Ox/donkey = baptized vs unbaptized; scandal debt; thorn vs grain
guarding not to be without share for the word. For if, he says, an ox or donkey falls, the one having toiled will pay back. And he names ox and donkey again not simply, but as in a deep word; and he says ox, in order that you may understand the sacred and clean race; yet donkey, in order that you may put together the unsacred and unclean; for the unclean is not brought according to law unto a sacrifice for God; and we say a sacred and clean race are those already having been made holy through the faith; yet unsacred and unclean—those not yet having been cleansed through the holy baptism, but still having the pollution of the sin in-melted. Like then as if he should say, If some harm should become, either about some of those already baptized and sealed through the grace unto the intimacy as toward God, or then unto some perhaps of those not yet such, the provider of the scandal will owe a justice, and the having died will remain for him—that is, the death of the one having suffered will become his. At any rate the Savior himself also makes us safe saying: ‘Whoever should scandalize one of these little ones believing into me, it benefits him that a millstone of a donkey be hung around his neck, and he be sunk in the sea’s depth.’ Therefore one must cover the pit—that is, make the word about the mysteries safe with exactness, lest either a baptized one or one still outside be destroyed. And when teachers’ words as flames or fire fall upon the trickings of the other-doctrined and of Greeks, advocating for the dogmas of the truth, and go against thorn alone, and burn down as useless and wild matter the writings beside those, yet do not wrong together grain or ear—that is, let the mystagogues be sober, lest somehow they also damage something of the dogmas of the truth; or let him know, he says, who does not endure to do this with safety, that if somehow something of the necessary things unto benefit should become burned down together with the base things, he will pay back the accounts of the carelessness. Thorn then is the most foul and profane door-mouthing of the distorted ones; yet grain and ear is the soul-benefiting and most nourishing word of the truth
Greek
λείας μὴ ἀμοιρεῖν τὸν λόγον. Ἐὰν γὰρ πέσῃ, φησὶ, βοῦς ἢ ὄνος, ὁ πεπονηκὼς ἀποτίσει. Βοῦν δὲ καὶ ὄνον ὀνομάζει πάλιν οὐχ ἁπλῶς, ἀλλ' ὡς ἐν λόγῳ βαθεῖ· καὶ βοῦν μέν φησιν, ἵνα νοήσῃς τὸ ἱερόν τε καὶ καθαρὸν γένος· ὄνον δὲ, ἵνα συνῇς, τὸ ἀνίερον καὶ ἀκάθαρτον· οὐ γὰρ προσάγεται κατὰ νόμον εἰς θυσίαν Θεῷ τὸ ἀκάθαρτον· ἱερὸν δὲ γένος καὶ καθαρὸν εἶναί φαμεν, τοὺς ἡγιασμένους ἤδη διὰ τῆς πίστεως· ἀνίερον δὲ καὶ ἀκάθαρτον, τοὺς οὔπω κεκαθαρμένους διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος, ἀλλ' ἐντετηγμένον ἔχοντες ἔτι τῆς ἁμαρτίας τὸν μολυσμόν. Ὅμοιον οὖν ὡς εἰ λέγοι, Εἴ τι γένοιτο βλάβος, ἢ περί τινα τῶν ἤδη βεβαπτισμένων καὶ κατεσφραγισμένων διὰ τῆς χάριτος εἰς οἰκειότητα τὴν ὡς πρὸς Θεὸν, ἤγουν εἴς τινα τυχὸν τῶν οὔπω τοιούτων, ὀφλήσει δίκην ὁ τοῦ σκανδάλου πρόξενος, καὶ αὐτῷ μενεῖ τὸ τεθνηκὸς, τουτέστιν, αὐτοῦ γενήσεται τοῦ παθόντος ὁ θάνατος. Ἀσφαλίζεταί γε γοῦν καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Σωτὴρ ἡμᾶς λέγων· «Ὃς ἐὰν σκανδαλίσῃ ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν τούτων τῶν πιστευόντων εἰς ἐμὲ, συμφέρει αὐτῷ, ἵνα κρεμασθῇ μύλος ὀνικὸς περὶ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ καὶ καταποντισθῇ ἐν τῷ πελάγει τῆς θαλάσσης.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθῶς ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἴδοις δ' ἂν εὐκόλως καὶ δι' ἑτέρων ἡμῖν αἰνιγμάτων παραδηλοῦντα τὸν νόμον σφαλερὸν, ὅτι τὸ πλημμελεῖν καὶ τοῦτο εἰς ἀδελφούς· τὸ γὰρ τύπτειν αὐτῶν ἀσθενοῦσαν τὴν συνείδησιν, εἰς Χριστὸν ἡμῶν ἀναφέρει τὸ πλημμελές. Ἔφη τοίνυν· «Ἐὰν δὲ ἐξελθὸν πῦρ εὕρῃ ἀκάνθας καὶ προσεμπρήσῃ ἅλωνας ἢ στάχυας, ἢ πεδίον, ἀποτίσει τὸ πῦρ ὁ ἐγκαύσας.» Οὐ γάρ τοι προσήκει τοῖς ἀδικεῖν πεφυκόσι συνδιόλλυσθαι τὸ χρηστὸν, οὐδὲ τοῖς ἀγρίοις συνδαπανᾶσθαι τὸ ἤμερον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς ἔφης;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ ταῖς ἐν ὄρεσί τε καὶ ἐν ἀγροῖς ἀκάνθαις παρεικάζοιτο ἂν εἰκότως τὰ τῶν ἀνοσίων αἱρετικῶν συγγράμματα, καὶ ἡ τῶν παρ' Ἕλλησι δογμάτων τερθρεία; τίς γὰρ ἂν γένοιτο ταῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ψυχαῖς ἐκεῖθεν ἡ ὄνησις, μᾶλλον δὲ ποῖον οὐκ ἔσται βλάβος τοῖς εἰς νοῦν ἐθέλουσιν ἐκεῖνα λαβεῖν; Πυρὸς τοίνυν μόνου τροφὸς, ἡ ἄκανθα, καὶ φλογὸς διατροφή. Ἀνακαίουσι δὲ καὶ φλόγας ἡμῖν τὰς εἰς αἰῶνα καὶ τῶν πεπλανημένων τὰ ἐξίτηλα δόγματα, καὶ τὰ τῶν εἰδωλολατρῶν γραοπρεπῆ μυθάρια· ἄσταχυς δὲ καὶ σῖτος, ἡμερωτάτη τροφὴ, καὶ ἀνθρώποις ἐδώδιμα, καὶ ἀναγκαῖα πρὸς ὄνησιν· συνέχει γὰρ ἡμᾶς εἰς ζωὴν, καὶ τύπος ἂν εἴη τῶν τῆς ἀληθείας δογμάτων, δι' ὧν οἱ πεπιστευκότες ὡς ἄρτῳ ζῶντι τρεφόμεθα καὶ ἀληθινῷ, τῷ Χριστῷ. Ἔστι δὲ αὖ πεδίον λεῖον ὥσπερ τι καὶ ἄτραχυ, τοῖς διαστείχειν εἰδόσιν ὀρθῶς ἡ θεόπνευστος Γραφή· «Πάντα γὰρ ἐνώπιον τοῖς συνιοῦσι,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον· «καὶ ὀρθὰ τοῖς εὑρίσκουσι γνῶσιν.» Οὐκοῦν ἄκανθα μὲν ἡ μυσαρωτάτη καὶ βέβηλος ἀθυροστομία τῶν διεστραμμένων· σῖτος δὲ καὶ ἄσταχυς ὁ ψυχωφελής τε καὶ τροφιμώτατος τῆς ἀληθείας λό
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.