On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth, Book 13

Book 13 opens: the Levites give a tithe of the tithe§1

1ON ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH — BOOK THIRTEEN. Further on the priesthood.

Cyril: So much, then, for now, on the priests and on Aaron. But I think I ought to add to what I have said the points that seem to have been left out, namely the laws laid down for the Levites. For in this way the discussion would be complete.

Palladius: Go on, then, and explain it clearly; you are right to think so.

Cyril: Giving the sacred services the best order, he places the Levitical order under the high priest, and says this in Numbers: ‘And you shall speak to the Levites and say to them: If you receive from the sons of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them as your portion, you in turn shall set apart from it an offering to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe; and your offerings shall be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor and as an offering from the winepress. So you also shall set them apart out of all the offerings of the Lord, out of all your tithes, whatever you receive from the sons of Israel; and from them you shall give an offering to the Lord, to Aaron the priest. From all your gifts you shall set apart an offering to the Lord, or from all the firstfruits the consecrated part of it. And you shall say to them: When you set apart the firstfruits from it, it shall be reckoned to the Levites as produce from the threshing floor and as produce from the winepress; and you shall eat it in every place, you and your sons and your households, because this is your wage in return for your services in the tent of witness. And you shall not incur sin because of it, when you set apart the firstfruits from it; and you shall not profane the holy things of the sons of Israel, so that you may not… (Numbers 18:26–32)

The tithe to Aaron points to Christ; Levi is counted apart§2

2Cyril: …die.’ (Numbers 18:32) Do you see the mystery of Christ, still in shadows, as it were, and shining out beforehand in types? For the one who receives tithes has himself been tithed, as the blessed Paul says (Hebrews 7:9). But at that time the type was in Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18–20); in the times of Moses it was kept again, as it were, in Aaron, who signifies in himself Christ, the Priest of priests, who leads and presides over the holy tent, that is, the Church: the Holy of holies and the God of gods, to whom we owe all the fruit we bear. For it is written: ‘All who are round about him shall bring gifts’ (Psalm 76:11). But the things of Moses are still in types, while now the true guardians of the Gospel’s commands gladden their Redeemer with spiritual fruit.

Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: That the Levitical tribe is chosen and set apart from the others he makes plain in this way. He commanded the common people to be counted and an exact reckoning to be made of the general multitude, not because the Creator did not know. For the drops of rain are numbered by him, as it is written (Job 36:27), and nothing could escape that pure mind. He did it so that those who read the sacred Scriptures might know very clearly that those who are joined to God and bear the name of his people go into the registers kept with God and into the book of life, are counted among those he knows, and are already in the remembrance of the Master of all. So the common people were enrolled; but God set the chosen and holy tribe apart, as it were, by itself, and in no way let it stand in equal rank with the others, but reserved for it, as it were, the foremost portion, saying to Moses, wisest of men: ‘As for the tribe of Levi, see that you do not include their number in the count, nor take it among the sons of Israel’ (Numbers 1:49). For the lot of the holy is set apart, and their honors are of the highest. And perhaps the enrollment is in other books as well; for the inspired Daniel saw not one book, but, as he himself says: ‘The court sat, and books were opened’ (Daniel 7:10). So the enrollment matches each one’s measure. And the tribe assigned and dedicated to the divine services is set apart, as it were, from the rest of the multitude; and he made plain the manner of the Levites’ ministry, saying at once: ‘Take the tribe of Levi, and you shall set them before Aaron the priest, and they shall minister to him; and they shall keep his charges and the charges of the sons of Israel before the tent of witness, to do the work of the tent. And they shall keep all the furnishings of the tent of witness and the charges of the sons of Israel in all the work of the tent. And you shall give the Levites to Aaron your brother and to his sons the priests; these are given to me as a gift from the sons of Israel. And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons over the tent of witness, and they shall keep their priesthood and all that concerns the altar and what is within the veil; and the outsider who touches it shall die’ (Numbers 3:6–10). So the…

Priests and Levites foreshadow bishops, presbyters and deacons§3

3Cyril: …Levites have been assigned as fellow workers, in a way, and helpers, as it were, to those who perform the sacred rites. For ‘they shall keep his charges’ (meaning, clearly, Aaron’s) ‘and all the furnishings of the tent of witness, and the charges of the sons of Israel’ (Numbers 3:7–8). Their share in the work goes this far. But he sets over the tent both Aaron and his sons with him; for ‘they shall keep,’ he says, ‘their own priesthood and all that concerns the altar, and the things within the veil’ (Numbers 3:10), that is, the secret and more mystical things, and all that those who wait on the divine altar are accustomed to do. And the type, in its pure sense, points to Christ, whom the Father appointed over his house, whose house we are (Hebrews 3:6). And those who share the priesthood with Aaron would signify, clearly enough, the sacred and admirable company of the holy apostles, who work and minister, as it were, together with Christ. For they have become God’s fellow workers (1 Corinthians 3:9), treasurers and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1), and also ministers through whom we have believed (1 Corinthians 3:5). And if anyone should choose to look closely at the order of the Church as well, he would rightly marvel at the way the law sketched it in advance. For to the bishops, since it has fallen to them to preside, and also to those who hold the lesser rank (I mean the presbyters), the altar and the things within the veil have been entrusted; and these words would fit them: ‘And they shall keep their priesthood’ (Numbers 3:10). To the deacons belongs: ‘They shall keep the charges of the tent, and all its furnishings, and the charges of the people’ (Numbers 3:7–8). Or is it not they who call out in the churches and direct the people, now to sing hymns as is fitting, now to stand in good order, often to keep silence? Do they not rouse them to prayer, and, when the bloodless sacrifice is being offered, themselves bring forward the more sacred vessels and keep careful watch over everything needed?

Palladius: Certainly.

Cyril: So those of the first rank serve as priests, while the Levites help in the order of the Church’s priesthood, as the letter of the law proclaimed in advance. The common people are shut out from every sacred task, and the sentence of the extreme penalty hangs over those who seize the honor. For if anyone comes to it of his own accord, it says, without having God’s vote in his favor, he shall die (Numbers 3:10).

Palladius: True.

Cyril: So the Levitical tribe is not counted in with the enrollments of the others; yet it is registered separately, and in God’s book too. For ‘the Lord spoke,’ it says, ‘to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying: Number the sons of Levi by their fathers’ houses, by their clans, by their families; every male from a month old and upward, number them. And Moses and Aaron numbered them at the word of the Lord, as the Lord had commanded them. And these were the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. These are the names of the… (Numbers 3:14–18)

Levites counted from a month old; the Kohathites' charge§4

4Cyril: …sons of Gershon by their clans: Libni and Shimei. And the sons of Kohath by their clans: Amram and Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. And the sons of Merari by their clans: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites by their fathers’ houses.’ (Numbers 3:18–20) Now look, Palladius, at this point above all the rest, for it needs careful attention. The common people were enrolled from twenty years old and upward (Numbers 1:3), because the exactness of the law did not, I think, consider what was still feeble and powerless worthy to be written in God’s book. For what is vigorous and already in its spiritual prime would rightly be admitted to the lists of the saints. So the law makes bodily age an apt sketch of spiritual age: it set down as chosen those in their prime, passing over the beardless, the weak and the still boyish, and not entering them in the sacred book. But for the Levites the enrollment was from a month old (Numbers 3:15). For the Master of all very gladly accepts the childlikeness in Christ of those he has chosen, just as, of course, he accepts good sense. For to excel in both, I mean in understanding and in the simplicity that is in Christ, is exceptional. Indeed, the inspired Paul says: ‘Brothers, do not be children in your thinking; be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature’ (1 Corinthians 14:20). And Christ himself says somewhere: ‘Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’ (Matthew 10:16). So the simplicity of the saints is acceptable. And the numbering was by name, and also by clans and fathers’ houses. For God grants his own watchful care to those whom he chooses to honor, one by one, as a multitude, and by family. And the Savior himself makes plain how exact this is, when he says to the holy apostles: ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father who is in heaven. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered’ (Matthew 10:29–30).

Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: In addition to this he laid down by law that a second enrollment of the Levitical people should be made, and that each must be assigned the ministry fitting for him, saying: ‘Take the count of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their clans, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty-five years old and upward to fifty years, everyone who enters to minister, to do all the work in the tent of witness. And this is the work of the sons of Kohath in the tent of witness: the Holy of holies. And Aaron and his sons shall go in when the camp sets out, and they shall take down the screening veil and cover the ark of witness with it. And they shall put on it a covering of skin dyed blue, and spread over it from above a cloth entirely of blue, and put in the carrying poles. And on the table of presentation they shall spread a cloth all of purple, along with the dishes, the incense cups, the ladles and the bowls with which they pour libations; and the loaves that are always on it shall… (Numbers 4:2–7)

Covering the holy things, and the years of service§5

5Cyril: …shall be on it. And they shall put a scarlet cloth over it, cover it with a covering of blue skin, and put its carrying poles through it. They shall take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand that gives light, with its lamps, its tongs, its pouring vessels, and all the oil jars they use in their service. They shall put the lampstand and all its utensils into a covering of blue skin and set it on carrying poles. Over the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth, cover it with a covering of blue skin, and put its carrying poles through it. They shall take all the vessels of service that they use in the holy place, put them into a blue cloth, cover them with a covering of blue skin, and set them on carrying poles. They shall put the cover on the altar and spread a cloth of pure purple over it, and on it they shall place all the vessels they use in serving at it: the firepans, the meat forks, the bowls, the cover, and all the vessels of the altar. They shall spread a covering of blue skin over it and put its carrying poles through it. They shall take a purple cloth and wrap the laver and its base, put it into a covering of blue skin, and set it on carrying poles. And Aaron and his sons shall finish covering the holy things and all the holy vessels when the camp sets out. After this the sons of Kohath shall come in to carry them, and they shall not touch the holy things, lest they die.’ (Numbers 4:7–15) So the enrollment from one month old (Numbers 3:15) teaches that even the innocence of the saints is pleasing and acceptable to God. But that only the age fixed by the law, from twenty-five to fifty years (Numbers 4:3), was assigned to the sacred tasks shows, I think, that all who are sensible and strong, both those who are already so and those who are still so, render to God a service that is choice and beyond reproach. For the man who has reached twenty-five years is already among them, and the man who has gone on as far as fifty is still among them. For a man who has passed beyond his fiftieth year has in some way already begun to decline toward the end of his strength. He is no longer in the flawless prime of life, but is creeping, as it were, toward the ailments of old age. No one unwise, and no one feeble, could serve God without fault, if it is true to say that whatever looks toward virtue is the work of strength and of an excellent mind; and it has fallen to these to receive from the Lawgiver the praise that is their due.

Palladius: I say so too.

Cyril: To those of the clan of Kohath belongs the service of the most holy things, while the priests go in ahead of them and cover these things (Numbers 4:4–5). For everywhere what ranks first in order is held in greater honor, and all that is with God is in good order; nothing at all is without order. The Levitical order serves in the assisting tasks, placed beneath the sacred ministries of those set above it. The holy ark and the golden altar of incense, the lampstand and the vessels of service, are wrapped in skins and cloths of blue…

What the blue, purple and scarlet coverings mean, and the wagons for Gershon and Merari§6

6Cyril: …the blue signifying for us what is from above and from heaven. For that is the color of the upper air, high and deep above us. That the sacred vessels are types of Christ, who is from above and from heaven, we have already shown at length. The table, besides its blue wrappings, also has a cloth of pure purple; the altar of burnt offerings has a scarlet cloth; and the laver too has a cloth of pure purple over its blue coverings. The table, on which the loaves are set out, signifies the bloodless sacrifice, through which we are blessed as we eat the bread from heaven (John 6:51), that is, Christ. He became as we are, yet even so he was and is God, coming from above and from the Father, and above all things (John 3:31), as King and Lord of the universe. And the royal purple cloth spread over the table, that is, the purple wrapping, would be, as it seems to me, a sign of Christ’s kingship. The altar of burnt offerings was clothed in a scarlet cloth, and we shall take the cloth dyed scarlet as a type of blood. For Christ was sacrificed for our sake and on our behalf (1 Corinthians 5:7), and like a lamb he went up onto the divine altar, as a fragrant offering to God the Father (Ephesians 5:2). The laver’s covering, besides the blue, is a cloth of pure purple. The laver bears in itself the type of holy baptism, which washes us in holy waters for the putting away of sin and carries us into the kingdom of heaven. Holy baptism is from above and from heaven, and the blue color hints at this. Or do I not seem to you to have explained these things very well, given how hard such insights are to grasp?

Palladius: Very well indeed.

Cyril: Such, then, was the service of those from Kohath. The Gershonites, and the Merarites as well, were enrolled in the same way, from twenty-five years old up to fifty, by name, by households and families (Numbers 4:22–23, 29–30). The service of the clan of Gershon was the hide curtains of the tent, the coverings, the screens of the doors, the hangings of the court, and the extra things (Numbers 4:24–26). So it is written. To the clan of Merari (this too is a Levitical clan) belonged the pillars of the tent, the bases, the capitals, the pegs and bars, the veil of the outer tent, and certain other things besides (Numbers 4:31–32). Those from Gershon and Merari carried the things entrusted to them from place to place with the help of wagons, but the Kohathites went with the most holy things on their shoulders. For it is written in Numbers: ‘The rulers of Israel brought offerings, twelve rulers of their fathers’ houses. These were the rulers of the tribes; these were the men who stood over the census. They brought their gifts before the Lord, six covered wagons and twelve oxen, a wagon from every two rulers…’ (Numbers 7:2–3)

Why the Kohathites carried the holy things on their shoulders§7

7Cyril: …and a young bull from each, and they brought them before the tent. And the Lord said to Moses: Take these from them, and they shall be used for the works of service of the tent of witness, and you shall give them to the Levites, to each according to his service. So Moses took the wagons and the oxen and gave them to the Levites. Two wagons and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon, according to their services, and four wagons and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari, according to their services, under Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. But to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because they have the services of the holy place: they shall carry them on their shoulders.’ (Numbers 7:3–9) Do you hear how the others were accustomed to move and carry things on wagons, but the Kohathites alone carried the holy things on their shoulders?

Palladius: And why was that?

Cyril: Because what ranks higher and is more sacred always calls, in some way, for greater sweat. In every way and without fail it brings with it, for those who are holier and, as it were, nearer to God, the need to toil and, beyond that, to endure hardship, and not in the same measure as the others. Or is what I say not true?

Palladius: Entirely true.

Cyril: In this order, then, the Levitical tribe performed its service. But I for my part think the arrangement fulfills the type of a mystery.

Palladius: What do you mean?

Cyril: The two clans, Gershon and Merari, seem to hint at the peoples under the law, I mean Israel, and the Kohathites at those sanctified in Christ through faith. The former had in their care the hangings of the court, the hide curtains of the tent, the coverings and the pillars, the capitals and the bases, the pegs and the screens, and, as Holy Scripture says, ‘all the extra things’ (Numbers 4:26), by which is meant what is not essential in the service. The Kohathites were entrusted with carrying the most holy things, the things through which Christ is signified, not in a single way, but rather in many ways and many forms: as the ark, as the table, as the golden lampstand, and as the golden altar of incense. For though he is simple by nature, as God, he is made known in many ways through the variety of his works. For the Word of the Father is, as all confess, living and active (Hebrews 4:12), and besides this he is life and light (John 1:4), and the scent of a spiritual fragrance. So those who devote themselves to the commandments given through Moses have the extra things of the tent as their service, for the law is of no use unless it is understood spiritually. But those entrusted with the most holy things are surely holy in Christ. They carry nothing extra, but bear, as it were, Emmanuel himself seated upon them.

Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: Consider this as well, if you will.

Palladius: What is that?

Cyril: Those entrusted with the extra things of the holy tent carry them on wagons. But the Kohathites carried the most holy things not on wagons, and not on anything else at all; they set them on their own shoulders and so went on their way.

The heavy yoke of the law and the light burden of Christ; the last made first§8

8Palladius: What does this mean, then?

Cyril: This, my friend, I would say: the law is burdensome, a load hard to bear. And a clear sign of this would be that the extra things are not carried on the shoulders, because those under the yoke are weak. That is why the inspired disciples said to those who, after coming to faith, were turning to the worship of the law: ‘Now therefore why are you putting God to the test, by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither you nor your fathers were able to bear?’ (Acts 15:10) But the Kohathites set on their own shoulders the things by which Christ is signified, and make of them a light load, easy to carry. Is this not plainly what Christ himself said: ‘My yoke is easy, and my burden is light’? (Matthew 11:30)

Palladius: So it seems.

Cyril: I would add this as well to what has been said, for it will help not a little toward full conviction. In the first census of the Levites, those of Gershon were placed at the head, then Kohath in the middle, and last Merari; these are the Levitical clans (Numbers 3:17). But in the second census, the one counted from twenty-five years of age, Kohath is set before the others and named first (Numbers 4:2–3). After him, and last, come Gershon and Merari, whose service is the extra things of the tent (Numbers 4:22–33). Each of these two clans has only two families, while Kohath extends to as many as four (Numbers 3:18–20). Do you grasp the riddle, then?

Palladius: Not in the least.

Cyril: Israel was called among the first; but when the flock of the Gentiles ran in between, Israel was ranked after it. And so the last have become first, as the Savior said, and the first last (Matthew 20:16).

Palladius: True.

Cyril: And it is plain that the Jewish people are few in number, while the countless multitude from the Gentiles far exceeds them.

Palladius: Of course.

Cyril: That is why God says to Moses, the revealer of sacred things: ‘Now let me alone, and in my anger I will consume this congregation, and I will make of you a great nation, and much greater than this one.’ (Exodus 32:10; Deuteronomy 9:14) With services such as these, then, the whole body of the Levites was honored; and the limit set to their sacred service was to be subject to the one who held first place and to act under the hand of Aaron. But to aim higher than this, and to seek something better than what had been allotted to it and fixed by God, was shown by the event itself to bring punishment and ruin. For it is written again in Numbers: ‘Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, spoke, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, son of Reuben; and they rose up before Moses, together with two hundred and fifty men of the sons of Israel, leaders of the congregation, members of the council, men of renown (Numbers 16:1–2). They gathered together against Moses and Aaron and said to them: “Enough from you! For… (Numbers 16:3)

Korah's revolt: the Levites who grasped at the priesthood§9

9Cyril: …the whole congregation, all of them, are holy, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you rise up against the congregation of the Lord?” (Numbers 16:3) And when Moses heard this, he fell on his face (Numbers 16:4); and he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying: “God has visited and known those who are his and who are holy, and has brought them near to himself; and those whom he has chosen for himself he has brought near to himself (Numbers 16:5). Do this: take censers for yourselves, Korah and all his company, and put fire in them, and put incense on them before the Lord tomorrow; and the man whom the Lord has chosen, he shall be holy. Let this be enough for you, sons of Levi.” (Numbers 16:6–7) And Moses said to Korah: “Hear me, sons of Levi. Is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has set you apart from the congregation of Israel and brought you near to himself, to perform the services of the tent of the Lord and to stand before the tent to minister to him? He has brought you near, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you; and now you seek to be priests?”’ (Numbers 16:8–10)

For the Kohathites, whose service was to carry the most holy things on their shoulders (Numbers 4:4–15), leapt in their ignorance at what lay above them and contended for the rank of the priests. For they seized honors for themselves, as it is written (Hebrews 5:4); they disregarded the divine command; they impiously overran the laws of the priestly service; and they counted the honors of those set over them as worth very little. For they said to Moses and Aaron: ‘Enough from you! For the whole congregation, all of them, are holy, and the Lord is among them.’ (Numbers 16:3) Do you hear how they despise the measure allotted to them, and all but say that the high priest’s honor is common, not to their own clans only but to all the rest as well, and that there is nothing at all exceptional or more distinguished about it, even if those who received the office by God’s own vote are said to stand above them? This is plainly to find fault with the decrees from above and to count the Lawgiver’s decision as nothing.

Yet the inspired Moses, with his usual gentleness, appealed to them as to men who were sick; and, having perceived the wrath that was about to fall on them, he rebuked them, saying: ‘Let this be enough for you, sons of Levi. For it is no small thing for you,’ he says, ‘that the God of all has chosen you out of all for a service so holy and so worthy of wonder.’ (Numbers 16:7, 9) But they were still bitter and unyielding, and unbridled in their arrogance, until their madness brought them to such a pitch of evil that the earth opened its mouth, seized them together with their families and their tents, and wrapped them in a strange destruction (Numbers 16:32). For they went down alive into Hades, as it is written (Numbers 16:33).

So it is unholy, and before God it carries a charge of death, to rise up against one’s head and not to yield to those placed in authority, who have received from God the foremost honor. The fruit of the highest understanding is to glory in whatever one has and to give thanks for it, and not to leap recklessly at what lies beyond one’s measure, nor to reach for what has not yet been given them, supposing that what is governed by the will from above alone is common and open to the many.

The sacred order and the Levites' portion: the Lord himself§10

10Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: The sacred things, then, are kept in an order that admits no confusion; for it is fitting that they be so, and not otherwise.

Palladius: You are right.

Cyril: He assigns to both, as it were, a common lot: the offerings brought by those in their charge. And whatever anyone offers to God as a dedication or a sacrifice, he says, must belong to the priests and the Levites together. For the God of all spoke thus to Aaron: ‘You shall have no inheritance in their land, and you shall have no portion among them; for I am your portion and your inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel. And to the sons of Levi, see, I have given every tithe in Israel as their lot, in return for their services, for the service they perform in the tent of witness. And the sons of Israel shall no longer come near the tent of witness, to incur a deadly sin; but the Levite himself shall perform the service of the tent of witness, and they themselves shall take their sins. It is a perpetual statute throughout their generations; and among the sons of Israel they shall inherit no inheritance. For the tithes of the sons of Israel, whatever they set apart for the Lord, I have given to the Levites as an offering, as their lot. Therefore I have said to them: Among the sons of Israel they shall inherit no lot.’ (Numbers 18:20–24)

And in Deuteronomy, as if bringing the same word round again, he says something like this: ‘The priests, the Levites, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or lot with Israel. The Lord’s offerings by fire are their lot; they shall eat them. They shall have no lot among their brothers; the Lord himself is his lot, as he told him. And this is the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer sacrifices, whether a calf or a sheep: you shall give the priest the arm, the jaws, and the stomach; and the firstfruits of your grain, your wine, and your oil, and the first of the shearing of your sheep you shall give him. For the Lord has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand before the Lord God, to minister and to bless in his name, he and his sons, for all time.’ (Deuteronomy 18:1–5)

See, then, how the sacred race is not ranked with the people, and is in a way marked off from the rest, not only by the duties of its ministry but already by the difference of its hope. For to those who live an earthbound life, who cling to earthly things and thirst for the things of the moment, which pass by like shadows, it may fittingly be said: ‘This is your portion, this is your lot, the portion for your disobedience to me, says the Lord.’ (Jeremiah 13:25) But to those who have prized the holy and blameless life, and who are already chosen out for their virtue, it is very right to say: ‘You shall have no inheritance in their land, and you shall have no portion among them; for I am your portion and your inheritance… (Numbers 18:20)

The Lord as the Levites’ lot; tithes, priestly shares, and the Levites’ cities§11

11Cyril: …says the Lord’ (Numbers 18:20). So too the Savior: when someone once came to him and asked how he might have eternal life (Matthew 19:16), he said, ‘You know the commandments: You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal’ (Matthew 19:18; Mark 10:19), and the rest of that kind. The man declared openly that he had kept such commandments, and he asked further, adding, ‘What do I still lack?’ (Matthew 19:20). The Savior answered, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me’ (Matthew 19:21). Those, then, who wish to serve God without distraction, and who think they must follow him, have to withdraw from earthly things, make him alone their lot, and grow rich on their hope in him, as is sung in the Psalms: ‘Delight in the Lord, and hope in him, and he will act’ (Psalm 37:4–5). So he sets apart the tithes for the Levites, in return for the labor of their service (Numbers 18:21). For the toil of the saints is not unpaid: their honors are choice and their rewards splendid. For the Savior says, ‘Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will put on (Matthew 6:25); but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you’ (Matthew 6:33). Again, he gives the name ‘sins’ to the victims slain for sins. These too would be types of Christ, who was sacrificed for us and endured the slaughter in order to abolish the sin of the world (John 1:29). And the offerings for sin may be eaten only by those who perform the sacred rites (Leviticus 6:26, 29). For it is fitting that the holy body of Christ be shared not by unholy souls but by chosen and pure ones, to whom one might apply the words, ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession’ (1 Peter 2:9). To those appointed to minister are reserved the arm, the jaws, and also the stomach (Deuteronomy 18:3). For the chosen race must have in it the power to act and to accomplish, and this is the arm; and also speech, plainly the speech that teaches, of which the jaws are a type; and besides these, the stomach, which very aptly signifies fruitfulness. For must not the one who is truly known to God be active, most eloquent, and most fruitful as well?

Palladius: Certainly.

Cyril: So he made the tribe of Levi a tribe without an allotment, and gave himself to it as its special lot. Yet he wisely did not let them seem to be set wholly apart from the rest by receiving nothing at all; he measured the matter out, as it were, and gave them a little for their necessary use. For it is written thus: ‘And the Lord spoke to Moses on the west of Moab, by the Jordan, opposite Jericho, saying: Command the sons of Israel, and they shall give the Levites, from the allotments of their possession, cities to dwell in; and they shall give the Levites the outskirts of the cities round about them. And the cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their reserved lands shall be (Numbers 35:1–3)…

Enough for need: the Levites’ measured lands, the cities of refuge, and the sabbath years§12

12Cyril: …for their cattle and for all their four-footed beasts. And the lands adjoining the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall reach from the wall of the city outward two thousand cubits round about. And you shall measure outside the city the side toward the east, two thousand cubits; the side toward the south, two thousand cubits; the side toward the sea, two thousand cubits; and the side toward the north, two thousand cubits; and the city shall be in the middle of this for you, together with the borders of the cities. And you shall give the cities to the Levites, the six cities of refuge, which you shall grant so that the one who has killed may flee there’ (Numbers 35:3–6). For the saints are permitted, even in this world, to possess what sustains life, as much as would suffice them for the necessary needs of the body. ‘For if we have food and clothing,’ it says, ‘with these we shall be content’ (1 Timothy 6:8). And anything beyond this is not without harm. So small towns and houses, with the fields around them, were assigned to the holy ministers, and these too by measure. For God judged it right this way: he neither indulged them with more than they needed or with luxury, nor pressed them without measure by too tight a limit; but he wisely took away extreme want and removed what causes distress. For he matched sufficiency to need. He commands that the cities of refuge be entrusted to the Levites, placing in the care of the priests a class of people who had suffered most and who needed the greatest possible help. Here, I think, the churches have a type: to care for prisoners. For ‘Remember,’ it says, ‘those in bonds, as bound with them, and those who are ill-treated, as being yourselves also in the body’ (Hebrews 13:3).

Palladius: True.

Cyril: That what the holy priests hope for is secure, and that their lot is perpetual, he again indicated in a figure, in some such way as this. For it is written at the end of Leviticus: ‘And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them: When you enter the land which I give you, the land which I give you shall rest, Sabbaths to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, six years you shall prune your vine and gather in its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be Sabbaths, a rest for the land, Sabbaths to the Lord’ (Leviticus 25:1–4). Having laid down the Sabbath rest, and having commanded that the land be left unsown and unplowed in the seventh year, he adds again: ‘And you shall count for yourself seven rests of years, seven years seven times; and you shall have seven weeks of years, forty-nine years. You shall proclaim with the sound of a trumpet in all your land, in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; on the day of atonement you shall proclaim with a trumpet in all your land. And you shall sanctify the year, the fiftieth year, and proclaim release on the land to all who dwell in it. It is a year of release; this shall be a jubilee for you; and each one shall return to his own possession (Leviticus 25:8–10)…

The Jubilee and the sale of houses: walled cities, open fields, and the Levites’ lasting holdings§13

13Cyril: …and each of you shall return to his family. This is a jubilee of release; the fiftieth year shall be a year for you’ (Leviticus 25:10–11). Why even the land itself is released, and what the year of release signifies, we shall examine at the proper time. That the Levites’ lot is a special one will be shown; for the present, he writes again as follows: ‘If anyone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, it may be redeemed until a full year of days is completed; there shall be redemption for it. But if it is not redeemed before its whole year is completed, the house that is in the city that has a wall shall be confirmed securely to the one who bought it, for his generations, and it shall not go out in the release. But the houses in villages that have no wall around them shall be reckoned as the field of the land; they shall always be redeemable, and they shall go out in the release. And the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, shall always be redeemable for the Levites. And if anyone redeems from the Levites, the sale of their houses in the city of their possession shall also go out in the release; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession in the midst of the sons of Israel, and the fields set apart for their cities shall not be sold, for this is their everlasting possession’ (Leviticus 25:29–34).

Palladius: And what, then, does the law mean? For I do not quite understand.

Cyril: Listen, then. When people buy buildings in a town from their owners, the sellers, it says, may refund what they were given, for up to one year. If this does not happen, then once the year has passed, let the buyer be the owner, it says, and from then on beyond any written claim. But if it is a field and a farmstead, let it be allowed, it says, to recover it at any time, once the one who sold it has paid back to the buyer the money he was given. If he cannot pay it back and recover the property, the law commanded that it be released in the fiftieth year, without the former owner paying anything. For the law credited the buyer of the property with the profits of the long period as repayment of what was owed. These things God laid down for the common people. But the Levites’ holdings he set apart once more, as it were, in an honor of their own, saying that they are redeemable at all times and forbidding them to be sold: ‘For this,’ it says, ‘is their portion and lot’ (Leviticus 25:34).

Palladius: Then does the aim of the law go no further than this for us, my noble friend, and would close examination yield nothing at all that we need?

Cyril: Then how is the law still spiritual (Romans 7:14)? Or how is it not worth considering what the sacred Scripture means, and for what reason houses in a town cannot be redeemed once one year has passed, while those outside, in the fields, can be redeemed at any time? But one can see that the all-wise God gives no great weight to the history, so long as the spiritual meaning runs smoothly on its course and the features of the truth shine out with great exactness.

Walled cities and open fields: the Jews under the law and the nations exposed to Satan§14

14Palladius: Explain, then, what the law is saying.

Cyril: The matter of the sale is obscure, Palladius, and very hard to approach, even if one chose to grasp it in thought alone. Still, I will tell it as far as I can, and as it may come to my mind. Let me ask you, and you tell me: to those who are used to laying waste cities and lands, who would be easy to capture, and without a long struggle? Which would you say: those within walls, in cities with the strongest towers, or rather those in the fields?

Palladius: And to whom is that not clear? Those in unwalled fields are by far the easiest to capture.

Cyril: You are right. And who do you think live better and most reasonably: townspeople and those who know the laws, or those raised in a more rustic way in villages? So those in the fields will defend their own safety more feebly, whereas those within towered cities will make the better plans, and will reckon, in accordance with law, what they need for their own benefit, when the time comes for counsel and deliberation.

Palladius: True, even if perhaps they too have suffered defeat.

Cyril: Indeed, one might sometimes forgive those in the field for being captured and for having missed the best counsel; for they are unwalled and less prudent than those in the cities. But the others one would blame, and with very good reason, I think, if after warding off the enemies and keeping their own possessions safe, they then willingly betrayed themselves to the attacks of their adversaries, and, defeated beforehand by their own cowardice, fell into the hands of their adversaries.

Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: Consider, then, the Jews, who dwell in the holy city, of which the God of all says: ‘And I will be to her, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in her midst’ (Zechariah 2:5). And besides this, they had been made wise by the law. That is why they used to say: ‘Blessed are we, the sons of Israel, for what pleases the Lord is known to us’ (Baruch 4:4). Would you not say, then, that the assaults of the demons would find such people very hard indeed to break into, if they chose to live rightly and to submit to the divine laws?

Palladius: Certainly.

Cyril: But the flocks of the nations, whose mind is more rustic and easily stirred to frenzy, would naturally be taken without any struggle at all by Satan the plunderer, since they are bare of help from above and not at all enriched by the law that serves as a tutor (Galatians 3:24).

Palladius: So it seems.

Cyril: So the Jews, who dwell in a city…

Israel loses its inheritance; the nations are redeemed in Christ§15

15Cyril: …that is walled and girded about with help from above, who have the minds of townsfolk and have not been ignorant of what pleases God, but then disregarded what was fitting, have thrown away through carelessness the lot assigned to them and have fallen from their high hope: unless they sober up from their drunkenness, as it is written (Joel 1:5), and recover what is their own while the year of redemption is here (Leviticus 25:29–30), that is, the coming of our Savior, they will be left as they are from then on and will be subject forever to the buyer, that is, to Satan. ‘For behold,’ he says, ‘you were sold for your iniquities, and for your sins I sent away your mother’ (Isaiah 50:1). But the multitude of the nations, wholly without help and sick with a rustic and untaught mind, and for that reason driven out into slavery under others, can be redeemed at any time (Leviticus 25:31), because God takes pity on it. For it will take back its own lot, called to freedom in the year of release, when Christ set free all the earth under the sun from the greed of the demons, rescued it from the snares of sin, justified it by faith and sanctified it in the Spirit, canceling by his own cross the bond that stood against us (Colossians 2:14). The possessions of the Levites, however, can never be sold off (Leviticus 25:32–34); for the lot is kept safe for the saints, and their hope stands firm. So it was that Christ once said of Mary, who was so very eager to learn, that she had chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:42). Yet for small and great, for priest and people, and in a word for all, redemption and the security of hope are in Christ.

Palladius: So Israel will sell off its own lot, because it did not recognize the year of redemption; but the nations will possess the hope, and the good things of nature will be regained through Christ.

Cyril: So I say. And the God of all will seal our account as true, showing this also in another way through the voice of Ezekiel, in the measuring of the house: ‘Thus says the Lord: If the leader gives a gift to one of his sons out of his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. But if he gives it to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of release, and he shall give it back to the leader; only the inheritance of his sons shall remain theirs. And the leader shall not take any of the inheritance of his people, to oppress them and drive them from their possession, and from his inheritance to give an inheritance to his sons, so that my people may not be scattered, each from his own possession’ (Ezekiel 46:16–18). Is the oracle clear to you, and does the sense of the history stand out plainly?

Palladius: Not at all; but I would most gladly learn.

Cyril: By ‘leader,’ Palladius, he means the high priest, the one whose lot it is to lead the peoples under his hand. Since, then, fitting and select lots have been assigned to the holy…

Gifts to sons stand; gifts to servants go back§16

16Cyril: …ministers, and he has commanded that these be kept for them forever and never be lost, the passage must mean this. For if it should happen, he says, that one of the leaders, that is, of the ministers, gives part of his own lot to his own children, let what was given stand fixed, he says, and let the gift never pass away from the one who received it. For the lot does not pass to someone of another race, but from priests to those who are consecrated. But if he gives it as a favor to one of his household servants, the one who received it, he says, will not hold it securely; his lot will surely return to the leader in the year of release (Ezekiel 46:17). He further commands the minister to put away any desire for the lots of others; for this, I think, is the meaning of ‘the leader shall not take any of the inheritance of his people’ (Ezekiel 46:18). Has the account been enough to make the matter clear to you?

Palladius: Fully.

Cyril: Then let it be put to the spiritual test; for the things in the law are types, and the shape of the truth is engraved in the shadows.

Palladius: True.

Cyril: So the lots that pass from fathers to children are secure and lasting, but those that pass from masters to servants can be lost and go back again; for this is what the sacred Scripture said.

Palladius: I understand.

Cyril: Now we who have been justified by faith have one leader, Christ (Matthew 23:10), who has as his own lot that of God the Father. That is why he said, when he addressed him as if in the form of prayer, ‘All that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and I am glorified in them’ (John 17:10). And the inspired Singer sings somewhere that, having ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men (Psalm 68:18; Ephesians 4:8). For some he placed in the Church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers (1 Corinthians 12:28); and to one is given a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge (1 Corinthians 12:8), and the gifts akin to these. In a word, he enriches the souls of those who love him with his own good things. Secure, then, and firmly founded is the possession of these gifts for those who are both ministers and free. But for those who have the spirit of slavery (Romans 8:15), that is, for those of Israel, who do not accept the faith of freedom but still lie under the yoke of profane and loathsome sin, even the grace given through Moses can be lost and taken away; that grace is the knowledge in the law, which leads like a tutor toward the truth (Galatians 3:24). They have no lot at all with the saints and no portion with Christ. ‘For to him who has,’ he says, ‘more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away’ (Matthew 25:29; Luke 8:18). That Israel is left without a lot, since it did not accept the faith and has not been made glorious with the honors that belong to freedom, the Savior made plain, bringing forward, as I think, the force of this very law. For he spoke thus to those who chose to disobey:

The Son sets free; saints ask for what befits saints§17

17Cyril: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed’ (John 8:34–36). See, then, that inheriting would befit the free, and not rather those under the yoke of slavery; for it is sons who remain in the house, he says, and not slaves.

Palladius: That is very finely put.

Cyril: When the law adds, ‘The leader shall not take any of the inheritance of his people to give an inheritance to his sons’ (Ezekiel 46:18), it hints at something like this: that Christ, since he himself is our leader, would never assign to any of the sanctified a lot that does not befit them. For is there not, as it were, one portion and one lot for those who have not dedicated their life wholly to God, and another, a choice one, for those who have been chosen and have come through to their share in the splendor that is in Christ?

Palladius: How could it be otherwise?

Cyril: So it is unseemly for saints to seek to receive from Christ the things that suit those who live in the world and follow a way of life that is not wholly sanctified. Rather, one must seek nothing carnal, but everything divine and spiritual. In just this way the Savior himself instructed the holy apostles to frame the words of their supplication, shaping their request very well to what befits saints. ‘Pray then like this,’ he says: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; and do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ (Matthew 6:9–13). To those, then, who ask improperly for what the leader does not give, we shall say, ‘You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly’ (James 4:3). And that he speaks the truth who says to God, ‘You will repay each one according to his works’ (Psalm 62:12), the law again hints to us when it says, ‘For this reason the leader shall not take any of the inheritance of his people to give his sons an inheritance, so that,’ it says, ‘my people may not be scattered, each from his inheritance’ (Ezekiel 46:18). For a lot of his own has been prepared, as it were, for each, and the portion from God answers to what each has achieved. Or perhaps he is saying that it is wholly out of place for the sanctified to turn aside and desire what those who set their minds on the things of the world might have, and these things are temporary and carnal and pass by like shadows.

Palladius: So it is.

Cyril: Particular lots, then, and indeed cities set apart from the rest (Numbers 35:2–8), are the honors God gives to the holy ministers; but he appoints, as common, as it were, to all, the one renowned Jerusalem. For he spoke thus…

Many cities, one heavenly Jerusalem; sacrifice only at the one tent§18

18Cyril: …in Deuteronomy: ‘If the Levite comes from one of your cities, from among all the sons of Israel where he lives as a sojourner, as his soul desires, to the place which the Lord your God chooses, he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God like all his brothers the Levites who stand there before the Lord; he shall eat an allotted portion, besides what comes from the sale of his family property’ (Deuteronomy 18:6–8). For since God is one, those who have been brought forward to this office and chosen by the vote from above must everywhere have their place among the priests. This is kept even now in the churches, and we honor the law; for each of those chosen for the priesthood has a city and a lot of his own, yet he is welcomed to share in the sacred ministry even if he happens to go from one city or region to another, and he eats with the priests and is honored by the laws of love. But the law, as I think, seems again to hint at something mystical. For there are countless regions and cities throughout the whole world in which holy and God-loving human souls serve God by living lawfully and conducting their lives according to the Gospel, offering to him, as it were, sacrifices for a fragrant aroma (a spiritual one, clearly): faith, hope, love, endurance, meekness and love for the poor. ‘For with such sacrifices God is well pleased’ (Hebrews 13:16), as the Scriptures say. Yet all these run together, as to one common mother, to the heavenly Jerusalem (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22), the Church of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:23), the fair city above, the true tent which the Lord pitched and not man (Hebrews 8:2). There we shall serve more purely, when sin has been removed from us entirely and the lion and the dragon, the basilisk and the asp have ceased (Psalm 91:13). ‘For there,’ he says, ‘will be a pure way, and it will be called a holy way; and no lion will be found there, and none of the evil beasts will go up there’ (Isaiah 35:8–9). There we shall eat an allotted portion. For it is written, ‘You shall eat the fruits of your labors’ (Psalm 128:2). Or is not the repayment of good things in proportion to each one’s labors, even if it comes in greater measure because of the Master’s generosity? ‘For good measure,’ he says, ‘pressed down, running over, shaken together, they will put into your lap’ (Luke 6:38).

Palladius: You have spoken rightly. But tell me this: were the Levites not allowed to perform the sacred rites while they were in their own cities and villages?

Cyril: Not at all. For there was one tent, and one altar on which all the sacred rites were performed, and one temple too, in Jerusalem, which Solomon built, giving full form to the pattern of that ancient tent. The law utterly forbids anyone to sacrifice outside the holy tent; for those who wished to do so the penalty was destruction, and the sentence of the utmost punishment hung over them. For it said plainly (Leviticus 17:3–4): ‘If anyone sacrifices a sheep or a calf in the camp, and to…

Sacrifice only at the one sanctuary; tithes carried from far away§19

19Cyril: …does not bring it to the doors of the tent, that soul shall be utterly destroyed from among its people.’ (Leviticus 17:3–4) At that time those who wished to sacrifice were under every necessity to come to the temple and to the holy city itself, and to complete the sacred rites lawfully, with those of the blood of Levi presenting the offerings. You can hear this plainly from God, who says clearly in Deuteronomy: ‘You may not eat in your cities the tithe of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, the firstborn of your cattle and of your sheep, nor any of the vows that you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the first fruits of your hands; but you shall eat it only before the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord your God chooses for himself, you and your sons, and your daughter, and your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite and the stranger who is in your cities; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in everything to which you put your hand. Take care that you do not forsake the Levite for as long as he lives on the earth.’ (Deuteronomy 12:17–19) For the Divine is unapproachable, and a sacrifice without a Levite is unacceptable, since the Levites act as mediators, imitating the Mediator between God and humans, that is, Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). And the law showed plainly that the Church is one and the mystery of Christ is one, and that a sacrifice not performed in the Church is unlawful, or rather is to be rejected and cannot please God; I mean that it showed this by laying down that the sacred rites must not be performed outside the holy tent. You will learn from this too how much care was taken over such matters. It was not at all unlikely, indeed it was the case, that the cities throughout the whole of Judea, which were not easily counted, were separated from Jerusalem by the great distances lying between. And what hardship and toil followed from this? That those who wished to offer first fruits of grain, and of oil and wine as well, had to be able to carry them over so long a road. The labor involved might perhaps have made some reluctant. Yet it was unseemly, indeed utterly out of place, that because the thing was hard and not easy to accomplish for those who lived farther away, the beauty of the truth should be impaired, with the Israelites not bringing their offerings to the holy tent. So, in order that every obstacle in the way might be usefully removed for us, and that the law on this matter might from then on be carried out as the lawgiver intended, Moses gives instruction and sets out the divine will in Deuteronomy, saying: ‘You shall set apart a tenth of all the produce of your seed, the produce of your field, year by year, and you shall eat it before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses for his name to be called upon. There you shall bring the tithes of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the firstborn of your cattle and of your sheep, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God at all times. But if the road is too long for you, and you are not able to carry them up… (Deuteronomy 14:22–24)

Tithes exchanged for silver; the priest as judge, a type of Christ§20

20Cyril: …because the place which the Lord your God chooses for his name to be called upon there is far from you, because the Lord your God will bless you, then you shall sell them for silver, and take the silver in your hands, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses for his name to be called upon there. And you shall spend the silver on whatever your soul desires, on oxen or on sheep, on wine or on strong drink, or on whatever your soul desires; and you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household, and the Levite who is in your cities, because he has no portion or inheritance with you.’ (Deuteronomy 14:22–27) Do you see the skill of the law? It levels the steep climb, makes rough roads quite passable, and eases even what is very hard. And this, I think, is what was said through the voice of the prophet: ‘The way of the godly has become straight, and the way of the godly is made ready.’ (Isaiah 26:7) Notice too that the Levite is brought in everywhere and of necessity, since the law shows us plainly that the God of all would not accept a sacrifice offered by an unconsecrated hand, in a way that is at odds with the law.

Palladius: So the Levitical order has been held in the highest honor.

Cyril: Entirely so, Palladius. For the priest is a type and an imprint of Christ. Emmanuel has been named the Mediator between God and humans (1 Timothy 2:5), and the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, according to the Scriptures (Hebrews 3:1); he entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, not through the blood of goats and calves but through his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12). And by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified, according to the Scriptures (Hebrews 10:14). Now look, if you will, at another way as well in which the priest is crowned with the glory of Christ. Christ himself has cried out to us plainly, saying: ‘For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.’ (John 5:22–23) Again, this saying, spoken through the voice of a saint, stands in the sacred writings: ‘There is one Lawgiver and Judge.’ (James 4:12) And the inspired David also sings that ‘God is Judge.’ (Psalm 50:6; Psalm 75:7) Assigning this splendid dignity of judging to those of priestly blood, the lawgiver speaks in this way in Deuteronomy: ‘If a matter for judgment is too hard for you, between one kind of bloodshed and another, between one lawsuit and another, between one injury and another, between one dispute and another, matters for judgment in your cities, then you shall rise and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses, and you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who is in office in those days; and they shall search the matter out and declare the judgment to you. And you shall act according to the matter which they declare to you from the place which the Lord your God chooses, and you shall take care to do all that is laid down for you. You shall act according to the law and according to the judgment that they tell you. You shall not turn aside from the word that they declare to you, to the right or to the left. And the man who acts… (Deuteronomy 17:8–12)

Obey the priest who expounds the law; the lamp set on the lampstand§21

21Cyril: …in arrogance, so as not to obey the priest who stands to minister in the name of the Lord your God, or the judge who is in office in those days, that man shall die, and you shall remove the wicked person from Israel. And all the people, when they hear, will be afraid, and will no longer act impiously.’ (Deuteronomy 17:8–13) You see how the law clearly charges those who have chosen to bring a complaint on any ground to make the priest their judge and arbiter. Indeed, ‘you shall take great care to act in keeping with all that is laid down for you’ (Deuteronomy 17:10). For ‘the lips of a priest will guard judgment, and they will seek the law from his mouth,’ as the prophet says (Malachi 2:7). He does not make law himself at all; rather, he conveys faithfully what the lawgiver has decided, setting it out without partiality, and, as the best arbiter of justice, he weighs the judgment in each case with precision. For this reason a charge of savagery and contempt follows those who choose to disobey, and the worst of all evils, that is, death, is appointed for them. For whoever disregards the priest who stands to minister in the name of the Lord God, it says, shall die (Deuteronomy 17:12). Great, then, and truly wonderful is this attendance and ministry under God. Whoever dishonors God’s minister will be subject to judgment and punishment, and whoever spurns the divine dignity will render a bitter account for his contempt. We shall find that our Lord Jesus Christ himself was also concerned for the respect due to this law. For he addressed the crowds of the Jews in this way: ‘The scribes and the Pharisees have sat on Moses’ seat; so do all that they tell you, but do not do as they do.’ (Matthew 23:2–3) So let no one judge the priest, even if he is seen to be somewhat slack, and even if he is careless about choosing to live in keeping with the law; but when he interprets the law, let everyone give him ready obedience. For his weaknesses arise from his own will, but what he expounds belongs to God. The things of God, then, must not be dishonored because of what is human.

Palladius: Certainly not.

Cyril: You will learn from this too that the priesthood is a splendid thing, and truly one on which all eyes are fixed. Its beginning is most conspicuous, and so too is its close. For no one could pass unnoticed when he is brought to priestly service, nor again when he is called by God to the dwellings above in heaven and hands the priesthood on to another. That is why Christ too said that those who serve as priests in proclaiming the gospel to the nations (Romans 15:16), and to those of Israel besides, would be conspicuous in every way and without fail, and would receive a glory on which all eyes are fixed. ‘For no one, after lighting a lamp, puts it in a hidden place, nor even under a bed,’ he says, ‘or under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that all who come in may see the light.’ (Luke 11:33; Luke 8:16) That this was truly said, I mean that the divine minister will be in a glory that is conspicuous and admired, let the inspired Isaiah also convince you, when he cries out:

Aaron dies on the mountain and Eleazar takes up the priesthood§22

22Cyril: …‘Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion.’ (Isaiah 40:9)

Palladius: Anyone can see that this is so. But tell me how the type of this was also foreshadowed for us in the sacred words.

Cyril: Indeed, my friend, you can see the matter quite effortlessly, written out as it were in still coarser types. For God spoke thus to the most holy Moses in Numbers: ‘Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor before the whole congregation; and strip Aaron of his robe, and put it on Eleazar his son; and let Aaron be gathered, and die there. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and he brought them up to Mount Hor before the whole congregation; and he stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son, and Aaron died on the top of the mountain.’ (Numbers 20:25–28) Do you understand, then, how they are brought up: Aaron to die and come to his end, and the one born of him, that is, Eleazar, to take up the priesthood? The mountain would signify what is visible from every side and set on high, what stands out in glory. So let it be said from now on to everyone who is brought to priestly service: ‘A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.’ (Matthew 5:14)