The crushed, the cut off, the Ammonite and the Moabite
Cyril: …meet you with bread and water on the way when you were coming out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor from Mesopotamia against you, to curse you. But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, and the Lord your God turned the curses into a blessing, because the Lord your God loved you. You shall not speak words of peace to them, or words for their good, all your days forever’ (Deuteronomy 23:4–6).
Palladius: I should like to learn who is to be understood by the crushed and the cut off, the Ammonite and the Moabite.
Cyril: Listen, then. Eunuchs are not made in one way only, not one, Palladius; there are said to be two ways, and so it has been found. Some are castrated, with the male parts torn away; others still have them, but crushed and wholly useless. And sometimes people cruelly and impiously have the part of the body that begets children cut off, and they are incapable of a man’s functions, even though by nature and age they are counted among men. Now the male parts are a symbol of manly courage. We must take the crushed man, then, to be the one who has not, so to speak, been wholly torn away in soul and mind, but rather keeps somehow within himself his courage for what is good, though it is shattered; and the man cut off to be the one who has thrown these away entirely and been deprived of what most befits men. And to love a courage that is not sound stands, as it were, under the same charge as not wishing to be brave at all.
Palladius: Such as what?
Cyril: Some have slumped into fleshly desires, letting go of the reins entirely, as it were, to passion, and they cast their mind, rotten and unmanly, before the pleasures of licentiousness. Others, again, admire self-control, and sometimes take up splendid efforts toward it, but they dread the struggle and, unable to bear the onslaught of pleasure, end in weakness. Will you not, then, rightly call the one who has wholly given up efforts toward courage cut off? And will you not think the one who has in mind the will to be brave, yet is not also able to achieve virtue, crushed, neatly recasting even the body’s afflictions as qualities of character, and taking what is perceived by the senses as an image of things grasped by the mind and more hidden?
Palladius: Certainly.
Cyril: Along with these, the Ammonite and the Moabite were shut out too, as unholy and utterly loathsome, men who set upon the saints like lions and pour out the arrows of envy and spite on those who are held in good repute. The Ammonites would be a type of the heretics, who know no pity; the Moabites, of those still lying under the errors of idolatry and the wickedness of demons. For both are hateful to God, and both are sick with a kindred boldness, as it were, against the saints.
Greek
συναντῆσαι αὐτοὺς ὑμῖν μετὰ ἄρτων καὶ ὕδατος ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, ἐκπορευομένων ὑμῶν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου, καὶ ὅτι ἐμισθώσαντο ἐπὶ σὲ τὸν Βαλαὰμ υἱὸν Βεὼρ ἐκ τῆς Μεσοποταμίας καταρᾶσθαί σε. Καὶ οὐκ ἠθέλησε Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου εἰσακοῦσαι τοῦ Βαλαὰμ, καὶ μετέστρεψε Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου τὰς κατάρας εἰς εὐλογίαν, ὅτι ἠγάπησέ σε Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου. Οὐ προσαγορεύσεις εἰρηνικὰ αὐτοῖς, καὶ συμφέροντα αὐτοῖς, πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας σου εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ τίς ἂν νοοῖτο θλαδίας καὶ ἀποκεκομμένος, Ἀμμανίτης καὶ Μωαβίτης, ἐθέλοιμ' ἂν ἐκμαθεῖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄκουε δή· ὁ τῆς τῶν εὐνούχων ποιήσεως οὐχ εἶς τρόπος, οὐχ εἷς, ὦ Παλλάδιε, διττὸς δέ τις εἶναι λέγεται, καὶ πεφώραται. Οἱ μὲν γάρ εἰσι τομίαι καὶ διεσπασμένοι τὰ ἀρσενικά· οἱ δὲ τεθλασμένα καὶ ἀχρεῖα παντελῶς φέρουσιν ἔτι, ὠμῶς δὲ καὶ ἀνοσίως ἀποτέμνονταί τινες ἔσθ' ὅτε τὸ παιδοποιὸν τοῦ σώματος μόριον, καί εἰσιν ἄπρακτοι πρὸς τὰ ἀνδρὸς, καίτοι τελοῦντες ἐν ἀνδράσι φύσει τε καὶ ἡλικίᾳ· ἀνδρείας δὲ σύμβολον, τὰ ἀρσενικά. Τὸν τοίνυν θλαδίαν ὑποτοπητέον, τὸν οἱονείπως οὐκ ἐξεσπασμένον εἰσάπαν ψυχήν τε καὶ νοῦν, συντεθραυσμένην δὲ μᾶλλον σώζοντά πως ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἐπ' ἀγαθοῖς ἀνδρίαν, ἀποκεκομμένον γε μὴν, τὸν ὁλοκλήρως αὐτὰ ἀποβεβληκότα, καὶ τῶν ἀνδράσι πρεπωδεστάτων ἐστερημένον. Ἐν ἴσῳ δὲ ὥσπερ ἐγκλήματι, τῷ μηδ' ὅλως ἀνδρίζεσθαι θέλειν, τὸ μὴ ὑγιῶς ἀνδρίζεσθαι φιλεῖν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οἷον δὴ τί φής;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀναπεπτώκασί τινες εἰς ἐπιθυμίας σαρκικὰς, ὅλας ὥσπερ ἡνίας ἀνέντες τῷ πάθει, σαθρόν τε καὶ ἄνανδρον ταῖς εἰς ἀσέλγειαν ἡδοναῖς παραῤῥιπτοῦντες τὸν νοῦν. Ἕτεροι δὲ αὖ θαυμάζουσι τὴν ἐγκράτειαν, καὶ ἅπτονται μὲν ἔσθ' ὅτε τῶν εἰς τοῦτο λαμπρῶν ἐπιχειρημάτων, ἐκδεδίασι δὲ τὴν ἀντίστασιν, καὶ τὴν τῆς ἡδονῆς προσβολὴν οὐ φέροντες, κατανύουσι πρὸς τὸ ἄναλκι. Ἆρ' οὖν, οὐχὶ τὸν μὲν εἰσάπαν ἀπειρηκότα τοῖς εἰς ἀνδρίαν ἐπιχειρήμασιν προσερεῖς εἰκότως ἀποκεκομμένον; Τὸν δὲ εἰς νοῦν μὲν ἔχοντα τὸ θέλειν ἀνδρίζεσθαι, μὴ μὴν ἔτι καὶ κατορθοῦν ἰσχύοντα τὴν ἀρετὴν, οἰήσῃ θλαδίαν, εἰς τρόπων ποιότητα μεταχαράττων ἀστείως καὶ τὰ τοῦ σώματος πάθη, καὶ εἰκόνα τῶν νοητῶν καὶ ἀφανεστέρων, τὰ ἐν αἰσθήσει δεχόμενος;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Συνεξείργετο δὲ τούτοις Ἀμμανίτης τε καὶ Μωαβίτης, ὡς ἀνόσιοί τε καὶ βδελυρώτατοι, καὶ λεόντων δίκην τοῖς ἁγίοις ἐπιφυόμενοι, καὶ τοῖς εὐδοκιμεῖν εἰωθόσι, τὰ ἐκ φθόνου καὶ βασκανίας ἐπιχέοντες βέλη. Τύπος δ' ἂν εἶεν, Ἀμμανῖται μὲν δὴ, τῶν ἀφιλοικτιρμόνων αἱρετικῶν. Μωαβῖται δὲ αὖ, τῶν ἐν πλάναις ἔτι ταῖς εἰδωλικαῖς, καὶ ταῖς τῶν δαιμονίων μοχθηρίαις ὑπεστρωμένων· θεοστυγεῖς γὰρ ἄμφω, καὶ ἀδελφὸν ὥσπερ κατὰ τῶν ἁγίων νοσοῦντες τὸ θράσος.