CHAPTER 5

Verse 3.^[199] “Do not give attention to the worthless woman, for honey drips from the lips of a woman.” Do not give attention to wily teaching, which entices through pleasing words.

Verse 4.^[200] “Yet afterwards you will find (it) bitter as gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.” He calls “sword” punishment in accordance with, “You are those wounded by my sword” ^[201], or judgment, which is as a sharp sword examining the secret things of the heart ^[202].

Verse 6.^[203] “Her paths are perilous, and not easily discerned.” “Her paths are perilous and not easily discerned,” because she revolves from evil to evil from the disposition far from those who love her. She is “perilous,” as she deprives [others] of the kingdom of the heavens, and escorts [them] to Gehenna.

Verse 8.^[204] “Make your way far from her.” He calls “way” the mind that is travelling by virtue; or he also commands to separate virtue from vice.

Verse 11.^[205] “When the flesh of your body is exhausted.” Through “the flesh being exhausted,” he indicates intemperance, which is a kind of corruption. Through the vices, the multitudes exhaust the flesh of Christ, and they consume the blood, as they consider it common.

Verse 14.^[206] “For a little, I came into all evil, in the middle of the church and synagogue” For a little I came. There was a time when there was no vice, and there will be a time when [vice] will not exist. There was no time when virtue did not exist, nor will there ever be a time when [virtue] will not exist. For the seeds of virtue are indestructible. And this [passage] is what persuades me: “For a little,” yet he did not come into all evil. There is also the rich man who was being judged in Hades on account of vice, and had pity for his brothers. To be merciful is the supreme seed of virtue. “Church” here is the gathering of the perfect, but the “synagogue” is [that] of those who are inferior. The person, then, who sinned in Corinth, “in the middle of the church and synagogue,” came “into all evil” but not [only] for a little while.