Mixed marriage economy; love neighbor; 1 Cor 13 begins
to be entangled with some foreign ones, and to go at once in the same way with the other-raced, was not without penalty for the more ancient ones; yet for us Paul counsels that we must live as citizens both better and more boldly, saying: ‘If some man has an unbelieving wife, and she consents to dwell with him, let him not send her away; and a woman, who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to dwell with her, let her not send the husband away. For the unbelieving man has been made holy in the wife; and the unbelieving wife has been made holy in the husband.’ What then is the manner of the economy at least in these things? And instead of what was the law of old fearing the intertwining toward those other-minded, yet now no longer? For the Spirit dwelling in them works those having been called in Christ firm, and having the God-loving unshaken, through whom and ‘in whom we cry: Abba the Father’; yet those not yet were rich with the gift. For as the divine John says, ‘For Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’ Therefore all the completion is in Christ, yet the law has completed nothing, according to what has been written.
Palladius: Would you then speak for me asking how the incomplete thing in law would become clear?
Cyril: And very much. And the word will walk for us upon the things in hands, and will thoroughly test the manners of the love unto the neighbor, the writing through Moses having been brought in somehow thicker than is necessary for the more ancient ones.
Palladius: Go then already upon this very thing, and very eagerly.
Cyril: Therefore the law says, ‘You will love your neighbor as yourself’; yet our Lord Jesus Christ introduces for us the law of mutual-loving through as many words as parts, and setting as it were the inborn knowledge and the wish in each as advocate for the law, ‘As many things then as you wish that the humans do for you, these things you also likewise do for them.’ For if of as many things as someone would pray to obtain, these he should also choose to do for others himself, he will not run off from the aim; yet he will rather walk straight of the love, and will bind on the crown of the mutual-loving.
Palladius: You speak well.
Cyril: The love then is a fulfillment of law, and better than faith and hope. For thus the divine Paul writes for us. Therefore as it were weaving together for it some many-formed crown from spring flowers, he says again: ‘And if I feed out all my belongings, and if I hand over my body in order that I be burned, yet do not have love, I am benefited nothing. The love is long-suffering, is kind, the love does not envy, does not boast, is not inflated, does not behave shamefully, does not seek
Greek
ὀθνείοις ἐπιπλέκεσθαί τισιν, ὁμόσε τε κατὰ ταὐτὸν τοῖς ἀλλογενέσιν ἰέναι, τοῖς ἀρχαιοτέροις οὐκ ἀζήμιον ἦν· ἡμῖν δὲ ὁ Παῦλος, πολιτεύεσθαι δεῖν ἄμεινόν τε καὶ εὐθαρσέστερον συμβουλεύει, λέγων· «Εἴ τις ἀνὴρ γυναῖκα ἔχει ἄπιστον, καὶ αὕτη συνευδοκεῖ οἰκεῖν μετ' αὐτοῦ, μὴ ἀφιέτω αὐτήν· καὶ γυνὴ, ἤτις ἔχει ἄνδρα ἄπιστον, καὶ οὗτος συνευδοκεῖ οἰκεῖν μετ' αὐτῆς, μὴ ἀφιέτω τὸν ἄνδρα. Ἡγίασται γὰρ ὁ ἀνὴρ ἄπιστος ἐν τῇ γυναικί· καὶ ἡγίασται ἡ γυνὴ ἡ ἄπιστος ἐν τῷ ἀνδρί.» Τίς οὖν ἄρα ἐστὶ τῆς ἔν γε τούτοις οἰκονομίας ὁ τρόπος; Ἐδεδίει δὲ ἀνθ' ὅτου πάλαι μὲν ὁ νόμος τὴν πρὸς ἑτερόφρονας ἀναπλοκὴν, νυνὶ δὲ οὐκ ἔτι; Ἐδραίους μὲν γὰρ τοὺς ἐν Χριστῷ κεκλημένους, καὶ ἀκατάσειστον ἔχοντας τὴν φιλοθεΐαν, τὸ κατοικοῦν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀπεργάζεται Πνεῦμα, δι' οὗ καὶ «ἐν ᾧ κράζομεν· Ἀββᾶ ὁ Πατήρ·» οἱ δὲ οὔπω τὸ δῶρον ἐπλούτουν. Ὡς γὰρ ὁ θεσπέσιος Ἰωάννης φησὶν, «Οὔπω γὰρ ἦν Πνεῦμα ἅγιον, ὅτι Ἰησοῦς οὐδέπω ἐδοξάσθη.» Οὐκοῦν ἡ πᾶσα τελείωσις ἐν Χριστῷ, τετελείωκε δὲ ὁ νόμος οὐδὲν, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φράσῃς ἂν οὖν ἱρείροντί μοι τὸ ὅπως ἂν γένοιτο σαφὲς τὸ ἀτελὲς ἐν νόμῳ.
{ΚΥΡ.} Καὶ μάλα. Βαδιεῖται δὲ ἡμῖν ἐπὶ τὰ ἐν χερσὶν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ἀγάπης τῆς εἰς τὸν πλησίον ἐκβασανιεῖ τοὺς τρόπους, παχύτερόν πως ἢ χρὴ τῆς διὰ Μωσέως συγγραφῆς, τοῖς ἀρχαιοτέροις εἰσκεκομισμένης.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἴθι δὴ οὖν ἐπ' αὐτὸ [τὸ] δὴ τουτὶ, καὶ μάλα προθύμως.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ὁ μὲν νόμος, «Ἀγαπήσεις, φησὶ, τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς ἑαυτόν·» ὁ δὲ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, τῆς φιλαλληλίας τὸν νόμον διὰ μορίων ὅσων ἡμῖν εἰσηγεῖται λόγων, συνήγορον δὲ τῷ νόμῳ τὴν ἔμφυτον γνῶσιν, καὶ τὴν ἐν ἑκάστῳ θέλησιν οἱονεὶ καθιστὰς, «Ἃ οὖν θέλετε, φησὶν, ἵνα ποιῶσιν ὑμῖν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, ταῦτα καὶ ὑμεῖς ποιεῖτε αὐτοῖς ὁμοίως.» Εἰ γὰρ ὧνπερ ἄν τις εὔξαιτο τυχεῖν, ταῦτα δρᾷν ἕλοιτο καὶ αὐτὸς ἑτέροις, οὐκ ἀποδραμεῖται σκοποῦ· βαδιεῖται δὲ μᾶλλον κατ' εὐθὺ τῆς ἀγάπης, καὶ τὸν τῆς φιλαλληλίας ἀναδήσεται στέφανον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ λέγεις.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἡ ἀγάπη τοίνυν, νόμου μὲν πλήρωσις, πίστεως δὲ καὶ ἐλπίδος ἀμείνων. Γράφει γὰρ οὕτως ἡμῖν ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος. Τοιγάρτοι καθάπερ ἐξ ἀνθέων ἠρινῶν πολυειδῆ τινα στέφανον ἀναπλέκων αὐτῇ, πάλιν φησί· «Κἂν ψωμίσω πάντα τὰ ὑπάρχοντά μου, καὶ ἐὰν παραδῶ τὸ σῶμά μου ἵνα καυθήσομαι, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, οὐδὲν ὠφελοῦμαι. Ἡ ἀγάπη μακροθυμεῖ, χρηστεύεται, ἡ ἀγάπη οὐ ζηλοῖ, οὐ περπερεύεται, οὐ φυσιοῦται, οὐκ ἀσχημονεῖ, οὐ ζητεῖ
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.