Whole burnt offering and sacrifice of salvation; the dish and cup as Christ our food and drink
Cyril: …each, one silver dish and one cup, both, it says, full of fine flour mixed with oil; one incense dish full of incense; one ram and one yearling lamb for a whole burnt offering; a male goat for sin (Numbers 7:13–16). These are the whole burnt offerings. And for a sacrifice of salvation, it says, they also brought two heifers, five rams, five he-goats and five yearling ewe lambs (Numbers 7:17).
Palladius: Explain, then, before anything else, what separates the two: what difference would one say there is between the sacrifice of salvation and the whole burnt offering?
Cyril: Listen, then. In the whole burnt offerings the animals were burned up entire by the sacred and unquenchable fire, no part at all held back; every portion and every limb rose, as it were, to God as a fragrant aroma. But the animals slaughtered for the sacrifice of salvation received a partial consecration, in the right shoulder, for example, the head and the feet, the kidneys and the liver, and certain other inner parts and entrails. It is fitting, then, that Christ should be offered as a whole burnt offering, for he is truly holy in his entirety, wholly fragrant and sacred. But to us belongs what is not altogether holy and not entirely sacred, for there is some defilement in us too, because of the sin that is in us. For ‘no one is clean from filth’ (Job 14:4), and ‘Who will understand his transgressions?’ (Psalm 19:12), as it is written. For this reason the law very rightly commanded that the sacrifice of salvation be consecrated not as a whole burnt offering, but rather in part. Is the account clear to you, then, Palladius, and enough to make it easy to grasp?
Palladius: Very much so.
Cyril: Come, then, let us go on to the next point: to say something, I mean, about each of the things offered, and also to understand what is needed for our benefit.
Palladius: Go on, then.
Cyril: The gifts from each of the tribal leaders, then, are one silver dish and one cup, both full of fine flour mixed with oil. The dish serves for food and is useful for eating what goes with bread, as the Savior himself showed when he told John, his true disciple, who was eager to learn it, who would betray him: ‘He who dipped his hand in the dish with me,’ he says (Matthew 26:23). And why should I speak of the use of the cup, when the thing itself cries it aloud? Fine flour is a sign of bread, since bread is made from it, and the bread of life is Christ (John 6:35). So in the dish and the cup, as it were, and in the bread that was in both (for both were full of fine flour), as in food and drink, Christ is signified as life and as the giver of life. ‘For truly,’ he says, ‘I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves’ (John 6:53). And it says that the fine flour was soaked in oil, as though the type were singing out that very word in the Psalms (Psalm 45:7): ‘You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil…
Greek
ἑκάστου τρυβλίον ἓν ἀργυροῦν, καὶ φιάλη μία, καὶ ἀμφότερα, φησὶ, πλήρη σεμιδάλεως ἀναπεποιημένης ἐν ἐλαίῳ, θυΐσκη μία θυμιάματος ἔμπλεως, κριὸς εἷς, ἀμνὸς εἷς ἐνιαύσιος εἰς ὁλοκαύτωμα, χίμαρος ἐξ αἰγῶν περὶ ἁμαρτίας· καὶ ταυτὶ μὲν τὰ ὁλοκαυτώματα. Προσεκόμιζον δὲ καὶ εἰς θυσίαν σωτηρίου, φησὶ, δαμάλεις δύο, κριοὺς πέντε, τράγους πέντε, ἀμνάδας ἐνιαυσίους πέντε.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φράζε δὴ οὖν καὶ πρό γε τῶν ἄλλων, τί τὸ μεταξὺ, καὶ ποίαν ἄν τις εἴποι τὴν διαφορὰν τῆς τοῦ σωτηρίου θυσίας, καὶ ὁλοκαυτώματος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄκουε δή. Τὰ μὲν γὰρ ὁλοκαυτώματα τῶν ζώων ὅλα δι' ὅλων, ἱερῷ καὶ ἀσβέστῳ κατεφλέγετο πυρὶ, οὐδενὸς τὸ σύμπαν ἐξῃρημένου, ἀλλ' οἱονεί πως παντὸς μορίου καὶ μέλους εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας ἀναβαίνοντος τῷ. θεῷ, τὰ δέ γε ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ σωτηρίου θυσίας σφαζόμενα, μερικὴν ἐδέχετο τὴν καθιέρωσιν, ὡς ἐν ὤμῳ δεξιῷ, κεφαλῇ τε καὶ ποσὶ, νεφροῖς καὶ ἥπατι, καὶ ἑτέροις τισὶ τοῖς εἰς τὸ εἴσω καὶ ἐνδοσθίοις. Πρέπει δὴ οὖν τὸ ὁλοκαυτοῦσθαι Χριστῷ· καὶ γάρ ἐστιν ἀληθῶς ὅλος ἅγιος, εὐώδης ἅπας καὶ ἱερός. Ἡμῖν δὲ οἰκεῖον, τὸ οὐκ εἰσάπαν ἅγιον, καὶ οὐχ ὁλοκλήρως ἱερὸν, οἷς ἔνεστί τι καὶ μολυσμοῦ διὰ τὴν ἐν ἡμῖν ἁμαρτίαν. «Καθαρὸς γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἀπὸ ῥύπου,» καὶ «Παραπτώματα τίς συνήσει;» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. Διὰ τοῦτο τὴν ὑπὲρ τοῦ σωτηρίου θυσίαν, οὐχ ὁλόκαυτον ὁ νόμος, μερικῶς δὲ μᾶλλον καθιεροῦσθαι δεῖν εὖ μάλα προστέταχεν. Ἆρ' οὖν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, σαφής σοι καὶ ἀποχρῶν εἰς εὐμαθίαν ὁ λόγος;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μάλα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Φέρε δὴ οὖν, ἐπ' ἐκεῖνο ἴωμεν εἴς γε τὸ, ἑκάστῳ φημὶ τῶν προσενηνεγμένων, φάναι τι, καὶ μὴν καὶ συνιέναι τῶν ἀναγκαίων εἰς ὄνησιν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἴθι δὴ οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἔστι τοίνυν τὰ παρ' ἑκάστου τῶν φυλάρχων, τρυβλίον ἀργυροῦν ἓν καὶ φιάλη μία, καὶ ἀμφότερα πλήρη σεμιδάλεως ἀναπεποιημένης ἐλαίῳ. Τὸ μὲν οὖν τρυβλίον ἐστὶ τοῖς ἐδωδίμοις ὑπηρετοῦν, καὶ εἰς ὀψοφαγίαν χρήσιμον, καθὸ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐδίδαξεν ὁ Σωτὴρ φιλοπνευστοῦντι Ἰωάννῃ τῷ γνησίῳ μαθητῇ τίς ὁ παραδώσων αὐτὸν, «Ὁ ἐμβάψας, φησὶ, μετ' ἐμοῦ τὴν χεῖρα ἐν τῷ τρυβλίῳ.» Φιάλης δὲ τί ἂν λέγοιμι τὴν χρείαν, διακεκραγότος ὡδὶ τοῦ πράγματος; Καὶ σημεῖον ἄρτου σεμίδαλις, ὅτι καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς ἄρτος, ἄρτος δὲ ζωῆς, ὁ Χριστός. Οὐκοῦν ὡς ἐν τῷ τρυβλίῳ καὶ ἐν τῇ φιάλῃ, καὶ ὡς ἐν ἄρτῳ τῷ ἐν ἀμφοῖν, πλήρη γὰρ ἦν σεμιδάλεως, ὡς ἐν βρώσει τε καὶ πόσει, ζωὴ καὶ ζωοποιὸς ὁ Χριστὸς σημαίνεται. «Ἀμὴν γὰρ, φησὶ, λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν μὴ φάγητε τὴν σάρκα τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, καὶ πίητε αὐτοῦ τὸ αἷμα, οὐκ ἔχετε ζωὴν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς.» Ἐλαίῳ δὲ τὴν σεμίδαλιν καταδεδεῦσθαί φησιν, αὐτό που τὸ ἐν Ψαλμοῖς ἀναμελῳδοῦντος οἱονεί που τοῦ τύπου· «Ἠγάπησας δικαιοσύνην, καὶ ἐμίσησας ἀδικίαν, διὰ τοῦτο ἔχρισέ σε ὁ Θεὸς, ὁ Θεός σου ἔλαιον