The Jubilee and the sale of houses: walled cities, open fields, and the Levites’ lasting holdings
Cyril: …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.
Greek
καὶ ἕκαστος εἰς τὴν πατριὰν αὐτοῦ ἀπελεύσεσθε. Ἀφέσεως σημασία αὕτη, τὸ ἔτος τὸ πεντηκοστὸν ἐνιαυτὸς ἔσται ὑμῖν.» Τίς μὲν οὖν ὁ λόγος τοῦ καὶ αὐτὴν ἀνεῖσθαι τὴν γῆν, τί δὲ δὴ οὖν καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀφέσεως ἔτος ὑποδηλοῖ, βασανιοῦμεν εὐκαίρως· ὅτι δὲ ἐξαίρετος τοῖς Λευΐταις ὁ κλῆρος, λελέξεται· τέως δὲ γράφει ὡδὶ πάλιν· «Ἐὰν δέ τις ἀποδῶται τὴν οἰκίαν οἰκέτῃ τὴν ἐν πόλει τετειχισμένῃ, καὶ ἔσται ἡ λύτρωσις αὐτῆς, ἕως πληρωθῇ ἐνιαυτὸς ἡμερῶν, ἔσται ἡ λύτρωσις αὐτῆς· ἐὰν δὲ μὴ λυτρωθῇ, ἕως ἂν πληρωθῇ αὐτῆς ἐνιαυτὸς ὅλος, κυρωθήσεται ἡ οἰκία ἡ οὖσα ἐν πόλει τῇ ἐχούσῃ τεῖχος βεβαίως τῷ κτησαμένῳ αὐτὴν εἰς τὰς γενεὰς αὐτοῦ· καὶ οὐκ ἐξελεύσεται ἐν τῇ ἀφέσει. Αἱ δὲ οἰκίαι αἱ ἐν ἐπαύλεσιν, αἷς οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐταῖς τεῖχος κύκλῳ, πρὸς τὸν ἀγρὸν τῆς γῆς λογισθήσονται· λυτρωταὶ διαπαντὸς ἔσονται, καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀφέσει ἐξελεύσονται. Καὶ αἱ πόλεις τῶν Λευϊτῶν, οἰκίαι τῶν πόλεων κατασχέσεως αὐτῶν, λυτρωταὶ διαπαντὸς ἔσονται τοῖς Λευΐταις, καὶ ὃς ἂν λυτρώσηται παρὰ τῶν Λευϊτῶν, καὶ ἐξελεύσεται ἡ διάπρασις αὐτῶν οἰκιῶν πόλεως κατασχέσεως αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ ἀφέσει· ὅτι οἰκίαι τῶν πόλεων τῶν Λευϊτῶν κατάσχεσις αὐτῶν ἐν μέσῳ υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ οἱ ἀγροὶ ἀφωρισμένοι ταῖς πόλεσιν αὐτῶν οὐ πραθήσονται· ὅτι κατάσχεσις αἰωνία τοῦτο αὐτῶν ἐστιν.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ τί δὴ ἄρα φησὶν ὁ νόμος; συνίημι γὰρ οὐ σφόδρα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄκουε δή· τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐν ἄστει τῶν οἰκοδομημάτων ἃ ἂν ἐκπρίαιντό τινες παρὰ τῶν κυρίων, ἐξέστω, φησὶ, τοῖς ἀποδομένοις, ἀναμοιράσασθαι τὸ δοθὲν καὶ μέχρις ἔτους ἑνός· εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῦτο γένηται, παρῳχηκότος ἐνιαυτοῦ, κύριος ἔστω, φησὶ, καὶ γραμμάτων ἔξω λοιπὸν ὁ πριάμενος. Εἰ δὲ ἀγρὸς εἴη καὶ ἔπαυλις, ἐξέστω, φησὶ, τὸ ἀνακομίζεσθαι διὰ παντὸς, ἐκτετικότος τῷ πριαμένῳ τὸ δοθὲν ἀργύριον τοῦ ἀπεμπωληκότος. Οὐκ ἔχοντος δὲ καταθεῖναι καὶ ἀναλαβεῖν, ἀνεῖσθαι προστέταχεν ἐν ἔτει πεντηκοστῷ, ἐκτετικότος οὐδὲν τοῦ πάλαι Κυρίου. Κατελογίζετο γὰρ ὁ νόμος τῷ πριαμένῳ τὴν κτῆσιν, τοῦ μακροῦ χρόνου τὰ κέρδη πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὀφλημάτων ἀντέκτισιν. Ἀλλὰ ταυτὶ μὲν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀγελαίοις ἐθεσμοθέτει Θεός. Ἀνὰ μέρος δὲ ὥσπερ πάλιν καὶ ὡς ἐν ἰδίᾳ ἐτίθει τιμῇ τὰ Λευϊτικὰ, λυτρωτὰ διὰ παντὸς εἶναι λέγων αὐτὰ, καὶ ἐπιπράσκεσθαι διακωλύων· «Μερὶς γὰρ αὕτη, φησὶ, καὶ κλῆρος αὐτοῖς.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἆρ' οὖν, ὦ γενναῖε, μέχρι τούτων ἡμῖν ὁ τοῦ νόμου σκοπὸς, ἐκτέκοι δ' ἂν ὅλως οὐδὲν τῶν ἀναγκαίων ἡ βάσανος;
{ΚΥΡ.} Εἶτα πῶς πνευματικὸς ἔτι ὁ νόμος; ἢ πῶς οὐκ ἄξιον ἐννοεῖν, ὅ τί ποτε ἄρα φησὶ τὸ Γράμμα τὸ ἱερὸν, τοῦ δὴ χάριν, ἀλύτρωτα μὲν τὰ ἐν ἄστει παρῳχηκότος ἐνιαυτοῦ ἑνὸς, ἐλλυτρώσιμα δὲ καὶ διὰ παντὸς τὰ ἔξω καὶ ἐν ἀγροῖς; Ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἰδεῖν ὡς οὐ σφόδρα πολὺς τῷ πανσόφῳ Θεῷ τῆς ἱστορίας ὁ λόγος, ἔστ' ἂν ἴοι καταροῦν τὰ πνευματικὰ, καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας οἱ χαρακτῆρες ἀκριβεῖς λίαν ἐκφαίνοιντο.