On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth, Book 5

Courage in Christ: saints must not befriend the world’s cares§1

1ON ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH — BOOK FIVE. Concerning the manliness that is in Christ. The saints’ aim therefore, Palladius—even if they should contend above others’ life—is to love appropriating nothing of the things in the world; for thus they would be both wise and powerful, and filled with good hope, and very well walled by favors from above, and, know it well, friend, the matter is not otherwise. For having the mind higher than the distractions in the world and temporary desires, they will meet enemies altogether easy to conquer, and will very easily prevail over those who have stood against, God shaking down those ones’ power beforehand; yet having themselves also fallen into worldly passions, and been wrapped in more earthy desires, they will then lie beside those who have chosen to pursue them as easy to overrun and most easy to catch, and having been shown bare of the security from above, they will lie beside the enemies as some most ready prey.

Palladius: And what would the assurance of what has been said be? I would wish to know clearly.

Cyril: The sacred Letter, usefully sounding beside what befell the ancients. For did not even divine Paul say that those things have been written toward our admonition?

Palladius: I say so; for the things shown from them will work for us not moderate benefit. For the shadows were types of the truth.

Cyril: Therefore let us speak already. For having crossed the Jordan those from Israel attacked Jericho; and indeed also following divine nods they were eager to besiege it out, as about to prevail at once and take it, and the most fight-ready were present having hung upon themselves the law of war. For it has been written:

Armed before the Lord; Jericho’s ban; Achan takes the devoted things§2

2that ‘And Joshua the of Nun went in toward the priests, and said to them saying: Command the people to go round and encircle the city, and let the fight-ready go along armed opposite the Lord.’ For Christ commanding through the leaders’ voice, we campaign against the enemies, not choosing the battle toward blood and flesh, but rather toward rulers and authorities, and the law that has tyrannized in the members of the flesh. And we will then also be in God’s sight, fitted as it were with the divine and intelligible full armor. (For our weapons are not fleshly, according to Paul’s voice), and conspicuous with the boasts of righteousness. The Master God of all therefore looks upon the most fight-ready, wearing round them the bright vessels of righteousness—that is, the fight-ready going along armed as before Christ. And very honorable and truly much-wished is coming to be in God’s oversight, if it is not unpersuasive to think that upon those who have grieved him God sets the turning-away as some chastisement, saying: ‘When you stretch out the hands toward me, I will turn my eyes away from you.’ And when the siege was stretching even unto a seventh day, Joshua the of Nun said again to the sons of Israel: ‘Cry out toward the Lord; for the Lord has handed the city over to us, and the city will be a ban, itself and all things as many as are in it, to the Lord of the powers Sabaoth; yet keep Rahab the prostitute safe—her, and all things as many as are in her house. But you guard yourselves from the ban, lest ever having thought you yourselves take from the ban, and make the camp of the sons of Israel a ban, and wipe us out, and every silver and gold, and bronze and iron will be holy to the Lord; it will be brought into the Lord’s treasury.’ For he was allowing those playing the man to revel in the other plunderings, yet says that every silver and gold, bronze and iron must be brought into the Lord’s treasury; for this was the so-called ban—that is, what has been allotted from all and marked off for God. But having counted the commandment worthy of no word, ‘Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah from the tribe of Judah took,’ it says, ‘from the ban. And the Lord was wroth in anger at the sons of Israel.’ For I think those leading out the well-strong mind in Christ past the worldly pleasures and the distractions in this life, and having chosen to be of good reputation through the weapons of righteousness, and already come to be in Christ’s oversight, must reach for nothing of the things wondered at in the world—not wealth, not glory, not power, or superiority, not the unholy doctrines from Greek wisdom. And unto a type of brightness in dignities and superiorities would be the silver; for the material is bright; and of wealth, the gold. And the well-sounding of the tongue of the wise in the world the

Silver, gold, bronze, iron; Achan’s theft harms all Israel at Ai§3

3bronze would signal; and strength and power, iron being very hard, and fighting against every material. Of which if someone should choose to share, although having the best rank beside God, and being measured among warriors, and indeed also having become distinguished by spiritual good courage, he will strike against God, and having chosen to pain the fellow-armed and helper with counterfeit turnings-aside, will lie under the angers from there.

Palladius: You have spoken well. For I would agree. Yet tell me that, having carried the word a little off from the deed and the history: why to the Lord the silver and the gold, and the bronze and iron, and not rather—either as useless perhaps, or as knowing how to defile—were they sent out from the camp? for the power of the spiritual contemplation has shown them abominable.

Cyril: Because, Palladius, every brightness, and wisdom and wealth, and indeed also strength, will fittingly and holily be dedicated to God. For his is the glory and all brightness, wealth and wisdom, and power. But if someone should choose from him, and be enriched from the Lord’s treasury—clearly the intelligible wealth—and have glory and understanding, and spiritual strength, he will be conspicuous and enviable. And if he should wish to take these from the world, he will be detestable and hated beside the virtue-loving God at least, and will be under judgment and justice. For pleasure-loving will altogether follow wealth; and neighbor at once to brightness and superiorities is contempt; and to powers greed has been fixed beside; and to the wisdom in the world, the ugly in doctrines, even if the tongue of those who have written those things should have the well-sounding. Some such thing Paul also says: ‘If anyone among you is wise, let him become foolish, that he may become wise; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness beside God.’ Achan therefore, not taking from Christ’s treasury, but as from Jericho’s world, strikes against God. And the harms from there and the things coming from divine anger were going not upon only the one condemned upon these, but were mistreating the whole synagogue; for having become without share of the help from above, Israel once most hard to take was weak and without strength.

Palladius: And how or from where might we learn that the word upon this is true?

Cyril: From what has been written next. For after the things according to Jericho and the things upon it done brightly and young-heartedly by all Israel, Joshua sent men from Jericho into Ai, saying: ‘Going up reconnoiter Ai. And the men went up and reconnoitered Ai, and returned toward Joshua, and said toward him: Let not all the people go up, but about two thousand or three thousand men let them go up, and let them besiege the city out. Do not lead up all the people there; for they are few. And about three thousand

Defeat at Ai; the ban in the camp; Achan’s confession§4

4men went up, and they fled from the face of Ai’s men, and Ai’s men killed from them unto thirty-six men, and pursued them from the gate, and crushed them from the descent; and the people’s heart was terrified, and came to be as water.’ Those who had taken cities, and ravaged countries, and conquered the fiercest of the nations without toil, meet those from Ai as unconquerable, and were barely being saved, and were withdrawing not without loss, not having wished at the beginnings that the whole multitude of the fight-ready be in arms, yet having expressly confessed that the city would be altogether easy to conquer even for few. For ‘Let not all the people go up,’ they were saying, ‘but about two thousand men.’ And toward the unexpected suffering, and the disaster beyond hope, Joshua being very heavy-hearted, and tearing the garment, and falling toward God, and astonished what ever the matter is, God said: ‘Rise; why have you fallen thus upon your face? The people has sinned and transgressed my covenant which I covenanted toward them, and having stolen from the ban they cast into their vessels. The sons of Israel will not be able to stand against the face of their enemies; they will turn neck opposite their enemies, because they have become a ban; I will not add still to be with you, unless you lift out the ban from yourselves.’ And Joshua asked Achan who had been pointed out, saying: ‘Give glory today to the Lord the God of Israel, and give the confession and announce to me what you did, and do not hide from me. And Achan answered Joshua, and said: Truly I have sinned opposite the Lord God of Israel; thus and thus I did. I saw in the plunder a variegated robe and two hundred didrachms of silver, and one golden tongue of fifty didrachms, and having thought of them I took, and behold these have been hidden in the earth, in my tent, and the silver has been hidden underneath them.’ You understand that even the thief himself says he has seen in the plunder a variegated robe, and two hundred didrachms of silver, and a golden tongue of fifty didrachms, and to have thought of them—that is, to have come unto a lawless desire of them. The robe then they think a soldier’s garment, and say it is a cloak woven variegatedly; and the clothing is soldierly, and a symbol of greed. For somehow always greed as most sweet has grown beside the military race. And again a type of worldly brightness is the silver; and of the sweet-speaking Hellenic wisdom, the tongue. Some such is also the tongue and education of the wise among Greeks, as it were golden and most honorable, because of the conspicuousness in diction. And the sin already having been unveiled, Joshua was subjecting Achan to penalties—not only having wronged himself, but having stretched the harm from his own unrestrained desire unto the whole synagogue. And perhaps this is what has been said to us most excellently and clearly through Paul’s voice: ‘Lift out the evil one from yourselves;

Little leaven; no soft mind in man’s gear; hypocrisy abominated§5

5a little leaven leavens the whole lump.’ Has it been shown you clearly, then—in Abraham first, that the boasts unto strength remain unharmed for the saints, and that having been able to contend down the enemies follows easily, if they should choose to seek nothing of the things from a world; and in Achan, the affairs having gone out unto the opposite of these, for one having bent from the straight, and having nodded toward the things in the world?

Palladius: Very much so; for the word is clear.

Cyril: And that the saints must be seen everywhere single-mannered, and not other-minded, would become clear, the law saying evidently: ‘There will not be a man’s vessels upon a woman, nor will a man put on a womanish garment, because every one doing these things is an abomination before the Lord.’ For equal abomination beside God and most ugly sight is a reputation of nobility upon softnesses—for this is the being a man’s vessels upon a woman; and being sick with softness in manlinesses—for this likewise is the man putting on a womanish garment.

Palladius: What sort of thing do you say?

Cyril: Is not hypocrisy an evil and unapproved thing beside both God and humans?

Palladius: Truly.

Cyril: If then someone should be pleasure-loving and unrestrained, and should be convicted from the very things done that he is such, then should make upon himself a plastered reputation of equity—would you yourself praise such a one, Palladius?

Palladius: Not at all.

Cyril: And what of the truly orderly and well-schooled—will you not think he must be known fixed in sameness of judgment, not something other beside what he is?

Palladius: I say so.

Cyril: Therefore never let some people’s fragile and soft mind run under the reputation of manliness; for this is: There will not be a man’s vessels upon a woman; nor indeed let the truly well-strong seek the soft; for this again is: A man will not put on a womanish garment. For the baseness is as equal in both, and the charges are insolence unto virtue.

Palladius: Softness is slippery, as it seems, and the matter is not without penalty.

Cyril: Do not hesitate at all. For the passion is altogether cast-away, and God-hated; therefore also the one held in such charges somehow is sent out from the sacred catalogues. For I myself say that the truly well-strong and most noble must nowhere leave his own mind to be shattered unpracticed, but keep it higher than every fright and hesitation, and fixed blamelessly in the faith unto God, say: ‘I am strong all things in Christ who empowers me’; and decline as procuring destruction, and showing us unapproved beside God, choosing to mind the

Deuteronomy’s war exemptions: house, vineyard, betrothal, fear§6

6more earthy things. And indeed in Deuteronomy it has been written again: ‘If you go out unto war upon your enemies, and see horse and rider, and a people more than you, you will not fear from them, because the Lord your God is with you, who led you up from Egypt’s land, and it will be when you draw near to the war, and the priest having drawn near will speak to the people, and will say toward them: Hear, Israel, you go forward today unto the war upon your enemies; let not your heart be loosened; do not fear, nor be shattered, nor turn aside from their face; because the Lord your God, who goes forward with you, will war together with you your enemies to save you. And the scribes will speak toward the people, saying: Who is the human who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and turn back into his house, lest he die in the war, and another human dedicate it. And who is the human who has planted a vineyard, and has not been gladdened from it? Let him go and turn back into his house, lest he die in the war, and another human be gladdened from it. And who is the human who has betrothed a woman, and has not taken her? Let him go and turn back into his house, lest he die in the war, and another human take her. And the scribes will add to speak toward the people, and will say: Who is the human who fears and is cowardly in heart? Let him go and turn back into his house, so that he may not make cowardly his brother’s heart, just as his own.’

Palladius: But that those who have taken courage upon God must be conspicuous in virtues and play the man toward every good thing whatever, I myself also would say. Yet some are sent away from the war as unsuited—how or in what manner I am not able to learn.

Cyril: Or do you not know that one would not become of good reputation beside God, nor would anyone choose to endure the toils for the piety unto him, unless he was considering the life in this world a sojourning? Which was being written for us most excellently and evidently, as in image and types, in the saints’ ways of life. For divine Abraham was sojourning in tents, and was making the running-across from places unto places; and all Israel according to the wilderness was making frequent departures, and has dwelt in tents. And the prophet David also very much boasts in this, saying thus toward God: ‘Spare me, because I am a sojourner in the earth and a passer-by, just as all my fathers.’ And he was very much accepting the dwellings above, saying thus: ‘How beloved are your tents, Lord of the powers! My soul longs and fails unto the Lord’s courts.’ Such ones therefore mind the things above, and thirst for the dwellings in the heavens, which the Savior himself also promises to those who love him, saying: ‘I go, and will prepare a place for you, and will come again, and will take you along with myself, so that where I am, you also

House, vineyard, betrothal type worldly loves; Paul undeterred§7

7may be there with me.’ A type therefore of the one not putting up with considering the present life a sojourning is the one building a house, and lying eagerly upon the industriousness concerning it; and of the possession-loving and gain-loving, the one planting a vineyard; and the woman-mad, and made soft, and having given the mind to the flesh’s desires, the one going forward to a woman’s betrothal would signal. Therefore by the army-herald’s voice they withdraw from the sacred and most fight-ready multitude. And what those held by such passions were likely to think and say, these the herald was already crying out beforehand. Or is it not true that for those accustomed to be sick with such things, it is somehow dear in persecutions to love the without-toil, and not to follow along with the eagernesses for the love unto God, thinking that if something should come to be to suffer while contending, they fall out from houses and possessions, and from the desires honored beside them? for from there it happens for them to be seen most undaring and ignoble. What therefore those are likely to think and say, these the scribe has cried through, striking the ignoble with as it were sideways proofs and elegant reproaches—one who makes a pretext a pretext in weaknesses, and gathers worldly pleasures as some food for the cowardice. Because of this God has ordered the army-herald to make the last voice bare and unveiled. For ‘And the Scribes will add,’ he says, ‘to speak toward the people, and will say: If any human fearing and cowardly in heart, let him go into his house, so that he may not make cowardly his brother’s heart, just as his own.’ For he all but says that clearly: The one lying upon the earthy things, and building houses, and planting a vineyard, and being worsted by the pleasures unto flesh-love, will somehow altogether be both cowardly and strengthless; and such a one is altogether unapproved, and will be toward harms for the others; for ‘Bad conversations corrupt useful habits.’ And the one most easy to catch by cowardices sometimes drags down toward unmanliness even the well-strong and good-souled. Therefore also divine Paul was rebuking some who were wishing to prevent him from going up into Jerusalem; for he says: ‘What do you do weeping and crushing my heart together? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ And it must be noted that of those called unto the wedding the declining was also: ‘I bought a field, and I married a woman, and I am not able to come.’ And it has been written thus in the Gospel and in parables. And it is not somehow hard, if it seems good to you, to receive the faith upon this also from ancient examples.

Palladius: Speak then, having delayed nothing; for you will benefit very much.

Cyril: Therefore as we read in Numbers: ‘And after these things the people lifted from Hazeroth, and encamped in the Paran wilderness. And the Lord spoke toward Moses saying: Send for yourself

Spies of Canaan; timid report vs Caleb and Joshua§8

8men, and let them reconnoiter the Canaanites’ land, which I give the sons of Israel as a holding; one man according to tribe, according to peoples of their fatherhoods you will send them, every leader from them. And Moses sent them out from the Paran wilderness through the Lord’s voice, all men leaders of sons of Israel.’ And the ones sent out having been numbered according to tribes and races, he brings on again: ‘And going up they reconnoitered the land from the Sin wilderness, until Rehob, of those going into Hamath.’ And after other things: ‘And they came until a ravine of Cluster, and reconnoitered it, and cut from there a branch, and one cluster of grape upon it, and they lifted it upon carrying-poles, and from the pomegranates, and from the figs; and they named that place Cluster-ravine, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut from there, and they turned back from there having reconnoitered the land, after forty days; and going they came toward Moses and Aaron, and toward every synagogue of the sons of Israel into the Paran wilderness Kadesh. And they answered them a word, and to every synagogue, and showed the fruit of the land, and narrated to him, and said: We came into the land into which you sent us, a land flowing milk and honey, and this is its fruit. But that the nation dwelling upon it is bold, and cities fortified walled and very great, and we have seen Enak’s race there.’ Do you understand how the easily terrified and most undaring of those who reconnoitered the land of the promise have confessed evidently that the land is both well-vined and fat, and weighed down with beautiful fruits, yet weave beside these the things unto cowardice, naming the dwelling nation bold, and saying cities fortified and walled up and down, and standing Israel out of the hope unto mastering, and frightening them down unto unmanliness?

Palladius: Thus it holds.

Cyril: But the wise and young-hearted, Caleb and Joshua, were standing against those ones’ sophistries, saying toward both the people and sacred Moses: ‘Not so; but going up we will go up and will inherit it, because we will be able toward them.’ And those sent out together were not ending at all, confirming that the land of the promise would be hard to take for those from Israel. Then he says: ‘And every synagogue taking up gave a voice, and the people was weeping that whole night, and all the sons of Israel were murmuring upon Moses and Aaron; and every synagogue said toward them: Would that we had died in Egypt’s land, or in this wilderness, if we had died; and why does the Lord lead us into this land to fall in the war? Our women and the children will be unto plunder. Now therefore it is better for us to turn back into Egypt. And they said the one to the other: Let us give a leader, and let us turn back

Only Caleb and Joshua enter; worldly pleasure unfit for spiritual array§9

9into Egypt.’ Unto this misery and unmanliness every synagogue has slipped down. And although Joshua the of Nun was as it were shifting them unto good daring, and tearing the garment, and pouring countless encomia of the land, they were not wishing to take heart again; yet grieving the helping God with their senseless small-soulednesses, and allotting the success of the hope to their own powers. Therefore thereafter he was also swearing, saying: ‘If any of these men will see the land which I swore to their fathers, except Caleb son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the of Nun.’ Is it doubtful that the cowardly and unenduring of toil, and short unto faith, destroys others together with himself, corrupting with bad conversations, and will fall from both lot and hope unto God; yet the well-strong and most mighty will both lie inside the hope, and will be known to God?

Palladius: Not ambiguous; for the demonstration suffices.

Cyril: Therefore just as we said at the beginnings, the one wrapped in worldly pleasures is unsuited unto the spiritual array.

Palladius: Very much.

Cyril: And I would add that (for I think one must hunt the benefiting very well) even the one newly having begun to succeed at whatever virtue is not yet sufficient toward battle, yet altogether easy to carry down toward the wronging.

Palladius: How do you say?

Cyril: In Deuteronomy it has been written: ‘And if someone takes a woman freshly, he will not go out unto war, and no deed will be cast upon him. He will be guiltless in his house; one year he will gladden the woman whom he took.’ Therefore, Palladius, must one attend only and bare to the letter, and does the virtue-loving lawgiver seat the fight-ready at home, and not allow him to be of good reputation—one worsted by cold conversations unto a woman, and making flesh-love more urgent than the necessary things?

Palladius: Least of all would I myself grant that this seems good to the lawgiver; yet some persuasive word, as it seems, lies upon it.

Cyril: Therefore what I said I will say having cycled back. A man having touched virtue, and not yet having succeeded at it very well, is easy to carry down unto the opposite.

Palladius: Speak how. For I do not follow very much.

Cyril: Solomon says somewhere: ‘Say wisdom is your sister; and make prudence known for yourself.’ For we appropriate the virtues as it were, having been most eager to bear fruit in them as much as possible; for one perhaps has the wise in knowledge, and another has gentleness and angerlessness not unpracticed, or some other of such things which he would choose to succeed at. Therefore at once the mind that has begun the

New virtue not yet battle-ready; apostles spare new gentile believers§10

10equity in these—is it sufficient unto being tested and tried? and having met those who twist the right things, will the one who has newly cohabited with wisdom not rather be twisted, or rather prevail and beat off those ones’ harms, not yet stepped and fixed sufficiently toward understanding?

Palladius: It seems so.

Cyril: And when someone is spurring, will the one practicing gentleness, if he is not yet somehow trained toward this, not easily go off toward anger?

Palladius: I think so.

Cyril: And an practiced wise man will fight through against wise men, and will lead out young-heartedly against those ones’ knaveries the things from rightness of reasonings?

Palladius: Truly.

Cyril: And what—will the one who has succeeded at gentleness not be hard toward angers, even if some should sometimes sharpen him toward this?

Palladius: I say so.

Cyril: Rightly therefore the law, having shaped elegantly as in a form of a woman the virtue cohabiting with the saints, ‘If someone takes a woman freshly,’ it says, ‘he will not go out unto war, and no deed will be cast upon him; he will be guiltless in his house. One year he will gladden the woman whom he took.’ For it does not allow the as-it-were newly fixed, and having a fresher eagerness unto the good, to be loaded with toils and persecutions, but as it were leisurely and remaining upon himself, and being warmed to be bound with the affections unto virtue. Some such thing we will find the holy apostles to have done, who to those turning from the nations, and newly called unto knowledge of God, clearly write: ‘For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to cast upon you no further burden, except that you abstain from fornication and strangled, and blood.’ For having economically let go the more burdensome of the commandments, they were ordering to keep few and necessary things, not having been ignorant of the unenduring of hardship of those newly brought in unto the need to be pious. And indeed the God of the wholes remits such ones both anger and charges, even if they should fall into small-soulednesses, stepping through the unaccustomed road of the toils. And after this he exacts justices, and thereafter brings under the motions from anger, those no longer weak through the unaccustomed in the toils, but rather falling back unto the sweet and unsmooth, and most readily dissolving unto what is dissonant with them. Or is virtue not uphill, and the going unto it rough, and must the one who has chosen to succeed sweat?

Palladius: I say so.

Cyril: But it was somewhere not unlikely, or rather, not holy and fitting, that those just now led toward this be trained with pardons, not yet fixed with the very eagernesses, yet going as with soft

Marah’s bitter water; wood sweetens; askesis before war on powers§11

11feet, and still sick with the unmanliness, to train the practiced one harshly with toils and fears, as if already somehow being carried off from necessity at last into the endurance-loving and well-obedient.

Palladius: You think most excellently.

Cyril: And the matter is not unclear, if we should wish to busy ourselves with the things that typically befell the ancients. For it has been written thus: ‘And Moses led out the sons of Israel from the Red Sea, and led them into the desert of Sur; and they journeyed three days in the desert, and they were not finding water so as to drink. And they came into Merra, and they were not able to drink water from Merra; for it was bitter. On account of this he named the name of that place Bitterness; and the people were murmuring against Moses, saying: What shall we drink? And Moses cried out toward the Lord; and the Lord showed him a wood, and he cast it into the water, and the water was sweetened.’ For just now departing from the Egyptians’ land those from Israel, and casting off the hard-to-bear and intolerable yoke of the service under them, were eager—God calling—to change harbor into the land long ago promised to the fathers. And first a toil meets them opposite—the scarcity of waters, which were found barely for those who had labored through a long time, yet not having the enjoyment without hardship; for they were bitter, according as it has been written. Yet by mixture of a wood it was being remade toward the pleasant and sweet, God having shown the way of the matter to divine Moses. For being trained by divine law toward the need to choose to follow along with God who draws them out of slavery from passions, and to be freed from the demons’ tyranny, it is necessary that those being tested sweat, and be crowned with the crown of being well-approved, melting down the things of the flesh by the toils from askesis, and as it were bewitching some terrible wild beast—the untamed movement that always looks toward pleasure—by thirst and by fastings. For the first battle for us who wish to set right self-control is toward flesh and its things; and I do not think anyone would practice out virtue otherwise. A type therefore of the toils in askesis is the thirst that befell those of old according to the desert; and firstfruits of trainings, the bodily things. For watch how they do not at the beginnings at once attack with war (for not for those who have just begun to manfully master the passions and set right virtue is the wrestling at once toward the rulers and authorities, because of those being tested still being ignoble and not yet very secure), but they are tested with the flesh’s toils, God measuring out the hard-to-bear of the toil to the habits of those being tried. And this is, I think somewhere, the: ‘Temptation has not taken you except a human one; yet faithful, he says, is God, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will make with the temptation also the way out of being able to endure.’ And the sweats for virtue being very bitter, he remolds into the pleasant and sweet

Christ the wood of life; early murmuring pardoned; fire at Taberah§12

12Christ, who both has been said and is wood of life. And he himself also said somewhere in evangelical writings: ‘If in the moist wood they did these things, in the dry what will they do?’ naming himself a moist and well-flowering wood. And a wood is shown to divine Moses from beside God. For the Father alone reveals the Son, since he alone also knows him. ‘For no one knows who the Son is, except the Father.’ Therefore in Christ the wood of life, the bitter things are sweet, the hard-to-bear are bearable, and the things that in their own nature are accustomed to corrupt become necessary unto life.

Palladius: In what manner do you say?

Cyril: If indeed it is true that the toils, being very bitter, corrupt the body, yet make the soul a sharer of the eternal life (and Paul also said somewhere: ‘When I am weak, then I am powerful.’ And again: ‘For if our outer human is being corrupted, yet the inner is being renewed day by day’)—who would ever choose to endure through toils so sharp, unless having the sweet hope that is in Christ?

Palladius: No one would, I think, altogether.

Cyril: See therefore already (for it is necessary for us, Palladius, to go toward remembrance of the things at the beginnings) Israel having thirsted in a desert, and murmuring against all-wise Moses, yet having fallen into this smallness of soul without penalty; for he did not pay justice, nor undergo the things from anger, although God is accustomed to chastise those condemned upon this. For in the beginnings the one still in the trainings for virtue is sometimes even pitied when stumbling; yet after this he has the too-great smallness of soul unpardoned, and the unbridled running-away which he might make perhaps into out-of-place desires. And indeed in Numbers concerning the sons of Israel the sacred Letter said again somewhere: ‘And they set out from the mountain of the Lord a way of three days, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant was going before them a way of three days to reconnoiter a rest for them. And it came to be in the lifting of the ark, and Moses said: Rise up, Lord, and let your enemies be scattered, let all who hate you flee. And in the resting he said: Return, Lord, thousands of myriads in Israel; and the cloud came to be overshadowing upon them by day, in their setting out from the camp; and the people was murmuring evil things opposite the Lord; and the Lord heard, and was wroth in anger, and fire was kindled among them from beside the Lord, and it consumed a certain part of the camp, and the people cried out toward Moses. And Moses prayed toward the Lord, and the fire ceased. And the name of that place was called Burning; because fire was kindled among them from beside the Lord.’ And after this again: ‘And setting out from Or of the mountain a way upon the Red Sea, they circled the land of Edom; and the people grew faint-souled on the way. And the

Fire and snakes for murmurers; Sinai; Christ leads to rest§13

13people was speaking against God and against Moses, saying: Why did you lead us out from Egypt’s land, to kill in the desert? for there is not bread, nor water; and our soul has loathed this empty bread. And the Lord sent into the people the snakes that kill, and they were biting the people, and much people of the sons of Israel died.’ You see therefore that the whispering and murmuring people has been consumed with fire and with snakes. For the ones set out from the mountain of the Lord, the ark leading them forward and seeking out rest beforehand; and Moses praying and mediating, and indeed also a cloud overshadowing them; yet the others, naming the bread from heaven empty, were making as great a cry-down as possible against both God and Moses. On account of this indeed, those ones necessarily became fire’s work, and these perished without delay by bites of bitter snakes.

Palladius: And what observation again would there be in both? and what is the mountain of the Lord?

Cyril: The mountain of the Lord, I think somewhere, he says is Sinai, upon which the Craftsman of all came down in a form of fire, and was seen by all the people, according to what has been written, and oracled the laws upon the things to be done: ‘For he set there for the sons of Israel righteous ordinances and judgments.’ Yet Christ was also of old lawgiving those things. Therefore he also calls the words through Moses his own laws. For he said: ‘Amen I say to you, until heaven and earth should pass away, one iota or one keraia will not pass away from the law, until all things should come to be. Heaven and earth will pass away, yet my words will not pass away.’ Come therefore already, leaving the thickness of the history, let us look down upon the thinness of the spiritual meanings. For those already counted worthy of God-vision and God-knowledge, and having beheld the brightness of the divine nature with the mind’s eyes, as it were on a mountain—that is, in a most high and very much settled-apart superiority (for God’s glory and nature is beyond everything)—who have presented themselves as it were through the faith to Christ, and have become not unhearing of the words from beside him, and have promised the obedience (for this Israel also did then saying: ‘All things as many as the Lord your God said, we will do and we will hear’) will enjoy the sparing already genuinely fitting, and will share care sufficient unto salvation for them; for they will have him as leader, defender, and one leading forward toward reconnoitering the rest for them. For first Christ for us and on behalf of us set himself opposite Satan who conquered of old, having both fasted and been tempted in the desert, in order that we may have the rest, seeing him conquered, and fallen, and spread under our own feet. Therefore he also was saying: ‘You have affliction in the world, but take heart; I have conquered the world.’ And again: ‘Behold I have given you authority to tread upon snakes and scorpions, and upon all the power of the Enemy.’

Ark types Christ; mediator; cloud shelter; wages parable begins§14

14For first for us and on behalf of us having attacked death, he both dissolved that one’s power, and reconnoitered the rest for us, renewing unto incorruption. First he entered into paradise, as it were entreating away the turning sword, and standing off from us the sin that was shutting out. For he himself paid the debts on behalf of us, and by his bruise we were healed, according to what has been written. For first he went up toward the Father and God, inaugurating for us the upward journey, and preparing beforehand the upper dwellings. Therefore he also was saying: ‘I will go and prepare a place for you.’ Christ therefore was being typed beforehand as in the ark; for that one had been constructed from woods that do not rot, and was packing densely in itself the divine law, which is God’s Word. And you would see the mystery upon Christ resembling this. For the Word was God in an incorruptible temple. Therefore the ark was going forward reconnoitering the rest for those from Israel. And our Christ also goes forward according to the manners just now said to us; and besides this also filling the mediator’s need, he becomes advocate toward the Father, and propitiation on behalf of us, according as Moses also of old; who in the lifting of the ark was saying: ‘Rise up, Lord, let your enemies be scattered, let all who hate you flee;’ yet in the resting: ‘Return, Lord, thousands of myriads in Israel.’ For when the Only-begotten has been raised toward our help and the one who of old was saying through the Psalmist’s voice: ‘From the misery of the poor and the groaning of the needy now I will rise, says the Lord;’ then the enemies have fallen, and those who have stood against and fight with the divine glory have fled. For he has triumphed in the cross over rulers and authorities; and having died he has abolished the ruler of this age, according to what has been written; and having as it were rested, and brought to an end the whole economy through the resurrection from dead ones and the journey upward toward the Father, he turned the whole earth, and was making thousands of myriads his own worshipers: ‘For when,’ he was saying, ‘I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all toward myself.’ Therefore Moses’ prayer would be a type of Christ’s mediation, according at least to the human form, praying and asking for us the finest things from beside the God and Father. For as divine John says: ‘We have an advocate toward the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also on behalf of the whole world.’ And besides again we have him as shelterer, being understood as in the overshadowing cloud. For let the one being justified by the faith into him hear: ‘By day the sun will not burn you, nor the moon the night.’ And some also say in the distribution of the wages, according to the evangelical parable

Cloud shelter; fire for apostasy; manna scorned; snakes; slackness§15

15ble: ‘We bore the burden of the day, and the heat,’ naming, I think somewhere, the fierce and at-its-peak unto burning—of the pleasures from untamed things, or perhaps even of temptations—both heat and the day’s burden; helper therefore and shelterer unto salvation Christ has come to be for us. Whenever therefore some of those counted worthy of God-vision, and whoever would become hearers of the divine proclamations, and through the confession upon believing having somehow already promised the well-hearing, set aside by changes unto the worse the one going forward and leading—I mean Christ—who reconnoiters the rest for them, who mediates as in a mediator’s rank, who is understood as shelterer as in a cloud’s type, then indeed then very fittingly being exacted accounts of their own simplicity, they undergo the wild justice through fire; and this, I think, is what wise Paul himself also said: ‘For of us sinning willingly after receiving the recognition of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice concerning sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and zeal of fire about to eat the opposing ones.’

Palladius: Those therefore who from sin have set aside the whole economy understood in Christ will be fire’s food. And the murmuring makes clear, as it seems, the apostasy and the not wishing to make acceptable the salvation from beside him, although having tasted the grace, and having as secure pledge of the things about to be the experience upon the things already passed.

Cyril: So I say; yet others also having grown small-souled were making the same cry-down, and were whispering weakly against God and Moses, naming the manna from heaven empty bread. Yet they were being destroyed by the snakes. For those who by ungratefulnesses dishonor the Savior and Redeemer of all, and set in no word the grace of the freedom, and besides these still tear down as useless his life-giving Word, and the gift through the Spirit, will fall around the bites of the murderous dragon. Yet those at least who have not fallen into so out-of-place stumblings will escape together with the baseness also the punishment and justice hung over it, and will be better than the enemies: ‘For upon asp and basilisk they will tread, and they will trample lion and dragon.’ It has been fixed therefore already, and has been witnessed to us from the deeds themselves, that it is precarious for those already trained, and not having unpracticed the being well-approved through toils, and somehow already practiced and well-worn the sweating for virtue, to be slack, and to fall back into unmanlinesses.

Palladius: It has been fixed indeed and is true.

Cyril: And the word was confirming to us that not only is murmuring against God God-hated and under justice, and making the faint-soulness as it were some abuse or cry-down of the Savior’s gentleness, even if short toils should appear through the middle, yet no less accursed is loving to be let loose, and when it is possible for them to revel blamelessly in the divine gifts themselves, and to be turned by the words from above and through the Spirit

Flesh-loves vs heavenly; quail desire; seventy; meat unto cholera§16

16to make an unbridled departure upon corruptible pleasures and unclean flesh-loves. For it is clearly hubris toward the better and saving things to choose instead the evil ones, and a most unholy vote of mind to set the more earthy things before the heavenly, although they are sick with very much abomination upon themselves; and rightly upon these the prophet Isaiah almost even weeps saying: ‘Woe, those who say the evil good, and the good evil; those who say the sweet bitter, and the bitter sweet; those who set the darkness light, and the light darkness.’ We will find those from Israel having fallen into such evil stumblings. For after the justice upon the murmuring, they were at once sick with the desire upon all the most shameful things neighbor and yoked beside. For as it were spitting around the things from beside God, and unholily being gloomy at the goods from heaven, they were necessarily provoking the judge upon themselves. For it has been written that ‘And the mixed multitude among them desired a desire, and sitting the sons of Israel were weeping, and said: Who will feed us meats? We remembered the fishes which we were eating in Egypt freely, and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlics. Now our soul is dried up. Nothing except unto the manna are our eyes. And Moses heard,’ it says, ‘them weeping according to their peoples, each upon his door; and the Lord was wroth in anger very much, and opposite Moses it was evil.’ Or do you not say it is worthy both of the divine anger, and of condemnation as from holy men, that those already trained should come down unto this softness and reasonings of unmanliness, so as to be sick unrestrainedly with wishing to slip back into so out-of-place uncleannesses, and to have been loosened so much unto lack of self-control as to wail childishly, as it were not bearing the sharp assault of the desire?

Palladius: You speak well.

Cyril: And all-wise Moses being distressed, and having the terrible downheartedness upon this, and having cried out openly that he would never alone be strong enough to carry through the people going so easily unto madness and apostasy, God showed men as helpers and assistants of the care upon this, seventy in number, whom he was also setting more conspicuous by the Spirit’s gift; for they prophesied in the camp. And toward Moses he says: ‘And you will say to the people: Purify yourselves unto tomorrow, and you will eat meats, because you wept opposite the Lord, saying: Who will feed us meats? because it is good for us in Egypt; and the Lord will give you to eat meats, and you will eat meats. Not one day will you eat meats, nor two, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, unto a month of days you will eat, until it should come out from your nostrils, and it will be for you unto cholera, because you disobeyed the Lord who is in you, and you wept opposite him, saying: Why for us to go out

Quail cholera; sow to flesh; graves of desire; take up the cross§17

17from Egypt?’ For this was grieving the Redeemer very much—that Israel should also disregard even the slavery itself, and count as nothing the toils in Egypt, for the sake of the most foul-smelling meats and vegetables. And us ourselves also warm and sharp pleasures often persuade to count the slavery under the devil as bearable, and for the sake of corruptible and more earthy desires to be bound down in the yokes of sin. Yet he was giving even then the flesh-eating, not unto one, nor unto ten perhaps, but unto thirty days, through which the extension of the anger upon them is signaled. And even now he allows those who have turned aside ungovernably into worldly pleasures both to share, if they should choose, the fleshly things, and unto times sometimes long. For thus some are said to be handed over into an unapproved mind, to do the things not fitting. Yet for those ones the eating came to be unto cholera, and for those who love the fleshly things and prefer before the intelligible manna, which is God’s utterance, the corruptible and earthly, the undertaking will end toward death; and this is, I think, the: ‘The one sowing unto the flesh will from the flesh harvest corruption.’ And the loosing perhaps of such a weakness: ‘Walk by Spirit, and you will not fulfill desire of flesh. For the flesh campaigns against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are set opposite one another.’ As if those from Israel had wished to count sufficient luxury the supply of the manna, which is intelligible bread of angels, and a type of sweetness through the Spirit, they would not have fulfilled desire of flesh, nor would they have harvested the corruption from it.’ And most conspicuous are the people’s memorials; for there, it says, they buried the people the desirer, according to the: ‘They will be unto a seeing for all flesh;’ and the people that suffered those things has been named desirer-people, according to that, I think somewhere, said concerning some: ‘Whose glory is in their shame;’ for from the sin is the naming; and endless was being inscribed upon those who died pitiably the reproach upon the unmanlinesses, and from what they were being condemned the conspicuousness.

Palladius: True.

Cyril: Therefore it must especially be declined by those who have truly chosen to love learning—the not-enduring in toils, and weak murmuring, and ungrateful empty-talk, and what is somehow more unholy than the others, reaching for the pollutions from baseness and flesh-love. For such a one wavers both ways, and has the mind’s tendon limping. For it has been written that ‘Woe to timid hearts, and hands let slack, and to a sinner stepping upon two paths.’ And I think those counting worthy of every word the endurance-loving and the steadfast unto patience must remember Christ saying: ‘If someone wishes to come behind me, let him deny himself, and lift his cross, and follow

Follow Christ; cloud and tent; Church filled with glory§18

18me.’—that is: If indeed someone should wish to be my disciple, let him come eagerly through the equal sufferings with me, and as it were go and love the same path; for this one will rest together and live together. And this he himself was seeking for us from beside the God and Father, saying: ‘I wish that where I am, there they also may be with me.’ And otherwise we are with Christ, walking upon earth, yet no longer fleshly, but living as citizens spiritually, and being eager to make lodging and rest what seems good to him. You have written in Numbers the type upon this: ‘And on the day,’ it says, ‘in which the tent was stood, the cloud covered the tent, the house of the witness. And the evening was upon the tent as a form of fire until morning; thus it was coming to be continually; the cloud was covering it by day, and a form of fire the night. And when the cloud went up from the tent, after these things the sons of Israel set out; and in the place where the cloud stood, there the sons of Israel were encamping; through the Lord’s command the sons of Israel will encamp, and through the Lord’s command they will set out. All the days in which the cloud overshadows upon the tent, the sons of Israel will encamp; and whenever the cloud is drawn upon the tent more days, the sons of Israel will also keep God’s watch, and will not set out; and it will be whenever the cloud shelters days in number upon the tent, through the Lord’s voice they will encamp, and through the Lord’s command they will set out; and it will be whenever the cloud comes to be from evening until morning, and the cloud goes up in the morning, and they will set out by day or night, and the cloud goes up, they will set out by day, or a month’s days with the cloud’s overshadowing increasing upon it, the sons of Israel will encamp, and will not set out, because through the Lord’s command they will set out. They kept the Lord’s watch through the Lord’s command in Moses’ hand.’ The holy tent having been raised according to the desert, it says the cloud has filled it; then it commanded those from Israel to set out together and settle down together with it, charging them to make the observation of the settings-out up and down with much exactness, and showing from this that the transgression is precarious for those who wish to be slack. Yet these things historically. Let us already contemplate spiritually. For at once both the truest tent has been raised and has risen upon the earth—that is, the Church—it has been filled with Christ’s glory; for the ancient tent’s being covered with the cloud signals, I think somewhere, nothing other than this. Christ therefore has filled the Church with his own glory, and for those spending time in ignorance and wandering, as it were in night and darkness, he shines up in fire’s manner, clearly casting in the intelligible illumination; yet for those already illuminated, and having the intelligible day in heart, granting his own shade and shelter, and fattening them down with spiritual dews—that is, with the consolations from above and through the Spirit.

Fire by night, cloud by day; three settings-out; without Christ nothing§19

19For this is the being seen as in a form of fire by night, yet in a form of cloud by day. For it was necessary, necessary for those still infants to have illumination and shining that carries off unto God-knowledge; yet for those above these and made bright through the faith, shelter and help, so that they might be able to carry through nobly the present life’s heat and the day’s burden: ‘For all who wish to live piously in Christ will be persecuted.’ And when the cloud sets out, the tent also sets out together, and when it settles it is set down together, and with it those from Israel were doing this; for the Church follows Christ everywhere, and the holy multitude of those believing is not separated from the one calling unto salvation.

Palladius: And what would our setting-out and settling be understood as, perhaps, Christ leading forward and leading?

Cyril: The word will somehow be indifferent for us in these things at least, the wishing to be with God of both setting out together and settling down together with the cloud showing us as it were some type; yet casting the mind into meanings as thin as possible, we will say that again: that first setting-out is the from unbelief unto faith, and from ignorance unto knowledge, and from not knowing who the one by nature and truly God is, unto knowing clearly the Master and Maker of all. And a second and beneficial setting-out as it were after that is the from baseness and licentiousness unto wishing already somehow to do and think the better things. And a third more advanced than this and in greater good-repute is the from the lacking unto the having-aright, both practically and dogmatically at once. Or do we not go by little toward the growth understood in Christ, advancing unto a perfect man, and springing up also unto the measure of the age of his fullness? This is perhaps somewhere what is hymned to us through divine Paul’s voice: ‘Forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, according to a mark I pursue unto the prize of the upward calling.’ And setting out intelligibly from ignorance unto recognition, from unlearning unto understanding, from unbelief unto faith, and always advancing in virtues, do we not change harbor from place to place, and transferring from such a disposition or habit perhaps unto such another already somehow resemble those accustomed to journey?

Palladius: I understand what you say.

Cyril: Yet neither the setting-out from baseness, nor indeed reaching and somehow lodging among the better things, would anyone be able to set right, unless Christ being together and leading. Therefore he also was saying to the holy disciples: ‘Without me you are not able to do anything.’ Therefore both being with God, and doing all things with him, would hint enigmatically then at setting out together when the cloud sets out, and resting together when it is still. Yet, through the Lord’s command

Silver trumpets: dogma and ethics; gather to the tent§20

20they will set out, he says; and this, I think, signals that those who think they must follow in Christ also need a word that provokes unto strength, and unto the good order fitting the saints: ‘For all things,’ he says, ‘let them come to be becomingly and according to order.’ And a type again of this also is what has been written next. For God said thus toward the hierophant Moses: ‘Make for yourself two trumpets of beaten work, silver you will make them, and they will be for you to call back the synagogue, and to lift the camps. And you will trumpet in them, and all the synagogue will be gathered upon the door of the tent of the witness. And if they trumpet in one, all the rulers leaders of Israel will come toward you. And you will trumpet a signal, and the camps encamping east will set out; and you will trumpet a second signal, and the camps encamping south will set out. And you will trumpet a third signal, and the camps encamping beside sea will set out. And you will trumpet a fourth signal, and the camps encamping toward north will set out; with a signal they will trumpet in their setting-out, and whenever you gather the synagogue, you will trumpet, and not with a signal. And Aaron’s sons the priests will trumpet with the trumpets; and it will be for you an eternal lawful thing unto your generations.’

Palladius: What then do we say the pair of the trumpets is, and the differences of the signals, and instead of what he has commanded that they must be made beaten, and from silver?

Cyril: Two therefore are the trumpets; for double in churches is the proclamation of the consolation: for one carries the believers off unto dogmatic rightness, and adulterates down the word of the twisted ones; such as was the of those forbidding to marry, and teaching unfittingly to abstain from foods which God created unto partaking for the faithful. And I would also count in these the Jews’ leaders, who having let go as stale what has been honored and seems good by the divine law, and counting it worthy of altogether little word, were ordering those being taught that they must recline upon their own teachings and human commandments. And some others also were teaching unintelligently that those justified in faith must be circumcised, in order that they may boast in another’s flesh according to what has been written. Yet it was being said concerning them: ‘Outside the dogs, outside the evil workers.’ And another escorts toward ethical correction, and whitens the path of the citizenship in Christ. And silver are the trumpets: the brightness upon both the words, and the very much sincerity; as the material’s own nature shows you gracefully. And in the trumpets, he says, let the people be called back upon the tent. For by proclamations we gather those in tents as it were private into churches; and having run together, we also persuade them to set out from the more shameful unto the things fitting the sanctified, and as it were to change harbor very well toward the good from baseness, being re-trained

One trumpet for the perfect; four Gospel signals; three life-measures§21

21Or does not a word carry off the equitable one and genuine lover of the life in Christ unto dogmatic rightness and unto correction of manners?

Palladius: So I say.

Cyril: Therefore two are the trumpets that gather the people upon the tent. And if they trumpet in one, he says, all the rulers leaders of sons of Israel will come toward you. For I suppose that even those more perfect in habit need consolation and encouragement, yet not so much as the multitude of the others would also need; on account of this two trumpets barely call back all the others, yet one the chosen ones; for a little suffices the wise, and if he should take a starting-point he will add what is lacking, according to the: ‘Give a wise man a starting-point, and he will be wiser; make known to a righteous man, and he will add receiving.’ Then he has commanded four differences of signals to be made, so that through them those toward dawn and southwest, north and south may both break camp and set out; I think therefore that the four writings of the Gospels are signaled to us through this, through which the whole world is trained unto dogmatic and ethical science at once. And if indeed we must also invent and say something other, we will in no way shrink, making the hunt of the useful better than sleep and sweat. Of the word therefore beside us we will find four differences, through which the whole earth will set right the best and truly reputable life; one therefore and first is that through which we are accustomed to call toward recognition of truth and unto taking up of divine light those who have worshiped the creation beside the Creator, and who say unlearnedly to the wood: You are my father, and to the stone: You begot me, according to the prophet’s voice. Yet for those already having believed, the three other differences of the word would fittingly suit; since indeed the Savior also was teaching that there are three differences of life and citizenship; for he said that the seeds cast upon the good earth made fruit, one a hundred, one sixty, one thirty. Therefore there is for each of such ones the word especially fitting him; for not yet doing rightly will we benefit with equal unguarded words those divided between God and world because of being yoked under marriages according to law, and those who have taken up the all-best and ascetic life, or that fitting priesthood, but to those we will say: ‘Have you been bound to a wife? Do not seek loosing; have you been loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife;’ and as many things as it fits the married to think and do. Yet to the ascetic ones and those who have known to endure: ‘Put to death your members that are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire.’ And the: ‘The sufferings of the present time are not worthy toward the glory about to be revealed unto us.’ And to those called unto priesthood: ‘A priest’s lips will guard knowledge, and they will seek law from his mouth,’ and as many things as writing to Timothy the most wise

Column fragment: Paul; narratives crawl?§22

22Paul. Do my narratives somehow crawl out of what is fitting

Priests alone trumpet; ready to walk with God; Reuben and Gad type§23

23and are carried off somewhere toward what does not have rightly?

Palladius: Least of all.

Cyril: And observe that he allots only to those who have obtained to be priests the using the trumpets; dedicating, I think somewhere, to the peoples’ trainers and those sanctified unto priesthood the word that mystagogues, and indeed also that oils toward desire of virtue. For on account of this, I think, toward Moses he says: ‘Make for yourself two trumpets.’ And as it were sealing the matter by law: ‘And Aaron’s sons,’ he says, ‘the priests, will trumpet with the trumpets; and it will be for you an eternal lawful thing unto your generations.’

Palladius: Therefore we will receive the manners of the signals unto the word resembling each of those accustomed to be well-approved. And thus we will set out together and settle down together with the cloud—that is, we will walk together intelligibly, and will rest together with Christ.

Cyril: You speak well. For a prophet’s word also having thus will persuade us to think this: ‘And now, Israel, what does the Lord God seek from beside you, except to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?’

Palladius: Yet that walking with the Lord your God is a fine matter, and worthy of everything, and enriching the glory upon manliness—how would it not be clear? Yet what again would the ‘to be ready’ be? Speak to me wishing it.

Cyril: How not? for of both thinking and being eager to do the things of God lying beside our feet, and nothing hindering, nor indeed dragging opposite unto an unapproved mind, this, I think, is the being ready to walk with God.

Palladius: And whom at all do we say those wishing to follow God are, yet not still also choosing to do this from a whole soul, but buckling toward the unmanly and declining the steadfast?

Cyril: Those who are slow, and barely going upon wishing to think the things upon which God would be pleased, yet not still also holding with whole mind a holy-fitting citizenship, who allot as it were a small portion of the eagerness and readiness present in them to the love unto God, yet have known to spend the whole remaining most prodigally and forwardly on the distractions in this life, and on unprofitable sweats and bitter cares, of whom unto a type would be those from Reuben and Gad; for it has been written again in Numbers: ‘And there was a multitude of cattle for the sons of Reuben and

Reuben and Gad bargain: cattle east of Jordan; share war not lot§24

24for the sons of Gad, a multitude very much. And they saw the country of Jazer, and the country of Gilead, and the place was a place for cattle. And coming forward the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad said toward Moses and toward Eleazar the priest, and toward the rulers of the Synagogue saying: Ataroth, and Dibon and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon—the land which the Lord handed over before the sons of Israel—is a cattle-feeding land, and cattle belong to your servants. And they were saying: If we have found favor before you, let this land be given to your household-servants in a holding, and do not bring us across the Jordan. And Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben: Will your brothers go unto the war, and will you sit here? And why do you twist the minds of the sons of Israel, not to cross into the land which the Lord God gives them?’ Then besides these having reproached them with the fathers’ disobedience, and the things that befell those from there: ‘For they have died in the desert,’ he says, not even, so to speak, having only seen the land of the promise. He brings on again: ‘And behold you have risen up instead of your fathers, a band of sinful humans, to add still upon the wrath of the Lord’s anger upon Israel, because you will turn away from him to add still to leave him in the desert, and you will lawlessly act unto this whole synagogue. And they came forward to him and were saying: We will build folds of sheep here for our cattle, and cities for our baggage; and we having armed ourselves as a forward guard first of the sons of Israel until we lead them into their own place; and our baggage will settle in the walled cities because of those inhabiting the land; we will not turn back unto our houses until the sons of Israel are portioned each unto his inheritance. And we will no longer inherit among them from beyond the Jordan and further, because we have our lots beyond the Jordan in the easts.’ You understand that for the sake of cattle-feeding and possessions, and of love unto wives and children, such ones would not at all have crossed the Jordan, nor would they have endured even so much as to sharpen for war and battle, nor would they have wished to share good-repute with the others, and the goods upon hopes; yet remaining seemed best and much-wished to them, not even, so to speak, setting the foot into Jordan’s streams; yet Moses reproaching and persuading them to dread, and to look askance at the divine anger, they barely promise that they will go across the Jordan together with the others, and will share with them the sweats in war and battles; yet not that they will also share the portion, they say, because of having or keeping off the lot beyond the Jordan. Some such in manner are those compressed by the cares of the present life. And allotting as it were the whole heart to thinking

Called vs chosen; baptism reluctance; Reuben firstborn not free§25

25to choose the things upon the earth, yet barely caring for few of the necessary things, and not making God’s things in eagerness. ‘For many,’ he says, ‘are called, yet few chosen.’ Those therefore finishing among the called through the faith, yet not still numbered with the chosen ones, because of being let loose toward the pleasant, are sometimes slow and very reluctant, and perhaps even around the grace of the holy baptism itself; and they have shuddered at enduring the toils fitting saints on behalf of God’s good-repute and their own benefit, and being persecuted together with the genuine ones, even if a time should lead toward this; yet the divine law reproaching them, and the divine anger sometimes startling them, they go reluctantly upon the saving baptism, and share toils with the chosen ones, either fasting together more moderately, or also sometimes being zealous together for the Churches being warred upon, yet not still also being persuaded to despise the things in the world, but as it were slipping back to an own lot portioned out to them—the pleasures and delights upon the earthly things. On account of this Christ was saying to the lovers of rightness, and those having been very eager to be pious: ‘Take heed, lest ever your hearts be weighed down with cares and worries of life.’ Or do you not say the matter is harmful, friend?

Palladius: I say so; for how not?

Cyril: And casting a thin eye of mind into what has been written, you would very well wonder at the beauty of the image.

Palladius: In what manner?

Cyril: Those who for the sake of cattle-feeding of children and wives, of folds and buildings, have received the reluctance upon the best things, are Reuben and Gad.

Palladius: And what then is this?

Cyril: For the one was firstborn from Jacob, yet the other sprang from the maidservant Zilpah.

Palladius: True.

Cyril: Therefore firstborn through the faith are the called, and having obtained beside God the exceptional lot, as far as concerns the grace, yet not freedom-loving, because of the inclination unto the more shameful things; and we say that a church of firstborn ones registered in heavens has been named the ones justified in faith. Yet the firstborn is not freedom-loving, but rather a partner and fellow-lover with those who have not fled the shame of slavery.

Palladius: You have spoken most excellently.

Cyril: Yet already of my word going toward a shore, and as it were somewhere making the castings-out of the persuasions, it comes upon me to say and to remind again, that one must play the man toward every thing whatever finishing unto benefit, and lead the toils as a training unto virtue, and be disposed not otherwise than that God the one saving

God gifts strength; remember Egypt; Book 5 closes into Book 6 title§26

26is, and gifting the being able to contend down those who have stood against, even if they should be borne against with strengths much greater than those in us. For that we do not drip unprofitable sweat, having endured through the toils on behalf of virtue, Moses will teach saying in Deuteronomy: ‘And you will remember all the way which the Lord your God led you in the desert, in order that he might afflict you and test you out, and the things in your heart might be known through, whether you will keep his commandments, or not.’ And he does not allow being sick with the unmanly cowardice, when we look well at the defending hand. And he writes thus again: ‘And if you say in your mind that This nation is much, or I, how will I be able to wipe them out? you will not fear them; with memory you will remember as many things as the Lord your God did to Pharaoh, and to all the Egyptians—the great trials which your eyes have seen; the signs, and those great wonders, the strong hand, and the high arm; as the Lord your God led you out; thus the Lord our God will do to all the nations whom you fear from their face.’ ON ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH