Sunrise = knowledge/repentance; sell unrepayable; soul-trafficking death
Cyril: …he does not allow to be in danger, for the works of night and darkness are punished, but the things as in light thereafter no longer. And God has justified release from the ancient charges, and from those in ignorance and darkness. And indeed let it also be said to those who have arrived from sin unto the intelligible light, ‘You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord.’ Thus the Lord has also justified the divine Paul, who was formerly a blasphemer and persecutor and insolent man; for beyond measure he persecuted the Church of God and was laying it waste.
Palladius: You have spoken most excellently.
Cyril: And if he should not be able, he says, five calves instead of one, and four sheep instead of one, let him be sold instead of the theft. You see how the law clearly writes down the slavish dishonor of those who have continuous and unwashed-out sin, and who are not even able, so to speak, to beat off the charges with ransom, both through weakness of resolve not enduring to sweat unto repentance, and through the labors unto this to propitiate God? So he says very well that they are to be sold. For he does not allow those so polluted to be numbered among those freed through the divine grace. And being thrust out from the honor fitting for free persons, they also will hear: ‘Behold, you were sold for your lawless deeds.’ And if he should be caught having stolen, he says, but not yet having destroyed—that is, if someone of those accustomed to think otherwise should be caught having begun deceit and trickery unto others, but not yet having conquered and brought the hearers down unto destruction—he will repay double. For the master of the flock will take back what is his own, and the buffoon will also be required to give accounts; for this would be the thing in the double; and he will endure the penalty unto death. For what he wished to do unto others, he himself would suffer, and very fittingly.
Palladius: How truly destructive and altogether terrible is the matter of the deceivers, concerning whom I think somehow Christ himself also foretold: ‘Take heed from those who come toward you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are rapacious wolves.’
Cyril: Rightly then the law adjudges that every such one must have died as of wild beasts. For it has been written in Exodus: ‘If someone should steal one of the sons of Israel, and having overpowered him should sell him, and he should be found in him, let him die by death.’ And in Deuteronomy: ‘And if a human should be caught stealing a soul from his brothers, the sons of Israel, and having overpowered him should sell him, that thief will die.’ For it is not lawful that the holy race in Christ be laid waste, and be brought down somehow into an unfamiliar slavery by those accustomed to do this; for just as those who deceive boys separate them from city and households, and sending them out from free persons’ boasts, bring them under the yokes of forced slavery; in the same way, I think, those who lead away those who have chosen to think uprightly, and who practice the life fitting for free persons, onto
Greek
κινδυνεύειν οὐκ ἐᾷ, κολάζεται γὰρ τὰ νυκτὸς ἔργα καὶ σκότους, τὰ δὲ ὡς ἐν φωτὶ λοιπὸν, οὐκ ἔτι. Ἀνεῖσθαι δὲ τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐγκλημάτων, καὶ τῶν ἐν ἀγνοίᾳ καὶ σκότῳ, δεδικαίωκε Θεός. Καὶ δὴ καὶ λεγέσθω τοῖς ἐξ ἁμαρτίας εἰς φῶς ἀφιγμένοις τὸ νοητὸν, «Ἦτέ ποτε σκότος, νυνὶ δὲ φῶς ἐν Κυρίῳ.» Οὕτω δεδικαίωκεν ὁ Κύριος καὶ τὸν θεσπέσιον Παῦλον, τὸν πρότερον ὄντα βλάσφημον, καὶ διώκτην, καὶ ὑβριστήν· καθ' ὑπερβολὴν γὰρ ἐδίωκε τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ἐπόρθει αὐτήν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἄριστα ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐὰν δὲ μὴ δύνηται, φησὶ, πέντε μόσχους ἀνθ' ἑνὸς, καὶ πρόβατα τέσσαρα ἀνθ' ἑνὸς, πραθήτω ἀντὶ τοῦ κλέμματος. Ὁρᾷς ὅπως ἀτιμίαν ὁ νόμος τὴν δουλοπρεπῆ καταγράφει σαφῶς τῶν διηνεκῆ καὶ ἀνέκνιπτον ἐχόντων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ μηδ', ὅσον εἰπεῖν, λύτροις ἀποκρούεσθαι τὰ ἐγκλήματα δυναμένων, διά τε τὸ τῆς γνώμης ἀσθενὲς οὐκ ἀνεχομένων ἱδροῦν εἰς μετάγνωσιν, καὶ διὰ τῶν εἰς τοῦτο πόνων ἐκμειλίττεσθαι Θεόν; Πιπράσκεσθαι δὴ οὖν εὖ μάλα φησίν. Ἐναριθμεῖσθαι γὰρ οὐκ ἐᾷ τοῖς διὰ τῆς θείας χάριτος ἠλευθερωμένοις, τοὺς οὕτω μεμολυσμένους. Ἐξωθούμενοι δὲ τῆς τοῖς ἐλευθέροις πρεπούσης τιμῆς, ἀκούσονται καὶ αὐτοί· «Ἰδοὺ ταῖς ἀνομίαις ὑμῶν ἐπράθητε.» Εἰ δὲ κεκλοφὼς μὲν ἁλοίη, φησὶν, οὔπω δὲ ἀνελὼν, τουτέστιν, εἰ φενακισμοῦ καὶ ἀπάτης ἀρξάμενος τῆς εἰς ἑτέρους καταλαμβάνοιτό τις τῶν ἑτεροδοξεῖν εἰωθότων, νενικηκὼς δὲ οὔπω καὶ κατακομίσας εἰς ὄλεθρον τοὺς ἀκροωμένους, ἀποτίσει διπλᾶ. Ἀναλήψεται γὰρ τὸ οἰκεῖον ὁ τῆς ἀγέλης δεσπότης, προσεξαιτηθήσεται δὲ καὶ λόγους ὁ βωμολόχος· τοῦτο γὰρ ἂν εἴη τὸ ἐν διπλῷ· καὶ ζημίαν ὑπομενεῖ τὴν εἰς θάνατον. Ὃ γὰρ ἠθέλησε δρᾷν εἰς ἑτέρους, πάθοι ἂν αὐτὸς καὶ μάλα εἰκότως.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς ὀλέθριόν τε καὶ πάνδεινον ἀληθῶς τῶν φενάκων τὸ χρῆμα, περὶ ὧν οἶμαί που καὶ αὐτὸν προαγορεῦσαι Χριστόν· «Προσέχετε ἀπὸ τῶν ἐρχομένων πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐν ἐνδύμασι προβάτων, ἔσωθεν δέ εἰσι λύκοι ἅρπαγες.»
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὀρθῶς οὖν ὁ νόμος ὡς θηρῶν ἀγρίων, τὸ ἐκτεθνάναι δεῖν παντὸς τοιοῦδε καταψηφίζεται. Γέγραπται γὰρ ἐν μὲν τῇ Ἐξόδῳ· «Ἐὰν κλέψῃ τίς τινα τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ καταδυναστεύσας αὐτὸν ἀποδῶται, καὶ εὑρεθῇ ἐν αὐτῷ, θανάτῳ τελευτάτω.» Ἐν δέ γε τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ· «Ἐὰν δὲ ἁλῷ ἄνθρωπος κλέπτων ψυχὴν ἐκ τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτοῦ, τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ καταδυναστεύσας αὐτὸν ἀποδῶται, ἀποθανεῖται ὁ κλέπτης ἐκεῖνος.» Οὐ γάρ τοι θέμις τὸ ἱερὸν ἐν Χριστῷ καταδῃοῦσθαι γένος, καὶ εἰς δουλείαν οὐκ ἐντριβῆ κατακομίζεσθαί ποι παρά γε τῶν τοῦτο δρᾷν εἰωθότων· ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ τὰ μειράκια φενακίζοντες, πόλεώς τε καὶ οἰκιῶν ἀπονοσφίζουσι, καὶ αὐχημάτων αὐτὰ τῶν ἐλευθέρων ἐκπέμποντες, τοῖς τῆς ἀναγκαίας δουλείας ὑποφέρουσι ζυγοῖς· τὸν αὐτὸν, οἶμαι, τρόπον, οἱ τοὺς ὀρθὰ φρονεῖν ἑλομένους, καὶ τὸν ἐλευθέροις πρέποντα βίον ἐπιτηδεύοντας, ἐπὶ
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.