Unblemished calf = Christ; hands = deeds; sevenfold blood = perfect cleansing

Cyril: …being rubbed-off pollution, and through these also it would become clear for everyone. And let us say part by part the things upon each of the things written; for the word would go forward distinctly and unfolding, as possible, the things hidden.

Palladius: You have spoken well.

Cyril: So then the calf is taken unblemished and unwounded unto a type of Christ the truly unblemished, and not having endured to suffer the wounding from the sin. ‘For the ruler of this world comes,’ he says, ‘and in me he will find nothing’; for he did not do sin, according to the Scriptures. And he is brought forward toward the very doors of the holy tent opposite Lord, as not refusing the suffering, for the holy tent—that is, the Church—having been dedicated for it unto a smell of fragrance to God and Father. Therefore also he was saying, ‘For them I sanctify myself.’ Saying the, I sanctify, instead of, I bring forward, and dedicate an unblemished offering to God and Father. For what is dedicated to God is said to be sanctified, according to that somehow written: ‘A snare for a man, to sanctify something of his own quickly; for after vowing, repenting comes to be.’ And that the offering is acceptable and well-pleasing, the, ‘Opposite Lord,’ makes clear. For we already think what has been written upon the pair of brothers, Cain I mean and Abel. ‘For God looked,’ he says, ‘upon Abel and upon his gifts, and upon Cain and his sacrifices he did not attend’; for he looks upon what is pleasing to him, and turns away hating what does not hold thus, not unclearly. And with the hands of the one who has failed being set upon the calf, the slaughter is practiced; and before Lord. ‘For he himself takes up our sins, and for us is pained’ being slaughtered. For of deed and practices is the hand, unto a type. Yet, before Lord he is slaughtered, all but with the Father also coming-down unto the needing for the Son to have died for us; for he does not turn away seeing him slaughtered, and not somehow altogether praising the suffering, yet not having been ignorant that it is saving for the world for Emmanuel to suffer for us. So then he himself takes up our sins, and for us is pained, enduring for us the slaughter upon the honored cross. Then the priest taking from the blood with the finger, will sprinkle seven times upon the holy veil, which was upon the ark. And its name, the mercy-seat. And he also anoints the horns of the altar of the incense. For Christ has become for us both propitiation and mercy-seat. Yet, in blood of an age-long covenant, he gifts us the most complete cleansing-off. For this, I think, is the mercy-seat being sprinkled with the blood seven times; and a symbol of perfection is the number seven. For his death also makes fragrant the salvation and life of the world and the approach in faith; ‘For one died for all, that those living may no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised,’ according to the Scriptures. So then the anointing of the golden censer with the blood makes clear the fragrance of the death. And the remaining blood is also poured out beside the base of the altar of the fruit-