Екклезиастик (Книга Премудрости Иисуса, сына Сирахова), Глава 40, стих 28. Толкования стиха

 Размышление о безпокойстве, составляющем удел человека, привело Сираха к признанию веры и милостыни единственно вечными предметами в жизни людей,—и из девяти превосходных состояний самым славным страх Божии (40. 1-28), а самым позорным попрошайство (29—32).

MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL MENDICANCY. ORIGEN: The beggar begs because he lacks what is necessary and because he finds it impossible to procure these things in a dignified way. You might find in such a condition those who, so to speak, beg for saving remedies from the Greeks or from the barbarians who promise truth; they lack a dignified means, suitable for a being endowed with logos, of procuring without danger the abundant contemplation of the truth. But the Logos forbids this manner of seeking, saying somewhere, “Do not lead the life of a beggar. It is better to die than to beg.” The unfaithful administrator in the Gospel was ashamed to beg, and therefore he says to the one who owes a hundred measures of wheat, “Take your note and write fifty,” and to the one who owes a hundred barrels of oil, “Take your note and write eighty,” preferring to decrease what is owed to his master than to shamefully beg, and for this he is praised. Jesus, therefore, not only freed the blind man of the blindness that had afflicted him from birth but also from begging, because together with his sight he also gave him the possibility of finding a way to procure for himself what was necessary for the salvation of his soul. In this case, the reason for begging was blindness, whereas in the Acts it was being lame: one who is freed from these things will no longer beg. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, FRAGMENT 64.