Sin offerings called ‘sin’, and food for the priest’s household

Cyril: …of calves, the firstborn of sheep, and the firstborn of goats you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall pour their blood against the altar, and offer up the fat as a burnt offering, for a fragrant aroma to the Lord. And their meat shall be yours, like the breast of the wave offering; and like the right shoulder it shall be yours. Every portion set apart from the holy things, whatever the sons of Israel set apart for the Lord, I have given to you and to your sons and your daughters with you, a perpetual ordinance; it is a covenant of everlasting salt before the Lord, for you and your offspring after you’ (Numbers 18:17–19). From this too, then, you see quite clearly, I think, that he has plainly assigned every kind of sacrifice and offering to the sacred and chosen race, including what comes ‘from every trespass and from all the sins’, that is, the victims offered for every trespass and sin. For the victims offered for sin bear the name ‘sin’. That is why our wise Paul also applied the law’s word to Christ, saying: ‘We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God; for him who knew no sin he made sin for us’ (2 Corinthians 5:20–21). For the Son was sacrificed for our sins according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3), as an innocent lamb (Jeremiah 11:19). That the law gave the name ‘sin’ to the victims offered for our sin, God will make clear when he says through the prophet concerning the priests: ‘They shall eat the sins of my people’ (Hosea 4:8); that is, what is offered for the sins of my people shall be food for the priests. So he assigns to them what remains of every sacrifice, and commands that it be eaten, but only in a holy place, he says, and by every male (Numbers 18:10; Leviticus 7:6). The reason for this we have given in what has gone before. But the firstfruits of oil, grain and wine, the payments for redeeming the firstborn, and the devoted things as well, are to be eaten no longer by the males alone, nor in the holy court, but now in the priest’s house; they are set there for the enjoyment even of his daughters, and of everyone close to him and of his own household. This distinction must be carefully observed. For the remains of the sacrifices would be fitting for the use of the consecrated alone, and will not be common food; and a holy place is the place that befits them. But whatever else is left over, having been brought as a gift, holds, one might say, a second rank of its own once the priest has received it; and it will belong to the priests’ whole household, if only the person is clean, that is, not profane: according to the law, if he is not uncircumcised, not a foreigner, not a leper, not one with a discharge (Leviticus 22:4, 10); but according to the aim of the new Scripture and the Church’s safeguard, if he is not unholy and unbelieving, if he is devout and loves God. For it would be most fitting for those brought into the divine priestly service to love to keep close company with people who are good in character and whose minds are full of love for God. And by adding to this, ‘It is a covenant of everlasting salt before the Lord, for you and your offspring with you’ (Numbers 18:19), he has commanded that what he also said elsewhere be kept without fail (Leviticus 2:13): ‘The salt of the covenant of the Lord shall not be lacking from your sacrifices. With every gift of yours you shall