Sophia Scriptura

On the Lapsed 34

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

Summary: Believers should avoid those who promise the lapsed salvation without penance, for this false teaching is deadlier than persecution.

Latin text · CSEL 3.1:262

Eiusmodi homines quantum potestis effugite, perniciosis contactibus adhaerentes salubri cautione uitate. sermo eorum sicut cancer serpit, conloquium uelut contagium transilit, noxia et uenenata persuasio persecutione ipsa peius interficit. illic superest paenitentia quae satisfaciat. qui autem paenitentiam criminis tollunt satisfactionis uiam cludunt. ita fit ut dum temeritate quorundam uel promittitur salus falsa uel creditur, spes uerae salutis adimatur.

English · Claude translation

Avoid such people as much as you can; shun with salutary caution those who cling to pernicious contacts. Their speech creeps like a cancer; their conversation leaps across like a contagion; their harmful and poisonous persuasion kills worse than persecution itself. There, penance remains to make satisfaction; but those who take away penance for the crime close the road of satisfaction. So it happens that, while through the rashness of some a false salvation is either promised or believed, the hope of true salvation is taken away.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 3.1:262 · 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
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The comparison with a cancer is 2 Tim 2:17.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR slips): homjnes quantum potestis etfugite → homines quantum potestis effugite.

Cite this passage

Cyprian, Laps. 34 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/34/).

Plain text
Cyprian, Laps. 34 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/34/).

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