This Great House

Translated from the Sahidic Coptic (White Monastery codices MONB.XG frag. 1 and MONB.XU 418–423, Amélineau, Oeuvres de Schenoudi 1:299–307) by Claude, 2026-07-12. No published English translation known. Two joined fragments: the first a defense of the goodness of creation and of the human being as "the race of God" against the dualists who despise the body; the second a remarkable set-piece on the great monastery-house itself — its armory of siege-gear read allegorically as the weapons of the saints against the cosmic powers, and a stinging complaint about shoddy, careless building. Fragment order follows the Amélineau pagination (XU precedes XG in the discourse; presented here XG then XU as extracted). uncertain renderings are flagged in the numbered footnotes; [...] gaps.

Fragment (MONB.XG)

...there is no turning¹ in it, nor any lie, nor anything of which we say "it does not exist" while it is more than real². For who is he that will be able to lift them up until he speaks them? Or who is he that will endure until he hears them — the more so if they were all made manifest? Either now let the Word cleanse us from our sins, or else let it acquit us of them through parables and riddles and figures. I do not know. For it is he who tends³ those who are to become cattle in their season, whether it be the mother or whether it be the children, as he says in the prophet: What is this bill of divorce of your mother, by which I sent her out? Or to what creditor⁴ did I give you away? Behold, by your sins I gave you away, and by your lawlessnesses I cast out your mother.

Woe to us! — for the heavens of the heavens, and all that is in them, the earth and the depths, and the sea itself, and the whole creation with all that is in them, bless the Lord God and give glory to him; but the man for his part reviles him in his impieties. Do we not hear the day of the making⁵, blessing God — and either it blesses him, or they bless him, exalting him exceedingly forever? But his own voice, that of many among men — the whole world is full of it, blessing him with the tongue and the word only, while we do him injury against nature⁶. Even subjection to the Maker⁷ — that the Lord should say, it is a good thing, as it is written, for God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And what of the contradiction and the disobedience of man, that God should say, it is an evil thing before him? Good is the whole creation according to what he said from the beginning; but the man, on whose account he made the creation to be, is small, out of the many upon whom the will of him who made them rests: how good, and how fitting! — lest they say that the man is evil, for the Craftsman⁸ fashioned him exceedingly good. Will they say — or have they said — that it is the seed of God who is one of the creatures? Or that he is his member⁹? And in what way is the man not chosen far above? He is the seed of God, and the member of Christ, and the dwelling-place of his Spirit. Is a house built for its own sake alone? Or is the lamp kindled for the sake of giving light to itself? What again is the more chosen — the house, or the man for whose sake it was built? The light of the lamp, or the man? And in what way is the man not great — being exceedingly honored, since it is the Lord God who fashioned him, and built the world for his sake, having made light-givers¹⁰ to come to be for his sake?

And the man, the race of God — we use him wickedly, against nature, upon fear¹¹. For it is sin that made the man ignorant that he is from God, and that he is a son of God. They set up the disturbance¹² that is on the outside¹³, that it should not come up over them — for it is a house of clay and brick and stone and the remaining bulk of matter; but the disturbance which is on the inside... [gap] ...them up... the height that is over them. For just as no man will be able to go up over that outer part in straightness, or in boldness, over the disturbance — or perhaps in a breach¹⁴, keeping watch besides that they not fall — such, and even more, is the impossibility that the one being built¹⁵ should be¹⁶ within it, which is the man, seeing the place of repose on the day of necessity, once they have understood what is written for them, or what they cry out [...]. In what way? — for indeed, if they make many turnings until they go up over that outer part... [...] which is set in order¹⁷ within, which is the man, whether male or female, with [no...] labor, nor any other ordinance, nor any other manner of reconciling to God apart from keeping his laws; and without the Scriptures no man will be able to bend his heart upward against nature and make himself heavenly¹⁸ in purity, nor will his heart ever be freed from the things of the earth, to come to be with Christ in heaven. And in what way, if he comes out of the body, shall he go to be beside the Lord, or where shall he be found — if he has not made him¹⁹ a helper upon the earth [...] that he help him in the [...] of the great tribulation? For those whom he saves now, from that which is abominable, they too are the ones whom he will help the more, at the moment when there is no work to do, nor any other thing to say beyond his own solicitude alone. For it is a work, or an ordinance, in which there is no father nor mother, no brother nor sister, no son nor daughter, no companion, no money nor wealth — nor anything at all among all the things we can think of, or the things we cannot think of, that will be able to save him from it; but rather it is necessary that those who are in the inhabited world [...].

Fragment (MONB.XU 418–423)

Behold, it has been opened to us — and so it has been opened; or have they not heard this: I do not know you? Why is it not clear that the hour for going to buy oil is one thing, and the hour of those who have made themselves ready to go in is another? Where, oh where, are those who walk in toward the door, and those who are turned away from the door to go and make themselves ready? These were not called; they went in with joy. Or why should they be called, while the door stands open? These were called, and it was not opened to them, since they were ignorant that it was too late — for there are many words standing²⁰ at the door for the gift²¹ of the Lord of the house from their hand: no more going in with the gift, since the gift went before them. For as for those whom the house that is outside²² lacks — that is to say, they have not been enrolled upon it²³, nor been perfected within it in a single likeness among the ones I have in mind — neither shall they [...] go up over the heart of those who build and those who lay foundation timber²⁴, and those who set in order the chisel-work²⁵ and those who write or those who adorn: I will exalt them the more, above those of the inner part, for they are his²⁶, and they are marked out²⁷ for him, and they exist for his sake in every skill and every boast; in every work he shall give renown among them²⁸ — or they shall give his renown in the whole earth, and speak of it in every place through [...]. Those far off and those near shall hear concerning it, above all those who see it — which are these: bulwarks encircling it; places for shooting arrows; towers, battlements²⁹, swords, arrows, bows, axes, weapons, helmets, girdles, [armor], hammers of iron and bronze, slings, stones, torches, lamps — for it is not the day alone that the enemies of the soldier of Christ make war, but in the night still more: shields³⁰, lances³¹, after the manner of that with which Phinehas quenched the wrath of God; garments of vengeance³², cloaks of retribution — all the vessels of warfare against the principalities and the authorities and the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness — in true measure, after the manner in which our saints stood firm within it. The pattern³³ is: judgments over face-taking³⁴ — the sign of the judgment of God which is to come; the likeness of the south, the watch³⁵, prudence; and above all the witness of those who labor within them: that if they forget their trampling³⁶ and their defilement, of those who build them, it will bring shame upon them, and the disgrace, in the days when he shall visit them.

If it is permitted to set benches³⁷ in the outer part for those who are to sit upon them or cry out over them, it is the more permitted to set thrones in the inner part for the one who is to sit upon them — that he may hear, and may see those things which the servant does and the things he will do; and that he may give judgment for the one who is wronged by violence. They set some men apart because of the ordinances of the outer part, and cast him out because of those who come in to him day by day, and cast him out because of those who dwell within him.

Have they not written the pattern of the likeness of all the vessels they wrought upon, or round about it — while each man puts his hand to his work, his sword upon his neck and in his hands, and upon every vessel they work? Whereas it was not built, nor was any setting-in-order made of it — above all, since a man is to dwell within it, or teach, or give judgment, or do the one good thing. And it is a fear, lest they leave vessels of darkness that do the works of the inner part within them, because they were not all gathered to them; and they come to lack their setting-in-order. And not only are they all not finished, but the one is cracked, another does not turn out well³⁸, another — its walls fell, and they came loose from one another, so that they do not hold together; another fell upon itself; some fell one upon another and became a single smashed lump³⁹; others again, having fallen out of it, fell upon others among those outside it; and the ones built at its edge fell down upon the ones being built within it — and all these became one single ruin, because of negligence. For there must needs be beams of every kind, and iron, that they be firm — just as they themselves are firm within it — against the wind, against the wave, against the storm, against the river, that these not be able to move them. For they are bound on every side, from their corners to their foundations; and their walls encircle them, their mortar⁴⁰ washing them together toward one another, good beams, and stone with the whole of its preparation, and — without denying the truth, or contending against the straight — in very deed...