{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4119","native_reference":{"book_number":250,"chapter_from":3,"chapter_to":3,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":7,"verse_to":7},"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>Ambrose of Milan</b>: Ought we to be dumb? Certainly not. For \"there is a time to keep silence and a time to speak.\" If, then, we are to give account for an idle word, let us take care that we do not have to give it also for an idle silence. For there is also an active silence, such as Susanna's was, who did more by keeping silence than if she had spoken. For in keeping silence before others she spoke to God and found no greater proof of her chastity than silence. Her conscience spoke where no word was heard, and she sought no judgment for herself at the hands of men, for she had the witness of the Lord. She therefore desired to be acquitted by the One who she knew could not be deceived in any way. The Lord himself in the gospel worked out in silence the salvation of humankind. David rightly therefore enjoined on himself not constant silence but watchfulness.<br/><i>— On the Duties of the Clergy 1.3.9</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: Let anyone who loves wisdom, therefore, first beg this from God, then let the humble hearer seek out a teacher of truth, and all the while let him not only most carefully restrain his tongue from idle conversations but also hold back from preaching the very truth which he has recently learned. Hence Solomon, writing about differences of times, says, \"There is a time for keeping silence and a time for speaking.\" Hence the Pythagoreans, who were endowed with the capacity to teach natural knowledge, order their listeners to keep silence for five years and thus at last they allow them to preach. The truth is more safely heard than preached, for when it is heard humility is safeguarded, but when it is preached it is difficult for the preacher to escape some minimal boasting.<br/><i>— Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, James 1:19</i></p><p><b>Desert Fathers</b>: A brother asked a hermit, 'If I live with other monks, and see something wrong, do you want me to say something about it?' The hermit replied, 'If some are older than you, or your contemporaries, you will have more peace of mind in keeping silent for you will find peace in putting yourself below the others.' The brother said to him, 'How can I do that, abba? For my thoughts would trouble me.' The hermit said to him, 'If you are worrying about the matter, offer a piece of advice, once, with humility. If they do not listen to you, leave what you have done in God's sight, and He will help you. In this way the worshipper of God lays himself before God, and does not follow his self-will. But take care that your anxiety be of God. In any case, as far as I can see, it is good to be silent, for silence is humility.'<br/><i>— The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks</i></p><p><b>Dionysius of Alexandria</b>: \"A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.\"</p><p>A time to speak, when there are hearers who receive the word; but a time to keep silence, when the hearers pervert the word; as Paul says: \"A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject.\"<br/><i>— A Commentary on the Beginning of Ecclesiastes - Chapter III</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Nyssa</b>: In words about things concerning God, when the discussion is about his being, that is the \"moment for keeping silent.\" But when it is about some good activity [of God], of which the knowledge reaches down even to us, then is the moment for speaking of the powers, to proclaim the wonders, to recount the works, to use language thus far. In matters that lie beyond, it is the moment not to allow the creation to overstep its boundaries but to be content to know itself.</p><p><b>Gregory of Nyssa</b>: When it to comes to words about God and searching his essence there is a time for silence, but when it concerns some good operation of which we have knowledge, it is time to speak of God's power, miracles and works which necessitate words. A creature should not overstep its bounds with regard to transcendent matters but remain content with knowledge of himself.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Ecclesiastes 7</i></p><p><b>Gregory the Dialogist</b>: The tongue, therefore, should be discreetly curbed, not tied up fast. For it is written, \"A wise man will hold his tongue until the time,\" in order, assuredly, that when he considers it opportune, he may relinquish the censorship of silence and apply himself to the service of utility by speaking such things as are fit. And again it is written, \"A time to keep silence and a time to speak.\" For, indeed, the times for changes should be discreetly weighed, lest either, when the tongue ought to be restrained, it run loose to no profit in words, or, when it might speak with profit, it slothfully restrain itself. Considering which thing well, the psalmist says, \"Set a watch, O Lord, on my mouth, and a door round about my lips.\"<br/><i>— The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 14</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: \"A time for silence and a time for speaking.\" I think that the Pythagoreans, whose discipline is to remain silent for five years and afterwards to speak to learned men, took the origin of their decree from this. Let us learn therefore and so remain silent first, so that afterwards we open our mouths only to speak. Let us be silent for a set period and depend on the utterances of our teacher. Nothing seems right to us unless we learn that after much silence we are made into teachers by our pupils. Now though instead of the world slipping day by day into a far worse situation, we teach in churches what we do not know. And if by composing words or at the bidding of the devil, who is the patron of madness, we have aroused the applause of the common people, then we think we understand, (contrary to our conscience), what it is we were able to dissuade others from. We do not learn all the arts without a teacher, only those which are so common and easy that they don't require a tutor.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ecclesiastes</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"eb386d16a45b309a8ac2eb0d2dda88dc78bb94fd1f864a4755419980f98a9c9a","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4119,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"0a44a3c84b984d4c9a19e3f4ffbe12be6f2741869bbabbab88df0f9ff9433168","translator":null,"work":null}