Light in the Churches; sacrifice at the tent alone
Cyril: …and lodges, we rest with him and shall lodge with him. When the cloud set out, the people set out with it; and when it halted, they camped with it (Numbers 9:17–18). ‘For the cloud,’ it says, ‘was over the tent by day, and fire by night’ (Exodus 40:38). For Christ richly nourishes with spiritual gifts those who have come to be, as it were, in day and light, because they have grasped the knowledge of him with precision and careful study and have had their minds made bright; and he enlightens those who are still less instructed. But in the Churches there is no darkness of worldly deceit at all, since Christ shines all around them and floods all things with spiritual light; for we are not of night or of darkness, but sons of light and of day, as it is written (1 Thessalonians 5:5).
Palladius: You are right.
Cyril: To this we shall add an account, and not at great length, of the laws concerning the tent, of the gifts the peoples brought, and also of the settings out and the encampments. For in this way our discussion would keep to a straight road.
Palladius: I agree.
Cyril: The Lawgiver and Judge, then, ruled that sacrifices must be offered in the holy tent alone by any who chose to offer them. He was drawing them away, I suppose, from the stale false worship, that of Egypt, I mean, where there was much mockery of idols and a most unlovely crowd of falsely named gods, a crowd perhaps unknown even to those who had chosen to worship them; and where sacrifice was left free, to be offered as anyone pleased, just as one of the Greek sages carelessly said: ‘One man sacrificed to one god, another to another.’ Drawing them away, then, from so cold and profane a habit and so senseless a custom, he said again in Leviticus: ‘Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: This is the word which the Lord has commanded, saying: Any man of the sons of Israel, or of those who reside among you, who slaughters a calf or a sheep or a goat in the camp, or who slaughters it outside the camp, and does not bring it to the door of the tent of witness to make it a whole burnt offering or a peace offering to the Lord, acceptable as a fragrant odor; and whoever slaughters outside, and does not bring it to the door of the tent of witness, and so does not offer a gift to the Lord before the tent of the Lord, it shall be reckoned to that man that he has shed blood; that soul shall be utterly destroyed from its people’ (Leviticus 17:2–4). He says, then, that the one who sacrifices outside the tent sheds blood and will be liable to the charge of murder. For such a man has, as it were, killed himself and destroyed his own soul, since he withdraws it from him who is God by nature, assigns it to stones and wood, and dedicates it to the deceits of demons. That he did not command simply every slaughtered animal to be brought to the doors of the tent, but only whatever anyone chose to dedicate to God as a sacrifice, he showed clearly by adding at once (Leviticus 17:7): ‘And they shall not offer their sacrifices…
Greek
καὶ καταλύοντι, συναναπαυόμεθα καὶ συγκαταλύσομεν. Ἀπαιρούσῃ δὲ τῇ νεφέλῃ, συναπῆρεν ὁ λαός· καὶ καταλυούσης, συγκατηυλίζετο· «Νεφέλη γὰρ ἦν, φησὶν, ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς τὴν ἡμέραν, καὶ πῦρ τὴν νύκτα.» Καταπιαίνει μὲν γὰρ ὁ Χριστὸς χαρίσμασι τοῖς πνευματικοῖς, τοὺς ὥσπερ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ καὶ φωτὶ γεγονότας, διά γε τοῦ τὴν ἐπ' αὐτῷ γνῶσιν λεπτῶς τε καὶ ἐξητασμένως ἑλεῖν, καὶ ἐκλελαμπρύνθαι τὸν νοῦν· καταφωτίζει δὲ τοὺς ἀμαθεστέρους ἔτι. Σκότος δὲ ὅλως κοσμικῆς ἀπάτης οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν Ἐκκλησίαις, περιαστράπτοντος αὐτὰς τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ νοητῷ φωτὶ τὰ σύμπαντα καταυγάζοντος· οὐ γάρ ἐσμεν νυκτὸς, οὐδὲ σκότους, ἀλλ' υἱοὶ φωτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθῶς ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Προσθέντες δὲ τούτοις, καὶ οὐκ ἐν μήκει λόγων, τοὺς ἐπί γε τῇ σκηνῇ νόμους, τάς τε τῶν λαῶν δωροφορίας, καὶ μὴν καὶ ἀπάρσεις καὶ συναυλισμοὺς, ἀφηγησόμεθα· ἴοι γὰρ ἂν οὕτω πρὸς οἶμον ὀρθὴν ὁ λόγος.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Σύμφημι.
{ΚΥΡ.} Δεδικαίωκε τοίνυν ὁ νομοθέτης καὶ κριτὴς ἐν μόνῃ δὴ χρῆναι τῇ ἁγίᾳ σκηνῇ τὰς θυσίας ἐπιτελεῖν, τοὺς εἴπερ ἂν ἕλοιντο τοῦτο δρᾷν, ἀφιστὰς, οἶμαί που, τῆς ἑώλου ψευδολατρείας, τῆς ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ φημὶ, ἔνθα πολὺς μὲν ὁ τῶν εἰδώλων ἐμπαιγμὸς, θεῶν τε τῶν ψευδωνύμων ἡ ἀκαλλεστάτη πληθὺς, οὐδὲ αὐτοῖς τάχα που τοῖς προσκυνεῖν ᾑρημένοις γνωρίζεσθαι δυναμένη· ἀνεῖται δὲ καὶ τὸ θύειν, ὥσπερ ἂν ἕλοιτό τις, κατά γε τὸ ὑπό του τῶν παρ' Ἕλλησι σοφῶν ἀτημελῶς εἰρημένον, ἄλλος δ' ἄλλῳ ἔρεζε θεῶν. Ἀφιστὰς οὖν τῆς οὕτω ψυχρᾶς τε καὶ βεβήλου τριβῆς καὶ συνηθείας ἀλογωτάτης, ἔφη πάλιν ἐν τῷ Λευιτικῷ· «Λάλησον πρὸς Ἀαρὼν καὶ πρὸς τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτοῦ, καὶ πρὸς πάντας τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτούς· Τοῦτο τὸ ῥῆμα ὃ ἐνετείλατο Κύριος λέγων· Ἄνθρωπος τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, ἢ τῶν προσκειμένων ἐν ὑμῖν, ὃς ἂν, σφάξῃ μόσχον ἢ πρόβατον, ἢ αἶγα ἐν τῇ παρεμβολῇ, καὶ ὃς ἐὰν σφάξῃ ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς, καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν θύραν τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου μὴ ἐνέγκῃ, ὥστε ποιῆσαι αὐτὸ εἰς ὁλοκαύτωμα, ἢ σωτήριον τῷ Κυρίῳ, δεκτὸν εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας· καὶ ὃς ἂν σφάξῃ ἔξω ἐπὶ τὴν θύραν τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου, καὶ μὴ ἐνέγκῃ αὐτὸ, ὥστε μὴ προσενέγκῃ δῶρον Κυρίῳ ἀπέναντι τῆς σκηνῆς Κυρίου, καὶ λογισθήσεται τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐκείνῳ, αἷμα ἐξέχεεν, ἐξολοθρευθήσεται ἡ ψυχὴ ἐκείνη ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτῆς.» Αἷμα μὲν οὖν ἐκχεῖν, καὶ τοῖς εἰς μιαιφωνίαν ἐγκλήμασιν ἔνοχον ἔσεσθαι τὸν ἔξω θύοντα τῆς σκηνῆς. Ἑαυτὸν γὰρ ὥσπερ διεχρήσατό τις, καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν ὠλόθρευσε ψυχὴν, ὁ Θεοῦ μὲν τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν ἀφιστὰς αὐτὴν, προσνέμων δὲ λίθοις καὶ ξύλοις καὶ ταῖς τῶν δαιμονίων ἀπάταις ἀνατιθείς. Ὅτι δὲ οὐ πᾶν ἁπλῶς θῦμα παρὰ τὰς θύρας ἄγεσθαι προστέταχε τῆς σκηνῆς, ἀλλ' ὅπερ ἕλοιτό τις εἰς θυσίαν ἀναθεῖναι Θεῷ, δέδειχεν ἐναργῶς προσεπάγων εὐθύς· «Καὶ οὐ θύσουσιν ἐπὶ τὰς θυσίας