Conceived in iniquity; forty and eighty days and the forming of the child
Cyril: …by the corruption brought in from outside, and by death, which gained the mastery through the devil’s envy and has sin as its root. And nature is defiled in another way too: those who are born are sown, as it were, in the love of bodily pleasure. And the inspired David seems to hint at something like this when he sings and says: ‘For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me’ (Psalm 51:5). So nature is unclean, since as a result of the transgression and of the curse it endures corruption, contrary to what God willed. For ‘he created all things that they might exist’ (Wisdom of Solomon 1:14); the saying is true.
Palladius: Then tell me next: in what way could someone be freed from uncleanness?
Cyril: The law itself, Palladius, which condemns us, has shown us the way. For ‘let her be set apart as unclean,’ it says, ‘for seven days’ (Leviticus 12:2). And let her count another thirty-three, and she shall remain in her unclean blood (Leviticus 12:4); that is, clearly, for a male child. But if she bears a female, it says, the separation is double, and double too the count of the other days (Leviticus 12:5). So if the child born is male, the mother is unclean and in defilement for seven and thirty-three days, that is, forty; but if female, for twice seven and sixty-six, that is, eighty.
Palladius: And what, then, would be the reason for this?
Cyril: Once again the law lifts us from bodily examples to the understanding of what is more hidden, and it paints the things of the senses as a kind of picture of spiritual contemplation. Now those who are learned in these matters say that if what is conceived in the womb is male, it takes on its form only when forty days have passed; but if female, it comes to this more slowly, being weak and feeble. They say that it needs twice forty days, that is, eighty, to be distinctly formed. So the mother of a male child was unclean for forty days; but the mother of a female was in defilements and uncleannesses for a full eighty days, that is, until what is in the womb is exactly formed and has come to human shape. And at the cleansing, as the law prescribed, a lamb and a turtledove were slain at the door of the holy tent, while a priest mediated and performed the sacred rites (Leviticus 12:6–7). The law also said that the male child must be circumcised as the law prescribed, that is, on the eighth day (Leviticus 12:3). Such, then, is the sense of the letter. But let us rise to the spiritual contemplation, and say in what way the nature that bore us into corruption and uncleanness shook off defilements and escaped the uncleanness and the denunciation of the law. For it had already spent long ages in separation, that is, away from the face of God. These were the times before Christ’s coming, during which there reigned
Greek
οὖν τὴν φύσιν ἡ ἐπείσακτος φθορὰ, καὶ ὁ φθόνῳ διαβολικῷ κατακρατήσας θάνατος, ῥίζαν ἔχων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν. Καταμιαίνει δὲ καὶ ἑτέρως, τὸ ὡς ἐν φιληδονίᾳ σαρκικῇ σπείρεσθαι τὰ γεννώμενα. Καὶ δή τι τοιοῦτον ὑποδηλοῦν ἔοικεν ὁ θεσπέσιος Δαβὶδ ψάλλων τε καὶ λέγων· «Ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἐν ἀνομίαις συνελήφθην, καὶ ἐν ἁμαρτίαις ἐκίσσησέ με ἡ μήτηρ μου.» Ἀκάθαρτος οὖν ἡ φύσις, ὡς ἐκ παραβάσεώς τε καὶ ἐξ ἀρᾶς ὑπομένουσα τὴν φθορὰν, παρά γε τὸ Θεῷ δοκοῦν. Ἔκτισε γὰρ εἰς τὸ εἶναι τὰ πάντα, τὸ (σιξ) ἀληθὴς ὁ λόγος.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Τίνα δὴ οὖν τρόπον ἀπαλλάττοιτο ἄν τις ἀκαθαρσίας, προστίθει λοιπόν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Αὐτὸς ἡμῖν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, κατέδειξε τὴν ὁδὸν καταδικάζων ὁ νόμος. «Ἀφοριζέσθω γὰρ, φησὶν, ὡς ἀκάθαρτος, ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας.» Ἀπαριθμείτω δὲ καὶ ἑτέρας τρεῖς καὶ τριάκοντα, καὶ καθίσεται ἐν αἵματι ἀκαθάρτῳ αὐτῆς, ἐπ' ἄρσενι δὲ δηλονότι τῷ γεννήματι· εἰ δὲ δὴ θῆλυ τέκοι, φησὶ, διπλοῦς ὁ ἀφορισμὸς, διπλῆ καὶ ἡ τῶν ἑτέρων ἡμερῶν ἀπαρίθμησις. Οὐκοῦν εἰ μὲν ἄρσεν εἴη τὸ ἀποτεχθὲν, ἀκάθαρτος ἡ τεκοῦσα, καὶ ἐν μολυσμοῖς ἑπτὰ καὶ τριάκοντα καὶ τρεῖς ἡμέρας, τουτέστι, τεσσαράκοντα· εἰ δὲ θῆλυ, δὶς ἑπτὰ, καὶ ἑξήκοντα καὶ ἓξ, τουτέστιν, ὀγδοήκοντα.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ τίς ἂν εἴη λοιπὸν καὶ ὁ τοῦδε λόγος;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐκ παραδειγμάτων ἡμᾶς σαρκικῶν ἀνακομίζει πάλιν ὁ νόμος εἰς κατάληψιν τῶν ἀφανεστέρων, καὶ ὥσπερ τινὰ πίνακα πνευματικῆς θεωρίας ἀναγράφει τὰ αἰσθητά. Φασὶ τοιγαροῦν οἱ ταῦτα σοφοὶ, ὡς εἰ μὲν ἄρσεν εἴη τὸ ἐν μήτρᾳ καταβληθὲν, εἰδοποιεῖσθαι μόλις ἡμερῶν αὐτὸ τεσσαράκοντα δεδαπανημένων· εἰ δέ γε θῆλυ, βραδεῖαν ἔχει τὴν εἰς τοῦτο πάροδον, ὡς ἀσθενές τε καὶ ἄναλκι. Δεῖσθαι δὲ δὴ καὶ αὐτό φασιν, εἰς εἰδοποίησιν ἐναργῆ, τῶν δὶς τεσσαράκοντα ἡμερῶν, τουτέστιν, ὀγδοήκοντα. Ἀκάθαρτος οὖν ἡ ἀῤῥενοτόκος ἐν ἡμέραις τεσσαράκοντα· ἡ δέ γε θήλεος μήτηρ, ἐν ὅλαις ἦν ὀγδοήκοντα τὸν ἀριθμὸν ἡμέραις ἐν μολυσμοῖς καὶ ἀκαθαρσίαις, τουτέστιν, ἄχρι μορφώσεως ἀκριβοῦς τῶν ἐν μήτρᾳ, καὶ μὴν καὶ ἀφίξεως τῆς εἰς εἶδος τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. Ἐπὶ δέ γε τῷ καθαρισμῷ, κατά γε τὸ τῷ νόμῳ δοκοῦν, ἀμνὸς καὶ τρυγὼν ἐσφάζετο παρὰ τὴν θύραν τῆς ἁγίας σκηνῆς, μεσιτεύοντος ἱερέως καὶ τελοῦντος τὰ ἱερά· περιτέμνεσθαι δὲ δεῖν καὶ τὸ ἄρσεν ἔφη κατὰ τὸ τῷ νόμῳ δοκοῦν, τουτέστι, κατὰ τὴν ὀγδόην. Τοιόσδε μὲν οὖν ὁ τοῦ γράμματος νοῦς. Ἡμεῖς δὲ πρὸς θεωρίαν ἀναθέοντες τὴν πνευματικὴν, φέρε δὴ λέγωμεν τίνα δὴ τρόπον ἡ εἰς φθορὰν ἡμᾶς καὶ ἀκαθαρσίαν τεκοῦσα φύσις διεκρούσατο μολυσμοὺς, καὶ διέδρα τὴν ἀκαθαρσίαν καὶ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ νόμου κατάῤῥησιν· μακροὺς μὲν γὰρ ἤδη διατετέλεκε χρόνους ἐν ἀφορισμῷ, τουτέστιν, ἐκ προσώπου Θεοῦ. Χρόνοι δὲ ἦσαν οἱ πρὸ τῆς ἐπιδημίας, καθ' οὓς βεβασίλευκεν