De duobus montibus Sina et Sion is a tract from the third century that has been transmitted under the name of Cyprian. Its true author, however, is unknown. It does not exhibit any of Cyprian's style or theology so its misattribution to Cyprian may be the result of their common geographic origin in North Africa. As the title indicates, its author seeks to prove, using a typological exegesis of the mountains of Sinai and Zion, that Christianity has superseded Judaism and, as such, constitutes an early example of Adversos Judaeos literature. Aside from this, De duobus montibus is of interest because it appears to preserve some rather unusual and early traditions, including an etymology of the name Adam based on the four cardinal directions. There is also an obscure reference to what may be an otherwise unknown epistle of John to Paul (or, in some manuscripts, to the people).
The text of this work has not been available online, either in the original
Latin or in translation. In particular, it had not been included in the
Ante-Nicene Fathers series even though other pseudo-Cyprianic works were. An English
translation has been made recently by Anni Maria Laato,
Jews and Christians in De duobus montibus Sina
et Sion: an approach to early Latin
Adversus Iudaeos literature (Åbo: Åbo Akademi University Press, 1998),
but this was not available to me. I have made my translation from the
Latin text as edited by Clara Burini,
Pseudo Cipriano: i due monti
Sinai e Sion (Biblioteca Patristica 25; Fiesole: Nardini, 1994)
with some consultation to her Italian rendering.
[1.1] The argument of the chapters: that which is contained in the sacred scriptures, which has been written figuratively in the Old Testament must be understood spiritually with the New Testament, as fulfilled through Christ in truth. For through Jesus Christ we have been given a spiritual understanding as Jesus himself says: You have been given to understand of the mysteries of God, but to others in parables; we find written in the Gospel according to John: The law has been given through Moses; grace and truth has been accomplished through Jesus Christ. This law was given to Moses on Mt Sinai. [1.2] But again we find written: For from Zion the law will go forth and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. How should we understand this? Either Mt Sinai where Moses was given the law by God, and Mt Zion, where the law went out from are one and the same, or one is in fact Mt Sinai and the other is Mt Zion. For we find that the names of the two mountains are Hebrew, but the Latin meaning of the names <differ> from each other, showing one to be Mt Sinai and the other to be Mt Zion.
[2.1]This is the meaning of the Hebrew in Latin. Mt Sinai means eternal testing and hate; likewise Zion means testing of embitterment and watchtower. So you see that in the Hebrew meaning they do not resemble each other nor is there one mountain but rather two instead, different from each other in grace and honor, because of that as says David the prophet in the first psalm: But, I have been appointed by him king over his holy Mt Zion, proclaiming his dominion. [2.2] Look how it designates Mt Zion as holy, from which it is clear that Mt Zion is heavenly and spiritual and Sinai is earthly. For nothing on the earth can be holy when the whole world is tainted by evil deeds from the Devil, as Jesus says: the world hates me because I also (hate) it, because evil deeds are his deeds. Hence anything in this earthly age cannot be holy.
[3.1] It is well settled from a prophetic saying, however, that Mt Zion is holy and spiritual; on this mountain the Holy Spirit has appointed the Son of God king, declaring the will and dominion of God and his father; and Mt Sinai has been established as earthly in the arid land, which is in Syria Palestine where Judea is. There too is the city, that killer of prophets, before whose gates Christ was crucified by the Jews in the garden. This city is called Jerusalem, not undeservedly by Isaiah the prophet with a spiritual word to be cursed and abandoned. [3.2] And, from the same earthly Mt Sinai, God through Moses, still in the earthly flesh of the first human, appointed for the earthly and carnal people of the Jews <gave the law, which Moses> received from God to hand over to them, written with sacred fingers on two stone tablets, although sacred fingers yet fingers in the shape of flesh, as if for a carnal and very hard people as there had been very hard stone tablets they received the law upon. [3.3] Hence signifying in two (ways) from a unity of people divided in two parts, a part which is saved and an unbelieving part which perishes as the angel said to Rebecca, the wife of Isaac: two peoples are in your womb and two peoples are divided from your belly and a people shall surpass the people and the greater shall serve the lesser. Indeed Rebecca carries the figure of the church, as Isaac her husband carried in him a type of Christ. So when he says two peoples are in your womb, that he was also designating two future parts of the people, a lost, idolatrous part and an unbelieving part living by faith, this one part of the people he designates in the womb of the church to remain a generation forever in the figure of Rebecca and the part of the unfaithful people of the Jews to be divided from the belly of Rebecca and be separated from the birth of the church. [3.4] This has been the prefiguration in Genesis declared spiritually by the angel; these names of the mountains have indeed such meaning in the Latin language, demonstrating the truth that these two mountains are Sinai or now Zion, which we are about to say in a little bit. For in this way we have examined this meaning of truth coming from the beginning of the human race. For in this way almighty God from the origin of the world and then for all humans born *** of time and deed they received names from their parents, not just from themselves but they were urged by God who is aware of things to come before they happen, like what will be after the summertime growth following a vigorous time; in the Hebrew names are designated what would be the future of each, the meaning of the names designated the truth; as was then fulfilled in the times of the patriarchs, according to the flesh of the first human from the earth, we prove it to be true out of the same first-formed one.
[4.1] He received a name from God; the Hebrew Adam in Latin means “land made flesh” in that out of the four cardinal points of the globe he grasped in his fist, as is written: I have measured the heaven by my palm and I have grasped the earth and I have formed the human from all the territories of the earth; he made him in the image of God. [4.2] It was fitting for him to bear this name Adam from these cardinal points of the globe. We find in the scriptures that through each of the cardinal points of the globe four stars have been assigned on each of the cardinal points: first the star of the east called Anatole, second of the west called Dysis, third the star of the north, Artus, fourth the southern star is called Mesembrion. From the names of the stars, four in number, take each of the initial letters from each of the names of the stars: from the star Anatole A, from star Dysis D, from star Artus A, from star Mesembrion M; in these cardinals letters you have the name ADAM. Now also αδαμ designates a certain number through the four Greek letters: thus α one, δ four, α one, μ forty make the number 46. [4.3] This number 46 designates the passion of Adam’s flesh: Christ will bear in himself Adam’s flesh as a figure and he hanged on the timber. This dominical flesh has been called Jesus by God the father; the holy spirit who descended from heaven is called Christ the anointed of the living God for God, the spirit mingled with flesh, Jesus Christ. So this number 46 declares the passion, in that, in the sixth millennium past the sixth hour, rising from the dead he ascended on the fortieth day; or in that Solomon made the temple for God in 46 years, in which temple Jesus said was like his flesh, saying to the Pharisees: destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days. And the Pharisees were saying: For 46 years this temple has been being built and he will erect it in three days? But Jesus was saying the temple of his body.
[5.1] Then Abel, Adam’s son, received a Hebrew name, meaning “the murder of a brother and the grief of parents.” Likewise Enoch, who before the flood pleased God as a just man and thus has been translated from this world alive in the birth of this flesh into a place where God knows. Out of this place he has the consummation of the world renewed in this world where he was translated in order to shame and defeat the antichrist by whom the murdered achieved their martyrdom, living in eternity for ever. And thus Enoch means “renewed”. [5.2] Then the righteous Job, who deserved to be praised by the judge’s voice before judgment day, and further for the defeated devil and having overcome Job, means “God’s dearest.” Also too Abraham was called Abram at his birth by his parents: indeed, he was tested by God, found faithful and blessed by God to become a father of many peoples. And hence he was called Abraham with a name changed by God: it means father of many people.
[6.1] Look, we have said a few things about the many arguments in the meantime so that, reaching the names of the two mountains, we examine the meaning of these mountains as he designates for our instruction so that from this meaning of the names we understand Mt Sinai to be earthly and Mt Zion to be heavenly. Spiritually Sinai means “a testing of bitterness and watchtower.” It is understood like this when he says “Mt Zion (is) eternal testing and hate” in that from this mountain Moses received the law for the very hard and rebellious people. With this law they were tested by the eternal God and found that they cannot endure this same law forever; henceforth they turned from God to hate. Thus in the name of Mt Sinai where they received the law, the meaning of the name designated that a people were tested by God and have turned to eternal hate. Thus he says “Sinai (is) eternal testing and hate.” For we find in the scriptures that they were tested by God in this way as the Lord says to Moses: let this people go and they would gather for you daily in the day and I will test them whether they can endure my law or not. And tested by God with the law they were found to be strangers from the law. Henceforth they had turned from God to eternal hate and the clear meaning of Sinai is fulfilled. [6.2] Indeed Moses too through whom God tested them by the law similarly means in Latin, “Moses is God’s testing and discovery,” through whom those tested by God have been found strangers from the observation of the law, they had turned from God to eternity in hate. This hate in that race of the Jews we find written as Isaac says of his two sons, Esau the older son and Jacob the younger, saying: Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated; but Esau the older had been completely hairy, he says, as a hairy mantel, in a figure for the older people, impious in their offenses. And Jacob has been thin and younger, in a figure of a newer people who, out of obedience, turned through the faith of belief from the roughness of the age in weakness to Christ the Lord and Son of God.
[7.1] Look, we have argued through the faith of the scriptures that the greater and older people has turned from God to hate according to the meaning of Mt Sinai, eternal testing and hate. Equally, Mt Zion too means this: “testing of bitterness and watchtower”; indeed this meaning in the Latin language designates the passion of the sacred timber, as says Solomon about this same lordly passion: in ignorance and torment we ask him for us to know his reverence and probe this patience and test what his events are. For if he truly is the son of God, let him regard him and he has freed him from the hands of his opponents: by the most shocking death we would condemn him. They have thought these (things) and erred; their malice blinded them and they have not understood the sacrament of God. [7.2] Look, the Jewish testers as it is written: and they tested the Lord in a watery place. The mirror indeed declares the height of the timber, Solomon saying they appointed me guard of the orchard, in that he hanged in the garden on the timber nailed between two robbers and they were watched from the height of both timbers in the figure of two criminal peoples, the gentiles lying down on the wickedness of the age and the Jews the killers of prophets. These are the two criminal peoples whose figure the two robbers bore on themselves between which the innocent hanged: one was blaspheming, the other has indeed confessed because the innocent suffered harm. Jesus however was watched both from the observation post a blasphemer and a confessor; he saved the confessor and destroyed the blasphemer as he did from the two peoples.
[8.1] The persecutors who would not believe him with sentences of eternal death, and thus would not go out from this age, would perish abandoned; the gentiles indeed for their conversion having faith in him because he is the Son of God, will live, saved in the eternal age of ages with their emperor and king. [8.2] But hanging <in> this suffering on the timber, he was shown watching the two portions of the people from the high timber; a portion of the people who saw his amazing and godly virtues, they mourned him suffering harm; others, Jews, indeed mocking his head of reeds they shook him, blaspheming and saying Hail, King of the Jews, where is your father? Let him come and free you from the cross. Henceforth, embittered the father made the sky open up and thunders have been made unbearable, the earth quaked, the tombs have been opened up, and he put bodies outside by themselves, the veil of the temple has been split and by so much breaking of the sky and quaking of the earth, everybody who was standing before the timber, some weeping, others even blaspheming, mocking, laying face down as if they were going to be dead. [8.3] Then the Jews understood that they offended the Lord and they had turned to grief out and there was bitterness. For in this time which he hanged nailed on the timber, there have been the days of the Unleavened Bread which are the holidays of the Jews; in this day the dreadful earthquake and the breaking of the sky occurred; face down on the earth crying they have turned to grief and, in this passion of his he fulfilled the prophetic word: and I will turn their holiday into grief and their song into a lamentation. For, before when the captives were detained by the Babylonians, the Babylonians said to them: sing to us the song of songs of Zion and the Jews lamenting their captivity said to the Babylonians as we have said lamenting ourselves: how will we sing the song of the Lord on an alien land?
[9.1] Look how the meaning of Mt Zion as the testing of bitterness and watchtower has been fulfilled. Here it is plain that Mt Zion is the kingdom of the sacred timber justified by holiness as David says: Proclaim the kingdom of God to the gentiles because the Lord ruled from the timber and he went over to the gentiles; about this kingdom of royal timber the same prophet said: “But I tell you: I have been established king by him over his holy Mt Zion proclaiming his domain.” [9.2] This prophetic saying through Pontius Pilate he fulfilled, hanging in his passion on the timber. Pontius Pilate in an unclean manner received from God a tablet and titulus and wrote in the three languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin: “Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews” and nailed on the top of the timber with nails the tablet with the name of the King of the Jews and showed the prophetic saying in that Mt Zion is spiritually the cross that is the power of God, saying by the apostle Paul: the cross of Christ is foolishness to unbelievers but to believers the cross is the power of the God; and he says again: but we proclaim to you Christ and him crucified; a scandal for Jews and foolishness for gentiles, but you yourselves have called for Jews and Greeks the power of God and the wisdom of God. [9.3] In fact another prophet also declares that the timber the Lord’s passion is holy Mt Zion; in the spirit he says this: Who will go up on the mountain of the Lord and who will stand in his holy place innocent in hands and pure in heart; on the right and left, stretched and fixed with nails demonstrating innocence, he says thus innocent in hands and pure in heart. Whoever did not receive in vain his soul and swear deceitfully by his neighbor, he will receive blessing from the Lord and mercy from God in his salvation. [9.4] Every suffering of people falls on the ground, only this suffering of the cross appears to be standing up: hence we indeed say that the holy mountain is the timber of suffering. Hence innocent in hands and pure in heart. By this prophetic saying it refuted the Jews who prefer Moses for Christ his Lord, in that Moses when he went up to Sinai to receive the law for the Jews, he was not innocent in hands and neither pure in mouth but nor in heart in that he mortally struck the Egyptian with a stone in Egypt and buried him with his own hands in the sand. [9.5] Christ on the holy mountain however went up the timber of his kingdom to die by the Jews, as that he himself had not put anybody to death except the devil, enemy of the human race. Hence going up on the mountain, innocent and pure in heart and thus the prophet says: Who will go up on the mountain of the Lord and who will stand in his holy place? Innocent of hands and pure in heart etc. and he declared that the holy Mt Zion is the holy cross, the same prophet saying: the law will go out from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. [9.6] The law of the Christians is the holy cross of Christ, the living son of God, the same prophet saying: your law (will be) in the middle of my belly. Struck on the side of the belly, from the side blood also mixed with water profusely flowed out, where he built a holy church for himself. Upon that law of his suffering he was making himself holy, saying, Let whoever thirsts come and drink; whoever believes in me let rivers flow from the belly and will be as the timber which is planted next to the streams of water which he will give as his fruit in his time. Look, the prophetic word of the fruits of the resurrection spiritually understood to be on the third day: for from Zion the law will go out that is from the royal timber, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, that is the Church.
[10.1] The flesh nailed to the timber let out the Lord’s word saying: Eli, Eli and has spiritually fulfilled the prophetic saying of before: from Zion the law will go out and the word of God from Jerusalem; a new city coming down from heaven squared with the four gospels, having the twelve foundations of the twelve prophets and the twelve gates of the twelve apostles: through whose preaching of Christ they will enter in this holy and new city, which is the spiritual church.
[11.1] Look, we have argued through the faith of all the deified scriptures, that the two mountains Sinai on earth and Zion in heaven carry a figure of the two testaments, Sinai of the old and Zion of the new. From these two mountains, see the two peoples both shown and defined by the two testaments later in time: the old and earlier one of the Jews, and the new and later one of the people of the Christians. The earthly Jews for whom the carnal received the promised land, and the heavenly Christians for whom the promised kingdoms of heaven will be received from God in the future age. For the flesh of Christians will be spiritual and immortal.
[12.1] Having set forth another argument of the truth of the scriptures, we are making from this heavenly, spiritual truth a symbolic comparison of the way of life for this world. For we said that the meaning of the holy Mt Zion, which (is) the royal and sacred timber, from Hebrew into Greek or Latin “the testing of bitterness and watchtower” in that the good and the bad standing before him are watched from the timber.
[13.1] In this way we found that this Savior has been said by Solomon to be a spotless mirror of the father in that the holy spirit will see itself as a twin, father in the son and son in the father both see themselves in themselves, i.e., a spotless mirror. Now we who believe them also see Christ in ourselves as in a mirror, as instructing and warning us in the epistle of John his disciple to Paul: see me in yourselves like this in the way any of you see themselves in water or a mirror and confirmed the Solomonic saying said about himself: who is the spotless mirror of the father.
[14.1] Yet indeed he says that he is the true vine, the father (is) his farmer; so if Christ is the true vine it is indeed well settled that we who believe in him and engage him are also the true vine which is the Lord’s vineyard and Christ (is) the guard of his vineyard, Solomon saying: they made me a guard in the vineyard. [14.2] Indeed we find in the way of life for this world that in a spiritual parable the vineyard is figuratively the owning Lord and its possessor. In fact in the proper time, almost to the days of vintage, they put a boy as guard in the vineyard nailed on a high timber in the middle of the vineyard and on this wood they make a square mirror from bruised reeds and through each side of the square of the mirror makes three holes which becomes twelve holes; through this square of holes, the boy guard, inspecting the whole vineyard, guards, singing so that the traveler going in the Lord’s vineyard not trouble himself or thieves not seek out a grape vineyard, that if troublesome, destitute thief wanted to enter the vineyard and remove a grape, there the boy, diligent with his own vineyard, makes a (loud) voice from with the mirror, cursing and threatening so that the traveling thief not dare to approach saying: walk straight. But the thief fearing the boy’s voice escapes from of the vineyard, sees the mirror, hears the voice, (but) did not see the boy within the mirror threatening, he went on his way afraid.
[15.1] This worldly way of life seems like a spiritual grace. For this is also in the deified people, as in the earthly vineyard. The Lord’s vineyard is also the spiritual community of Christians who by the command of God the Father is guarded by the boy Christ on the erected mirror of the timber; that if the traveling devil walking through the worldly path, if he dared to separate and trouble a person from the Lord’s community out from the spiritual vineyard, he, immediately seized and punished with spiritual whip by the heavenly boy, runs away howling into the arid and desert places. [15.2] This is the guard, the boy, the Lord’s son, who keeps his vineyard entrusted by the father to be safe and preserved. About whom Isaiah the prophet sang saying, Look, my boy, my most beloved son, I will put upon him my spirit and proclaim justice to the gentiles. He will not cry out nor complain, a bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering timber he will not set up, until he will deliver justice in the struggle and in his name the gentiles will believe.