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 established a natural law for each of the things that have come into being, and by His assent they are seen to have been allotted their particular existence or not. And the straightforward and unadulterated account would be as follows; but he himself is not moderately amazed at the opinion of Plato, and says: {JULIAN} But listen to what Plato says about the cosmos. The whole heaven, or cosmos, or whatever other name it might best accept, let that be its name for us; has it always been, having no beginning of coming-to-be, or has it come-to-be, beginning from some beginning? It has come-to-be; for it is visible and tangible, and has a body; and all such things are sensible, apprehensible by opinion with the aid of sensation. And after other things: So, then, according to the likely account, we must say that this cosmos has come to be in reality a living creature, ensouled and intelligent, through the providence of God. {CYRIL} 2.32 Behold, clearly even the divine and all-wise Plato, according to him, affirms that the entire cosmos, or whatever it might be called, is created and has begun from some beginning, and moreover that it is tangible and visible and corporeal and apprehensible by opinion with sensation, and that it was made according to the providence of the Creator. But that he, who is completely dependent on Plato's inventiveness and crowns it with endless praises, has also been deceived with him and has thought nothing of the blameless things, but is carried about as by every wind, we shall make clear before long, by quoting again from Julian himself; for he spoke thus: {JULIAN} Let us compare just one thing with another, what kind and sort of creation the God of Moses makes, and what sort the one in Plato. And God said: Let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. And God made man, in the image of God he made him, male and female he made them, and God blessed them, saying: Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over all the cattle and over all the earth. 2.33 Listen, then, also to the Platonic public speech, which he attributes to the Creator of all things: Gods of gods, of whom I am the creator and father of works which will be indissoluble, so long as I will it; Now, everything that has been bound is dissoluble, but to wish to dissolve that which is beautifully harmonized and in a good state is the mark of an evil one. Therefore, since you have come into being, you are not immortal nor altogether indissoluble; yet you shall certainly not be dissolved, nor shall you meet with the fate of death, having obtained my will as a bond yet greater and more authoritative than those with which you were bound when you came into being. Now, then, learn what I declare to you: three mortal kinds still remain ungenerated, and if these do not come into being, heaven will be incomplete; for it will not have in itself all the kinds of living creatures. But if these were to come into being and partake of life from me, they would be equal to gods. So that, then, they may be mortal, and this universe may be truly all, turn yourselves according to your nature to the creation of living creatures, imitating my power concerning your own generation. And insofar as it is fitting for them to be homonymous with the immortals, called divine and ruling in them over those who are always willing to follow justice and you, having sown and begun it, I will hand it over. For the rest, you, weaving the mortal to the immortal, fashion and beget living creatures, and giving them food, cause them to grow, and receive them back again when they perish. 2.34 {CYRIL} So then this noble man derides, and is audacious in his words against us, the generation of man according to, I say, the all-excellent Moses
ὑμῖν τοῖς ὑπ' ἐμὲ περιθήσω ταύτην τὴν διὰ τοῦ Λόγου μου ὑμῖν ἐντολὴν δεδομένην· τοῦτον γὰρ νόμον ἔχετε. Ὡς γὰρ ἔφην ἀρτίως, τῶν γεγονότων ἑκάστῳ φυσικὸν ὡρίσατο νόμον ὁ ∆ημιουργός, καὶ τοῖς αὐτοῦ νεύμασι τὸ εἶναι τοιῶσδε τυχὸν ἢ μὴ διαλαχόντα φαίνεται. Καὶ ὁ μὲν εἰς εὐθύ τε διήκων καὶ ἀκαπήλευτος λόγος ἔχοι ἂν ὡδί· κατατέθηπε δὲ οὐ μετρίως αὐτὸς τὴν Πλάτωνος δόξαν, καί φησιν· {ΙΟΥΛΙΑΝΟΣ} Ὅ γε μὴν Πλάτων ἄκουε περὶ τοῦ κόσμου τί φησιν. Ὁ δὴ πᾶς οὐρανός, ἢ κόσμος ἢ καὶ ἄλλο τί ποτε ὀνομαζόμενος μάλιστα ἂν δέχοιτο, τοῦτο ἡμῖν ὠνομάσθω πότερον ἦν ἀεί, γενέσεως ἀρχὴν ἔχων οὐδεμίαν, ἢ γέγονεν, ἀπ' ἀρχῆς τινος ἀρξάμενος; Γέγονεν· ὁρατὸς γὰρ ἁπτός τέ ἐστι, καὶ σῶμα ἔχων· πάντα δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα αἰσθητά, δόξῃ περίληπτα μετὰ αἰσθήσεως. Καὶ μεθ' ἕτερα· Οὕτως οὖν δὴ κατὰ λόγον τὸν εἰκότα δεῖ λέγειν τόνδε τὸν κόσμον ζῷον ἔμψυχον ἔννουν τε τῇ ἀληθείᾳ διὰ τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ γενέσθαι πρόνοιαν. {ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΣ} 2.32 Ἰδοὺ δὴ σαφῶς καὶ ὁ κατ' αὐτὸν θεῖός τε καὶ πάνσοφος Πλάτων σύμπαντα τὸν κόσμον ἢ ὅ τί ποτ' ἂν λέγοιτο γενητόν τε εἶναι καὶ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς τινος ἦρχθαι διαβεβαιοῦται, καὶ μὴν ἁπτόν τε καὶ ὁρατὸν καὶ ἐνσώματον καὶ δοξαστὸν μετ' αἰσθήσεως, καὶ κατά γε τὴν τοῦ ∆ημιουργοῦ πεποιῆσθαι πρόνοιαν. Ὁ δὲ τῆς Πλάτωνος εὑρησιλογίας εἰς ἅπαν ἀπηρτημένος καὶ τοῖς εἰς λῆξιν ἐπαίνοις αὐτὴν στεφανῶν, ὅτι καὶ πεπλάνηται σὺν αὐτῷ καὶ πεφρόνηκε μὲν τῶν ἀμωμήτων οὐδέν, περιφέρεται δὲ ὥσπερ ἀνέμῳ παντί, σαφηνιοῦμεν οὐκ εἰς μακράν, πάλιν τὰ αὐτοῦ παραθέντες Ἰουλιανοῦ· ἔφη γὰρ οὕτως· {ΙΟΥΛΙΑΝΟΣ} Ἓν δὲ ἑνὶ παραβάλωμεν μόνον, τίνα καὶ ποδαπὴν ποιεῖται δημιουργίαν ὁ Θεὸς ὁ παρὰ Μωσῇ, καὶ ποδαπὴν ὁ παρὰ Πλάτωνι. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεὸς· Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν, καὶ ἀρχέτωσαν τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῶν κτηνῶν καὶ πάσης τῆς γῆς καὶ πάντων τῶν ἑρπετῶν τῶν ἑρπόντων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, κατ' εἰκόνα Θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν, ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ἐποίησεν αὐτούς, καὶ εὐλόγησεν αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεὸς λέγων· Αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν γῆν καὶ κατακυριεύσατε αὐτῆς, καὶ ἄρχετε τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ πάντων τῶν κτηνῶν καὶ πάσης τῆς γῆς. 2.33 Ἄκουε δὴ οὖν καὶ τῆς πλατωνικῆς δημηγορίας, ἣν τῷ τῶν ὅλων περιτίθησι ∆ημιουργῷ· Θεοὶ θεῶν, ὧν ἐγὼ δημιουργὸς πατήρ τε ἔργων ἄλυτα ἔσται ἐμοῦ γε ἐθέλοντος· τὸ μὲν οὖν δεθὲν πᾶν λυτόν, τό γε μὴν καλῶς ἁρμοσθέν, καὶ ἔχον εὖ, λύειν ἐθέλειν κακοῦ. ∆ιὸ ἐπείπερ γεγένησθε, οὐκ ἀθάνατοι μέν ἐστε, οὐδὲ ἄλυτοι τὸ πάμπαν· οὔ τι μήν γε λυθήσεσθε, οὐδὲ τεύξεσθε θανάτου μοίρας, τῆς ἐμῆς βουλήσεως μείζονος ἔτι δεσμοῦ καὶ κυριωτέρου λαχόντες ἐκείνων οἷς, ὅτε ἐγίνεσθε, ξυνεδεῖσθε. Νῦν οὖν ὃ λέγω πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐνδεικνύμενος μάθετε· θνητὰ ἔτι γένη λοιπὰ τρία ἀγένητα, τούτων δὲ μὴ γενομένων, οὐρανὸς ἀτελὴς ἔσται· τὰ γὰρ πάντα ἐν αὑτῷ γένη ζῴων οὐχ ἕξει. Ὑπ' ἐμοῦ δὲ ταῦτα γενόμενα καὶ βίου μετασχόντα θεοῖς ἰσάζοιτο ἄν. Ἵν' οὖν θνητά τε ᾖ, τό τε πᾶν τόδε ὄντως ἅπαν ᾖ, τρέπεσθε κατὰ φύσιν ὑμεῖς ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν ζῴων δημιουργίαν, μιμούμενοι τὴν ἐμὴν δύναμιν περὶ τὴν ὑμετέραν γένεσιν. Καὶ καθόσον μὲν αὐτοῖς ἀθανάτοις ὁμωνύμως εἶναι προσήκει, θεῖον λεγόμενον ἡγεμονοῦν τε ἐν αὐτοῖς τῶν ἀεὶ δίκῃ καὶ ὑμῖν ἐθελόντων ἕπεσθαι, σπείρας καὶ ὑπαρξάμενος ἐγὼ παραδώσω. Τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν ὑμεῖς, ἀθανάτῳ θνητὸν προσυφαίνοντες, ἀπεργάζεσθε ζῷα καὶ γεννᾶτε, τροφήν τε διδόντες αὐξάνετε, καὶ φθίνοντα πάλιν δέχεσθε. 2.34 {ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΣ} ∆ιαγελᾷ μὲν οὖν ὁ γενναῖος οὑτοσί, καὶ θρασὺς εἰς λόγους τοὺς καθ' ἡμῶν, τὴν ἀνθρώπου γένεσιν τὴν διά γε, φημί, τοῦ παναρίστου Μωσέως