Christ the garment of honor; gold/purple/linen/scarlet/hyacinth = Word’s glory
Cyril: …honor and glory truly for the sacred and holy race is Christ, a bright and beyond-world adornment for the souls of the saints. ‘For as many as into Christ you were baptized, Christ you put on,’ (Galatians 3:27) he says, and true is the word. And as in shadows the law beautifies Aaron, carrying up unto Christ the glory from having been dressed many-formedly. For all but also woven-together with the construction of the craft-works a mystical and exact word is found, showing riddlingly the glory of the Savior. For see how he says the craftsmen of the garments have been filled with the understanding from God, carrying them unto flower-bright embroidery, and writing the glory of Christ into the robes. And breastpiece and shoulder-piece, and foot-reaching robe, and the tasseled tunic, and headdress and belt, the things being crafted, these and in addition to them others, which also part by part for us, as possible, will be said. So then he said concerning those taken into the works, ‘And they will take the gold, and the hyacinth, and the purple, and the scarlet, and linen.’ (Exodus 28:5–7) And again casting a thin mind into the things set forth for me, and before at least the others observe this.
Palladius: What sort of thing do you say?
Cyril: For have not of gold and linen, and indeed also purple and spun scarlet, and hyacinth again all the things in the tent been made, and it was unto a type of Christ?
Palladius: Thus it holds.
Cyril: And see that through the same also the stole of the one excelling in priesthood has been arranged, travailing the glory of Christ as again in an image and types; for the same words, and not another knowledge, signify the beauty of Christ. For he is known as in gold God, as in purple having the kingly dignity, and as in fine linen a thin and bodiless word, as in scarlet through the flesh; and in air-appearing hyacinth—for such-colored is hyacinth—through the from-above and from heaven. Or is not the Word from God Father both God together and king?
Palladius: How not?
Cyril: And being Word of the Father thin and bodiless, has he not come to be in flesh and is he from above?
Palladius: True.
Cyril: So then the same materials indistinguishably and as in thin contemplation both of the garments, and indeed also of the things constructed in the holy tent. And these things thus; and the things unto honor and glory for Aaron many-formedly woven it is already time to say. So then, ‘And they will make,’ (John 1:14) he says, ‘the shoulder-piece from spun linen, a woven work of an embroiderer, two shoulder-pieces holding together will be for him, one the other upon the two parts having been hung. And the weave of the
Greek
τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν ἀληθῶς τῷ ἱερῷ καὶ ἁγίῳ γένει, Χριστὸς, κόσμημά τε λαμπρὸν καὶ ὑπερκόσμιον ταῖς τῶν ἁγίων ψυχαῖς. «Ὅσοι γὰρ εἰς Χριστὸν ἐβαπτίσθητε, Χριστὸν ἐνεδύσασθε,» φησὶ, καὶ ἀληθὴς ὁ λόγος. Ὡς ἐν σκιαῖς δὲ ὁ νόμος κατακαλλύνει τὸν Ἀαρὼν, εἰς Χριστὸν ἀναφέρων τὴν ἐκ τοῦ ποικίλως ἐστάλθαι δόξαν. Μονονουχὶ γὰρ καὶ συνυφασμένος τῇ τῶν τεχνημάτων κατασκευῇ μυστικός τε καὶ ἀκριβὴς εὑρίσκεται λόγος, αἰνιγματωδῶς ὑποφαίνων τοῦ Σωτῆρος τὴν δόξαν. Θέα γὰρ ὅπως τῆς συνέσεως τῆς παρὰ Θεοῦ τῶν ἐσθημάτων τοὺς τεχνουργοὺς ἀναπεπλῆσθαί φησιν, εἰς εὐανθῆ ποικιλουργίαν ἀποκομίζοντος, καὶ τὴν Χριστοῦ τοῖς ἀμφίοις ἐγγράφοντος δόξαν. Περιστήθιον δὲ καὶ ἐπωμὶς, καὶ ποδήρης, καὶ χιτὼν ὁ κοσυμβωτὸς, κίδαρίς τε καὶ ζώνη, τὰ τεχνουργούμενα, αὐτά τε καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἕτερα, ἃ καὶ ἀνὰ μέρος ἡμῖν, ὡς ἔνι, λελέξεται. Ἔφη τοίνυν περὶ τῶν εἰς ἔργα παρειλημμένων, «Καὶ αὐτοὶ λήψονται τὸ χρυσίον, καὶ τὴν ὑάκινθον, καὶ τὴν πορφύραν, καὶ τὸ κόκκινον, καὶ βύσσον.» Καί μοι πάλιν λεπτὸν ἐνιεὶς τοῖς προκειμένοις τὸν νοῦν, καὶ πρό γε δὴ τῶν ἄλλων ἄθρει δὴ τόδε.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Τὸ ποῖον τί φής;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐ γὰρ χρυσίου καὶ βύσσου, καὶ μὴν καὶ πορφύρας καὶ κοκκίνου κεκλωσμένου, ὑακίνθου τε αὖ πάντα πεποίηνται τὰ ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ, καὶ ἦν εἰς τύπον Χριστοῦ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Θέα δὲ δὴ ὅτι διὰ τῶν αὐτῶν καὶ ἡ τοῦ προὔχοντος ἐν ἱερωσύνῃ διεσκευάσθη στολὴ, τὴν Χριστοῦ δόξαν ὡς ἐν εἰκόνι δὴ πάλιν καὶ τύποις ὠδίνουσα· λόγοι γὰρ οἱ αὐτοὶ, γνῶσις δὲ οὐχ ἑτέρα, τὸ Χριστοῦ κάλλος κατασημαίνουσι. Γινώσκεται γὰρ ὡς ἐν χρυσῷ μὲν Θεὸς, ὡς ἐν πορφύρᾳ τὸ βασίλειον ἔχων ἀξίωμα, καὶ ὡς ἐν βύσσῳ λεπτῇ λόγος ἰσχνὸς καὶ ἀσώματος, ὡς ἐν κοκκίνῳ διὰ τὴν σάρκα· ἐν ὑακίνθῳ γε μὴν ἀεροφανεῖ, τοιουτόχρως γὰρ ὑάκινθος, διὰ τὸ ἄνωθεν καὶ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ. Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ Θεός τε ἅμα καὶ βασιλεὺς ὁ ἐκ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς Λόγος;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς γὰρ οὕ;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐχὶ δὲ Λόγος ὢν τοῦ Πατρὸς λεπτὸς καὶ ἀσώματος, γέγονεν ἐν σαρκὶ καὶ ἔστιν ἄνωθεν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές.
{ΚΥΡ.} Αἱ αὐταὶ τοιγαροῦν ἀπαραλλάκτως καὶ ὡς ἐν θεωρίᾳ λεπτῇ τῶν ἐσθημάτων αἱ ὕλαι, καὶ μέντοι καὶ τῶν κατεσκευασμένων ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ σκηνῆ. Καὶ ταυτὶ μὲν ὧδε, τὰ δὲ εἰς τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν τῷ Ἀαρὼν ποικίλως ἐξυφασμένα καιρὸς ἤδη λέγειν. Οὐκοῦν, «Καὶ ποιήσουσι, φησὶ, τὴν ἐπωμίδα ἐκ βύσσου κεκλωσμένης, ἔργον ὑφαντὸν ποικιλτοῦ, δύο ἐπωμίδες συνέχουσαι ἔσονται αὐτῷ, ἑτέρα τὴν ἑτέραν ἐπὶ τοῖς δύο μέρεσιν ἐξηρτημένα. Καὶ τὸ ὕφασμα τῶν
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 11 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 11 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 11 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 11)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 11)
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.