Seven days of cleansing, the turtledoves of the eighth day, and emissions of seed

Cyril: …except in Christ, through water and blood (1 John 5:6). For ‘he shall count for himself,’ it says, ‘seven days for his cleansing, and he shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean’ (Leviticus 15:13). That the cleansing is drawn out to the seventh day surely signifies that those who have chosen to pass from worldly baseness to the choice of doing what is more fitting must be scoured clean by good conduct throughout their whole life, at every moment they live. For the week, as a measure of time, holds completion and a circling back to the beginning, as when a period has already reached its end. And the law says very well that to our own good conduct there must come, as a necessary addition, the cleansing through Christ and the purification through water. For holy baptism is now understood in the washing of the body and the garments, and with it, clearly, goes the purification through blood. For ‘on the eighth day,’ it says, ‘he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons’ (Leviticus 15:14). The eighth day, again, would signify for us the time of the dispensation in the flesh, when Emmanuel, the truly eloquent and most melodious turtledove, endured slaughter for us, and by his own blood has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). That Christ’s death is fragrant in every way (for it was accomplished for the life of the world (John 6:51) and for the abolishing of sin) would be shown by there being two turtledoves, one sacrificed for sin and the other as a whole burnt offering. And that, according to the Scriptures, Christ has become the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2), the law showed by saying: ‘And the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord for his discharge’ (Leviticus 15:15).

Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: In this way, then, the divine law declared to us that the man with a discharge must be cleansed. But it also declares defiled the man who has an emission, whether involuntary or voluntary, springing from the natural impulse. Voluntary, I mean, as in relations with a wife according to the law of marriage; involuntary, again, as perhaps in dreams at night. For again it spoke thus: ‘And a man from whom an emission of seed goes out shall bathe his whole body in water, and he shall be unclean until evening. And a woman with whom a man lies with an emission of seed, they shall bathe their bodies in water, and they shall be unclean until evening’ (Leviticus 15:16, 18). For the charges against both are equal, and there is no difference. In the case of the discharge, then, the law described for us an affliction that was, as it were, long and continuous; but in the present case the aim of the law seems to make plain that a person will be defiled even if he does not suffer from complete and total corruption, but is seen to have suffered it only in part and rarely. The Savior’s disciple also hinted at something like this (James 2:10–11): ‘For whoever keeps the whole law,’ he says, ‘but stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all. For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but do murder,