Canonical Letter · §3 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Worse than the sin of Achan

Gregory compares such profiteers with Achan, who took from the devoted spoil of enemies, and judges them worse, since they take what belongs to their brothers.

“Did not Achan son of Zerah commit a grave trespass concerning what was under the ban, and wrath fell on the whole congregation of Israel? He was only one man who sinned; did he die alone in his sin?” (Joshua 22:20). For us, at this time, every gain that is not our own but someone else’s ought to be counted as a thing under the ban. For Achan took from the spoil, and these men too now take from the spoil. But he took what belonged to enemies; these men now take what belongs to their brothers, and reap a deadly gain.

Greek

Οὐκ ἰδοὺ Ἄχαρ ὁ τοῦ Ζαρᾶ πλημμελείᾳ ἐπλημμέλησεν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀναθέματος, καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν συναγωγὴν Ἰσραήλ ἐγενήθη ἡ ὀργή; καὶ εἷς μόνος οὗτος ἥμαρτε, μὴ μόνος ἀπέθανεν ἐν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ αὐτοῦ; Ἡμῖν δὲ πᾶν τὸ μὴ ἡμέτερον, ἀλλὰ ἀλλότριον τῷ καιρῷ τούτῳ κέρδος, ἀνάθεμα νενομίσθαι προσήκει. Κἀκεῖνος μὲν γὰρ ὁ Ἄχαρ, ἐκ τῆς προνομῆς ἔλαβε· καὶ αὐτοὶ νῦν ἐκ προνομῆς. Κἀκεῖνος μὲν τὰ τῶν πολεμίων· οἱ δὲ νῦν τὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν, κερδάναντες ὀλέθριον κέρδος.

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About this text

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Canonical Letter: his rulings for a fellow bishop after the Gothic raids on Pontus, on captives who ate the raiders' food, women taken by force, Christians who looted or joined the invaders, and the stages of penance. A fresh English translation of all eleven canons.

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270) was a Christian bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus, in what is now northwest Turkey. He wrote this letter to a bishop whom he addresses as a holy pope, a title used for a senior bishop rather than the Bishop of Rome. He wrote in response to a Gothic invasion of Pontus that brought violence, captivity, and moral confusion to the Christian community.

The letter answers pastoral questions about Christians taken captive by the barbarian invaders. Gregory addresses whether food placed before captives by their captors defiles them, and how to treat women who suffered sexual violation at the hands of the barbarians. He then rules on Christians who profited from the invasion: those who seized other people's goods, kept what they found or what the invaders left behind, held escaped captives by force, joined the raiders against their own people, or broke into houses, and he sets the penance for each. A closing canon, probably added later, describes the stages of public penance.

A reader should know that the surname Thaumaturgus means wonder-worker, a title given to Gregory because of miracles he was said to have performed. The term holy pope here means a bishop, not the Bishop of Rome. Gregory quotes the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and refers to the book of Deuteronomy.

Fresh English translation from the Greek of the Documenta Catholica Omnia Canones GR typed print, read from the page images (pages 1–3) and matched against its text layer. Vossius' Latin notes (1684) were checked where they bear on the wording; they hold no running Greek of the canons, and PG 10 was not in hand. ANF was consulted only as a sense check.

Printed text used

Translated from Documenta Catholica Omnia Canones GR (Greek)
Translated from Greek Canon I (Greek)
Also checked Vossius 1684 DjVu extract (Latin/Greek mixed machine-read text)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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