Nazirite Num 6; wine=worldly muddle; Isa 28 drunk priests
Cyril: …Lord toward Moses saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and you will say toward them: A man or a woman who if greatly should vow a vow to purify a purity for Lord, from wine and sikera will be purified. And vinegar from wine and vinegar from sikera he will not drink, and as many as are worked from a grape he will not drink, a grape fresh and a raisin he will not eat all the days of the vow of his purification, from all as many as become from a vine, wine from grape-skins until a grape-stone he will not eat all the days of the purification. A razor will not go-upon upon his head, until if should be fulfilled the days, as many as he vowed for Lord. Holy he will be nourishing hair, hair of a head all the days of the vow for Lord. Upon every soul having died he will not enter upon a father and a mother, and upon a brother and upon a sister, he will not be defiled upon them, of them having died, because a vow of his God upon him upon his head, All the days of his vow holy he will be for Lord. And if someone by a death should die’ (Numbers 6:1-9)
Palladius: Not unharsh on the one hand the oracle to see-together, least at least then, not of the law a fine having suffered the assay. For the not to be stripped the hair, and long then to let-go and to be shaken hair, and of wine and of vinegar and of a raisin, and indeed also of grape-stones to depart, what sort would have of a service manner?
Cyril: None on the one hand, O Palladius, according at least to the true, if someone altogether it according to nature what ever it is should look-down the matter. Not unmarvelous at least then the of the law aim, the of Greeks customs rewriting well-artfully upon the more-fitting, and transferring gracefully unto an image of a life evangelical, also the random to be seeming. So then if for someone at least there should be an aim to purify for God according to the great vow, that is according at least to the of the uppermost citizenship manner, and of a righteousness complete a right and unblemished path, of wine and of sikera let him go far, that is, of every the to make-drunk being able, and accustomed to muddy, let him free the mind. And they would be, I think, these a mindset worldly, earthy desires, cares of flesh, random distractions; these indeed having suffered of the priests some a word was mourning prophetic, thus somehow holding: ‘Because a priest and a prophet were amazed through the wine, from the drunkenness of the sikera.’ (Isaiah 28:7) And indeed also about others the
Greek
Κύριος πρὸς Μωσῆν λέγων· Λάλησον τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτούς· Ἀνὴρ ἢ γυνὴ ὃς ἂν μεγάλως εὔξηται εὐχὴν ἀφαγνίσασθαι ἁγνίαν Κυρίῳ, ἀπὸ οἴνου καὶ σίκερα ἁγνισθήσεται. Καὶ ὄξος ἐξ οἴνου καὶ ὄξος ἐκ σίκερα οὐ πίεται, καὶ ὅσα κατεργάζεται ἐκ σταφυλῆς οὐ πίεται, σταφυλὴν πρόσφατον καὶ σταφίδα οὐ φάγεται πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς εὐχῆς τοῦ ἁγνισμοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἀπὸ πάντων ὅσα γίνεται ἐξ ἀμπέλου, οἶνον ἀπὸ στεμφύλων ἕως γιγάρτου οὐ φάγεται πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τοῦ ἁγνισμοῦ. Ξυρὸν οὐκ ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ, ἕως ἂν πληρωθῶσιν αἱ ἡμέραι, ὅσας ηὔξατο Κυρίῳ. Ἅγιος ἔσται τρέφων κόμην, τρίχα κεφαλῆς πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς εὐχῆς Κυρίῳ. Ἐπὶ πάσῃ ψυχῇ τετελευτηκυίᾳ οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται ἐπὶ πατρὶ καὶ μητρὶ, καὶ ἐπ' ἀδελφῷ καὶ ἐπ' ἀδελφῇ, οὐ μιανθήσεται ἐπ' αὐτοῖς, ἀποθανόντων αὐτῶν, ὅτι εὐχὴ Θεοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἐπὶ κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ, Πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς εὐχῆς αὐτοῦ ἅγιος ἔσται Κυρίῳ. Ἐὰν δέ τις θανάτῳ ἀποθάνῃ ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἐξάπινα, παραχρῆμα μιανθήσεται ἡ κεφαλὴ εὐχῆς αὐτοῦ· καὶ ξυρήσεται τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ καθαρισθῇ, τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ξυρηθήσεται· καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ὀγδόῃ οἴσει δύο τρυγόνας, ἢ δύο νεοσσοὺς περιστερῶν πρὸς τὸν ἱερέα, ἐπὶ τὰς θύρας τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου. Καὶ ποιήσει ὁ ἱερεὺς μίαν περὶ ἁμαρτίας, καὶ μίαν εἰς ὁλοκαύτωμα· καὶ ἐξιλάσεται περὶ αὐτοῦ ὁ ἱερεὺς περὶ ὧν ἥμαρτε περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς, καὶ ἁγιάσει τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ, ᾗ ἡγίασε Κυρίῳ, πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς εὐχῆς, καὶ προσάξει ἀμνὸν ἐνιαύσιον εἰς ὁλοκαύτωμα πλημμελείας. Καὶ αἱ ἡμέραι αἱ πρότεραι ἄλογοι ἔσονται, ὅτι ἐμιάνθη ἡ κεφαλὴ εὐχῆς αὐτοῦ.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οὐκ ἄτραχυ μὲν τὸ χρησμῴδημα συνιδεῖν, ἥκιστά γε μὴν, οὐχὶ τοῦ νόμου λεπτὴν παθόντος τὴν βάσανον. Τὸ γὰρ μὴ ψιλοῦσθαι τὴν τρίχα, μακρὰν δὲ ἀνεῖναι καὶ κατασείεσθαι κόμην, οἴνου τε καὶ ὄξους καὶ σταφίδος, καὶ μὴν καὶ γιγάρτων ἀποφοιτᾷν, ποῖον ἂν ἔχοι λατρείας τρόπον;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐδένα μὲν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, κατά γε τὸ ἀληθὲς, εἴπερ τις ὅλως αὐτὸ κατὰ φύσιν ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστιν καταθροῖτο τὸ χρῆμα. Οὐκ ἀθαύμαστός γε μὴν ὁ τοῦ νόμου σκοπὸς, τὰ Ἑλλήνων ἔθη μεταχαράττοντος εὐτέχνως ἐπὶ τὰ πρεπωδέστερα, καὶ μετατιθέντος ἀστείως εἰς εἰκόνα ζωῆς εὐαγγελικῆς, καὶ τὸ εἰκαῖον εἶναι δοκοῦν. Οὐκοῦν εἴ τῳ περ εἴη σκοπὸς ἀφαγνίσασθαι τῷ Θεῷ κατὰ τὴν μεγάλην εὐχὴν, τουτέστι κατά γε τὸν τῆς ἀνωτάτω πολιτείας τρόπον, καὶ δικαιοσύνης ἐντελοῦς ὀρθὴν καὶ ἀμώμητον τρίβον, οἴνου καὶ σικέρατος οἰχέσθω μακρὰν, τουτέστι, παντὸς τοῦ καταμεθύσκειν ἰσχύοντος, καὶ καταθολοῦν εἰωθότος, ἀπαλλαττέτω τὸν νοῦν. Εἶεν δ' ἂν, οἶμαι, ταυτὶ φρόνημα κοσμικὸν, γεώδεις ἐπιθυμίαι, μέριμναι σαρκὸς, εἰκαῖοι περισπασμοί· ταῦτά τοι παθόντας τῶν ἱερέων τινὰς λόγος ἐθρήνει προφητικὸς, ὡδί πως ἔχων· «Ὅτι ἱερεὺς καὶ προφήτης ἐξέστησαν διὰ τὸν οἶνον, ἀπὸ τῆς μέθης τοῦ σίκερα.» Καὶ μὴν καὶ περὶ ἑτέρων ὁ
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 16 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 16 of seventeen. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek.
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- Copy-text Migne PG 68 De adoratione Book 16 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 16)
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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.