Age as week; Sabbath Christ; Our Father debts; Edom embassy begins
Cyril: Or will you not remember us having also said in the things already passed, that it is customary for the divine Scripture to liken the whole interval of the present and standing age to a week, because of the cycling-back unto the beginning of the days? For an end of a week is the Sabbath, and neighbor at once is the eighth, bringing in for us as somehow a new beginning of an age, through the resurrection of Christ.
Palladius: I will remember.
Cyril: He has visited then according to the Scriptures, upon a completion of the present age, and somehow as on a Sabbath—Christ—when he also released all, bound tight with cords of their own sins, and having owed him the accounts of the transgression. Therefore also in the Gospels he likens us to debtors saying: ‘Two debtors were to one human; the one owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And not having to give back, he gifted both.’ And still shaping for us the type of the prayer, ‘Thus then you pray,’ he says: ‘Our Father who is in the heavens, let your name be hallowed, let your kingdom come, let your will become as in heaven and upon the earth, give us today our bread for the coming day, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.’ So sideways then and riddlingly the law was hinting the divine mystery for us, commanding to make the release through seven years, and embarks us upon the paths of kindness, teaching to make better than money the loving unto brothers, persuading us to be ready to share and communal, and as somehow setting the gentleness unto brother and neighbor for now as a practice of the more ungrudging reverence unto all.
Palladius: Thus it holds. For I would agree with you wanting to speak most excellently.
Cyril: And the still greater, if you should learn, you would marvel, O Palladius.
Palladius: What sort?
Cyril: For the law wants us to advance unto this of kindness and mutual love, so as to consider nothing equal-balanced to the love unto brothers. And to follow so nobly the distresses upon them, as also to be seen stronger than anger, even if they should not become toward us such as they must be and be seen, and should choose to grieve by unlovingnesses. You have also the type of this in Numbers: ‘For Moses sent,’ he says, ‘messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the toil that found us, and our fathers went down into Egypt, and we sojourned in Egypt many days, and the Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers, and we cried up toward the Lord, and the Lord heard our voice, and having sent an angel, led us out from Egypt, and now we are in Kadesh city, from
Greek
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἢ οὐ μεμνήσῃ διειρηκότων ἡμῶν καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἤδη παρῳχηκόσιν, ὅτι σύνηθες τῇ θείᾳ Γραφῇ, τοῦ παρόντος καὶ ἐνεστηκότος αἰῶνος τὸ σύμπαν διάστημα παρομοιοῦν ἑβδομάδι, διὰ τὴν εἰς τὸ ἀπαρχῆς τῶν ἡμερῶν ἀνακύκλωσιν; πέρας γὰρ ἑβδομάδος, τὸ Σάββατον, καὶ γείτων εὐθὺς ἡ ὀγδόη, νέαν ἡμῖν ὥσπερ αἰῶνος ἀρχὴν εἰσκομίσουσα, διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Μεμνήσομαι.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐπιδεδήμηκε τοίνυν κατὰ τὰς Γραφὰς, ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ τοῦ παρόντος αἰῶνος, καὶ οἱονεί πως ἐν Σαββάτῳ Χριστὸς, ὅτε καὶ ἀνῆκεν ἅπαντας, σειραῖς τῶν οἰκείων ἁμαρτιῶν κατεσφιγμένους, καὶ ἐπωφληκότας αὐτῷ τοὺς τῆς παραβάσεως λόγους. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις, ὀφειλέταις ἡμᾶς παρεικάζει λέγων· «Δύο χρεωφειλέται ἦσαν ἀνθρώπῳ ἑνί· ὁ εἷς ὤφειλεν αὐτῷ δηνάρια πεντακόσια, ὁ δὲ ἕτερος πεντήκοντα. Μὴ ἐχόντων δὲ αὐτῶν ἀποδοῦναι, ἀμφοτέροις ἐχαρίσατο.» Καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἔτι τὸν τῆς προσευχῆς ἡμῖν διαπλάττων τύπον, «Οὕτως οὖν ὑμεῖς προσεύχεσθε, φησί· Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου, ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου, γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον, καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφίεμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν.» Πλαγίως οὖν ἄρα καὶ αἰνιγματωδῶς ὁ νόμος τὸ θεῖον ἡμῖν ὑπεδήλου μυστήριον, ἄφεσιν ποιεῖσθαι προστάττων τὴν δι' ἐτῶν ἑπτὰ, καὶ ταῖς τῆς χρηστότητος ἐμβιβάζει τρίβοις, χρημάτων ἀμείνω ποιεῖσθαι διδάσκων, τὴν εἰς ἀδελφοὺς ἀγάπησιν, εὐμεταδότους τε εἶναι καὶ κοινωνικοὺς ἀναπείθων, καὶ οἱονεὶ μελέτησίν τινα τῆς εἰς ἅπαντας ἀφθονωτέρας αἰδοῦς, τὴν εἰς ἀδελφὸν καὶ γείτονα τέως ἡμερότητα τιθείς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει. Συναινέσαιμι γὰρ ἀριστοεπεῖν ἐθέλοντί σοι.
{ΚΥΡ.} Καὶ τὸ ἔτι μεῖζον, εἰ μάθοις, καταθαυμάσαις ἂν, ὦ Παλλάδιε.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Τὸ ποῖον;
{ΚΥΡ.} Χρηστότητος γὰρ καὶ φιλαλληλίας εἰς τοῦτο προήκειν ἡμᾶς ὁ νόμος βούλεται, ὡς οὐδὲν ἡγεῖσθαι, τῆς εἰς ἀδελφοὺς ἀγάπης τὸ ἰσοστατοῦν. Κατακολουθεῖν δὲ οὕτω γεννικῶς ταῖς ἐπ' αὐτοῖς δυσθυμίαις, ὡς καὶ ὀργῆς ὁρᾶσθαι κρείττονας, κἂν εἰ μὴ γένοιντο πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὁποίους εἶναί τε καὶ ὁρᾶσθαι χρὴ, καὶ ταῖς ἀφιλοστοργίαις ἕλοιντο λυπεῖν. Ἔχεις καὶ τοῦδε τὸν τύπον ἐν τοῖς Ἀριθμοῖς· «Καὶ ἀπέστειλε γὰρ, φησὶν, ὁ Μωσῆς ἀγγέλους ἐκ Κάδης πρὸς βασιλέα Ἐδὼμ, λέγων· Τάδε λέγει ὁ ἀδελφός σου Ἰσραήλ· Σὺ ἐπίστῃ πάντα τὸν μόχθον τὸν εὑρόντα ἡμᾶς, καὶ κατέβησαν οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, καὶ παρωκήσαμεν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ἡμέρας πλείους, καὶ ἐκάκωσαν ἡμᾶς οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι καὶ τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν, καὶ ἀνεβοήσαμεν πρὸς Κύριον, καὶ εἰσήκουσε Κύριος τῆς φωνῆς ἡμῶν, καὶ ἀποστείλας ἄγγελον, ἐξήγαγεν ἡμᾶς ἐξ Αἰγύπτου, καὶ νῦν ἐσμεν ἐν Κάδης πόλει, ἐκ
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 8 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 8 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 8)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 8)
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.