Moab and Balaam; no greeting for heretics
Cyril: …load us further with wicked deeds of their own. ‘For they went out from us, but they were not of us,’ as it is written. ‘For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us’ (1 John 2:19). To these, whose gentleness is put on for show and who are not in the habit of doing what serves his glory, the Savior himself might very fittingly say: ‘Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters’ (Matthew 12:30). Do the workshops of the heretics, hateful to God, seem to you like the Ammonites, sick as they are beyond all bounds with a lack of compassion and of love for God?
Palladius: Very much so.
Cyril: Now consider the Moabites too, if you like, who were openly the bitterest enemies of those who wish to serve the God who alone is God by nature and in truth. They were worshippers of idols, who put special trust in divinations and sorceries and were taken up beyond all measure with the flights of birds. Grinding their teeth at Israel’s good fortune, they hired Balaam and set him to curse; but by the inexpressible power of God the soothsayer’s mouth was turned to blessings they did not want (Numbers 22:5–6; Deuteronomy 23:4–5). Such would be the war that the pagans wage against us. They begrudge our Savior his glory and stir up all the strength of the devil against us; but divine grace from above shakes that strength down, pours feebleness over the herd of demons, and turns their way of plotting into something that brings gladness.
Palladius: Very much so.
Cyril: The holy places, then, are barred to the Ammonites and to the Moabites too, and very rightly. For those whose crimes are akin and whose boldness is of one kind may fittingly be caught in equal penalties. And see how careful the law is. It sets the saints wholly apart from them and charges them not even to wish so much as to enter into conversation with them, saying: ‘You shall not greet them in peace, and you shall not speak to them for their good, all your days for ever’ (Deuteronomy 23:6). Is this not plainly what that pair of saints, Paul and John, also taught us? One of them said: ‘If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not greet him’ (2 John 1:10); and this, I think, is ‘You shall not greet them in peace, nor for their good.’ The other, again: ‘After a first and a second warning, have nothing to do with a heretical man, knowing that such a person is perverted’ (Titus 3:10–11). This is ‘You shall not speak to them for their good.’ For the law says that we must give way to the utterly perverted as to madmen, and say to them: ‘Walk by the light of your fire, and by the flame that you have kindled’ (Isaiah 50:11). But the Ammonite is barred to the third generation, and the Moabite even to the tenth (Deuteronomy 23:3, 8); by the length of time, I think, God hints to us how great his indignation is against each. For the penalty of the heretics, as one would expect, is the lighter. For one might say…
Greek
ταῖς παρὰ σφῶν ἐπιφορτίζουσι μοχθηρίαις. «Ἐξ ἡμῶν γὰρ ἐξῆλθον, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἦσαν ἐξ ἡμῶν,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. «Εἰ γὰρ ἦσαν ἐξ ἡμῶν, μεμενήκεισαν ἂν μεθ' ἡμῶν.» Οἷς καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Σωτὴρ, κατάπλαστον ἔχουσι τὸ ἐπιεικὲς, οὐ μὴν ἔτι καὶ δρᾷν εἰωθόσι τὰ εἰς δόξαν αὐτοῦ, προσφωνήσειεν ἂν καὶ μάλα εἰκότως· «Ὁ μὴ ὢν μετ' ἐμοῦ, κατ' ἐμοῦ ἐστι, καὶ ὁ μὴ συνάγων μετ' ἐμοῦ, σκορπίζει.» Ἆρά σοι δοκοῦσιν Ἀμμανίταις ἐοικέναι τὰ θεομισῆ τῶν αἱρετικῶν ἐργαστήρια, τὸ ἀσυμπαθές τε καὶ ἀφιλόθεον ἐκτόπως ἠῤῥωστηκότες;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄθρει δὲ καὶ Μωαβίτας, εἰ δοκεῖ, πολεμιωτάτους ὄντας ἀναφανδὸν τοῖς ἐθέλουσι λατρεύειν Θεῷ τῷ μόνῳ τε φύσει καὶ ἀληθῶς. Ἦσαν μὲν γὰρ εἰδώλων προσκυνηταὶ, μαντείαις τε καὶ γοητείαις ἐξαιρέτως ἐπιθαρσήσαντες, καὶ περὶ πτήσεις τῶν οἰωνῶν οὐ μετρίως ἐπτοημένοι, ἐπιτρίζοντες δὲ τοὺς ὀδόντας ταῖς τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ εὐπραγίαις, κατεμισθοῦντο τὸν Βαλαὰμ, καὶ ἐπαρᾶσθαι παρεσκεύαζον, δυνάμει δὲ τῇ ἀφράστῳ Θεοῦ, τὸ τοῦ μάντεως στόμα πρὸς ἀνεθελήτους αὐτοῖς εὐλογίας μετεσκευάζετο. Τοιοῦτος ἂν εἴη καθ' ἡμῶν ὁ Ἑλλήνων πόλεμος, τῇ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν διαφθονουμένων δόξῃ, καὶ πᾶσαν τοῦ διαβόλου καθ' ἡμῶν κατεξανιστάντων ἰσχὺν, ἣν ἡ θεία καὶ ἄνωθεν κατασείει χάρις, τῆς τῶν δαιμόνων ἀγέλης τὸ ἄναλκι καταχέουσα, καὶ τὸν τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς ἀναθεῖσα τρόπον πρὸς τὸ εὐφραίνειν εἰδός.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀμμανίταις δὲ καὶ μέντοι καὶ Μωαβίταις, ἀστιβῆ τὰ ἅγια καὶ μάλα γε εἰκότως· οἷς γὰρ ἀδελφὰ τὰ τολμήματα καὶ ὁμοειδὲς τὸ θράσος, τούτοις ἂν εἴη πρέπον καὶ ταῖς ἰσοῤῥόποις ἐναλῶναι δίκαις. Ἄθρει δὲ δὴ τοῦ νόμου τὸ ἀσφαλές· ἐξίστησι γὰρ παντελῶς τοὺς ἁγίους αὐτῶν, καὶ οὐδ' ὅσον εἰπεῖν εἰς κοινολογίαν ἰέναι θέλειν, παρεγγυᾷ λέγων· «Οὐ προσαγορεύσεις εἰρηνικὰ αὐτοῖς, καὶ συμφέροντα αὐτοῖς οὐ λαλήσεις, πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας σου εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.» Ἆρ' οὐχὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἐναργῶς, ὃ καὶ ἁγίων ἡμᾶς ἐξεπαίδευσε δυὰς, Παῦλός τε καὶ Ἰωάννης; Ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἔφασκεν· «Εἴ τις ἔρχεται πρὸς ὑμᾶς, καὶ ταύτην τὴν διδαχὴν οὐ φέρει, τούτῳ μὴ χαίρειν λέγετε,» καὶ τοῦτο, οἶμαι, ἐστὶ τὸ, «Οὐ προσαγορεύσεις εἰρηνικὰ αὐτοῖς, καὶ συμφέροντα αὐτοῖς.» Ὁ δὲ πάλιν, «Αἱρετικὸν ἄνθρωπον μετὰ μίαν καὶ δευτέραν νουθεσίαν, παραιτοῦ, εἰδὼς ὅτι ἐξέστραπται ὁ τοιοῦτος.» Τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ, Οὐ λαλήσεις συμφέροντα αὐτοῖς. Δεῖν γάρ φησιν ὁ νόμος τοῖς ἄγαν ἐξεστραμμένοις, ὡς μεμηνόσι παραχωρεῖν, λέγοντας· «Πορεύεσθε τῷ φωτὶ τοῦ πυρὸς ὑμῶν, καὶ τῇ φλογὶ ᾗ ἐξεκαύσατε.» Ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν Ἀμμανίτης ἕως τρίτης εἴργεται γενεᾶς, Μωαβίτης δὲ καὶ μέχρι δεκάτης, ἀπό γε τοῦ χρόνου, καθάπερ ἐγῷμαι, τῆς ἐπ' ἀμφοῖν ἀγανακτήσεως τὸ μέγεθος ἡμῖν ὑπεμφαίνοντος Θεοῦ. Μείων γὰρ, κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς, ἡ αἱρετικῶν δίκη· φαίη