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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 241: How is the Gate Narrow and the Way Straitened that Leadeth Unto Life, and How…
Here again narrow and straitened do not signify different things, but straitened indicates an intensification of narrowness; when the way is so narrowed that the traveller is straitened, that is, pressed on both sides, and any deviation either on the right hand or the left is dangerous. Thus on a bridge the river flowing underneath is ready on every side to receive him that swerves. Wherefore David says: “Near my path they laid snares for me.”1 He then that has purposed to enter into life through the narrow and straitened way must keep himself from all deviation or swerving from the commandments of the Lord, fulfilling what is written: “Turn not aside either to the right or to the left.”2
Notes
- Ps. cxl. 5.
- Prov. iv. 27. Bas. omits τά of Sw.’s (B) text before δεξιά and ἀριστερά.