Intelligible leprosy; desire mid-space; James desire-death; not every sin unto death
Cyril: …to please God they are not able, and that also they will have died how would it be thereafter or from where disputed? (Romans 8:8) Dead then therefore, and with the of the deadness works having been held-in, the one soul and mind having been defiled-out, and indeed also of badness full of worldly. And an intelligible truly, if at least someone should choose such a leprosy to say, would not miss of the fitting. Unclean then such a one in eyes of the Christ. ‘For he will defile-down him,’ he says, ‘the priest.’ For he will hear upon the divine tribunal, being numbered with the very sin-loving: ‘Go from me,’ (Matthew 25:41)
Palladius: I say; for I will remember of the blessed David saying: ‘Before me to be humbled, I faulted.’ (Psalm 119:67)
Cyril: Most-rightly you spoke; for before at least of the outcomes, he becomes then altogether in faultings the mind, having labor-pained-before the pleasure, yet in alone still the desires of the sin lying, he has stood in a mid-space, toward both looking the mind; and free having upon whichever he should choose the inclination, and having suffered not yet the dying, and near then very much having become of the evil, and in birth-pains having the passion. Something such clearly also the of the Savior for us sounded-under disciple. ‘For let no one,’ he says, ‘being tempted say, that From God I am tempted. For God is untempted of evils, and himself tempts no one. And each is tempted by the own desire being dragged-out and being baited; then the desire having conceived bears sin, and the sin having been perfected brings-forth death.’ (James 1:13-15)
Palladius: Truly.
Cyril: So then the to have died-out somehow, as in leprosy, I say the intelligible, and as in a passion the according to dying the from sin, not in alone would become the desires, but in the outcomes of the results, and until on the one hand it is in birth-pains still of the mind the evil, not yet dying, not yet death, for not every sin unto death, as the of the Savior has said disciple, (1 John 5:16-17) but in suspicions still of the to suffer the things knowing to deaden. And in a seeming somehow or near of the leprosy, the whiteness we were saying. The priest will see, he says, the one with the passion held,
Greek
Θεῷ ἀρέσαι οὐ δύνανται, ὅτι δὲ καὶ τεθνήξονται πῶς ἂν εἴη λοιπὸν ἢ πόθεν ἀμφίλογον; Νεκρὸς οὖν ἄρα, καὶ τοῖς τῆς νεκρότητος ἔργοις ἐνισχημένος, ὁ ψυχήν τε καὶ νοῦν ἐκμεμολυσμένος, καὶ μὴν καὶ φαυλότητος ἀνάπλεως κοσμικῆς. Καὶ νοητὴν ἀληθῶς, εἴπερ ἂν ἕλοιτό τις τὴν τοιάνδε λέπραν εἰπεῖν, οὐκ ἂν ἁμάρτοι τοῦ πρέποντος. Ἀκάθαρτος οὖν ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς τοῦ Χριστοῦ. «Καταμιανεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸν,» φησὶν, «ὁ ἱερεύς.» Ἀκούσεται γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῦ θείου βήματος, τοῖς ἄγαν φιλαμαρτήμοσιν ἐναρίθμιος ὤν· «Πορεύετε ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, ἐργάται ἀνομίας, οὐκ οἶδα ὑμᾶς.» Λεύκῃ γε μὴν καὶ οὐλῇ σημασίας παρεικαστέον τοὺς ἐν ψιλαῖς ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις κειμένους ἔτι, καὶ οὔπω πρὸς ἔργον ἥκοντας λογισμοῦ. Ἢ οὐχὶ δὴ φὴς ὑπάρχειν ἀληθὲς, ὡς προαναθρώσκουσιν ἐν ἡμῖν καὶ οἱονεὶ προανίσχουσι τῶν ἀποτελεσμάτων αἱ ἡδοναὶ καὶ λογισμοὶ, καλοῦντες ἐπί τι τῶν διαβεβλημένων ἐκ νόμου;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φημί· μεμνήσομαι γὰρ τοῦ μακαρίου Δαβὶδ λέγοντος· «Πρὸ τοῦ με ταπεινωθῆναι, ἐγὼ ἐπλημμέλησα.»
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὀρθότατα ἔφης· πρὸ γάρ τοι τῶν ἀποτελεσμάτων, γίνεται δὴ πάντως ἐν πλημμελείαις ὁ νοῦς, προωδινήσας τὴν ἡδονὴν, πλὴν ἐν μόναις ἔτι ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῆς ἁμαρτίας κειμένης, ἕστηκεν ἐν μεταιχμίῳ, πρὸς ἄμφω βλέπων ὁ νοῦς· καὶ ἐλευθέραν ἔχων ἐφ' ὅπερ ἂν ἕλοιτο τὴν ῥοπὴν, καὶ πεπονθὼς οὔπω τὴν νέκρωσιν, ἀγχοῦ δὲ δὴ σφόδρα γεγονὼς τοῦ κακοῦ, καὶ ἐν ὠδῖσιν ἔχων τὸ πάθος. Τοιουτονί τι σαφῶς καὶ ὁ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῖν ὑπεφώνησε μαθητής. «Μηδεὶς γὰρ,» φησὶ, «πειραζόμενος λεγέτω, ὅτι Ἀπὸ Θεοῦ πειράζομαι. Ὁ γὰρ Θεὸς ἀπείραστός ἐστι κακῶν, πειράζει δὲ αὐτὸς οὐδένα. Ἕκαστος δὲ πειράζεται ὑπὸ τῆς ἰδίας ἐπιθυμίας ἐξελκόμενος καὶ δελεαζόμενος. Εἶτα ἡ ἐπιθυμία συλλαβοῦσα, τίκτει ἁμαρτίαν. Ἡ δὲ ἁμαρτία ἀποτελεσθεῖσα, ἀποκύει θάνατον.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν τὸ ἐκτεθνάναι τυχὸν, ὡς ἐν λέπρᾳ, φημὶ τῇ νοητῇ, καὶ ὡς ἐν πάθει τῷ κατὰ νέκρωσιν τὴν ἐξ ἁμαρτίας, οὐκ ἐν μόναις ἂν γένοιτο ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις, ἀλλ' ἐν ταῖς ἐκβάσεσι τῶν ἀποτελεσμάτων, καὶ ἕως μὲν ἔστιν ἐν ὠδῖσιν ἔτι τοῦ νοῦ τὸ κακὸν, οὔπω νέκρωσις, οὔπω θάνατος, οὐ γὰρ πᾶσα ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον, ὡς ὁ τοῦ Σωτῆρος εἴρηκε μαθητὴς, ἀλλ' ἐν ὑποψίαις ἔτι τοῦ παθεῖν τὰ νεκροῦν εἰδότα. Ἐν δοκήσει δέ πως ἢ ἀγχοῦ τῆς λέπρας, τὴν λεύκην ἐλέγομεν. Ὄψεται, φησὶν, ὁ ἱερεὺς, τὸν τῷ πάθει κάτοχον, φημὶ δὴ τῇ λεύκῃ, καὶ εἰ μὲν ὁρῷτο μὴ μεταβάλλουσα πρὸς λέπραν, οὐ καταμιανεῖ αὐτὸν, ἀφοριεῖ δὲ μᾶλλον· οὐ γὰρ ἀνεπίπληκτον παρὰ Θεῷ, κἂν γοῦν ἐν ἐπιθυμίαις καὶ ἀγχοῦ γενέσθαι τοῦ κακοῦ. Εἰ δὲ παραιτοῖτο, φησὶ, τὸ πάθος τὴν μεταβολὴν, οὐκ εἰς τὸ χεῖρον ἐκνενευκὸς, καθαρὸς ἔστω, φησίν. Ἄριστον δὴ οὖν καὶ σωτήριον ἀληθῶς τὸ, παραιτεῖσθαι τὴν νέκρωσιν, τὴν ὡς ἐν ἔργοις φημὶ,
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 15 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 15 of seventeen. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek.
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- Copy-text Migne PG 68 De adoratione Book 15 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 15)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 15)
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.