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

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 sight. 1.45 That there is, therefore, one God by nature and in truth, above every mind and reason, incomprehensible, without form, life-giving, and the beginning of all things, unbegotten, incorruptible, the creator of all, has been clearly testified both by the divinely-inspired Scripture and through the voice of their own poets and prose-writers; and that they themselves have also known the Son begotten of Him by nature, His creative Word, we shall show through what they have written, by setting forth the passages concerning these things. For Porphyry says in the fourth book of his *History of Philosophy* that Plato spoke thus concerning the Good: from this, in a manner somehow inconceivable to men, came to be a Mind, both whole and subsisting in itself, in which indeed are the things that truly are and the entire essence of beings; Which indeed is also primarily beautiful and beautiful-in-itself, having the form of beauty from itself, it came forth before the ages, having proceeded from God its cause, being self-begotten and its own father. For its procession did not occur by that one being moved toward its generation, but by this one proceeding self-begottenly from God, proceeding not from a beginning in time—for time did not yet exist—nor when time came into being is time anything in relation to it; for Mind is always timeless and alone eternal. And just as the first God is one and alone always, even if all things come from him, because they cannot be numbered with these nor can their worth be ranked with his existence, so also the Mind, being alone eternal and having subsisted timelessly, is itself time for things in time, while remaining in the sameness of its own eternal subsistence. 1.46 And indeed Orpheus, in turn, says somewhere thus: I adjure you, Heaven, the wise work of the great God; I adjure you, Voice of the Father, which he first uttered, when he established the whole cosmos by his own counsels. And by 'the Voice of the Father which he first uttered' he means his only-begotten Word, always co-existing with the Father; for there was no time when God the Father could be conceived as existing without His own Word; and at the same time he declared that God is the creator of all things. And Hermes Trismegistus speaks thus concerning God. For his Word, having come forth, being all-perfect and fruitful and creative, falling upon a fruitful nature upon fruitful water, made the water pregnant. And the same author again: The pyramid, he says, therefore, underlying nature and the intelligible cosmos; for it has as its ruler set over it the creative Word of the master of all, who after that one is the first power, unbegotten, infinite, having proceeded from that one, and is set over and rules the things created through him, and he is the progenitor of the all-perfect, and the perfect and fruitful genuine Son. And again the same author, as when one of the priests in Egypt asked and said: Why, O greatest good spirit, was he called by this name by the Lord of all? he says: I also said in the things before, but you did not understand. The nature of his intelligible Word is a generative and creative nature; call this as you wish, either his generation, or nature, or custom, or whatever you wish to call it, understanding only this, that he is perfect in the perfect, and from the perfect works and creates and gives life to perfect goods. Since, therefore, he has such a nature, he has been well named thus. And the same author, in the first discourse of his *Expositions to Tat*, speaks thus concerning God: The Word of the creator, O child, is eternal, self-moved, without increase, without decrease, unchangeable, incorruptible, alone, always like himself, and is equal and uniform, stable, well-ordered, being one with the foreknown God; and he means, I think, through this at any rate, the Father. 1.47 These things, then, are sufficient for a most complete demonstration that they themselves also have conceived of the only-begotten Word of God. But I think it is necessary to add to what I have said also the things

μὴν ὁ παμφαὴς δοκῶν εἶναι ἥλιος οὐδὲ οὗτος ἔοικεν ὁρᾶν ἑαυτὸν ἐπιτρέπειν, ἀλλ' ἤν τις ἀναιδῶς αὐτὸν θεάσηται, τὴν ὄψιν ἀφαιρεῖται. 1.45 Εἷς μὲν οὖν ὅτι Θεὸς κατὰ φύσιν τε καὶ ἀληθῶς ἔστι, παντὸς ἀνωτάτω νοῦ καὶ λόγου, ἀκατάληπτος, ἀνείδεος, ζωοποιός, καὶ παντὸς ἀρχή, ἀγέννητος, ἄφθαρτος, γενεσιουργὸς τῶν ὅλων, μεμαρτύρηται σαφῶς παρά τε τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς καὶ διὰ φωνῆς τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς ποιητῶν καὶ λογογράφων· ὅτι δὲ τὸν ἐξ αὐτοῦ κατὰ φύσιν γεννηθέντα Υἱόν, τὸν δημιουργὸν αὐτοῦ Λόγον, ἐγνώκασι καὶ αὐτοί, δι' ὧν γεγράφασιν ἐπιδείξομεν, παραθέντες τὰς περὶ τούτων χρήσεις. Φησὶ γὰρ ὁ Πορφύριος ἐν τετάρτῳ βιβλίῳ Φιλοσόφου ἱστορίας ὡς εἰπόντος Πλάτωνος περὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ οὕτως· ἀπὸ δὲ τούτου τρόπον τινὰ ἀνθρώποις ἀνεπινόητον νοῦν γενέσθαι τε ὅλον καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὸν ὑφεστῶτα, ἐν ᾧ δὴ τὰ ὄντως ὄντα καὶ ἡ πᾶσα οὐσία τῶν ὄντων · Ὃ δὴ καὶ πρώτως καλὸν καὶ αὐτοκαλὸν παρ' ἑαυτοῦ τῆς καλλονῆς ἔχον τὸ εἶδος, προῆλθε προαιώνιος ἀπ' αἰτίου τοῦ Θεοῦ ὡρμημένος, αὐτογέννητος ὢν καὶ αὐτοπάτωρ. Οὐ γὰρ ἐκείνου κινουμένου πρὸς γένεσιν τὴν τούτου ἡ πρόοδος γέγονεν, ἀλλὰ τούτου παρελθόντος αὐτογόνως ἐκ Θεοῦ, παρελθόντος δὲ οὐκ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς χρονικῆς οὔπω γὰρ χρόνος ἦν , ἀλλ' οὐδὲ χρόνου γενομένου πρὸς αὐτόν ἐστί τι ὁ χρόνος· ἄχρονος γὰρ ἀεὶ καὶ μόνος αἰώνιος ὁ νοῦς. Ὥσπερ δὲ ὁ Θεὸς ὁ πρῶτος εἷς καὶ μόνος ἀεί, κἂν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ γένηται τὰ πάντα, τῷ μὴ τούτοις συναριθμεῖσθαι μηδὲ τὴν ἀξίαν αὐτῶν συγκατατάττεσθαι δύνασθαι τῇ ἐκείνου ὑπάρξει, οὕτω καὶ ὁ νοῦς αἰώνιος μόνος καὶ ἀχρόνως ὑποστάς, καὶ τῶν ἐν χρόνῳ αὐτὸς χρόνος ἐστίν, ἐν ταὐτότητι μένων τῆς ἑαυτοῦ αἰωνίας ὑποστάσεως. 1.46 Καὶ μὴν καὶ Ὀρφεὺς αὖθις οὕτω πού φησι· Οὐρανὸν ὁρκίζω σε Θεοῦ μεγάλου σοφὸν ἔργον· αὐδὴν ὁρκίζω σε Πατρός, ἣν φθέγξατο πρώτην, ἡνίκα κόσμον ἅπαντα ἑαῖς στηρίξατο βουλαῖς. Αὐδὴν δὲ Πατρὸς ἣν φθέγξατο πρώτην τὸν μονογενῆ Λόγον αὐτοῦ φησιν, ἀεὶ συνυπάρχοντα τῷ Πατρί· οὐ γὰρ ἦν χρόνος ὅτε δίχα Λόγου τοῦ ἰδίου νοοῖτ' ἂν ὑπάρχων ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Πατήρ· ἐν ταὐτῷ δὲ καὶ τῶν ὅλων δημιουργὸν ἀπέφηνεν ὄντα Θεόν. Ὁ δὲ Τρισμέγιστος Ἑρμῆς οὕτω φθέγγεται περὶ Θεοῦ. Ὁ γὰρ Λόγος αὐτοῦ προελθών, παντέλειος ὢν καὶ γόνιμος, καὶ δημιουργός, ἐν γονίμῳ φύσει πεσὼν ἐπὶ γονίμῳ ὕδατι ἔγκυον τὸ ὕδωρ ἐποίησε. Καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς αὖθις· Ἡ οὖν πυραμίς, φησίν, ὑποκειμένη τῇ φύσει καὶ τῷ νοερῷ κόσμῳ· ἔχει γὰρ ἄρχοντα ἐπικείμενον τὸν δημιουργὸν Λόγον τοῦ πάντων δεσπότου, ὃς μετ' ἐκεῖνον πρώτη δύναμις, ἀγέννητος, ἀπέραντος, ἐξ ἐκείνου προκύψασα καὶ ἐπίκειται καὶ ἄρχει τῶν δι' αὐτοῦ δημιουργηθέντων, ἔστι δὲ τοῦ παντελείου πρόγονος καὶ τέλειος καὶ γόνιμος γνήσιος Υἱός. Καὶ πάλιν ὁ αὐτός ὡς ἐρομένου τινὸς τῶν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τεμενιτῶν καὶ λέγοντος· ∆ιὰ τί δέ, ὦ μέγιστε ἀγαθὸς δαίμων, τούτῳ τῷ ὀνόματι ἐκλήθη ἀπὸ τοῦ πάντων Κυρίου; φησί· Καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν εἶπον, σὺ δὲ οὐ συνῆκας. Φύσις τοῦ νοεροῦ αὐτοῦ Λόγου φύσις ἐστὶ γεννητικὴ καὶ δημιουργητική· τοῦτο ὥσπερ αὐτοῦ ἢ γέννησις, ἢ φύσις, ἢ ἔθος, ἢ ὃ θέλεις αὐτὸ καλεῖν κάλει, τοῦτο μόνον νοῶν ὅτι τέλειός ἐστιν ἐν τελείῳ, καὶ ἀπὸ τελείου τέλεια ἀγαθὰ ἐργάζεται καὶ δημιουργεῖ καὶ ζωοποιεῖ. Ἐπειδὴ οὖν τοιαύτης ἔχεται φύσεως, καλῶς τοῦτο προσηγόρευται. Καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς ἐν λόγῳ πρώτῳ τῶν Πρὸς τὸν Τὰτ διεξοδικῶν οὕτω λέγει περὶ Θεοῦ· Ὁ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ Λόγος, ὦ τέκνον, ἀΐδιος, αὐτοκίνητος, ἀναυξής, ἀμείωτος, ἀμετάβλητος, ἄφθαρτος, μόνος, ἀεὶ ἑαυτῷ ὅμοιός ἐστιν, ἴσος δὲ καὶ ὁμαλός, εὐσταθής, εὔτακτος, εἷς ὢν μετὰ τὸν προεγνωσμένον Θεόν· σημαίνει δέ, οἶμαι, διά γε τουτουὶ τὸν Πατέρα. 1.47 Ἀπόχρη μὲν οὖν ταυτὶ πρὸς ἐντελεστάτην ἀπόδειξιν τοῦ, ὅτι τὸν μονογενῆ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον ἐννενοήκασι καὶ αὐτοί. ∆εῖν δὲ οἶμαι οἷς ἔφην προσεπενεγκεῖν καὶ τὰ