I suggest this
rendering of προπομπαὶ
τῶν
ἐξοδευόντων
with hesitation, and feel no certainty about the passage except that
the Ben. tr., “deductiones proficiscentium,” and
its defence in the Ben. note, is questionable. The escort of a
bishop on a journey is quite on a different plane from the
ministrations which Basil has in mind. προπομπαὶ
is used by Chrysostom of funerals, and Combefis explains
“excedentium deductæ funebres, deducta
funera;” but the association of ideas seems to
necessitate some reference to the effect of vicious teaching on
the living. There may be an indirect allusion to the effect
on the friends at a funeral, but to take ἐξοδευόντων
to mean “the dying” seems the simplest.
ἐξοδευθείς
is used of Sisera in Judges v. 27, LXX. cf. p.
180 n., where perhaps this rendering might be substituted, and
Canon Bright on Canon xiii. of Nicæa.