Robbers, thieves, and the company that defiles
Cyril: …they shun the watchfulness of those they wrong. Are not the weasel and the mouse most thievish creatures, and quick to take fright? Do they not dive into their holes in the ground if anyone makes a noise? And would not they, and the land crocodile and its kin, far rather feed by night than by day?
Palladius: True.
Cyril: So everything of the robber’s kind is unclean, whether a man has a beast’s ways and bloodthirsty hands, or whether he pilfers small things, like the mouse and the weasel, and, after the manner of the mole and the gecko, springs up walls and onto roofs. And if anyone touches those so defiled, he will share in their guilt, for fellowship with such people makes those who share it wholly and altogether unclean. The defiled vessels would stand as a type of human beings, for man has the form of a vessel. Yet the law frees a spring of water, a cistern and a gathering of water from having to be defiled, even if something defiled under the law should happen to fall into them. In this, I think, it does not let those under the law consider the matter altogether burdensome and hard to carry through, or find the keeping of the law impossible to practice, as they would if they suffered harm here, in their most vital needs. For at times they would have had to leave their cities and houses, since their water would have been defiled and they would have lost a use they needed and could not do without. So the law relaxed the strictness of its literal rule for the sake of what was necessary and useful for those under the law.
Palladius: The argument is persuasive.
Cyril: Yet it says that even the carcass of a clean animal is unclean, just as the others are, and it added that this too will defile whoever touches it. It writes thus: ‘If one of the cattle that you may eat dies, whoever touches its carcass will be unclean until evening; and whoever eats of its carcass shall wash his garments, and be unclean until evening, and bathe in water, and be clean. And whoever carries its carcass shall wash his garments, and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening’ (Leviticus 11:39–40). This, I think, is plainly the same as the saying: ‘If anyone who bears the name of brother is a fornicator, or greedy, or an idolater, or a drunkard, or a reviler, or a robber, do not even eat with such a one’ (1 Corinthians 5:11). For if anyone at all who is held in esteem for holiness, who has already been cleansed and received through faith into spiritual fellowship, undergoes the deadness that comes from sin, ‘let him be loathsome,’ it says, ‘and hated.’ For, defiled by dead works, he surely defiles whoever clings to him. But if anyone does suffer that defilement, let him become clean through water toward evening; and what this means, our argument has already shown us plainly. Notice too that the law says the one who eats…
Greek
τὴν τῶν ἀδικουμένων παραιτεῖται γρήγορσιν. Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ κλεπτίστατόν τι χρῆμα, γαλῆ τε καὶ μῦς, καὶ πρὸς δειλίαν εὔκολα, καταδύεται δὲ τοὺς ἐν γῇ μυχοὺς, εἰ διακτυπήσειέ τις, ἥδιστα δ' ἂν ἐν νυκτὶ καὶ οὐκ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ νέμοιντο, κροκόδειλός τε χερσαῖος καὶ τὰ συγγενῆ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀκάθαρτον μὲν οὖν πᾶν, ὅπερ ἐστὶ λῃστρικὸν, κἂν εἰ διὰ τρόπου τις εἴη θηριοπρεποὺς, καὶ φιλαιμάτους ἔχοι τὰς χεῖρας· κἂν εἰ μικρὰ παρακλέπτοι, καθὰ μῦς καὶ γαλῆ, καὶ ἀσπάλακός τε καὶ ἀσκαλαβώτου δίκην, τοίχους ἀναθρώσκει καὶ στέγας, κἂν εἴ τις ἐπιθιγγάνοι τῶν ὧδε μεμολυσμένων, μεθέξει τῶν ἐγκλημάτων. Κοινωνία γὰρ ἡ πρὸς τοιούσδε τινὰς, πάντη τε καὶ πάντως ἀκαθάρτους ἀποφαίνει. Ἀνθρώπων δ' ἂν εἶεν εἰς τύπον, τὰ μεμολυσμένα τῶν σκευῶν. Ἐν εἴδει γὰρ σκεύους ὁ ἄνθρωπος. Ἀπαλλάττει γε μὴν τοῦ καταμολύνεσθαι δεῖν, πηγὴν ὕδατος, λάκκον τε καὶ συναγωγὴν ὕδατος· κἂν εἰ πέσοι τυχὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς τι τῶν κατὰ νόμον μεμολυσμένων, οὐκ ἐφιεὶς, οἶμαί που, τοὺς ὑπὸ νόμον, δυσαχθὲς καὶ δυσδιακόμιστον παντελῶς ἡγεῖσθαι τὸ χρῆμα, καὶ τὴν τοῦ νόμου τήρησιν ἀνεπιτήδευτον ἔχειν, τὸ ἔν γε τουτοισὶ βλάβος, εἰς αὐτὰ παθόντας τὰ καιριώτατα. Ὡς καὶ πόλεων ἔσθ' ὅτε, καὶ οἴκων ἀποφοιτᾷν, μεμολυσμένων αὐτοῖς τῶν ὑδάτων, καὶ τῆς ἀναγκαίας τε καὶ ἀπαραιτήτου παραιρουμένης χρείας. Παρῆκε δὴ οὖν ὁ νόμος τῆς ἱστορίας τὸ ἀκριβὲς, διὰ δέ γε τὸ τοῖς ὑπὸ νόμον ἀναγκαῖον καὶ χρήσιμον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πιθανὸς ὁ λόγος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐν ἴσῳ γε μὴν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀκάθαρτον εἶναί φησι καὶ τῶν καθαρῶν ζώων τὸ θνησιμαῖον· προσεπήγαγε δὲ, ὅτι καταμιανεῖ καὶ αὐτὸ τὸν ἁπτόμενον· γράφει δὲ οὕτως· «Ἐὰν δὲ ἀποθάνῃ τῶν κτηνῶν, ὅ ἐστιν ὑμῖν τοῦ φαγεῖν, ὁ ἁπτόμενος τῶν θνησιμαίων αὐτῶν, ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται ἕως ἑσπέρας, καὶ ὁ ἐσθίων ἀπὸ τῶν θνησιμαίων αὐτῶν, πλυνεῖ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται ἕως ἑσπέρας, καὶ λούσεται ὕδατι, καὶ καθαρὸς ἔσται. Καὶ ὁ αἴρων ἀπὸ τῶν θνησιμαίων αὐτῶν, πλυνεῖ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ, καὶ λούσεται ὕδατι, καὶ ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται ἕως ἑσπέρας.» Ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἐναργῶς, καθάπερ ἐγᾦμαι, τὸ, «Εἴ τις ἀδελφὸς ὀνομαζόμενος ἢ πόρνος, ἢ πλεονέκτης, ἢ εἰδωλολάτρης, ἢ μέθυσος, ἢ λοίδορος, ἢ ἅρπαξ, τῷ τοιούτῳ μηδὲ συνεσθίειν.» Εἰ γὰρ δή τις ὅλως τῶν ἐν ὑπολήψει σεμνότητος, καὶ τῶν ἤδη κεκαθαρμένων, καὶ εἰς κοινωνίαν τὴν πνευματικὴν διὰ πίστεως εἰσδεδεγμένων, τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὑπομένει νέκρωσιν, «βδελυρὸς ἔστω,» φησὶ, «καὶ ἀπηχθημένος·» νεκροῖς γὰρ ἔργοις μεμολυσμένος, καταμιαίνει που πάντως τὸν αὐτῷ κολλώμενον. Ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ πάθοι τις τὸν μολυσμὸν, καθαρὸς ἔστω δι' ὕδατος πρὸς ἑσπέραν. Καὶ τί δὴ τοῦτό ἐστι, προκαταμεμήνυκεν ἡμῖν ἐναργῶς ὁ λόγος. Ἄθρει δὲ ὅτι καὶ τὸν ἐσθίοντα τῶν θνησι