The following essay is from this book. I decided to post it for three reasons. To confess my own captivity to these vices and warn others of the danger; like a traveler stuck in the mud warning passersby. To give an example of what it means “the law is spiritual,” and the whole of the Old Testament for that matter. And to show how beneficial it is to study the writings of the Saints that went before us (Hebrews 13:7-8).
It has been written in the book of Esdras:
"When the enemies of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin heard it, they came to find out what the sound of the trumpets meant. And they learned that those who had returned from the captivity were building the temple for the Lord God of Israel. So they approached Zerubbabel and Joshua, and the chiefs of the families, and said to them: “We will build together with you. For we, likewise, as you do, obey your Lord, and we have been sacrificing to Him ever since the days of Asbasareth, the king of the Assyrians, who brought us here.” Then Zerubbabel and Joshua and the chief of the families of Israel said to them: “It is not for us and you to build together a house unto the Lord God.” (LXX 1 Esdras 5:63-66)
What do these things mean, and what especially is the nature of the envy by which they refused to build together with them, seeing that they worshiped the same God?
Response by Saint Maximus
The name Judah when translated means "confession," and the meaning of this word is twofold. The first meaning is gratitude for good things that have been given. The second is a response to evil deeds that have come under censure and accusation. In other words, "confession" includes both the grateful acknowledgment of divine benefactions on the part of the beneficiaries, and the acknowledgment of evil deeds on the part of those who committed them. Both of these activities are productive of humility. This is because a person who is grateful for good things, as well as a person who is charged with accusations, are both equally humbled: the former because he judges himself unworthy of the gifts, the latter because he begs to receive forgiveness of his sins.
The name Benjamin, strictly translated from the Hebrew, means "mourning" or "lamentation of the mother," or "measure of the mother," or "son of the right hand," or "edification of the people." It follows that everyone who confesses according to one or the other of the ways mentioned above, belongs to the tribe of Judah. And everyone who mourns for the sake of virtue, or who, like a mother, has righteousness rightly measuring his life and words, or who, through his abundance of virtue and the outpouring of his teaching, becomes for many a way of salvation and edification, belongs to the tribe of Benjamin.
It is people such as these that Scripture recognizes, who have received their freedom from the captivity of the passions, and who have departed from their attachment to things of sense, and who are able, in their state of dispassion, to build a house for the Lord. By "house" I mean an intellect that is built up from various virtues and principles in the course of ascetic practice and contemplation, forming a "dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
The enemies of such people are the four nations that were relocated to the land of Israel under Asbasareth, the king of Assyria, for he was the first to settle men from Babylon, Cuthah, Hamath, and Ava, in the land of Israel. The Babylonians signify pride, and their name when translated means "confused mind." The men of Cuthah signify vainglory, turning their minds from virtue to fruitless conceit, for when translated their name means "to stand outside." The men of Hamath signify the vice of "pleasing men," for Hamath translated means "spectacle of visible things," and it is through this vice that the largest profits are distributed to those who superficially pursue virtue for the sake of men. The men of Ava, finally, signify the deceit of hypocrisy, for their name in translation means "serpentine," and like the first serpent they banish from the place of virtue those who, like Adam, have been deceived by their craftiness and hypocritical friendship. Asbasareth, who relocated these men to the land of Israel, means to "take captive from behind," which means "invisibly" or "secretly." He is clearly the devil, who does all things secretly with the aim of subjugating human nature, and he tightens the chains of each human being by means of his sins. He is the one who introduced into the land of Israel (I mean into the state of virtue and knowledge) the vices of pride, vainglory, the pleasing of men, and hypocrisy, yoking these vices to men of virtue and knowledge, so that he might nullify the labors of those who toil, sophistically diverting the goal of creatures to things other than their Cause.
And it was perhaps knowing that these demons closely follow virtuous human beings that the divine Apostle prevailed upon the Corinthians, saying that he was not among them "as one using words off flattery" - like a hypocrite, for perhaps they were thinking this about him - "nor as one seeking glory from men," as if he were vainglorious. But concerning pride he said nothing, for he possessed the obvious marks of humility, numberless persecutions, bodily sufferings, extreme poverty, and lack of skill in his speech, for "even if I am unskilled in speech," he says, "I am not unskilled in knowledge."
"When they heard the sound of the trumpet, they came to find out what the sound meant. And they learned that those who had returned from the captivity were building the temple for the Lord God of Israel." The "trumpets," the sound of which is heard by the unclean demons, are the words of virtue and knowledge. The "sound" of these words are works of virtue and the stability of ethical conduct among those who returned from vice to virtue, and who have ascended from ignorance to the knowledge of God.
"So they approached Zerubbabel and Joshua, and the chiefs of the families, and said to them: 'We will build together with you. For we likewise, as you do, obey your Lord, and we have been sacrificing to him."' Zerubbabel is the practical intellect, and Joshua is the contemplative intellect. The chiefs of the families are the powers of the soul, from which arise the modes of virtue and the principles of knowledge. It is these powers that the unclean demons of pride, vainglory, the pleasing of men, and hypocrisy approach and say: "We will build the house of the Lord together with you." For none of these wicked demons ever hinders the eagerness of a virtuous person. To the contrary, such demons deceptively minimize the deficiencies of one's virtues, and urge a person to increase his efforts, joining in eagerly with the work of the spiritual struggler, so that they might draw to themselves the whole of his mind, for when it has lost the balance of moderation it will be unaware that it is advancing in the wrong direction. This is why those evil men said: "For we likewise, as you do, obey your Lord." For the demons do not hate temperance, neither do they loathe fasting, or the distribution of wealth, or hospitality, or chanting, or reading, or the higher lessons, or sleeping on the ground, or keeping vigil-or any of the things that are characteristic of a life lived according to God-as long as they can twist the motivation and aim of these activities toward themselves. For the ascetic will perhaps quickly recognize other kinds of demons, and easily avoid suffering harm from them. But of these demons - who seem to cooperate with us on the way of virtue, and who wish, as it were, to help us in building the house of the Lord - what intellect, even from among the most highly advanced, can recognize their presence without the help of the "active and living Word, who penetrates through all things, even unto the division of soul and spirit?" Who, in other words, can recognize their presence without the Word, who knows which activities or thoughts are from the soul (that is, the natural forms or movements of the virtues) and which ones are spiritual (that is, those beyond nature, which are characteristic of God, and which are given to nature by grace)?
(...)
It has been written in the book of Esdras:
"When the enemies of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin heard it, they came to find out what the sound of the trumpets meant. And they learned that those who had returned from the captivity were building the temple for the Lord God of Israel. So they approached Zerubbabel and Joshua, and the chiefs of the families, and said to them: “We will build together with you. For we, likewise, as you do, obey your Lord, and we have been sacrificing to Him ever since the days of Asbasareth, the king of the Assyrians, who brought us here.” Then Zerubbabel and Joshua and the chief of the families of Israel said to them: “It is not for us and you to build together a house unto the Lord God.” (LXX 1 Esdras 5:63-66)
What do these things mean, and what especially is the nature of the envy by which they refused to build together with them, seeing that they worshiped the same God?
Response by Saint Maximus
The name Judah when translated means "confession," and the meaning of this word is twofold. The first meaning is gratitude for good things that have been given. The second is a response to evil deeds that have come under censure and accusation. In other words, "confession" includes both the grateful acknowledgment of divine benefactions on the part of the beneficiaries, and the acknowledgment of evil deeds on the part of those who committed them. Both of these activities are productive of humility. This is because a person who is grateful for good things, as well as a person who is charged with accusations, are both equally humbled: the former because he judges himself unworthy of the gifts, the latter because he begs to receive forgiveness of his sins.
The name Benjamin, strictly translated from the Hebrew, means "mourning" or "lamentation of the mother," or "measure of the mother," or "son of the right hand," or "edification of the people." It follows that everyone who confesses according to one or the other of the ways mentioned above, belongs to the tribe of Judah. And everyone who mourns for the sake of virtue, or who, like a mother, has righteousness rightly measuring his life and words, or who, through his abundance of virtue and the outpouring of his teaching, becomes for many a way of salvation and edification, belongs to the tribe of Benjamin.
It is people such as these that Scripture recognizes, who have received their freedom from the captivity of the passions, and who have departed from their attachment to things of sense, and who are able, in their state of dispassion, to build a house for the Lord. By "house" I mean an intellect that is built up from various virtues and principles in the course of ascetic practice and contemplation, forming a "dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
The enemies of such people are the four nations that were relocated to the land of Israel under Asbasareth, the king of Assyria, for he was the first to settle men from Babylon, Cuthah, Hamath, and Ava, in the land of Israel. The Babylonians signify pride, and their name when translated means "confused mind." The men of Cuthah signify vainglory, turning their minds from virtue to fruitless conceit, for when translated their name means "to stand outside." The men of Hamath signify the vice of "pleasing men," for Hamath translated means "spectacle of visible things," and it is through this vice that the largest profits are distributed to those who superficially pursue virtue for the sake of men. The men of Ava, finally, signify the deceit of hypocrisy, for their name in translation means "serpentine," and like the first serpent they banish from the place of virtue those who, like Adam, have been deceived by their craftiness and hypocritical friendship. Asbasareth, who relocated these men to the land of Israel, means to "take captive from behind," which means "invisibly" or "secretly." He is clearly the devil, who does all things secretly with the aim of subjugating human nature, and he tightens the chains of each human being by means of his sins. He is the one who introduced into the land of Israel (I mean into the state of virtue and knowledge) the vices of pride, vainglory, the pleasing of men, and hypocrisy, yoking these vices to men of virtue and knowledge, so that he might nullify the labors of those who toil, sophistically diverting the goal of creatures to things other than their Cause.
And it was perhaps knowing that these demons closely follow virtuous human beings that the divine Apostle prevailed upon the Corinthians, saying that he was not among them "as one using words off flattery" - like a hypocrite, for perhaps they were thinking this about him - "nor as one seeking glory from men," as if he were vainglorious. But concerning pride he said nothing, for he possessed the obvious marks of humility, numberless persecutions, bodily sufferings, extreme poverty, and lack of skill in his speech, for "even if I am unskilled in speech," he says, "I am not unskilled in knowledge."
"When they heard the sound of the trumpet, they came to find out what the sound meant. And they learned that those who had returned from the captivity were building the temple for the Lord God of Israel." The "trumpets," the sound of which is heard by the unclean demons, are the words of virtue and knowledge. The "sound" of these words are works of virtue and the stability of ethical conduct among those who returned from vice to virtue, and who have ascended from ignorance to the knowledge of God.
"So they approached Zerubbabel and Joshua, and the chiefs of the families, and said to them: 'We will build together with you. For we likewise, as you do, obey your Lord, and we have been sacrificing to him."' Zerubbabel is the practical intellect, and Joshua is the contemplative intellect. The chiefs of the families are the powers of the soul, from which arise the modes of virtue and the principles of knowledge. It is these powers that the unclean demons of pride, vainglory, the pleasing of men, and hypocrisy approach and say: "We will build the house of the Lord together with you." For none of these wicked demons ever hinders the eagerness of a virtuous person. To the contrary, such demons deceptively minimize the deficiencies of one's virtues, and urge a person to increase his efforts, joining in eagerly with the work of the spiritual struggler, so that they might draw to themselves the whole of his mind, for when it has lost the balance of moderation it will be unaware that it is advancing in the wrong direction. This is why those evil men said: "For we likewise, as you do, obey your Lord." For the demons do not hate temperance, neither do they loathe fasting, or the distribution of wealth, or hospitality, or chanting, or reading, or the higher lessons, or sleeping on the ground, or keeping vigil-or any of the things that are characteristic of a life lived according to God-as long as they can twist the motivation and aim of these activities toward themselves. For the ascetic will perhaps quickly recognize other kinds of demons, and easily avoid suffering harm from them. But of these demons - who seem to cooperate with us on the way of virtue, and who wish, as it were, to help us in building the house of the Lord - what intellect, even from among the most highly advanced, can recognize their presence without the help of the "active and living Word, who penetrates through all things, even unto the division of soul and spirit?" Who, in other words, can recognize their presence without the Word, who knows which activities or thoughts are from the soul (that is, the natural forms or movements of the virtues) and which ones are spiritual (that is, those beyond nature, which are characteristic of God, and which are given to nature by grace)?
(...)
