Son frees; ask spiritual goods; prepared lot; one Jerusalem begins
Cyril: ‘Amen, amen I say to you that everyone doing sin is a slave of the sin, and the slave does not remain in the house unto the age. The son remains unto the age. If then the Son should free you, you will be free truly.’ (John 8:34–36) So then observe that the needing to inherit would be fitting for free ones, and not rather for those under yokes of slavery; for sons those remaining in the house, and not slaves, he says.
Palladius: It has itself most elegantly.
Cyril: And the law adding the, ‘The leader will not take from the inheritance of his people, to inherit for his sons,’ (Matthew 6:9–13) under-shows some such thing, that Christ would never, for he himself our leader, distribute to some of the sanctified the lot not fitting them. Or is not as it were some other share, and another lot, for those not having altogether dedicated their own life to God; and another and exceptional for those chosen-out and having driven through unto a finishing of the brightness in Christ?
Palladius: For how not?
Cyril: So then unbeautiful for saints, the seeking to receive from Christ what is fitting for those in world, and practicing a citizenship the not altogether sanctified. And rather must be sought, nothing fleshly, but all divine and spiritual; thus also the Savior himself was ordering the holy apostles to make the words of the entreaty, shaping the request very well toward the sacred-fitting. ‘For thus,’ he says, ‘you pray: Our Father the in the heavens, let your name be sanctified; let your kingdom come; let your will become, as in heaven also upon the earth. Our bread the for-the-coming give us today, and forgive us our debts, as also we forgive our debtors, and do not bring us into a test, but rescue us from the evil one.’ (James 4:3) So then for those asking not fittingly, what the leader does not give, will be said by us: ‘You ask and do not receive, because you ask badly.’ (Psalm 62:12) And that true is the one saying toward God, that ‘You will give back to each according to his works,’ again the law under-hints for us saying, that ‘For the sake of this cause, the leader will not take, from the inheritance of his people, to inherit his sons, in order that,’ he says, ‘my people may not be scattered each from his inheritance.’ For as it were an own lot has been prepared for each, and analogously to the things set upright the share from God. Or somehow also, he says, it is of the very outlandish for the sanctified to be moved and to desire what those thinking the in world would have, and these temporary and fleshly, and driving past in equal to shadows.
Palladius: Thus it holds.
Cyril: So then special lots, and indeed also cities set apart from the others for the holy sacred-workers, from God the prizes, and as it were common of all he defines the one and well-famed Jerusalem; for he said thus
Greek
«Ἀμὴν, ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν ἁμαρτίαν, δοῦλός ἐστι τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ὁ δὲ δοῦλος οὐ μένει ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. Ὁ υἱὸς μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. Ἐὰν οὖν ὁ Υἱὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλευθερώσῃ, ἐλεύθεροι ὄντως ἔσεσθε.» Ἄθρει δὴ οὖν ὅτι τὸ χρῆναι κληρονομεῖν. ἐλευθέροις ἂν πρέποι, καὶ οὐχὶ δὴ μᾶλλον τοῖς ὑπὸ ζυγὰ δουλείας· υἱοὶ γὰρ οἱ μένοντες ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ, καὶ οὐχὶ δοῦλοι, φησίν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀστειότατα ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Προσεπάγων δὲ ὁ νόμος τὸ, «Οὐ μὴ λάβῃ ὁ ἀφηγούμενος ἐκ τῆς κληρονομίας τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ, τοῦ κατακληρονομῆσαι τοῖς υἱοῖς αὐτοῦ,» παραδηλοῖ τι τοιοῦτον, ὡς οὐκ ἄν ποτε Χριστὸς, αὐτὸς γὰρ ἡμῶν ἡγούμενος, διανείμαι τισὶ τῶν ἡγιασμένων, τὸν οὐκ αὐτοῖς πρέποντα κλῆρον. Ἢ γὰρ, οὐχὶ μερὶς ὥσπερ τις ἑτέρα, καὶ κλῆρος ἕτερος, τοῖς οὐχ ὁλοκλήρως ἁνατεθεικόσι Θεῷ τὴν ἑαυτῶν ζωήν· ἕτερος δὲ καὶ ἐξαίρετος τοῖς ἐξειλεγμένοις καὶ εἰς λῆξιν διεληλακόσι τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ λαμπρότητος;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς γὰρ οὔ;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ἀκαλλὲς ἁγίοις, τὸ παρὰ Χριστοῦ δέχεσθαι ζητεῖν ἃ τοῖς ἐν κόσμῳ πρέπει, καὶ πολιτείαν ἐπιτηδεύουσι τὴν οὐκ εἰσάπαν ἡγιασμένην. Ζητητέον δὲ μᾶλλον, σαρκικὸν μὲν οὐδὲν, θεῖα δὲ πάντα καὶ πνευματικά· οὕτω καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Σωτὴρ τοὺς ἁγίους ἀποστόλους ποιεῖσθαι προσέταττε τῆς ἱκετείας τοὺς λόγους, διαπλάττων εὖ μάλα πρὸς τὸ ἁγιοπρεπὲς τὴν αἴτησιν. «Οὕτως» γὰρ, φησὶν, «ὑμεῖς προσεύχεσθε· Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου· ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου· γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον, καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφίεμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν, καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμὸν, ἀλλὰ ῥύσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.» Τοῖς οὖν αἰτοῦσιν οὐ καθηκόντως, ἃ μὴ δίδωσιν ὁ ἡγούμενος, λελέξεται πρὸς ἡμῶν· «Αἰτεῖτε καὶ οὐ λαμβάνετε, διότι κακῶς αἰτεῖτε.» Ὅτι δέ ἐστιν ἀληθὴς ὁ λέγων πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, ὅτι «Σὺ ἀποδώσεις ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ,» πάλιν ἡμῖν ὑπαινίττεται λέγων ὁ νόμος, ὅτι «Ταύτης ἕνεκα τῆς αἰτίας, οὐ μὴ λάβῃ ὁ ἀφηγούμενος, ἐκ τῆς κληρονομίας τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ, τοῦ κατακληρονομῆσαι τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτοῦ, ὅπως, φησὶ, μὴ διασκορπίζηται ὁ λαός μου ἕκαστος ἀπὸ τῆς κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ.» Ἡτοίμασται γὰρ ὥσπερ ἑκάστῳ κλῆρος ἴδιος, καὶ ἀναλόγως τοῖς κατωρθωμένοις ἡ μερὶς παρὰ Θεοῦ. Ἢ καὶ τάχα που, φησὶν, ὡς ἔστι τῶν ἄγαν ἐκτόπων μεθίστασθαι καὶ ἐπιθυμεῖν τοὺς ἡγιασμένους, ὧν ἂν ἔχοιεν οἱ φρονοῦντες τὰ ἐν κόσμῳ, πρόσκαιρα δὲ ταῦτα καὶ σαρκικὰ, καὶ ἐν ἴσῳ σκιαῖς παρελαύνοντα.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Κλῆροι μὲν οὖν ἰδικοὶ, καὶ μέντοι καὶ πόλεις τῶν ἄλλων ἐξῃρημέναι τοῖς ἁγίοις ἱερουργοῖς, παρὰ Θεοῦ τὰ γέρα, κοινὴν δὲ ὥσπερ ἁπάντων ὁρίζει τὴν μίαν καὶ διαβόητον Ἱερουσαλήμ· ἔφη γὰρ οὕ
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 13 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 13 of seventeen. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 68 De adoratione Book 13 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 13)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 13)
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.