super terram, quas fecerat Dominus Deus.   Translato enim verbo dictum est, prudentissimus, vel sicut plures latini codices habent, sapientissimus, non proprio quo in bonum accipi solet sapientia vel Dei, vel Angelorum, vel animae rationalis; tamquam si sapientes apes etiam formicasque dicamus, propter opera velut imitantia sapientiam. Quamquam iste serpens non irrationali anima sua, sed alieno iam spiritu, id est diabolico, possit sapientissimus dici omnium bestiarum. Quantumlibet enim praevaricatores angeli de supernis sedibus suae perversitatis et superbiae merito deiecti sint, natura tamen excellentiores sunt omnibus bestiis propter rationis eminentiam. Quid ergo mirum si suo instinctu diabolus iam implens serpentem, eique spiritum suum miscens, eo more quo vates daemoniorum impleri solent, sapientissimum eum reddiderat omnium bestiarum secundum animam vivam irrationalemque viventium? Abusione quippe nominis ita sapientia dicitur in malo, quemadmodum in bono astutia; cum proprie magisque usitate in latina duntaxat lingua sapientes laudabiliter appellentur, astuti autem male cordati intellegantur. Unde nonnulli, sicut in plerisque codicibus invenimus, ad usum latinae locutionis, non verbum, sed potius sententiam transferentes, astutiorem omnibus bestiis istum serpentem, quam sapientiorem dicere maluerunt Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, The Literal Interpretation of Genesis

'The serpent was the most wise of all the creatures that were upon the earth which God had made.'1 The word translated wise, or as many Latin books have it, most wise, should not be understood in the good sense of the wisdom of God or angels or rational animals, but as when we say bees and ants are wise, that is, on account of their works which are like an imitation of wisdom. Yet this serpent was not able to called the most wise of all the beasts by its own irrational animal nature, but by a foreign spirit, that is, of the devil. Irrespective of their greatness, despite how more excellent their natures were to beasts according to the eminence of reason, the unfaithful angels for their perversity and pride were thrown from their high seats. Why then be amazed if by his own instinct the devil entered the serpent, mixing in it his own spirit, as demons are accustomed to possess seers, making it the most wise of all the beasts by  living and irrational soul? Certainly it is by an abuse that wisdom is used in association with evil which the good would describe as cunning, for it is more familiar in the Latin tongue to employ 'wise' as a laudable title and that cunning should be understood as the product of a bad heart. So it is that in a few books we find that, for the Latin way of speaking, not a word, but rather the meaning is translated, and thus it is they have preferred to say that this serpent was 'more astute' than every beast than 'more wise'.  Saint Augustine of Hippo, De Genesi Ad Litteram 1 Gen 3.1

Slander and the Fall

Εἶπε πάλιν· Ψιθυρίσας ὁ ὅφις τὴν Εὔαν τοῦ παραδείσου ἐξεβαλε. Τούτου οὖν ὅμοιος ἔσται καὶ ὁ καταλαλῶν τοῦ πλησίον· τὴν γὰρ ψυχὴν τοῦ ἀκούοντος ἀπολλύει, καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ οὐ διασώζει.  ᾽Αποφθεγματα των ἀγιων γεροντων, Παλλαδιος

Again Father Hyperechios said, ' The hissing of the serpent cast Eve out of paradise and so it is with the one who speaks ill of his neighbour; for he who does such a thing ruins the soul of the one who hears and he does not save his own.' Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Palladius of Galatia