{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4136","native_reference":{"book_number":250,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":4,"verse_to":4},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Basil of Caesarea</b>: Wise, therefore, was he who forbids us even to dine in company with an envious person, and in mentioning this companionship at table, he implies a reference to all other social contacts as well. Just as we are careful to keep material which is easily inflammable as far away as possible from fire, so we must refrain insofar as we can from contracting friendships in circles of which envious persons are members. By so doing, we place ourselves beyond the range of their shafts. We can be caught in the toils of envy only by establishing intimacy with it. In the words of Solomon, \"A man is exposed to envy from his neighbor.\" And so it is. The Scythian is not envious of the Egyptian, but each of them envies a fellow countryman. Among members of the same nation, the closest acquaintances and not strangers are objects of envy. Among acquaintances, neighbors and fellow workmen, or those who are otherwise brought into close contact, are envied, and among these again, those of the same age and kinsmen and brothers. In short, as the red blight is a common pest to corn, so envy is the plague of friendship.<br/><i>— HOMILY CONCERNING ENVY</i></p><p><b>Evagrius Ponticus</b>: I have seen, he says, every sort of wickedness and boldness in the one who is evil. For, such a one [as Satan] thinks he is brave even when in [his] ungodliness he oppresses the poor or again, sees himself as a \"creature\" who was \"made to be mocked by the angels\" of God. Also I have seen all the jealousy that he has acquired towards human beings, which is vain and governs his heart, since God certainly \"will become all in all.\" And when God does so, this will fulfill the prayer of Christ, which said, \"Grant that they also may be one in us, as you and I are one, Father.\"<br/><i>— SCHOLIA ON Ecclesiastes 25:4.4</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: \"And I<br/>saw that all labour and skilful enterprise spring from man's rivalry with his<br/>neighbour. This, too, is futility and a<br/>vexation of the spirit! \" I turned my attention once again to other<br/>things and I saw the strength and honour of those men who were toiling, and I<br/>discovered the good of one man to be the evil of another, while the envious one<br/>is tortured by another's happiness, and the boastful lies open to<br/>trickery. For what is more vain, what is<br/>for nothing like the spirit in this way, than for man to weep for misfortunes<br/>that are not his own, or to bemoan his own sins, or be envious of better<br/>men.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ecclesiastes</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"e006f56cb72641395a5c1399c3ca5afae5a65f866108f425abd37e45a9e53c32","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4136,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"7f35b899c059fa4ff8f4053d641332de820583f563a59677a3f5693d911dc0a2","translator":null,"work":null}