This evening I wondered whether the letters of Isidore of Pelusium were in the TLG database. It seems that they are!
Inevitably I pulled up the text, and then stuffed it into ChatGPT.
ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ
ΙΣΙΔΩΡΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΠΗΛΟΥΣΙΩΤΟΥ
ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΩΝ ΒΙΒΛΙΑ ΠΕΝΤΕ
ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΕΡΜΗΝΕΙΑΝ ΤΗΣ ΘΕΙΑΣ ΓΡΑΦΗΣ
1.ΒΙΒΛΙΟΝ ΠΡΩΤΟΝ.
(1) Αʹ. ΝΕΙΛῼ ΜΟΝΑΧῼ.
Οἱ μὲν ἅγιοι τῆς μοναχικῆς φιλοσοφίας κορυφαῖοι (2)
καὶ ἡγεμόνες, ἐκ τῶν ἄθλων καὶ ἀγώνων ὧν ἐτέλε-
σαν, καὶ τὰς προσηγορίας ἁρμοδίας τοῖς πράγμασι @1
πρὸς νουθεσίαν ἡμῶν καὶ μάθησιν ἔθεντο, ἀποταγὴν (5)
τὴν τῆς ὕλης ἀναχώρησιν, καὶ ὑποταγὴν τὴν εὐ-
πείθειαν καλέσαντες. Καὶ οἱ μὲν φύσιν μόνην ἔσχον
διδάσκαλον· ἡμεῖς δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐκείνων πρᾶξιν ἀνά-
γραπτον ἔχοντες, μικρὰ τῆς ἐργασίας φροντίζομεν.
Χρὴ τοίνυν τὴν μὲν ἀποταγὴν λήθην εἶναι προκα- (10)
τασχούσης γνώμης, καὶ ἄρνησιν συνηθείας· τὴν δὲ
ὑπακοήν, νέκρωσιν καὶ φθορὰν τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς
μελῶν, καθὼς γέγραπται. @1
Which gave:
Of Our Holy Father Isidore of Pelusium
Five Books of Letters on the Interpretation of Divine ScriptureBook One
1. To Neilos the Monk
The holy leaders and chiefs of monastic philosophy, from the struggles and contests they have completed, have also assigned fitting titles to their deeds for our admonition and instruction—calling renunciation the withdrawal from material things and submission the willingness to obey.
Some had only nature as their teacher, whereas we, having both their unwritten example and their deeds recorded, take little care for the labor.
Thus, renunciation must be considered as the forgetting of a previously held judgment and the rejection of habit, while obedience is the mortification and destruction of earthly members, as it is written.
That needs a bit of reworking to make sense in English, I see. But really it’s very good, isn’t it? Without investigating the text at all, I should add!
I’ve always had a soft spot for Isidore’s letters. I suspect that, if they were translated well, we might find that we have a spiritual classic.
Of course the down side is the sheer volume of the material!