So Listen

Translated from the Sahidic Coptic (White Monastery codex FL 15–28; Amélineau, Oeuvres de Schenoudi 2:80–89) by Claude, 2026-07-12. No published English translation known. Shenoute's agony over hidden sin inside his own congregations: he refuses to gather the assembly or lift up the offering alongside men doing "deeds of pestilence," and he turns to the measuring-cord of Zechariah and Micah — the belts and bandages he has hung up as a sign that men have been "measured and found worthless." uncertain renderings are flagged in the numbered footnotes; [...] gaps.

...a rebuke in his place [...] So too is the way of the one who [...] the more: he is the man who will say among us that God will forgive those who do — or those who will do — those deeds of abomination within his congregations, after they have known the whole knowledge and all these words.

For it is easier, O men, that those who have been shattered because of the uncleanness of their soul should have the one who speaks these things to you be of one heart with the tax collectors and the fornicators and all the wicked — if they turn back from their unjust deeds, or from defilement — than that he be of one heart with you, who turn yourselves away from purity and from deeds of truth toward defilement, and toward deeds of lying.

Is it not by far the greater mockery, on account of those who have done, once again, deeds of pestilence before this day? I have spoken this word on a day of tribulation, when we were gathered together — that I should gather the assembly, or that I should lift up the offering, along with unclean men who do deeds of pestilence! Or how heavy is the matter for the one who speaks with me, that he should gather with the tax collectors and the fornicators and all the wicked, or lift up the offering along with them? [...] not because they have turned back from their evil, or because they have not turned back from them — but because no judgment lies upon him if he gathers the assembly or lifts up the offering along with them: for they were not entrusted to him, that he should ask them¹ concerning these things.

But how shall the matter not be grievous for the one to whom men are entrusted, that he should gather with unclean men who do deeds of pestilence in their midst — or that he should lift up offerings alongside them, while their blood and their judgment is upon him? Nay: their judgment and their blood is upon their own heads — since not only is the soul of the one who has charge over them not in accord with those who do that evil among us, but it is laid up for him besides, by the ordinance and the counsel appointed by God, as it has been from the beginning until now: that he shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor gather in with the whole congregation to pray, nor take up the offering, until he has set their judgment upon their head, and their blood upon the crown of their heads.

For again, men dare to do deeds of this kind, of abomination, in the congregations of the Lord — in the midst of the holy brothers and the holy sisters, who guard themselves from every stain and from every deed of guile. Is it not as it has often happened among us: the congregation in disturbances, and with garments turned backward², and with hard deeds? That which is to happen again this time — or in the days to come — will the one who speaks with me do it while he lives? Nay: but those who are manifest to him, that they have done deeds of pestilence among us — he will make them strangers to us, not without disturbance, not without crying out.

And if there are others among us who do deeds of abomination in guile, who are not manifest to us — whether man or woman, whether great or small — they are handed over to the wrath of God, that he may take vengeance on them in his fury. For he is not ignorant of the one who does deeds of pestilence among us. As for the curses which are written in the Scriptures, and the curses that are in the books that are written for us, we know how to perform them, with all their hardship.

Behold the belts and the bandages which this one has hung up, bound fast — because they were of no use to him, or because they became useless, or because there is no use in them — as you will see: a portion of them one way for a time, another portion another way, another portion this way, another portion that other way; so that you may know, brothers, that this one did not bind them in such a multitude of knots, or bandages, for any other reason except the matter that he himself knows — what it is.

If it was the bandages or the belts that were untied, because they were of no use to me — or I bound them because of the sickness that is in my body — the body³ is heavy before him who knows the number of the belts, or again of the bandages, which you shall see hung up and having no use. It is heavy — more than for those that became useless; but they will come to be small⁴ before you, since it is not possible to know by their appearance, which he made a ruin⁵, which one is which — this one and that one — that anyone should count them, or tell their number. And they shall be in the place where... I myself do not know who has hidden them down there beneath the earth, in the place where the abyss — or the abysses — opened within it, full of everything of no use, until the time when you shall see them with your own eyes.

For every deed which this one who speaks with me, the congregation⁶, did before this day, he did them all wishing to lift away the disgrace from those who do these deeds of pestilence among us, turning himself over upon it — for he loves his neighbor as himself. But now, for his part, he is lifting it off from himself, and turning it back upon every single one who does — or who will do — abominations in guile or in hiding, whether man or woman. And their disgrace is upon them: for he is upon them, and he is manifest upon them, and they are manifest, since he is upon them. And honor them⁷ again before this man, who is now grieved in heart, who has given them a single turn⁸ — above all, a blow of a rod in his hand from this day onward: it is a disgrace to him too.

This word is not for the brothers whom I would wish for, or the sons whom I would love, because of their purity and their love toward God — but for those to whom the holy monastery is of no profit, and who have no profit in it: they are destroying their own hope, according to what we said before. Do not these places, or every congregation gathered in them for the name of God, call themselves the holy places? Then how greatly cursed shall they become — those who will defile them with deeds that are a stench⁹, to speak them aloud?

Or is this word not sufficient to make those wretched men poor, when he cuts them off from life at a single stroke: that the son they defiled is not theirs? Or is there yet a greater wrath which God shall bring upon the one who destroys his temple than this — that the one who destroys the temple of God, God shall destroy him?

He who is at ease [...] up to [...] of those who fear God within these congregations — with what shall he honor them, or with what shall he bless them, beyond what the saint said: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways: you shall eat the fruits of your labors? And he who is grieved in heart over those who do deeds of abomination within these congregations at all times — with what shall he humble them, beyond what the saint said in fury: He who does not fear God shall come to be in the places of eternity¹⁰, and his seeking shall not be found?

A man who is heard many times by those who dwell among us in the congregation, will he swear: I wish to die, or that God should seek me out — rather than that I should hear that someone has done deeds of pestilence among us? — he is not manifestly clean from that judgment and from the blood of those who afflict him, because they were not ashamed to do those impious deeds of abomination among us. Oh, what shall become of this place? Where shall this place go?

Before this day, he who knows — or those who know — the measure, or those who were measured for the evil they did among us [...] shall say [...]. They have already finished, saying that they have reached the portions of what they did — or they have even passed beyond them, up like a mortar that is heavy; and they were shut up in it like cattle, God having found us in it in his mercy. But now, at this present time, those who measure him, or those who take his measure, shall say — or they say — that he reaches to the wheel-hubs¹¹ [...] and he does not even reach to [...]; and those who fell into it, or upon it, were shut up as far as their thighs. Nor does it even exist in such a way among us now. It shall not be. Nor was it heavy — but those who fell into it wallowed in it like swine, until it did not reach to their thighs, or until they were not shut up as far as their thighs, but until they appeared smeared and befouled¹² in it, from the very nails of their feet to the hair of their head.

If only that mortar were greater at this present season, or if only it reached to the thighs according to its first measure — those who see those who are within it would have said: Surely they were not able to rise, or to come out of it, because it is heavy. And whoever says he was not made small, exceedingly, exceedingly — he is like one who pours out blood: for he has despised the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he wrought with us.

But in the last season they shall not say that that mortar reaches to the wheel-hubs, or to the knees¹³, or to the thighs — but to the crown of the heads of those who will do deeds of pestilence among us, whether man or woman.

And this other word — measure, or to take measure — is written not only at the beginning of the first scroll, laid down from the start (that they measure, or take the measure of, what exists, or of what has come to pass among us, or of the congregation), but it is there also: that they took the count of him whom they did not know, what he was; and that they took the count of the one whom those who came sent to us, to know or to see the things that have happened among us in the places that are close-pressed and hidden, that are full of darkness, or that are in darkness among us.

And if anyone should ask, What are these measurings, or takings of measure? Or who are those who were measured — or who measured them? — let him inform us, or let him say to me: Receive it by what? — a measuring of the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem, with a reed. And who is he that measured it? And why did they measure it, or set an ordinance upon it? Was it in grief of heart, or not? Why then are we of one heart, the more? And again, by whom? Zechariah the prophet said: I will take for myself two rods: the one I call Beauty, and the second I call Cord¹⁴ — and was it in mercy and in compassion, or not? Rather in fury, and in wrath. For he said after it: I will take my beautiful rod and cast it away, to scatter abroad the covenant which I made with all the peoples; and it shall be scattered in those days; and the Canaanites shall bring the sheep that are entrusted to me — because it is a word of the Lord. And then again: I cast away the second rod, the Cord¹⁵, to scatter abroad the covenant that is in the midst of Judah and in the midst of Jerusalem. And again: was it in consolation upon us, or not? Rather in rebuke.

Micah the prophet also said: The portion of my people — they measured it out with a cord of measuring¹⁶. And: were they from God, those who measured that portion — as he who measured the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and as the ordinance of the two rods, Beauty and Cord, which we spoke of before? Or are they not from him?