Test of prophets; Jeremiah; Endor / Samuel question posed
word rebukes not the things practiced from God—may it not be—as God’s; because they were not making the foretelling free of a lie. Yet since not having taken from truth they speak whatever they should wish, in this at least they have also missed according to themselves.
Palladius: Will we then in this discern whether God is the one giving oracles, or then those ones speak their own things?
Cyril: Very much; for a divine law will also straightway persuade us unto this. For God said thus in Deuteronomy: ‘And if someone should say in a heart: How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? as many as that prophet should speak upon the Lord’s name, and the word should not come to be which the Lord has not spoken, in impiety the prophet has spoken; you will not hold off from him.’ You hear that he says the failures in the things foretold will be a clear demonstration of something not having been oracled from God? for the truth loves truth. Some such thing he says through Jeremiah’s voice: ‘I am a God drawing near, says the Lord, and not a God from far; if a human will be hidden in hidden places, will I not also see him? Do I not fill the heaven and the earth? says the Lord. Have I heard what the prophets speak—false things which the prophets prophesy in my name?’ Then through the middle having accused not a little those who have despised the divine laws, he gives the truth as a clear demonstration of both the things from God and not. For he said again: ‘The prophet in whom is his dream, and in whom is my word toward him, let him narrate my word upon truth.’ As if something should appear having missed the truth, it would show at once its begetter false-speaking, and speaking from his own heart, not from the Lord’s mouth, according as it has been written.
Palladius: Do you wish we should set something of the necessary things unto a test, or leaving it go wherever your word should carry us?
Cyril: And indeed, Palladius, of the necessary things unto benefit our word is not short; as for not saying the seeming freely I would accuse, and very reasonably; speak then having hesitated at nothing.
Palladius: If some do not speak from the Lord’s mouth, yet belch, as you say, the things from a heart, in what manner then did that ventriloquist woman bring forward holy Samuel already dead to Saul, clarifying for him the end of the things about to be for him? for some think these things have been done thus, and not otherwise.
Cyril: And do you yourself think it does not hold thus, and will you reckon this better, or then do you say emptily that the righteous one’s soul was truly forced out, and came when a little woman was calling?
Greek
λόγος οὐ τοῖς ἐκ Θεοῦ, μὴ γένοιτο, πραττομένοις τὰ ὡς Θεοῦ· ὅτι μηδὲ ψεύδους ἐλευθέραν ἐποιοῦντο τὴν προαγόρευσιν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ οὐκ ἐξ ἀληθείας ἑλόντες, λαλοῦσιν ἃ ἂν βούλοιντο, καὶ τὸ κατὰ σφᾶς αὐτοὺς, ταύτῃτοι διημαρτήκασιν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἆρ' οὖν, ἐν τῷδε διαγνωσόμεθα πότερα Θεὸς ὁ χρησμοδοτῶν ἐστιν, ἤγουν ἐκεῖνοι λαλοῦσι τὰ σφῶν αὐτῶν;
{ΚΥΡ.} Καὶ μάλα· θεῖος γὰρ καὶ ἡμᾶς πρὸς τοῦτο εὐθὺς ἀναπείσει νόμος. Ἔφη γὰρ οὕτω Θεὸς ἐν Δευτερονομίῳ· «Ἐὰν δὲ λέγῃ τις ἐν καρδίᾳ· Πῶς γνωσόμεθα τὸ ῥῆμα, ὃ οὐκ ἐλάλησε Κύριος; ὅσα ἐὰν λαλήσῃ ὁ προφήτης ἐκεῖνος ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι Κυρίου, καὶ μὴ γένηται τὸ ῥῆμα ὃ οὐκ ἐλάλησε Κύριος, ἐν ἀσεβείᾳ ἐλάλησεν ὁ προφήτης, οὐκ ἀφέξεσθε ἀπ' αὐτοῦ.» Ἀκούεις ὅτι τὰς ἐν τοῖς προηγορευμένοις ἀποτεύξεις ἀπόδειξιν ἔσεσθαί φησιν ἐναργῆ τοῦ μὴ ἐκ Θεοῦ κεχρησμοδοτῆσθαί τι; φιλεῖ γὰρ ἀλήθειαν ἡ ἀλήθεια. Τοιοῦτόν τί φησι διὰ τῆς Ἱερεμίου φωνῆς· «Θεὸς ἐγγίζων ἐγώ εἰμι, λέγει Κύριος, καὶ οὐχὶ Θεὸς πόῤῥωθεν· εἰ κρυβήσεται ἄνθρωπος ἐν κρυφαίοις, καὶ ἐγὼ οὐκ ὄψομαι αὐτόν; Μὴ οὐχὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν ἐγὼ πληρῶ; λέγει Κύριος. Ἤκουσα ἃ λαλοῦσιν οἱ προφῆται; ἂ προφητεύουσιν οἱ προφῆται ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου ψευδῆ.» Εἶτα διὰ μέσου τοὺς τῶν θείων νόμων καταφρονήσαντας ἐπαιτιασάμενος οὐ μικρῶς, ἐναργῆ τὴν ἀπόδειξιν τῶν τε ἐκ Θεοῦ καὶ μὴ, δίδωσι τὴν ἀλήθειαν. Ἔφη γὰρ πάλιν· «Ὁ προφήτης, ἐν ᾧ τὸ ἐνύπνιον αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐν ᾧ ὁ λόγος μου πρὸς αὐτὸν, διηγησάσθω τὸν λόγον μου ἐπ' ἀληθείας.» Ὡς εἴπερ τι φαίνοιτο τῆς ἀληθείας ἡμαρτηκὸς, ἐκδείξειεν ἂν αὐτὸ εὐθὺς ψευδοεπῆ τὸν γεννήτορα, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ λαλοῦντα καρδίας, οὐκ ἀπὸ στόματος Κυρίου, καθὰ γέγραπται.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Βούλει τι θῶμεν τῶν ἀναγκαίων εἰς βάσανον, ἢ παρέντες ἴωμεν, ᾗπερ ἂν ὁ σὸς ἡμᾶς ἀποκομίσῃ λόγος;
{ΚΥΡ.} Καὶ μὴν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τῶν ἀναγκαίων εἰς ὄνησιν οὐ βραχὺς ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος· ὡς τό τοι μὴ φάναι τὸ δοκοῦν ἐλευθέρως ἐπαιτιασαίμην ἂν, καὶ μάλα εἰκότως· φράζε δὴ οὖν ὀκνήσας οὐδέν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εἰ μὴ ἀπὸ στόματος Κυρίου λαλοῦσί τινες, ἐρεύγονται δὲ, ὡς φὴς, τὰ ἀπὸ καρδίας, τίνα δὴ τρόπον καί τοι τεθνεῶτα τὸν ἅγιον Σαμουὴλ ἡ ἐγγαστρίμυθος ἐκείνη γυνὴ παρεκόμισε τῷ Σαοὺλ, τὸ τῶν ἐσομένων αὐτῷ σαφηνιοῦντα πέρας; ταυτὶ γὰρ ὧδε πεπρᾶχθαι, καὶ οὐχ ἑτέρως ἔχειν οἴονταί τινες.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οἴει δὲ αὐτὸς οὐχ ὧδε ἔχειν, καὶ λογιεῖ τοῦτο ἄμεινον, ἤγουν φληνάφως τὴν τοῦ δικαίου ψυχὴν ἐκβεβιάσθαι φὴς κατὰ τὸ ἀληθὲς, καὶ γυναίου καλοῦντος ἐλθεῖν;
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 6 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 6 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 5 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 6)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 6)
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.