7. Now I have made these remarks because of
those heretics who count possessions, and money, and men’s bodies
accursed The connexion of σώματα with money and
possessions suggests the not uncommon meaning
“slaves.” See Polyb. xviii. 18 § 6:
καὶ τὴν
ἐνδουχίαν
ἀπέδοντο καὶ
τὰ σώματα,
καὶ σὺν
τουτοις ἔτι
τινὰς τῶν
κτήσεων,
“household furniture, and slaves, and besides these some also of
their lands.” See Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities, “Slavery,” where it is shewn that
Christians generally and even Bishops still possessed slaves throughout
the 4th Century.
But here it is perhaps more probable that
Cyril refers, as before, Cat. iv. § 23, to the Manichean doctrine
of the body as the root of sin.. For I
neither wish thee to be a slave of money, nor to treat as enemies the
things which God has given thee for use. Never say then that
riches are the devil’s: for though he say, All these
will I give thee, for they are delivered unto me Matt. iv. 9; Luke iv. 6., one may indeed even reject his assertion;
for we need not believe the liar: and yet perhaps he spake the
truth, being compelled by the power of His presence: for he said
not, All these will I give thee, for they are mine, but, for
they are delivered unto me. He grasped not the dominion of
them, but confessed that he had been entrusted For ἐγκεχειρῆσθαι,
the reading of all the printed Editions, which hardly yields a suitable
sense, we should probably substitute ἐγκεχειρίσθαι. A similar confusion of the two verbs occurs in Polybius
(Hist. VIII. xviii. 6); the proper use of the latter is seen in
Joh. Damasc. (De Fide Orthod. II. 4, quoted by Cleopas),
who speaks of Satan as being “of these Angelic powers the chief
of the earthly order, and entrusted by God with the guardianship of the
earth” (τῆς
γῆς τὴν
φυλακὴν
ἐγχειρισθεὶς
παρὰ Θεοῦ).
with them, and was for a time dispensing them. But at a proper
time interpreters should inquire whether his statement is false or
true On this point compare
Irenæus (Hær. V. xxi.–xxiv.), and Gregory of
Nyssa (Orat. Catech. § 5)..