Five door pillars = fifth-age teachers; law altar at entrance; baptism laver mid-court
Cyril: …become the nations of light, clearly of the intelligible, being filled up additionally ‘while day is shining through, and Phosphoros rising according to mind,’ for one of the Savior’s disciples has said. And with placing and construction of the things in the Holies of holies holding thus, he has ordered a curtain, or veil, to come to be from hyacinth and purple, and spun scarlet, and twined linen; and this he was saying must necessarily be stretched around the entrances of the tent, being hung upon five golden pillars, whose bases are bronze. And he names curtain the hanging-around of the door, on account, I think, of being drawn back with fine rings when the entrance is pierced; and again being drawn against and widened of the doors, to hide the Holies. And five are the pillars, golden and bronze-around, typing beforehand the teachers and leaders of the Churches as in a fifth time, according to which Christ’s presence came to be; who, cutting-straight the word of the truth, are honored as gold, and well-sounding thus as bronze. ‘For unto all the earth their sound has gone out, and unto the ends of the inhabited world their words’; who also through artful and God-breathed mystagogy widen as it were the entrances for those wishing to run into the Holies of holies. So then the Holies of holies—that is, the more inward tent—was being covered with the veil. And at once the first tent also had been fixed beside and fitted to the second, having the altar of the fruit-offerings, in which every approach through bloods was being finished, and cakes and frankincenses, and every sacrifice and drink-offering, and indeed beside the altar also the bronze laver. And a place again for the altar beside the doors of the tent—clear that of the more outward; and for the laver, the most middle of the tent.
Palladius: And what again would the careful-watching be thought?
Cyril: Exact, O Palladius, is the holy Letter, and altogether nothing random in it. For see how the riddle has shown for us the law pedagoguing unto Christ. For the altar of the worship according to law has been set beside the very entrances unto the Holies of holies. For the law carries us off only barely unto beginnings of the mysteries of Christ, and somehow beside the first entrances of exact knowledge upon him; and it brings in in no way unto the Holies of holies—that is, unto the more inward tent, in which Christ is many-formed, as Word of God, as light, as living bread, as smell of fragrance to God and Father. For would you not say that elements and beginnings of the oracles of God were the pre-practice of the worship according to law?
Palladius: True.
Cyril: And that the law has perfected nothing, ‘For impossible for 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
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 10 of a seventeen-book dialogue — not the whole work.
English follows Migne PG 68 (Aubert reprint). The PDF and a cleaned text of the same print were checked against each other. This page is Book 10 of seventeen. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 68 De adoratione Book 5 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 10)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 10)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.