Touching the unclean: sharing in another’s sin
Cyril: …necessary for salvation. Such were Hymenaeus and Alexander (1 Timothy 1:20), who both thought and said that the resurrection had already taken place (2 Timothy 2:17–18). To these may be added those who turn without restraint toward every kind of outrage, and simply throw away the fruit of their own minds on stale and wanton pleasures. So the leper and the man with a discharge, that is, the one held fast by the works of deadness (and the works of deadness would be the passions of the flesh), and the one who does not keep his inner fruitfulness uncorrupted, the hidden fruitfulness of the mind, must withdraw, he says, from the holy things until he is cleansed (Leviticus 22:4). For as the inspired Paul said, ‘Whoever eats the body of the Lord and drinks his cup unworthily eats and drinks judgment on himself, not discerning his body’ (1 Corinthians 11:27, 29). ‘But let a man,’ he says, ‘examine himself, and then let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup’ (1 Corinthians 11:28).
Palladius: Excellently said.
Cyril: Notice, then, Palladius, how precise the law is. It does not stop at the leper and the man with a discharge alone, but condemns along with them, as it were, anyone who happens to touch those who are sick, I mean the leper and the man with a discharge. ‘And whoever touches,’ he says, ‘anything unclean from a person, or one from whom an emission of semen goes out, shall be unclean’ (Leviticus 22:4).
Palladius: And what harm could come from this to those who touch them?
Cyril: None at all, if we take the words at face value, for a touch of the body will not defile a person’s soul. But the law is spiritual (Romans 7:14), and once again it teaches us in figures that those who are guilty of the passions of the soul are unclean, charged with defilement; and those who touch them, or cling to them, are defiled together with them, clearly by the bond of a shared will or shared deeds. For ‘bad company ruins good character’ (1 Corinthians 15:33), and ‘a believer has no share with an unbeliever’ (2 Corinthians 6:15), and light is hostile to darkness and can make no terms with it (2 Corinthians 6:14). It is true, too, that ‘with the holy you will be made holy, and with the innocent man you will be innocent, and with the chosen you will be chosen, and with the crooked you will turn crooked’ (Psalm 18:25–26). He showed at once that to be sick with the most outrageous of the passions will be grievous not for the sick alone, but that those who come to share their mind and judgment will be defiled with stains no less than theirs, for he added: ‘Whoever touches any unclean creeping thing, it will defile him, or a man through whom he will be defiled by any of his uncleanness; the soul that touches them shall be unclean until evening’ (Leviticus 22:5–6). We say that the bitter and venomous creeping things, in name and in fact, are those whom this saying would fit: ‘The poison of asps is under their lips; their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness’ (Romans 3:13–14). And these would be, before all others, those who twist what is right and drum into simpler people a teaching that leads to ruin, carrying them off to thoughts that are not good and to a twisted opinion about God…
Greek
καίων εἰς σωτηρίαν· ὁποῖοί τινες γεγόνασιν Ὑμέναιός τε καὶ Ἀλέξανδρος, οἰόμενοί τε καὶ λέγοντες ἀνάστασιν ἤδη γεγονέναι. Καὶ προστεθεῖεν ἂν τούτοις, οἱ ἀπονεύοντες ἀχαλίνως πρὸς πᾶν ὁτιοῦν τῶν ἐκτόπων, καὶ τῆς ἑαυτῶν διανοίας τὸν καρπὸν παραῤῥιπτοῦντες ἁπλῶς εἰς ἑώλους καὶ ἀσελγεῖς ἡδονάς. Οὐκοῦν ὁ λεπρὸς μὲν καὶ γονοῤῥυὴς, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ὁ τοῖς νεκρότητος ἔργοις ἐνισχημένος (εἶεν δ' ἂν ἔργα νεκρότητος, τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς πάθη), καὶ ὁ τὴν ἔσω καρποφορίαν, τὴν εἰς νοῦν δηλονότι καὶ κεκρυμμένην, οὐκ ἀπαράφθορον ἔχων, ἀποχωρείτω, φησὶ, τῶν ἁγίων, ἕως ἂν καθαρισθῇ. Ὡς γὰρ ὁ θεσπέσιος ἔφη Παῦλος, «Ὃς ἂν ἐσθίῃ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ πίνῃ τὸ ποτήριον αὐτοῦ ἀναξίως, κρῖμα ἑαυτῷ ἐσθίει καὶ πίνει, μὴ διακρίνων τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ. Δοκιμαζέτω δὲ,» φησὶν, «ἄνθρωπος ἑαυτὸν, καὶ τότε ἐκ τοῦ ἄρτου ἐσθιέτω, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ποτηρίου πινέτω.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἄριστα ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄθρει δὴ οὖν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τὸ ἀκριβὲς τοῦ νόμου· κεχώρηκε γὰρ ἥκιστά γε κατὰ μόνων τοῦ λεπροῦ καὶ γονοῤῥυοῦς, συγκαταδικάζει δὲ ὥσπερ αὐτοῖς, καὶ εἴ τις ἅψαιτο τυχὸν τῶν ἠῤῥωστηκότων, λεπροῦ δὴ λέγω καὶ γονοῤῥυοῦς. «Καὶ ὁ ἁπτόμενος,» φησὶ, «πάσης ἀκαθαρσίας ψυχῆς, ἢ ᾧ ἂν ἐξέλθῃ κοίτη σπέρματος αὐτοῦ, ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ τίς ἂν γένοιτο τοῖς ἐπαφωμένοις ἡ ἀπό γε τούτου ζημία;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐδεμία μὲν, κατά γε τὸν ἐν προχείρῳ λόγον. Καταμιανεῖ γὰρ οὐχὶ τὴν ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴν, σώματος ἐπαφή. Πνευματικὸς δὲ ὁ νόμος, καὶ διδάσκει πάλιν ἡμᾶς αἰνιγματωδῶς, ὡς ἀκάθαρτοι μὲν ἐν ἐγκλήμασι μολυσμῶν, οἱ ψυχικοῖς ἔνοχοι πάθεσιν. Συγκαταμιαίνονται δὲ αὐτοῖς καὶ οἱ θιγγάνοντες, ἤτοι κολλώμενοι, κατὰ σχέσιν δὲ δηλονότι τῆς ταυτοβουλίας, ἤγουν ταυτοεργίας· «Φθείρουσι γὰρ ἤθη χρηστὰ ὁμιλίαι κακαί·» καὶ, «Μερὶς μὲν οὐδεμία πιστῷ μετὰ ἀπίστου·» πολέμιον δὲ καὶ ἀσύμβατον τῷ σκότῳ τὸ φῶς. Καὶ ἀληθὲς, ὅτι «Μετὰ ὁσίου ὁσιωθήσῃ, καὶ μετὰ ἀνδρὸς ἀθώου ἀθῶος ἔσῃ, καὶ μετὰ ἐκλεκτοῦ ἐκλεκτὸς ἔσῃ, καὶ μετὰ στρεβλοῦ διαστρέψεις.» Ὅτι δὲ οὐχὶ τὸ ἀῤῥωστῆσαι μόνον τὰ ἐκτοπώτατα τῶν παθῶν, μόνοις ἔσται τοῖς ἠῤῥωστηκόσι παγχάλεπον, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἵπερ ἂν γένοιντο σύμφρονές τε καὶ ὁμογνώμονες, οὐ μείοσιν ἢ ἐκεῖνοι καταμιανθήσονται μολυσμοῖς, παρέδειξεν εὐθὺς ἐπειπὼν, ὅτι «Ὅστις ἐὰν ἅψηται παντὸς ἑρπετοῦ ἀκαθάρτου, μιανεῖ αὐτὸν, ἢ ἐπ' ἀνθρώπῳ ἐν ᾧ μιανεῖ κατὰ πᾶσαν ἀκαθαρσίαν αὐτοῦ, ψυχὴ ἥτις ἂν ἅψηται αὐτῶν, ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται ἕως ἑσπέρας.» Ἑρπετὰ δὲ πικρὰ καὶ ἰοβόλα λέγεσθαί τε καὶ εἶναί φαμεν, τοὺς οἷσπερ ἂν εἴη πρέπων ὁ λόγος, «Ἰὸς ἀσπίδων ὑπὸ τὰ χείλη αὐτῶν· ὧν τὸ στόμα ἀρᾶς καὶ πικρίας γέμει.» Εἶεν δ' ἂν οὗτοι καὶ πρό γε τῶν ἄλλων οἱ τὰ ὀρθὰ διαστρέφοντες, καὶ τοῖς ἁπλουστέροις τὸν ὀλέθρου πρόξενον ἐνηχοῦντες λόγον, ἀποφέροντές γε πρὸς ἐννοίας οὐκ ἀγαθὰς, καὶ εἰς δόξαν ἐπὶ Θεῷ τὴν δι