Swear by God alone; blasphemy vs Spirit; no limping both
Cyril: It has been fixed then, that each of these would reasonably have as toward us the excelling, according to which it has been born to conquer. Will we then make these oath-partners, having left as superfluous the remembering of God?
Palladius: Not at all.
Cyril: Therefore then what is by nature overstretched and having differed by the whole being from the things made—that is, God—seems also to say greater than a human.
Palladius: You speak well.
Cyril: Therefore let the Yes, and the No, beside those having chosen to live best, be both need and power of an oath, and let it have been fixed rightly; for thus will also follow the needing to be believed. And if the Yes and the No should be dishonored by someone, let the need of the oaths be turned hereafter unto the greater than according to us, or rather than according to all the creation. And blasphemy—what would I say hereafter, where it is, and that it may carry off unto evil those using it—which the ancient law also honors with bitter death. And Christ himself has also condemned it with inescapable and endless evils: ‘For whoever should say a word against the Son of the human, it will be forgiven him; yet whoever should say against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in the now age, nor in the coming.’ Calling Spirit the nature above body, which is God, to whom the one daring to send an unbridled tongue will reap the fruits of doorless-mouthing. ‘For lips of a fool lead him unto evils, according as it has been written. And his bold mouth calls upon death.’ Therefore also the divine Melodist was saying: ‘Set, Lord, a guard for my mouth, and a door of enclosure around my lips; do not lean my heart aside unto words of wickedness.’ And these would be a most unholy shouting-down against God and the unspeakable and undefiled nature.
Palladius: One must then be well fixed, those hurrying to go blamelessly upon the straight, and not enduring to strike against God.
Cyril: Thus I say. For toward those approaching God not from a healthy heart, but from a suspected and corrupted one, and having chosen to be sick with the strengthless and easily-shaken, the prophet says: ‘Until when will you limp upon both your hams, either Baal, Baal, or God, God?’ For the neither healthy altogether toward faith, nor indeed loving to have been fixed unto wandering, is to limp upon both, and indeed, what is upon each destroys the genuine. And a pretext of the thus rotten and easily-broken judgment would become for some, I think, the making plastered-on and not true the loving unto God, and to play-act wishing to Christianize, yet not to do this from whole heart, nor indeed having been persuaded by shame toward the true and having honored what holds rightly; but either hunting
Greek
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄραρεν οὖν, ὅτι τούτων ἕκαστον ἔχοι ἂν εἰκότως ὡς πρὸς ἡμᾶς τὸ ὑπερτεροῦν, καθ' ὃ πέφυκε νικᾷν. Ὅρκια δὴ οὖν ταυτὶ ποιησόμεθα, παρέντες ὡς περιττὸν, τὸ διαμεμνῆσθαι Θεοῦ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οὐδαμῶς.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἔοικεν οὖν ἄρα τὸ κατὰ φύσιν ὑπερτενὲς καὶ ὅλῳ τῷ εἶναι τῶν πεποιημένων διενεγκὸν, τουτέστι, Θεὸν, καὶ ἀνθρώπου μεῖζον εἰπεῖν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ λέγεις.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἔστω τοιγαροῦν τὸ Ναὶ, καὶ τὸ Οὓ, παρά γε τοῖς ἄριστα βιοῦν ᾑρημένοις, ὅρκου χρεία τε καὶ δύναμις, καὶ διαπεπήχθω ὀρθῶς· ἕψεται γὰρ οὕτω καὶ τὸ πιστεύεσθαι δεῖν. Εἰ δὲ ἀτιμάζοιτο πρός τινος τὸ Ναὶ καὶ τὸ Οὒ, τῶν ὅρκων ἡ χρεία τετράφθω λοιπὸν ἐπὶ τὸ μεῖζον ἢ καθ' ἡμᾶς, μᾶλλον δὲ ἢ κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν κτίσιν. Δυσφημίαν δὲ, τί ἂν λέγοιμι λοιπὸν, ὅποι τέ ἐστι, καὶ ἵν' ἀποφέρῃ κακοῦ τοὺς αὐτῇ χρωμένους, ἣν θανάτῳ μὲν πικρῷ καὶ ὁ πάλαι τιμᾶται νόμος. Καταδεδίκακε δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Χριστὸς, ἀφύκτοις τε καὶ ἀτελευτήτοις κακοῖς· «Ὃς γὰρ ἂν εἴπῃ λόγον κατὰ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἀφεθήσεται αὐτῷ· ὃς δ' ἂν εἴπῃ κατὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου, οὐκ ἀφεθήσεται αὐτῷ, οὔτε ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι, οὔτε ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι.» Πνεῦμα λέγων τὴν ὑπὲρ σῶμα φύσιν, ὅπερ ἐστὶ Θεὸς, ᾧ τὴν γλῶτταν ἀχάλινον ὁ ἐπαφεῖναι τολμῶν, τοὺς τῆς ἀθυροστομίας ἐκθεριεῖ καρπούς. «Χείλη γὰρ ἄφρονος, ἄγουσιν αὐτὸν εἰς κακὰ, καθὼς γέγραπται. Τὸ στόμα δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸ θρασὺ θάνατον ἐπικαλεῖται.» Τοιγάρτοι καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος ἔφασκε Μελῳδός·» Θοῦ, Κύριε, φυλακὴν τῷ στόματί μου, καὶ θύραν περιοχῆς περὶ τὰ χείλη μου· μὴ ἐκκλίνῃς τὴν καρδίαν μου εἰς λόγους πονηρίας.» Εἶεν δ' ἂν οὗτοι, κατὰ Θεοῦ καὶ τῆς ἀῤῥήτου καὶ ἀκηράτου φύσεως ἀνοσιωτάτη καταβοή.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Δεῖ δὴ οὖν ἄρα διερηρεῖσθαι καλῶς, τοὺς ἰέναι μὲν ἀμωμήτως τὴν ἐπ' εὐθὺ σπουδάζοντας, Θεῷ δὲ προσκρούειν οὐκ ἀνεχομένους.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὕτω φημί. Πρὸς γάρ τοι τοὺς προσιόντας Θεῷ μὴ ἐξ ὑγιοῦς καρδίας, ἀλλ' ὑπόπτου καὶ παρεφθαρμένης, καὶ ἀῤῥωστεῖν ἑλομένης τὸ ἄναλκί τε καὶ εὐκατάσειστον, ὁ προφήτης φησίν· «Ἕως πότε χωλανεῖτε ἐπ' ἀμφοτέραις ταῖς ἰγνύαις ὑμῶν, ἢ Βάαλ, Βάαλ, ἢ Θεῷ Θεῷ;» Τὸ γὰρ μήτε πρὸς πίστιν εἰσάπαν ὑγιὲς, μήτε μὴν εἰς πλάνησιν διαπεπῆχθαι φιλεῖν, ἐπ' ἄμφω τε χωλεύειν ἐστὶ, καὶ μὴν, τὸ ἐφ' ἑκατέρῳ καταφθείρει γνήσιον. Πρόφασις δὲ τῆς οὕτω σαθρᾶς καὶ εὐδιακλάστου γνώμης γένοιτ' ἂν, οἶμαι, τισὶ τὸ κατάπλαστον ποιεῖσθαι καὶ οὐκ ἀληθῆ τὴν εἰς Θεὸν ἀγάπησιν, καὶ ὑποκρίνεσθαι μὲν τὸ χριστιανίζειν βούλεσθαι, μὴ μὴν ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας τοῦτο δρᾷν, μήτε μὴν αἰδοῖ τῇ πρὸς τὸ ἀληθὲς ἀναπεπεισμένους καὶ τετιμηκότας τὸ ἔχον ὀρθῶς· ἀλλ' ἢ θηρωμένους
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 6 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 6 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 6)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 6)
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.