The door screen, the five pillars, and the law at the threshold
Cyril: …in light, the spiritual light, that is, and they are filled still further, ‘as the day dawns and the Morning Star rises’ in the mind (2 Peter 1:19), as one of the Savior’s disciples said. With the things in the Holy of Holies placed and made in this way, he commanded that a drawn curtain, or veil, be made of blue, purple, spun scarlet and twisted fine linen; and he said that it must be stretched across the entrances of the tent, hung on five golden pillars whose bases were bronze (Exodus 26:36–37). He calls the hanging over the door a ‘drawn curtain’ because, I think, it was drawn back on slender rings when the entrance was to be opened, and then drawn across again and spread over the doorway to hide the Holy Place. The five pillars, golden and bound with bronze, prefigure the teachers and leaders of the Churches who belong, as it were, to the fifth period of time, the period in which the coming of Christ took place. Rightly handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15), they are precious as gold and ring out clearly like bronze. ‘For their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world’ (Psalm 19:4; Romans 10:18). Through their skilled teaching of the mysteries, inspired by God, they also widen, as it were, the entrances for those who wish to hasten into the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies, then, that is, the inner tent, was covered by the veil. The first tent was set right against the second and joined to it. It held the altar of burnt offerings, on which every offering made with blood was carried out, the cakes and the frankincense, and every sacrifice and drink offering; and it held the bronze laver as well, beside the altar (Exodus 30:18). The altar’s place was by the doors of the tent, clearly the outer tent (Exodus 40:6), and the laver’s place was the very middle of the tent.
Palladius: And what, again, are we to understand by this careful arrangement?
Cyril: Holy Scripture is exact, Palladius, and nothing at all in it is idle. See how the figure has shown us the law as a tutor leading us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). For the altar of the worship under the law was set right at the entrances that lead into the Holy of Holies. For the law barely brings us as far as the beginnings of the mysteries of Christ, to what are, as it were, the first entrances of exact knowledge about him; but it does not bring us at all into the Holy of Holies, that is, into the inner tent, where Christ is found in many forms: as the Word of God, as light, as living bread, as a sweet fragrance to God the Father (Ephesians 5:2). Or would you not say that the preparatory practice of worship under the law was the elements and first principles of the oracles of God (Hebrews 5:12)?
Palladius: That is true.
Cyril: That the law made nothing perfect (Hebrews 7:19), for ‘it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away…
Greek
γονε τὰ ἔθνη φωτὸς, δηλονότι τοῦ νοητοῦ, προσαναπιμπλάμενα «διαυγαζούσης ἡμέρας, καὶ Φωσφόρου κατὰ νοῦν ἀνατέλλοντος,» ἔφη γάρ τις τῶν τοῦ Σωτῆρος μαθητῶν. Ἐχόντων δὲ ὧδε θέσεώς τε καὶ κατασκευῆς τῶν ἐν τοῖς Ἁγίοις τῶν ἁγίων, ἐπίσπαστρον, ἤτοι καταπέτασμα, γενέσθαι προστέταχεν ἐξ ὑακίνθου καὶ πορφύρας, καὶ κοκκίνου κεκλωσμένου, καὶ βύσσου νενησμένης· τοῦτο δὲ ταῖς σκηνῆς εἰσβολαῖς περιτείνεσθαι δεῖν ἔφασκεν ἀναγκαίως, πέντε χρυσοῖς ἐπαιωρούμενον στύλοις, ὧν αἱ βάσεις χαλκαῖ. Καὶ ἐπίσπαστρον μὲν ὀνομάζει, τῆς θύρας τὸ περιτάνυσμα, διὰ τὸ, οἶμαι, λεπτοῖς κρίκοις ἀνόπιν ἕλκεσθαι δικνουμένης τῆς εἰσβολῆς· ἀντεπισπᾶσθαι δὲ αὖ καὶ κατευρύνεσθαι τῶν θυρῶν, κρύπτειν τὰ Ἅγια. Πέντε δὲ οἱ στύλοι, χρυσοῖ καὶ περίχαλκοι, τοὺς ὡς πέμπτῳ καιρῷ, καθ' ὃν ἡ Χριστοῦ γέγονε παρουσία, προανατυποῦντες διδασκάλους καὶ τῶν Ἐκκλησιῶν ἡγουμένους· οἳ τὸν τῆς ἀληθείας ὀρθοτομοῦντες λόγον, τίμιοι μὲν ὡς χρυσός εἰσιν, εὐηχεῖς δὲ οὕτως ὡς χαλκός. «Εἰς πᾶσαν γὰρ δὴ τὴν γῆν ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν, καὶ εἰς τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ ῥήματα αὐτῶν·» οἳ καὶ διὰ τῆς ἐντέχνου καὶ θεοπνεύστου μυσταγωγίας τοῖς εἰς τὰ Ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων εἰστρέχειν ἐθέλουσιν ἀνευρύνουσιν ὥσπερ τὰς εἰσβολάς. Τὰ μὲν οὖν Ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἡ ἐσωτέρα σκηνὴ κατεκαλύπτετο τῷ καταπετάσματι. Παρερήρειστο δὲ εὐθὺς καὶ συνήρμοστο τῇ δευτέρᾳ καὶ ἡ πρώτη σκηνὴ, τὸ θυσιαστήριον ἔχουσα τῶν καρπωμάτων, ἐν ᾧ πᾶσα ἡ δι' αἱμάτων ἐτελεῖτο προσαγωγὴ, πόπανά τε καὶ οἱ λιβανωτοὶ, καὶ πᾶσα θυσία καὶ σπονδὴ, καὶ πρός γε τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ καὶ τὸν λουτῆρα τὸν χαλκοῦν. Τόπος δὲ αὖ τῷ μὲν θυσιαστηρίῳ παρὰ τὰς θύρας τῆς σκηνῆς, δῆλον δὲ ὅτι τῆς ἐξωτέρας· τῷ δέ γε λουτῆρι, τὸ μεσαίτατον τῆς σκηνῆς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ τίς ἂν νοοῖτο πάλιν ἡ ἐπιτήρησις;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀκριβὲς, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τὸ Γράμμα τὸ ἱερὸν, καὶ εἰκαῖον ἐν αὐτῷ παντελῶς οὐδέν. Θέα γὰρ ὅπως ἡμῖν τὸ αἴνιγμα παιδαγωγοῦντα δέδειχεν ἐπὶ Χριστὸν τὸν νόμον. Τέθειται γὰρ παρ' αὐταῖς ταῖς εἰσόδοις ταῖς εἰς τὰ Ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων τῆς κατὰ νόμον λατρείας τὸ θυσιαστήριον. Ἀποφέρει γὰρ ὁ νόμος μόλις ἡμᾶς εἰς ἀρχὰς τῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ μυστηρίων, καὶ οἱονεί πως παρὰ τὰς πρώτας εἰσβολὰς τῆς ἐπ' αὐτῷ γνώσεως ἀκριβοῦς· εἰσκομίζει δὲ οὐδαμῶς εἰς τὰ Ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, εἰς τὴν ἐσωτέραν σκηνὴν, ἐν ᾗ πολυειδὴς ὁ Χριστὸς, ὡς Θεοῦ Λόγος, ὡς φῶς, ὡς ἄρτος ζῶν, ὡς εὐωδίας ὀσμὴ τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρί. Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ φαίης ἂν ὅτι στοιχεῖά τε καὶ ἀρχαὶ τῶν λογίων τοῦ Θεοῦ, τῆς κατὰ νόμον λατρείας ἡ προμελέτησις ἦν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὅτι δὲ τετελείωκεν ὁ νόμος οὐδὲν, «Ἀμήχανον γὰρ αἷμα ταύρων καὶ τράγων ἀφαιρεῖν ἁμαρ