Sophia Scriptura

On the Lapsed 24

Cyprian of Carthage · On the Lapsed · 251 · Carthage · Read in context

Summary: Cyprian tells of a man struck dumb after denying Christ and a woman who, possessed after sacrificing, bit her own tongue and died.

Latin text · CSEL 3.1:254–255

Vnus ex his qui sponte Capitolium negaturus ascendit postquam Christum negauit obmutuit. poena inde coepit unde coepit et crimen, ut nec rogare iam posset qui uerba ad precum misericordiam non haberet. alia in balneis constituta – hoc enim crimini eius et malis deerat, ut et ad balneas statim pergeret quae lauacri uitalis gratiam perdidisset – sed illic ab inmundo spiritu inmunda correpta laniauit dentibus linguam quae fuerat uel pasta inpie uel locuta. postquam sceleratus cibus sumptus est, in perniciem suam rabies oris armata est. ipsa sui carnifex extitit nec diu superesse postmodum potuit, dolore uentris et uiscerum cruciata defecit.

English · Claude translation

One of those who went up to the Capitol of his own accord to deny Christ was struck dumb after he had denied him. The punishment began where the crime began too, so that he could no longer even ask for mercy, having no words for prayers of mercy. Another woman, in the baths (for this was lacking to her crime and her evils, that she should go straight to the baths, having lost the grace of the life-giving washing), was seized there by an unclean spirit, unclean as she was, and tore with her teeth the tongue that had impiously either fed or spoken. After the wicked food had been taken, the madness of her mouth was armed for her own destruction. She became her own executioner, and could not survive long afterward: tormented by pain in her belly and bowels, she died.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 3.1:254–255 · Wilhelm von Hartel, ed., S. Thasci Caecili Cypriani Opera omnia, Pars 1, CSEL 3.1 (Vienna: Gerold, 1868), 235–264 · Latin text: W. von Hartel (CSEL 3.1, 1868), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in CSEL 3.1. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of CSEL 3.1; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Scripture
Topics
Persecution, Baptism

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Life-giving washing” is baptism; cf. Titus 3:5.

Cite this passage

Cyprian, Laps. 24 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/24/).

Plain text
Cyprian, Laps. 24 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/24/).

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