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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 45: Is There Any Excuse for a Man Who Having Heard the Lord’s Words, That Servant,…
Such a man is clearly feigning ignorance and cannot escape the judgment of his sin. For “if I had not come and spoken unto them”’ says the Lord “they had not had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin’2; for Holy Scripture announces the will of God everywhere to all men. So that such a man is not judged lightly in company with those who were ignorant, but severely with those of whom it is written: “Like the adder that is deaf and stoppeth her ears, which will not hear the voice of the charmers, charming never so wisely.”3 But he who is entrusted with the stewardship of the word is judged as a murderer according to Scripture, if he neglects to tell a man of his sin?4
Notes
- Lk. xii. 47 μηδέ for ἤ K, ποιήσας before ἑτοιμάσας; 48.
- Jn. xv. 22.
- Ps. lviii. 4, 5 slight divergences from Sw.
- Cf. Ezek. xxxiii. 8.