One house for the lamb; the Church and the heretics
Cyril: …to the vain things after which they themselves go whoring’ (Leviticus 17:7). So he altogether forbids sacrificing indiscriminately to whomever one wishes, and says, very rightly, that worship must be offered to him alone who is God by nature.
Palladius: Our argument stands very well indeed.
Cyril: I think it would also benefit us not a little to understand, in another way, that it is profitable, and indeed in some sense necessary, for the sacrifices to be performed and the sacred victims offered in the holy tent alone.
Palladius: What do you mean?
Cyril: Did we not say that the calf slaughtered at the holy tent for the priest and for the people’s sins of ignorance is an image and type of Emmanuel (Leviticus 4:3, 13–14)?
Palladius: We did.
Cyril: In this way, then, we say, the mystery of Christ must be celebrated in the Churches of God, as in holy tents. For he sketched this out for us again elsewhere too. For when, at the beginning, he laid down for the Israelites departing from the land of the Egyptians how the lamb must be slaughtered as a type of Christ, he says: ‘It shall be eaten in one house, and you shall not carry any of its flesh outside’ (Exodus 12:46). So the heretics, who think otherwise, set aside what God has decided: beside the tent that is truly holy they pitch another for themselves; they sacrifice the lamb outside, carry it far away from the one house, and divide him who cannot be divided; for Christ is one and complete in all. But our wise Moses, who reveals holy things to us, gives this charge in Deuteronomy: ‘Take care that you do not offer your burnt offering in every place that you see, but only in the place which the Lord your God chooses, in one of your cities; there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you today. But you may slaughter whenever you desire, and eat meat as your soul desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you in every city. The unclean among you and the clean alike shall eat it, as they would a gazelle or a deer; only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water’ (Deuteronomy 12:13–16). To dare, then, to sacrifice in every place, and not to fulfill the mystery of Christ in the house of God, is the offense of a most loathsome mind, and liable to indictment.
Palladius: Well said. But explain this to me. The law has condemned the eating of blood, and very reasonably. What, again, might be the meaning contained in the letter?
Cyril: Then, if you agree, let us cite what was decreed on this point in Leviticus as well. It runs thus (Leviticus 17:10–14): ‘And any man of the sons of Israel, or of the proselytes residing among you, who eats any blood, I will set my face against the soul that eats the blood, and I will destroy it from its people. For the soul of all flesh is its blood…
Greek
αὐτῶν τοῖς ματαίοις, οἷς αὐτοὶ ἐκπορνεύσωσιν ὀπίσω αὐτῶν.» Οὐκοῦν ἀποφάσκει παντελῶς τὸ θύειν ἀδιακρίτως, ᾧπερ ἂν βούλοιτό τις, δεῖν δὲ δὴ μόνῳ τῷ κατὰ φύσιν Θεῷ τὰς λατρείας ἐπιτελεῖν, εὖ μάλα φησί.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς ἄριστά γε ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὀνήσειε δ' ἂν καὶ οὐ μετρίως ἡμᾶς καθ' ἕτερον οἶμαι τρόπον τὸ χρῆναι νοεῖν ὡς ἔστι λυσιτελὲς καὶ ἀναγκαῖον ἤδη πως τὸ, ἐν μόνῃ δεῖν τῇ ἁγίᾳ σκηνῇ πράττεσθαι τὰς θυσίας, καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ προσφέρεσθαι θύματα.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς ἔφης;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἦ οὐκ εἰκόνα καὶ τύπον ἐλέγομεν εἶναι τοῦ Ἐμμανουὴλ, τὸν ἱερέως τε πέρι καὶ ἀγνοημάτων λαοῦ πρὸς τῇ ἁγίᾳ σκηνῇ σφαζόμενον μόσχον;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἐλέγομεν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Χρῆναι δὴ οὖν ταύτῃ τοι φαμὲν, ὡς ἐν σκηναῖς ἁγίαις ταῖς Ἐκκλησίαις τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦ Χριστοῦ τελεῖσθαι μυστήριον. Τουτὶ γὰρ ἡμῖν καὶ ἑτέρωθί που διετύπου πάλιν. Θεσμοθετήσας γὰρ ἐν ἀρχαῖς τίνα δὴ τρόπον προσήκει σφάζεσθαι τὸν ἀμνὸν εἰς τύπον Χριστοῦ τῆς Αἰγυπτίων ἀπαίρουσι γῆς τοῖς ἐξ Ἰσραήλ· «Ἐν οἰκίᾳ μιᾷ βρωθήσεται, φησὶ, καὶ οὐκ ἐξοίσετε ἀπὸ τῶν κρεῶν αὐτοῦ ἔξω.» Οὐκοῦν παραλύουσι τὸ Θεῷ δοκοῦν, οἱ ἑτερόφρονες αἱρετικοὶ παρὰ τὴν οὖσαν ἀληθῶς ἁγίαν σκηνὴν, ἑαυτοῖς ἑτέραν διαπηγνύντες, καὶ ἔξω θύοντες τὸν ἀμνὸν, καὶ ἀπωτάτω που τῆς μιᾶς ἀποφέροντες οἰκίας, καὶ μερίζοντες τὸν ἀμέριστον· εἷς γὰρ καὶ τέλειος ἐν πᾶσι Χριστός. Ἀλλ' ὅγε σοφός τε ἡμῖν καὶ ἱεροφάντης Μωσῆς παρεγγυᾷ λέγων ἐν τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ, «Πρόσεχε σεαυτῷ μὴ ἀνενέγκῃς τὸ ὁλοκαύτωμά σου ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ᾧ ἐὰν ἴδῃς, ἀλλ' ἢ εἰς τόπον ὃν ἂν ἐκλέξηται Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου αὐτὸν, ἐν μιᾷ τῶν πόλεών σου, ἐκεῖ ἀνοίσεις τὰ ὁλοκαυτώματά σου, καὶ ἐκεῖ ποιήσεις πάντα ὅσα ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαί σοι σήμερον· ἀλλ' ἢ ἐν πάσῃ ἐπιθυμίᾳ σου θύσεις, καὶ φάγῃ κρέα κατὰ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τῆς ψυχῆς σου· κατὰ τὴν εὐλογίαν Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου, ἣν ἔδωκέ σοι ἐν πάσῃ πόλει. Ὁ ἀκάθαρτος ἐν σοὶ καὶ ὁ καθαρὸς ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ φάγεται αὐτὸ, ὡς δορκάδα ἢ ἔλαφον, πλὴν τὸ αἷμα οὐ φάγεσθε, ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἐκχεεῖτε αὐτὸ, ὡς ὕδωρ.» Διανοίας οὖν ἄρα τῆς βδελυρωτάτης ἀμπλάκημα καὶ γραφὴ, τὸ ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ θύειν ἀποτολμᾷν, καὶ μὴ ἐν οἴκῳ Θεοῦ πληροῦν τὸ Χριστοῦ μυστήριον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ λέγεις· πλὴν ἐκεῖνο φράσον. Τὴν αἵματος βρῶσιν κεκιβδήλευκεν ὁ νόμος, καὶ μάλα εἰκότως. Τί δ' ἂν εἴη πάλιν ὁ ἔν γε τῷ γράμματι νοῦς;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν, εἰ δοκεῖ, τὰ ἐπὶ τῷδε τεθεσπισμένα, καὶ ἐν τῷ Λευιτικῷ φέρε δὴ λέγωμεν. Ἔχει γὰρ ὧδε· «Καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, ἢ τῶν προσηλύτων τῶν προσκειμένων ἐν ὑμῖν, ὃς ἂν φάγῃ πᾶν αἷμα, ἐπιστήσω τὸ πρόσωπόν μου ἐπὶ τὴν ψυχὴν τὴν ἔσθουσαν τὸ αἷμα, καὶ ἀπολῶ αὐτὴν ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτῆς. Ἡ γὰρ ψυχὴ πάσης σαρκὸς αἷμα αὐτοῦ