Leaders’ voluntary gold beyond the law’s measure
beyond the chosen, those not according to them, not as more reverent and living more decently, but as held in much more stumbles, and needing a many-times more necessary cleansing. For as the Savior has said: ‘The one washed has no need, except to wash the feet, but is clean whole.’ And the saints need a most small cleansing altogether; for nature is sick with not being able to be altogether without share of sin.
Palladius: You speak well.
Cyril: The chosen of the tribes therefore, yielding to the divine laws, portioned the things from the war toward every synagogue, and have brought forward the gifts to the Lord according to the law’s arrangement; and with the more decent offerings the leaders of the chosen honor God, as also having the glory more apparent than according to them. For he writes again thus: ‘And all those set unto the chiliarchies of the power came near to Moses, chiliarchs and centurions, and said toward Moses: Your servants have taken the sum of the men of the warriors beside us, and not even one has disagreed from them, and we have brought forward the gift to the Lord, a man who found a golden vessel, and a bracelet, and a ring, and a finger-ring, and an armlet, and a plait to propitiate concerning us before the Lord. And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them—every worked vessel; and all the gold, the taking-away which they took away for the Lord, came to be sixteen thousands and seven hundreds and fifty shekels from the chiliarchs and from the centurions, and the men the warriors plundered each for himself. And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the chiliarchs and centurions, and brought them into the tent of the witness as a memorial of the sons of Israel, before the Lord.’ You hear how he says an precise reckoning of those who have fought came to be, so that no one remained from whom the gift has not been brought forward, according at least to what seems good to the divine nods? And they themselves say they have also wished to bring forward to the Lord even what he himself has not judged one must bring forward—bracelet and ring, and armlet, and as many things as have been made in golden adornment. For the lawgiver has ordered to make the gifts from the humans and from the beasts; and indeed it has been brought forward according to the divine and heavenly arrangement; yet they make a willing bringing-forward of the exceptional in treasures; and the leaders of the chosen conquer the law’s limit with their ambitions. And indeed Moses and Aaron having taken, have brought them into the holy tent; and making them stored as a memorial before the Lord; for those leading peoples, and set unto rulers, honor God with bright and more decent offerings, bringing forward as it were some adornment and dedicat—
Greek
παρὰ τοὺς ἐξειλεγμένους, οἱ μὴ κατ' αὐτοὺς, οὐχ ὡς εὐλαβέστεροι καὶ ζῶντες ἐπιεικέστερον, ἀλλ' ὡς πολλῷ πλείοσιν ἐνεχόμενοι πταίσμασι, καὶ πολλαπλασίονος ἀναγκαίας δεόμενοι τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ. Ὡς γὰρ εἴρηκεν ὁ Σωτήρ· «Ὁ λελουμένος οὐ χρείαν ἔχει, εἰ μὴ τοὺς πόδας νίψασθαι, ἀλλ' ἔστι καθαρὸς ὅλος.» Σμικροτάτης δὲ κομιδῇ τοῖς ἁγίοις καθάρσεως δεῖ· νοσεῖ γὰρ ἡ φύσις, τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι παντελῶς ἀμοιρεῖν ἁμαρτίας.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ λέγεις.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οἱ μὲν οὖν ἀπόλεκτοι τῶν φυλῶν τοῖς θείοις εἴκοντες νόμοις, διεμοιρήσαντο τὰ ἐκ τοῦ πολέμου πρὸς πᾶσαν τὴν συναγωγὴν, καὶ προσαγηόχασι τὰ δῶρα Κυρίῳ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ νόμου σύνταξιν· ἀναθήμασι δὲ τοῖς εὐπρεπεστέροις καταγεραίρουσι Θεὸν οἱ τῶν ἀπολέκτων ἡγούμενοι, ὡς καὶ ἐμφανεστέραν ἔχοντες ἢ κατ' αὐτοὺς τὴν δόξαν. Γράφει γὰρ ὧδε πάλιν· «Καὶ προσῆλθον Μωσῇ πάντες οἱ καθεσταμένοι εἰς τὰς χιλιαρχίας τῆς δυνάμεως, χιλίαρχοι καὶ ἑκατόνταρχοι, καὶ εἶπαν πρὸς Μωσῆν· Οἱ παῖδές σου εἰλήφασι τὸ κεφάλαιον τῶν ἀνδρῶν τῶν πολεμιστῶν τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν, καὶ οὐ διαπεφώνηκεν ἀπ' αὐτῶν οὐδὲ εἷς, καὶ προσενηνόχαμεν τὸ δῶρον Κυρίῳ, ἀνὴρ ὃς εὗρε σκεῦος χρυσοῦν, καὶ χλιδῶνα, καὶ ψέλλιον, καὶ δακτύλιον, καὶ περιδέξιον, καὶ ἐμπλόκιον ἐξιλάσασθαι περὶ ἡμῶν ἔναντι Κυρίου. Καὶ ἔλαβε Μωσῆς καὶ Ἐλεάζαρ ὁ ἱερεὺς τὸ χρυσίον παρ' αὐτῶν πᾶν σκεῦος εἰργασμένον· καὶ ἐγένετο πᾶν τὸ χρυσίον τὸ ἀφαίρεμα ὃ ἀφεῖλον Κυρίῳ ἑκκαίδεκα χιλιάδες καὶ ἑπτακόσιοι καὶ πεντήκοντα σίκλοι παρὰ τῶν χιλιάρχων καὶ παρὰ τῶν ἑκατοντάρχων, καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ πολεμισταὶ ἐπρονόμευσαν ἕκαστος αὐτῷ. Καὶ ἔλαβε Μωσῆς καὶ Ἐλεάζαρ ὁ ἱερεὺς τὸ χρυσίον παρὰ τῶν χιλιάρχων καὶ ἑκατοντάρχων, καὶ εἰσήνεγκεν αὐτὰ εἰς τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ μαρτυρίου μνημόσυνον τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, ἔναντι Κυρίου.» Ἀκούεις ὅπως ἀκριβῆ μὲν γενέσθαι φησὶ τῶν μεμαχημένων τὸν ἐκλογισμὸν, ὡς ἀπομεῖναι μηδένα παρ' οὗ τὸ δῶρον οὐ προσκεκόμισται, κατά γε τὸ τοῖς θείοις νεύμασι δοκοῦν; Βεβουλῆσθαι δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ προσκομίσαι λέγουσι Κυρίῳ, καὶ ἃ μὴ χρῆναι προσάγειν δεδικαίωκεν αὐτὸς, χλιδῶνα καὶ ψέλλιον, καὶ περιδέξιον, καὶ ὅσαπερ ἐν κόσμῳ πεποίηται χρυσῷ. Προστέταχε γὰρ ὁ νομοθέτης, ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν κτηνῶν ποιεῖσθαι τὰ δῶρα· καὶ δὴ προσκεκόμισται κατὰ τὸ θεῖόν τε καὶ οὐράνιον σύνταγμα· ἐθελούσιον δὲ ποιοῦνται προσκομιδὴν τὰ ἐν κειμηλίοις ἐξαίρετα· καὶ νικῶσι ταῖς φιλοτιμίαις τοῦ νόμου τὸν ὅρον οἱ τῶν ἀπολέκτων ἡγούμενοι. Καὶ δὴ λαβόντες Μωσῆς τε καὶ Ἀαρὼν, εἰσκεκομίκασι μὲν εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν σκηνήν· ἀπόθετα δὲ ποιοῦντες μνημόσυνον ἔναντι Κυρίου· οἱ γάρ τοι λαῶν ἡγούμενοι, καὶ εἰς ἄρχοντας τεταγμένοι, λαμπροῖς καὶ εὐπρεπεστέροις ἀναθήμασι τιμῶσι Θεὸν, κόσμον ὥσπερ τινὰ προσάγοντες καὶ ἀνατι
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 4 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 4 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 4 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 4)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 4)
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.