Field without teacher; unbetrothed soul; heretics snatch Gentiles/Jews
Cyril: …the city of the living God, but somehow in a field and in a countryside, where there was no helping mystagogue, and much emptiness of those accustomed to persuade unto the better, and the deceit as in scarcity of pedagogues, let only the one who forced be in danger; for the deed is already grasping, and a suffering without help, and a necessity somehow hard to flee will turn aside the charge; or shall we say it is not superfluous to blame those upon whom things have been brought unwillingly as involuntary?
Palladius: Altogether so; for the law is holy.
Cyril: You speak well; and it makes the examination of the deeds thinner, and somehow measures the angers to the wrongs, neither releasing altogether the lesser wrong from needing to be punished, nor setting it in equality with what is beyond this, but somehow turning the motion equal-sized to the charges. For he said again: ‘And if someone should find the virgin girl who has not been betrothed, and having forced her should sleep with her, and it should be found, the human who slept with her will give to the father of the young woman fifty didrachms of silver, and she will be his wife, instead of those things for which he humbled her; he will not be able to send her away for all time.’ So adultery made the one joining with a betrothed woman liable, according clearly to the modes already said. And if she should appear, he says, still unjoined, and not yet pledged to Christ through the faith, as a soul in the form of a virgin, and then someone should be caught having defiled her with words unto impiety, and having led her aside from wandering unto wandering—such a thing as heretics do, sometimes snatching those from the nations and from Jews, and persuading them to follow themselves—he will find the attempt not without penalty. For he will repay to the Father of spirits—that is, to God—the accounts of the wrong, the penalty being very well typed as in a loss of money. And ‘She will be his wife’ is useful to the history.
Palladius: I understand what you say; for the law is double—fleshly and spiritual.
Cyril: And observe how not even the word of the ancient commandment was ignorant of what Christ said concerning man and woman: ‘What therefore God has yoked, let a human not separate.’ For let her be his wife, he says, instead of those things for which he humbled her; he will not be able to send her away for all time. And in addition to this, consider how high as in boasts is the height of all-holy virginity; for the word of the God-inspired Scripture both knows and thinks fit to name as humiliation the taking-away of virginity, and as it were the putting-off of solemnity.
Palladius: You have spoken uprightly.
Cyril: Having then declared as God-hated and truly unholy the deceit of the otherwise-thinking, and the turning unto baseness of those accustomed to corrupt those who have chosen to walk uprightly, and the leading-away onto what it does not fit
Greek
πόλει Θεοῦ ζῶντος, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἐν πεδίῳ καὶ ἐν ἀγρῷ, οὗ μυσταγωγὸς ὁ ἐπαμύνων οὐκ ἦν, καὶ τῶν μεταπείθειν ἐπὶ τὸ ἄμεινον εἰωθότων ἐρημία πολλὴ, καὶ ὡς ἐν σπάνει παιδαγωγῶν ὁ φενακισμὸς, κινδυνευέτω μόνος ὁ βιασάμενος· πλεονεξία γὰρ ἤδη τὸ δρώμενον καὶ πάθος ἀνεπικούρητον, καὶ ἀνάγκη τις δυσδιάφυκτος, παρακρούσεται τὴν γραφήν· ἢ τοῖς ἀβουλήτως ἐπενηνεγμένοις ὡς ἀκουσίοις, ἐπιτιμᾷν οὐ περιττὸν εἶναι φήσομεν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Παντάπασι μὲν οὖν· ὅσιος γὰρ ὁ νόμος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Εὖ λέγεις· ἰσχνοτέραν δὲ τῶν δρωμένων ποιεῖ τὴν βάσανον, καὶ ἐπιμετρεῖ τρόπον τινὰ τοῖς πλημμελήμασι τὰς ὀργὰς, οὔτε τοῦ κολάζεσθαι δεῖν ἀπαλλάττων εἰσάπαν τὸ ἐπὶ τοῖς μείοσι πλημμελὲς, οὔτε μὴν ἐν ἴσῳ τοῖς ὑπὲρ τοῦτο τιθεὶς, ἰσομεγέθη δὲ ὥσπερ τοῖς αἰτιάμασιν ἀποτορνεύων τὴν κίνησιν. Ἔφη γὰρ πάλιν· «Ἐὰν δέ τις εὕρῃ τὴν παῖδα τὴν παρθένον, ἥτις οὐ μεμνήστευται, καὶ βιασάμενος αὐτὴν κοιμηθῇ μετ' αὐτῆς, καὶ εὑρεθῇ, δώσει ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁ κοιμηθεὶς μετ' αὐτῆς τῷ πατρὶ τῆς νεάνιδος πεντήκοντα δίδραχμα ἀργυρίου, καὶ αὐτοῦ ἔσται γυνὴ, ἀνθ' ὧν ἐταπείνωσεν αὐτήν· οὐ δυνήσεται ἐξαποστεῖλαι αὐτὴν τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον.» Μοιχεία μὲν οὖν ὑπόχρεω κατεστήσατο τὸν συνόντα μεμνηστευμένῃ, κατὰ τρόπους δὲ δηλονότι τοὺς ἤδη προειρημένους. Εἰ δὲ δὴ φαίνοιτο, φησὶ, καὶ ἀσυναφὴς ἔτι, κατεγγυηθεῖσα δὲ οὔπω Χριστῷ διὰ τῆς πίστεως, ὡς ἐν εἴδει παρθένου ψυχὴ, εἶτά τις αὐτὴν τοῖς εἰς δυσσέβειαν λόγοις καταμιάνας ἁλῷ, καὶ παρενεγκὼν ἐκ πλάνης εἰς πλάνησιν, ὁποῖόν τι δρῶσιν αἱρετικοὶ, τοὺς ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ Ἰουδαίων ἁρπάζοντες, ἕπεσθαί τε σφίσιν αὐτοῖς ἀναπείθοντες, οὐκ ἀζήμιον εὑρήσει τὸ ἐγχείρημα. Ἀποτίσει γὰρ τῷ πατρὶ τῶν πνευμάτων, τουτέστι, τῷ Θεῷ, τῆς πλημμελείας τοὺς λόγους, ὡς ἐν ζημίᾳ χρημάτων ὑποτυπουμένης εὖ μάλα. Τὸ δὲ, Αὐτοῦ ἔσται γυνὴ, τῇ ἱστορίᾳ χρήσιμον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Συνίημι ὃ φής· διπλοῦς γὰρ ὁ νόμος· σαρκικός τε καὶ πνευματικός.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐπιτήρει δὲ, ὅπως οὐδὲ ὁ τῆς ἀρχαίας ἐντολῆς ἠγνόησε λόγος, ὅπερ ἔφη Χριστὸς ἀνδρός τε πέρι καὶ γυναικός· «Ὃ οὖν Θεὸς συνέζευξεν, ἄνθρωπος μὴ χωριζέτω.» Αὐτοῦ γὰρ ἔστω γυνὴ, φησὶν, ἀνθ' ὧν ἐταπείνωσεν αὐτήν· οὐ δυνήσεται ἐξαποστεῖλαι αὐτὴν τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον. Καὶ πρός γε τούτῳ, διανοοῦ τῆς πανάγνου παρθενίας, ὁπόσον ἐστὶ τὸ ὡς ἐν αὐχήμασιν ὑψηλόν· ταπείνωσιν γὰρ οἶδέ τε καὶ ὀνομάζειν ἀξιοῖ τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς ὁ λόγος, τὴν διαπαρθένευσιν, καὶ οἱονεὶ τῆς σεμνότητος τὴν ἀπόθεσιν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθῶς ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀποφήσας δὴ οὖν ὡς θεομισῆ καὶ ἀνόσιον ἀληθῶς τὸν τῶν ἑτεροδόξων φενακισμὸν, καὶ τὴν εἰς φαυλότητα παρατροπὴν τῶν παραφθείρειν εἰωθότων τοὺς ὀρθοποδεῖν ᾑρημένους, καὶ τὴν ἐφ' ἃ μὴ προσ
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.