Disciples as calves; altar grows; Christ death for all
Or does he altogether say it through us? For through us it was written, that the one plowing ought to plow upon hope, and the one threshing upon hope of partaking.’ Calves therefore, according to the image of the first—that is, of Christ—are also the blessed disciples. And Christ is a threshing calf also otherwise; for through him is the cleansing and the putting-away of superfluous things—I mean distractions and the fleshly thoughts according to the world, which are also food of flame, just as also the chaff. And the altar having been raised, upon which also a peace-offering and the whole-burnt-offering, what grieves has been loosed; for the Lord listened to the earth, and the breaking was held together. For Christ having priested himself for us, death was abolished, and corruption was overturned, the God who is able in all things somehow already holding ready the ear for the prayers of all; for ‘While you are still speaking,’ he says, ‘I will say: What is it?’ And the altar’s being small at the beginnings, and saying it was added to it later, makes clear the progress of the Gospel that will come to be according to times, and of the holy Churches the being contracted at the beginnings, and breadth as it were also in what follows. For the altars are as it were always being widened, Churches always somehow being added to the first ones with others, and the peoples being stretched unto an unmeasured multitude, who have been redeemed through the sacrifice in Christ, having him as sacred minister and the holy victim, and fragrant thoroughly cleansing, and as an altar worth admiring, and as in a form of the threshing-floor the Church’s master.
Palladius: How clear and evident the word is; for it has been made with good craft.
Cyril: Or have you yourself, doubting nothing, not said that Christ is the life and redemption of all?
Palladius: I would say so, know it. For I think thus.
Cyril: For one died for all who is worth all; and he made his own soul an exchange of ours, shaming the devil’s perversity, and as it were somehow standing the insolence of the sin tyrannizing against us, and the unbridled speech upon the charges of all.
Palladius: In what manner do you say?
Cyril: For since sin has reigned of those upon the earth, many having bent toward the evil things from youth, just as it has been written, and the heart of all lying carefully upon the need and wishing to accomplish them, we have necessarily also fallen under a sentence of death. For a transgression of divine law, and a setting-aside of the Master’s wills, has death as the sentence. And the Creator pitied human nature thus corrupted, and the Only-begotten became human, and has worn a body naturally held by death, and has been named flesh, so that having endured for us the death hung over us from sin, he might abolish the sin, and might stop
Greek
Ἢ δι' ἡμᾶς πάντως λέγει; Δι' ἡμᾶς γὰρ ἐγράφη, ὅτι ὀφείλει ἐπ' ἐλπίδι ὁ ἀροτριῶν ἀροτριᾷν, καὶ ἀλοῶν ἐπ' ἐλπίδι τοῦ μετέχειν.» Μόσχοι τοιγαροῦν, κατ' εἰκόνα τοῦ πρώτου, τοῦτ' ἔστι, Χριστοῦ, καὶ οἱ μακάριοι μαθηταί. Μόσχος δὲ καὶ ἑτέρως ἀλωητὴς ὁ Χριστός· δι' αὐτοῦ γὰρ ἡ κάθαρσις καὶ ἡ τῶν περιττῶν πραγμάτων ἀπόθεσις, περισπασμῶν τέ φημι καὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸν κόσμον φρονημάτων σαρκικῶν, ἃ καὶ φλογός εἰσι τροφὴ, καθάπερ καὶ τὸ ἄχυρον. Ἐγηγερμένου δὲ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, ἐφ' ᾧ καὶ εἰρηνικὴ καὶ τὸ ὁλοκαύτωμα, λέλυται τὸ λυποῦν· ἐπήκουσε γὰρ Κύριος τῇ γῇ, καὶ συνεσχέθη ἡ θραῦσις. Ἑαυτὸν γὰρ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἱερατεύσαντος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, κατηργήθη θάνατος, καὶ ἀνετράπη φθορὰ, ἕτοιμον ἤδη πως ταῖς ἁπάντων εὐχαῖς ὑποσχόντος τὸ οὖς τοῦ πάντα ἰσχύοντος Θεοῦ· «Ἔτι γὰρ λαλοῦντός σου, φησὶν, ἐρῶ· Τί ἐστιν;» Τὸ δέ γε μικρὸν εἶναι τὸ ἐν ἀρχαῖς θυσιαστήριον, προστεθεῖσθαι δὲ λέγειν ὕστερον αὐτῷ, τὴν κατὰ καιροὺς ἐσομένην τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου προκοπὴν δηλοῖ, καὶ τῶν ἁγίων Ἐκκλησιῶν τὸ συνεσταλμένον ἐν ἀρχαῖς, πλάτος δὲ ὥσπερ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς. Εὐρύνεται γὰρ οἷον ἀεὶ τὰ θυσιαστήρια, προστιθεμένων Ἐκκλησιῶν ἀεί πως ταῖς πρώταις ἑτέρων, καὶ εἰς πληθὺν ἀμέτρητον ἐκτεινομένων τῶν λαῶν, οἳ διὰ τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ θυσίας λελύτρωνται, αὐτὸν ἔχοντες ἱερουργὸν καὶ θῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, καὶ εὔοσμον διακαθαῖρον, καὶ ὡς ἀξιάγαστον θυσιαστήριον, καὶ ὡς ἐν εἴδει τῆς ἅλω τῆς Ἐκκλησίας δεσπότην.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς σαφής ἐστιν καὶ ἐναργὴς ὁ λόγος· πεποίηται γὰρ εὐτέχνως.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ κἂν αὐτὸς ἐνδοιάσας οὐδὲν, ἔφης ὡς ἔστι Χριστὸς ἡ πάντων ζωὴ καὶ λύτρωσις;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φαίην ἂν, ἴσθι τοι. Φρονῶ γὰρ ὡδί.
{ΚΥΡ.} Εἷς γὰρ ὑπὲρ πάντων ἀπέθανεν ὁ πάντων ἀντάξιος· καὶ τὴν ἰδίαν ψυχὴν ἀντάλλαγμα τῆς ἡμῶν ἐποιήσατο, τὴν τοῦ διαβόλου δυστροπίαν ἐκδυσωπῶν, καὶ οἱονεί πως ἱστὰς τῆς καθ' ἡμῶν τυραννούσης ἁμαρτίας τὴν κατάῤῥησιν, καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἁπάντων ἐγκλήμασιν ἀθυρογλωττίαν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Τίνα φῂς τρόπον;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ βεβασίλευκε τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἡ ἁμαρτία, πολὺ διανενευκότων ἐπὶ τὰ πονηρὰ ἐκ νεότητος, καθὰ γέγραπται, καὶ ἐπιμελῶς ἐγκειμένης τῆς ἁπάντων καρδίας ἐπὶ τὸ χρῆναι καὶ βούλεσθαι κατορθοῦν αὐτὰ, πεπτώκαμεν ἀναγκαίως καὶ ὑπὸ θανάτου δίκην. Νόμου γὰρ θείου παράβασις, καὶ θελημάτων ἀθέτησις τῶν Δεσποτικῶν, θάνατον ἔχει τὴν δίκην. Κατεφθαρμένην δὲ οὕτω τὴν ἀνθρώπου φύσιν, ἐπῴκτειρε μὲν ὁ Δημιουργὸς, γέγονε δὲ ἄνθρωπος ὁ Μονογενὴς, καὶ τῷ θανάτῳ φυσικῶς ἐνεχόμενον πεφόρηκε σῶμα, καὶ κεχρημάτικε σὰρξ, ἵνα ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀνατλὰς τὸν ἐξ ἁμαρτίας ἡμῖν ἐπαρτηθέντα θάνατον, καταργήσῃ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ παύσῃ
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 3 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 3 §§1–10 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 3 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 3 §§1–10)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 3)
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.