The mother spared with her young; no grove beside the altar
Palladius: …together with her young on the same day: what, in turn, would that mean?
Cyril: After laying down in the law so well what concerns Christ, and gracefully foretelling the perfecting that comes through him, the Lawgiver, being God, did not fail to know the disobedience of the Jews and the unruliness of Jerusalem. He knew that for this reason the people of Israel would be destroyed as killers of the Lord and as men who had savagely abused the Son; yet Jerusalem would not perish altogether, root and all. She would remain like a woman bereft of children, waiting for the last time, at the end, when she too will be saved, running behind the nations. For she has been set at the back, that is, behind, as the Psalmist’s words have it: ‘For he will put them at the back’ (Psalm 21:12). For all Israel will be saved, once the flock from the nations has first been gathered into the divine folds (Romans 11:25–26). So the law does not allow the destruction to come about as a final and total ruin. It shows in advance that the wrath against the disobedient is tempered with gentleness; and at the same time, I think, it sets the matter before us as a kind of figure of something we need to know. For the things that exist will by no means pass away into nothing, overpowered by unchecked corruption. Rather, they will endure, as it were, through succession, this one preserved in that, and that perhaps in this, according to kinship or likeness of kind, since God wards off the total destruction of his own creatures. For ‘he created all things that they might exist, and the generations of the world bring preservation’ (Wisdom of Solomon 1:14), as it is written. And it was fitting that the foretelling of such things, and indeed their disclosure, should belong to the teaching about Christ, for whose sake and in whom what was corrupted is saved, and what was under the tyranny of death has blossomed again into life. For the root of the human race died like a mother, as in Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22); yet those who came from it, that is, we ourselves, have blossomed again in Christ. In him we exist and are saved, since we have him as our life and as a second root, so to speak, of our race.
Palladius: How well, and how carefully, your argument is worked out!
Cyril: It is worth adding to what has been said, Palladius, this passage: ‘You shall not plant a grove for yourself; any tree beside the altar of the Lord your God you shall not make for yourself; you shall not set up a pillar for yourself, things which the Lord your God hates’ (Deuteronomy 16:21–22). See how he removes the worshipper of the truth entirely from idolatrous deceit. He by no means allows him to make use of the laws of the pagans, and he charges him to shake off their customs, even if they do no harm and even if they come about by chance.
Palladius: What do you mean?
Cyril: The pagans would take over the most flourishing trees and every thicket dense with leaves, and there they would set up altars and sacrifices to the demons. For they had to, they simply had to, attach to the altars of the demons something that would carry the mind away, as it were, and worldly pleasures besides. Falsehood is sick with weakness from within, but it is often decked out with ornaments brought in from outside,
Greek
δεῖν μητέρα τοῖς τέκνοις ἐν ἡμέρᾳ μιᾷ, τί ἂν εἴη πάλιν;
{ΚΥΡ.} Νομοθετήσας εὖ μάλα τὰ ἐπὶ Χριστῷ, καὶ τὴν δι' αὐτοῦ τελείωσιν προαναφωνήσας ἀστείως, οὐκ ἠγνόησεν, ὡς Θεὸς, τῶν Ἰουδαίων τὸ ἀπειθὲς, καὶ τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ τὸ δυσήνιον, καὶ ὅτι ταύτης ἕνεκα τῆς αἰτίας, ὀλοθρευθήσονται μὲν ὡς κυριοκτόνοι, καὶ ἀγρίως πεπαρῳνηκότες εἰς τὸν Υἱὸν οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ, πλὴν οὐκ εἰσάπαν ὁλόριζος Ἱερουσαλὴμ οἰχήσεται, μενεῖ δὲ ὥσπερ ἔρημος τέκνων, τὸν τελευταῖον καὶ ἐν ἐσχάτοις περιμένουσα καιρὸν, καθ' ὃν καὶ αὐτὴ σωθήσεται κατόπιν τρέχουσα τῶν ἐθνῶν· τέθειται γὰρ εἰς νῶτον, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ὀπίσω, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ Ψάλλοντος φωνὴν, «Ὅτι θήσει αὐτοὺς νῶτον·» πᾶς γὰρ Ἰσραὴλ σωθήσεται, τῆς ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἀγέλης τοῖς θείοις σηκοῖς προενηυλισμένης. Οὐκ ἐᾷ τοιγαροῦν ὁ νόμος τὴν ὡς ἐν ἐσχάτῃ πανωλεθρίᾳ γενέσθαι φθορὰν, ἡμερότητι συγκεκραμένην τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀπειθήσασι προαναφαίνων ὀργὴν, ἐν ταὐτῷ δὲ, οἶμαι τύπων ὥσπερ τινὰ τὸ χρῆμα τιθεὶς εἰδήσεως ἀναγκαίας. Ἥκιστα μὲν γὰρ οἰχήσεται τὰ ὄντα πρὸς τὸ μηδὲν ἀκράτῳ φθορᾷ τυραννούμενα, διαμενεῖ δὲ ὥσπερ ταῖς διαδοχαῖς τοῦτο ἐν ἐκείνῳ, κἀκεῖνο τυχὸν ἐν τούτῳ σωζόμενα, κατά γε τὸ συγγενὲς ἢ ὁμοειδὲς, τὸν εἰσάπαν ὄλεθρον τῶν ἰδίων κτισμάτων ἀποσοβοῦντος τοῦ Θεοῦ. «Ἔκτισε γὰρ εἰς τὸ εἶναι τὰ πάντα καὶ σωτήριοι αἱ γενέσεις τοῦ κόσμου,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. Ἔπρεπε δὲ καὶ τῶν τοιούτων ἡ προαγόρευσις, καὶ μὴν καὶ ἡ δήλωσις, τῶν περὶ Χριστοῦ λόγων, δι' ὃν καὶ ἐν ᾧ τὰ ἐφθαρμένα σώζεται, καὶ τὸ θανάτῳ τυραννούμενον ἀνατέθηλεν εἰς ζωὴν, τετελεύτηκε μὲν γὰρ ἡ ῥίζα τοῦ ἀνθρωπείου γένους οἷά τις μήτηρ, ὡς ἐν Ἀδὰμ, πλὴν οἱ ἐξ αὐτῆς, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἡμεῖς, ἀνεθάλλομεν ἐν Χριστῷ καὶ ἐσμὲν καὶ σωζόμεθα, ζωὴν ἔχοντες αὐτὸν καὶ ῥίζαν ὥσπερ τοῦ γένους δευτέραν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς εὖ γε δὴ καὶ μάλα ἀπεζεσμένως ὁ λόγος ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄξιον δὲ, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἐπενεγκεῖν, τό· «Οὐ φυτεύσεις σεαυτῷ ἄλσος· πᾶν ξύλον παρὰ τὸ θυσιαστήριον Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου, οὐ ποιήσεις σεαυτῷ, οὐ στήσεις σεαυτῷ στήλην, ἃ ἐμίσησε Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου.» Θέα γὰρ ὅπως εἰδωλοπρεποῦς ἀπάτης ἐξοικίζει παντελῶς τὸν τῆς ἀληθείας προσκυνητὴν, ἥκιστα μὲν ἐφιεὶς, τοῖς Ἑλλήνων ἀποκεχρῆσθαι νόμοις, ἀποσείεσθαι δὲ δεῖν τὰ παρ' ἐκείνοις ἔθη παρεγγυῶν, κἂν εἰ μηδὲν ἔχοιεν τὸ λυποῦν, καὶ εἰ γένοιντο τυχόν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οἷόν τι φής;
{ΚΥΡ.} Τὰ εὐερνέστατα τῶν φυτῶν πάντα τε ἀμφιλαφῶς κομῶντα δρυμὸν καταλαμβάνοντες Ἕλληνες. βωμοὺς καὶ θυσίας τοῖς δαιμονίοις ἵστασαν. Ἔδει γὰρ, ἔδει τοῖς τῶν δαιμονίων βωμοῖς ἀποφορὰν ὥσπερ νοῦ, καὶ μὴν καὶ τέρψεις παραπεπῆχθαι κοσμικάς. Νοσεῖ γὰρ τὸ ψεῦδος οἴκοθεν μὲν τὸ ἄναλκι, κατακαλλύνεται δὲ πολλάκις τοῖς εἰσποιητοῖς ὡραϊσμοῖς,