Camel, hare, rock badger and pig
Palladius: True.
Cyril: As an example of the animal that does not part the hoof yet brings up the cud, then, the law takes the camel, a strong and very large beast, and the hare and the rock badger, which look smaller, one might say, than all the others (Leviticus 11:4–6). In this way, I think, it took in everything at once by means of the extremes, and left out nothing that lies between them. It is as though one were to say: ‘From the very high and the highest of all, down to the small and the very lowest, everyone who is like this is loathsome and unclean.’ For there is no partiality with God, as it is written (Romans 2:11). If someone is great and proud, raised high by wealth and worldly glory, he will receive a verdict without honor or reward if he is liable to the charges of wickedness. And if someone is small, living with poverty and obscurity, he will be condemned as unclean unless he can boast of a virtuous way of life. Nor could anyone turn his lowliness into a pretext for claiming that the just Judge must have mercy on him, if he lacks what is fitting in deeds, that is, in deeds of godliness and virtue. So the camel, the hare and the rock badger would be a clear type of small and great alike. The law also brings forward the pig as unclean, because it parts the hoof but is not made by nature to chew its food again, that is, to bring up the cud (Leviticus 11:7). In this way it shows that boasting in works is feeble and useless without the word that accords with godliness. For just as faith without works is dead (James 2:26), so the reverse is also true: good order of life and decency in deeds are surely dead when the knowledge of God is absent and the word of godliness has not made its home in our souls. This good order stays low; it is bent toward the earth, and seems somehow afraid to lift its eye upward. We shall find not a few who have suffered something of this kind. At times they lead a dignified and pure life, but because they have not come to know the One who is God by nature and in truth, they fix the eye of their mind, as it were, on earthly things alone. Such a person, too, is unclean; for ‘no one is crowned unless he competes according to the rules,’ as it is written (2 Timothy 2:5).
Palladius: So the law counts us defiled, under the figure of the pig and of the other animals as well, once we have come under its charges.
Cyril: You have put it quite rightly. And the law is not content to set before us images of the unclean through these animals alone. It has chosen rather to benefit us through the whole of creation, as it were, and sets out in rich measure the knowledge of what is useful and fitting. So it goes through the kinds of water creatures too, and the flocks of birds, so that by carefully examining what is natural to each, we may be able to discern what, then, is pleasing to God and what is rejected and hateful to him, and so, by practicing a life fully in keeping with the law, may flee with all our strength from everything that usually defiles. Now the law has spoken…
Greek
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές.
{ΚΥΡ.} Δέχεται τοίνυν εἰς παράδειγμα τοῦ μὴ διχηλοῦντος μὲν τὴν ὁπλὴν, ἀνακομίζοντος δὲ τὸν μηρυκισμὸν, τὴν κάμηλον, ζῶον εὐσθενές τε καὶ ὑπερμέγεθες, δασύποδά τε καὶ χοιρογρύλλιον, τὰ πάντων, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, τῶν ἄλλων μικροφανέστατα, διὰ τῶν ἄκρων, καθάπερ ἐγᾦμαι, συλλήβδην ἅπαντα περιλαβὼν, καὶ οὐδὲν ἔξω τῶν διὰ μέσου μεθείς. Ὅμοιον γὰρ ὡς εἰ καὶ λέγοιτο τυχὸν, Ἀπὸ τοῦ λίαν ὑψηλοῦ τε καὶ ἀνωτάτω καὶ μέχρι μικρῶν, καὶ τῶν ὅτι μάλιστα κατωτάτω, πᾶς ὅς γε τοιοῦτος βδελυρὸς καὶ ἀκάθαρτος. Οὐ γάρ ἐστι προσωποληψία παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον· ἀλλ' εἴτε τις εἴη μέγας καὶ σοβαρὸς, πλούτῳ τε καὶ δόξῃ τῇ κατὰ κόσμον εἰς ὕψος ἠρμένος, τὴν ἀκλεᾶ καὶ ἀγέραστον ἀποίσεται ψῆφον, τοῖς τῆς φαυλότητος αἰτιάμασιν ἐνεχόμενος· εἴτε τις εἴη μικρὸς, πτωχείᾳ τε καὶ ἀδοξίᾳ συζῶν, καταδικασθήσεται πρὸς ἀκαθαρσίαν, εἰ μὴ τοῖς εἰς ἀρετὴν ἐπαυχοίη τρόποις· οὐδ' ἂν εὕρεμά τις ποιήσαιτο τῆς ταπεινότητος, τὸ ἐλεεῖσθαι δεῖν παρὰ τοῦ δικαίου Κριτοῦ, τὸ εὐπρεπὲς ἐν ἔργοις οὐκ ἔχων, τοῖς κατ' εὐσέβειαν δὲ δηλονότι καὶ ἀρετήν. Οὐκοῦν κάμηλος μὲν, λαγώς τε καὶ χοιρογρύλλιος, μικροῦ τε καὶ μεγάλου τύπος ἂν εἶεν οὐκ ἀσυμφανής. Παραφέρει δὲ καὶ τὸν σῦν, ὡς ἀκάθαρτον, διάτοι τὸ διχηλεῖν μὲν ὁπλὴν, οὐ μὴν ἔτι πεφυκότα καὶ ἀναμασᾶσθαι τροφὴν, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἀνάγειν μηρυκισμὸν, ἀδρανές τε καὶ ἄχρηστον τὸ ἐν ἔργοις καύχημα, δίχα τοῦ λόγου τοῦ κατ' εὐσέβειαν ἀποφαίνων. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἡ πίστις χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων νεκρά ἐστιν, οὕτω καὶ τὸ ἔμπαλιν, νεκρά που πάντως ἡ εὐκοσμία, καὶ τὸ ἐν ἔργοις ἐπιεικὲς, ἀπούσης θεογνωσίας, καὶ λόγου τοῦ κατ' εὐσέβειαν ταῖς ἡμετέραις ψυχαῖς οὐκ ἐνῳκηκότος, κάτω δὲ οὖσα, εἰσνένευκεν εἰς γῆν, καὶ δεδιέναι πως δοκεῖ τὸ ἀνίσχειν ἄνω τὸν ὀφθαλμόν. Τοιουτονί τι παθόντας οὐκ ὀλίγους εὑρήσομεν, οἳ σεμνὸν μὲν ἔχουσιν ἔσθ' ὅτε τὸν βίον καὶ καθαρὸν, Θεὸν δὲ τὸν φύσει καὶ ἀληθινὸν οὐκ ἐπεγνωκότες, μόνοις οἱονεί πως τοῖς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς τὸν τῆς διανοίας ὀφθαλμὸν ἐνερείδουσιν. Ἀκάθαρτος δὲ καὶ ὁ τοιόσδε πάλιν· «Στεφανοῦται γὰρ οὐδεὶς, ἐὰν μὴ νομίμως ἀθλήσῃ,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καταμιαίνει τοιγαροῦν ἡμᾶς ὡς ἐν εἴδει συὸς, καὶ μέν τοι καὶ τῶν ἄλλων, ταῖς ἐκ νόμου διαβολαῖς ὑπενηνεγμένους.
{ΚΥΡ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν ἔφης ὀρθῶς. Καὶ οὐκ ἀπόχρη τῷ νόμῳ τὰς τῶν ἀκαθάρτων παρακομίζειν εἰκόνας, διὰ δέ γε δὴ μόνων καὶ τῶν τοιῶνδε τυχὸν, διὰ πάσης δὲ ὥσπερ τῆς κτίσεως ἡμᾶς ὠφελεῖν ᾑρημένος καὶ τὴν τοῦ χρησίμου καὶ πρέποντος εἴδησιν πλουσίως παρατιθεὶς, καὶ τὰ ἐνύδρων δίεισι γένη, καὶ πτηνῶν ἀγέλας, ἵνα τὸ ἑκάστῳ προσπεφυκὸς πολυπραγμονοῦντες εὖ μάλα, τί μὲν ἂν εἴη λοιπὸν τὸ ἁνδάνον Θεῷ, τί δὲ ἀπόβλητον καὶ ἀπηχθημένον αὐτῷ περινοεῖν ἔχοιμεν, ἐννομωτάτην δὲ οὕτως ἐπιτηδεύοντες ζωὴν, παντὸς τοῦ καταμιαίνειν εἰωθότος εὐσθενεστάτην ποιώμεθα τὴν ἀποδρομήν. Ἔφη τοίνυν ὁ νόμος