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

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 understand the truest reason why we have abandoned the things of the Greeks and have honored those of the Hebrews, taking his own words, we say. For he spoke thus: 2.11 {JULIAN} Therefore the Greeks for their part fabricated myths about the gods that were incredible and monstrous (for they said that Cronus swallowed his children, and then vomited them up again) and even unlawful marriages; for Zeus lay with his mother, and having begotten a child by her, he himself married his own daughter—or rather he did not even marry his own daughter himself, but having simply lain with her he gave her to another; then the dismemberment of Dionysus and the joining together of his limbs. Such things the myths of the Greeks say. {CYRIL} From this you have a sufficient defense. Are you therefore at a loss as to why you see fit to censure us, because we have all but kicked away the so shameful and incredible idle talk of the Greeks and given the better vote to the things that are true? For the divine Moses, and furthermore the choir of the holy prophets, and the apostles and evangelists, glorify the one God who is so by nature and in truth, and they persuade us to be so disposed, leading us away from myths and all manner of monstrosity and shameful thought, and ordering us into a life worthy of admiration. But nothing among them is fabricated, nor does the expression of their thoughts have anything incredible. For that our affairs are consistent with the proclamations of Moses and the holy prophets, and that the power of the evangelical and apostolic teaching agrees with the thoughts of those who came before, our argument will clearly show in due time. 2.12 Since, saying I know not what, he insists that there is nothing serious or good among us, come, let him prove this too; for let him not make his accusation bare and unproven. For how is it that there is nothing serious among us? Is not the account of God and of the creation of the world found among Christians to be precise and polished? Have we not been furnished from the sacred Writings with a knowledge of what should be done that is irreproachable and blameless? And yet how is it not plain to all that to philosophize in the best way would be rightly achieved in no other manner, I think? For theoretical and, in addition to this, practical philosophy would be full of all praise, and is admired even by those who have been zealous for the things of the Greeks; therefore it is not from the opinion of the Hebrews that we have learned atheism (for he himself said this too), but if anyone should wish to speak the truth, it is from the divinely inspired Scripture that we have condemned the ignorance of the Greeks. And how would it not be clear to everyone that godlessness is rather among them, who do not know the one God who is so by nature and in truth? But he says that we have chosen a base and dissolute life from the idleness among them, calling it Greek vulgarity and idleness to eat dainties indiscriminately and to refuse none of the foods. For in this especially they represent the power of piety and think that they are in a good state of all virtue, if indeed they should abstain from certain foods. 2.13 And yet why do they define the manner of purity in these things? For all things have come from God, and the things from the Good are altogether good; and the all-holy and unprofaned one would do none of the things which are wont to defile us. For what would food produce in those who have partaken of it? Or what sort of pollution would it introduce to them? But it is fitting, I think, to abstain from those things through which one might reasonably be defiled, and the ways of baseness would do this quite generally: adulteries, fornications, slanders, lies, false accusations, avarice, and the rest. But they, taking no account of such things, pretend to eat little, and sometimes even of the

εἶτα οἴει βεβουλεῦσθαι καλῶς καὶ οὐχὶ δὴ μᾶλλον τὴν ἁπασῶν ἐσχάτην ὑπομεῖναι κακοδοξίαν; Εἰ δὲ δὴ βούλοιτο νοεῖν τὴν ἀληθεστάτην αἰτίαν ἐφ' ᾗ τὰ Ἑλλήνων ἀφέντες τὰ παρὰ τοῖς Ἑβραίοις τετιμήκαμεν, τὰ αὐτοῦ λαβόντες φαμέν. Ἔφη γὰρ οὕτως· 2.11 {ΙΟΥΛΙΑΝΟΣ} Οὐκοῦν Ἕλληνες μὲν τοὺς μύθους ἔπλασαν ὑπὲρ τῶν θεῶν ἀπίστους καὶ τερατώδεις (καταπιεῖν γὰρ ἔφασαν τὸν Κρόνον τοὺς παῖδας, εἶτ' αὖθις ἐμέσαι) καὶ γάμους ἤδη παρανόμους· μητρὶ γὰρ ὁ Ζεὺς ἐμίχθη, καὶ παιδοποιησάμενος ἐξ αὐτῆς, ἔγημε μὲν αὐτὸς τὴν αὑτοῦ θυγατέρα μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ἔγημεν αὐτὸς τὴν αὑτοῦ θυγατέρα, ἀλλὰ μιχθεὶς ἁπλῶς ἄλλῳ παρέδωκεν αὐτήν· εἶτα οἱ ∆ιονύσου σπαραγμοὶ καὶ μελῶν κολλήσεις. Τοιαῦτα οἱ μῦθοι τῶν Ἑλλήνων φασί. {ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΣ} Ἔχεις ἀποχρῶσαν ἐντεῦθεν τὴν ἀπολογίαν. Ἀλύεις δὴ οὖν ἀνθ' ὅτου καὶ ἡμᾶς εὐθύνειν ἀξιοῖς, ὅτι τὴν οὕτως αἰσχρὰν καὶ ἀπίθανον τῶν Ἑλλήνων εἰκαιομυθίαν μονονουχὶ καὶ διαλακτίσαντες τὴν ἀμείνω ψῆφον τοῖς ἀληθέσι δεδώκαμεν; Μωσῆς μὲν γὰρ ὁ θεσπέσιος, καὶ προσέτι τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν ὁ χορός, ἀπόστολοί τε καὶ εὐαγγελισταί, τὸν ἕνα καὶ φύσει καὶ ἀληθῶς δοξολογοῦσι Θεόν, διακεῖσθαί τε οὕτω καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀναπείθουσιν, ἀποφέροντες τῶν μύθων καὶ τερατείας ἁπάσης καὶ φρονήματος αἰσχροῦ, καταρρυθμίζοντες δὲ καὶ εἰς ἀξιάγαστον πολιτείαν. Πέπλασται δὲ τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς οὐδέν, οὔτε μὴν ἀπίθανον ἔχει τῶν ἐννοιῶν τὴν ἀπόδοσιν. Ὅτι γὰρ τοῖς Μωσέως καὶ τοῖς τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν κηρύγμασι συμβαίνει τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς, καὶ τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς τε καὶ ἀποστολικῆς διδασκαλίας ἡ δύναμις ταῖς τῶν προλαβόντων ἐννοίαις συμφέρεται, διαδείξει σαφῶς ὁ λόγος ἡμῖν ἐπὶ καιροῦ. 2.12 Ἐπειδὴ δὲ οὐκ οἶδ' ὅ τι λέγων τῶν σπουδαίων ἢ ἀγαθῶν οὐδὲν παρ' ἡμῖν εἶναι διατείνεται, φέρε καὶ τοῦτο δεικνύτω· μὴ γὰρ δὴ ψιλήν τε καὶ ἀναπόδεικτον ποιείσθω τὴν καταγόρευσιν. Πῶς γὰρ τῶν σπουδαίων οὐδέν ἐστι παρ' ἡμῖν; Οὐκ ἀκριβὴς καὶ ἀπεξεσμένος ὁ περὶ Θεοῦ λόγος καὶ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου γενέσεως παρὰ Χριστιανοῖς εὑρίσκεται; Οὐ τῶν πρακτέων τὴν ἐπιστήμην ἀνεπίπληκτόν τε καὶ ἀκατάψεκτον ἐκ τῶν ἱερῶν Γραμμάτων κεχορηγήμεθα; Καίτοι πῶς οὐχ ἅπα σιν ἐναργὲς ὅτι τὸ ἄριστα φιλοσοφεῖν διαπεραίνοιτο ἂν ὀρθῶς οὐ καθ' ἕτερον τρόπον, οἶμαι; Θεωρητικὴ γὰρ καὶ πρακτική γε πρὸς τούτοις φιλοσοφία παντὸς ἂν εἴη ἐπαίνου μεστή, καὶ παρὰ τοῖς τὰ Ἑλλήνων ἐσπουδακόσι θαυμάζεται· οὐκοῦν οὐκ ἀπό γε τῆς Ἑβραίων δόξης τὴν ἀθεότητα μεμαθήκαμεν ἔφη γὰρ αὐτὸς καὶ τοῦτο , ἀλλ' εἴπερ τις ἐθέλοι τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, ἐκ τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς τῆς Ἑλλήνων ἀμαθίας κατεγνώκαμεν. Καὶ ὅτι μᾶλλόν ἐστι τὸ ἄθεον παρ' αὐτοῖς τὸν ἕνα καὶ φύσει καὶ ἀληθῶς οὐκ εἰδόσι Θεόν, πῶς οὐκ ἂν εἴη παντί τῳ σαφές; Βίον δὲ φαῦλον καὶ ἐπισεσυρμένον ἐκ τῆς παρ' αὐτοῖς ῥᾳθυμίας ἑλέσθαι φησὶν ἡμᾶς, χυδαιότητά τε καὶ ῥᾳθυμίαν ὀνομάζων ἑλληνικὴν τὸ ἀδιακρίτως ὀψοφαγεῖν, παραιτεῖσθαί τε τῶν ἐδωδίμων οὐδέν. Ἐν γὰρ δὴ τούτῳ μάλιστα τὴν τῆς εὐσεβείας παριστᾶσι δύναμιν καὶ ἁπάσης ἀρετῆς ἐν καλῷ γενέσθαι νομίζουσιν, εἰ δὴ παραιτοῖντο τῶν ἐδωδίμων τινά. 2.13 Καίτοι τί δήποτε τὸν τῆς ἁγνείας ἐν τούτοις ὁρίζονται τρόπον; Πάντα μὲν γὰρ γέγονε παρὰ Θεοῦ, καλὰ δὲ πάντως τὰ ἐξ ἀγαθοῦ· καὶ ὁ πάναγνος καὶ ἀβέβηλος τῶν καταμιαίνειν ἡμᾶς εἰωθότων ἐργάσαιτο ἂν οὐδέν. Τί γὰρ καὶ βρῶσις ἐμποιήσειεν ἂν τοῖς μετεσχηκόσιν αὐτῆς; Ἢ καὶ ὁποῖον ἂν αὐτοῖς εἰσφρήσαι τὸν μολυσμόν; Παραιτεῖσθαι δέ, οἶμαι, προσήκει τὰ δι' ὧν ἂν εἰκότως καταμιαίνοιτό τις, δρῷεν δ' ἂν τοῦτο καὶ μάλα γενικῶς οἱ τῆς φαυλότητος τρόποι, μοιχεῖαι, πορνεῖαι, καταλαλιαί, ψευδηγορίαι, συκοφαντίαι, φιλοχρημα τίαι, καὶ τὰ λοιπά. Οἱ δὲ τῶν τοιούτων οὐδὲν ὑπολογισάμενοι προσποιοῦνται μὲν ὀλοιγοσιτεῖν, ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ τῶν