Uncleanness that keeps a priest from the holy things
Cyril: …to the holy things that the sons of Israel consecrate to the Lord while his uncleanness is on him, that soul shall be cut off from me: I am the Lord your God. And any man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who is a leper or has a discharge shall not eat of the holy things until he is cleansed; and whoever touches any uncleanness of a person, or a man from whom an emission of seed goes out, or whoever touches any unclean creeping thing that defiles him, or a human being by whom he is defiled through any uncleanness of his: the soul that touches them shall be unclean until evening. He shall not eat of the holy things unless he bathes his body in water; and when the sun sets he shall be clean, and then he shall eat of the holy things, for it is his bread. He shall not eat what has died of itself or been torn by beasts, so that he is not defiled by them: I am the Lord. And they shall keep my charges, so that they do not incur sin because of them and die because of them, if they profane them. I am the Lord who sanctifies them’ (Leviticus 22:3–9). For those who bring the sacred offerings, he says, that is, the things consecrated by the sons of Israel, whatever they dedicate to God as sacrifice, must not profane his name by bringing them without first being purified, while the uncleanness they may have contracted is still unwashed; otherwise, he says, let them know that they will at once pay the utmost penalty. For ‘I am the Lord’: that is, not a falsely named god, against whom, even if someone happened to sin, there would be no offence. For what wrong could we do to wood or stone that would make us answerable? So, adding correction to these severe threats as a safeguard against uncleanness, he usefully lists the ways in which we might incur it, so that the ministers might know the way of the uprightness that best befits them, and how they may be acceptable and clean as they walk through the life most pleasing to the Lawgiver.
Palladius: You are right.
Cyril: So he removes the leper and the man with a discharge from the sacred ministry, and says that he must have no share in the holy things until he has thrown off what befell him and is wholly free of the sickness. To these he adds, as sick with an uncleanness of the same kind, the man who touches any uncleanness of a person, or from whom an emission of seed goes out, and also the one who touches a creeping thing, or touches a man who has any discharge that defiles. The law does not, I think, rebuke bodily conditions, in its true and faultless aim; rather, still in types that belong to the senses and the body, it shows what happens in souls. Leprosy, then, is a symbol of deadness; for it eats away and devours the flesh, changes it into what is against nature, and alters the appearance of the body. A discharge of seed is a casting away of the power to bear fruit, as nature flows away into nothing. Such, one might see, is a man’s mind too, when it has been led astray into corruption and is all but wasted away into barrenness, through being unable to understand any of the things
Greek
ὑμῶν πρὸς τὰ ἅγια, ὅσα ἂν ἁγιάζωσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ τῷ Κυρίῳ, καὶ ἡ ἀκαθαρσία αὐτοῦ ἐπ' αὐτῷ ᾖ, ἐξολοθρευθήσεται ἡ ψυχὴ ἐκείνη ἀπ' ἐμοῦ. Ἐγὼ Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ὑμῶν, καὶ ἄνθρωπος ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος Ἀαρὼν τοῦ ἱερέως, καὶ οὗτος λεπρᾷ ἢ γονοῤῥυεῖ, τῶν ἁγίων οὐκ ἔδεται, ἕως ἂν καθαρισθῇ, καὶ ὁ ἁπτόμενος πάσης ἀκαθαρσίας ψυχῆς, ἢ ἄνθρωπος ᾧ ἂν ἐξέλθῃ ἐξ αὐτοῦ κοίτη σπέρματος, ἢ ὅστις ἂν ἅψηται παντὸς ἑρπετοῦ ἀκαθάρτου, ὃ μιαίνει αὐτὸν, ἢ ἐπ' ἀνθρώπῳ, ἐν ᾧ μιαίνει αὐτὸν κατὰ πᾶσαν ἀκαθαρσίαν αὐτοῦ· ψυχὴ ἥτις ἐὰν ἅψηται αὐτῶν, ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται ἕως ἑσπέρας, οὐκ ἔδεται ἀπὸ τῶν ἁγίων, ἐὰν μὴ λούσηται τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ὕδατι, καὶ δύῃ ὁ ἥλιος, καὶ καθαρὸς ἔσται, καὶ τότε φάγεται τῶν ἁγίων, ὅτι ἄρτος αὐτοῦ ἐστι. Θνησιμαῖον καὶ θηριάλωτον οὐ φάγεται, μὴ μιανθῆναι αὐτὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς. Ἐγὼ Κύριος, καὶ φυλάξονται τὰ φυλάγματά μου, ἵνα μὴ λάβωσι δι' αὐτὰ ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ ἀποθάνωσι δι' αὐτὰ, ἐὰν βεβηλώσωσιν αὐτά. Ἐγὼ Κύριος ὁ ἁγιάζων αὐτούς.» Οἱ γὰρ δὴ προσάγοντες τὰ ἱερὰ, φησὶν, ἤτοι τὰ ἁγιαζόμενα παρὰ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, ὅσα ἂν ἀναθεῖεν εἰς θυσίαν τῷ Θεῷ, μὴ βεβηλούντων αὐτοῦ τὸ ὄνομα, προσάγοντες οὐ προηγνισμένοι, καὶ ἀναπόνιπτον ἔχοντες ἔτι τὴν ἀκαθαρσίαν ἣν ἂν συμβαίνει παθεῖν· ἢ ἴστωσαν ὅτι, φησὶ, τὴν ἐσχάτην εὐθὺς ἀποτίσουσι δίκην. Ἐγὼ γάρ εἰμι Κύριος, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, οὐ θεὸς ψευδώνυμος, εἰς ὃν εἰ καί τις ἁμάρτοι τυχὸν, οὐδὲν ἔσται πλημμελές. Τί γὰρ ἂν καὶ γένοιτο πρὸς ἡμῶν εἰς ξύλον ἢ λίθον, ᾧπερ ἂν ἕποιτο καὶ τὸ εὐθύνεσθαι δεῖν; Οὐκοῦν τοῖς ἄγαν δείμασι προσεπανορθῶν εἰς ἀσφάλειαν τῆς ἀκαθαρσίας, τοὺς τρόπους καθ' οὓς ἂν γένοιτο πρὸς ἡμῶν ἀπαριθμεῖται χρησίμως, ὡς ἂν εἰδεῖεν οἱ λειτουργοὶ τῆς αὐτοῖς ὅτι μάλιστα πρεπούσης ἐπιεικείας τὴν ὁδὸν, καὶ δι' ὧν ἂν εἶεν δεκτοί τε καὶ καθαροὶ, τὴν τῷ νομοθέτῃ θυμαρεστάτην διαστείχοντες ζωήν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθῶς ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τὸν μὲν οὖν λεπρῶντα καὶ γονοῤῥυῆ, καὶ τῆς ἱερᾶς ἐξίστησι λειτουργίας, καὶ δεῖν γενέσθαι φησὶ τῶν ἁγίων ἀμέτοχον, μέχρις ἂν αὐτῷ τὸ συμβὰν ἀποκρούσαιτο, καὶ ἀπωτάτω γένοιτο τοῦ νοσεῖν. Προσάπτει δὲ τούτοις, ὡς ὁμοφυᾶ νοσοῦντα ἀκαθαρσίαν, τὸν ἁπτόμενον πάσης ἀκαθαρσίας ψυχῆς, ἢ ᾧ ἐὰν ἐξέλθῃ κοίτη σπέρματος, καὶ μέντοι τὸν ἑρπετοῦ θιγγάνοντα, καὶ ἀνδρὸς ἡντιναοῦν ἔχοντος ἐπὶ μολυσμῷ τὴν κατάῤῥησιν· οὐ πάθεσιν, οἶμαι, σωματικοῖς ἐπιτιμῶντος τοῦ νόμου, κατά γε τὸν ἀληθῆ καὶ ἀμωμήτως ἔχοντα σκοπὸν, ἀλλ' ὡς ἐν τύποις ἔτι, τοῖς ἐν αἰσθήσει καὶ σωματικοῖς, τὰ ἐν ψυχαῖς ἀποφαίνοντος. Σύμβολον δὴ οὖν νεκρώσεως μὲν, ἡ λέπρα· δαπανᾷ γὰρ καὶ καταβόσκεται τὴν σάρκα, μεθίστησι δὲ εἰς τὸ παρὰ φύσιν, καὶ ἀλλοιοῖ τοῦ σώματος τὴν ὄψιν. Γονόῤῥοια δὲ, καρπογονίας ἐστὶν ἀπόθεσις, ῥεούσης εἰς τὸ μηδὲν τῆς φύσεως· ὁποῖος ἄν τις ὁρῷτο καὶ ἀνθρώπου νοῦς παρενεχθεὶς εἰς παραφθορὰν καὶ μονονουχὶ δαπανώμενος εἰς ἀκαρπίαν, διά γε τοῦ δύνασθαι συνιέναι μηδὲν τῶν ἀναγ