No other gods; vain Name; Sabbath command; what sanctifying means
med, and having shown changes of the elements, and having cast the pitiable death upon the firstborn, and having poured upon them the three-day darkness; the one gifting to go through middle of waves to whomever he should wish, and without toil shattering those having stood against. For it was necessary, necessary, that those running under the yoke of the divine commandment not be ignorant how great the lawgiver’s power is, and that it is not safe for them to strike against the one strong to set all things right easily.
Palladius: How well and God-fittingly the lawgiver was contemplating for us! For fear somehow always pours down unto well-persuasion, and works the harsh and hard-to-lead as it were some well-reined colt.
Cyril: You have spoken most rightly. Having refused then the needing to worship other gods, and the making of every idol, and likeness and writing, and the daring to distribute the name of the Godhead to the crafts of statue-makers, having brought under the last justices (‘For you will not take,’ he says, ‘the name of the Lord your God upon a vain thing, because the Lord will not cleanse the one taking his name upon a vain thing’), he rhythm-trains hereafter the human things, and marks off the law as it were some canon unto the straight for all citizens’ ways; and he stands us out of every sin, and before the others marking the season of the justice in Christ, according to which the most complete ransoming and the destruction of baseness, and re-forming unto what was from the beginning, and renewal of life in holiness and God-loving. Therefore he says: ‘Remember the day of the Sabbaths to make it holy; six days you will work, and you will do all your works, yet on the seventh day Sabbaths, a rest for the Lord your God; you will not do in it every work—you and your son and your daughter, your servant and your maidservant, your ox and your beast of burden, every animal of yours, and the sojourner dwelling beside you. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all the things in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Because of this the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy.’
Palladius: And what then is this? For I do not understand clearly. And in what manner would we make holy the day of the Sabbaths?
Cyril: Do you wish that we say some few things about Sabbath and the idleness honored in it? for thus the things having been oracle-spoken from God for us would also be very clear.
Palladius: Altogether so.
Cyril: The Sabbath, O Palladius, being a last day of the week, would somehow, I think, mark the season of our Savior’s sojourn, which has appeared upon a completion and all but already toward the very settings of the present age, yet has become for us a beginning and door and way unto a washing-off
Greek
ὡπλικότα, καὶ τῶν στοιχείων μεταβολὰς ἐπιδεδειχότα, καὶ τοῖς πρωτοτόκοις τὸν οἰκτρὸν ἐνιέντα θάνατον, καὶ σκότον αὐτοῖς καταχέαντα τὸν τριήμερον· τὸν διὰ μέσων ἰέναι κυμάτων οἷς ἂν ἐθέλοι δωρούμενον, καὶ ἀμογητὶ συνθραύοντα τοὺς ἀνθεστηκότας. Ἔδει γὰρ, ἔδει μὴ ἀγνοεῖν τοὺς τῆς θείας ἐντολῆς ὑποτρέχοντας τὸν ζυγὸν, ὅση τίς ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ νομοθέτου δύναμις, καὶ ὅτι προσκρούειν αὐτοῖς οὐκ ἀσφαλὲς τῷ πάντα εὐκόλως κατορθοῦν ἰσχύοντι.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς εὖ γε ἡμῖν ὁ νομοθέτης καὶ θεοπρεπῶς ἐσκέπτετο! Κατάγχει γάρ πως ἀεὶ τὸ δεῖμα πρὸς εὐπείθειαν, καὶ ὥσπερ τινὰ πῶλον εὐήνιον ἀπεργάζεται τὸν ἀπηνῆ καὶ δυσάγωγον.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὀρθότατα ἔφης. Ἀποφήσας δὴ οὖν τὸ χρῆ-ναι θεοῖς προσκυνεῖν ἑτέροις, καὶ τὴν εἰδώλου παντὸς ποίησιν, ἐξομοίωμά τε καὶ γραφὴν, καὶ τὸ προσνέμειν ἀποτολμᾷν τὸ τῆς θεότητος ὄνομα ταῖς τῶν ἀγαλματουργῶν ἐπιστήμαις, δίκαις ὑπενεγκὼν ταῖς ἐσχάταις («Οὐ γὰρ λήψῃ, φησὶ, τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου ἐπὶ ματαίῳ, ὅτι οὐ μὴ καθαρίσῃ Κύριος τὸν λαμβάνοντα τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ ματαίῳ»), καταρυθμίζει λοιπὸν τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, καὶ ὥσπερ τινὰ κανόνα πρὸς τὸ εὐθὺ ταῖς ἁπάντων πολιτείαις ὁρίζει τὸν νόμον· ἁπάσης δὲ ἡμᾶς ἐξίστησιν ἁμαρτίας, τὸν τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ δικαιοσύνης καὶ πρό γε τῶν ἄλλων κατασημαίνων καιρὸν, καθ' ὃν ἡ τελεωτάτη λύτρωσις καὶ ἡ φαυλότητος καταφθορὰ, καὶ ἀναμόρφωσις εἰς τὸ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, καὶ ζωῆς ἀνακαινισμὸς τῆς ἐν ἁγιότητί τε καὶ φιλοθεΐᾳ. Τοιγάρτοι φησί· «Μνήσθητι τὴν ἡμέραν τῶν Σαββάτων ἁγιάζειν αὐτήν· ἓξ ἡμέρας ἐργάσῃ, καὶ ποιήσεις πάντα τὰ ἔργα σου, τῇ δὲ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ Σάββατα, ἀνάπαυσις Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ σου· οὐ ποιήσεις ἐν αὐτῇ πᾶν ἔργον, σὺ καὶ ὁ υἱός σου καὶ ἡ θυγάτηρ σου, ὁ παῖς σου καὶ παιδίσκη σου, ὁ βοῦς σου καὶ τὸ ὑποζύγιόν σου, πᾶν τὸ κτῆνός σου, καὶ ὁ προσήλυτος ὁ παροικῶν ἐν σοί. Ἐν γὰρ ἓξ ἡμέραις ἐποίησε Κύριος τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς, καὶ κατέπαυσε τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ. Διὰ τοῦτο ηὐλόγησε Κύριος τὴν ἡμέραν τὴν ἑβδόμην, καὶ ἡγίασεν αὐτήν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ τί δὴ τοῦτό ἐστιν; οὐ γάρ τοι συνίημι σαφῶς. Ἁγιάσαιμεν δ' ἂν τίνα τρόπον τὴν τῶν Σαββάτων ἡμέραν;
{ΚΥΡ.} Βούλει λέγωμεν ὀλίγα ἄττα περὶ Σαββάτου καὶ τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ τετιμημένης ἀργίας; εἶεν γὰρ ἂν οὕτω καὶ μάλα σαφῆ τὰ θεόθεν ἡμῖν κεχρησμοδοτημένα.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τὸ Σάββατον, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τελευταία τῆς ἑβδομάδος τυγχάνον ἡμέρα, κατασημήνειεν ἂν, οἶμαί που, τὸν τῆς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐπιδημίας καιρὸν, ὃς πέφηνε μὲν ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ καὶ μονονουχὶ πρὸς αὐταῖς ἤδη τοῦ παρόντος αἰῶνος δυσμαῖς, ἀρχὴ δὲ καὶ θύρα καὶ ὁδὸς ἡμῖν γέγονεν εἰς ἀπόνιψιν
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.