No covenant with the nations; why the clean keep apart
Cyril: …of them too, just as of the Jews: ‘For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge’ (Romans 10:2). Thinking that they speak rightly and are wise, the wretches do not notice that they are fighting against the doctrines of the truth; and, mastered by a counterfeit zeal, they think that they are pleading the cause of God’s glory when they set themselves against those who walk uprightly. But the Moabites, that is, the ranks of the pagans, fight against the divine glory nakedly and openly, holding nothing back. That is why the law has hung a heavier penalty over them. Yet both are sent away from the sacred precincts as unholy and hateful to God.
Palladius: So it is no harmless thing, where defilement is concerned, to be fond of entering into talk with strangers and people of other beliefs, even if it goes no further than talk.
Cyril: You understand very well. That is why the law walls off from their foulness those who have been washed and are clean and who already belong to God, saying: ‘And it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to inherit, and you remove great and many and strong nations from before you, the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations many and great and stronger than you, and the Lord your God hands them over into your hands, and you strike them, you shall destroy them utterly. You shall not make a covenant with them, nor shall you show them mercy, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, and you shall not take his daughter for your son; for he will turn your son away from me, and he will serve other gods’ (Deuteronomy 7:1–4). So the law keeps us safe. ‘For you shall not make,’ it says, ‘a covenant with them’ (Deuteronomy 7:2). For what is still unholy cannot agree or be joined with what has been made holy, nor what is in mist and darkness with what has been enlightened, nor what is rejected with what has been received, nor what is thrust out of the holy and divine tabernacle with one who enters it.
Palladius: What, then, is the law guarding against? Why does it separate the clean so entirely from the unholy, even when someone is well established in virtue?
Cyril: Because the fear is very great, my friend, that even what seems to stand upright might somehow be shaken toward what it should not and be carried away from what is fitting, forced perhaps by someone, or by pleasure stirring it, or by the leaning toward this that is in our nature pushing it down into wrongdoing. For nature always leans somehow toward what is bad, and the divine word bears witness to us: ‘For the mind of man,’ it says, ‘is intently set on evil things from his youth’ (Genesis 8:21). If you wish, I will set before you as clear proof all that the daughter of Jacob is said to have suffered.
Palladius: You mean Dinah, I suppose; at least, I take it so.
Cyril: Certainly, Palladius. For this is written in the book of Genesis: ‘And there came…
Greek
γὰρ ἄν τις καὶ ἐπ' αὐτοῖς καθάπερ ἀμέλει καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις. «Μαρτυρῶ γὰρ αὐτοῖς, ὅτι ζῆλον Θεοῦ ἔχουσιν, ἀλλ' οὐ κατ' ἐπίγνωσιν.» Οἰόμενοι γὰρ ὀρθοεπεῖς εἶναι καὶ σοφοὶ, λελήθασι σφᾶς αὐτοὺς οἱ δείλαιοι, καὶ τοῖς τῆς ἀληθείας μαχόμενοι δόγμασι, καὶ ζήλῳ πεπλασμένῳ κατακεκρατημένοι, τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ δόξῃ συναγορεύειν οἴονται, τοῖς ὀρθοποδοῦσιν ἀντιταττόμενοι. Μωαβῖται δέ γε, τοῦτ' ἔστι, τὰ Ἑλλήνων στίφη, γυμνῶς καὶ ἀναφανδὸν, καὶ ὑποστολῆς ἁπάσης δίχα, τῇ θείᾳ μάχονται δόξῃ. Τοιγάρτοι φορτικωτέραν ἐπήρτησέ πως τὴν δίκην αὐτοῖς ὁ νόμος. Πλὴν ἄμφω τῶν ἱερῶν ἀπόπεμπτοι περιβόλων, ὡς βέβηλοί τε καὶ θεομισεῖς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Χρῆμα δὴ οὖν οὐκ ἀζήμιον, ὅσον ἧκεν εἰς μολυσμοὺς, τὸ ὀθνείοις τισὶ καὶ ἑτερογνώμοσι, κἂν γοῦν εἰς λόγους ἰέναι φιλεῖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Συνίης εὖ μάλα. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ ὁ νόμος τοὺς ἐκνενιμμένους καὶ καθαροὺς, καὶ οἰκείους ἤδη Θεῷ, διὰ τοῦτο τῆς ἐκείνων βδελυρίας ἀποτειχίζει λέγων· «Καὶ ἔσται ἐν τῷ εἰσαγαγεῖν σε Κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου εἰς τὴν γῆν εἰς ἣν εἰσπορεύῃ ἐκεῖ κληρονομῆσαι αὐτὴν, καὶ ἐξαρεῖς ἔθνη μεγάλα, καὶ πολλὰ, καὶ ἰσχυρὰ ἀπὸ προσώπου σου, τὸν Χετταῖον, καὶ τὸν Γεργεσαῖον, καὶ τὸν Ἀμοῤῥαῖον, καὶ τὸν Χαναναῖον, καὶ τὸν Φερεζαῖον, καὶ τὸν Εὐαῖον, καὶ τὸν Ἰεβουσαῖον, ἑπτὰ ἔθνη πολλὰ, καὶ μεγάλα, καὶ ἰσχυρότερα ὑμῶν, καὶ παραδώσει αὐτοὺς Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ὑμῶν εἰς χεῖράς σου, καὶ πατάξεις αὐτοὺς, ἀφανισμῷ ἀφανίσεις αὐτούς. Οὐ διαθήσῃ πρὸς αὐτοὺς διαθήκην, οὐδ' οὐ μὴ ἐλεήσεις αὐτοὺς, οὐδὲ μὴ γαμβρεύσεις πρὸς αὐτούς. Τὴν θυγατέρα σου οὐ δώσεις τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα αὐτοῦ οὐ λήψῃ τῷ υἱῷ σου, ἀποστήσει γὰρ τὸν υἱόν σου ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, καὶ λατρεύσει θεοῖς ἑτέροις.» Ἀσφαλὴς οὖν ὁ νόμος. «Οὐ γὰρ συνθήσῃ,» φησὶ, «διαθήκην πρὸς αὐτούς·» ἀσύμβατον γὰρ καὶ ἀσυναφὲς τῷ ἡγιασμένῳ, τὸ βέβηλον ἔτι, τῷ πεφωτισμένῳ, τὸ ἐν ὁμίχλῃ καὶ σκότῳ, τῷ εἰσδεδεγμένῳ τὸ ἀπαράδεκτον· τῷ πρὸς ἱεράν τε καὶ θείαν εἰσφοιτῶντι σκηνὴν, τὸ ταύτης ἐξωθούμενον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εἶτα τί τὸ προμηθὲς τοῦ νόμου; διίστησι δὲ ἀνθ' ὅτου καὶ τοῦτο εἰσάπαν τοῦ βεβήλου τὸ καθαρὸν, κἂν εἰ ἐν καλῷ τις γένοιτο τῆς ἀρετῆς;
{ΚΥΡ.} Πολὺ γὰρ δὴ λίαν τὸ δέος, ὦ τᾶν· μὴ ἄρα πως καὶ τό γε ὀρθῶς ἑστάναι δοκοῦν, τὸν ἐφ' ἃ μὴ προσῆκον εἰσδέξαιτο κλόνον καὶ παρενεχθείη τοῦ πρέποντος, ὑπό του τυχὸν ἐκβεβιασμένον, ἢ ἐρεθιζούσης ἡδονῆς, ἢ κατωθούσης εἰς τὸ πλημμελὲς, τῆς ἐνούσης τῇ φύσει πρὸς τοῦτο ῥοπῆς. Ἀπονένευκε γὰρ ἀεί πως ἐπὶ τὸ φαῦλον, καὶ θεῖος ἡμῖν ἐπιμαρτύρει λόγος· «Ἐπιμελῶς γὰρ ἔγκειται,» φησὶν, «ἡ διάνοια τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐπὶ τὰ πονηρὰ ἐκ νεότητος.» Παραθείην δ' ἂν ἐθέλοντί σοι πρὸς ἀπόδειξιν ἐναργῆ, τὰ ὅσαπερ αὐτὴν ὑπομεῖναι λόγος τὴν ἐξ Ἰακώβ.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Δίναν δή που φής· οἶμαι γὰρ ὡδί.
{ΚΥΡ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν, ὦ Παλλάδιε· γέγραπται γὰρ οὕτως ἐν τῷ τῆς Γενέσεως βιβλίῳ· «Καὶ ἦλθεν