Laver = baptism; outer veil hides law; Paul on two tents / two covenants
Cyril: …sins,’ you would learn at once, and very without toil, having also thought through the need of the laver. For it was lying in the middle of the first tent bright and conspicuous, washing beforehand with water those running into the Holies of holies. For the law upon this had been set for the priests. So then also the seeming fullness in law is incomplete, hinting the cleansing through holy baptism, which washes out the holy race—I mean that of those justified in faith—to whom also the all-divine disciple has addressed saying, ‘But you a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people unto acquisition, that you may announce the excellences of the one who called us from darkness unto his marvelous light.’ And one must know that also upon the door of the outer tent a veil had been stretched around, so that the Holies might not be bare and apparent to those from outside—that is, the first tent, in which is the altar in law—the type again making clear, I think, that not even the law itself is apparent to those who happen by. For it has a covering, the letter, and has somehow been covered and veiled with the unclarity as in shadows.
Palladius: Thus it holds.
Cyril: So then in the first tent laver was lying and altar; and in the second and innermost, the ark and the lampstand; and indeed also the golden censer, upon which the fine incense, and table and breads. And all-divine Paul also makes mention of a golden jar having the manna. And indeed he also names for us Aaron’s rod, which he says has also been set away in the Holies of holies, as being well-versed in the holy Letters, and having known that especially the things oracled according to times, and ordered to blessed Moses from God. And he knows also table and lampstand being in the first tent. And he writes thus concerning the two covenants, ‘In saying new, he has made the first old. And what is being made old and aging is near disappearance. So then the first also had righteous-ordinances of worship, and the worldly holy; for a tent was constructed the first, in which both the lampstand and the table, and the setting-forth of the breads, which is called holy. And after the second veil a tent, the one called Holies of holies, having a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant covered round from everywhere with gold, in which a golden jar having the manna, and Aaron’s rod that sprouted, and the tablets of the covenant. And above it Cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat,’ concerning which it is not now to speak part by part.
Palladius: So then if someone should choose to be fond of seeking, and should say the causes of the whole construction must be spoken, what word would come to be from us?
Cyril: That, O Palladius, some things before the construction of the holy tent, and some after this, he has ordered to come to be. For in the 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
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 10 of a seventeen-book dialogue — not the whole work.
English follows Migne PG 68 (Aubert reprint). The PDF and a cleaned text of the same print were checked against each other. This page is Book 10 of seventeen. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 68 De adoratione Book 5 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 10)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 10)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.