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NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

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To the bishops of Italy <strong>and</strong> Gaul concerning the condition <strong>and</strong> confusion of the Churches.way; 3050 they visit the sick; they console the sorrowful; they aid the distressed; they givesuccour of various kinds; they communicate the mysteries. All these things, as long as theperformance of them is in their h<strong>and</strong>s, are so many ties to bind the people to their views.The result will be that in a little time, even if some liberty be conceded to us, there is smallhope that they who have been long under the influence of error will be recalled to recognitionof the truth.5. Under these circumstances it would have been well for many of us to have travelledto your reverences, <strong>and</strong> to have individually reported each his own position. You may nowtake as a proof of the sore straits in which we are placed the fact that we are not even freeto travel abroad. For if any one leaves his Church, even for a very brief space, he will leavehis people at the mercy of those who are plotting their ruin. By God’s mercy instead ofmany we have sent one, our very reverend <strong>and</strong> beloved brother the presbyter Dorotheus.He is fully able to supply by his personal report whatever has been omitted in our letter, forhe has carefully followed all that has occurred, <strong>and</strong> is jealous of the right faith. Receive himin peace, <strong>and</strong> speedily send him back to us, bringing us good news of your readiness tosuccour the brotherhood.3050 I suggest this rendering of προπομπαὶ τῶν ἐξοδευόντων with hesitation, <strong>and</strong> feel no certainty about thepassage except that the Ben. tr., “deductiones proficiscentium,” <strong>and</strong> its defence in the Ben. note, is questionable.The escort of a bishop on a journey is quite on a different plane from the ministrations which <strong>Basil</strong> has in mind.προπομπαὶ is used by Chrysostom of funerals, <strong>and</strong> Combefis explains “excedentium deductæ funebres, deductafunera;” but the association of ideas seems to necessitate some reference to the effect of vicious teaching on theliving. There may be an indirect allusion to the effect on the friends at a funeral, but to take ἐξοδευόντων tomean “the dying” seems the simplest. ἐξοδευθείς is used of Sisera in Judges v. 27, LXX. cf. p. 180 n., whereperhaps this rendering might be substituted, <strong>and</strong> Canon Bright on Canon xiii. of Nicæa.786

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