CAPUT LIII. Cum quanta instantia, vel cautela corrigenda sit intentio depravata
Self-Accusation and the Covenant of Circumcision
The brothers' holy anger teaches us to rebuke ourselves for vainglory, leading to the covenant of circumcision that cuts away shameful habits to restore modesty.
But how madly do you think they rage, once they can no longer ignore their sister's corruption, or at least keep pretending not to see it? For what else does Scripture say of them, except that they were very angry—and again, that they were raging over the violation of their sister?✦1 This anger of the brothers—or rather their frenzy—certainly teaches us how fiercely each of us should be angry with himself, how to be indignant, how to accuse himself, and how sharply to rebuke himself, when he realizes he has defiled his conscience with empty boasting. So anyone who wants to heal the swelling of the mind must set his weaknesses before his eyes, recall the faults without which no one gets through this life, and carefully notice how often something shameful appears in his deeds, how unworthy in his speech, how unclean in his thoughts—so that from this he may clearly see how many things in his habits rightly should be cut away, if he truly wants to glory, and not do so shamelessly.2 So when a reconsideration of this kind of condition is turned over in the mind, what else is being made but a covenant of circumcision with Hamor's son?3 For what else does it mean to say, "Cut away the shameful parts of your habits," than to say, "Circumcise the foreskins of your males"? And what does it mean to say, "Otherwise you will not be able to avoid boasting shamelessly," than to say, "Otherwise you will not be able to be joined to Dinah"?4 For if Sichem is boasting, and fitting modesty is Dinah, what else will shameless boasting—boasting without modesty—be than Sichem without Dinah?5
Entrenched Habits and the Deceitful Condition
Long-entrenched habits, symbolized as males, require circumcision; yet even perfect purification leaves us glorying only in the Lord, as the brothers' deceitful condition shows, and shame often accomplishes what devotion to God could not.
And rightly so: long-entrenched habits that are hard to overcome are represented by the male sex. These are the males whom Dinah's brothers wanted circumcised; yet as Scripture testifies, they proposed this condition of circumcision to Shechem in deceit. See—so we can easily notice—they had no intention at all of giving their sister to a husband like that, and even if he could have fulfilled the agreement of the proposed condition, they still judged him in no way worthy of such a marriage. And indeed, even if we could cut every shameful thing clean out of our life and be thoroughly cleansed of them all, we would still have to glory not in our own merits, but only in the Lord. And that, perhaps, is why Dinah's brothers put hard terms to him: so that they might make him completely despair of union with their sister.6 But Shechem is more ready to endure any terms, however harsh, than to bear separation from the Dinah he loves. And it often does happen, as we also said earlier, that what we could not tear from the soul when we meant to do it for God becomes easy for us to carry out when, because of those things, we fear the damage of shame.7
Read the original Latin
Sed quomodo putas insaniunt, cum sororis suae corruptionem jam ignorare, vel saltem dissimulare ulterius non possunt? Quid enim de eis ait Scriptura, nisi quod irati sunt vade; et iterum quod essent soevientes ob stuprum sororis suae? Docet utique nos haec fratrum ira, vel potius insania, quantum sibi debeat quisque irasci, qualiter indignari, quomodo seipsum arguere, quam acriter increpare, cum se agnoscit conscientiam suam inani gloriatione foedasse. Debet ergo, quicunque est, ad sanandum mentis tumorem infirmitates suas ante oculos ponere, et culpas suas, sine quibus nemo hanc vitam transigit, ad memoriam revocare, quam inhonesta saepe in opere, quam indigna in ore, quam immunda versetur in cogitatione diligenter attendere, ut inde manifeste colligat quam multa in suis moribus invenire queat quae jure debeant amputari, si vere vult, et non impudenter gloriari. Cum igitur hujusmodi conditionis retractatio mente revolvitur, quid aliud quam cum filio Emor circumcisionis pactum statuitur. Nam quid est aliud dicere: Morum tuorum pudenda abscinde, quam masculorum tuorum praeputia circumcide? Et quid est dicere: Alioquin non poteris non impudenter gloriari, quam alioquin non poteris Dinae copulari? Si enim Sichem gloriatio, si digna verecundia, quid aliud erit gloriatio impudens, gloriatio sine verecundia, quam Sichem sine Dina?
Recte autem inveteratae consuetudines quae difficile superantur, per masculinum sexum designantur. Isti sunt mares quos fratres Dinae circumcidi voluerunt; teste tamen Scriptura hanc circumcisionis conditionem Sichem in dolo proposuerunt. Ecce, ut facile advertere possimus, nullo modo marito tali sororem suam dare disponebant, et quamvis propositae conditionis conventionem explere potuisset, nullatenus tamen eum tali matrimonio dignum judicabant. Et quidem etiam si possemus omnia inhonesta nostra de nostra penitus vita amputare, et ab omnibus omnino mundari, nihilominus tamen deberemus non de nostris meritis, sed tantum in Domino gloriari. Et idcirco fortassis fratres Dinae dura ei proponebant, ut eum de sororis suae copula omnino desperarent. Sed paratior est Sichem quaelibet, vel quamlibet aspera tolerare quam adamatae Dinae divortia sustinere. Et fit quidem saepe quod et superius praelocuti sumus, ut ea quae ab animo extorquere non potuimus, quando pro Deo illa facere disponebamus, eadem nobis ipsa sit facile perficere, cum pro eis timeamus incurrere detrimenta verecundiae.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.34.7 — And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard of it, and the men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, and such a thing ought not to be done.
Notes
- 1 ↩Normalized reading takes transmitted vade as valde (cf. Gen 34:7 irati sunt valde) and soevientes as saevientes; the English follows that sense.
- 2 ↩si vere vult, et non impudenter gloriari is read as vult governing gloriari: truly wanting to glory, not to do so shamelessly—the contrast developed in the following Sichem/Dinah sentences.
- 3 ↩filio Emor is Hamor's son (Shechem); the 'condition' is the reform-terms just described, allegorically equated with the circumcision pact of Gen 34.
- 4 ↩non poteris non impudenter gloriari is a double negative: you will not be able not to boast shamelessly—i.e., you will be unable to avoid shameless boasting.
- 5 ↩Latin is elliptical: Si enim Sichem gloriatio, si digna verecundia. The parallel and the closing quam Sichem sine Dina require the second term as Dinah = fitting modesty/shame; the English makes that identification explicit.
- 6 ↩ut eum ... desperarent can be read as causing Shechem to despair of the marriage, or as the brothers themselves abandoning hope of the match; the causal-of-person sense fits the narrative better.
- 7 ↩detrimenta verecundiae names the harm shame/disgrace brings: reform motivated by fear of exposure rather than by love of God—the chapter's warning about a depraved intention.
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