Dinah leaves tent; soul ruined by alien daughters; David’s one ask
Cyril: …Jacob unto Salem city of Shechem, which is in land Canaan, when he returned from Mesopotamia of Syria, and he encamped opposite face of the city, and he acquired the portion of the field, where he set there his tent, from Hamor father of Shechem, for a hundred lambs, and he set there an altar, and he called-upon the God of Israel. And Dinah went out, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore for Jacob, to learn thoroughly the daughters of the locals, and Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of the land, saw her. And having taken her, he lay with her. And he humbled her. And he held toward the soul of Dinah the daughter of Jacob. And he loved the virgin, and he spoke according to the mind of the virgin to her.’ So then observe that still loving-to-be and lodging in the tent of the father, in which also he called-upon the God of Israel, and a reverend altar had been raised, she was still unprofane and in the boasts of the virginity. And when she ran out of the paternal tent, and having left the sacred space, was being mixed with alien women, she was being forced at once toward uncustomary profanation, and was no longer a virgin, having been borne under unwillingly at the beginnings by the pleasures of others, and having suffered after this also the wishing to be with the one having overreached. ‘For he spoke,’ (Psalm 27:4–5) he says, ‘according to the mind of the virgin to her.’ (Genesis 33:18–20)
Palladius: Thus it holds.
Cyril: So then setting beside the sense-perceptible unto an image of the intelligible, come then let us say, that a soul dwelling as it were some exceptional citizenship as a tent, will be all-holy and clean, and having been freed from every abomination, and if it should go out somewhere, and hasten toward the daughters of the alien-tribes, that is, if it should seek-out and spy the life of those in world, the well-natured and well-born mind will be corrupted; for it would not be without-damage for those for whom the aim would become, the living-through brightly, to live-with the worthless. But the divine David at least was not being caught wishing to go outside the sacred tent, but rather to love-to-be and dwell not far, he was making of the things most through prayer saying: ‘One thing I asked from Lord, this I will seek, the dwelling me in a house of Lord all the days of my life, to look-at the delightfulness of Lord, and to visit his holy temple. Because he hid me in his tent in a day of my evils, he sheltered me in a hidden of his tent.’ (Genesis 34:1–3) A tent, I think, saying the divine and sacred, as at least in these, the firm and unshakeable of the pure citizenship, upon which somehow also having gone-in, he was untakeable for those of the passions wishing to devastate.
Palladius: It seems so.
Cyril: And what? would someone not learn more clearly and more truly, that the sharings toward alien-born would somehow produce things beyond every defilement even for those having been trusted to have been fixed, having brought-beside
Greek
Ἰακὼβ εἰς Σαλὴμ πόλιν Σηκίμων, ἥ ἐστιν ἐν γῇ Χαναὰν, ὅτε ἐπανῆλθεν ἐκ τῆς Μεσοποταμίας Συρίας, καὶ παρενέβαλε κατὰ πρόσωπον τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ἐκτήσατο τὴν μερίδα τοῦ ἀγροῦ, οὗ ἔστησεν ἐκεῖ τὴν σκηνὴν αὐτοῦ, παρὰ Ἐμμὼρ πατρὸς Συχὲμ, ἑκατὸν ἀμνῶν, καὶ ἔστησεν ἐκεῖ θυσιαστήριον, καὶ ἐπεκαλέσατο τὸν Θεὸν Ἰσραήλ. Ἐξῆλθε δὲ Δείνα, ἡ θυγάτηρ Λείας, ἢν ἔτεκε τῷ Ἰακὼβ, καταμαθεῖν τὰς θυγατέρας τῶν ἐγχωρίων, καὶ εἶδεν αὐτὴν Συχὲμ ὁ υἱὸς Ἐμμὼρ ὁ Εὐαῖος, ὁ ἄρχων τῆς γῆς. Καὶ λαβὼν αὐτὴν, ἐκοιμήθη μετ' αὐτῆς. Καὶ ἐταπείνωσεν αὐτήν. Καὶ προσέσχε τῇ ψυχῇ Δείνας τῆς θυγατρὸς Ἰακώβ. Καὶ ἠγάπησε τὴν παρθένον, καὶ ἐλάλησε κατὰ τὴν διάνοιαν τῆς παρθένου αὐτῇ.» Ἄθρει δὴ οὖν ὅτι σκηνῇ μὲν ἔτι τῇ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐμφιλοχωροῦσά τε καὶ ἐνηυλισμένη, ἐν ᾗ καὶ ἐπεκαλέσατο τὸν Θεὸν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ σεπτὸν ἐγήγερτο θυσιαστήριον, ἀβέβηλός τε ἦν ἔτι καὶ ἐν τοῖς τῆς παρθενίας αὐχήμασιν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τῆς πατρῴας ἐξέθει σκηνῆς, καὶ χῶρον ἀφεῖσα τὸν ἱερὸν, γυναιξὶν ὀθνείαις ἐπεμίσγετο, πρὸς ἀσυνήθη βεβήλωσιν παραχρῆμα κατεβιάζετο, καὶ ἦν οὐκέτι παρθένος, ταῖς ἑτέρων ἡδοναῖς ἀνεθελήτως μὲν ἐν ἀρχαῖς ὑπενηνεγμένη, παθοῦσα δὲ μετὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὸ τῷ πλεονεκτήσαντι συνεῖναι θέλειν. «Ἐλάλησε γὰρ,» φησὶ, «κατὰ τὴν διάνοιαν τῆς παρθένου αὐτῇ.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν εἰς εἰκόνα τῶν νοητῶν παραθέντες τὸ αἰσθητὸν, φέρε δὴ λέγωμεν, ὅτι σκηνὴν ὥσπερ τινὰ τὴν ἐξαίρετον πολιτείαν οἰκοῦσα ψυχὴ, πάναγνος ἔσται καὶ καθαρὰ, καὶ βδελυρίας ἁπάσης ἀπηλλαγμένη, εἰ δὲ ἐξοίχοιτό ποι, καὶ πρὸς τὰς τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἐπείγοιτο θυγατέρας, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, εἰ ἐρευνοίη καὶ κατασκέπτοιτο τὴν τῶν ἐν κόσμῳ ζωὴν, τὸν εὐφυᾶ τε καὶ εὐγενῆ φθαρήσεται νοῦν· εἴη γὰρ ἂν οὐκ ἀζήμιον τὸ συνδιαιτᾶσθαι τοῖς φαύλοις τοὺς οἷσπερ ἂν γένοιτο σκοπὸς, τὸ διαβιῶναι λαμπρῶς. Ἀλλ' ὅ γε θεῖος Δαβὶδ οὐκ ἔξω τῆς ἱερᾶς σκηνῆς ἰέναι κατεφωρᾶτο θέλων, ἐμφιλοχωρεῖν δὲ μᾶλλον καὶ ἐνδιαιτᾶσθαι οὐ μακρὰν, τῶν ὅτι μάλιστα δι' εὐχῆς ἐποιεῖτο λέγων· «Μίαν ᾐτησάμην παρὰ Κυρίου, ταύτην ζητήσω, τὸ κατοικεῖν με ἐν οἴκῳ Κυρίου πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς μου, τοῦ θεωρεῖν τὴν τερπνότητα Κυρίου, καὶ ἐπισκέπτεσθαι τὸν ναὸν τὸν ἅγιον αὐτοῦ. Ὅτι ἔκρυψέ με ἐν σκηνῇ αὐτοῦ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κακῶν μου, ἐσκέπασέ με ἐν ἀποκρύφῳ τῆς σκηνῆς αὐτοῦ.» Σκηνὴν, οἶμαι, λέγων τὴν θείαν καὶ ἱερὰν, ὡς ἔν γε δὴ τούτοις, τῆς εὐαγοῦς πολιτείας τὸ βεβηκός τε καὶ ἀκατάσειστον, ἐφ' ᾗ τρόπον τινὰ καὶ εἰσδεδυκὼς, τοῖς καταδῃοῦν ἐθέλουσι τῶν παθῶν, ἀνάλωτος ἦν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἔοικεν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τί δέ; οὐχὶ σαφέστερόν τε καὶ ἀληθέστερον ἀναμάθοι τις ἂν, ὅτι τὰ παντὸς ἐπέκεινα μολυσμοῦ περιποιήσειεν ἂν ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ τοῖς ἐρηρεῖσθαι πεπιστευμένοις, αἱ πρὸς ἀλλογενεῖς ὁμιλίαι, παρενεγκὼν
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 14 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 14 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 14 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 14)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 14)
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.