On Teachers and Disciples · §4 · Evagrius Ponticus

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

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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.

Guide 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

Τοὺς γῆν Αἴγυπτον φεύγοντας δι' ἐρήμου ὁδηγεῖ ὁδόν· οἶδε γὰρ ἡ

σπάνις παιδαγωγεῖν πρὸς ἐγκράτειαν καὶ ἀρχομένους τῆς ἀρετῆς. Προσσκήνωσον τῇ Αἰλείμ πυλῶνες δὲ αὐτοὶ ἑρμηνεύονται, τῆς ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν εἰσόδου φερούσης σύμβολον καὶ δεῖξον τοὺς ἑβδομήκοντα φοίνικας. Σκήνωσον δὲ κατὰ τὰς δώδεκα πήγας–δεῖ γὰρ καὶ τὰ τῆς νίκης σε ὑποφωνεῖν φοίνικες σύμβολον καὶ τὴν τῶν παθῶν παραμυθεῖσθαι φλόγα παρέχοντα νάματα δαψιλῶς– ἕως ἂν πάντα καθελόντες τὰ ἀλλότρια ἔθνη φθάσωσιν εἰς τὴν γῆν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, ἐν ᾗ τὸν μακάριον τῆς ἀπαθείας βιώσονται βίον μισθὸν τῶν πόνων τὴν ἀληθινὴν κομιζόμενοι εὐφροσύνην. 1

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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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