God-love ranked above parents; Corban abuse begins
the word; for it somehow seems to carry us away from the reverence unto parents.
Cyril: Away with the suspicion, O human, and with the thoughts thus adulterated! for the Savior’s word does not stand us off at all from the reverence unto parents, yet teaches to count the reverence unto God older and better. And the word has also continued for us, naming it near and second up and down of the one fitting for God, which Christ himself has also kept, neither having written a charge upon those having chosen to love, nor indeed having set any blame and writing upon those having chosen to honor. Yet that the human things go behind God he legislates most fittingly. Therefore he says not simply: ‘The one loving his father or mother’; yet he has added the ‘above me.’ Or will you not think it fitting that the love unto God be set before the love unto humans?
Palladius: Altogether so.
Cyril: Therefore he was not letting the disciple go upon the needing not to think to make the reverence unto a human more urgent than the reverence unto God, even if a father should exist, the one also being advocated by nature’s laws at least unto needing to be honored. Therefore he makes the things according to himself better than the things according to us. For the beyond all and highest is God; yet he nowhere grants that some count the reverence unto parents as nothing, because of the needing to think and say that the things of God are in the older and better portion. For Christ was making the matter an accusation for the Jews’ leaders saying: ‘God said, Honor your father and your mother; yet you say—God says: Whoever should say to his father, A gift whatever you would be benefited from me, and he will not honor his father or his mother, and you have voided God’s commandment through your tradition.’
Palladius: And indeed the knowledge of the things lying forward is not very ready. Clarify then what ever the Pharisees’ fault is in this at least.
Cyril: In Leviticus it has been written somewhere: ‘And the Lord spoke toward Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and you will say toward them: A human who should vow a vow as a price of his soul to the Lord, the price of the male from twenty-yeared until sixty-yeared will be, his price will be fifty didrachms of silver, by the holy weight.’ And having said some few things in between about a woman and youths, he brings on again: ‘And if he is humble in the price, he will stand opposite the priest, and the priest will price him.’ The word then is mystic and deep, and will be tested very well by us in the fitting season; yet the thing in hands—come let us say: Some from Israel were approaching, and were being eager to consecrate their own souls to God, as still in type and shadow, yet
Greek
ὁ λόγος· ἔοικε γάρ πως τῆς εἰς γονέας αἰδοῦς ἀποκομίζειν ἡμᾶς.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄπαγε τῆς ὑπονοίας, ἄνθρωπε, καὶ τῶν οὕτω κεκιβδηλευμένων ἐννοιῶν! ἀφίστησι γὰρ, οὔ τί που τῆς εἰς γονέας αἰδοῦς, τοῦ Σωτῆρος ὁ λόγος, πρεσβυτέραν δὲ καὶ ἀμείνω τὴν εἰς Θεὸν ἡγεῖσθαι διδάσκει. Διατετέλεκε δὲ καὶ ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος, ἀγχοῦ καὶ δευτέραν ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω τῆς Θεῷ πρεπούσης ὀνομάζων αὐτὴν, ὃ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς τετήρηκεν ὁ Χριστὸς, οὐκ αἰτίαν ἐπιγράψας τοῖς ἀγαπᾷν ἑλομένοις, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ μῶμόν τινα καὶ γραφὴν ἐπιθεὶς τοῖς ᾑρημένοις τιμᾷν. Τό γε μὴν κατόπιν ἰέναι Θεοῦ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, πρεπωδέστατα νομοθετεῖ. Τοιγάρτοι φησὶν οὐχ ἁπλῶς· «Ὁ φιλῶν πατέρα αὐτοῦ ἢ μητέρα·» προστέθεικε δὲ τὸ, «ὑπὲρ ἐμέ.» Ἢ γὰρ οὐκ οἰήσῃ πρέπειν τῆς εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἀγάπης προτετάχθαι τὴν εἰς Θεόν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Παντάπασι μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἰέναι δὴ οὖν οὐκ ἠφίει τὸν μαθητὴν ἐπὶ τὸ μὴ δεῖν οἴεσθαι προὐργιαιτέραν ποιεῖσθαι τῆς εἰς Θεὸν αἰδοῦς τὴν εἰς ἄνθρωπον, κἂν εἰ ὑπάρχοι πατὴρ, ὁ καὶ τοῖς τῆς φύσεως νόμοις εἴς γε τὸ χρῆναι τιμᾶσθαι συνηγορούμενος. Ἀμείνω μὲν οὖν τὰ καθ' ἑαυτὸν ποιεῖται τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς. Τὸ γάρ τοι πάντων ἐπέκεινα καὶ ἀνωτάτω, Θεός· ἐφίησι δὲ οὐδαμῶς παρ' οὐδὲν ἡγεῖσθαί τισιν τὴν εἰς γονέας αἰδὼ, διά γε τὸ χρῆναι φρονεῖν τε καὶ λέγειν, ὡς ἔστιν ἐν μοίρᾳ τῇ πρεσβυτέρᾳ τε καὶ ἀμείνονι τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἐπίκλημα γὰρ ἐποιεῖτο τοῖς Ἰουδαίων καθηγηταῖς τὸ χρῆμα ὁ Χριστὸς λέγων· «Ὁ Θεὸς εἶπε, Τίμα τὸν πατέρα σου, καὶ τὴν μητέρα σου· ὑμεῖς δὲ λέγετε, φησὶν ὁ Θεός· Ὃς ἐὰν εἴπῃ τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ, Δῶρον ὃ ἐὰν ἐξ ἐμοῦ ὠφεληθῇς, καὶ οὐ μὴ τιμήσῃ τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ ἢ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἠκυρώσατε τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ διὰ τὴν παράδοσιν ὑμῶν.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μὴν οὐ λίαν ἑτοίμη τῶν προκειμένων ἡ γνῶσις. Διασάφει δὴ οὖν ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστιν ἔν γε τούτῳ τὸ τῶν Φαρισαίων πλημμέλημα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐν τῷ Λευϊτικῷ γέγραπταί που· «Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωσῆν, λέγων· Λάλησον τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτούς· Ἄνθρωπος ὃς ἐὰν εὔχηται εὐχὴν ὥς τε τιμὴν τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ, ἔσται ἡ τιμὴ τοῦ ἄρσενος ἀπὸ εἰκοσαετοῦς ἕως ἑξηκονταετοῦς, ἔσται ἡ τιμὴ αὐτοῦ πεντήκοντα δίδραχμα ἀργυρίου, τῷ σταθμῷ τῷ ἁγίῳ.» Ὀλίγα δὲ ἄττα μεταξὺ γυναίου τε πέρι καὶ μειρακίων εἰπὼν, ἐπιφέρει πάλιν· «Ἐὰν δὲ ταπεινὸς ᾖ τῇ τιμῇ, στήσεται ἐναντίον τοῦ ἱερέως, καὶ τιμήσεται αὐτὸν ὁ ἱερεύς.» Μυστικὸς μὲν οὖν ὁ λόγος καὶ βαθὺς, καιρῷ δὲ τῷ πρέποντι πρὸς ἡμῶν εὖ μάλα βασανισθήσεται· τὸ δὲ ἐν χερσὶ, φέρε λέγωμεν· Προσῄεσάν τινες τῶν ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ καθιεροῦν ἐσπούδαζον τῷ Θεῷ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχὰς, ὡς ἐν τύπῳ μὲν ἔτι καὶ σκιᾷ, πλὴν
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.