Debt release typology; believers freed; unbelievers still liable
the power of the mystery, having both set aside and dishonored it, even if it was still in types.
Palladius: You have spoken most rightly.
Cyril: And that we are justified freely through grace in Christ, having brought forward nothing as exchange of our own life, nor indeed having bought the glory of the freedom from a price, yet gaining the matter by Masterly mildness and love-of-humanity—he was under-typing saying in Deuteronomy: ‘Through seven years you will make a release. And thus the ordinance of the release: you will release every private debt which your neighbor owes you, and you will not exact from your brother whatever may be for you beside him; yet for your brother you will make a release of your debt, because there will not be a needy one in you; because blessing the Lord your God will bless you, in the land which the Lord your God gives you in a lot to inherit it.’ Do you see the truth flashing through in the shadows? For this also would show most clearly our Savior’s economy unto us. For those having come near him through the faith, and already having been shown intimates and brothers, through partaking of Holy Spirit, and having become sharers of a divine nature, he released from debts, they having paid out nothing; for he did not seek from them the justices of the transgression, although they were owing to him the accounts of the things lived by them; yet those still alien, and all but also other-raced, through their destructive unbelief, and having come to be as farthest from the intimacy unto him, he set liable to the debts, and as still having the sin unwashed, he reasonably worked them debtor both to the justice and to needing to be punished; and at any rate he was addressing those having believed: ‘If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will free you.’ Yet to those dishonoring the true and Gospel education: ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.’ Do you understand then that for those intimates according to faith he announces he will release unto freedom, yet for those still alien and foreign, having died in the stumbles, he said they will pay back to the judge the accounts of their own faults?
Palladius: Truly.
Cyril: And the idleness according to the Sabbath also shapes elegantly the holy-fitting luxury unto the coming age, and the partaking of the heavenly good things.
Palladius: Speak how, for me wishing to understand.
Cyril: And very much. For somewhere the divine David sings saying concerning the sons of Israel and the God strong in all things: ‘He gave them bread of heaven; a human ate bread of angels,’ saying the manna, food of heaven and of angels, in order that sending their own mind beyond the sense-perceptible and seen things, we may look down at the spiritual and divine supply,
Greek
τοῦ μυστηρίου τὴν δύναμιν, ἀθετήσαντές τε καὶ ἀτιμάσαντες, εἰ καὶ ἦν ἐν τύποις ἔτι
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθότατα ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Δικαιούμεθα δὲ ὅτι δωρεὰν διὰ χάριτος τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ, τῆς ἑαυτῶν ζωῆς ἀντάλλαγμα προσενεγκόντες οὐδὲν, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τὴν τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἐκ πριάμενοι δόξαν, ἡμερότητι δὲ καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ Δεσποτικῇ τὸ χρῆμα κερδαίνοντες, ὑπετύπου λέγων ἐν τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ· «Δι' ἑπτὰ ἐτῶν ποιήσεις ἄφεσιν. Καὶ οὕτως τὸ πρόσταγμα τῆς ἀφέσεως, ἀφήσεις πᾶν χρέος ἴδιον, ὃ ὀφείλει σοι ὁ πλησίον σου, καὶ τὸν ἀδελφόν σου οὐκ ἀπαιτήσεις ὃ ἐὰν ᾖ σοι παρ' αὐτῷ· τῷ δὲ ἀδελφῷ σου ἄφεσιν ποιήσεις τοῦ χρέους σου, ὅτι οὐκ ἔσται ἐν σοὶ ἐνδεής· ὅτι εὐλογῶν εὐλογήσει σε Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου, ἐν τῇ γῇ, ᾗ Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου δίδωσί σοι ἐν κλήρῳ κατακληρονομῆσαι αὐτήν.» Ὁρᾶς διαστράπτουσαν ἐν ταῖς σκιαῖς τὴν ἀλήθειαν; Ἐναργέστατα γὰρ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν τὴν εἰς ἡμᾶς οἰκονομίαν παραδείξειεν ἂν καὶ τόδε. Τοὺς μὲν γὰρ ἀγχοῦ γεγονότας αὐτῷ διὰ τῆς πίστεως, οἰκείους τε ἤδη καὶ ἀδελφοὺς ἀναδεδειγμένους, διὰ τοῦ μεταλαχεῖν ἁγίου Πνεύματος, θείας τε φύσεως γενέσθαι κοινωνοὺς, ὀφλημάτων ἀνῆκεν, ἐκτετικότας οὐδέν· οὐ γὰρ ἐζήτησε παρ' αὐτῶν τὰς τῆς παραβάσεως δίκας, καίτοι τοὺς λόγους τῶν σφίσι βεβιωμένων ἐπωφληκότας αὐτῷ· τοὺς δὲ ἀλλοτρίους ἔτι, μονονουχὶ δὲ καὶ ἀλλογενεῖς, διὰ τὴν ὀλέθριον αὐτῶν ἀπιστίαν, καὶ ὡς ἀπωτάτω γεγονότας τῆς εἰς αὐτὸν οἰκειότητος, ἐνόχους κατέστησε τοῖς ὀφλήμασι, καὶ ὡς ἀναπόνιπτον ἔχοντας ἔτι τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, ὑπόχρεώς τε τῇ δίκῃ καὶ τῷ κολάζεσθαι δεῖν εἰκότως εἰργάσατο· καὶ γοῦν προσεφώνει μὲν τοῖς πεπιστευκόσιν· «Ἐὰν ὑμεῖς μείνητε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῷ ἐμῷ, ὄντως μαθηταί μού ἐστε, καὶ γνώσεσθε τὴν ἀλήθειαν, καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐλευθερώσει ὑμᾶς.» Τοῖς δὲ τὴν ἀληθῆ καὶ εὐαγγελικὴν ἀτιμάζουσι παίδευσιν, «Ἀμὴν, ἀμὴν, λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν μὴ πιστεύσητε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν ἀποθανεῖσθε.» Συνίης οὖν ὅτι, τοὺς μὲν κατὰ πίστιν οἰκείους, πρὸς ἐλευθερίαν ἀνήσειν ἐπαγγέλλεται, τοὺς δὲ ἀλλοτρίους ἔτι καὶ ξένους, ἐντεθνεῶτας τοῖς πταίσμασιν, ἀποτίσειν ἔφη τῷ κριτῇ τῶν ἰδίων πλημμελημάτων τοὺς λόγους;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές.
{ΚΥΡ.} Διαμορφοῖ δὲ ἀστείως καὶ τὴν εἰς αἰῶνα τὸν μέλλοντα τρυφὴν ἁγιοπρεπῆ, καὶ τὴν τῶν οὐρανίων μέθεξιν ἀγαθῶν ἡ κατὰ τὸ Σάββατον ἀργία.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φράσον ἂν ὅπως συνιέναι θέλοντί μοι.
{ΚΥΡ.} Καὶ μάλα. Ψάλλει γάρ που λέγων ὁ θεσπέσιος Δαβὶδ περὶ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ τοῦ πάντα ἰσχύοντος Θεοῦ· «Ἄρτον οὐρανοῦ ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς· ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγεν ἄνθρωπος,» τὸ μάννα λέγων, οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἀγγέλων τροφὴν, ἵνα τῶν αἰσθητῶν τε καὶ ὁρατῶν τὸν οἰκεῖον ἱέντες ἐπέκεινα νοῦν, τὴν πνευματικὴν καὶ θείαν κατασκεπτώμεθα χορηγίαν,
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 7 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 7 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 7)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 7)
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.