Enough for need: the Levites’ measured lands, the cities of refuge, and the sabbath years
Cyril: …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)…
Greek
τοῖς κτήνεσιν αὐτῶν, καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς τετράποσιν αὐτῶν. Καὶ τὰ συγκυροῦντα τῶν πόλεων, ἃς δώσετε τοῖς Λευΐταις, ἀπὸ τείχους τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἔξω δισχιλίους πήχεις κύκλῳ, καὶ μετρήσεις ἔξω τῆς πόλεως τὸ κλίτος τὸ πρὸς ἀνατολὰς δισχιλίους πήχεις, καὶ τὸ κλίτος τὸ πρὸς λίβα δισχιλίους πήχεις, καὶ τὸ κλίτος τὸ πρὸς θάλασσαν δισχιλίους πήχεις, καὶ τὸ κλίτος τὸ πρὸς βοῤῥᾶν δισχιλίους πήχεις, καὶ ἡ πόλις μέσον τούτου ἔσται ὑμῖν, καὶ τὰ ὅμορα τῶν πόλεων, καὶ τὰς πόλεις δώσετε τοῖς Λευΐταις, τὰς ἓξ πόλεις τῶν φυγαδευτηρίων, ἃς δώσετε φυγεῖν ἐκεῖ τῷ φονεύσαντι.» Ἐφεῖται γὰρ τοῖς ἁγίοις, καὶ ἐν τῷδε τῷ κόσμῳ κεκτῆσθαι τὰ ζωαρκῆ, καὶ ὅσαπερ ἂν αὐτοῖς, ὡς πρός γε τὴν ἀναγκαίαν τοῦ σώματος χρείαν, ἀρκέσειεν ἄν. «Ἔχοντες γὰρ, φησὶ, διατροφὰς, καὶ σκεπάσματα, τούτοις ἀρκεσθησόμεθα.» Καὶ τὸ ἔτι περιττὸν, οὐκ ἀζήμιον. Πολίχναι δὴ οὖν καὶ δωμάτια, περισπόριά τε, καὶ τοῦτο μεμετρημένα, τοῖς ἁγίοις ἐκνενέμηνται λειτουργοῖς· ἐδικαίου γὰρ ὧδε Θεὸς, οὔτε τοῖς ὑπὲρ τὴν χρείαν ἢ εἰς τρυφὴν ἀνιεὶς, οὔτε μὴν τῷ λίαν κατεσφιγμένῳ καταθλίβων ἀμέτρως, ἀφιστὰς δὲ χρησίμως, καὶ τὸ πολὺ λίαν ἐνδεὲς, καὶ τὸ λυποῦν ἀφανίζων. Συνεμέτρει γὰρ τῇ χρείᾳ τὴν αὐτάρκειαν. Ἐπιτρέπεσθαί γε μὴν τοῖς Λευΐταις τὰς τῶν φυγαδευτηρίων ἐντέλλεται πόλεις, γένος τὸ μάλιστα πεπονθὸς, πλείστης δὲ ὅσης ἐπικουρίας δεόμενον, τῇ τῶν ἱερουργῶν φροντίδι παρατιθέμενος. Τύπος δὲ, οἶμαι, ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ἐντεῦθεν, τὸ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι δεσμίων· «Μνημονεύετε» γὰρ, φησὶ, «τῶν δεσμίων, ὡς συνδεδεμένοι· τῶν κακουχουμένων, ὡς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὄντες ἐν σώματι.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐν βεβαίῳ δὲ ὅτι τὰ τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῖς ἁγίοις ἱερουργοῖς, καὶ μὴν ὅτι διηνεκὴς ὁ κλῆρος αὐτοῖς, ὑπεδήλου πάλιν αἰνιγματωδῶς κατὰ τοιόνδε τινὰ τρόπον. Γέγραπται γὰρ ἐπὶ τέλει τοῦ Λευϊτικοῦ· «Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωσῆ, λέγων· Λάλησον τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτούς· Ἐὰν εἰσέλθητε εἰς τὴν γῆν, ἣν ἐγὼ δίδωμι ὑμῖν, καὶ ἀναπαύσεται ἡ γῆ ἣν ἐγὼ δίδωμι ὑμῖν, Σάββατα Κυρίῳ. Ἓξ ἔτη σπερεῖς τὸν ἀγρόν σου, ἓξ ἔτη τεμεῖς τὴν ἄμπελόν σου, καὶ συνάξεις τὸν καρπὸν αὐτῆς τῷ δὲ ἔτει τῷ ἑβδόμῳ Σάββατα, ἀνάπαυσις ἔσται τῇ γῇ, Σάββατα τῷ Κυρίῳ.» Διορισάμενος δὲ τὸν Σαββατισμὸν, ἄσπορόν τε καὶ ἀνήροτον ἀνεῖσθαι τὴν γῆν ἐν ἔτει προστεταχὼς τῷ ἑβδόμῳ, προσεπάγει πάλιν· «Καὶ ἐξαριθμήσεις σεαυτῷ ἑπτὰ ἀναπαύσεις ἐτῶν, ἑπτὰ ἔτη ἑπτάκις. Καὶ ἔσονταί σοι ἑπτὰ ἑβδομάδες ἐτῶν ἐννέα καὶ τεσσαράκοντα ἔτη, διαγγελεῖτε σάλπιγγος φωνῇ ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ ὑμῶν, ἐν τῷ μηνὶ τῷ ἑβδόμῳ, τῇ δεκάτῃ τοῦ μηνὸς, τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ ἱλασμοῦ διαγγελεῖτε σάλπιγγι ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ ὑμῶν. Καὶ ἁγιάσετε τὸ ἔτος τὸν πεντηκοστὸν ἐνιαυτὸν, καὶ διαβοήσετε ἄφεσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς πᾶσι τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν αὐτήν. Ἐνιαυτὸς ἀφέσεως, σημασία αὕτη ἔσται ὑμῖν, καὶ ἀπελεύσεται εἷς ἕκαστος εἰς τὴν κτῆσιν αὐτοῦ,