Half-shekel for the tent; only the twenty-year-olds give
Cyril: Well done, Palladius, for you think rightly. And the matter holds thus by nature, and the sacred letter will testify. For when God wished those still lodging according to the wilderness to raise the holy tent for the sons of Israel, unto an image and type of the Church from the nations, he was again outlining that the things useful unto this must be gathered. And he said thus toward the sacred-revealer Moses: ‘If you take the reckoning of the sons of Israel in their oversight, and each will give ransoms of his soul to the Lord, and there will not be a fall in them in their oversight; and this is what they will give, as many as pass the oversight, the half of the didrachm, which is according to the holy didrachm—twenty obols the didrachm—the half of the didrachm a contribution to the Lord. Everyone passing unto the oversight, from twenty years and upward, will give the contribution to the Lord. The rich will not add, and the poor will not lessen from the half of the didrachm, upon giving the contribution to the Lord; to propitiate concerning your souls; and you will take the silver of the contribution from the sons of Israel, and will give them unto a work of the tent of the witness, and it will be for the sons of Israel a memorial opposite the Lord to propitiate concerning your souls.’ Behold again the lawgiver says the precise reckoning must be finished; and he has ordered to bring together the gifts to the Lord, the half of the didrachm. And whom those owing to bring forward would be, he defines clearly; for God has not allowed womenfolk to do this, nor indeed those still infants; rejecting, I think somewhere, the strengthless and soft, and the incomplete unto understanding; and as it were enrolling among those owing to bear fruit the youth already come to puberty and swelling, and passing unto the oversight, for whom he also defines the twentieth year. For only those springing up from boyish thinking and womanish mind, and already completing unto a man’s measure, having fullness of stature of the understood in Christ and spiritual, are worthy of the need to bring forward the gifts to the Lord, according to the law. These pass unto the oversight—that is, show themselves worthy also of coming to be in God’s sight, according to what is hymned in Psalms: ‘The Lord’s eyes are upon righteous ones.’ And for salvation of those bringing forward the ransoms, and unto the works of the holy tent, and unto a memorial opposite the Lord; for the saints’ manly deeds constitute churches, and are useful unto adornment of the holy tent, together with also succeeding very well at the soul’s salvation, and crowning those playing the man with unfinished glory. Or does the word not seem to you to be true?
Palladius: Very much so.
Cyril: The ransom, then—or rather the didrachm—God has oracled must be taxed, and the ends of those playing the man were in this. And the leaders of the tribes, adding to what has been ordered from law,
Greek
{ΚΥΡ.} Εὖγε, ὦ Παλλάδιε, διανοῇ γὰρ ὀρθῶς. Ἔχει δὲ ὧδε τὸ χρῆμα τῇ φύσει, καὶ μαρτυρήσει τὸ γράμμα τὸ ἱερόν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ αὐλιζομένοις ἔτι κατὰ τὴν ἔρημον τὴν ἁγίαν σκηνὴν ἐγείρειν ἐβούλετο ὁ Θεὸς, εἰς εἰκόνα καὶ τύπον τῆς ἐξ ἐθνῶν Ἐκκλησίας, συναγείρεσθαι δεῖν τὰ εἰς τοῦτο χρήσιμα διετύπου πάλιν. Ἔφη τε οὕτω πρὸς τὸν ἱεροφάντην Μωσέα· «Ἐὰν λάβῃς τὸν συλλογισμὸν τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ ἐν τῇ ἐπισκοπῇ αὐτῶν, καὶ δώσουσιν ἕκαστος λύτρα τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ Κυρίῳ, καὶ οὐκ ἔσται ἐν αὐτοῖς πτῶσις ἐν τῇ ἐπισκοπῇ αὐτῶν· καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν ὃ δώσουσιν, ὅσοι ἐὰν πορεύωνται τὴν ἐπίσκεψιν, τὸ ἥμισυ τοῦ διδράχμου, ὅ ἐστι κατὰ δίδραχμον τὸ ἅγιον, εἴκοσιν ὀβολοὶ τὸ δίδραχμον, τὸ ἥμισυ τοῦ διδράχμου εἰσφορὰ τῷ Κυρίῳ. Πᾶς ὁ παραπορευόμενος εἰς τὴν ἐπίσκεψιν, ἀπὸ εἰκοσαετοῦς καὶ ἐπάνω δώσουσι τὴν εἰσφορὰν τῷ Κυρίῳ. Ὁ πλουτῶν οὐ προσθήσει, καὶ ὁ πενόμενος οὐκ ἐλαττονήσει ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡμίσους τοῦ διδράχμου, ἐπὶ τὸ διδόναι τὴν εἰσφορὰν τῷ Κυρίῳ· ἐξιλάσασθαι περὶ τῶν ψυχῶν ὑμῶν· καὶ λήψῃ τὸ ἀργύριον τῆς εἰσφορᾶς παρὰ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ δώσεις αὐτοῖς εἰς κάτεργον τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου, καὶ ἔσται τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ μνημόσυνον ἐναντίον Κυρίου ἐξιλάσασθαι περὶ τῶν ψυχῶν ὑμῶν.» Ἰδοὺ δὴ πάλιν ἀκριβῆ τὸν ἐκλογισμὸν διαπεραίνεσθαι δεῖν ὁ νομοθέτης φησί· συνενεγκεῖν δὲ προστέταχε τὰ δῶρα Κυρίῳ, τὸ ἥμισυ τοῦ διδράχμου. Τίνες δ' ἂν εἶεν οἱ προσκομίζειν ὀφείλοντες, διορίζει σαφῶς· οὐ γὰρ δὴ γυναίοις τοῦτο δρᾷν, οὔτε μὴν τοῖς ἔτι νηπίοις ἐφῆκε Θεός· ἀποδοκιμάζων, οἶμαί που, τὸ ἄναλκί τε καὶ μαλθακὸν, καὶ τὸ ἀτελὲς εἰς σύνεσιν· ἐγκαταγράφων δὲ ὥσπερ τοῖς ὀφείλουσι καρποφορεῖν τὸν ἡβηκότα ἤδη καὶ σφριγῶντα νεανίαν, καὶ παραπορευόμενον εἰς τὴν ἐπίσκεψιν, οἷς καὶ ἔτος ὁρίζει τὸ εἰκοστόν. Μόνοι γὰρ ἄξιοι τοῦ χρῆναι προσάγειν τὰ δῶρα Κυρίῳ, κατὰ τὸν νόμον, οἱ μειρακιώδη φρόνησιν καὶ θηλύφρονα νοῦν ἀναθρώσκοντες, καὶ εἰς ἀνδρὸς ἤδη τελοῦντες μέτρον, ἡλικίας ἔχοντες πλήρωμα τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ νοουμένης καὶ πνευματικῆς. Οὗτοι παραπορεύονται εἰς τὴν ἐπίσκεψιν, τουτέστιν, ἀξίους ἑαυτοὺς ἀποφαίνουσι τοῦ καὶ ἐν ὄψει γενέσθαι Θεοῦ, κατὰ τὸ ἐν Ψαλμοῖς ὑμνούμενον· «Ὀφθαλμοὶ Κυρίου ἐπὶ δικαίους.» Ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας δὲ τῆς τῶν προσαγόντων τὰ λύτρα, καὶ εἰς τὰ κάτεργα τῆς ἁγίας σκηνῆς, καὶ εἰς μνημόσυνον ἔναντι Κυρίου· συνίστησι γὰρ ἐκκλησίας, καὶ εἰς κόσμον χρήσιμα τῆς ἁγίας σκηνῆς, τὰ τῶν ἁγίων ἀνδραγαθήματα, μετὰ τοῦ καὶ τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς σωτηρίαν εὖ μάλα συγκατορθοῦν, καὶ ἀτελευτήτῳ δόξῃ στεφανοῦν τοὺς ἀνδριζομένους. Ἢ οὐκ ἀληθὴς ὁ λόγος εἶναί σοι δοκεῖ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τὸ μὲν οὖν λύτρον, ἤτοι τὸ δίδραχμον, δασμολογεῖσθαι δεῖν κεχρησμῴδηκε Θεὸς, καὶ ἦν τῶν ἀνδριζομένων ἐν τούτῳ τὰ τέλη. Οἱ δὲ τῶν φυλῶν ἡγούμενοι, προστιθέντες τοῖς ἐκ νόμου προστεταγμένοις,
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 4 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 4 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 4 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 4)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 4)
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.