Primitive Morals

You are holding the most recent and modern English translation of Macarius’s “Fifty Homilies.” This is an extensive effort to retrieve the exactness of his wording while comparing it to the other two English translations. Within these pages are extensive endnotes, totaling 1453 regarding the Scriptures cited, of which some 274 are MSS., and many previous translator’s notations. “Primitive Morals,” a.k.a. “Fifty Spiritual Homilies,” of Pseudo-Macarius (Macarius the Syrian), is an authoritative patristic source. The Homilies are well described as “spiritual” families. This is their purpose and their character. These are not dogmatic; they are not necessarily controversial, although certain portions are clearly so; nor are they expository; neither are they concerned with the politics or the expansion of the church; they have little to say about the Christian’s duty to his fellow men. They have but one object: to help bring individual souls to God in perfect self-subdivision and absolute devotion.