Flux = wasted fertility; soul-unclean = share others’ deadness; crushed/cut begin
Cyril: …that is, the flux-flowing, the one always and unrestrainedly in defilements, and spending the fitness of the nature toward virtuous and admirable fruit-bearing unto nothing.
Palladius: And of what sort do you say?
Cyril: Broad very much is the word upon all; and for now I will use one clear and most vivid example, toward proof of what I said: those having a well-natured mind and as it were somehow scraped-off, putting it into the words about the truth, will they not have the well-fitting in rightness and exactness of doctrines as a fruit not unadmirable?
Palladius: And very much.
Cyril: And those at least having chosen not to think and do this, but rather turning aside from the necessary way, and setting up an advocate of unholy doctrines, or showing a helper of the wickedness in world, make a begetter of deceit and deception, damaging for nothing useful the fitness of the nature toward the good, and they write-down for us very well the flux-flowing, and show a soul-weakness same-natured with a bodily passion in own manners.
Palladius: You spoke rightly.
Cyril: And the unclean upon soul somehow altogether signals the one having shared of others’ deadness, and being filled lazily with alien faults, toward whom also the divine David somehow said: ‘If you were seeing a thief, you were running-with him, and with an adulterer you were setting your portion.’ (Psalm 50:18) For just as doing what is not lawful damages and deadens soul and mind, so also consenting with those doing them, and the one willing-with would also be a sharer with those self-working unto sin. For he is not somehow unchargeable. Therefore also Paul: ‘Keep yourself pure,’ (Deuteronomy 23:1–3) he says, ‘and do not share alien sins;’ this, I think, is the being defiled upon a dead one intelligibly.
Palladius: It seems so.
Cyril: So then he has ordered very well the leper and flux-flowing and unclean upon the soul to depart from the synagogue, not allowing those having the hard-to-wash-out uncleanness to be woven-up with the choruses of the holy ones? ‘For what sharing of light toward darkness? or what portion for a faithful with an unfaithful?’ (1 Timothy 5:22) he says.
Palladius: So then slippery, the going as with unwashed feet into a house of God.
Cyril: Most slippery indeed, if at least it is true that striking against God is not without-damage. And he also shuts out others from the holy court in Deuteronomy, saying: ‘A crushed one and a cut-off one will not go into a church of Lord, one from a whore will not go into a church of Lord; an Ammonite and a Moabite will not go into a church of Lord, and unto a tenth generation will not go into a church of Lord, and unto the age, because of the not’ (2 Corinthians 6:14–15)
Greek
τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ὁ γονοῤῥυὴς, τὸν ἀεὶ καὶ ἀσχέτως ἐν μολυσμοῖς, καὶ τὴν τῆς φύσεως ἐπιτηδειότητα πρὸς καρποφορίαν ἐνάρετόν τε καὶ ἀξιάγαστον δαπανῶντα πρὸς τὸ μηδέν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οἷον δέ τι φής;
{ΚΥΡ.} Πλατὺς μὲν λίαν ὁ ἐφ' ἅπασι λόγος· ἑνὶ δὲ δὴ τέως σαφεῖ καὶ ἐναργεστάτῳ κεχρήσομαι παραδείγματι, πρὸς ἀπόδειξιν ὧν ἔφην· οἱ τὸν νοῦν ἔχοντες εὐφυᾶ καὶ οἱονείπως ἀπεξεσμένον τοῖς περὶ τῆς ἀληθείας αὐτὸν ἐνιέντες λόγοις, ἆρ' οὐχὶ τὸ ἐν ὀρθότητί τε καὶ ἀτρεκείᾳ δογμάτων εὐπρεπὲς καρπὸν ἕξουσιν οὐκ ἀθαύμαστον;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μάλα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οἱ δέ γε τουτὶ μὲν, οὐχὶ φρονεῖν τε καὶ δρᾷν ᾑρημένοι, παρατρέποντες δὲ μᾶλλον τῆς ἀναγκαίας ὁδοῦ, καὶ δογμάτων ἀνοσίων ἰστῶντες συνήγορον, ἤγουν τῆς ἐν κόσμῳ πονηρίας ἀποφαίνοντες ὑπουργὸν, δόλου καὶ ἀπάτης ποιοῦνται γεννήτορα, τὴν τῆς φύσεως ἐπιτηδειότητα πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν, ἐπ' οὐδενὶ τῷ χρησίμῳ ζημιούμενοι, καταγράφουσιν ἡμῖν εὖ μάλα τὸν γονοῤῥυᾶ, καὶ πάθους σωματικοῦ ψυχικὴν ἀῤῥωστίαν ὁμοφυᾶ δεικνύουσιν ἐν ἰδίοις τρόποις.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθῶς ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὁ δὲ ἀκάθαρτος ἐπὶ ψυχῇ σημαίνει που πάντως τῆς ἑτέρων νεκρότητος τὸν μετεσχηκότα, καὶ πλημμελημάτων ἀλλοτρίων ῥᾳθύμως ἀναπιμπλάμενον, πρὸς ὃν καὶ ὁ θεῖος ἔφη που Δαβίδ· «Εἰ ἐθεώρεις κλέπτην, συνέτρεχες αὐτῷ, καὶ μετὰ μοιχοῦ τὴν μερίδα σου ἐτίθεις.» Κατασίνεται γὰρ ὥσπερ καὶ κατανεκροῖ ψυχήν τε καὶ νοῦν, τὸ δρᾷν ἃ μὴ θέμις, οὕτω τὸ τοῖς αὐτὰ δρῶσι συνευδοκεῖν, καὶ τοῖς αὐτουργοῦσιν εἰς ἁμαρτίαν κοινωνὸς ἂν εἴη καὶ ὁ συνεθελητής. Ἀκαταιτίατος γὰρ οὔτι που. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ Παῦλος· «Σεαυτὸν ἁγνὸν τήρει,» φησὶν, «καὶ μὴ κοινώνει ἁμαρτίαις ἀλλοτρίαις·» τοῦτο, οἶμαι, ἐστὶ τὸ ἐπὶ νεκρῷ μολύνεσθαι νοητῶς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἔοικεν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀποστείχειν δὴ οὖν τῆς συναγωγῆς εὖ μάλα προστέταχε λεπρὸν καὶ γονοῤῥυᾶ, καὶ ἀκάθαρτον ἐπὶ τῇ ψυχῇ, τοῖς τῶν ἁγίων χοροῖς οὐκ ἐῶν ἀναπλέκεσθαι τοὺς δυσαπόνιπτον ἔχοντας τὴν ἀκαθαρσίαν; «Τίς γὰρ κοινωνία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος; ἢ τίς μερὶς πιστῷ μετὰ ἀπίστου;» φησί.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Σφαλερὸν οὖν ἄρα, τὸ ἀνίπτοις ὥσπερ ἰέναι ποσὶν εἰς οἶκον Θεοῦ.
{ΚΥΡ.} Σφαλερώτατον μὲν οὖν, εἴπερ ἐστὶν ἀληθὲς, ὅτι τῷ Θεῷ προσκρούειν οὐκ ἀζήμιον. Ἐξείργει δὲ καὶ ἑτέρους τῆς ἁγίας αὐλῆς ἐν τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ, λέγων· «Οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται θλαδίας καὶ ἀποκεκομμένος εἰς ἐκκλησίαν Κυρίου, οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται ὁ ἐκ πόρνης εἰς ἐκκλησίαν Κυρίου· οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται Ἀμμανίτης καὶ Μωαβίτης εἰς ἐκκλησίαν Κυρίου, καὶ ἕως δεκάτης γενεᾶς οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται εἰς ἐκκλησίαν Κυρίου, καὶ ἕως εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, παρὰ τὸ μὴ
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 14 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 14 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 14 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 14)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 14)
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.