Only Caleb and Joshua enter; worldly pleasure unfit for spiritual array
into 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
Greek
εἰς Αἴγυπτον.» Εἰς τοῦτο μὲν ἀθλιότητός τε καὶ ἀνανδρίας ἡ πᾶσα κατώλισθε συναγωγή. Μεθιστάντος δὲ ὥσπερ εἰς εὐτολμίαν αὐτοὺς Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Ναυῆ, καὶ περιῤῥηγνύντος μὲν τὴν ἐσθῆτα, μυρία δὲ ὅσα τῆς γῆς ἐγκώμια καταχέοντος, ἀναθαρσεῖν οὐκ ἤθελον· καταλυποῦντες δὲ ταῖς ἀνοήτοις μικροψυχίαις τὸν ἐπαμύνοντα Θεὸν, καὶ ταῖς ἑαυτῶν δυνάμεσιν ἀπονέμοντες τὴν τῆς ἐλπίδος κατόρθωσιν. Τοιγάρτοι λοιπὸν καὶ ἀπώμνυ, λέγων· «Εἰ ὄψεταί τις τῶν ἀνδρῶν τούτων τὴν γῆν, ἢν ὤμοσα τοῖς πατράσιν αὐτῶν, πλὴν Χαλὲβ υἱὸς Ἰεφονῆ, καὶ Ἰησοῦς ὁ τοῦ Ναυῆ.» Ἆρά ἐστιν ἐνδοιαστὸν ὡς ὁ δειλός τε καὶ ἀφερέπονος, καὶ βραχὺς εἰς πίστιν, προσαπόλλυσιν αὐτῷ καὶ ἑτέρους, κακαῖς παραφθείρων ὁμιλίαις, κλήρου τε ἀποπεσεῖται καὶ ἐλπίδος τῆς εἰς Θεόν· ὁ δὲ εὐσθενής τε καὶ ἀλκιμώτατος εἴσω τε κείσεται τῆς ἐλπίδος, καὶ γνώριμος ἔσται Θεῷ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οὐκ ἀμφίβολον· ἀπόχρη γὰρ ἡ δεῖξις.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν καθάπερ ἔφαμεν ἐν ἀρχαῖς, ἀνεπιτήδειος εἰς παράταξιν τὴν πνευματικὴν ὁ ταῖς κοσμικαῖς ἐνειλημμένος ἡδοναῖς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μάλα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Προσθεί[ν]ην δ' ἂν ὅτι (χρῆναι γὰρ οἶμαι τὸ ὠφελοῦν εὖ μάλα φιλοθηρεῖν) καὶ ὁ νεωστὶ κατορθοῦν ἀρετὴν ἡντιναοῦν ἀρξάμενος, οὔπω πρὸς μάχην ἱκανὸς, εὐκατακόμιστος δὲ κομιδῇ πρὸς τὸ ἀδικοῦν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς λέγεις;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐν τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ γέγραπται· «Ἐὰν δέ τις λάβῃ γυναῖκα προσφάτως, οὐκ ἐξελεύσεται εἰς πόλεμον, καὶ οὐκ ἐπιβληθήσεται αὐτῷ οὐδὲν πρᾶγμα. Ἀθῶος ἔσται ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ, ἐνιαυτὸν ἕνα εὐφρανεῖ τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ ἢν ἔλαβεν.» Ἆρ' οὖν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, προσεκτέον μόνῳ τε καὶ ψιλῷ τῷ γράμματι, καὶ ὁ φιλάρετος νομοθέτης οἴκοι καθίζει τὸ μάχιμον, καὶ οὐκ ἐᾷ εὐδοκιμεῖν ταῖς εἰς γυναῖκα ψυχραῖς ὁμιλίαις ἡττώμενον, καὶ προὐργιαιτέραν τῶν ἀναγκαίων ποιούμενον τὴν φιλοσαρκίαν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἥκιστά γε τουτὶ δοίην ἂν ἔγωγε τὸ τῷ νομοθέτῃ δοκοῦν· πιθανὸς δέ τις, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὁ ἐπ' αὐτῷ κεῖται λόγος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ὅπερ ἔφην ἀνακυκλήσας ἐρῶ. Ἀνὴρ ἀρετῆς ἁψάμενος, καὶ οὔπω ταύτην εὖ μάλα κατωρθωκὼς, εὐκατακόμιστος εἰς τὸ ἐναντίον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φράσον ὅπως. Ἕπομαι γὰρ οὐ σφόδρα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὁ Σολομών πού φησιν· «Εἶπον τὴν σοφίαν σὴν ἀδελφὴν εἶναι· τὴν δὲ φρόνησιν γνώριμον περιποίησαι σεαυτῷ.» Οἰκειούμεθα γὰρ ὥσπερ τὰς ἀρετὰς, τὸ ἐν αὐταῖς καρποφορεῖν ὅτι μάλιστα διεσπουδακότες· ὁ μὲν γάρ τις τυχὸν τὸ ἐν γνώσει σοφὸν, ὁ δὲ τὴν πραότητα καὶ ἀοργησίαν οὐκ ἀνεπιτήδευτον ἔχει, ἤγουν ἕτερόν τι τῶν τοιούτων ὅπερ ἂν ἕλοιτο κατορθοῦν. Ἆρ' οὖν εὐθὺς ὁ τῆς ἔν γε τούτοις
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 5 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 5 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 5 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 5)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 5)
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.