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Question 110.
Dear Fr Christopher,
The Lord said,
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it
would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck
and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut
it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to
go to Gehenna, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to
sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two
feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it
out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than
with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched. For every one will be salted with fire.
Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season
it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
In what sense does
the Lord Jesus mean to cut these body parts off ?
What is the Orthodox interpretation of the statement: "For every one
will be salted with fire"?
In Christ,
Regards, John
Answer to
Question 110.
Dear John
May I first ask what translation of the New Testament do you use? The
Greek speaks of scandalizing one of these little ones and not causing
them to sin. What the verse is saying is that whosoever scandalizes
someone by either word or deed and causes them to be led astray it were
better for him... This can be interpreted as sin but it is not a true
interpretation from the original Greek. Also some of the verses are
incomplete. This doesn't mean the translation is an error. Some of the
old New Testament manuscripts have complete verses missing or vary
considerably from the text the Church uses. So English translations
differ one from another according to which manuscript was used for the
translation. No translation is 100% but the closest translation with the
same verses as used by the Church is the KJV (New Testament only), which
understandably many people find hard to understand because of the
archaic language. But even the KJV can be misleading it some of its
translation. Before I could read Greek I read the New Testament in
English, and understood the text in a certain way according to what I
read, but later when I learnt Greek and compared the Greek with the
English I noticed that even a single word wrongly translated could
change the whole meaning and was surprised that what I originally
understood about a certain passage was completely wrong. As for the Old
Testament there is as yet no English translation that has faithfully
been translated from the Septuagint Greek. There are English versions of
the Septuagint but these still vary from the Greek because instead of
translating from scratch they all used the KJV as the foundation of
their translation.
But let's now see your questions.
Firstly Christ is not literally saying that if our hand or foot or eye
offends us or causes us to sin that we should cut off our bodily
members. Mutilation of our body is a sin. One of the most influential
scholars of Alexandria was Origen (185-254). Origen’s writings were some
of the most influential in the early church. He had a brilliant mind and
although some of his writings were labelled as heretical, he is still
read by Theological students today. He lived an ascetic life but took
his asceticism to the extremes by taking the Lord’s counsel in the
literal sense and having himself castrated to avoid any possible scandal
while giving private instruction to women catechumens. “For there are
some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are
some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs,
which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.” (Matth.
19:12)
Christ's words are symbolic and spiritual. All of our bodily members are
good and can be used to do good, but at the same time, because of the
corruption of our hearts, they can also be a source for us to be led
astray and sin. Thus it is necessary for us to crucify and put to death
all our worldly desires and passions. The bodily members are symbolic of
people or things that are precious to us. If for example someone you
love by his actions or way of life scandalizes you then you should cut
off all communication with that person, no matter how painful this
separation may be, just as if you would cut off your hand or foot, lest
by continual contact with him/her you would be led astray. It is better
to put an end to any relationship with that person and gain entry into
the kingdom of heaven than to continue having contact with him and to
continue to sin and at the last Judgement to be cast into hellfire. Thus
in this life it is necessary to make painful sacrifices, to mutilate our
desires and passions and even our relationships with others if these
things cause us to sin and deprive us of the Kingdom of Heaven.
For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be
salted with salt.
Salt apart from seasoning food is also a purging agent and prevents
decay. It was used to preserve meats and is still used as a preservative
today. In Cyprus we have a delicacy called tsamarella which is goat's
meat coated in salt and left to cook and dry in the sun for about a
week. This preserves the meat and can be kept for more than a year. The
meat is cut into small pieces and offered as a meze with the local
zivania spirit.
In the verse "every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice
shall be salted with salt" salt is used as a purging agent in the same
way that fire purges and also as a seasoning. Human nature is corrupt
and like decaying meat everyone needs to be purged. The faithful do this
willingly by self denial, by cutting off their bodily members, symbolic
of their painful sacrifices and offer themselves as living sacrifices to
God. Their sufferings are like salt which gives seasoning to their
sacrificial offering and is pleasing to God. On the other hand the
wicked who denied making any sacrifices in this life will be purged with
the salt of hellfire on the day of judgement.
The next verse continues with this interpretation. Salt spiritually
represents the sacrifices and virtues of the righteous which gives
seasoning and flavour to life in a society, and which anticipates and
prevents decay, but if these virtues were to vanish and be replaced with
evil then how can that man acquire again the good reputation of a
faithful person he once had in society? Therefore preserve in you the
salt – the good virtues so that you will always have peace among you.
Here Christ is directly speaking to the apostles to not dispute about
dignities and honours. It is an answer to a dispute the apostles had of
who among themselves should be the greatest which began in verse 33 and
was the cause for Christ to teach them what followed up to verse 50.
I answered this question first because I received it first, but now
looking at the other questions I notice that I will be working
backwards.
In Christ
Fr. Christopher
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