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

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 teachers of our sacred doctrines all agree with one another, and those in the middle and the last are in accord with the first. For Moses has not thought different things, and those after him have not taught things that conflict with his, but there is one account of God from all, as I said, down to the holy apostles and evangelists. 1.40 For all confess one God who is over all and through all and in all, both without beginning and eternal, unbegotten, incorruptible, life and life-giving, maker of both heaven and earth, and in sum, of all things in them. But if indeed any of those after them, not understanding their teachings, have missed the truth, the charge of having gone astray will, according to right reason, attach not to them, but to these. If then the inventors of their own inherent foolishness, and who have become teachers of impious doctrines, have agreed with one another's opinions, let them show it and I will cease. But if the first ones themselves are both different and hold different opinions from one another, how is it not clear to all that they walk outside the straight path, and have gone astray? For if one should wish to learn very well the account that is both correct and unadulterated concerning the God who is beyond all things, whose opinion should he receive and not miss the mark? For Thales and Anaximander, and others whom we have just mentioned, would be caught having babbled in vain. But Pythagoras and Plato, having spent time in Egypt and having encountered many people there, since they were indeed most eager to learn and fond of inquiry, were not ignorant of the virtue of Moses; for the things concerning him were a matter of no small wonder to the Egyptians. From there, I think, having learned the account concerning God not unskillfully, they held opinions and indeed chose to think about him somewhat more reasonably than the others. And we will also find some of those in Athens agreeing with what was held by them to be correct. 1.41 And I think it is necessary to deem worthy of mention and memory the Egyptian Hermes, whom they say was also named Thrice-Greatest, since those of that time honored him and, as it seems to some, compared him to the one mythologized to have been born of Zeus and Maia; this Hermes of Egypt, therefore, although he was an initiator of mysteries and always frequented the precincts of the idols, is found to have held the views of Moses, even if not entirely correctly and irreproachably, but at least in part; for he too has benefited. And the one who composed in Athens the fifteen books called Hermetica has also made mention of him in his own writings; and he writes thus in the first one about him, and he has introduced one of the priests saying: So that we may come to similar things, do you not hear that our Hermes too divided all of Egypt into lots and portions, measuring the fields with a rope, and cut canals for irrigation, and established laws, and named the districts after them, and arranged the exchanges of contracts, and recently produced a catalogue of the rising of the stars, and classified herbs, and furthermore, having discovered all numbers and calculations and geometry, astronomy and astrology, and music and grammar, handed them down. I will therefore make an account of the opinions of each one, and I will also mention others who obtained a not unadmired name among them for their learning; and I say that it is necessary for those who will encounter this to approach what has been written with a great love of learning rather than being at all fastidious. 1.42 Pythagoras, at any rate, says: God is one, but he is not, as some suppose, outside the ordering of the world, but in it, whole in the whole circle, watching over all generations

αὐτοῖς, καὶ κατασχίζονταί τινες εἰς τὸ ἕτερά τε καὶ ἕτερα φρονεῖν καὶ λέγειν; Ἀλλ' οἵ γε, ὦ βέλτιστε, φαίην ἄν τῶν ἱερῶν ἡμῖν δογμάτων πρῶτοί τε καὶ ἐν ἀρχαῖς διδάσκαλοι γεγονότες ὁμολογοῦσιν ἀλλήλοις ἅπαντες, καὶ τοῖς πρώτοις συμβαίνουσιν οἱ διὰ μέσου καὶ τελευταῖοι. Οὐ γὰρ ἕτερα ὁ Μωσῆς πεφρόνηκεν, οἱ δὲ μετ' αὐτὸν μαχόμενα τοῖς αὐτοῦ δεδιδάχασιν, ἀλλ' εἷς, ὡς ἔφην, παρὰ πάντων περὶ Θεοῦ λόγος μέχρι τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων καὶ εὐαγγελιστῶν. 1.40 Ἕνα γὰρ πάντες ὁμολογοῦσι τὸν ἐπὶ πάντας καὶ διὰ πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσι Θεόν, ἄναρχόν τε καὶ ἀΐδιον, ἀγέννητον, ἄφθαρτον, ζωὴν καὶ ζωοποιόν, οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ γῆς ποιητὴν καὶ συλλήβδην ἁπάντων τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς. Εἰ δὲ δή τινες τῶν μετ' ἐκείνους, οὐ συνέντες τὰ αὐτῶν, διημαρτήκασι τἀληθοῦ, οὐκ ἐκείνοις μᾶλλον, ἕψεται δὲ τούτοις κατά γε τὸν ὀρθῶς ἔχοντα λογισμὸν ἡ τοῦ πεπλανῆσθαι γραφή. Εἰ μὲν οὖν οἱ τῆς ἐνούσης αὐτοῖς ἀβελτηρίας εὑρεταὶ καὶ τῶν ἀνοσίων δογμάτων καθηγηταὶ γεγονότες ταῖς ἀλλήλων συνηνέχθησαν δόξαις, δεικνύτωσαν καὶ πεπαύσομαι. Εἰ δὲ αὐτοὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους οἱ πρῶτοι διάφοροί τέ εἰσι καὶ ἑτερογνώμονες, πῶς οὐχ ἅπασιν ἐναργὲς ὡς ἔξω βαίνουσιν τρίβου τῆς ἐπ' εὐθύ, καὶ πεπλάνηνται; Εἰ γὰρ δὴ βούλοιτό τις εὖ μάλα διαμαθεῖν τὸν ὀρθῶς τε καὶ ἀκιβδήλως ἔχοντα λόγον περὶ τοῦ πάντων ἐπέκεινα Θεοῦ, τὴν τίνος ἂν εἰσδέξηται δόξαν καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἁμάρτοι σκοποῦ; Θάλης μὲν γὰρ καὶ Ἀναξίμανδρος, ἕτεροί τε ὧν ἀρτίως διεμνημονεύσαμεν, εἰκῆ πεφλυαρηκότες ἁλοῖεν ἄν. Πυθαγόρας δὲ καὶ Πλάτων, διατετριφότες ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ πολλοῖς τοῖς αὐτόθι περιτυγχάνοντες, ἅτε δὴ φιλομαθεστάτω τε ὄντε καὶ φιλοΐστορε, οὐκ ἠγνοησάτην τὴν Μωσέως ἀρετήν· ἦν γὰρ Αἰγυπτίοις τὰ κατ' αὐτὸν οὐκ ἐν μετρίῳ θαύματι. Ἐντεῦθεν οἶμαι τὸν περὶ Θεοῦ λόγον οὐκ ἀκόμψως ἐκμεμαθηκότας ἐπιεικέστερόν πως παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ δοξάσαι καὶ μὴν καὶ ἑλέσθαι φρονεῖν. Εὑρήσομεν δὲ καὶ τῶν Ἀθήνησί τινας τοῖς παρ' αὐτῶν εὖ ἔχειν ὑπειλημμένοις συνενηνεγμένους. 1.41 Οἶμαι δὲ δεῖν ἀξιῶσαι λόγου καὶ μνήμης τὸν Αἰγύπτιον Ἑρμῆν, ὃν δὴ καὶ Τρισμέγιστον ὠνομάσθαι φασί, τετιμηκότων αὐτὸν τῶν κατ' ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ καί, καθά τισι δοκεῖ, τῷ ἐκ ∆ιὸς καὶ Μαίας μυθολογουμένῳ γενέσθαι παρεικαζόντων αὐτόν· οὑτοσὶ τοιγαροῦν ὁ κατ' Αἴγυπτον Ἑρμῆς, καίτοι τελεστὴς ὢν καὶ τοῖς τῶν εἰδώλων τεμένεσι προσιζήσας ἀεί, πεφρονηκὼς εὑρίσκεται τὰ Μωσέως, εἰ καὶ μὴ εἰς ἅπαν ὀρθῶς καὶ ἀνεπιλήπτως, ἀλλ' οὖν ἐκ μέρους· ὠφέληται γὰρ καὶ αὐτός. Πεποίηται δὲ καὶ τούτου μνήμην ἐν ἰδίαις συγγραφαῖς ὁ συντεθεικὼς Ἀθήνησι τὰ ἐπίκλην Ἑρμαϊκὰ πεντεκαίδεκα βιβλία· γράφει δὲ οὕτως ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ περὶ αὐτοῦ, εἰσκεκόμικε δέ τινα τῶν ἱερουργῶν λέγοντα· Ἵν' οὖν ἔλθωμεν εἰς τὰς ὁμοίας, ἆρ' οὐχὶ καὶ τὸν ἡμέτερον Ἑρμῆν ἀκούεις τήν τε Αἴγυπτον εἰς λῆξιν καὶ κληροὺς ἅπασαν τεμεῖν, σχοίνῳ τὰς ἀρούρας καταμετροῦντα, καὶ διώρυχας τεμέσθαι ταῖς ἐπαρδεύσεσι, καὶ νομοὺς θεῖναι, καὶ τὰς χώρας ἀπ' αὐτῶν προσειπεῖν, καὶ καταστήσασθαι τὰς συναλλάξεις τῶν συμβολαίων, καὶ νεωστὶ φύσασθαι κατάλογον τῆς τῶν ἄστρων ἐπιτολῆς, καὶ βοτάνας τεμεῖν, καὶ πρός γε ἀριθμοὺς καὶ λογισμοὺς καὶ γεωμετρίαν ἀστρονομίαν τε καὶ ἀστρολογίαν, καὶ τὴν μουσικὴν καὶ τὴν γραμματικὴν ἅπασαν εὑρόντα παραδοῦναι. Ποιήσομαι τοίνυν τῶν ἑκάστου δοξῶν τὴν ἀφήγησιν, μεμνήσομαι δὲ καὶ ἑτέρων οὐκ ἀθαύμαστον παρ' αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ παιδείᾳ λαχόντων ὄνομα· χρῆναι δέ φημι τοὺς ἐντευξομένους φιλομαθέστατα μᾶλλον ἢ γοῦν ἁψικόρως ἔχοντας τοῖς γεγραμμένοις προσβαλεῖν. 1.42 Πυθαγόρας γοῦν φησιν· Ὁ μὲν θεὸς εἶς, αὐτὸς δὲ οὐχ ὥς τινες ὑπονοοῦσιν ἐκτὸς τᾶς διακοσμήσιος, ἀλλ' ἐν αὐτῷ ὅλος ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ κύκλῳ ἐπισκοπῶν πάσας γενεάς