Zipporah’s flint circumcision shames the destroyer until Moses
feet of him, and said: The blood of the circumcision of my child has stood.’ Will you need a long word toward clarity? or is the contemplation clear?
Palladius: Not at all; for I understand in no way whatever what is being shown as in a shadow by what befell.
Cyril: For do you not say it is true, friend, that human nature has become held by death from that ancient curse? for it has been said to us, as in the firstfruits of the race and highest root Adam: ‘You are earth, and unto earth you will go away.’
Palladius: Very much so.
Cyril: Therefore since it has befallen the beginning of the race to sicken with the death from sin, necessarily the matter also passed through unto us ourselves, and together with the root also the plants springing up from it were pastured upon. For of a corruptible body the fruit is corruptible. Thus death has reigned against all, and even until Moses himself—that is, the times according to law. Clear and evident type therefore of death’s having strength until Moses, and human things’ being subject to corruption, is the angelic undertaking against Moses then. Yet Zipporah the housemate and fitted-together was shaming the destroyer, and making him stand off from Moses, circumcising her own child with a flint, entreating and saying: ‘The blood of the circumcision of my child has stood.’ And the blood has stood, he says, not as of the flow of blood having ceased; for neither, I think, would this ever turn the destroyer from wanting to murder, but as it were somehow she was saying: What seems good to God has been done and fulfilled—that is, the circumcision of the child; just as if someone might happen to say: The type of this deed has stood, or, The word toward this has stood. Instead of: It has come to an end and has been shown.
Palladius: Then who would Zipporah be understood as by us? and what the flint, and the circumcision that came through it? and how has the divine angel been shamed, and Moses fled the death hanging over him and owed, a child having been circumcised?
Cyril: The word is unclear, and the mind of the things sought truly hard to reach; but trusting God, as far as I am able, I will speak again. Zipporah, being daughter of the priest of Midian (and this man a foreigner, and not from Israel’s blood), fulfills for us a type and person of the Church from the nations, called toward God as from worldly worship. For it has been said somewhere to her through David’s voice: ‘Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people, and your father’s house,’
Greek
πόδας αὐτοῦ, καὶ εἶπεν· Ἔστη τὸ αἷμα τῆς περιτομῆς τοῦ παιδίου μου.» Ἆρά σοι μακροῦ πρὸς σαφήνειαν δεήσει λόγου; ἤγουν ἐναργὲς τὸ θεώρημα;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οὐ μὲν οὖν· συνίημι γὰρ οὐδαμῶς ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστι τὸ ὡς ἐν σκιᾷ τῷ συμβεβηκότι καταδεικνύμενον.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐ γὰρ, ὦ φιλότης, ἀληθὲς εἶναι φῂς, ὅτι θανάτου κάτοχος ἡ ἀνθρώπου φύσις ἐκ τῆς ἀρχαίας ἐκείνης γέγονεν ἀρᾶς; εἴρηται γὰρ πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ὡς ἐν ἀπαρχῇ τοῦ γένους καὶ ῥίζῃ τῇ ἀνωτάτω τῷ Ἀδάμ· «Γῆ εἶ, καὶ εἰς γῆν ἀπελεύσῃ.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδήπερ τὴν τοῦ γένους ἀρχὴν, τὸν ἐκ τῆς ἁμαρτίας συμβέβηκεν ἀῤῥωστῆσαι θάνατον, ἀναγκαίως καὶ εἰς ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς τὸ χρῆμα διέβη, καὶ ὁμοῦ τῇ ῥίζῃ καὶ τὰ ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀναθέοντα κατενεμήθη φυτά. Φθαρτοῦ γὰρ σώματος φθαρτὸς ὁ καρπός. Οὕτω βεβασίλευκε κατὰ πάντων ὁ θάνατος, καὶ μέχρις αὐτοῦ Μωσέως, τοῦτ' ἔστι, τῶν κατὰ νόμον καιρῶν. Τύπος οὖν ἄρα σαφής τε καὶ ἐναργὴς τοῦ μέχρι Μωσέως ἰσχύσαι τὸν θάνατον, καὶ ὑποκεῖσθαι φθορᾷ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, τὸ ἀγγελικὸν ἐγχείρημα κατὰ Μωσέως τότε. Πλὴν ἐδυσώπει τὸν ὀλοθρεύοντα, καὶ ἀφίστα Μωσέως, ἡ σύνοικός τε καὶ συνηρμοσμένη Σεπφώρα, ψήφῳ τὸ οἰκεῖον περιτεμοῦσα παιδίον, ἐκλιπαροῦσά τε καὶ λέγουσα· «Ἔστη τὸ αἷμα τῆς περιτομῆς τοῦ παιδίου μου.» Ἔστη δὲ τὸ αἷμα, φησὶν, οὐχ ὡς τῆς τοῦ αἵματος ῥύσεως ἀποπαυσαμένης· οὐδὲ γὰρ, οἶμαι, τοῦτο μεθίστη ποτὲ τοῦ φονᾷν ἐθέλειν τὸν ὀλοθρευτὴν, ἀλλ' οἱονείπου ἔλεγε· Πέπρακται καὶ πεπλήρωται τὸ δοκοῦν τῷ Θεῷ, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἡ περιτομὴ τοῦ παιδίου· ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις λέγοι τυχόν· Ὁ τοῦδε τοῦ πράγματος ἔστη τύπος, ἤγουν, Ἔστη τυχὸν ὁ πρὸς τόδε λόγος. Ἀντὶ τοῦ, Πρὸς πέρας ἥκει καὶ δέδεικται.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εἶτα τίς πρὸς ἡμῶν ἡ Σεπφώρα νοοῖτο; τί δὲ ἡ ψῆφος, καὶ ἡ δι' αὐτῆς γενομένη περιτομή; δεδυσώπηται δὲ ὅπως ὁ θεῖος ἄγγελος, καὶ διέδρα Μωσῆς τὸν ἐπηρτημένον αὐτῷ καὶ ὀφειλόμενον θάνατον, παιδίου περιτετμημένου;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀσαφὴς ὁ λόγος, καὶ δυσέφικτος ἀληθῶς τῶν ζητουμένων ὁ νοῦς· Θεῷ δὲ πίσυνος, ὡς ἂν οἷός τε ὦ, πάλιν ἐρῶ. Ἡ Σεπφώρα, θυγάτηρ οὖσα τοῦ ἱερέως τοῦ Μαδιὰμ (ἀνὴρ δὲ οὗτος ἀλλογενὴς, καὶ οὐκ ἐξ αἵματος Ἰσραὴλ), τύπον ἡμῖν καὶ πρόσωπον τῆς ἐξ ἐθνῶν Ἐκκλησίας ἀποπληροῖ, κεκλημένης πρὸς Θεὸν ὡς ἐκ λατρείας κοσμικῆς. Εἴρηται γάρ που πρὸς αὐτὴν διὰ φωνῆς τοῦ Δαβίδ· «Ἄκουσον, θύγατερ, καὶ ἴδε, καὶ κλῖνον τὸ οὖς σου, καὶ ἐπιλάθου τοῦ λαοῦ σου, καὶ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός σου,
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius on worship in spirit and truth. Book 2 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 2 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 2 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 2)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 2)
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.