ACC ~ Mark 13 v18

WHEN SLUGGISH IN RIGHTEOUSNESS

HIPPOLYTUS: When the elect pray that their flight not be on the Sabbath or in the winter, this means that God asks us not to let ourselves be surprised by the things which meet us unexpectedly when we might be sluggish in righteousness (neglecting the Sabbath or caught in worldly preoccupations). AGAINST GAIUS 5. [1]

[1] CSCO 101:17; AEG 5:138*.

KEEP ON PRAYING

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: Winter is without fruit and sabbath without labor. [1] Do not let it be you who might be led away captive under such circumstances—when you have neither fruit nor work. Pray that captivity does not come either of some external necessity, such as the winter, or during a time of inattentiveness such as the sabbath. This means that neither the constraint of others nor the relaxation of your own will should be the occasion to take you away from the work of the Lord your God. … It is true that distress will come and that you will have to flee. But keep on praying lest this calamity come upon you in the winter, or surprise you on the sabbath when you are resting. … Winter is the time of repose from all the work of the summer, just as the sabbath is the time of repose, the seventh day, when work is not done. COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON. [2]

[1] Cf. Mt 24:20, which has “sabbath.”

[2] CSCO 137:261-262; JSSS 2:277-78**.

Mk