Prov folly; sparrows; observing days Gal 4
divine Scripture will sound beside the true to those not having chosen to walk upright: ‘A man’s folly will ruin his ways; yet he will accuse God in his heart.’ Therefore then those having set Genesis and Fate and Fortune—easy to fan away—over the things according to us have missed a true glory, and not rather distributing to God the economy of the affairs; although Christ says: ‘Are not two sparrows sold for one assarion? And one of them will not fall upon the earth without your Father who is in the heavens. And of you the hairs of the head are numbered. Do not then fear; you differ from many sparrows.’ For the Craftsman provides for those upon the earth, yet he grants to each both to do what seems, and whichever path he should wish to walk. And since the race upon the earth has grown sick with the turning-aside, he has given a law at once unto help, according as it has been written. Therefore then it is precarious hereafter for everyone having received the faith into Christ, and having driven through that ancient wandering, to be carried off by old-wives’ myths toward what one must not, and to be carried away from the healthy glory, so as to think that Fortune and Fate—the ones not existing at all—drive this all, or then the human.
Palladius: Most precarious. For such a one would altogether and entirely whet the judge upon himself.
Cyril: And what? Do you not say it is all-shameful and truly next-door to such evils—the watching days, and hours, and seasons, and years, and the waxing and waning of the lunar cycle?
Palladius: And very much. For most clearly the divine Paul makes the matter a charge for those having been saved from the nations, saying: ‘But then not knowing God, you were enslaved to those by nature not being gods; yet now having known God, or rather having been known by God, how do you turn again upon the weak and poor elements, to which you wish to be enslaved again from of old above? You observe days, and months, and years, and seasons; I fear you, lest somehow I have labored into you in vain.’
Cyril: The watching of hours then and of days—and I would add also that of seasons—is altogether unfitting for those not having been ignorant of the one and by nature God, or rather for those having been known by him through faith, and having been called unto the intimacy through the grace; for he runs back backward, having let go the boast in Christ, the one having chosen to do this; and he has no longer saved his own mind free-loving, yet rather emptily runs under the yoke of the ancient wandering, distributing to the world’s elements an honor which God would have, and crowning with the highest glories the things having been called unto genesis by the nods of the one who has made. And elements of a world he calls the as-it-were portions of the all—seasons and months, and their measurements, being completed through hours and days
Greek
θεία Γραφὴ παραφωνήσει τὸ ἀληθὲς τοῖς μὴ ὀρθοποδεῖν ᾑρημένοις· «Ἀφροσύνη ἀνδρὸς λυμανεῖται τὰς ὁδοὺς αὐτοῦ· τὸν δὲ Θεὸν αἰτιάσεται τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ.» Ἀληθοῦς οὖν ἄρα διημαρτήκασι δόξης οἱ Γένεσίν τε καὶ Εἰμαρμένην καὶ Τύχην εὐδιαῤῥίπιστον τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐπιστήσαντες, καὶ οὐχὶ δὴ μᾶλλον Θεῷ προσνέμοντες τὴν τῶν πραγμάτων οἰκονομίαν· καίτοι λέγοντος τοῦ Χριστοῦ· «Οὐχὶ δύο στρουθία ἀσσαρίου ἑνὸς πωλεῖται; καὶ ἓν ἐξ αὐτῶν οὐ πεσεῖται ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, ἄνευ τοῦ Πατρὸς ὑμῶν τοῦ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. Ὑμῶν δὲ αἱ τρίχες τῆς κεφαλῆς ἠριθμημέναι εἰσί. Μὴ οὖν φοβεῖσθε· πολλῶν στρουθίων διαφέρετε ὑμεῖς.» Προνοεῖ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὁ Δημιουργὸς, ἑκάστῳ γε μὴν ἐφίησι καὶ δρᾷν τὸ δοκοῦν, καὶ ἣν ἂν βούλοιτο βαδίζειν ὁδόν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἠῤῥώστησε τὴν παρατροπὴν τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς γένος, νόμον εὐθὺς εἰς βοήθειαν δέδωκε, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. Σφαλερὸν οὖν ἄρα παντί τῳ λοιπὸν τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν πίστιν εἰσδεδεγμένῳ, καὶ τὴν ἀρχαίαν ἐκείνην διελάσαντι πλάνησιν, τὸ γραώδεσι μύθοις ἀποφέρεσθαι πρὸς ἃ μὴ δεῖ, καὶ τῆς ὑγιοῦς ἀποκομίζεσθαι δόξης, ὡς τόδε τὸ σύμπαν, ἤτοι τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἡνιοχεῖν οἴεσθαι Τύχην τε καὶ Εἱμαρμένην, τὰς οὐκ οὔσας ὅλως.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Σφαλερώτατον. Καταθήξει γὰρ ἂν ὁ τοιοῦτος πάντη τε καὶ πάντως ἐφ' ἑαυτῷ τὸν κριτήν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τί δέ; οὐ πάναισχρον εἶναι φὴς καὶ ἀγχίθυρον ἀληθῶς τοῖς τοιοῖσδε κακοῖς τὸ ἡμέρας ἐπιτηρεῖν, καὶ ὥρας, καὶ καιροὺς, καὶ ἐνιαυτοὺς, αὖξίν τε καὶ φθίσιν τοῦ σεληνιακοῦ κύκλου;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μάλα. Σαφέστατα γὰρ τοῖς ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἀνασεσωσμένοις ἔγκλημα ποιεῖται τὸ χρῆμα, λέγων ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος· «Ἀλλὰ τότε μὲν οὐκ εἰδότες Θεὸν, ἐδουλεύσατε τοῖς φύσει μὴ οὖσι θεοῖς· νῦν δὲ γνόντες τὸν Θεὸν, μᾶλλον δὲ γνωσθέντες ὑπὸ Θεοῦ, πῶς ἐπιστρέφετε πάλιν ἐπὶ τὰ ἀσθενῆ καὶ πτωχὰ στοιχεῖα, οἷς πάλαι ἄνωθεν δουλεύειν θέλετε; ἡμέρας παρατηρεῖσθε, καὶ μῆνας, καὶ ἐνιαυτοὺς, καὶ καιρούς· φοβοῦμαι ὑμᾶς, μή πως εἰκῆ κεκοπίακα εἰς ὑμᾶς.»
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἡ ὡρῶν ἄρα καὶ ἡμερῶν ἐπιτήρησις, προσθείην δ' ἂν ὅτι καὶ ἡ καιρῶν, ἀνάρμοστος παντελῶς τοῖς τὸν ἕνα τε καὶ φύσει Θεὸν οὐκ ἠγνοηκόσι, μᾶλλον δὲ τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ διὰ πίστεως ἐγνωσμένοις, καὶ εἰς οἰκειότητα κεκλημένοις τὴν διὰ τῆς χάριτος· ὑπονοστεῖ γὰρ ἀνόπιν, τὸ ἐν Χριστῷ καύχημα μεθεὶς, ὁ τοῦτο δρᾷν ᾑρημένος· καὶ φιλελεύθερον μὲν οὐκέτι τὸν οἰκεῖον διεσώσατο νοῦν, φληνάφως δὲ μᾶλλον τὸν τῆς ἀρχαίας πλανήσεως ὑποτρέχει ζυγὸν, τοῖς τοῦ κόσμου στοιχείοις τιμὴν ἀπονέμων, ἥνπερ ἂν ἔχοι Θεὸς, καὶ ταῖς ἀνωτάτω στεφανῶν εὐκλείαις τὰ κεκλημένα πρὸς γένεσιν τοῖς τοῦ πεποιηκότος νεύμασι. Στοιχεῖα δὲ κόσμου φησὶ τὰ οἱονεὶ μόρια τοῦ παντὸς, καιρούς τε καὶ μῆνας, καὶ τὰς τούτων ἀναμετρήσεις, διά τε ὡρῶν καὶ ἡμερῶν ἀποτελουμέ
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.