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

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 Plato and of Moses with each other. For thus it might become clear who is the better, and who is more worthy of God; whether it is Plato, who served idols, or he of whom Scripture says that God spoke to him mouth to mouth? In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth; and the earth was unseen and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss, and the Spirit of God was moving over the water. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided between the light and between the darkness, and God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water," and God called the firmament Heaven. And God said, "Let the water under the heaven be gathered together into one collection, and let the dry land appear;" and it was so. And God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass for fodder and fruit-bearing trees." And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light upon the earth;" and God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to rule over the day and the night. 2.19 In these things, then, he does not say that the abyss was made by God, nor the darkness, nor the water; and yet, having said about the light that it came to be at God's command, he should have also spoken about the night and about the abyss and about the water; but he said nothing as if they had come into being at all, although he mentioned them many times. In addition to this, he does not mention the generation or creation of the angels, nor in what way they were brought forth, but only of the bodies about the heaven and the earth, so that God, according to Moses, is the maker of no incorporeal things, but the arranger of pre-existing matter; for the phrase, "But the earth was unseen and unformed," is nothing other than making the dry substance matter, and introducing God as its arranger. {CYRIL} Regarding Moses, then, the account would be long and lengthy for those wishing to praise him; for he heard God saying clearly: "I know you above all, and you have found grace with me." And indeed, a very clear proof of the manifold virtue within him would be the power of the miracles in Egypt. For he stood by the God of all, and was a servant to Him who arrayed creation against the follies of the Egyptians. But as for what sort of man Plato was, even if no one were to say, his departure from Athens to Sicily would proclaim it loudly; for they say that Dionysius, not being pleased with his flatteries, sold him, thereby imposing upon him as an unfree man the punishment most befitting a slave. However, let the discussion of this be set aside for now, and let it return again to the matter at hand. 2.20 For the divine Moses is not seen to have composed vain words for us, nor indeed was he urged to this simply out of ambition, but having devised something necessary for the benefit of life. For he did not propose to discourse meagerly on natural philosophy, that is, to say something about the so-called first principles or the elements from them; for I think these things are rather superfluous and not comprehensible to some minds. But his purpose became to fix the mind of those at that time on the doctrines of truth. For they had gone astray, and each was found worshiping what seemed good to him, and being ignorant of the one and true God by nature through excessive ignorance, they had served creation. And some inscribed "god" upon the heaven, others the circle of the sun, and there are those who diligently assigned the glory of the highest nature to the moon and stars and earth and plants and the nature of the waters, and to birds and irrational animals. Since their affairs had come to this point, and of such a terrible sickness

Πλάτωνος. Τί τοίνυν οὗτος ὑπὲρ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ λέγει καὶ τίνας περιτίθησιν αὐτῷ φωνὰς ἐν τῇ κοσμογενείᾳ σκόπησον, ἵνα τὴν Πλάτωνος καὶ Μωσέως κοσμογένειαν ἀντιπαραβάλωμεν ἀλλήλαις. Οὕτω γὰρ ἂν φανείη τίς ὁ κρείττων, καὶ τίς ἄξιος τοῦ Θεοῦ μᾶλλον· ἆρ' ὁ τοῖς εἰδώλοις λελατρευκὼς Πλάτων, ἢ περὶ οὗ φησιν ἡ Γραφὴ ὅτι στόμα κατὰ στόμα ὁ Θεὸς ἐλάλησεν αὐτῷ; Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν· ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος, καὶ σκότος ἐπάνω τοῦ ἀβύσσου, καὶ πνεῦμα Θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Γενηθήτω φῶς, καὶ ἐγένετο φῶς, καὶ εἶδεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸ φῶς ὅτι καλόν. Καὶ διεχώρισεν ὁ Θεὸς ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ φωτὸς καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ σκότους, καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸ φῶς ἡμέραν καὶ τὸ σκότος ἐκάλεσε νύκτα. Καὶ ἐγένετο ἑσπέρα καὶ ἐγένετο πρωΐ, ἡμέρα μία. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Γενηθήτω στερέωμα ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ ὕδατος, καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸ στερέωμα οὐρανόν. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Συναχθήτω τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ὑποκάτω τοῦ οὐρανοῦ εἰς συναγωγὴν μίαν καὶ ὀφθήτω ἡ ξηρά· καὶ ἐγένετο οὕτως. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Βλαστησάτω ἡ γῆ βοτάνην χόρτου καὶ ξύλον κάρπιμον. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Γενεθήτωσαν φωστῆρες ἐν τῷ στερεώματι τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ἵνα ὦσιν εἰς φαῦσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· καὶ ἔθετο αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεὸς ἐν τῷ στερεώματι τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ὥστε ἄρχειν τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τῆς νυκτός. 2.19 Ἐν δὴ τούτοις οὔτε τὴν ἄβυσσόν φησι πεποιῆσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ οὔτε τὸ σκότος οὔτε τὸ ὕδωρ· καίτοι χρῆν δήπουθεν εἰπόντα περὶ τοῦ φωτὸς ὅτι προστάξαντος Θεοῦ γέγονεν, εἰπεῖν ἔτι καὶ περὶ τῆς νυκτὸς καὶ περὶ τῆς ἀβύσσου καὶ περὶ τοῦ ὕδατος· ὁ δὲ οὐδὲν εἶπεν ὡς περὶ γεγονότων ὅλως, καίτοι πολλάκις ἐπιμνησθεὶς αὐτῶν. Πρὸς τούτοις οὔτε τῆς τῶν ἀγγέλων μέμνηται γενέσεως ἢ ποιήσεως, οὐδ' ὅντινα τρόπον παρήχθησαν, ἀλλὰ τῶν περὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν μόνον καὶ περὶ τὴν γῆν σωμάτων, ὡς εἶναι τὸν Θεὸν κατὰ τὸν Μωσέα ἀσωμάτων μὲν οὐδενὸς ποιητήν, ὕλης δὲ ὑποκειμένης κοσμήτορα· τὸ γὰρ· Ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος οὐδὲν ἕτερόν ἐστιν ἢ τὴν μὲν ξηρὰν οὐσίαν ὕλην ποιοῦντος, κοσμήτορα δὲ αὐτῆς τὸν Θεὸν εἰσάγοντος. {ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΣ} Μωσέως μὲν οὖν πέρι πολὺς ἂν γένοιτο καὶ μακρὸς τοῖς εὐφημεῖν βουλομένοις ὁ λόγος· ἀκήκοε γὰρ Θεοῦ λέγοντος ἐναργῶς· Οἶδά σε παρὰ πάντας, καὶ χάριν εὕρηκας παρ' ἐμοί. Τῆς γε μὴν ἐνούσης αὐτῷ πολυειδοῦς ἀρετῆς ἀπόδειξις εἴη ἂν καὶ μάλα σαφὴς τῆς ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τερατουργίας ἡ δύναμις. Ὑφεστήκει γὰρ τῷ τῶν ὅλων Θεῷ, καὶ ὑπηρέτης ἦν ταῖς τῶν Αἰγύπτων ἀπονοίαις κατεξανιστάντι τὴν κτίσιν. Ὁποῖός γε μὴν ὁ Πλάτων ἦν, κἂν εἰ μή τις λέγοι, διαβοήσειεν ἂν ἡ ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν ἐπὶ Σικελίαν ἄφοδος· οὐ γὰρ ἀρεσθέντα ταῖς παρ' αὐτοῦ θωπείαις τὸν ∆ιονύσιον ἀποδόσθαι φασὶν αὐτόν, ὡς ἀνελευθέρῳ που πάντως ποινὴν ἐπιθέντα τὴν ἀνδραπόδῳ πρεπωδεστάτην. Πλὴν ἀφείσθω τέως ὁ περὶ τούτου λόγος, ἴτω δὲ πάλιν ἐπὶ τὸ ἐν χερσίν. 2.20 Ὁ θεσπέσιος μὲν γὰρ Μωσῆς οὐ λόγους ἡμῖν εἰκαίους ὁρᾶται συντεθεικώς, οὔτε μὴν ἐκ φιλοτιμίας ἁπλῶς εἰς τοῦτο παρωρμημένος, ἀλλά τι τῶν ἀναγκαίων εἰς ὄνησιν ἐπινοήσας τῷ βίῳ. Οὐ γάρ τοι προὔθετο φυσιολογεῖν ἰσχνῶς ἤγουν φάναι τι περὶ τῶν λεγομένων πρώτων ἀρχῶν ἢ τῶν ἐξ αὐτῶν στοιχείων· περιεργότερα γὰρ οἶμαι ταυτὶ καὶ ταῖς τινων διανοίαις οὐχ ἁλώσιμα. Σκοπὸς δὲ γέγονεν αὐτῷ τῶν τὸ τηνικάδε τὸν νοῦν τοῖς τῆς ἀληθείας ἐπιστῆσαι δόγμασι. Πεπλάνηντο γάρ, καὶ τὸ δοκοῦν ἕκαστος προσκυνοῦντες ἡλίσκοντο, καὶ τὸν ἕνα καὶ φύσει Θεὸν ἐξ ἀμαθίας τῆς ἄγαν ἠγνοηκότες λελατρεύκασι τῇ κτίσει. Καὶ οἱ μὲν θεὸν ἐπεγράφοντο τὸν οὐρανόν, ἕτεροι δὲ τὸν ἡλίου κύκλον, εἰσὶ δὲ οἳ καὶ σελήνῃ καὶ ἄστροις καὶ γῇ καὶ φυτοῖς καὶ τῇ τῶν ὑδάτων φύσει, πτηνοῖς τε καὶ ζῴοις ἀλόγοις τὴν τῆς ἀνωτάτω φύσεως δόξαν ἀπονέμειν ἐσπούδαζον. Καθιγμένων δὴ τῶν πραγμάτων εἰς τοῦτο αὐτοῖς, καὶ τῆς οὕτω δεινῆς ἀρρωστίας