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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 66: What is the Difference Between Strife and Factiousness?
Strife is when a man is anxious to do something lest he should appear inferior to another: factiousness when by what he does in an ostentatious and vainglorious manner he provokes and stirs up others to do the same. For the apostle in one place mentions factiousness and at once adds vainglory, saying: “Doing nothing through factiousness or vainglory,”2 and in another place he puts vainglory first and with it forbids factiousness also under another name, saying: ‘Let us not be vainglorious, provoking one another.”2
Notes
- ἔρις . . . ἐρίθεια. The latter word (from ἔριθος “a labourer”) is used in a derived sense of intriguing for public office. According to Milligan-Moulton (Vocabulary of G.N.T. s.v.) selfish rather than factious ambition best suits the N.T. occurrences. B. wrongly connects it with ἐρεθίζειν.
- Phil. ii. 3 ἢ κενοδοξίαν for μηδὲ κατὰ κ. K.