The laver as baptism, the veiled law, and Paul on the two tents
Cyril: …sins’ (Hebrews 10:4), you can learn at once, and with no trouble at all, once you have considered what the laver was for. It stood in the middle of the first tent, bright and plain to see, washing beforehand with water those who were going into the Holy of Holies; for the law on this point was laid down for the priests (Exodus 30:19–21). So even what seemed to be fulfillment under the law was incomplete; it pointed to the cleansing through holy baptism, which washes the sacred race clean. I mean the race of those justified by faith, whom the inspired disciple addressed when he said, ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light’ (1 Peter 2:9). One should also know that a veil was stretched across the door of the outer tent as well, so that the Holy Place, that is, the first tent, where the altar of the law stood, would not lie bare and open to those outside. Here again, I think, the figure shows that the law itself is not plain to just anyone. For the letter has a veil over it (2 Corinthians 3:14), and is in a way covered and wrapped in the obscurity that belongs to shadows.
Palladius: That is so.
Cyril: In the first tent, then, stood the laver and the altar; in the second and innermost stood the ark and the lampstand, and also the golden censer with the fine incense upon it, and the table and the loaves. The inspired Paul also mentions a golden jar holding the manna (Hebrews 9:4). He names Aaron’s rod too, which he says was laid up in the Holy of Holies, since he was well versed in the sacred Scriptures and knew very well what had been decreed at various times and what God had commanded blessed Moses. Yet he knows that the table and the lampstand were in the first tent (Hebrews 9:2). He writes this about the two covenants: ‘In speaking of a new covenant he has made the first old; and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish. Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. For a tent was prepared, the first one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the setting out of the loaves; it is called the Holy Place. Behind the second veil was the tent called the Holy of Holies, which had a golden censer and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which were a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat’, of which we cannot now speak in detail (Hebrews 8:13–9:5).
Palladius: Suppose, then, that someone chose to be inquisitive and said we ought to give the reasons for the whole arrangement. What answer would we give?
Cyril: The reason, Palladius, is that he commanded some of these things to be done before the holy tent was built, and others after it. For in Exodus, even…
Greek
τίας,» ἀναμάθοις ἂν εὐθὺς, καὶ λίαν ἀμογητὶ, καὶ τὴν τοῦ λουτῆρος χρείαν ἐννενοηκώς. Ἔκειτο γὰρ ἐν μέσῃ τῇ πρώτῃ σκηνῇ λαμπρὸς καὶ περίοπτος, προαπονίζων ὕδατι τοὺς εἰς τὰ Ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων εἰστρέχοντας. Τέθειτο γὰρ τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν ὁ ἐπὶ τῷδε νόμος. Οὐκοῦν καὶ ἡ ἐν νόμῳ δοκοῦσα πλήρωσις, ἀτελὴς, τὴν διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος κάθαρσιν ὑποδηλοῦσα, ἣ τὸ ἱερὸν ἐκπλύνει γένος, φημὶ δὴ τὸ τῶν ἐν πίστει δεδικαιωμένων, οἷς καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος μαθητὴς προσπεφώνηκε λέγων, «Ὑμεῖς δὲ γένος ἐκλεκτὸν, βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα, ἔθνος ἅγιον, λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν, ἵνα τὰς ἀρετὰς ἐξαγγείλητε τοῦ ἐκ σκότους ἡμᾶς καλέσαντος εἰς τὸ θαυμαστὸν αὐτοῦ φῶς.» Ἰστέον δὲ ὅτι καὶ τῇ θύρᾳ τῆς ἔξω σκηνῆς περιτετάννυστο καταπέτασμα, ὡς ἂν μὴ γυμνά τε καὶ ἐμφανῆ τοῖς ἔξωθεν εἴη τὰ Ἅγια, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἡ πρώτη σκηνὴ, ἐν ᾗ τὸ ἐν νόμῳ θυσιαστήριον· καταδηλοῦντος, οἶμαι, τοῦ τύπου πάλιν, ὅτι μηδὲ αὐτὸς τοῖς τυχοῦσιν ἐμφανὴς ὁ νόμος. Κατακάλυμμα γὰρ ἔχει τὸ γράμμα, καὶ κατακεκάλυπταί τε καὶ κατημφίασταί πως τὴν ὡς ἐν σκιαῖς ἀσάφειαν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ἐν μὲν τῇ πρώτῃ σκηνῇ λουτὴρ ἔκειτο καὶ θυσιαστήριον· ἐν δὲ τῇ δευτέρᾳ καὶ ἐσωτάτω, ἡ κιβωτὸς καὶ ἡ λυχνία· καὶ μέντοι καὶ τὸ χρυσοῦν θυμιατήριον, ἐφ' ᾧ τὸ λεπτὸν θυμίαμα, τράπεζά τε καὶ ἄρτοι. Διαμέμνηται δὲ ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος καὶ στάμνου χρυσῆς ἐχούσης τὸ μάννα. Καὶ μὴν καὶ ῥάβδον ἡμῖν ὀνομάζει τὴν Ἀαρὼν, ἣν καὶ ἐν τοῖς Ἁγίοις τῶν ἁγίων ἀποτεθεῖσθαί φησιν, ἅτε δὴ καὶ τῶν ἱερῶν Γραμμάτων ἐντριβὴς, καὶ ἐγνωκὼς ὅτι μάλιστά γε τὰ τεθεσπισμένα κατὰ καιροὺς, καὶ τῷ μακαρίῳ Μωσῇ προστεταγμένα θεόθεν. Οἶδε δὲ οὖσαν καὶ τράπεζαν καὶ λυχνίαν ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ σκηνῇ. Γράφει δὲ οὕτω περὶ ταῖν δυοῖν διαθήκαιν, «Ἐν τῷ λέγειν καινὴν, πεπαλαίωκε τὴν πρώτην. Τὸ δὲ παλαιούμενον καὶ γηράσκον, ἐγγὺς ἀφανισμοῦ. Εἶχε μὲν οὖν καὶ ἡ πρώτη δικαιώματα λατρείας, τό τε ἅγιον κοσμικόν· σκηνὴ γὰρ κατεσκευάσθη ἡ πρώτη, ἐν ᾗ ἥ τε λυχνία καὶ ἡ τράπεζα, καὶ ἡ πρόθεσις τῶν ἄρτων, ἥτις λέγεται ἁγία. Μετὰ δὲ τὸ δεύτερον καταπέτασμα σκηνὴ, ἡ λεγομένη Ἅγια ἁγίων, χρυσοῦν ἔχουσα θυμιατήριον, καὶ τὴν κιβωτὸν τῆς διαθήκης περικεκαλυμμένην πάντοθεν χρυσίῳ, ἐν ᾗ στάμνος χρυσῆ ἔχουσα τὸ μάννα, καὶ ἡ ῥάβδος Ἀαρὼν ἡ βλαστήσασα, καὶ αἱ πλάκες τῆς διαθήκης. Ὑπεράνω δὲ αὐτῆς Χερουβὶμ δόξης κατασκιάζοντα τὸ ἱλαστήριον,» περὶ ὧν οὐκ ἔστι νῦν λέγειν κατὰ μέρος.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἄρ' οὖν εἴ τις ἕλοιτο φιλοπευστεῖν, χρῆναί τε λέγοι τὰς αἰτίας εἰπεῖν τῆς ὅλης κατασκευῆς, τίς ἂν γένοιτο πρὸς ἡμῶν ὁ λόγος;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὅτι, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τὰ μὲν πρὸ τῆς κατασκευῆς τῆς ἁγίας σκηνῆς, τὰ δὲ μετὰ τοῦτο γενέσθαι προστέταχεν. Ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῇ Ἐξόδῳ καί τοι