On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth, Book 12 · §11

Carcass/beast-taken; alien / sojourner / hireling barred from holy bread

Cyril: …multitude of the sons of Israel toward evening.’ For the tenth hour is said according to which Emmanuel appeared to us, toward the evening itself thereafter, that is the end of the present time. And a carcass and beast-taken inject intelligibly the pollution into those touching no less than leprosy; the carcass signifying the perfectly dead and cooled, as in the works according to the flesh, and the beast-taken openly signifying the soul fallen under the devil. And that it is a saving matter to withdraw from a man who has known to think dead things and cooled in mind, and as it were nourishing Satan upon himself (for he eats down whichever souls he should choose)—how would this not be clear to those truly complete-minded, and who have best-studied to go farthest from everything accustomed to defile?

Palladius: Thus it holds.

Cyril: And since toward this accuracy thereafter the narrations creep out for us, and the aim of the law would least be for the polluted, yet for those having blamelessly the needing to share the holy and life-making foods; at once he distinguishes the races very well, and who would be those worthy of the blessing, and able to leap through toward this, has been defined; and to whom again the being scared-away from the sacred edibles is fitting, he made clear saying: ‘And every alien will not eat holy things; a sojourner of a priest or a hireling will not eat holy things. But if a priest should acquire a soul acquired by silver, this one will eat his bread, and his house-born, and these will eat of his breads.’ (Exodus 12:6) So then he bars as still polluted and unwashed both the alien and out-of-tribe, that is the one not yet having believed and not knowing the true God. For for those in whom there is not the being bound through the in-spirit and intelligible intimacy to Christ the great and truly priest, how would such ones become sharers of his breads? For we will not give the holy things to the dogs, and no one would cast aside the intelligible pearls before the swine, according to the Savior’s own voice. So then wholly without share is the alien. And he joins to this both the sojourner and the hireling; and these again would be, according at least as it seems to me, those living for world, and citizenshipping for it, and as it were having made the earth a fatherland, through at least thinking only the things of flesh, yet sojourning as it were in bare and only faith, the love unto Christ. And as far as it came unto words, good and fair; but unto works and manners of the true reverence, having stood out very much far. And hirelings again, having somehow chosen even the believing alone not by shame toward truth, but hunting as it were some wage of seeming to be Christians, the pleasing some, and flatteringly running under the cares from those able to benefit them, and making piety a livelihood and a cover of love-of-gain, molding around themselves the fair-speaking as a mask. So then as far as it came unto power of law, (Leviticus 22:8) (Leviticus 22:10–11) (Matthew 7:6) (1 Timothy 6:5)

Greek

πλῆθος τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ πρὸς ἑσπέραν.» Ὥρα γὰρ ἡ δεκάτη λέγεται καθ' ἣν ἐπέφανεν ἡμῖν ὁ Ἐμμανουὴλ, πρὸς αὐτῇ λοιπὸν τῇ ἑσπέρᾳ, τοῦτ' ἔστι τῷ τέλει τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος καιροῦ. Θνησιμαῖον δὲ καὶ θηριάλωτον, οὐ μεῖον ἢ λέπρα τοῖς ἐφαπτομένοις τὸν μολυσμὸν ἐνίησι νοητῶς· τοῦ μὲν θνησιμαίου τὸ τελείως νεκρὸν καὶ ἀπεψυγμένον, ὡς ἐν ἔργοις τοῖς κατὰ τὴν σάρκα, τοῦ δὲ θηριαλώτου, τὴν ὑπὸ τῷ διαβόλῳ πεσοῦσαν ψυχὴν ἀναφανδὸν σημαίνοντος. Χρῆμα δὲ ὅτι σωτήριον ἀποφοιτᾷν ἀνδρὸς, νεκρὰ φρονεῖν ἐγνωκότος καὶ ἀπεψυγμένου τὸν νοῦν, καὶ τρέφοντος ὥσπερ ἐφ' ἑαυτῷ τὸν Σατανᾶν (κατεσθίει γὰρ ἃς ἂν ἕλοιτο ψυχὰς), πῶς οὐκ ἂν εἴη σαφὲς τοῖς γε ἀληθῶς ἀρτίφροσι, καὶ ἀπωτάτω χωρεῖν παντὸς τοῦ καταμολύνειν εἰωθότος ἄριστα διεσπουδακόσιν;

{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.

{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐπειδὴ δὲ πρὸς τοῦτο λοιπὸν ἀκριβείας ἡμῖν ἐξέρπει τὰ διηγήματα, καὶ ὁ τοῦ νόμου σκοπὸς ἥκιστα μὲν τοῖς μεμολυσμένοις ἂν εἴη γε μὴν τοῖς ἀμωμήτως ἔχουσι τὸ χρῆναι μεταλαχεῖν τῶν ἁγίων καὶ ζωοποιῶν ἐδεσμάτων· διίστησιν εὐθὺς εὖ μάλα τὰ γένη, καὶ τίνες ἂν εἶεν οἱ τῆς εὐλογίας ἄξιοι, καὶ πρός γε τοῦτο διᾴττειν οἷοί τε, ὥρισται· τίσι δὲ αὖ τὸ ἀποσοβεῖσθαι πρέπει τῶν ἱερῶν ἐδωδίμων, διεσάφει λέγων· «Καὶ πᾶς ἀλλογενὴς οὐ φάγεται ἅγια· πάροικος ἱερέως ἢ μισθωτὸς, οὐ φάγεται ἅγια. Ἐὰν δὲ ἱερεὺς κτήσηται ψυχὴν ἔκκτητον ἀργυρίου, οὗτος φάγεται τὸν ἄρτον αὐτοῦ, καὶ οἱ οἰκογενεῖς αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὗτοι φάγονται τῶν ἄρτων αὐτοῦ.» Ἐξείργει μὲν ὡς μεμολυσμένον καὶ ἀναπόνιπτον ἔτι τὸν ἀλλογενῆ τε καὶ ἔκφυλον, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸν οὔπω πεπιστευκότα καὶ Θεὸν οὐκ εἰδότα τὸν ἀληθινόν. Οἷς γὰρ οὐκ ἔνεστι τὸ διὰ τῆς ἐν πνεύματι καὶ νοητῆς οἰκειότητος συνδεῖσθαι Χριστῷ τῷ μεγάλῳ καὶ ἀληθῶς ἱερεῖ, πῶς ἂν οἱ τοιοίδε γένοιντο μέτοχοι τῶν ἄρτων αὐτοῦ; Δώσομεν γὰρ οὐχὶ τὰ ἅγια τοῖς κυσὶ, παραῤῥίψειε δ' ἂν οὐδεὶς τοὺς νοητοὺς μαργαρίτας ἔμπροσθεν τῶν χοίρων, κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ τοῦ Σωτῆρος φωνήν. Οὐκοῦν ἀμέτοχος μὲν ὁλοτρόπως ὁ ἀλλογενής. Συνάπτει δὲ τούτῳ τὸν πάροικόν τε καὶ μισθωτόν· εἶεν δ' ἂν οὗτοι πάλιν, κατά γε τὸ αὐτῷ μοι δοκοῦν, οἱ κόσμῳ μὲν ζῶντες, καὶ αὐτῷ πολιτευόμενοι, καὶ οἱονεὶ πατρίδα πεποιημένοι τὴν γῆν, διά γε τοῦ μόνα φρονεῖν τὰ σαρκὸς, ἐν ψιλῇ δὲ ὥσπερ καὶ μόνῃ παροικοῦντες τῇ πίστει, τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ἀγάπησιν. Καὶ ὅσον μὲν ἧκεν εἰς λόγους, χρηστοὶ καὶ ἐπιεικεῖς· τὸ δ' οὖν εἰς ἔργα καὶ τρόπους τῆς ἀληθοῦς εὐλαβείας, πολὺ δὴ λίαν ἐξεστηκότες. Μισθωτοὶ δὲ αὖ, καὶ αὐτό που τάχα τὸ πιστεῦσαι μόνον, οὐκ αἰδοῖ τῇ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ᾑρημένοι, μισθὸν δὲ ὥσπερ τινὰ τοῦ δοκεῖν εἶναι Χριστιανοὶ, τὸ ἀρέσκειν τισὶ θηρώμενοι, καὶ τὰς ἐκ τῶν ὠφελεῖν δυναμένων αὐτοὺς φροντίδας θωπευτικῶς ὑποτρέχοντες, καὶ πορισμὸν ποιούμενοι τὴν εὐσέβειαν καὶ φιλοκερδείας προκάλυμμα, τὸ χρηστοεπὲς καθάπερ προσωπεῖον ἑαυτοῖς περιπλάττοντες. Ὅσον μὲν οὖν ἧκεν εἰς νόμου δύναμιν,

About this text

Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 12 of a seventeen-book dialogue — not the whole work.

English follows Migne PG 68 (Aubert reprint). The PDF and a cleaned text of the same print were checked against each other. This page is Book 12 of seventeen. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek.

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  • Copy-text Migne PG 68 De adoratione Book 12 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 12)
  • Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 12)

English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.