Dead flesh, torn flesh, and who may eat the holy bread
Cyril: …assembly of the sons of Israel shall slaughter it toward evening’ (Exodus 12:6). For the hour at which Emmanuel appeared to us is said to be the tenth, close now to evening itself, that is, to the end of the present age. What has died of itself and what has been torn by beasts bring defilement, in the spiritual sense, on those who touch them no less than leprosy does. For what has died of itself plainly signifies what is wholly dead and gone cold, as in the works that belong to the flesh, and what is torn by beasts signifies the soul that has fallen under the devil. And it is a saving thing to keep away from a man who has set his mind on dead things and gone cold in his thinking, and who, as it were, makes himself food for Satan, for Satan devours whatever souls he chooses (1 Peter 5:8). How could this fail to be clear to those who are truly sound of mind and have earnestly striven to keep as far as possible from everything that usually defiles?
Palladius: That is so.
Cyril: Since our account has now come to this point of precision, and the aim of the law is that the right to share in the holy and life-giving foods should belong not at all to the defiled, but to those who are blameless, he at once draws a careful line between the classes. He has defined who would be worthy of the blessing and able to press on toward it, and he makes clear who ought to be driven away from the sacred food, saying: ‘And no foreigner shall eat holy things; a sojourner with a priest or a hired servant shall not eat holy things. But if a priest acquires a person bought with silver, he shall eat of his bread, and those born in his house, they too shall eat of his bread’ (Leviticus 22:10–11). He shuts out the foreigner, the man of another race, as defiled and still unwashed, that is, the one who has not yet believed and does not know the true God. For how could those who cannot be bound through a spiritual and inward kinship to Christ, the great and true Priest, share in his bread? For we will not give what is holy to the dogs, and no one would throw the spiritual pearls before swine, according to the Savior’s own words (Matthew 7:6). So the foreigner has no share at all. With him he joins the sojourner and the hired servant. These again, in my own view, would be those who live for the world and conduct their lives by it, and have made the earth their homeland, as it were, by minding only the things of the flesh; but in their love for Christ they are only sojourners, living, as it were, in bare faith alone. As far as words go, they are good and reasonable, but in the deeds and ways of true piety they have strayed very far indeed. The hired servants, in turn, would perhaps be those who chose even the bare act of believing not out of reverence for the truth, but hunting for the favor of certain people as a kind of wage for seeming to be Christians; who fawn to win the attentions of those able to benefit them; who make godliness a means of gain (1 Timothy 6:5) and a cover for love of profit, and put on fair words like a mask. As far, then, as the force of the law goes…
Greek
πλῆθος τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ πρὸς ἑσπέραν.» Ὥρα γὰρ ἡ δεκάτη λέγεται καθ' ἣν ἐπέφανεν ἡμῖν ὁ Ἐμμανουὴλ, πρὸς αὐτῇ λοιπὸν τῇ ἑσπέρᾳ, τοῦτ' ἔστι τῷ τέλει τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος καιροῦ. Θνησιμαῖον δὲ καὶ θηριάλωτον, οὐ μεῖον ἢ λέπρα τοῖς ἐφαπτομένοις τὸν μολυσμὸν ἐνίησι νοητῶς· τοῦ μὲν θνησιμαίου τὸ τελείως νεκρὸν καὶ ἀπεψυγμένον, ὡς ἐν ἔργοις τοῖς κατὰ τὴν σάρκα, τοῦ δὲ θηριαλώτου, τὴν ὑπὸ τῷ διαβόλῳ πεσοῦσαν ψυχὴν ἀναφανδὸν σημαίνοντος. Χρῆμα δὲ ὅτι σωτήριον ἀποφοιτᾷν ἀνδρὸς, νεκρὰ φρονεῖν ἐγνωκότος καὶ ἀπεψυγμένου τὸν νοῦν, καὶ τρέφοντος ὥσπερ ἐφ' ἑαυτῷ τὸν Σατανᾶν (κατεσθίει γὰρ ἃς ἂν ἕλοιτο ψυχὰς), πῶς οὐκ ἂν εἴη σαφὲς τοῖς γε ἀληθῶς ἀρτίφροσι, καὶ ἀπωτάτω χωρεῖν παντὸς τοῦ καταμολύνειν εἰωθότος ἄριστα διεσπουδακόσιν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐπειδὴ δὲ πρὸς τοῦτο λοιπὸν ἀκριβείας ἡμῖν ἐξέρπει τὰ διηγήματα, καὶ ὁ τοῦ νόμου σκοπὸς ἥκιστα μὲν τοῖς μεμολυσμένοις ἂν εἴη γε μὴν τοῖς ἀμωμήτως ἔχουσι τὸ χρῆναι μεταλαχεῖν τῶν ἁγίων καὶ ζωοποιῶν ἐδεσμάτων· διίστησιν εὐθὺς εὖ μάλα τὰ γένη, καὶ τίνες ἂν εἶεν οἱ τῆς εὐλογίας ἄξιοι, καὶ πρός γε τοῦτο διᾴττειν οἷοί τε, ὥρισται· τίσι δὲ αὖ τὸ ἀποσοβεῖσθαι πρέπει τῶν ἱερῶν ἐδωδίμων, διεσάφει λέγων· «Καὶ πᾶς ἀλλογενὴς οὐ φάγεται ἅγια· πάροικος ἱερέως ἢ μισθωτὸς, οὐ φάγεται ἅγια. Ἐὰν δὲ ἱερεὺς κτήσηται ψυχὴν ἔκκτητον ἀργυρίου, οὗτος φάγεται τὸν ἄρτον αὐτοῦ, καὶ οἱ οἰκογενεῖς αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὗτοι φάγονται τῶν ἄρτων αὐτοῦ.» Ἐξείργει μὲν ὡς μεμολυσμένον καὶ ἀναπόνιπτον ἔτι τὸν ἀλλογενῆ τε καὶ ἔκφυλον, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸν οὔπω πεπιστευκότα καὶ Θεὸν οὐκ εἰδότα τὸν ἀληθινόν. Οἷς γὰρ οὐκ ἔνεστι τὸ διὰ τῆς ἐν πνεύματι καὶ νοητῆς οἰκειότητος συνδεῖσθαι Χριστῷ τῷ μεγάλῳ καὶ ἀληθῶς ἱερεῖ, πῶς ἂν οἱ τοιοίδε γένοιντο μέτοχοι τῶν ἄρτων αὐτοῦ; Δώσομεν γὰρ οὐχὶ τὰ ἅγια τοῖς κυσὶ, παραῤῥίψειε δ' ἂν οὐδεὶς τοὺς νοητοὺς μαργαρίτας ἔμπροσθεν τῶν χοίρων, κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ τοῦ Σωτῆρος φωνήν. Οὐκοῦν ἀμέτοχος μὲν ὁλοτρόπως ὁ ἀλλογενής. Συνάπτει δὲ τούτῳ τὸν πάροικόν τε καὶ μισθωτόν· εἶεν δ' ἂν οὗτοι πάλιν, κατά γε τὸ αὐτῷ μοι δοκοῦν, οἱ κόσμῳ μὲν ζῶντες, καὶ αὐτῷ πολιτευόμενοι, καὶ οἱονεὶ πατρίδα πεποιημένοι τὴν γῆν, διά γε τοῦ μόνα φρονεῖν τὰ σαρκὸς, ἐν ψιλῇ δὲ ὥσπερ καὶ μόνῃ παροικοῦντες τῇ πίστει, τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ἀγάπησιν. Καὶ ὅσον μὲν ἧκεν εἰς λόγους, χρηστοὶ καὶ ἐπιεικεῖς· τὸ δ' οὖν εἰς ἔργα καὶ τρόπους τῆς ἀληθοῦς εὐλαβείας, πολὺ δὴ λίαν ἐξεστηκότες. Μισθωτοὶ δὲ αὖ, καὶ αὐτό που τάχα τὸ πιστεῦσαι μόνον, οὐκ αἰδοῖ τῇ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ᾑρημένοι, μισθὸν δὲ ὥσπερ τινὰ τοῦ δοκεῖν εἶναι Χριστιανοὶ, τὸ ἀρέσκειν τισὶ θηρώμενοι, καὶ τὰς ἐκ τῶν ὠφελεῖν δυναμένων αὐτοὺς φροντίδας θωπευτικῶς ὑποτρέχοντες, καὶ πορισμὸν ποιούμενοι τὴν εὐσέβειαν καὶ φιλοκερδείας προκάλυμμα, τὸ χρηστοεπὲς καθάπερ προσωπεῖον ἑαυτοῖς περιπλάττοντες. Ὅσον μὲν οὖν ἧκεν εἰς νόμου δύναμιν,