Book 7 opens: love God and neighbor; love of brothers
ON ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH — BOOK SEVEN. Concerning the love toward the brothers.
Cyril: With praises for us, O Palladius, crowning unto a limit and unto the highest the first and uppermost of the commandments—the law, I mean—the ‘You will love the Lord your God from whole heart and from whole understanding and from whole strength’; and adding also that ‘And your neighbor as yourself,’ and indeed also Christ himself saying clearly that on these two commandments all the law and the prophets hang, and naming love a fulfillment of law—Paul the divine also, because of doing nothing evil to the neighbor—the word has made for us, as at least it seems to me, a sufficient arrangement upon the first, according at least to what is possible, going up and down and somehow as in a circle, and not ignobly narrating what manner from our side the love unto God whole and altogether blameless would become. Come then already, let us busy ourselves with the neighboring and sister commandment, and let us make exact examination of the love unto the neighbor, tracking very well the things through which someone would become in a beautiful circle of virtue, and having taken the best glory of craftsmanship unto this, will walk in goodness with God and humans according to the divine Samuel. For I myself say that it is necessary to practice gracefully together with the love unto God also the love unto brothers; since to fall short of one has the missing upon both, according at least to John’s voices. For he has written thus: ‘If someone should say that I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the
Greek
ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΕΝ ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΠΡΟΣΚΥΝΗΣΕΩΣ ΚΑΙ ΛΑΤΡΕΙΑΣ ΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΒΔΟΜΟΣ. Περὶ τῆς εἰς ἀδελφοὺς ἀγάπης. Εὐφημίαις ἡμῖν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, ταῖς εἰς λῆξιν καὶ ἀνωτάτω στεφανοῦντος τοῦ νόμου τὴν πρώτην τε καὶ ὑπερτάτην τῶν ἐντολῶν, τὸ, «Ἀγαπήσεις Κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου, φημὶ, ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας σου, καὶ ἐξ ὅλης διανοίας, καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ἰσχύος σου·» προσεπάγοντος δὲ, ὅτι «Καὶ τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτὸν,» καὶ μὴν καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Χριστοῦ φάσκοντος ἐναργῶς, ὅτι ἐν ταύταις ταῖς δυσὶν ἐντολαῖς ὅλος ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται κρέμανται, πλήρωμά τε νόμου τὴν ἀγάπην κατονομάζοντος καὶ τοῦ θεσπεσίου Παύλου, διά τοι τὸ μηδὲν τῷ πλησίον ἐργάζεσθαι κακὸν, ἀποχρῶσαν ἡμῖν, ὡς γοῦν ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ, τὴν ἐπὶ τῇ πρώτῃ διασκευὴν ἐποιήσατο ὁ λόγος, κατά γε τὸ ἐγχωροῦν, ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω, καὶ οἱονεί πως ἐν κύκλῳ περινοστῶν, καὶ οὐκ ἀγεννῶς ἀφηγούμενος τῆς εἰς Θεὸν ἀγάπης ὁλοτελοῦς τε καὶ ἀμωμήτου παντελῶς, τίς ἂν γένοιτο πρὸς ἡμῶν ὁ τρόπος. Φέρε δὴ οὖν τὴν γείτονά τε καὶ ἀδελφὴν πολυπραγμονῶμεν ἐντολὴν, καὶ ἀγάπης τῆς εἰς τὸν πλησίον ἀκριβῆ ποιώμεθα τὴν κατάσκεψιν, ἰχνηλατοῦντες εὖ μάλα τὰ δι' ὧν ἂν γένοιτό τις μὲν ἀρετῆς ἐν κύκλῳ καλῷ, φιλοτεχνίας δὲ τῆς εἰς τοῦτο, τὴν ἀρίστην δόξαν ἀράμενος, ἐν ἀγαθότητι βαδιεῖται μετὰ Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων κατὰ τὸν θεσπέσιον Σαμουήλ. Χρῆναι γὰρ ἔγωγέ φημι τῇ εἰς Θεὸν ἀγάπῃ συνεπιτηδεύειν ἀστείως τὴν εἰς ἀδελφούς· ὡς τό τοι λείπεσθαι μιᾶς, τὴν ἐπ' ἀμφοῖν ἀπότευξιν ἔχει, κατά γε τὰς Ἰωάννου φωνάς. Γέγραφε γὰρ ὡδί· «Ἐάν τις εἴπῃ, ὅτι Ἀγαπῶ τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ μισεῖ, ψεύστης ἐστίν· ὁ γὰρ
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 7 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 7 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 7)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 7)
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.