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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 178: What Does, Bear Ye One Another’s Burdens, Mean? And What Law Shall We Fulfil by…
The answer is the same as to the previous question. For sin is a grievous matter, dragging the soul into the depth of hell. We take away and remove one another’s sins when we lead sinners to conversion. But the word bear in the sense take away is customary in these parts2—I myself have often heard it from the lips of many. And in so doing we shall fulfil the law of Christ, Who said: “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance3; and gave us a law: ‘If thy brother sin, go show him his fault; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.”4
Notes
- Gal. vi. 2 †.
- σύνηθες καὶ τοῖς ἐπιχωρίοις κεχρῆσθαι. R. “portare autem pro auferre et exportare consuetudo est etiam ritu provincialium dici.” Milligan-Moulton s.v. βαστάζω quote papyri instances showing that the meaning “carry” developed into “carry off” “take away.” B. says the sense was well established in Cappadocia. Did Paul in Gal. vi. 2 use a well-known local phrase in the sense “take away”?
- Mk. ii. 17 add εἰς μετάνοιαν K.
- Mt. xviii. 15 (shortened) ἁμαρτῇ for ἁμαρτήσῃ*, omit εἰς σέ.