On Teachers and Disciples

Name: On Teachers and Disciples
Author: Evagrius Ponticus

De magistris et discipulis

Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345–399 AD)

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Contents4 passages

1The unskilled guide destroys; the skilled guide heals
2Arming the Brothers for Spiritual Combat
3Training, praise, and correction without anger
4The desert journey to Elim as the path to freedom from passions

Author

Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345–399 AD) — A preacher at Constantinople who became a monk in the Egyptian desert. His short sayings on prayer and on the eight evil thoughts shaped Christian teaching on the spiritual life.

All works by Evagrius Ponticus

About this text

Evagrius on how a spiritual father should guide his disciples: an unskilled guide destroys and a skilled one heals, correction comes without anger, and the road leads, like Israel's to Elim, to freedom from the passions.

Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345–399) wrote this treatise for a monastic leader responsible for guiding disciples. He was a monk and ascetic teacher who spent his later years in the Egyptian desert communities of Nitria and Kellia, after earlier being a disciple of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Macarius of Egypt. The work offers practical guidance on how to lead a community toward virtue and guard its members from harm.

The treatise addresses a leader directly, using comparisons from seafaring, shepherding, warfare, medicine, and Israel's desert journey. Evagrius argues that an unskilled guide destroys those in his care, just as an unskilled pilot wrecks a ship or an inexperienced shepherd loses sheep. The skilled leader is like a general and physician who prevents wounds or heals them quickly.

A reader should know that the leader must arm disciples with specific spiritual equipment, train them for spiritual combat, correct them without anger, and lead them through discipline toward the promised land. There they will live the blessed life of freedom from passions, receiving true joy as the reward for their labors.

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Translated from PG (Greek)

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The unskilled guide destroys; the skilled guide heals§1

Evagrius opens the treatise by addressing the monastic leader directly, comparing unskilled and skilled guides through a series of parallel images.

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1An unskilled pilot is a shipwreck waiting to happen, and an ignorant leader is the destruction of his disciples. An inexperienced shepherd has twisted the ankles of his sheep, and a leader twists the paths of his disciples. An ignorant shepherd will not discern among sheep in the fog, nor will an inexperienced teacher say anything useful in a time of trial. A skilled leader is a general in war and a physician of the passions: he will either keep a man from being wounded or heal him quickly once he is wounded. A disobedient disciple is a warped piece of wood, and he will never be straightened no matter how often he is reproved. A discordant brother is a string on an out-of-tune lyre, and by his discord he is cut off from the common melody. A drone eats the labors of the bees, and a careless brother diminishes the virtuous practice of the community.

Greek · §1

The Greek is on each section page: §1

Arming the Brothers for Spiritual Combat§2

Evagrius continues his direct address to the monastic leader, now commanding him to equip his brothers with spiritual armor and weapons for the fight against the passions.

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2A cowardly soldier makes the hands of warriors go slack, and a careless monk drains the eagerness of his brothers. A swarm of bees produces a honeycomb, and a community of brothers produces the kingdom of heaven. A trumpet rouses the eagerness of warriors, and teaching in active virtue rouses the zeal of disciples. Arm your brothers, leader, with words [The text is damaged here.], and put on them the breastplate of the promises of good things to come. Fence them with the shield of faith in struggles, and put greaves on them with hope in God. Shoe their feet [the printed verb is corrupt; "shoe" is a conjecture] with the lessons of the gospel, and gird their loins with words of self-control. Put into their hand the sharpest anger as a sword against the passions, and set a phalanx of the passions against pleasure.

Greek · §2

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Training, praise, and correction without anger§3

Evagrius is addressing the monastic leader directly, continuing his instructions on how to equip and guide disciples in spiritual combat.

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3Train your soldiers in their thoughts, so that they are skilled for battle, and make defeat a fearful thing by the warning of eternal punishment. Proclaim the victor with shining praises, for praise also knows how to make people more zealous. And heal the one who has been wounded with compassion, for forgiveness shames the sensible person no less than a warning does. Do not be moved to anger against a disciple who has sinned, for it is not holy to wound your own soul before healing another. Instead, correct him patiently toward the good. For a physician heals the disease and does not grow angry with the one who has fallen ill involuntarily. When a physician cuts, he does it without anger; and when a teacher corrects, let him not mix anger into the correction.

Greek · §3

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The desert journey to Elim as the path to freedom from passions§4

Evagrius is closing his treatise by comparing the monastic community's progress under its leader to Israel's journey through the desert toward the promised land.

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4Guide those who are fleeing the land of Egypt through the desert, for scarcity knows how to train people in self-control, even those who are just beginning in virtue. Encamp at Elim—its gates are interpreted as a symbol of the entrance that leads to virtue—and point out the seventy palm trees. Encamp also by the twelve springs, for the palm trees must proclaim victory to you as a symbol, and the springs must cool the flame of the passions by providing streams abundantly. Do this until they have destroyed all the foreign nations and arrive at the promised land, where they will live the blessed life of freedom from passions, receiving true joy as the reward for their labors.

Greek · §4

The Greek is on each section page: §4

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