No greeting to heretics; virgin/betrothed laws quoted (Exod/Deut)
Cyril: …what seems most mindless to themselves, carrying them off by intricate deceits of thoughts, will fittingly endure the charge of robbery upon human souls; and the penalty for them is death. To such ones, ‘Do not even say Welcome,’ says the disciple of the Savior, not training us unto savagery of manners, but because the sheep is not suited unto dispositions with the wolf; and those accustomed to think otherwise are somehow incompatible with one another; ‘For what portion has a believer with an unbeliever?’ And in addition to these things, the divine Paul writes that one must not be intertwined with the fornicators of this age. So that then some may not be snatched as from a paternal hearth—the Church of God—and be carried off into churches of those doing evil, selling down as it were their own mind by turnings unto baseness—‘For bad associations corrupt good characters’—the law defines death as the judgment for those who have most unholily desired to do this. And you would see the law hinting the same to us sideways again, and through another oracular saying. For it orders worldly matters unto what has uprightly, through the more manifest and ready contemplation for those who wish to grasp it. For we will not abolish the history among the things most useful as stale. For even the letter itself will sometimes benefit the hearers, and it somehow travails in depth the spiritual things, and has the power of the thinner thoughts as in fine shadows. And he said again in Exodus: ‘And if someone should deceive an unbetrothed virgin, and should sleep with her, he will dowry her with a dowry for himself as wife. And if refusing he should refuse, and her father should not wish to give her to him as wife, he will repay silver to the father according as is the dowry of the virgins.’ And somehow widening the divine commandment for us, the divine Moses says in Deuteronomy: ‘And if a human should be found sleeping with a woman cohabiting with a husband, you will kill both, the man sleeping with the woman, and the woman, and you will remove the evil from the sons of Israel. And if there should be a virgin betrothed to a man, and a human finding her in a city should sleep with her, you will lead both out upon the gate of their city, and they will be stoned with stones and will die; the young woman, because she did not cry out in the city, and the human, because he humbled the wife of his neighbor; and you will remove the evil from yourselves. And if in a field a human should find the betrothed woman, and having forced her should sleep with her, you will kill only the human who slept with her; and to the young woman you will do nothing; there will be for the young woman no sin of death, because as if a human should rise up against his neighbor and murder his soul, so is this matter, because he found her in the field, the betrothed young woman cried out, and there was no one to help her.’ The matter of the history then, I think, will somehow need no word for some to be able to understand; for it is very clear and evident.
Greek
τὸ σφίσιν αὐτοῖς ἀνοητότατα δοκοῦν, πολυπλόκοις ἐννοιῶν ἀπάταις ἀποκομίζοντες, λῃστείας εἰκότως τῆς ἐπὶ ψυχαῖς ἀνθρώπων, ὑπομενοῦσι τὴν γραφήν· ποινὴ δὲ αὐτοῖς ὁ θάνατος. Τοῖς τοιούτοις, μηδὲ «Χαίρειν λέγετε,» φησὶ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ὁ μαθητὴς, οὐκ εἰς τρόπων ἡμᾶς ἀγριότητα παιδαγωγῶν, ἀλλ' ὅτι τῷ λύκῳ τὸ πρόβατον εἰς διαθέσεις οὐκ ἐπιτήδειον· ἀσύμβατα δὲ ὥσπερ ἀλλήλοιν, τὰ ἑτερογνωμονεῖν εἰωθότα· «Τίς γὰρ μερὶς πιστῷ μετὰ ἀπίστου;» Καὶ πρός γε δὴ τούτοις, τοῖς πόρνοις τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου μὴ συναναπλέκεσθαι δεῖν, ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος γράφει. Ἵνα τοίνυν μὴ καθάπερ ἐκ πατρῴας ἑστίας τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τοῦ Θεοῦ καθαρπάζοιντό τινες, καὶ εἰς ἐκκλησίας ἀποφέροιντο πονηρευομένων, ταῖς εἰς φαυλότητα παρατροπαῖς τὸν οἰκεῖον ὥσπερ καταπιπράσκοντες νοῦν, «Φθείρουσι γὰρ ἤθη χρηστὰ ὁμιλίαι κακαὶ,» θάνατον ὁρίζει τὴν δίκην ὁ νόμος τοῖς τοῦτο δρᾷν ἀνοσιώτατα προτεθυμημένοις. Ἴδοις δ' ἂν αὐτὸ πλαγίως ἡμῖν ὑποφαίνοντα πάλιν νόμον, καὶ δι' ἑτέρου χρησμῳδήματος. Καταρυθμίζει γὰρ ἐπὶ τὸ ἔχον ὀρθῶς τὰ ἐν κόσμῳ πράγματα, διὰ τῆς ἐμφανεστέρας καὶ ἑτοίμης ἑλεῖν τοῖς ἐθέλουσι θεωρίας. Οὐ γάρ τοι τὴν ἱστορίαν ἔν γε τοῖς ὅτι μάλιστα χρησίμοις ὡς ἕωλον ἀναιρήσομεν. Ὀνήσει γὰρ ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ γράμμα τοὺς ἀκροωμένους, ὠδίνει δὲ ὥσπερ ἐν βάθει τὰ πνευματικὰ, καὶ τῶν ἰσχνοτέρων ἐννοιῶν τὴν δύναμιν ὡς ἐν σκιαῖς ἔχει λεπταῖς. Ἔφη δὲ ἐν τῇ Ἐξόδῳ πάλιν· «Ἐὰν δέ τις ἀπατήσῃ παρθένον ἀμνήστευτον, καὶ κοιμηθῇ μετ' αὐτῆς, φερνῇ φερνιεῖ αὐτὴν ἑαυτῷ γυναῖκα. Ἐὰν δὲ ἀνανεύων ἀνανεύσῃ, καὶ μὴ βούληται ὁ πατὴρ αὐτῆς δοῦναι αὐτὴν αὐτῷ γυναῖκα, ἀργύριον ἀποτίσει τῷ πατρὶ καθ' ὅσον ἐστὶν ἡ φερνὴ τῶν παρθένων.» Ἀνευρύνων δὲ ὥσπερ ἡμῖν τὴν θείαν ἐντολὴν, ὁ θεσπέσιος Μωσῆς ἐν τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ φησίν· «Ἐὰν δὲ εὑρεθῇ ἄνθρωπος κοιμώμενος μετὰ γυναικὸς συνωκισμένης ἀνδρὶ, ἀποκτενεῖτε ἀμφοτέρους, τὸν ἄνδρα τὸν κοιμώμενον μετὰ τῆς γυναικὸς, καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα, καὶ ἐξαρεῖς τὸ πονηρὸν ἐξ υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ. Ἐὰν δὲ γένηται παρθένος μεμνηστευμένη ἀνδρὶ, καὶ εὑρὼν αὐτὴν ἄνθρωπος ἐν πόλει, κοιμηθῇ μετ' αὐτῆς, ἐξάξετε ἀμφοτέρους ἐπὶ τὴν πύλην τῆς πόλεως αὐτῶν, καὶ λιθοβοληθήσονται ἐν λίθοις, καὶ ἀποθανοῦνται· τὴν νεάνιν, ὅτι οὐκ ἐβόησεν ἐν τῇ πόλει, καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ὅτι ἐταπείνωσε τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ πλησίον αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐξαρεῖτε τὸ πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν. Ἐὰν δὲ ἐν πεδίῳ εὕρῃ ἄνθρωπος τὴν μεμνηστευμένην, καὶ βιασάμενος κοιμηθῇ μετ' αὐτῆς, ἀποκτενεῖτε τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τὸν κοιμώμενον μετ' αὐτῆς, μόνον· τῇ δὲ νεάνιδι ποιήσετε οὐδὲν, οὐκ ἔσται τῇ νεάνιδι ἁμάρτημα θανάτου, ὅτι ὡς εἴ τις ἐπαναστῇ ἄνθρωπος ἐπὶ τὸν πλησίον αὐτοῦ, καὶ φονεύσῃ αὐτοῦ τὴν ψυχήν, οὕτως τὸ πρᾶγμα τοῦτο, ὅτι ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ εὗρεν αὐτὴν, ἐβόησεν ἡ νεάνις ἡ μεμνηστευμένη, καὶ ὁ βοηθήσων οὐκ ἦν αὐτῇ.» Τὸ μὲν οὖν τῆς ἱστορίας, οὐδενὸς οἶμαί που δεήσεσθαι λόγου, πρὸς τὸ συνιέναι δύνασθαί τισι· σαφῆ γὰρ λίαν καὶ ἐναργῆ.
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.