Return brother’s lost; help enemies; deaf/blind scandal ban begins
Cyril: …brother should not draw near to you, nor should you set him over it, you will gather them inside into your house, and it will be with you until your brother should seek them, and you will give them back to him; thus you will do his donkey, and thus you will do his garment, and thus you will do according to every loss of your brother, whatever should be lost from him, and you should find, you will not be able to overlook them; you will not overlook the donkey of your brother, or his calf fallen in the way; do not overlook, raising you will raise them with him.’ You understand then how most urbanely he trains us toward the already somehow and perfectly good, commanding to make as it were a practice of not remembering evil—the sparing unto the beasts of the one who has grieved, whom he also crowns above and below with the name of brotherhood, checking, I think somewhere, the intense unto angers, and the superfluous unto smallness of soul, and bringing in the law of nature as somehow an umpire of love. For if you should find, he says, a wandering beast, or a lost garment, you will save them around for your brother; and if something of those accustomed to bear burdens should slip down to earth to be crushed under the load itself, you will work with and raise with. And this is nothing other than benefiting the owner, and a practice toward mercy, and a training toward love of one’s own, and seeking to push grief far away, and to decline differences, for the sake at least of not seeming to strike against love and the law unto brother-love. And it is likely that the oracular saying also somehow hints something other; for if such care has come about for the lawgiver, that even if something of the irrational should be what has suffered, he stretches out the help for us, how would the sparing unto humans, and the mutual love owed to those of like race, not please him more greatly? So even if an enemy should somehow wander, let him learn the straight way, and through us let him nod toward what benefits. Thus also Christ, though he was being struck with stones by those from Israel, was nevertheless calling out: ‘While you have the light, walk in the light, that darkness may not overtake you.’ And if someone of those who have struck against us should be squeezed in toil and trials, and somehow as thrown to earth should be pressed by inescapable necessities, he says, let him be helped by us, and let the differing one be better than grief. Or is this not the thing, ‘Do good to your enemies, and pray for those who insult you’?
Palladius: You have spoken most excellently.
Cyril: So then it is holy-fitting to suffer-with those who labor, and not rather to make the things upon which it was better to pity a pretext of grasping against them, still leaping upon and being angry at those who have been wronged. And even if someone should be able to finish the modes of the plot secretly, the law says very well that one must also hold off from the evil-doings upon this; for he said again: ‘You will not speak badly of a deaf person, and before a blind person you will not add a scandal.’ And yet how is it not better, and most fitting for the very fair ones, to have as it were a bridle in
Greek
ἀδελφός σου πρὸς σὲ, μηδὲ ἐπιστήσῃ αὐτὸν, συνάξεις αὐτὰ ἔνδον εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν σου, καὶ ἔσται μετὰ σοῦ, ἕως ἂν ζητήσῃ αὐτὰ ὁ ἀδελφός σου, καὶ ἀποδώσεις αὐτὰ αὐτῷ· οὕτως ποιήσεις τὸν ὄνον αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὕτως ποιήσεις τὸ ἱμάτιον αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὕτως ποιήσεις κατὰ πᾶσαν ἀπώλειαν τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου, ὅσα ἐὰν ἀπόληται παρ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ εὕρῃς, οὐ δυνήσῃ ὑπεριδεῖν αὐτά· οὐχ ὑπερόψει τὸν ὄνον τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου, ἢ τὸν μόσχον αὐτοῦ πεπτωκότα ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ· μὴ ὑπερίδῃς, ἀνιστῶν ἀναστήσεις αὐτὰ μετ' αὐτοῦ.» Συνίης οὖν, ὅπως ἡμᾶς ἀστειότατα παιδαγωγεῖ πρὸς τὸ ἄγαν ἤδη πως καὶ τελέως ἀγαθὸν, μελέτησιν ὥσπερ ἀμνησικακίας ποιεῖσθαι προστάττων, τὴν εἰς τὰ κτήνη φειδὼ τοῦ λελυπηκότος, ὃν καὶ ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω τῷ τῆς ἀδελφότητος ὀνόματι στεφανοῖ, κατακωλύων, οἶμαί που, τὸ ἔντονον εἰς ὀργὰς, καὶ τὸ περιττὸν εἰς μικροψυχίας, καὶ τὸν τῆς φύσεως νόμον, βραβευτὴν ὥσπερ τινὰ τῆς ἀγάπης εἰσφέρων. Ἂν γὰρ εὕρῃς, φησὶν, πλανώμενον κτῆνος, ἢ ἀπολωλὸς ἱμάτιον, περισώσεις αὐτὰ τῷ ἀδελφῷ σου· κἂν εἰ γένοιτό τι τῶν ἀχθοφορεῖν εἰωθότων κατολισθῆσαν εἰς γῆν ὑπ' αὐτῷ συντρίβεσθαι τῷ φορτίῳ, συνεργάσῃ καὶ συνεγερεῖς. Ἕτερον δὲ τοῦτό ἐστιν οὐδὲν, ἢ τὸν κεκτημένον ὠφελεῖν, καὶ μελέτη πρὸς ἔλεον, καὶ παιδαγωγία πρὸς φιλοικειότητα, καὶ τὸ λυπεῖσθαι μακρὰ παρωθεῖσθαι ζητεῖν, καὶ παραιτεῖσθαι διαφορὰς, ὑπέρ γε τοῦ μὴ δοκεῖν προσκρούειν ἀγάπῃ καὶ νόμῳ τῷ εἰς φιλαδελφίαν. Εἰκὸς δὲ δή τι καὶ ἕτερον ὑπαινίττεσθαι, τὸ χρησμῴδημα· εἰ γὰρ τοσαύτη γέγονε τῷ νομοθέτῃ φροντὶς, ὡς εἰ καί τι τῶν ἀλόγων εἴη τὸ πεπονθὸς, ὀρέγειν ἡμᾶς τὴν ἐπικουρίαν, πῶς οὐκ ἂν αὐτῷ μειζόνως ἀρέσειεν ἡ εἰς ἀνθρώπους φειδὼ, καὶ ἡ τοῖς ὁμογενέσιν ὀφειλομένη φιλαλληλία; οὐκοῦν κἂν εἰ ἐχθρὸς πλανῷτο τυχὸν, μανθανέτω τὴν ἐπ' εὐθὺ, καὶ δι' ἡμῶν νευέτω πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον. Οὕτω καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς, λίθοις μὲν ἐβάλλετο παρὰ τῶν ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ, ἐπεφώνει δὲ ὅμως· «Ἕως τὸ φῶς ἔχετε, περιπατεῖτε ἐν τῷ φωτὶ, ἵνα μὴ σκοτία ὑμᾶς καταλάβῃ.» Καὶ εἰ πόνῳ τις καὶ πειρασμοῖς ἐνθλίβοιτο τῶν προσκεκρουκότων, καὶ οἱονείπως εἰς γῆν ἐῤῥιμμένος, ἀφύκτοις ἀνάγκαις καταπιέζοιτο, φησὶν, ἐπικουρείσθω πρὸς ἡμῶν, καὶ ἔστω λύπης ἀμείνων, ὁ διάφορος. Ἢ οὐχὶ δὴ τοῦτό ἐστιν, «Εὖ ποιεῖτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν, καὶ προσεύχεσθε ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐπηρεαζόντων ὑμᾶς;»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἄριστα ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἁγιοπρεπὲς οὖν ἄρα, τὸ τοῖς κάμνουσι συναλγεῖν, καὶ οὐχὶ δὴ μᾶλλον τὰ ἐφ' οἷς ἦν ἄμεινον ἐποικτείρεσθαι δεῖν, πλεονεξίας τῆς κατ' αὐτῶν ποιεῖσθαι πρόφασιν, ἐπιθρώσκοντάς τε καὶ ἐπιμηνιῶντας ἔτι τοῖς ἠδικημένοις. Κἂν εἰ δύναιτό τις λαθραίους ἀποτελεῖν τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς τοὺς τρόπους, ἀποσχέσθαι δεῖν ὁ νόμος εὖ μάλα φησὶ καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ τῷδε κακουργημάτων· ἔφη γὰρ πάλιν· «Οὐ κακῶς ἐρεῖς κωφὸν, καὶ ἀπέναντι τυφλοῦ οὐ προσθήσεις σκάνδαλον.» Καί τοι πῶς οὐκ ἄμεινον, καὶ τοῖς ἄγαν ἐπιεικέσιν ὅτι μάλιστα πρέπει τὸ χαλινὸν ὥσπερ ἔχειν ἐν
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 8 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 8 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 8)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 8)
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.