Jubilee; walled house vs field; Levite holdings always redeemable
Cyril: …and each unto his patriarchy you will go away. This signaling of release, the year the fiftieth year will be for you.’ So then what the word of even the land itself being released, and what then also the year of the release under-shows, we will assay timely; and that exceptional for the Levites is the lot, will be said; for now he writes thus again: ‘And if someone should sell the house of a household-servant the in a walled city, also its ransom will be, until a year of days should be fulfilled, its ransom will be; and if it should not be ransomed, until its whole year should be fulfilled, the house being in a city having a wall will be confirmed firmly for the one having acquired it unto his generations; and it will not go out in the release. And the houses the in hamlets, for which there is not in them a wall in a circle, will be reckoned toward the field of the land; ransomers through all they will be, and in the release they will go out. And the cities of the Levites, houses of the cities of their possession, ransomers through all will be for the Levites, and whoever should ransom from the Levites, also the sale of them of houses of city of their possession will go out in the release; because houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession in midst of sons of Israel, and the fields marked off for their cities will not be sold; because an eternal possession this is of them.’ (Leviticus 25:29–34)
Palladius: And what then does the law say? for I do not understand very much.
Cyril: Hear then; for the among city of the buildings which some should buy from the masters, let it be allowed, he says, for those having sold, to share-back the given even until one year; and if this should not become, with a year having passed, let the buyer be master, he says, and thereafter outside writings. And if a field should be and a hamlet, let it be allowed, he says, the bringing-back through all, with the seller having paid out to the buyer the given silver. And with him not having to put down and take up, he has ordered to be released in the fiftieth year, with the former master having paid out nothing. For the law was reckoning for the buyer the possession, the gains of the long time toward the counter-payment of the debts. But these things at least God was legislating upon the herd ones. And as it were part by part again and as in own honor he was setting the Levitical things, saying them to be redeemable through all, and forbidding to be sold through; ‘For this portion,’ he says, ‘and lot for them.’
Palladius: So then, O noble one, unto these for us the aim of the law, and would the assay altogether produce nothing of the necessary things?
Cyril: Then how is the law still spiritual? Or how is it not worthy to think, what ever then the sacred Writing says, for the sake of what, unredeemable the in city with one year having passed, and redeemable even through all the outside and in fields? But one may see that not very much for the all-wise God is the word of the history, until it should go looking-down the spiritual things, and the characters of the truth should appear very accurate.
Greek
καὶ ἕκαστος εἰς τὴν πατριὰν αὐτοῦ ἀπελεύσεσθε. Ἀφέσεως σημασία αὕτη, τὸ ἔτος τὸ πεντηκοστὸν ἐνιαυτὸς ἔσται ὑμῖν.» Τίς μὲν οὖν ὁ λόγος τοῦ καὶ αὐτὴν ἀνεῖσθαι τὴν γῆν, τί δὲ δὴ οὖν καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀφέσεως ἔτος ὑποδηλοῖ, βασανιοῦμεν εὐκαίρως· ὅτι δὲ ἐξαίρετος τοῖς Λευΐταις ὁ κλῆρος, λελέξεται· τέως δὲ γράφει ὡδὶ πάλιν· «Ἐὰν δέ τις ἀποδῶται τὴν οἰκίαν οἰκέτῃ τὴν ἐν πόλει τετειχισμένῃ, καὶ ἔσται ἡ λύτρωσις αὐτῆς, ἕως πληρωθῇ ἐνιαυτὸς ἡμερῶν, ἔσται ἡ λύτρωσις αὐτῆς· ἐὰν δὲ μὴ λυτρωθῇ, ἕως ἂν πληρωθῇ αὐτῆς ἐνιαυτὸς ὅλος, κυρωθήσεται ἡ οἰκία ἡ οὖσα ἐν πόλει τῇ ἐχούσῃ τεῖχος βεβαίως τῷ κτησαμένῳ αὐτὴν εἰς τὰς γενεὰς αὐτοῦ· καὶ οὐκ ἐξελεύσεται ἐν τῇ ἀφέσει. Αἱ δὲ οἰκίαι αἱ ἐν ἐπαύλεσιν, αἷς οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐταῖς τεῖχος κύκλῳ, πρὸς τὸν ἀγρὸν τῆς γῆς λογισθήσονται· λυτρωταὶ διαπαντὸς ἔσονται, καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀφέσει ἐξελεύσονται. Καὶ αἱ πόλεις τῶν Λευϊτῶν, οἰκίαι τῶν πόλεων κατασχέσεως αὐτῶν, λυτρωταὶ διαπαντὸς ἔσονται τοῖς Λευΐταις, καὶ ὃς ἂν λυτρώσηται παρὰ τῶν Λευϊτῶν, καὶ ἐξελεύσεται ἡ διάπρασις αὐτῶν οἰκιῶν πόλεως κατασχέσεως αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ ἀφέσει· ὅτι οἰκίαι τῶν πόλεων τῶν Λευϊτῶν κατάσχεσις αὐτῶν ἐν μέσῳ υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ οἱ ἀγροὶ ἀφωρισμένοι ταῖς πόλεσιν αὐτῶν οὐ πραθήσονται· ὅτι κατάσχεσις αἰωνία τοῦτο αὐτῶν ἐστιν.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ τί δὴ ἄρα φησὶν ὁ νόμος; συνίημι γὰρ οὐ σφόδρα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄκουε δή· τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐν ἄστει τῶν οἰκοδομημάτων ἃ ἂν ἐκπρίαιντό τινες παρὰ τῶν κυρίων, ἐξέστω, φησὶ, τοῖς ἀποδομένοις, ἀναμοιράσασθαι τὸ δοθὲν καὶ μέχρις ἔτους ἑνός· εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῦτο γένηται, παρῳχηκότος ἐνιαυτοῦ, κύριος ἔστω, φησὶ, καὶ γραμμάτων ἔξω λοιπὸν ὁ πριάμενος. Εἰ δὲ ἀγρὸς εἴη καὶ ἔπαυλις, ἐξέστω, φησὶ, τὸ ἀνακομίζεσθαι διὰ παντὸς, ἐκτετικότος τῷ πριαμένῳ τὸ δοθὲν ἀργύριον τοῦ ἀπεμπωληκότος. Οὐκ ἔχοντος δὲ καταθεῖναι καὶ ἀναλαβεῖν, ἀνεῖσθαι προστέταχεν ἐν ἔτει πεντηκοστῷ, ἐκτετικότος οὐδὲν τοῦ πάλαι Κυρίου. Κατελογίζετο γὰρ ὁ νόμος τῷ πριαμένῳ τὴν κτῆσιν, τοῦ μακροῦ χρόνου τὰ κέρδη πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὀφλημάτων ἀντέκτισιν. Ἀλλὰ ταυτὶ μὲν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀγελαίοις ἐθεσμοθέτει Θεός. Ἀνὰ μέρος δὲ ὥσπερ πάλιν καὶ ὡς ἐν ἰδίᾳ ἐτίθει τιμῇ τὰ Λευϊτικὰ, λυτρωτὰ διὰ παντὸς εἶναι λέγων αὐτὰ, καὶ ἐπιπράσκεσθαι διακωλύων· «Μερὶς γὰρ αὕτη, φησὶ, καὶ κλῆρος αὐτοῖς.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἆρ' οὖν, ὦ γενναῖε, μέχρι τούτων ἡμῖν ὁ τοῦ νόμου σκοπὸς, ἐκτέκοι δ' ἂν ὅλως οὐδὲν τῶν ἀναγκαίων ἡ βάσανος;
{ΚΥΡ.} Εἶτα πῶς πνευματικὸς ἔτι ὁ νόμος; ἢ πῶς οὐκ ἄξιον ἐννοεῖν, ὅ τί ποτε ἄρα φησὶ τὸ Γράμμα τὸ ἱερὸν, τοῦ δὴ χάριν, ἀλύτρωτα μὲν τὰ ἐν ἄστει παρῳχηκότος ἐνιαυτοῦ ἑνὸς, ἐλλυτρώσιμα δὲ καὶ διὰ παντὸς τὰ ἔξω καὶ ἐν ἀγροῖς; Ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἰδεῖν ὡς οὐ σφόδρα πολὺς τῷ πανσόφῳ Θεῷ τῆς ἱστορίας ὁ λόγος, ἔστ' ἂν ἴοι καταροῦν τὰ πνευματικὰ, καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας οἱ χαρακτῆρες ἀκριβεῖς λίαν ἐκφαίνοιντο.
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 13 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 13 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 13 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 13)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 13)
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.