Soul wed to Christ; betrothed = catechumen; city vs field begins
Cyril: But we must, as it seems, having set these aside for the present, go the inward and hidden path.
Palladius: Very much so.
Cyril: I say then that just as among wrongs unto a woman the most grievous of all would be adultery, undoing another’s marriage and making a divorce of those already joined, in the same way, I think, among charges unto human souls the most impious and most unbearable of all is to practice the corruption not simply unto any chance soul, but unto the one already somehow cohabiting and united to Christ, the bridegroom from above and from heaven; for we are united to him both through the faith and further through having a share of holy Spirit; ‘For the one clinging to the Lord is one spirit,’ according to the Scriptures. So the law justly honors with death together with the adulterer also the woman who has fornicated—him as putting in the seeds of the impiety present in him, and her because, dishonoring the law of genuineness, she has become another’s, and opening her mind to his corruptions she received the pollution from human inventions.
Palladius: The word is persuasive.
Cyril: To a woman then, cohabiting with a husband according to laws, one must very well liken the soul cohabiting and united to Christ through faith and Spirit. And we will reckon as a betrothed virgin the one called unto beginnings of true knowledge, not yet wholly united to Christ, and still awaiting as somehow a marriage and a truer mode of joining the grace through holy baptism and the participation of the holy Spirit, having received as earnest and as beginning of converse the word of catechesis. Thus our divine mystagogue—Paul this is—brought the Church from the nations to Christ; for he writes thus: ‘For I betrothed you to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ.’ And the Bridegroom himself somehow says through a voice of prophets: ‘And I will betroth you to myself unto the age, in righteousness and in judgment and in mercy and in compassions; and I will betroth you in faith, and you will know the Lord.’ If then the charges of the corruption should come about, he says, also upon some such soul, let the matter be written as adultery; for the betrothed woman is under obligation, and already under the hand of the bridegroom after a little. But if the wrong should come about in a city, he says—that is, either in Christ’s Church, and in the city of the living God, which angels and holy men inhabit, leaders and teachers able to help those in danger and being deceived—let the suffering virgin also die together with the deceiver. For it being possible readily to flee the corruption, if she had reported to the teachers who know how to save, she sickened the suffering as voluntary, and does not have the leading-away unto the base from necessity. And if it should not come about, he says, in Church, nor in
Greek
Δεῖ δὲ ἡμᾶς, ὡς ἔοικε, ταυτὶ μεθέντας εἰς τὸ παρὸν, τὴν ἔσω τε καὶ κεκρυμμένην ἰέναι τρίβον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Φημὶ δὴ οὖν, ὅτι ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς εἰς γυναῖκα πλημμελήμασι, τὸ πάντων ἂν εἴη παγχάλεπον, ἡ μοιχεία, τὸν ἑτέρου τινὸς παραλύουσα γάμον, καὶ τῶν ἤδη συνημμένων ποιοῦσα διάζευξιν, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν, οἶμαι, τουτονὶ τρόπον, τῶν εἰς ἀνθρωπίνας ψυχὰς αἰτιαμάτων, τὸ πάντων μάλιστά ἐστι δυσσεβέστερόν τε καὶ ἀφορητότερον, τὸ ἐπιτηδεῦσαι τὴν παραφθορὰν, οὐκ εἰς τὴν τυχοῦσαν ἁπλῶς, ἀλλὰ εἰς τὴν ἤδη τρόπον τινὰ συνῳκισμένην καὶ ἑνωθεῖσαν Χριστῷ, τῷ ἄνωθέν τε καὶ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ νυμφίῳ· ἑνούμεθα γὰρ αὐτῷ διά τε τῆς πίστεως, καὶ προσέτι, τοῦ μεταλαχεῖν ἁγίου Πνεύματος· «Ὁ γὰρ κολλώμενος τῷ Κυρίῳ, ἓν πνεῦμά ἐστι,» κατὰ τὰς Γραφάς. Θανάτῳ δὴ οὖν ὁ νόμος τιμᾶται δικαίως ὁμοῦ τῷ μοιχεύσαντι τὴν πεπορνευμένην, καὶ τὸν μὲν ὡς ἐνιέντα τῆς ἐνούσης αὐτῷ δυσσεβείας τὰ σπέρματα, τὴν δὲ, ὅτι τὸν τῆς γνησιότητος ἀτιμάζουσα νόμον, ἑτέρῳ γέγονε, καὶ ταῖς ἐκείνου παραφθοραῖς ἁπλοῦσα τὸν νοῦν, τὸν ἐξ ἀνθρωπίνων εὑρημάτων εἰσεδέξατο μολυσμόν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πιθανὸς ὁ λόγος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Γυναικὶ μὲν οὖν, ἀνδρὶ κατὰ νόμους συνωκισμένῃ, παρεικαστέον εὖ μάλα τὴν διὰ πίστεώς τε καὶ Πνεύματος Χριστῷ συνῳκισμένην καὶ ἑνωθεῖσαν ψυχήν. Παρθένον δὲ εἶναι μεμνηστευμένην λογιούμεθα, τὴν κεκλημένην εἰς ἀρχὰς γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς, οὔπω δὲ ὁλοτελῶς ἑνωθεῖσαν Χριστῷ, περιμένουσάν τε ἔτι καθάπερ τινὰ γάμον καὶ συναφείας τρόπον τὸν ἀληθέστερον, τὴν διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος χάριν, καὶ τὴν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος μέθεξιν, ἀῤῥαβῶνά γε μὴν, καὶ ὁμιλίας ὥσπερ ἀρχὴν, τὸν τῆς κατηχήσεως λόγον εἰσδεδεγμένην. Οὕτω τὴν ἐξ ἐθνῶν Ἐκκλησίαν ὁ θεῖος ἡμῖν μυσταγωγὸς, Παῦλος δὲ οὗτος, παρεκόμισε τῷ Χριστῷ· γράφει γὰρ ὧδε· «Ἡρμοσάμην γὰρ ὑμᾶς ἑνὶ ἀνδρὶ, παρθένον ἁγνὴν παραστῆσαι τῷ Χριστῷ.» Καὶ αὐτὸς δέ πού φησιν ὁ Νυμφίος διὰ φωνῆς προφητῶν· «Καὶ μνηστεύσομαί σε ἐμαυτῷ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, καὶ ἐν κρίματι, καὶ ἐν ἐλέῳ, καὶ ἐν οἰκτιρμοῖς· καὶ μνηστεύσομαί σε ἐν πίστει, καὶ ἐπιγνώσῃ τὸν Κύριον.» Εἰ τοίνυν γένοιτο, φησὶ, τῆς παραφθορᾶς τὰ ἐγκλήματα, καὶ ἐπί τινι τοιᾷδε ψυχῇ, μοιχείᾳ γεγράφθω τὸ χρῆμα· ὑπόχρεως γὰρ ἡ μεμνηστευμένη, καὶ ὑπὸ χεῖρα λοιπὸν τοῦ μετὰ βραχὺ νυμφίου. Ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν ἐν πόλει γένοιτο τὸ ἀδίκημα, φησὶ, τουτέστιν, ἢ ἐν Ἐκκλησίᾳ Χριστοῦ, καὶ ἐν πόλει Θεοῦ ζῶντος, ἣν κατοικοῦσιν ἄγγελοι, καὶ ἄνδρες ἅγιοι, καθηγηταὶ καὶ διδάσκαλοι τοῖς κινδυνεύουσι, καὶ ἀπατωμένοις ἐπαμύνειν οἷοί τε, συναποτεθνάτω τῷ φένακι καὶ ἡ παθοῦσα παρθένος. Ἐξὸν γὰρ ἑτοίμως διαδράναι τὴν παραφθορὰν, εἰ τοῖς διασώζειν εἰδόσι καταμεμήνυκε διδασκάλοις, ἐθελούσιον ἠῤῥώστησε τὸ παθεῖν, καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἔχει τὴν εἰς τὸ φαῦλον ἀπαγωγήν. Εἰ δὲ δὴ μὴ γένοιτο, φησὶν, ἐν Ἐκκλησίᾳ, μηδὲ 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.