Blue thread = heavenly mind; law in heart; Leviticus blessings begin
Palladius: And what remembrance of the divine laws would become for us through fringes and a hyacinth-colored cord?
Cyril: For do you not say that the law has been spoken enigmatically to those of old and indeed also is as in shadows?
Palladius: I say so.
Cyril: An enigma then of needing to choose to think and do the things from heaven, and to remember thoroughly the laws from above—the fastening both of fringes and of the hyacinth-colored cord itself to the hand? For I think that somehow the ethereal body is imaged by the Indian stone—I mean the hyacinth—mixed with gleam and darkness, and somehow having in depth the water-like, and showing a trembling and easily-diffused look. Therefore the law has commanded economically that both from the garments themselves and indeed also from the hand the hyacinth-colored cord be hung, somehow as it were sounding under: Let a garment of mind and understanding be for you—an oracle from heaven—and let the law be awarder of right works. For the hand is a symbol of work; and the things done by us according to law are somehow altogether also unreproveable, and do not have the left-handed thing in baseness. Therefore the Pharisees were magnifying their fringes, and were widening their phylacteries—that is, the little tablets hung from the right hand; yet they were being laughed at by Christ, making the matter a starting-point of glory-loving, and not unto remembrance of the law. It is possible then even to lawless according to law, if someone should not use the law rightly. And this, I think, is what Solomon said: ‘There is a just one being destroyed in his just thing.’ Therefore the divine commandment must be written down unto mind and heart, and making the benefit of the matter clear the divine David said concerning every just one: ‘The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps will not be tripped.’ For it is, I think, also very clear that for whomever the divine law is present unto mind, there will also altogether be present the having been well fixed, and the lying in the firm of virtue.
Palladius: It holds thus.
Cyril: Therefore the long and continual meditation of the law carries away unto the straight—and this would be what seems to God—sending out forgetfulness as it were some turbid thing and mist of a human’s understanding. And the lawgiver does not stop unto these things, but inventing also something better besides, he makes hope as it were some bait of the eagerness at least in needing to do—the hope upon all the most prayed-for things. For he said again: ‘If you walk in my ordinances, and keep my commandments, and do them, I will give the rain to you in its season, and the earth will give its births, and the woods of the plains will give back their fruit. And the threshing will overtake the vintage for you, and the vintage will overtake the sowing, and you will eat your bread unto fullness, and you will dwe
Greek
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ τίς ἂν γένοιτο τῶν θείων νόμων ἡμῖν ἀνάμνησις διά τε κρασπέδων καὶ ὑακινθίνου κλώσματος;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐ γὰρ δὴ τὸν νόμον αἰνιγματωδῶς λελαλῆσθαι τοῖς πάλαι καὶ μὴν καὶ ὡς ἐν σκιαῖς εἶναι φής;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φημί.
{ΚΥΡ.} Αἴνιγμα δὴ οὖν τοῦ δεῖν ἑλέσθαι, φρονεῖν τε καὶ δρᾷν τὰ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ τῶν ἄνωθεν διαμεμνῆσθαι νόμων, τὸ κρασπέδων τε καὶ αὐτῆς ἀφάψαι χειρὸς τὸ κλῶσμα τὸ ὑακίνθινον; λίθῳ γὰρ οἶμαι τῇ Ἰνδικῇ, τῷ ὑακινθίνῳ φημὶ, τὸ αἰθέριόν πως εἰκάζεται σῶμα, αὐγῇ τε καὶ σκότῳ συμμιγὲς, καὶ ἐν βάθει πως ἔχον τὸ ὑδαροειδὲς, ὑποτρέμουσάν τε καὶ εὐδιάχυτον ὑποφαῖνον τὴν ὄψιν. Ἀπηρτῆσθαι δὴ οὖν ὁ νόμος τῶν τε ἐσθημάτων αὐτῶν καὶ μὴν καὶ χειρὸς τὸ κλῶσμα τὸ ὑακίνθινον οἰκονομικῶς προστέταχεν, οἱονεί πως ὑποφωνῶν. Ἔσθημά σοι νοῦ καὶ διανοίας ἄμφιον, λόγιον ἔστω τὸ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ δεξιῶν ἔργων βραβευτὴς ὁ νόμος. Ἔργου γὰρ δὴ σύμβολον ἡ χείρ· τὰ δὲ συννόμως δρώμενα πρὸς ἡμῶν, πάντως που καὶ ἀνεπίπληκτα, καὶ τὸ ἐν φαυλότητι σκαιὸν οὐκ ἔχει. Ἐμεγάλυνον οὖν οἱ Φαρισαῖοι τὰ κράσπεδα αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐπλάτυνον τὰ φυλακτήρια αὐτῶν, τουτέστι, τὰ τῆς δεξιᾶς ἀπηρτημένα δέλτια· πλὴν ἐγελῶντο παρὰ Χριστοῦ, εἰς φιλοδοξίας ἀφορμὴν, καὶ οὐκ εἰς ἀνάμνησιν τοῦ νόμου τὸ χρῆμα ποιούμενοι. Ἔστιν οὖν ἄρα καὶ ἐννόμως ἀνομεῖν, εἰ μή τις ὀρθῶς ἀποχρῷτο τῷ νόμῳ. Καὶ τοῦτο, οἶμαι, ἐστὶν ὅπερ ἔφη Σολομών· «ἔστι δίκαιος ἀπολλύμενος ἐν δικαίῳ αὐτοῦ.» Καταγραπτέον οὖν ἄρα τὴν θείαν ἐντολὴν εἰς νοῦν καὶ καρδίαν, καὶ τήν γε τοῦ πράγματος ὄνησιν ἐναργῆ καθιστὰς ὁ θεῖος ἔφη Δαβὶδ περὶ δικαίου παντός· «Ὁ νόμος τοῦ Θεοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὐχ ὑποσκελισθήσεται τὰ διαβήματα αὐτοῦ.» Ἔστι γὰρ, οἶμαι, καὶ μάλα σαφὲς, ὡς ὅτῳ περ ἂν ὁ θεῖος εἰς νοῦν ὑπάρχει νόμος, προσέσται που πάντως καὶ τὸ ἐρηρεῖσθαι καλῶς, καὶ τὸ ἐν βεβαίῳ κεῖσθαι τῆς ἀρετῆς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ἡ μακρὰ καὶ διηνεκὴς τοῦ νόμου μελέτησις, ἀποκομίζει πρὸς τὸ εὐθὺ, τοῦτο δ' ἂν εἴη τῷ Θεῷ δοκοῦν, θολὸν ὥσπερ τινὰ καὶ ὁμίχλην τῆς ἀνθρώπου διανοίας, τὴν λήθην ἐκπέμπουσα. Καὶ οὐ μέχρι τούτων ὁ νομοθέτης, ἀλλά τι καὶ ἄμεινον προσεπινοῶν, δέλεαρ ὥσπερ τι, τῆς ἔν γε τῷ χρῆναι ποιεῖν προθυμίας, ἐλπίδα ποιεῖται, τὴν ἐφ' ἅπασι τοῖς εὐκταιοτάτοις. Ἔφη γὰρ πάλιν· «Ἐὰν ἐν τοῖς προστάγμασί μου πορεύησθε, καὶ τὰς ἐντολάς μου φυλάξησθε, καὶ ποιήσητε αὐτὰς, δώσω τὸν ὑετὸν ὑμῖν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἡ γῆ δώσει τὰ γεννήματα αὐτῆς, καὶ τὰ ξύλα τῶν πεδίων ἀποδώσει τὸν καρπὸν αὐτῶν. Καὶ καταλήψεται ὑμῖν ὁ ἀλοητὸς τὸν τρυγητὸν, καὶ ὁ τρυγητὸς καταλήψεται τὸν σπόρον, καὶ φάγεσθε τὸν ἄρτον ὑμῶν εἰς πλησμονὴν, καὶ κατοι
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.