Temple boast; heaven/earth oaths; Yes-Yes; greater than man
temple, and thinking great upon this very thing, and having believed they had come inside the boasts unto piety, and to take very well a most notable glory of the things announced to them through all-wise Moses, thinking little they were being caught carelessly; yet that the matter will not be for them unto good-fame from somewhere, and God does not delight in the buildings from stones, he was teaching saying: ‘The heaven is a throne for me, and the earth a footstool of my feet. What sort of house will you build for me? Or what place of my rest? says the Lord.’ For God fills all things, and rests upon heaven, yet also reaches upon the earth; for the divine is not in quantity, but just as it is farthest from bodily fantasy, so also from place and from seeming to have been quantified. And since once Jews were hearing him saying, The heaven is a throne for me, and the earth a footstool of my feet, going unto unsafe thoughts, they were making the heaven an oath-partner, naming it a divine throne, and likewise also the earth, as lying under God’s feet; and indeed also Jerusalem, for it is a city, they were saying, of the God ruling all—although the more ancient holy ones had made the ‘The Lord lives’ in need of an oath. Yet the Savior counterfeited the Jews’ most silly thought, saying one must not swear off, neither in the heaven, because it is God’s throne, nor in the earth, because it is a footstool of his feet, nor unto Jerusalem, because it is a city of the great king; for what those ones were saying while babbling, these things the Savior uttered usefully, proving everywhere their piety in these things at least as plastered-on, and invented from I know not where. Therefore let the wandering upon this also be gone. For we have been taught in the needs of an oath never to have remembered any other at all, yet rather to make unto a safe and worthy faith the Yes, yes, and the No, no. And the law also said: ‘If a deposit should be destroyed toward someone, and the one having given should demand the faith upon this, there will be an oath of God in between both.’ And humans swear according to the greater; for thus Paul the wise said to us; and we say it is greater than a human, understanding rightly, not by size perhaps, or then excessing in understanding and wisdom and glory, but as the being somehow thus for us.
Palladius: I do not understand what you say.
Cyril: And indeed, O Palladius, clear, as at least it seems to me, and evident is the word. Or do we not say that many of the things made differ incomparably by size from human bodies, and besides the heaven?
Palladius: And very much.
Cyril: And in understanding and wisdom and thinness of bodies, do angels not excel?
Palladius: They excel, but also in honor.
Cyril: And in brightness and glory—I mean the one according to body—is not the sun’s nature incomparably better;
Palladius: Better.
Greek
ναὸν, καὶ ἐπ' αὐτῷ δὴ τούτῳ φρονοῦντες μέγα, καὶ τῶν εἰς εὐσέβειαν αὐχημάτων εἴσω γενέσθαι πεπιστευκότες, καὶ ἀξιολογωτάτην εὖ μάλα τὴν δόξαν ἑλεῖν τῶν σφίσι διηγγελμένων διὰ τοῦ πανσόφου Μωσέως ὀλίγα φροντίσαντες ἀπεριμερίμνως ἡλίσκοντο· ἀλλ' ὅτι τὸ χρῆμα αὐτοῖς οὐ πρὸς εὔκλειαν ἔσται ποθὲν, καὶ γάννυται δὲ οὐχὶ ταῖς ἐκ λίθων οἰκοδομίαις ὁ Θεὸς, ἐδίδασκε λέγων· «Ὁ οὐρανός μοι θρόνος, ἡ δὲ γῆ ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν μου. Ποῖον οἶκον οἰκοδομήσετέ μοι; ἢ τίς τόπος τῆς καταπαύσεώς μου; λέγει Κύριος.» Ἐμπίπλησι γὰρ τὰ πάντα Θεὸς, καὶ ἐπαναπαύεται μὲν οὐρανῷ, διήκει δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· οὐ γὰρ ἐν ποσῷ τὸ θεῖον, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἐστὶν ἀπωτάτω φαντασίας σωματικῆς, οὕτω καὶ τόπου καὶ τοῦ πεποσῶσθαι δοκεῖν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἅπαξ Ἰουδαῖοι λέγοντος ἤκουον, Ὁ οὐρανός μοι θρόνος, ἡ δὲ γῆ ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν μου, πρὸς ἐννοίας ἰόντες οὐκ ἀσφαλεῖς, ὅρκιον ἐποιοῦντο τὸν οὐρανὸν, θεῖον αὐτὸν ὀνομάζοντες θρόνον, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὴν γῆν, ὡς ὑπὸ πόδας Θεοῦ κειμένην· καὶ μὴν καὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, πόλις γὰρ, ἔφασκον, ἐστὶ τοῦ πάντων κρατοῦντος Θεοῦ, καί τοι τῶν ἀρχαιοτέρων ἁγίων τὸ, Ζῇ Κύριος, ἐν ὅρκου χρείᾳ πεποιημένων. Ἀλλὰ τὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἠλιθιωτάτην ἔννοιαν κατεκιβδήλευσεν ὁ Σωτὴρ, μὴ δεῖν ἀπόμνυσθαι λέγων, μήτε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὅτι θρόνος ἐστὶ Θεοῦ, μήτε ἐν τῇ γῇ, ὅτι ὑποπόδιόν ἐστι τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ, μήτε εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, ὅτι πόλις τοῦ μεγάλου βασιλέως ἐστίν· ἃ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι ληροῦντες ἔφασκον, ταῦτα χρησίμως ὁ Σωτὴρ ἐφθέγξατο, πανταχῆ κατάπλαστον, καὶ οὐκ οἶδ' ὅθεν ἐξευρημένον ἐλέγχων αὐτῶν τὸ ἔν γε τούτοις εὐλαβές. Οἰχέσθω δὴ οὖν καὶ ἡ ἐπὶ τῷδε πλάνησις. Δεδιδάγμεθα γὰρ ἐν ταῖς ὅρκου χρείαις, μηδενὸς μὲν ἑτέρου διαμεμνῆσθαι πώποτε, ποιεῖσθαι δὲ μᾶλλον εἰς πίστιν ἀσφαλῆ καὶ ἀξιόχρεων, τὸ Ναὶ, ναὶ, καὶ τὸ Οὔ, οὔ. Ἔφη δὲ καὶ ὁ νόμος· «Εἰ ἀπόλοιτο παρακαταθήκη πρός τινος, ἐξαιτοίη δὲ ὁ δοὺς τὴν ἐπὶ τῷδε πίστιν, ὅρκος ἔσται τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀναμέσον ἀμφοτέρων.» Καὶ ἄνθρωποι μὲν κατὰ τοῦ μείζονος ὀμνύουσιν· ἔφη γὰρ ὧδε Παῦλος ἡμῖν ὁ σοφός· μεῖζον δὲ εἶναί φαμεν ἀνθρώπου, νοοῦντες ὀρθῶς, οὐ τῷ μεγέθει τυχὸν, ἤγουν ἐν συνέσει καὶ σοφίᾳ, καὶ δόξῃ πλεονεκτοῦν, ἀλλ' ὡς τὸ εἶναι τοιῶσδε τυχὸν ἡμῖν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οὐ συνίημι ὃ φής.
{ΚΥΡ.} Καὶ μὴν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, σαφὴς, ὥς γέ μοι δοκεῖ, καὶ ἐναργὴς ὁ λόγος. Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ μεγέθει φαμὲν τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων σωμάτων διενεγκεῖν ἀσυγκρίτως πολλὰ τῶν πεποιημένων, καὶ προσέτι τὸν οὐρανόν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ πάνυ.
{ΚΥΡ.} Συνέσει δὲ καὶ σοφίᾳ καὶ ἰσχνότητι σωμάτων, οὐχ ὑπερφέρουσιν ἄγγελοι;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὑπερφέρουσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τιμῇ.
{ΚΥΡ.} Λαμπρότητι δὲ καὶ δόξῃ τῇ κατὰ σῶμά φημι, οὐκ ἀπαραβλήτως ἀμείνων ἡλίου φύσις·
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀμείνων.
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.