On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth, Book 16 · §22

Hair=thoughts; Israel vow; kill Emmanuel; shear Law before eighth

Cyril: So then I will say on the one hand, as is possible; and you then again, if something I should run-aside of the way, forgiving be; for sharp the word, and dim the riddle.

Palladius: I agree-with.

Cyril: Of the of the body head under-typing for us, O Palladius, as upon itself, the mind; for thus it was seeming for the divine and sacred Letter; the from it and in it naturally rising-up thoughts, through which unto knowledge the upon whatever then of the beings we are hand-led, with hairs and locks we liken-beside. For these for us the from a head bubbling-up.

Palladius: I will remember.

Cyril: Unshorn-haired then therefore also in us as it were somehow the mind, and for God full-haired, of thoughts being filled-upon of goods. And naked then again and having been stripped, and a most-dishonored baldness being sick, if neither right upon God the graspings he should have, nor indeed upon all the to-be-done both most-excellent and unblameable he will enrich-down the knowledge.

Palladius: Truly; for these for us also just-now were being exercised-through.

Cyril: So then before on the one hand of the of the Savior sojourn has been called toward God-knowledge through Moses the Israel. In this way also he was being sanctified. And he vowed somehow for God the unto purity vow. For that he will be a law-guard, he was promising clearly in the mountain Horeb, thus saying: ‘And all as many as Lord the God said, we will do and we will hear.’ (Exodus 24:7) So then therefore of a legal training the mind having full, and as it were hairing for God, of the through Moses command the boasts. But they were defiled upon a dead; For they have killed the Emmanuel; and holy on the one hand truly the of Christ death, and a defilement for the ones having killed were the of the lord-slaying charges. To be shaved then therefore the law for them orders thereafter, as some hair, the in law training, and only-not also to be sheared-off the in types according to the seventh, that is, the before the eighth, according to which revived Christ, renewing us unto incorruption, and unto a new and evangelical molding-up life. Having been sheared-off then the before the eighth, he re-hairs again and sanctifies the head after the eighth. And he re-hairs, no longer with types and shadows, just as

Palladius: How did you speak?

Cyril: For does he not clearly and openly cry-up saying law-taught being the Paul, about those ancient and legal boasts: ‘Which things were for me gains, these I have considered through the Christ a loss, but rather also I consider the all things a loss to be, through the surpassing of the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom the all things I was lost, and I consider dung’ (Philippians 3:7-8)

Greek

{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ἐρῶ μὲν, ὡς ἔνι· σὺ δὲ δὴ αὖ, εἴ τι παρεκθέοιμι τῆς ὁδοῦ, συγγνώμων ἔσο· δριμὺς γὰρ ὁ λόγος, καὶ ἀμυδρὸν τὸ αἴνιγμα.

{ΠΑΛΛ.} Σύμφημι.

{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀνατυπούσης ἡμῖν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τῆς τοῦ σώματος κεφαλῆς, ὡς ἐφ' ἑαυτῇ, τὸν νοῦν· ὧδε γὰρ ἐδόκει τῷ θείῳ τε καὶ ἱερῷ Γράμματι· τὰς ἐξ αὐτοῦ τε καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ φυσικῶς ἀνισχούσας ἐννοίας, δι' ὧν εἰς εἴδησιν τὴν ἐφ' ὅτῳ οὖν τῶν ὄντων χειραγωγούμεθα, θριξί τε καὶ κόμαις παρεικάζομεν. Ταυτὶ γὰρ ἡμῖν τὰ ἐκ κεφαλῆς ἀναβρύοντα.

{ΠΑΛΛ.} Μεμνήσομαι.

{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀκειρεκόμης οὖν ἄρα καὶ ἐν ἡμῖν οἱονείπως ὁ νοῦς, καὶ Θεῷ κατάκομος, ἐννοιῶν ὑπάρχων ἐπίμεστος ἀγαθῶν. Γυμνὸς δὲ δὴ αὖ καὶ ἐψιλωμένος, καὶ ἀτιμώτατον φαλάκρωμα νοσῶν, εἰ μήτε ὀρθὰς ἐπὶ Θεῷ τὰς διαλήψεις ἔχοι, μήτε μὴν ἐφ' ἅπασι τοῖς πρακτέοις ἀρίστην τε καὶ ἀκατάψεκτον καταπλουτήσει τὴν εἴδησιν.

{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές· ταυτὶ γὰρ ἡμῖν καὶ ἀρτίως διεγυμνάζετο.

{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν πρὸ μὲν τῆς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἐπιδημίας κέκληται πρὸς θεογνωσίαν διὰ Μωσέως ὁ Ἰσραήλ. Ταύτῃτοι καὶ ἡγιάζετο. Ηὔξατο δὲ τρόπον τινὰ τῷ Θεῷ τὴν εἰς ἁγνείαν εὐχήν. Ὅτι γὰρ ἔσται νομοφύλαξ, ἐπηγγέλλετο σαφῶς ἐν τῷ ὄρει Χωρὴβ, οὕτω λέγων· «Καὶ πάντα ὅσα εἶπε Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς, ποιήσομεν καὶ ἀκουσόμεθα.» Ἦν οὖν ἄρα νομικῆς παιδεύσεως τὸν νοῦν ἔχων ἀνάπλεω, καὶ οἱονεὶ κομῶντα Θεῷ, τῆς διὰ Μωσέως ἐντολῆς τὰ αὐχήματα. Ἀλλ' ἐμιάνθησαν ἐπὶ νεκρῷ· Ἀπεκτόνασι γὰρ τὸν Ἐμμανουήλ· καὶ ἅγιος μὲν ἀληθῶς ὁ Χριστοῦ θάνατος, μολυσμὸς δὲ τοῖς ἀπεκτονόσιν ἦν τὰ τῆς κυριοκτονίας ἐγκλήματα. Ξυρᾶσθαι δὴ οὖν ὁ νόμος αὐτοῖς ἐπιτάττει λοιπὸν, οἷά τινα κόμην, τὴν ἐν νόμῳ παίδευσιν, μονονουχὶ δὲ καὶ ἀποκείρεσθαι τὰ ἐν τύποις κατὰ τὴν ἑβδόμην, τουτέστι, τὰ πρὸ τῆς ὀγδόης, καθ' ἢν ἀνεβίω Χριστὸς, ἀνακαινίζων ἡμᾶς εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν, καὶ εἰς νέαν τε καὶ εὐαγγελικὴν ἀναπλάττων ζωήν. Ἀποκειράμενος τοίνυν τὰ πρὸ τῆς ὀγδόης, ἀνακομᾷ πάλιν καὶ ἁγιάζει τὴν κεφαλὴν μετὰ τὴν ὀγδόην. Ἀνακομᾷ δὲ, οὐκέτι τύποις καὶ σκιαῖς, καθὰ καὶ πρώην, ὁ νοῦς, ἀλλ' αὐτοῖς τοῖς ἐν πίστει καὶ ἀληθείᾳ δόγμασιν. Ἢ γὰρ οὐκ οἰήσῃ δεῖν τοὺς ἐν πίστει δεδικαιωμένους ἀποψιλοῦσθαι μὲν ὥσπερ τῆς ἐν νόμῳ λατρείας τὴν εὐδοκίμησιν, ἀναφῦναι δὲ αὖ, καὶ εἰς νοῦν ἔσω καὶ καρδίαν ἑλεῖν, τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς πολιτείας τὴν εἴδησιν, ὡς ἀμείνω παρὰ πολὺ καὶ προφερεστέραν τῆς ὡς ἐν ἀρχαῖς;

{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς ἔφης;

{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐ γὰρ δὴ σαφῶς καὶ ἀναφανδὸν ἀνακεκράγει λέγων νομομαθὴς ὢν ὁ Παῦλος, περὶ τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐκείνων καὶ νομικῶν αὐχημάτων· «Ἅτινα ἦν μοι κέρδη, ταῦτα ἥγημαι διὰ τὸν Χριστὸν ζημίαν, ἀλλὰ μενοῦνγε καὶ ἡγοῦμαι τὰ πάντα ζημίαν εἶναι, διὰ τὸ ὑπερέχον τῆς γνώσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν, δι' ὃν τὰ πάντα ἐζημιώθην, καὶ ἡγοῦμαι σκύ

About this text

Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 16 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 16 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 16 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 16)
  • Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 16)

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.