Inheritance by count for fighting males; Levites counted apart
least of all, and that he will distribute the prizes of the toils to those above softness that constrains unto the trespass, what is written in Numbers will again give full assurance: ‘And the Lord spoke toward Moses and Eleazar the priest saying: Take the beginning of every synagogue of sons of Israel, from twenty years and upward, according to houses of their fatherhoods; every one going out to array in Israel.’ Then the numbering according to peoples and according to tribes having come to be, he brings on again: ‘And the Lord spoke toward Moses, saying: To these the land will be portioned to inherit from number of names; to the more you will increase the inheritance, and to the fewer you will lessen their inheritance; to each, just as they were overseen, their inheritance will be given, in the middle of many and few.’ And this is a law upon the need for those already wearing through the twentieth year to inherit. And after the reckoning of the herd multitude, the Levitical race is numbered up; ‘And the sons,’ he says, ‘of Levi according to their peoples—to Gershon, the Gershonite people; to Kohath, the Kohathite people; to Merari, the Merarite people; these are peoples of sons of Levi.’ And having genealogized in between concerning Moses and Aaron, he brings on again concerning the sons of Levi: ‘And from their oversight they came to be twenty-three thousands, every male from a month old and upward; for they were not overseen together in the sons of Israel. And this is the oversight of Moses and Eleazar the priest, who oversaw the sons of Israel in Araboth Moab upon the Jordan opposite Jericho. And in these there was not a human of those overseen by Moses and Aaron, whom they oversaw the sons of Israel in the Sinai wilderness, because the Lord said to them: By death they will die in the wilderness, and not even one was left from them, except Caleb son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the of Nun.’ And come, again running through and going through each in part, let us speak more clearly and distinctly.
Palladius: Speak then having hesitated nothing, since in these things tight-talk is sweet.
Cyril: Gathering the mind therefore in few of what lies before, we say that: God orders that what has come to puberty again, and the war-experienced stature, must be numbered up. For as we already said having arrived, in knowledge and enrollment beside God, and in a book of living, not the strengthless and inactive, nor indeed what still infants according to thinking, but every thing as much as is already well-strong and ready unto array against passions and sin, and stepped unto understanding, and already decent toward the need to act and be able to succeed at whatever God would wish; and these portioned the land very well according to tribes, and from name, and according to each; for heirs of the holy land will be, and will share the goods in hopes, those concerning whom the word is according to tribes and according to race, as in: ‘Blessed are the meek,
Greek
μὲν ἥκιστά γε, διανεμεῖ δὲ ὅτι τῶν πόνων τὰ γέρα, τοῖς ἀνωτέρω μαλακισμοῦ, τοῦ καταβιάζοντος εἰς τὸ πλημμελὲς, πληροφορήσει πάλιν τὰ ἐν τοῖς Ἀριθμοῖς γεγραμμένα· «Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωσῆ καὶ Ἐλεάζαρ τὸν ἱερέα λέγων· Λάβε τὴν ἀρχὴν πάσης συναγωγῆς υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, ἀπὸ εἰκοσαετοῦς καὶ ἐπάνω, κατ' οἴκους πατριῶν αὐτῶν· πᾶς ὁ ἐκπορευόμενος παρατάξασθαι ἐν Ἰσραήλ.» Εἶτα γενομένης τῆς ἀπαριθμήσεως κατὰ δήμους, καὶ κατὰ φυλὰς, ἐπιφέρει πάλιν· «Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωσῆ, λέγων· Τούτοις μερισθήσεται ἡ γῆ κληρονομεῖν ἐξ ἀριθμοῦ ὀνομάτων· τοῖς πλείοσι πλεονάσεις τὴν κληρονομίαν, καὶ τοῖς ἐλάττοσιν ἐλαττώσεις τὴν κληρονομίαν αὐτῶν· ἑκάστῳ, καθὼς ἐπεσκέπησαν, δοθήσεται ἡ κληρονομία αὐτῶν, ἀνὰ μέσον πολλῶν καὶ ὀλίγων.» Καὶ νόμος μὲν οὗτος ἐπί γε τὸ χρῆναι κληρονομεῖν τοὺς τὸ εἰκοστὸν ἤδη τρίβοντας ἔτος. Μετὰ δέ γε τὸν ἐκλογισμὸν τῆς ἀγελαίου πληθύος, ἐπαριθμεῖται τὸ γένος τὸ Λευϊτικόν· «Καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ,» φησὶν, «τοῦ Λευῒ κατὰ δήμους αὐτῶν τῷ Γεδσὼν, δῆμος ὁ Γεδσωνὶ, τῷ Καὰθ, δῆμος ὁ Κααθὶ, τῷ Μεραρὶ, δῆμος ὁ Μεραρί· οὗτοι δῆμοι υἱῶν Λευΐ.» Καὶ μεταξὺ γενεαλογήσας Μωσέως τε πέρι καὶ Ἀαρὼν, ἐπιφέρει πάλιν περὶ τῶν υἱῶν Λευΐ· «Καὶ ἐγενήθησαν ἐξ ἐπισκέψεως αὐτῶν τρεῖς καὶ εἴκοσι χιλιάδες, πᾶν ἀρσενικὸν ἀπὸ μηνιαίου καὶ ἐπάνω· οὐ γὰρ συνεπεσκέπησαν ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραήλ. Καὶ αὕτη ἡ ἐπίσκεψις Μωσῆ καὶ Ἐλεάζαρ τοῦ ἱερέως, οἳ ἐπεσκέψαντο τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ ἐν Ἀραβὼθ Μωὰβ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἰορδάνουκατὰ Ἱεριχώ. Καὶ ἐν τούτοις οὐκ ἦν ἄνθρωπος τῶν ἐπεσκεμμένων ὑπὸ Μωσῆ καὶ Ἀαρὼν, οὓς ἐπεσκέψαντο τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ Σινᾷ, ὅτι εἶπε Κύριος αὐτοῖς· Θανάτῳ ἀποθανοῦνται ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, καὶ οὐ κατελείφθη ἐξ αὐτῶν οὐδὲ εἷς, πλὴν Χαλὲβ υἱὸς Ἰεφωνῆ, καὶ Ἰησοῦς ὁ τοῦ Ναυῆ.» Καὶ φέρε ἂν, πάλιν ἐπιτροχάδην καὶ ἀνὰ μέρος ἕκαστα διϊόντες, λέγωμεν σαφέστερόν τε καὶ εὐκρινέστερον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φράζε δὴ οὖν ὀκνήσας οὐδὲν, ὡς ἔν γε δὴ τούτοις ἡδὺ τὸ στενολεσχεῖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ἐν ὀλίγοις τῶν προκειμένων τὸν νοῦν συναγείροντες, ἐκεῖνό φαμεν· Τὸ ἡβηκὸς δὴ πάλιν, καὶ τὴν ἐμπειροπόλεμον ἡλικίαν ἀπαριθμεῖσθαι δεῖν προστάττει Θεός. Ὡς γὰρ ἤδη φθάσαντες εἴπομεν, ἐν γνώσει τε καὶ ἀπογραφῇ τῇ παρὰ Θεῷ, καὶ ἐν βίβλῳ ζώντων, οὐ τὸ ἄναλκι καὶ ἀδρανὲς, οὔτε μὴν τὸ ἔτι νηπιάζον κατὰ τὴν φρόνησιν, ἀλλὰ πᾶν ὅσον ἐστὶν εὐσθενές τε ἤδη καὶ ἕτοιμον εἰς παράταξιν τὴν κατὰ παθῶν τε καὶ ἁμαρτίας, καὶ βεβηκὸς εἰς σύνεσιν, εὐπρεπές τε ἤδη πρὸς τὸ χρῆναι δρᾷν καὶ δύνασθαι κατορθοῦν, ἃ ἂν βούλοιτο Θεός· οὗτοί τε τὴν γῆν κατά τε τὰς φυλὰς, καὶ ἐξ ὀνόματος, καὶ καθ' ἕκαστον εὖ μάλα διεμοιρήσαντο· κληρονόμοι γὰρ ἔσονται τῆς ἁγίας γῆς, καὶ τῶν ἐν ἐλπίσι μεθέξουσιν ἀγαθῶν, οἱ περὶ ὧν ὁ λόγος κατὰ φυλάς τε καὶ κατὰ γένος, ὡς ἐν τῷ, «Μακάριοι οἱ πραεῖς,
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.