Stubborn son; Sirach; Jacob; Christ love-me-more than parents
peak angers, so also upon the ones having begotten; and someone having set aside the divine commandment, and having chosen to pain the pedagogue with the transgressions, dies without compassions. And having disregarded perhaps father’s or mother’s counsels, he ends stone-pelted, the divine law having commanded this also. And he said thus in Deuteronomy: ‘And if someone has a disobedient and provocating son, not hearing his father’s voice and mother’s voice, and they educate him, and he does not listen to them; and having taken him his father and his mother, they will lead him out upon the gerousia of his city, and upon the gate of his place, and they will say to the men of his city saying, that This our son disobeys, and provokes, and does not listen to our voice, being a club-companion he is wine-soaked; and the men of his city will stone him with stones, and he will die. And you will lift out the evil one from yourselves, and the remaining having heard will fear.’ Is it still lawful for you hereafter to doubt even after this, that the things unto father and mother are according to a track of the honor of God?
Palladius: Not at all. For what has also been said by someone wisely also persuades us thoroughly unto the needing to honor: ‘Remember that through them you were born.’ And indeed the patriarch Jacob saying most fairly: ‘If the fear of Isaac my father were not for me.’
Cyril: Would saying to have been born through them not show them clearly as an image of the Craftsman and of the one calling the things not being once unto being? And the needing to have been honored also by fear from us—has he not all but also set it in the very Masterly dignity?
Palladius: And very much. Therefore also the Proverb-speaker curses some, saying: ‘An eye laughing-down a father, and dishonoring a mother’s old-age—let ravens from the ravines dig it out.’ Yet clarify that—how someone would think it has been said clearly by Christ the Savior of all: ‘The one loving father or mother above me is not worthy of me.’ And I will also remember that; for to the disciple entreating to bury a father and to old-age-tend, he says: ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.’
Cyril: Then what is the out-of-place thing in these? for nothing is uphill, as at least it seems to me, yet the knowledge of the things lying forward is very bare, and most ready to catch for those willing to understand rightly.
Palladius: And indeed the word is not completely free of suspicion
Greek
ἄκρον ὀργαῖς, οὕτω καὶ ἐπ' αὐτῶν τῶν γεγεννηκότων· καὶ τὴν θείαν μέν τις ἀθετήσας ἐντολὴν, καὶ ταῖς παραβάσεσι καταλυπεῖν ᾑρημένος τὸν παιδαγωγὸν, χωρὶς οἰκτιρμῶν ἀποθνήσκει. Πατρὸς δὲ τυχὸν ἢ μητρὸς ὑποθηκῶν ἀλογήσας, λιθόλευστος τελευτᾷ, νόμου τοῦ θείου καὶ τόδε προστεταχότος. Ἔφη δὲ οὕτως ἐν τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ· «Ἐὰν δέ τινι ᾖ υἱὸς ἀπειθὴς καὶ ἐρεθιστὴς, οὐχ ὑπακούων φωνῆς πατρὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ φωνῆς μητρὸς, καὶ παιδεύσωσιν αὐτὸν, καὶ μὴ εἰσακούσῃ αὐτῶν· καὶ συλλαβόντες αὐτὸν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ, ἐξάξουσιν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὴν γερουσίαν τῆς πόλεως αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν πύλην τοῦ τόπου αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐροῦσι τοῖς ἀνδράσι τῆς πόλεως αὐτοῦ λέγοντες, ὅτι Ὁ υἱὸς ἡμῶν οὗτος ἀπειθεῖ, καὶ ἐρεθίζει, καὶ οὐκ εἰσακούει τῆς φωνῆς ἡμῶν, συμβολοκοπῶν οἰνοφλυγεῖ· καὶ λιθοβολήσουσιν αὐτὸν οἱ ἄνδρες τῆς πόλεως αὐτοῦ λίθοις, καὶ ἀποθανεῖται. Καὶ ἐξαρεῖτε τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ οἱ ἐπίλοιποι ἀκούσαντες φοβηθήσονται·» Ἆρά σοι λοιπὸν ἐνδοιάζειν ἔτι καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο θέμις, ὡς εἶσι κατ' ἴχνος τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ τιμῆς ἡ εἰς πατέρα τε καὶ μητέρα;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οὐδαμῶς. Ἐκδυσωπεῖ γὰρ ἡμᾶς εἰς γε τὸ χρῆναι τιμᾷν, καὶ τὸ ὑπό του σοφῶς εἰρημένον· «Μνήσθητι, ὅτι δι' αὐτῶν ἐγεννήθης.» Καὶ μὴν ὁ πατριάρχης Ἰακιὼβ ἐπιεικέστατα λέγων· «Εἰ μὴ ὁ φόβος Ἰσαὰκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἦν μοι.»
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἆρ' οὖν, εἰπέ μοι, τὸ δι' αὐτῶν γεγενῆσθαι λέγειν, οὐκ εἰκόνα τοῦ Δημιουργοῦ καὶ τοῦ πρὸς τὸ εἶναι καλοῦντος τὰ οὐκ ὄντα ποτὲ καταδείξειεν ἂν ἐναργῶς ὄντας αὐτούς; τὸ δὲ δὴ καὶ φόβῳ τῷ πρὸς ἡμῶν τετιμῆσθαι πρέπειν, οὐ μονονουχὶ καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ Δεσποτικῷ τέθεικεν ἀξιώματι;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μάλα. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ ἐπαρᾶταί τισιν ὁ Παροιμιαστὴς, λέγων· «Ὀφθαλμὸν καταγελῶντα πατρὸς, καὶ ἀτιμάζοντα γῆρας μητρὸς, ἐκκόψαισαν αὐτὸν κόρακες ἐκ τῶν φαράγγων.» Πλὴν ἐκεῖνο διασάφει, τὸ ὅπως ἂν οἴοιτό τις εἰρῆσθαι σαφῶς παρὰ τοῦ πάντων Σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ· «Ὁ φιλῶν πατέρα ἢ μητέρα ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ, οὐκ ἔστι μου ἄξιος.» Μεμνήσομαι δὲ κἀκείνου· πατέρα γὰρ θάπτειν καὶ γηροκομεῖν ἐκλιπαροῦντι τῷ μαθητῇ, τὸ «Ἀκολούθει μοι, φησὶ, καὶ ἄφες τοὺς νεκροὺς θάπτειν τοὺς ἑαυτῶν νεκρούς.»
{ΚΥΡ.} Εἶτα τί τὸ ἄτοπον ἐν τούτοις; ἄναντες γὰρ οὐδὲν, ὥς γέ μοι δοκεῖ, ψιλὴ δὲ λίαν τῶν προκειμένων ἡ γνῶσις, καὶ ἑλεῖν ἑτοιμοτάτη τοῖς ἐθέλουσιν ὀρθῶς νοεῖν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μὴν οὐκ ἐλεύθερος παντελῶς ὑποψίας
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.