Scales and fins: those who hide their faults and lift their minds; the shameless are unclean
Cyril: …we will live, and we will do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance’ (James 4:15–16). So then, like fish, we swim through this broad and spacious sea, that is, the world (Psalm 104:25); for each person’s life differs in some way. For some have not wholly given themselves over to sin. They know, indeed, that at times they are weak and held by the greedy cravings of the flesh, and they do not claim to be clear of other faults either; for ‘we all stumble in many ways’ (James 3:2), as it is written. All the same, they shake off as something ugly any wish to behave shamefully with nothing to cover them, and no one could persuade them to practice their wrongdoing openly and without concealment. They take great care to escape notice; for ‘the wise will hide their own shame’ (Proverbs 12:16), as it is written. This, I think, is what it means to have scales as a kind of covering. They also very often swim up toward the heights; for they do not always look downward, but also set their minds on the things above (Colossians 3:2), and they easily slip away from those who would wish to net them for destruction. This, one may say, is to use fins, as it were, in a spiritual sense, and to make the movement of the mind very fervent.
Palladius: What you say is reasonable; for the riddle does in some way lead one to think that the meaning runs this way.
Cyril: But some sin with no restraint, practicing their wickedness naked, as it were, and wholly uncovered; and of them it may well be said, ‘Their glory is in their shame’ (Philippians 3:19). For they are always bent toward uncleanness, and as they wallow in the lowest mire they are in truth brute beasts, or something other than that. Such people would be utterly feeble in every way and easily caught, ruled like slaves of a tyrant by pleasures that lead to every kind of outrage. Or is not the life of those given up as lost something like this? Lewd women and harlots, the utterly shameful and most counterfeit tribe of effeminate men, those who make a name for themselves on the stage, those whose love of the flesh cannot be satisfied, and those who love to wander off into profane idolatry: all these live a truly accursed life, a life that sinks into the most shameful defilements. So the law declares clean those who have been weak in human ways but have not yet turned aside altogether; who swim up, as it were, toward the heights, and have not settled on earthly things alone, but have also set their minds on the things above, and are divided, as it were, between God and the world. But it declares unclean those who give themselves over entirely to choosing, without ceasing, both to do and to think the things of the flesh and of the world; who in these matters have stripped off all shame and are used to behaving shamefully, naked and undisguised. And it usefully removes us from fellowship with these, while not dishonoring fellowship with the former. For to walk the same road as the wicked is not safe; but with those…
Greek
ζήσωμεν, ποιήσομεν τοῦτο ἢ ἐκεῖνο, νῦν δὲ καυχᾶσθε ἐν ταῖς ἀλαζονείαις ὑμῶν.» Οὐκοῦν ἰχθύων διανηχόμεθα δίκην τὴν πλατεῖαν ταύτην καὶ εὐρύχωρον θάλασσαν, τοῦτ' ἔστι, τὸν κόσμον· διάφορος γάρ πως ὁ ἑκάστου βίος. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ εἰσάπαν ἀπονενεύκασιν ἐπὶ τὸ χρῆναι πλημμελεῖν, ἀλλ' ἴσασι μὲν, ἀῤῥωστοῦντες ἔσθ' ὅτε, καὶ ταῖς τῆς σαρκὸς ἐνεχόμενοι πλεονεξίαις, καὶ οὐκ ἀφεστάναι τῶν ἄλλων αἰτιαμάτων βούλονται. «Πολλὰ γὰρ πταίομεν ἅπαντες,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. Ἀποσείονται δ' οὖν ὅμως ὡς ἀκαλλὲς τὸ γυμνῶς ἐθέλειν ἀσχημονεῖν. Ἀναπείσειε δ' ἂν οὐδεὶς ἐμφανῆ τε καὶ ἀκατάσκιον ἐπιτηδεύειν τὴν πλημμέλειαν. Ἐπιμελοῦνται δὲ σφόδρα τοῦ χρῆναι λαθεῖν. «Σοφοὶ γὰρ κρύψουσι τὰς ἑαυτῶν αἰσχύνας,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. Τοῦτο, οἶμαι, ἐστὶ τὸ ὡς ἐν τάξει κατακαλύμματος τὰς λεπίδας ἔχειν. Ἀνανήχονται δὲ πλειστάκις καὶ εἰς τὸ ὑψοῦ, βλέπουσι γὰρ, οὐκ εἰς τὸ κάτω διὰ παντὸς, φρονοῦσι δὲ καὶ τὰ ἄνω, καὶ διαδιδράσκουσιν εὐπετῶς τοὺς οἵπερ ἂν ἕλοιντο σαγηνεύειν εἰς ὄλεθρον· τοῦτό τις ἐρεῖ τὸ οἱονεὶ πτερυγίοις κεχρῆσθαι νοητῶς, καὶ θερμὴν ἄγαν τὴν τῆς διανοίας ποιεῖσθαι κίνησιν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εἰκότα ἔφης· ἀποφέρει γάρ πως τὸ αἴνιγμα πρὸς τὸ τῇδε ἔχειν οἴεσθαι τὸν λόγον.
{ΚΥΡ.} Πλημμελοῦσι δέ τινες, οὐχ ὑπεσταλμένως, γυμνὴν δὲ ὥσπερ καὶ ἀκατακάλυπτον παντελῶς ἐπιτηδεύοντες τὴν φαυλότητα· καὶ περὶ αὐτῶν ἂν λέγοιτο καλῶς· «Ὧν ἡ δόξα ἐν τῇ αἰσχύνῃ αὐτῶν.» Νενεύκασι γὰρ ἀεὶ πρὸς ἀκαθαρσίαν, καὶ τοῖς κατωτάτω βορβόροις ἐγκαλινδούμενοι, κνώδαλα κατὰ τὸ ἀληθὲς, ἤγουν, ἕτερόν τι παρὰ τοῦτό εἰσιν. Εἶεν δ' ἂν οἱ τοιοίδε πάντη τε καὶ πάντως ἀδρανεῖς τε καὶ εὐάλωτοι, ταῖς εἰς πᾶν ὁτιοῦν τῶν ἐκτόπων ἡδοναῖς τυραννούμενοι. Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ τοιουτοσί πώς ἐστι τῶν ἀπεγνωσμένων ὁ βίος; Γύναιά τε γὰρ τὰ μαχλῶντα καὶ ἑταιριζόμενα, καὶ τὸ πάναισχρόν τε καὶ κιβδηλότατον τῶν θηλυδρίων γένος, καὶ μὴν καὶ ὅσοι διαπρέπουσιν ἐν σκηναῖς, καὶ οἷς ἀκόρεστος ἡ φιλοσαρκία, καὶ τὸ πλανᾶσθαι φίλον εἰς βέβηλον εἰδωλολατρίαν, ἐπάρατον ἀληθῶς διαζῶσι βίον, καὶ τὸν εἰς αἰσχροτάτους ἥκοντα μολυσμούς. Οὐκοῦν καθαρίζει μὲν ὁ νόμος τοὺς ἠῤῥωστηκότας μὲν τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, μὴ μὴν ἔτι καὶ εἰσάπαν ἐκτετραμμένους, ἀνανηχομένους δὲ ὥσπερ εἰς τὸ ὑψοῦ, καὶ οὐχὶ τοῖς ἐπιγείοις ἐνιζήσαντας μόνοις, πεφρονηκότας δὲ καὶ τὰ ἄνω, καὶ μεμερισμένους ὥσπερ Θεῷ τε καὶ κόσμῳ. Καταμιαίνει δὲ αὐτοὺς ὅλῳ χωροῦντας τρόπῳ, πρὸς τὸ ἀκαταλήκτως ἑλέσθαι καὶ δρᾷν καὶ φρονεῖν τὰ σαρκός τε καὶ κόσμου, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις μὲν ἅπασαν ἀποδυσαμένους αἰδῶ, γυμνῶς δὲ καὶ ἀπημφιεσμένως ἀσχημονεῖν εἰωθότας. Ἐξίστησι δὲ χρησίμως τῆς πρὸς αὐτοὺς κοινωνίας, τὴν πρὸς ἐκείνους οὐκ ἀτιμάζων. Οὐ γάρ τοι τοῖς φαύλοις ἰέναι κατὰ ταυτὸν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς