Sodom vine wine; vinegar=twisted pleasures; hair=good thoughts
Cyril: …prophet says: ‘For from a vine of Sodoms, their vine, and their vine-branch from Gomorrah, their grape, a grape of gall, clusters of bitterness of them, a wrath of dragons their wine.’ (Deuteronomy 32:32-33) And to give-to-drink are said also some others the neighbor, a turning-up muddy. So then he bars of every the to make-drunk knowing of the having-been-sanctified the mind. And indeed also of vinegar unsharing to be needing very well he says, vinegar, I think somewhere, the beside nature and having been turned-out naming pleasures. And of a raisin and of grape-stones he forbids a use, not even as much as to say unto ancient leftovers of the in us pleasures, to arrive somewhere the mind allowing. Wine on the one hand then and all the from it have been slandered by law, for this, just as I at least think, and not another for the sake of the cause. And what would be thereafter also the at least needing far for God to let-down the hair, come then let us say, that of the others having spoken-before. For of Greeks on the one hand senseless children, with the beside nature for them following customs,
Palladius: Most of all.
Cyril: Or do you not know, for I will remember, unto a type of mind the word was setting the head, as a dwelling of mind? For thus receives the God-breathed Writing.
Palladius: I agree-with; what then this at least?
Cyril: That hairs on the one hand, fruits of a head, and of inborn sprouts they rise-up in a manner; and thoughts at least, and the from mind all, a fruit would be again of a mind, a law for us bubbling-up, and as it were somehow for it both beautiful and well-flowering fitting hair. So then we must, not naked and having been stripped of thoughts good in ourselves to have the mind, but as it were bubbling and hairing for God the anything of the best knowledge accurate, through which also itself the divine, what ever it is, will search-around beauty, and will look-around brightly the as in depth having been hidden, and the of the extreme rightness will enrich-down words, as blameless entirely the upon God to be able knowledge to take, and most-unerring to go a path, the upon all I say the having-been-wondered. Or not unto an end
Greek
προφήτης φησίν· «Ἐκ γὰρ ἀμπέλου Σοδόμων, ἡ ἄμπελος αὐτῶν, καὶ ἡ κληματὶς αὐτῶν ἐκ Γομόῤῥας, ἡ σταφυλὴ αὐτῶν, σταφυλὴ χολῆς, βότρυς πικρίας αὐτῶν, θυμὸς δρακόντων ὁ οἶνος αὐτῶν.» Ποτίζειν δὲ λέγονται καὶ ἕτεροί τινες τὸν πλησίον, ἀνατροπὴν θολεράν. Ἐξείργει δὴ οὖν παντὸς τοῦ καταμεθύσκειν εἰδότος τῶν ἡγιασμένων τὸν νοῦν. Καὶ μέν τοι καὶ ὄξους ἀμέτοχον εἶναι δεῖν εὖ μάλα φησὶν, ὄξος, οἶμαί που, τὰς παρὰ φύσιν τε καὶ ἐκτετραμμένας ὀνομάζων ἡδονάς. Σταφίδος δὲ καὶ γιγάρτων ἀπαγορεύει χρῆσιν, οὐδ' ὅσον εἰπεῖν εἰς ἀρχαῖα λείψανα τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν ἡδονῶν, καθικνεῖσθαί που τὸν νοῦν ἐφιείς. Οἶνος μὲν δὴ καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐξ αὐτοῦ διαβέβληνται νόμῳ, ταυτησὶ, καθάπερ ἐγᾦμαι, καὶ οὐχ ἑτέρας ἕνεκα τῆς αἰτίας. Τί δ' ἂν εἴη λοιπὸν καὶ τό γε δὴ χρῆναι μακρὰν τῷ Θεῷ καθεῖναι τὴν κόμην, φέρε δὴ λέγομεν, ἐκεῖνο τῶν ἄλλων προηγορευκότες. Ἑλλήνων μὲν γὰρ ἀνούστατοι παῖδες, ταῖς παρὰ φύσιν αὐτοῖς ἑπόμενοι συνηθείαις, καὶ κτηνῶν ἀλόγων διαβιοῦντες δίκην, ἀνίεσαν κόμην, δαιμονίοις αὐτὴν σκηπτόμενοι τρέφειν· καὶ ὁ μέν τις αὐτὴν νύμφαις ὀρειάσιν, ὁ δεῖνα δὲ αὖ ποταμῷ κατὰ καιροὺς ἀπεκείροντο· καὶ λατρείας ἦν τρόπος τὸ χρῆμα αὐτοῖς. Μωσῆς γε μὴν ὁ σοφώτατος, μᾶλλον δὲ διὰ Μωσέως ὁ πάνσοφός τε καὶ ἀριστοτέχνης Θεὸς, δυσαπόνιπτον ἔχουσι τοῖς ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ τὴν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ πλάνησιν, τὰ ἴσα νομοτεθεῖ, διὰ τῶν ἀρχαίων ἠθῶν τε καὶ τρόπων κατὰ βραχὺ μεθιστὰς, εἴς γε τὸ δαίμοσι μὲν οὐκέτι, Θεῷ δὲ τῷ πάντων, ὡς διὰ τύπου καὶ σκιᾶς, ἀνάπτειν τὸ σέβας. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ τοὺς περὶ τῶν θυσιῶν ἐτίθει νόμους, καὶ τὰς δι' αἵματος θυσίας ἀνεθελήτως ἐδέχετο. Καὶ γοῦν ἔφασκεν ἐναργῶς διὰ φωνῆς Ἡσαΐου, «Τίς γὰρ ἐξεζήτησε ταῦτα ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν;» Οὐκοῦν συνήθεια μὲν ἀλογωτάτη παρ' Ἕλλησιν ἦν, διδάσκει δὲ τὰ ἀμείνω καὶ καταρυθμίζει λόγῳ πρὸς τὸ εὖ ἔχον ὁ νόμος, καὶ τὸ εἰκαῖον εἶναι δοκοῦν. Βούλει δὲ, ὡς ἔνι, καὶ τὰ ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ λέγωμεν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Μάλιστά γε.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἢ οὐκ οἶσθα, μεμνήσομαι γὰρ, εἰς νοῦ τύπον ὁ λόγος ἐτίθει τὴν κεφαλὴν, ὡς ἐνδιαίτημα νοῦ; Δέχεται γὰρ οὕτως ἡ θεόπνευστος Γραφή.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Σύμφημι· τί οὖν τοῦτό γε;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὅτι τρίχες μὲν, καρποὶ κεφαλῆς, καὶ ἐμφύτων βλαστημάτων ἀνίσχουσι δίκην· ἔννοιαί γε μὴν, καὶ τὰ ἐκ νοῦ πάντα, καρπὸς ἂν εἶεν αὖ νοῦ, νόμον ἡμῖν ἀναβρύουσαι, καὶ οἱονείπως αὐτῷ καλή τε καὶ εὐανθὴς ἐμπρέπουσα κόμη. Χρὴ τοιγαροῦν ἡμᾶς, οὐ γυμνὸν καὶ ἐψιλωμένον ἐννοιῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἔχειν τὸν νοῦν, ἀλλ' οἱονεὶ βρύοντα καὶ κομῶντα Θεῷ τὴν ὁτιοῦν τῶν ἀρίστων εἴδησιν ἀκριβῆ, δι' ἧς καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ θεῖον, ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστι, περιεργάσεται κάλλος, καὶ περιαθρήσει λαμπρῶς τὰ ὡς ἐν βάθει κεκρυμμένα, καὶ τοὺς τῆς ἄγαν ὀρθότητος καταπλουτήσει λόγους, ὡς ἀνυπαίτιον παντελῶς τὴν ἐπὶ Θεῷ δύνασθαι γνῶσιν ἑλεῖν, καὶ ἀπλανεστάτην ἰέναι τρίβον, τὴν ἐφ' ἅπασι λέγω τοῖς τεθαυμασμένοις. Ἢ οὐκ εἰς λῆξιν
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.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 68 De adoratione Book 16 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 16)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 16)
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.