Desire conceives sin; Abraham goes down to Egypt
Cyril went on: And the disciple of Christ will confirm it, saying: 'Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is untempted of evils, and he himself tempts no one. But each is tempted, being drawn out and baited by his own desire. Then desire, having conceived, bears sin; and sin, when it is finished, gives birth to death.'
Palladius said: The word is exact.
Cyril: So then, having sold away the grace from God, and already stripped of the goods that were at the beginning, human nature was sent out of the paradise of delight, and was at once remade toward what is not fair, and having fallen inside corruption was thereafter shown to be so.
Palladius: Necessarily. For want of the gifts from God is nothing else, I think, than a falling-away from every good. And man's nature would very easily sicken into a carrying-aside toward anything out of place, if the grace of the one who saves did not hold it up toward virtue, enriching it with the goods from above and from herself.
Cyril: You speak well. For I would agree, and with much reason; for the living bread, that is, the Word of God, feeds toward the spiritual strength. For it is written that 'and bread strengthens a man's heart.' And it sets free from slavery and from passions, and gilds well with the boasts that belong to freedom. But when God has as it were drawn in his hand, and does not distribute to us the supply in these things, there is every necessity that we fall into evils we did not wish, and slip away from all virtue, and come as it were under another's yoke, and come to such evils and greed as to be near at last even to losing the understanding that serves us toward any of the goods and is housed with us, and for the heart of the one who has suffered to be shown wholly empty of the wisdom according to God, as if it had gone whoring to Satan, and had been easily carried down into the insolences and wantonnesses under him.
Palladius: Would you show how, or will you leave me floating on bare reasonings?
Cyril: Not at all. For I would show as well as I can the things that happened to the ancients, shaping them with skill into a type of the things of the mind. For the things in sense and in a telling sight would become for us clear and most evident images of the things in a fine contemplation. It is written, then, about the forefather Abraham: 'And there was a famine on the land, and Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn there, because the famine prevailed on the land.' For leaving the land dear to him and that had borne him, he shifted toward another, which God had shown. For 'Go out,' he says, 'from your land and from your kindred, and come into a land which I will show you.' But when the famine was weighing down, and bringing a loss wholly hard to escape, he was forced, and not willingly, to see Egypt. And he did not settle, but rather sojourned in it.
Palladius: What then is this?
Greek
ὑπὸ τῆς ἰδίας ἐπιθυμίας ἐξελκόμενος καὶ δελεαζόμενος. Εἶτα ἡ ἐπιθυμία συλλαβοῦσα τίκτει ἁμαρτίαν· ἡ δὲ ἁμαρτία ἀποτελεσθεῖσα, ἀποκύει θάνατον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀτρεκὴς ὁ λόγος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀπεμπολήσασα δὴ οὖν τὴν παρὰ Θεοῦ χάριν, καὶ γυμνωθεῖσα ἤδη τῶν ἐν ἀρχαῖς ἀγαθῶν, ἐξεπέμπετο μὲν τοῦ παραδείσου τῆς τρυφῆς, μετεπλάττετο δὲ πρὸς τὸ ἀκαλλὲς εὐθὺς ἡ ἀνθρώπου φύσις, φθορᾶς δὲ εἴσω πεσοῦσα λοιπὸν ἀνεδείκνυτο.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀναγκαίως. Ἔνδεια γὰρ οἶμαι τῶν παρὰ Θεοῦ χαρισμάτων, οὐδὲν ἕτερόν ἐστιν ἢ παντὸς ἀπόπτωσις ἀγαθοῦ. Ἀῤῥωστήσειε δ' ἂν ἡ ἀνθρώπου φύσις καὶ μάλα ῥᾳδίως τὴν εἰς πᾶν ὁτιοῦν τῶν ἐκτόπων παραφορὰν, εἰ μὴ ἀνέχοι πρὸς ἀρετὴν αὐτὴν ἡ τοῦ διασώζοντος χάρις, τοῖς ἄνωθεν καὶ παρ' ἑαυτῆς ἀγαθοῖς πλουτίζουσα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Εὖ λέγεις. Συναινέσαιμι γὰρ ἂν καὶ μάλα εἰκότως· τρέφει μὲν γὰρ εἰς ἀλκὴν τὴν πνευματικὴν ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγος. Γέγραπται γὰρ, ὅτι «Καὶ ἄρτος στηρίζει καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου.» Δουλείας δὲ ἀπαλλάττει καὶ παθῶν, καὶ τοῖς εἰς ἐλευθερίαν αὐχήμασιν εὖ μάλα καταχρυσοῖ. Συνεσταλκότος δὲ ὥσπερ τὴν χεῖρα τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τὴν ἐν τούτοις ἡμῖν χορηγίαν οὐ διανέμοντος· πᾶσα ἀνάγκη πως καὶ ἀνεθελήτοις ἡμᾶς περιπίπτειν κακοῖς, καὶ ἀρετῆς μὲν ἁπάσης ἀπωλισθεῖν, ὑπελθεῖν δὲ ὥσπερ τὸν ἑτέρου ζυγὸν, ἥκειν τε ἐς τοῦτο κακῶν καὶ πλεονεξίας, ὡς ἀγχοῦ γενέσθαι λοιπὸν τοῦ καὶ αὐτὴν ἀπολέσαι τὴν εἰς πᾶν ὁτιοῦν τῶν ἀγαθῶν ὑπηρετοῦσαν ἡμῖν καὶ συνῳκισμένην σύνεσιν, καὶ σοφίας ἐρήμην τῆς κατὰ Θεὸν ἀποφανθῆναί τε παντελῶς τὴν τοῦ παθόντος καρδίαν, ἐκπεπορνευμένην ὥσπερ τῷ Σατανᾷ, καὶ ὑπενεχθεῖσαν εὐκόλως ὕβρεσί τε καὶ ἀσελγείαις ταῖς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἐκδείξειας ἂν ὅπως, ἢ ψιλοῖς ἐάσεις ἐπινήχεσθαι λογισμοῖς;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἥκιστά γε. Παραδείξαιμι γὰρ ἂν ὡς ἔνι καλῶς τὰ τοῖς ἀρχαίοις συμβεβηκότα, διαμορφῶν εὐτέχνως εἰς τύπον τῶν νοητῶν. Εἰκόνες γὰρ ἐναργεῖς καὶ ἀριδηλότατοι γένοιντο ἂν ἡμῖν τῶν ἐν θεωρίᾳ λεπτῇ, τὰ ὡς ἐν αἰσθήσει τε καὶ ὡς ἐν ὄψει σημαντικῇ. Γέγραπται τοίνυν περὶ τοῦ προπάτορος Ἀβραάμ· «Καὶ ἐγένετο λιμὸς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ κατέβη Ἀβραὰμ εἰς Αἴγυπτον παροικίσαι ἐκεῖ, ὅτι ἐνίσχυσεν ὁ λιμὸς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.» Τὴν γάρ τοι φίλην τε αὑτῷ καὶ ἐνεγκοῦσαν ἀφεὶς, μεθωρμίζετο πρὸς ἑτέραν, ἢν ὑπέδειξε Θεός. «Ἔξελθε γὰρ,» φησὶν, «ἐκ τῆς γῆς σου, καὶ ἐκ τῆς συγγενείας σου, καὶ δεῦρο εἰς γῆν, ἣν ἄν σοι δείξω.» Καταβρίθοντος δὲ τοῦ λιμοῦ, καὶ δυσδιάφυκτον κομιδῇ τὴν ζημίαν ἐπάγοντος, τὴν Αἴγυπτον ἰδεῖν, καὶ οὐχ ἑκὼν, ἐβιάζετο. Καὶ κατῴκησε μὲν οὐχὶ, παρῴκησε δὲ μᾶλλον ἐν αὐτῇ.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Τί οὖν τοῦτό γε;