Contra Julianum Of the blessed Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, an address to

 a fine thing for those who will encounter it, and for those who have a heart easily led astray and most readily carried away to things that are not fi

 1.1 Book One The wise and discerning, and those knowledgeable in the sacred doctrines, marvel at the beauty of the truth, and in every discourse have

 those after them would know the things of the first, and not rather those before them the things of the later Therefore, since the sons of the Hellen

 it was necessary to hide in the city of the Sun in Sippar. And Xisuthros, having accomplished these things, immediately sailed to Armenia, and straigh

 he made human affairs a preliminary exercise for more divine ones. Having brought the times down from Abraham to Moses, let us therefore begin here ag

 Azariah, also called Uzziah, governing the affairs of the Hebrews, and Arbaces of the Medes, and Proca Silvius of the Latins. 1.14 Therefore, from the

 coming together into a harmony of sound, Osirapis, so that in the same name Osiris and Apis might be understood. For both of these a death and a buria

 brought to them from Phoenicia, except that the things of Moses had been written And Solon, the discoverer of the laws in Athens, and indeed Plato hi

 stars and the elements of the world, fire and water, air and earth, from which all individual things are said to be composed but others again, having

 a time for the increase of what he had rightly learned sharpened his mind, then indeed, then he was taught the doctrines concerning the divinity more

 but the divine Abraham running up did not speak as to three: Lords, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant, but named the

 Upon the Sodomites who had sinned unbearably he sent the fire he rained, it says, upon Sodom fire and brimstone, the Lord from the Lord. 1.29 But to

 of nature and preeminence and worth would be reckoned both creator and creation, generated and ungenerated nature, incorruptible and under corruption,

 we are accustomed to grant the proper place, far from it but we also reckon ourselves among the children of Abraham. For we are the sons according to

 full of various counsels, and likewise that Leto suggests forgetfulness, and Hermes both memory and reason. Then he takes up natural philosophy and ex

 to them, and are some torn apart so as to think and say different things? But I would say, O excellent one, that those who were the first and earliest

 is, being a mixture of all the ages, and light of his own powers and works, the beginning of all things, a luminary in heaven, and father of all, mind

 Indeed, the sun which seems all-shining does not even seem to allow one to see himself, but if anyone gazes upon him shamelessly, he takes away his si

 what has been said by them concerning the Holy Spirit. For Porphyry says, setting forth the opinion of Plato, that the divine substance proceeded as f

 that not a few of the wise men among the Greeks, being self-willed, have gone astray, and have held opinions that rise up against each other, but ther

 found saying, setting this forth both in the middle and at the end, he would show that the arguments of his refutation were not, I suppose, produced i

 they set up their plot for the souls of the more simple. For they deceived those throughout all the earth, saying that the heaven and the other elemen

 having contrasted them with the Greeks' as being superior, how does he demand that we be silent, and make no mention at all of the things among them,

 Then do you think you have deliberated well, and not rather that you will suffer the very worst of all evil reputation? But if he should wish to under

 they reject certain foods, but they fear none of the strange things. And in addition to this they delight the supreme Zeus, having chosen to honor his

 belching forth according to what seems right to each, how could they not be thought to be guessers rather than men of knowledge of the truth? For some

 Of Plato. Consider, then, what he says about the creator and what words he puts in his mouth in the cosmogony, so that we may compare the cosmogony of

 distributed to all upon the earth, Moses was a helper and was shown to be an introducer of the most beautiful teachings to all, first by having cried

 it is not easy even for those who have known him to say he is capable in all things. And again, elsewhere: To this common conception of all men there

 the earth, and Apollo the sun and the golden-spindled, resounding one, that is Artemis, the moon? And simply applying to each of the things made by Go

 The supreme nature is understood and exists beyond all, beyond mind, reason, and wonder, having willed to make the living being like itself, as far as

 I will place upon you who are under me this commandment given to you through my Word for this law you have. For as I said just now, the Creator estab

 proclaimed, and thinks it a small thing to have been given by God to human nature to be made by Him in His image and likeness. And yet how would not a

 Did the Creator of all things entrust to other gods the necessity of laboring over the creation of the three kinds? From indolence, then, they might s

 it will campaign against His glory to think that others are also able to create and to call into existence the things that once were not for it is no

 of all nature. If, then, two things are acknowledged as existing, that which comes into being and that which makes, they are one by union, the one pre

 weave mortal to it? It is clear, then, that the demiurgic gods, having received creative power from their own father, generated the mortal animals upo

 of the ruling substances, and so he says: For Empedocles, Strife divides, and Friendship unites and this is also incorporeal for him, but the element

 of others, whatever things may have been made, and reaching even to the most insignificant of them. Is this not then a joke, tell me, and babbling hen

 if each one should need it, and showing that such a great and immeasurable creation is not without a superintendent, through which things it is well-o

 of God, and the earth his footstool. Rightly so, o noble one for I will recall God himself saying through one of the holy prophets. Heaven is my thro

Upon the Sodomites who had sinned unbearably he sent the fire; he rained, it says, upon Sodom fire and brimstone, the Lord from the Lord. 1.29 But to bring that also forward would be, I for my part would say, among the most profitable things for those who will encounter it. For it is written thus concerning the creation of man: And God said: Let us make man in our image and after our likeness, then after a little: And God made man, in the image of God he made him. For the Son is the image of God the Father, to whom we also are formed intellectually, and human nature is enriched with this special gift; for the beauty of the creator flashes forth in it. Then what would they say, those who oppose our arguments, and feign piety by confessing that God is one and only, but not that he has also begotten the Son from himself? To whom did God say: Let us make man in our image and after our likeness? Will one not reckon that the holy and consubstantial Trinity makes these statements to itself, as the all-wise Moses wished to show that the creation of man by God was not unconsidered, but almost honored even with deliberations? For the divine and pure mind would not have need of consideration or doubt and inquiry about anything whatsoever; for as soon as he has willed something, it is right and unexceptionable. But the nature of man has been honored, as I said, and as it were with certain deliberations. 1.30 But let us not pass over in silence the arguments of the godless. For they might perhaps say straightway to these things: For not, as you yourself think and deem fit to believe, did the Father speak to his own Word and to the Spirit, but to the secondary and lesser gods with him. And yet how is it not clear to all that even those accustomed to philosophize in the Greek manner seemed to confess one God, the creator of all things and by nature beyond all things, but that certain other gods, both intelligible and sensible, as they themselves say, have been made by him and brought into being? And so Plato says most clearly: Now in my opinion we must first distinguish what is that which always is and has no becoming, and what is that which is becoming, but never is. The one, then, is apprehended by knowledge with reason, being always the same, while the other is conceived by opinion with unreasoning sense, coming to be and passing away, but never really is. For "that which always is and has no becoming" he names the supreme nature and the one superior to having been made, I mean, that is, the God of all things who truly is; for so somewhere he himself says to the hierophant Moses: I am who am. But "that which is becoming, but never is," is that which was brought into existence from non-existence by some ineffable and incomprehensible power of the God who fashioned this universe. It is established then and has been shown by me very clearly, not from our sacred Scriptures alone but also through what they themselves have decided to think and to say, that all things were brought into being by God, and that he himself possesses a nature not connatural with the things that have come into being. For that which has been made is subordinate and is certainly somewhere in a lesser state by nature than the one who made it. 1.31 Since our argument about these things stands thus, what then do they say, those who have supposed that the God of all things said to other gods: Let us make man in our image and after our likeness? For if he willed to fashion the rational animal on earth in the image of the creatures, why does he introduce his own person with them, saying "Let us make" and "in our image"? But if indeed he deemed it necessary to be formed to his own and only most divine beauty, why does he admit the imitation of others, that is, the form, or however one might speak well concerning these things? For not in sameness

Σοδομίταις ἀφόρητα πεπλημμεληκόσιν ἐπηφίει τὸ πῦρ, ἔβρεξε, φησίν, ἐπὶ Σόδομα πῦρ καὶ θεῖον Κύριος παρὰ Κυρίου. 1.29 Ἀλλὰ γὰρ κἀκεῖνο εἰς μέσον παρενεγκεῖν οἶμαί που, φαίην ἂν ἔγωγε, τῶν ὅτι μάλιστα λυσιτελεστάτων τοῖς ἐντευξομένοις. Γέγραπται γὰρ ὡδὶ περὶ τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατασκευῆς· Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν, εἶτα μετὰ βραχέα· Καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, κατ' εἰκόνα Θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν. Εἰκὼν γάρ ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς ὁ Υἱός, πρὸς ὃν καὶ ἡμεῖς μεμορφώμεθα νοητῶς, καὶ τοῦτο ἐξαίρετον ἡ ἀνθρώπου φύσις πεπλούτηκε· ἐναστράπτει γὰρ αὐτῇ τὸ κάλλος τοῦ δημιουργήσαντος. Εἶτα τί φαῖεν ἂν οἱ τοῖς πρὸς ἡμῶν ἀντανιστάμενοι λόγοις, καὶ ὑποπλαττόμενοι μὲν τὴν εὐσέβειαν διά γε τοῦ συνομολογεῖν ὡς εἴη Θεὸς εἷς καὶ μόνος, οὐ μὴν ὅτι καὶ γεγέννηκεν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ τὸν Υἱόν; Πρὸς τίνας ἔφη ὁ Θεὸς· ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν; Ἆρ' οὐχὶ καταλογιεῖταί τις ὡς αὐτὴ πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἡ ἁγία τε καὶ ὁμοούσιος Τριὰς τοὺς περὶ τούτων λόγους ποιεῖται, οἷον οὐκ ἀκατάσκεπτον τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατασκευὴν γενέσθαι παρὰ Θεῷ καταδεῖξαι θελήσαντος τοῦ πανσόφου Μωσέως, μονονουχὶ δὲ καὶ προβουλίοις τετιμημένην; Σκέψεως μὲν γὰρ ἢ ἐνδοιασμοῦ καὶ ἐρεύνης τῆς ἐφ' ὁτῳοῦν οὐκ ἂν ὁ θεῖος καὶ ἀκήρατος δεηθείη νοῦς· ἅμα γάρ τι βεβούληται καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν ὀρθῶς καὶ ἀδιαβλήτως ἔχον. Τετίμηται δέ, ὡς ἔφην, καὶ οἷόν τισι προβουλίοις ἡ ἀνθρώπου φύσις. 1.30 Ἀλλὰ γὰρ μηδὲ τοὺς τῶν ἀθέων ἀποσιγήσωμεν λόγους. Φαῖεν γὰρ ἂν ἴσως πρὸς ταῦτα εὐθύς· Οὐ γάρ, ὥσπερ αὐτὸς οἴει καὶ φρονεῖν ἀξιοῖς, τῷ ἰδίῳ Λόγῳ καὶ τῷ Πνεύματι λελάληκεν ὁ Πατήρ, ἀλλὰ τοῖς μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ δευτέροις καὶ ἐν μείοσιν οὖσι θεοῖς. Καίτοι πῶς οὐχ ἅπασιν ἐναργὲς ὅτι καὶ τοῖς τὰ Ἑλλήνων φιλοσοφεῖν εἰωθόσιν ἕνα μὲν ἐδόκει Θεὸν εἶναι συνομολογεῖν τὸν τῶν ὅλων δημιουργὸν καὶ πάντων ἐπέκεινα κατὰ φύσιν, πεποιῆσθαι δὲ παρ' αὐτοῦ καὶ παρῆχθαι πρὸς γένεσιν ἑτέρους τινὰς θεούς, καθά φασιν αὐτοί, νοητούς τε καὶ αἰσθητούς; Καὶ γοῦν ἐναργέστατά φησιν ὁ Πλάτων· Ἔστιν οὖν κατ' ἐμὴν δόξαν διαιρετέον πρῶτον τί τὸ ὂν ἀεί, γένεσιν δὲ οὐκ ἔχον, καὶ τί τὸ γινόμενον, ὂν δὲ οὐδέποτε. Τὸ μὲν οὖν γνώσει μετὰ λόγου περιληπτόν, ἀεὶ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ ὄν, τὸ δὲ αὖ δόξῃ μετ' αἰσθήσεως ἀλόγου δοξαστόν, γινόμενον καὶ ἀπολλύμενον, ὂν δὲ οὐδέποτε. Ὂν μὲν γὰρ ἀεί, γένεσιν δὲ οὐκ ἔχον τὴν ὑπερτάτην καὶ τοῦ πεποιῆσθαι κρείττονα κατονομάζει φύσιν, φημὶ δὲ δὴ τὸν τῶν ὅλων καὶ ἀληθῶς ὄντα Θεόν· οὕτω γάρ που καὶ αὐτός φησι πρὸς τὸν ἱεροφάντην Μωσέα· Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν. Τὸ δὲ γινόμενον, ὂν δὲ οὐδέποτε, τὸ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος παρενεχθὲν εἰς ὕπαρξιν ἀρρήτῳ τινὶ καὶ ἀπερινοήτῳ δυνάμει τοῦ τόδε τὸ σύμπαν τεχνουργήσαντος Θεοῦ. Ἄραρεν οὖν ὅτι καί μοι λίαν δέδεικται σαφῶς, οὐκ ἐκ μόνων τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν ἱερῶν Γραμμάτων ἀλλὰ καὶ δι' ὧν αὐτοὶ καὶ φρονεῖν καὶ λέγειν ἐγνώκασιν, ὅτι πάντα παρήχθη παρὰ Θεοῦ πρὸς τὸ εἶναι, καὶ ἀσυμφυᾶ τοῖς γεγονόσιν αὐτὸς τὴν φύσιν ἀπεκληρώσατο. Ὑποκάθηται γὰρ καὶ ἔστι που πάντως ἐν μείοσι φυσικῶς τοῦ ποιοῦντος τὸ ποιηθέν. 1.31 Ἔχοντος δὲ οὕτως ἡμῖν τοῦ περὶ τούτων λόγου, τί δὴ ἄρα φασὶν οἱ θεοῖς ἑτέροις ὑποτοπήσαντες τὸν τῶν ὅλων φάναι Θεόν· Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν; Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ὡς πρὸς τὴν τῶν κτισμάτων εἰκόνα τὸ λογικὸν ἐπὶ γῆς ζῷον ἠθέλησε πλαστουργεῖν, τί τὸ οἰκεῖον αὐτοῖς συνεισκομίζει πρόσωπον, ποιήσωμεν λέγων καὶ κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν; Εἰ δὲ δὴ πρὸς τὸ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ μόνου θεοπρεπέστατον κάλλος διαμορφοῦσθαι δεῖν ἐδοκίμαζε, τί συνεισδέχεται τὴν ἑτέρων μίμησιν, ἤτοι τὸ εἶδος, ἢ ὅπωσπερ ἄν τις τὰ περὶ τούτων εὖ λέγοι; Οὐ γὰρ ἐν ταὐτότητι