On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth, Book 16

Book Sixteen opens: after cleansing, spiritual offerings§1

1ON ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH — BOOK SIXTEEN. That we must bring to God spiritual sacrifices and gifts.

Cyril: What has been said is enough, I think, to show that we must go resolutely to have our sin rubbed away, and to the cleansing that comes through Christ. He is able to scour away all the filth that is in us, melting it down by the working of the Spirit, and he knows how to make us washed clean and holy. This is why the sacred word speaks to us in just this way, crying out long beforehand about the working of the Spirit that was to come upon us: ‘For suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord Almighty. And who will endure the day when he comes in? Or who will stand when he appears? For he comes in like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap, and he will sit refining and purifying, as silver and as gold.’ (Malachi 3:1–3) And in harmony with these words, too, is the inspired…

Cleansing is not enough: the Sabbath rest and the priests' sacred work§2

2Cyril: …Isaiah, who says: ‘The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.’ (Isaiah 4:4) So then, Palladius, would we fully carry out the way of the righteousness understood in Christ simply by being scoured clean and by rubbing away our old defilements? Tell me, would that be enough for the glory that befits the saints, and would it crown us with the highest honors? Or rather, will our condition in some way be better, and shall we rightly adorn our own heads with the highest praise, when we bring to God, as a kind of spiritual gift and a truly sacred offering, the life lived in sanctification and holiness, and carry out spiritual worship thoroughly?

Palladius: That is what I say.

Cyril: Indeed this agrees with the sacred laws, is pleasing to God, and is among the things most approved. He commanded rest from all work on the Sabbath, and allowed no one to do anything at all, saying this in Exodus: ‘Remember the day of the Sabbath, to keep it holy. Six days you shall work and do all your works; but the seventh day is the Sabbath, a rest to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it.’ (Exodus 20:8–10) The type plainly points to the Sabbath rest kept in spirit, when through Christ himself we have been called to cease and rest from every work of the flesh and from wicked pursuits, shaking off the burden of sin, loving to turn away from wickedness and to rest from whatever lies outside the law. For such a Sabbath rest remained out of reach for those of Israel; for they never entered Christ’s rest at all, as blessed Paul says (Hebrews 4:6–9). But Christ has given us rest, and has persuaded us to keep the Sabbath in a spiritual way, giving ourselves freely to virtue and practicing a good idleness from offenses.

Palladius: You have spoken excellently.

Cyril: Now God did indeed lay down long ago that all must rest from work on the Sabbath. Yet those crowned with the divine ministry and appointed to wait on the holy tent still performed the sacred rites; and though they profaned the Sabbath, as the Savior says, they were blameless (Matthew 12:5), and did not face the charge of having broken the law. So we too, in Christ, shall cease from earthly pursuits, fulfilling the inward Sabbath rest; but we shall not hold back from the sacred works — I mean, from our duty to bring God spiritual sacrifices and inward gifts (1 Peter 2:5). Following, as it is written, in the footsteps of Christ (1 Peter 2:21), we shall offer ourselves in sacrifice, honoring the God of all not with slaughtered sheep and the blood of calves, but rather dedicating ourselves to him as a fragrant aroma. For we shall please him more than a young calf that puts forth horns and hoofs, as the Psalmist says (Psalm 69:31).

Palladius: You think rightly. But come now, go on once more: from the…

The whole burnt offering: each gives his whole life as he is able§3

3Palladius: …sacred Scriptures, sketch out the outlines of this splendid and admirable worship.

Cyril: Well then, God said in Leviticus, and plainly to all those of Israel: ‘If any one of you brings gifts to the Lord, you shall bring your gifts from the livestock, from the cattle and from the sheep. If his gift is a whole burnt offering from the cattle, he shall bring a male without blemish; he shall bring it to the door of the tent of witness, acceptable before the Lord. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the offering, acceptable for him, to make atonement for him. And he shall slaughter the calf before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall bring the blood and pour the blood on the altar all around, the altar that is at the doors of the tent of witness. And when they have flayed the whole burnt offering, they shall cut it up limb by limb; and the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar and pile wood on the fire; and the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall lay the cut pieces, the head and the fat on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; but the entrails and the feet they shall wash with water, and the priest shall lay all of it on the altar. It is an offering, a sacrifice, a fragrant aroma to the Lord.’ (Leviticus 1:2–9) Is this not a clear type of the life of the saints, and of their complete closeness to God in spirit and sanctification? For we are pictured in the tame animals — the calf, I mean, and the sheep — dying to the world by putting the flesh to death, so that we may live to God through the Gospel way of life, and going up, as it were, as a sacrifice that is truly spiritual and most fragrant, offered through the Son to the Father. And come, let us go through each point again for you, as finely as we can.

For each one dedicates his own life as a kind of gift to God, who rules over all, but as it is given to each, and according to the measure he has. For one has his own gift from God in one way, and another in another, as the most wise Paul says (1 Corinthians 7:7). In the sizes of the animals, that is, in their differences of kind, the inequality and unlikeness among us — in spiritual strength, perhaps, and in strength of mind — is hinted at indirectly. So whether someone happens to be great, as in the calf, and very strong indeed, or has less, as in the sheep, and falls short of perfection, he brings himself to God as a gift, and that as a whole burnt offering, that is, as an entire dedication. He does not keep his life divided toward the things of the world, but keeps it whole and entire, acceptable and holy to God.

Let the manner of the sacrifice be such as this: ‘Let the victim be male and without blemish,’ it says (Leviticus 1:3). For the saints are always in some way conformed to Christ, who is truly male and without blemish: ‘male’ describes his power to lead, and ‘without blemish’ his holiness, which is beyond nature and cannot be surpassed. For we have one Leader, pure beyond all compare: Emmanuel (Matthew 23:10). In another sense too (for this too must be said, and I judge that it must)…

Male and without blemish: slaughter, blood and flaying as dying to the world§4

4Cyril: …it would be fitting for those consecrated to God to be male and without blemish: with nothing effeminate about them, not given over to sloth, but firmly bent on showing manly courage, and keeping the mind within them manly and, as it were, wide awake. And I would add this as well: they must be pure and without blemish, at least as far as human nature allows. For somewhere the inspired David sings, and very wisely: ‘Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my innocence that is in me.’ (Psalm 7:8) For with God the standard of human goodness is in some way measured to fit us, while that of the holy angels plainly rises higher and far exceeds our measure. So let the holy victim be male and without blemish.

It is brought to the very doors of the holy tent (Leviticus 1:3). For we are made perfect nowhere else than in the churches, since it is there, wholly and in every way, that we shall be acceptable to God the Father, with Christ as priest bringing us to him. For through him we have obtained access (Romans 5:2; Ephesians 2:18), and he himself opened for us the way in (Hebrews 10:19–20), entering the Holy of Holies as forerunner on our behalf (Hebrews 6:20), and showing us the true path. God also commanded them to lay their hands on the calf (Leviticus 1:4), hinting at this indirectly: that in place of themselves they offer, in type, an image of our need to live in holiness by dying to the world, when they duly carry out the slaughter of the beast.

See, then, how the shadow gives shape to the truth for us. The calf was slaughtered before the Lord, and the blood was poured out on the altar (Leviticus 1:5). For dying to the world, and putting to death the impulses of the flesh, is most pleasing to God and worthy of his gaze from above. And perhaps our godly David sings of something like this when he says: ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones.’ (Psalm 116:15) For the death of the holy ones will be like a sacred offering to God; and surely I do not mean the death of all who live in the flesh. Rather, the word would point us to the death they are accustomed to endure, dying to the world but living to God in holiness and sanctification. For it is impossible for us to achieve the holy life unless we have first died to the world. For Peter writes about Christ: ‘He bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live to righteousness.’ (1 Peter 2:24) So the slaughter of the calf seems to signify dying to sins, and enduring the death that is precious with God, the death he is pleased to look upon. For ‘they shall slaughter the calf,’ it says, ‘before the Lord.’ (Leviticus 1:5) And the pouring of the blood on the altar would signify, I think, the dedication of one's life and the offering up of the soul to the glory of God.

The victim is flayed and cut up limb by limb (Leviticus 1:6). The flaying suggests a kind of stripping bare and uncovering of what is within us; the cutting into pieces shows very well that the word of God reaches down to joints and marrow (Hebrews 4:12).

Head, entrails and feet; the lamb slain toward the north§5

5Cyril: …For ‘the word of God is living,’ he says, ‘and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden before him, but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, to whom we must give account’ (Hebrews 4:12–13). As the priest kindles the fire, the divided pieces are laid on the altar, with the head and the feet, and the entrails too, washed with water (Leviticus 1:7–9). For everything that belongs to the saints is fragrant, and nothing that is believed to be in them is rejected by God. The flesh would be a type of their life in the body, the coarser life, so to speak; for it is honorable and wholly pure. The head is a sign of the mind; the entrails stand for thoughts and desires; and the feet, in turn, are a subtle figure of the active life and of our walk, as it were, in deeds.

Palladius: How subtle the argument is!

Cyril: Even so, it holds the truth, though it flashes past us as if through mist and darkness; for the law is deep. ‘If his gift to the Lord,’ it says, ‘is from the flock, from the lambs or from the kids, for a whole burnt offering, he shall bring a male without blemish, and he shall lay his hand on its head, and they shall slaughter it at the side of the altar toward the north, before the Lord’ (Leviticus 1:10–11). This victim too is cut into pieces, and its entrails are washed, in the same way as the calf; and again he laid down that it must be carried up onto the altar (Leviticus 1:12–13). The meaning of the spiritual reading would be the same in this case as well. Yet there is one difference: the lamb was slaughtered at the side of the altar toward the north.

Palladius: What, then, is the meaning of this?

Cyril: Do you not know that the land of the Jews lies somewhat to the south, while the countless flocks of the nations have divided among themselves the regions toward the northern sea, settled in countries and cities?

Palladius: True.

Cyril: The sacrifice of the lamb in the more northern part, as it were, is therefore a figure showing that the flocks toward the north will also be holy to God. This is what the Savior too foretold about the flock from the nations, when he said: ‘And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and there will be one flock, one shepherd’ (John 10:16).

Palladius: I understand what you mean.

Cyril: The God of all sets those who choose to fulfill what the law prescribes above sloth and beyond all reluctance: he in a way smooths the road of offering, and directs that the sacrifice be completed even with creatures smaller than a sheep, saying: ‘If he brings a gift to the Lord, a burnt offering from the birds, he shall bring his gift from the turtledoves or from the doves; and the priest shall bring it to the altar, and wring off its head, and the priest shall put it on the altar, and drain its blood at the base of the altar (Leviticus 1:14–15).

Turtledove and dove: Christ and the saints§6

6Cyril: …and he shall remove the crop with the feathers and throw them beside the altar on the east side, into the place of the ashes; and he shall break it at the wings, but shall not divide it; and the priest shall put it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a sacrificial burnt offering, a fragrant aroma to the Lord’ (Leviticus 1:16–17). See again how finely and skillfully their likeness to Christ has been kept for the saints. For he himself is truly the most vocal turtledove, the one from above, and likewise the gentlest dove. Indeed, in the Song of Songs it is written of him: ‘The voice of the turtledove was heard in the wilderness’ (Song of Songs 2:12). And he set himself before us as a type and pattern of the greatest and highest gentleness, saying: ‘Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart’ (Matthew 11:29). But see: because the saints themselves have come to be in the form of Christ, the beauty and the admirable worth found in goods that are, so to speak, the same have been well kept for them too. For they too may rightly be understood as turtledoves, since they send forth the divine and holy word to those who listen, and are eager to make songs and melodies for the glory of God. That is why they say: ‘My tongue shall tell of your righteousness, and of your praise all day long’ (Psalm 35:28). Moreover, they live out the life that is in Christ and hasten along the gentlest path of the Gospel way of life: to those who want to strike them on the right cheek they turn the left as well, and to those who press them into service for one mile they freely make a gift of going two, if those so choose (Matthew 5:39, 41). So they consecrate themselves to God as a fragrant aroma and as a whole burnt offering, in the form, as it were, of turtledoves and doves. Then the priest wrings off the head and puts it on the altar, having poured out the blood (Leviticus 1:15). For the mind of the holiest saints is truly holy, and holy in the highest degree, and so it would be fitting for it to be dedicated to the wholly pure God. For it is full of good thoughts, and it gives off the fragrant ointment of the true knowledge of God; for, as it is written, ‘the thoughts of the righteous are just judgments’ (Proverbs 12:5). And that the life of those who live in the fear of God is holy too would become clear from the rule that the blood must be poured out at the holy altar; for the blood is a type of life. The crop of the birds, that is, the craw, is removed together with the feathers, and it is thrown away as wholly useless. This too would be a clear sign that the life of the saints has been shown to stand above bodily indulgence, so that in a way it seems no longer to need even the stomach that holds the food. For such, in a way, is the life of those who labor most earnestly: paying no heed to food, and perhaps even to the stomach itself, they waste away the flesh and put pleasures to death, and they have become free and released from everything worldly and superfluous. This, I think, is what the casting away of the feathers means. For birds need their plumage; and we too need the things by which this body from the earth is served in its own needs: I mean clothing, and what serves for food, and besides these…

Wings broken, body undivided; the fine flour offering§7

7Cyril: …certainly also the means by which these are obtained, ways of earning money that fight off the onset of want; and soft beds, and whatever is close to these. But even if these things are useful and necessary for those who live on earth and in bodies, the saints count them as nothing. They have sent away the possession of such things as so much useless clutter, and they pass their lives in the world with bodies all but naked and unclothed, granting grudgingly to the needs of the flesh whatever comes to hand and is easily obtained. When the feathers have been plucked and the craw, that is, the crop, has been removed, ‘he shall break it,’ it says, ‘at the wings, and shall not divide it’ (Leviticus 1:17), and then he shall carry it up onto the altar. The breaking of the wings would be a type and a clear example of the mind of the saints not thinking proud thoughts, nor flying on high, but rather being drawn along with the lowly (Romans 12:16) and seeking, so to speak, the things below. For the mind of the arrogant is always lifted up somehow and carried toward the heights; it cannot bear to sit down with those of lower station, and it despises a modest and humble way of thinking. So the breaking of the wings shows in a figure the putting away of arrogance. And that it is not divided shows that they have dedicated their own life to God entirely and, if we may put it so, in every way, not divided toward the things of the world; and the wise Paul too said that those who are married are divided (1 Corinthians 7:33–34). Holy, then, is the mind of the saints, and holy their life: above bodily indulgence, free of worldly care, made beautiful by a modest mind, and undivided toward the things of the world. That is why it is dedicated to God as a fragrant aroma.

Palladius: So it is.

Cyril: He then brings the kinds of sacrifice down further, to things smaller still, things that are at hand all year round and are got without sweat, widening, I think, the road to approval for small and great alike. For it is written: ‘Your commandment is exceedingly broad’ (Psalm 119:96). With God, who loves virtue, sincerity is not judged in every case and altogether by the size of the offering; rather, the lowly person stands equal with the eminent when he gives what he has and has chosen to honor God with whatever he has and is able to give. So he spoke again in this way: ‘If a soul brings a gift, a sacrifice to the Lord, his gift shall be fine flour; and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it; it is a sacrifice. And he shall bring it to the sons of Aaron, the priests; and taking from it a full handful of the fine flour with the oil, and all its frankincense, the priest shall put its memorial portion on the altar; it is a sacrifice, a fragrant aroma to the Lord’ (Leviticus 2:1–2). Do you see, then, how it pointed to the lowliness of the one who brings the offering? For the divine law simply names him ‘a soul’, even if he is quite undistinguished in this life, and in this too it shows that the supreme nature is fair and impartial toward all, as indeed it does again when it says: ‘All souls are mine’ (Ezekiel 18:4). For the Godhead shows no partiality, as I said just now. So if one of those who have no distinction in the world, it says, chooses to bring a gift to God, fine flour will be the form of the sacrifice, but moistened with oil and mixed with frankincense.

Flour, oil and frankincense; God welcomes even the smallest gift§8

8Cyril: …That the fine flour is a type of life, the oil a type of the cheerfulness that belongs to hope, and the frankincense a type of the fragrance that comes from good works, upright deeds and a life fully in keeping with the law, we have explained at length already. So the law says that those who choose to make the God of all rejoice in them must by all means dedicate and consecrate their own life to him, without being gloomy over the sweat that virtue costs (‘Do not grumble,’ says the inspired Paul, 1 Corinthians 10:10), a life filled full of spiritual fragrance; for then the priest will offer up its memorial portion to God (Leviticus 2:2). For we shall draw near to God the Father in Christ through spiritual sacrifice, and gain this as well: to be kept in his remembrance. By the very things through which we are used to winning approval, we shall show that we are worthy of remembrance and that we have come to be known by God in Christ.

Palladius: That was very finely said.

Cyril: To this the law adds: ‘If you bring as a gift a sacrifice baked in an oven, a gift to the Lord of fine flour: unleavened loaves kneaded with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil. If his gift is a sacrifice from the pan, it shall be fine flour kneaded with oil, unleavened; and you shall break them into pieces and pour oil on them; it is a sacrifice to the Lord. If your gift is a sacrifice from the grill, it shall be made of fine flour with oil (Leviticus 2:4–7). If you bring a sacrifice of firstfruits to the Lord, new groats, roasted and crushed, for the Lord, you shall bring the sacrifice of the firstfruits and put frankincense on them; it is a sacrifice. And the priest shall offer up its memorial portion from the groats with the oil, and all its frankincense; it is an offering to the Lord’ (Leviticus 2:14–16).

Palladius: How deep a thing the law is! Tell me, then, how we may turn our minds even to such fine details as these without straying from the mark.

Cyril: What deserves our attention here, I think, is the law’s forethought and great skill. You will certainly see it: it accepts what is very small indeed, and to that too it grants, in every case, fragrance and cheerfulness. For you have surely heard Christ himself say: ‘And whoever gives one of these brothers, the little ones, a cup of cold water to drink, only in the name of a disciple, truly I tell you, he will not lose his reward’ (Matthew 10:42). We must reason in some such way here too, and applaud the Lawgiver’s kindness with the praises that befit him. For, as I said, he accepts the offering even if someone chooses to fulfill what is prescribed with the very cheapest things. For whether it is a loaf, the law says, or a single wafer, whether from the oven or from the pan or indeed from the grill, and even if it is not of wheat at all but groats and crushed grain, that is, meal made from pulse, let what is brought be moistened with oil, and let it in turn have frankincense lavished on it. And in these very details the passage seems somehow to hint to us at the approval the saints win through fiery trial and toil, and indeed through being crushed.

Oven and grill mean trial; the unblemished calf of the peace offering§9

9Cyril: For the oven and the grill, and also being ground fine in a mill, would surely be signs of the crushing and toil of those who are tested as if by fire. That is why those who walk so glorious a path cry out: ‘For you have tested us, O God; you have tried us by fire, as silver is tried by fire’ (Psalm 66:10). And the inspired David sings to us somewhere: ‘A crushed and humbled heart God will not despise’ (Psalm 51:17). But that those who have toiled in this way would fittingly, and in every respect, come to be in the fragrance of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15), and indeed that they must also receive mercy and be richly nourished by the grace of the Spirit, would be plain to anyone who considers the use of the frankincense and the oil. Or are not the things in the law, in a way, hints and shadows of subtle riddles for us?

Palladius: Certainly.

Cyril: So we shall offer ourselves to God, being made dead to sin and undergoing this sacred death in a spiritual sense, yet living to righteousness, as it is written (1 Peter 2:24), and rendering to him, as a kind of thank offering, our own life, glorious and blameless, and made beautiful by all that love for God can boast of. We shall learn this clearly from other laws as well. For it is written in Leviticus: ‘If his gift to the Lord is a sacrifice of salvation, if he offers it from the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. He shall lay his hands on the head of the gift and slaughter it before the Lord at the doors of the tent of witness. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall pour the blood on the altar of whole burnt offerings, all around. And from the sacrifice of salvation they shall bring as an offering to the Lord the fat that covers the entrails, and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the loins; and he shall remove the lobe of the liver together with the kidneys. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall carry them up to the altar, onto the whole burnt offerings, onto the wood that is on the fire on the altar; it is an offering, a fragrant aroma to the Lord’ (Leviticus 3:1–5).

The calf, then, is without blemish; for it is fitting that those who go up to God as a fragrant aroma should be pure and keep as far as they can from every blemish. It was slaughtered at the very doors of the holy tent, with the hands of the one offering it laid upon it; and what this means has been plainly stated already. The fat on the entrails was carried up for sacrifice, and the two kidneys, with the fat in them removed along with them, and the lobe of the liver. The fat on the entrails, I think, would signify the good health, so to speak, of the mind, and the richness of the inner parts when they have been nourished as well as can be on the spiritual provisions given through the Spirit. For good feeding makes brute animals, and human bodies too, grow fat; but a most abundant share in divine gifts fills the mind of the saints with every good thing.

Kidneys and liver: discernment and desire; each bears fruit by his measure§10

10Cyril: So they would become holy, and set apart for God as a fragrant aroma. The kidneys, again, would be a type of the activity of discernment within the mind, by which one rejects what by nature does harm, and counts what is beneficial as worth choosing and taking. And the inspired Paul writes: ‘Test all things; hold fast what is good; keep away from every form of evil’ (1 Thessalonians 5:21–22). So since the kidney is a part of the body that discerns (for it separates out what is surplus very well, lets what is wholesome and useful into the body, and distributes it with art to the parts that should receive it, and in the right amount), we must with good reason take the kidneys to mean the discernment of the mind. Holy, then, and an offering dedicated to God are the kidneys of the saints, that is, the discernment they have in the mind. For those who cleave to God are approved and exact money changers: they always reject what is worthless as counterfeit, but they are accustomed to honor with their excellent verdict whatever leads to benefit. It was in this way, I think, that the inspired Psalmist, who was used to winning approval, cried out to God: ‘For you have taken possession of my kidneys, O Lord’ (Psalm 139:13).

The lobe of the liver, for its part, points us to nothing other than an activity of the soul, that is, a movement of the mind, by which it reaches out toward desires. Some who have studied such matters closely say without hesitation that every living creature has its desires in the liver. So the lobe of the liver too must be dedicated to God, that is, so to speak, the very source of all our desire, as the Psalmist sings: ‘Lord, all my desire is before you’ (Psalm 38:9). And a person takes pride in himself and sings out so solemn and admirable a word if his longings are set on nothing but what pleases God, and he is found thirsting for whatever he himself may wish to do.

Palladius: I agree; you understand it rightly.

Cyril: For the sheep, in turn, and for the goat as well, the Lawgiver lays down the same law, and the sacrifice was carried out in the same way for these too (Leviticus 3:6–16). The difference in size among the animals neatly points to the measure of piety and approval among those who are used to bearing fruit. For one person, we should think, bears fruit richly and above the rest, as in the calf; another moderately, as in the sheep; and another more modestly still, for a goat is smaller than a sheep. And this, I think, is the fruitful earth yielding a hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold, as in the parable in the Gospels (Matthew 13:8).

Palladius: I am convinced.

Cyril: That the repayment of reward will be in proportion to each one’s good deeds, and that God will allot to those who have chosen to act nobly rewards matched to their labors, the Savior himself will assure us. He says that the talents were not handed out in equal shares (Matthew 25:15), and of those who did well he sets one over ten cities and another over five (Luke 19:17–19). For each one’s life is weighed, as it were, in the balance, and the repayment will surely be equal in weight to our goodness.

Offerings that grow with the size of the victim§11

11Cyril: …and no less, as I said, the law given through Moses will itself show us this. For it says again in Numbers: ‘And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land where you are to dwell, which I am giving you, and you make burnt offerings to the Lord, a whole offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, or at your feasts, to make a fragrant aroma for the Lord, whether from the herd or from the flock, then the one who offers shall bring his gift to the Lord: an offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil; and you shall prepare a quarter of a hin of wine for a drink offering with the burnt offering or with the sacrifice. For each lamb you shall do this much, an offering by fire, a fragrant aroma for the Lord. And for a ram, when you prepare it as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice, you shall prepare an offering of two tenths of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil; and you shall bring a third of a hin of wine for a drink offering, as a fragrant aroma for the Lord. And if you prepare one from the herd as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a peace offering to the Lord, then with the calf one shall bring an offering of three tenths of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil, and half a hin of wine for a drink offering, an offering by fire as a fragrant aroma for the Lord. So you shall do for each calf, or for each ram, or for each lamb from the sheep or from the goats. According to the number that you prepare, so you shall do for each one, according to their number. Every native-born person shall do so when he brings such offerings by fire as a fragrant aroma for the Lord. And if a proselyte joins you in your land, or whoever may be among you throughout your generations, and he makes an offering by fire as a fragrant aroma for the Lord, as you do, so shall the congregation do for the Lord. There shall be one law for you and for the proselytes who have joined you, a perpetual law throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the proselyte be before the Lord. There shall be one law and one ordinance for you and for the proselyte who has joined you.’ (Numbers 15:1–16)

Palladius: Then where in all this are we to see, as you put it, a share equal and proportionate to whatever a person does?

Cyril: Why, my friend, do you not hear the law saying plainly that if someone chooses to fulfill vows and burnt offerings, and he sacrifices a lamb, he is to add to what is burned a tenth of an ephah of fine flour and a quarter of a hin of wine and of oil? (These, I believe, are Hebrew measures.) But if it is a ram, it says, the accompanying portions come in greater amount, that is, a third; for the measure of a quarter is less than a third. And when a calf is offered, the fine flour and the rest go beyond the third once more, and come at last to a half.

Palladius: I have learned that. What, then, does it mean?

Cyril: You surely know that fine wheat flour is a type of life, and the oil a type of cheerfulness; for it is written,

Different glory, one way for all§12

12Cyril: …‘to make the face cheerful with oil’ (Psalm 104:15). And the wine is a sign of spiritual gladness, the gladness that comes from above and through the Spirit; for ‘wine,’ it says, ‘gladdens the human heart’ (Psalm 104:15).

Palladius: I understand.

Cyril: So then, in proportion to the fruit someone bears, the supply of life from God also comes, with cheerfulness and gladness. Of course we do not say that in living itself, that is, in being given life by God, there is a greater or a lesser; for that is nonsense. When we speak of life, we mean the splendor that belongs to living, in which one person may perhaps surpass another, while another, again, will stand lower than others, yet not without honor and glory; ‘for star differs from star in glory’ (1 Corinthians 15:41). Here too, then, the difference among the victims is an image of the saints’ life in glory: by the quantity of the portions that go with each, it sketches for us the measure of that glory. And that those from the nations, together with those of Israel’s blood, would bow their necks under the Savior’s yoke, and go by way of the same sacrifices and the same spiritual excellence, the law showed when it added that the proselyte is not to live by other laws. For there is one way for all into kinship with God the Father, and that way is Christ (John 14:6). For as the inspired Peter said, ‘There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).

Palladius: Our argument has turned out excellently, and with great skill.

Cyril: That we shall not be speaking falsely in the least when we affirm that there are different kinds of excellence, and that God will assign rewards matched in weight to each one’s measure, the most wise Paul will also make clear when he says: ‘Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully’ (2 Corinthians 9:6). And long before, David too had cried out: ‘And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness, and according to the cleanness of my hands he will repay me’ (Psalm 18:20). Or would you not say that the righteousness of Paul, for example, is different from that of anyone at all who has not yet reached the stature we may picture in Paul (I mean in spiritual strength), a stature that enabled him to cry out plainly: ‘But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Galatians 6:14)?

Palladius: Certainly.

Cyril: What then? Shall we not grant that the cleanness of John’s hands is different from that of someone else who is just springing up to make a start in the Gospel way of life?

Palladius: We shall grant it; how could we not?

Cyril: Then tell me: since the Judge of all is just, will he demand from us a righteousness that keeps pace with the excellence of the saints and is like it in every way? Or rather, having tested the measure of strength within us, will he demand nothing more than what a person has and is able to accomplish?

God asks according to each one’s means§13

13Palladius: I say so myself. For Christ said this: ‘From the one to whom they have entrusted much, they will ask much’ (Luke 12:48). And clearly the reverse is also true: surely little will be asked of the one who has received less.

Cyril: Look, then, at the matter as it is written in the law, and see God asking of each in proportion to each one’s measure. Being the spring and source of a gentleness and love for humankind beyond words, he sends away none of those who have run to him through faith; he welcomes each with whatever he has, and accepts spiritual offerings, in every case excusing what lies beyond a person’s strength. The law on this point reads as follows in Leviticus: ‘And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: If anyone makes a vow to give the Lord the value of his own life, the valuation of a male from twenty years old to sixty years old shall be this: his valuation shall be fifty didrachms of silver by the holy weight; and for a female the valuation shall be thirty didrachms. If from five years old to twenty years, the valuation of a male shall be twenty didrachms, and of a female ten didrachms. From one month old to five years old, the valuation of a male shall be five didrachms of silver, and of a female three didrachms of silver. And from sixty years old and upward, if it is a male, his valuation shall be fifteen didrachms of silver, and if a female, ten didrachms of silver. But if he is too poor for the valuation, he shall stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to what the hand of the one who vowed can afford, so the priest shall value him’ (Leviticus 27:1–8). For some came forward, enrolling themselves with God for consecration and as an offering dedicated to him, and gladly dedicating the sum of didrachms the law had fixed. But if someone was not very well off, that is, one of the humbler sort, the payment was no longer made by the legal scale; instead the priest serving at the time assessed him, and a debt matched to his means was set. This, then, is the plainer account and sense of the letter. But I think it necessary to remind those who attend to the sacred words with the greatest love of learning that Christ, speaking once to the Pharisees, called this very commandment to mind clearly and plainly. For they had turned aside into a debased way of life, one the law did not recognize, and were ‘teaching as doctrines the commandments of men,’ as it is written (Matthew 15:9; Isaiah 29:13), and they came to him saying: ‘Why do your disciples transgress the commandment of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread’ (Matthew 15:2). At once the Savior said to them: ‘Why do you also transgress the commandment of God? For God said, Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you (Exodus 20:12). But you say, Whoever says to his father and his mother, “Whatever help you might have had from me is a gift,” shall not honor his father and his mother. And you have made void the commandment of God for the sake of…’ (Matthew 15:3–6)

The Pharisees’ ‘gift’, and the life we owe to Christ§14

14Cyril: …because of your tradition’ (Matthew 15:6). For the Pharisees, being greatly in love with money and greedy for gain, wanted to see as many people as possible coming to the enrollment the law prescribed, so that their purses might grow fat as they gathered with insatiable hand what came from each one who approached. But it was likely that some would hold back from the enrollment, having their poverty as an honorable excuse for hesitating, and above all the duty of caring in old age for their fathers or mothers out of what they themselves earned, and that with no little sweat. No sooner had the wicked Pharisees learned this than they urged them to go readily to the dedication. They no longer thought as was right, and they set aside what the law had laid down, I mean, that reverence toward parents be shown in full and that they be treated with tender care; instead they urged them, so to speak, to bid a quick farewell to fulfilling what custom required. For since under the laws it was a crime and an indictable offense to take for oneself anything that had been offered for the glory of God, and ‘gift’ was the name given to dedicated offerings, they taught people to say to their own parents, when they asked for support: ‘Whatever you might have gained from me is a gift’ (Matthew 15:5). That is: whatever I might give you is a dedicated offering, and be sure that you would be wronging the law, stealing what belongs to the glory of God and taking it impiously. And the men who brought in these most shameful inventions of theirs affirmed that inhumanity toward parents was blameless in those who had chosen instead to dedicate their goods to God according to the law. This, I think, is the meaning of the words: ‘Whoever says to his father or his mother, “Whatever you might have gained from me is a gift,” need not honor his father or his mother’ (Matthew 15:5–6). For the point is this: let those be allowed not to honor a father, nor to show reverence to a mother, who say, ‘Whatever you might have gained from me is a gift’; that is, whatever I might perhaps help you with by giving it to you, that is a gift to God, and you would be a thief of sacred offerings.

Palladius: That, I say, is rightly and truly said.

Cyril: Since the historical sense is now clear enough to us, let us go on to the spiritual meaning and take up the contemplation that goes beyond what the senses perceive.

Palladius: Let us go on.

Cyril: Every one of us, Palladius, who has been justified in faith and sanctified in the Spirit has become a sacred offering to God. Each of us owes his own life to Christ. For as the inspired Paul said, ‘We were bought with a price, and we are not our own’ (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). And, ‘One died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised’ (2 Corinthians 5:14–15). For he acquired us through himself for God the Father, laying down his own blood as a kind of price on our behalf. So we come to Christ, the Savior of all, through faith and sanctification, bringing him a repayment for what he has done for us: the dedication of a life lived in godliness. Yet the manner of the offering may be understood, and with good reason, to be varied rather than one and the same. For some come to it without much strength, while others, with warmer…

The ages of the vow as stages of the soul§15

15Cyril: …zeal, as it were, rush toward it, and with a vigorous understanding, a wakeful mind and the strongest drive, they press on to accomplish whatever must be fulfilled, and to be able to carry out what is pleasing to him. According to what the history suggests, these would be the people from twenty years old up to sixty (Leviticus 27:3). For up to the sixtieth year the body stays strong and at its most vigorous in its movements. By then the mind, too, is settled and in a way strong, and it is very well suited to take in whatever it chooses to learn. And he who knows our frame, as it is written (Psalm 103:14), surely knew that there is such an age in souls also. For the passage, no doubt, moves, by likenesses drawn from bodily things, to the things perceived by the mind. So, whether one is male or female, let those who are still in the prime of that inward age bring what has been appointed. That is, let the male bring, in the form, as it were, of fifty didrachms, the fruit of spiritual worship, sound and as perfect as can be; for by way of seven times seven it is plainly seen to reach the highest goal and to be attested as perfect. The female, again, brings it in the form, as it were, of thirty didrachms (Leviticus 27:4). For she is held in less esteem than the male, yet she still brings, in keeping with her own nature, a fruit marked by perfection and toil, as the three tens suggest. The one from five years old up to twenty, if male, pays twenty didrachms; if female, ten (Leviticus 27:5). For from the age of five, I think, and barely then, the mind begins in a way to open its eyes, as it were, to understanding. That understanding is still childish and weak, but it is moving toward the better, and the body is growing ever stronger. Or do you not understand what I mean?

Palladius: Yes, very well.

Cyril: So the fruit from each person is measured in proportion to spiritual strength. Everywhere the female comes after the male, and often at half. For the inspired Paul has plainly testified that the vessel is weak (1 Peter 3:7). She falls short of the natural ability of men, and she keeps silent in the churches (1 Corinthians 14:34). For she has not been entrusted with the word, and she is by no means as strong for achieving virtue as the male is seen to be. From one month old, it says, up to five years, the male gives five didrachms, and the female, for her part, three (Leviticus 27:6). And yet what fruit could come from infants? So in a way the passage hints to us at the newborn child in Christ, those for whom, as the holy Paul said, milk is the fitting food (1 Corinthians 3:1–2). For the fruit of those who have only just been called through faith and are still infants is small. Knowing this, the inspired disciples, writing to those from the Gentiles, even though Christ had given a very great body of Gospel commandments, told them that they must keep themselves from fornication, from what is strangled and from blood; and they said that those who did these things would do well (Acts 15:28–29). For a mind that is still tender and childish must not be weighed down with very heavy burdens. The law added that from those sixty years old and over, fifteen didrachms must be required for a male and ten for a female (Leviticus 27:7). For what has already declined into feebleness and weakness…

God accepts each by his strength; keep the vows you make§16

16Cyril: …could hardly be very fruitful, just as aging plants, when their root grows old, are seen to be slow in putting forth ripe fruit. So God, who is truly just and loves to show compassion, accepts the fruits in proportion to each person’s zeal and capacity of mind. He neither disregards what is feeble and past its prime, sending it away as powerless, nor lets the strong go without reward; rather he opens wide, as it were, the way for those who are willing to win his approval, in whatever manner each is able. And those who are weaker in their condition, and perhaps also of little understanding, he himself will keep, measuring the fruit he asks of each by his strength. For this, I think, is the meaning of: ‘He shall stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him according to what the one who vowed can afford’ (Leviticus 27:8).

Palladius: How finely reasoned!

Cyril: So, Palladius, we must offer to God, like a sweet fragrance and as a debt we owe, a way of life fitting for saints and the glories of an outstanding life. You have learned from one of the saints, who wrote: ‘Honor the Lord from your just labors, and offer him firstfruits from your fruits of righteousness’ (Proverbs 3:9). For the people of old thought they honored him with sacrifices of oxen and with frankincense, since that was the road of life under the law. But we, who are now in Christ through faith, are going by the better and more excellent path, and we shall offer God worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24), making every effort, as it were, to be able to carry out nobly what we ought, and honoring God with spiritual and holy offerings. For I say that we must remember him who speaks plainly through the most wise Moses: ‘You shall keep what goes out through your lips’ (Deuteronomy 23:23). That is, whatever you vow, hasten to carry it out, and very promptly. For in such matters delay is not without loss. ‘For if you make a vow to the Lord,’ it says, ‘do not delay in paying it’ (Deuteronomy 23:21; Ecclesiastes 5:4). ‘It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay’ (Ecclesiastes 5:5).

Palladius: True.

Cyril: Indeed, there is a wise aim in the art of fulfilling vows and pledges as we ought, and one could learn it without error from no other source than the law. For it is written: ‘Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths’ (Psalm 119:105). Or are we not guided by the light of the divine law, and could one not speed along a straight road that never strays, with its rays as a kind of lamp?

Palladius: Of course. For the inspired David also sings somewhere: ‘The commandment of the Lord is radiant, giving light to the eyes’ (Psalm 19:8).

Cyril: You will learn very clearly how we shall win approval, living a glorious and wholly pure life and rendering to God, as a splendid offering, the ways of great goodness, for God gives us his charge through other oracles too.

Turning to the Nazirite vow in Numbers§17

17Cyril: It reads like this in Numbers: ‘And the Lord spoke…’ (Numbers 6:1)

The Nazirite vow, and the wine that clouds the mind§18

18Cyril: ‘…to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them: If a man or a woman makes a great vow to consecrate himself in purity to the Lord, he shall keep himself pure from wine and strong drink. He shall not drink vinegar made from wine or vinegar made from strong drink, nor drink anything that is made from grapes; he shall eat no fresh grapes or raisins all the days of the vow of his purification. Of all that comes from the vine, wine from the pressed skins down to the seed, he shall eat nothing all the days of his purification. No razor shall come upon his head until the days are fulfilled that he vowed to the Lord. He shall be holy, letting the locks of the hair of his head grow, all the days of the vow to the Lord. He shall not go near any dead person, not to his father or his mother, nor to his brother or his sister; he shall not be defiled for them when they die, because the vow of his God is upon him, upon his head. All the days of his vow he shall be holy to the Lord. And if anyone dies suddenly beside him, at once the head of his vow shall be defiled; and he shall shave his head on the day he is cleansed; on the seventh day he shall be shaved. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doors of the tent of witness. And the priest shall offer one for sin and one as a whole burnt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin he committed in the matter of the dead; and he shall sanctify his head on that day, the day on which he consecrated all the days of his vow to the Lord. And he shall bring a year-old lamb as a whole burnt offering for the trespass. And the former days shall not count, because the head of his vow was defiled’ (Numbers 6:1–12).

Palladius: This oracle is not easy to understand; indeed, it can hardly be understood at all unless the law is examined closely. Not cutting the hair, but letting it grow long and hang loose, and keeping away from wine and vinegar and raisins, and even from grape seeds: what kind of worship could there be in that?

Cyril: None at all, Palladius, in truth, if one looks simply at the practice itself, at what it is by nature. Yet the aim of the law is admirable. It skillfully recasts the customs of the Greeks into something more seemly, and gracefully turns even what seems pointless into an image of the Gospel life. So if anyone aims to consecrate himself to God by the great vow, that is, by the highest way of life and the straight and blameless path of perfect righteousness, let wine and strong drink be far from him; that is, let him free his mind from everything that can make it drunk and that tends to cloud it. These, I think, would be a worldly outlook, earthly desires, the cares of the flesh and idle distractions. It was for falling into these that a prophetic word lamented some of the priests, saying something like this: ‘For priest and prophet were beside themselves because of wine, from the drunkenness of strong drink’ (Isaiah 28:7). And indeed about others too the…

A pagan custom turned to good: hair as the fruit of the mind§19

19Cyril: …prophet says: ‘For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their tendril from Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, theirs is a cluster of bitterness; their wine is the rage of dragons’ (Deuteronomy 32:32–33). And some others are said to give their neighbor a muddy draught that overturns him (Habakkuk 2:15). So the law shuts the mind of the consecrated away from everything apt to make it drunk. And it says, very rightly, that they must have no share in vinegar either; by vinegar, I think, it means pleasures that are against nature and perverted. It forbids the use of raisins and grape seeds, not allowing the mind to stoop in the least to the old remnants of the pleasures within us. Wine, then, and all that comes from it, has been condemned by the law for this reason, I think, and for no other. Next, what might the command to let the hair grow long for God mean? Come, let us explain it, once I have first stated one point ahead of the rest. The most senseless of the Greeks, following unnatural customs and living like irrational beasts, used to let their hair grow, claiming that they grew it for demons. One would cut it off for the mountain nymphs, another for a river, at set times; and this practice was a form of worship for them. But Moses in his great wisdom, or rather the all-wise God, the finest of craftsmen, through Moses, gave the Israelites laws of the same kind, since the error of Egypt was hard for them to wash away. He moved them little by little by means of their ancient habits and ways, so that they would no longer offer their reverence to demons, but to the God of all, by way of type and shadow. That is why he also laid down the laws about the sacrifices, and accepted the sacrifices of blood against his will. Indeed he said plainly through the voice of Isaiah: ‘For who required these things from your hands?’ (Isaiah 1:12). So among the Greeks the custom was utterly irrational; but the law teaches what is better, and by reason sets in good order even what seems pointless. Would you like us, as far as we can, to speak about each point in turn?

Palladius: Very much so.

Cyril: Or do you not know (for I will remind you) that the word made the head a type of the mind, as the mind’s dwelling place? For this is how the inspired Scripture takes it.

Palladius: I agree. What of it, then?

Cyril: This: hairs are the fruits of the head, and they spring up like shoots native to it; and thoughts, and all that comes from the mind, would in turn be the mind’s fruit, welling up in us in the same way, and adorning it, as it were, like a fine and flourishing head of hair. So we must not keep the mind within us bare and stripped of good thoughts, but rather teeming, as it were, and growing its hair long for God with an exact knowledge of every excellent thing. Through this knowledge it will search out the divine beauty itself, whatever it may be, and clearly survey the things hidden as in the depths, and grow rich in thoroughly sound reasoning, so as to be able to gain a wholly blameless knowledge of God and to walk a path entirely free from error: the path, I mean, toward all that is admirable. Or would you not say that such a person is already, in a way, speeding on to the portion…

A shaven head and a bare mind; God above family ties§20

20Cyril: …of all praise?

Palladius: Certainly.

Cyril: And what of this? Would not shaving and stripping the head bare, with the hair cut close to the skin, bring an impression of dishonor on anyone to whom it might happen?

Palladius: I understand.

Cyril: For if God says to the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem, ‘Shave and shear yourself for your delicate children; make your widowhood wide like an eagle, because they have been taken captive from you’ (Micah 1:16), it is because shaving brings insult and dishonor, and is most fitting for those who mourn.

Palladius: You have spoken well.

Cyril: Bare, then, and utterly dishonored, and full of shame is the mind that does not have within itself the things that make it admirable. Among such would quite rightly be counted those of little understanding, and those who hold a corrupt opinion of God, so as to worship stones, that is, to dare senselessly to give reverence to the creation rather than to the Creator and Maker (Romans 1:25), and to think and say what is wholly perverse, and to shake off the true and blameless faith, and instead to leap at whatever anyone might blurt out in folly, because their mind has no full head of good thoughts.

Palladius: Excellently said.

Cyril: Let the mind, then, be filled with thoughts that lead to rightness, and be crowned, as with a head of hair, with the discoveries of reflection on everything admirable. Such a person is as sensible as can be, and well fitted from now on to receive into himself the enlightenment that is in Christ through faith. As for the one so well endowed, who has trained himself in an exceptional life and is distinguished by such a mind, the divine oracle commands him to keep far from everything that by its nature defiles, to withdraw from fleshly deeds, and to cast as far away as possible whatever tends toward deadness and corruption. So the rule that one must not visit the dead, nor be willing to be defiled over a corpse, surely hints at this for us. The law bars him from such things entirely, setting what pleases God above reverence for parents. ‘For he shall not go near,’ it says, ‘his father or his mother’ (Numbers 6:6–7). For when virtue is being achieved, away with love of the flesh; let God hold the first and higher place over kinship by blood. This is what Christ himself also said: ‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me’ (Matthew 10:37–38). The Savior himself also taught us that the things of God rank above reverence for parents. For there came to him one of those already counted…

Defiled by the dead: lost days, and cleansing in Christ§21

21Cyril: …among the disciples, saying: ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ But he said, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead’ (Matthew 8:21–22). By ‘the dead’, I think, he means those who have chosen to set their minds on the things of the world and have not kept away from the deeds of death.

Palladius: So it is.

Cyril: This, then, is the manner of the wholly pure and exceptional way of life according to the law, or rather as it is in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24); for the law is a shadow (Hebrews 10:1). But if it should happen, it says, that the consecrated person is ever defiled over a dead body, let him then be shorn and have his head stripped bare, since his hair has now in a way become unholy. And on the eighth day he shall bring a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. And let him also bring, it says, a year-old lamb; and the first days shall not count, because the head of his vow was defiled (Numbers 6:9–12). For if the consecrated person should grow careless of what is fitting and be defiled by ways that lead to deadness, having turned aside to the things of the flesh, it will surely follow that he must barter away the glories of the wholly pure way of life, and he will make his own head, as it were, utterly dishonored. For the shaving hints at something of this kind. And having labored in vain through the time that is past, he will lament the loss of his sweat. This, I think, is the meaning of ‘The first days shall not count.’ He says something like this through the voice of Ezekiel too: ‘The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him on the day he sins; and the lawlessness of the lawless shall not harm him on the day he turns from his lawlessness’ (Ezekiel 33:12). So if the consecrated should somehow be defiled in the meantime, they will suffer the loss of what they had already achieved; yet the loss they suffer from it is not hard to escape. For they are scoured clean in Christ, who, in the place, as it were, of the turtledove and the dove, offers himself for us to God the Father, and is sacrificed as a lamb, and justifies us by the death of his own flesh. That is why the law has ordered that the one who has undergone the shaving should offer sacrifices as a type of Christ, who justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5), strengthens what is weak, raises what has fallen, turns back what has strayed (Ezekiel 34:16), and washes clean what has been stained.

Palladius: Excellently said.

Cyril: But I think that if we apply our minds a little to what lies before us, we can see another depth of subtle and hidden ideas. For the law, not without forethought, spurs us toward this very thing when it speaks of the one who grows his hair for God: ‘But if one dies suddenly, at once the head of his vow shall be defiled; and he shall shave his head on the day he is cleansed; on the seventh day he shall be shaved. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest. And he shall sanctify,’ it says, ‘his head on that day’ (Numbers 6:9–11). He was also commanded to offer a year-old lamb (Numbers 6:12).

Palladius: One taught by Christ might well be at a loss to know what, then, the riddle means. I am eager to learn: tell me what it points to.

Hair as the mind’s thoughts: Israel’s vow, and the shaving before the eighth day§22

22Cyril: Then I will tell you as best I can. But you, for your part, must forgive me if I stray at all from the road; for the subject is a subtle one, and the riddle obscure.

Palladius: Agreed.

Cyril: Since the head of the body, Palladius, represents in itself the mind for us (for so the divine and holy Scripture saw fit), we liken to hairs and locks the thoughts that rise naturally from the mind and within it, by which we are guided to the knowledge of anything that exists, whatever it may be. For these are what spring up for us from the head.

Palladius: I will keep that in mind.

Cyril: So in us too the mind is, in a manner of speaking, unshorn, and has a full head of hair for God, when it is filled with good thoughts. But it is bare and stripped, and suffers a most shameful baldness, if it neither holds right conceptions of God nor is enriched with the best and blameless knowledge of all that ought to be done.

Palladius: True; we were going over this just now.

Cyril: So then, before the coming of the Savior, Israel was called through Moses to the knowledge of God, and for this reason he was also sanctified. And in a certain way he made to God the vow of purity. For at Mount Horeb he plainly promised that he would keep the law, saying: ‘All that the Lord God has spoken we will do and hear’ (Exodus 24:7; Deuteronomy 5:27). So his mind was full of the teaching of the law, and the glories of the commandment given through Moses were, as it were, a head of hair grown for God. But they were defiled by a dead body, for they killed Emmanuel. The death of Christ was truly holy, but for those who killed him the guilt of killing the Lord was a defilement. So the law now commands them to shave off the teaching of the law like a head of hair, and, one might almost say, to crop off on the seventh day whatever was in types (Numbers 6:9), that is, whatever came before the eighth day, the day on which Christ came back to life, renewing us to incorruption and refashioning us for a new life, the life of the Gospel. So, having cropped off what came before the eighth day, he grows his hair again and sanctifies his head after the eighth day (Numbers 6:11). And the mind grows its hair again no longer with types and shadows, as before, but with the very teachings that stand in faith and truth. Or do you not think that those justified by faith must be stripped, as it were, of the good repute won by worship under the law, and must grow anew and take into their inmost mind and heart the knowledge of the Gospel way of life, as far better and more excellent than the way given at the beginning?

Palladius: What do you mean?

Cyril: Did not Paul, a man schooled in the law, cry out clearly and openly about those ancient glories of the law, saying: ‘Whatever things were gain to me, these I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ our Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them…’ (Philippians 3:7–8)

The law made idle; doves and lamb as signs of Christ; the Nazirite’s completion offerings§23

23Cyril: …rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that is in the law, but the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ’ (Philippians 3:8–9)?

Palladius: I know it.

Cyril: He also rebuked others for honoring the circumcision of the law after the mystery of Christ. ‘You have been cut off from Christ,’ he says, ‘you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen from grace. But we, through faith, await the hope of righteousness’ (Galatians 5:4–5). He said too that the old commandment had been made useless, since it was not without fault, and that the other, that is, the commandment of the Gospel, had been brought in to take its place (Hebrews 7:18–19; Hebrews 8:7).

Palladius: True.

Cyril: So the riddle shows that the teaching of the law has become idle. It commands Israel, who had made the vow, to be shaved as one who had incurred defilement from a dead body, that is, as one held fast in the guilt of killing the Lord; and to sanctify to God, as it were, another head of hair after the eighth day, that is, after the resurrection: the precise and finely wrought refinement and teaching of the decrees of the Gospel. To the one who grows his hair after the eighth day the law prescribed the offering of turtledoves and doves (Numbers 6:10), setting this down too as a sign of the one who cleanses the defiled, that is, of Christ. For he is signified by both: as most sweet-voiced by the turtledove, as most gentle by the dove; whereas the law is slow of tongue (Exodus 4:10) and has no gentleness, for it punishes wrongdoers at once. A lamb is also offered together with the birds (Numbers 6:12), so that Christ may be understood through them all: through the birds as from above and from heaven, through the lamb as from below and from the earth. For the Word, who is God by nature, became flesh (John 1:14). Yet even so he was and is God. He frees us from the shadow of the law and puts into the hearts of all the knowledge of his own decrees; and he makes us truly holy, cleansing us with his own blood, according to the Scriptures (Hebrews 13:12).

Palladius: That is so.

Cyril: But if, he says, the course of the vow is brought to a good end by the one who lets his hair grow after the eighth day, let him then be made complete. And he lays down how this is to be done, saying: ‘And this is the law of the one who has vowed: on the day he completes the days of his vow, he shall present himself at the doors of the tent of witness. And he shall offer his gift to the Lord: one male lamb a year old without blemish for a whole burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened loaves of fine flour, loaves mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their grain offering and their drink offering. And the priest shall bring them before the Lord, and shall offer his sin offering and his whole burnt offering; and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened loaves. And the priest shall…’ (Numbers 6:13–17)

Hair laid on the fire: the offerings read as stages of the holy life§24

24Cyril: …offer his sacrifice and his drink offering. And the one who has vowed shall shave the head of his vow at the doors of the tent of witness, and lay the hair on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. And the priest shall take the boiled arm of the ram, and one unleavened loaf from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the hands of the one who has vowed, after he has shaved his head; and the priest shall bring them as a wave offering before the Lord. It shall be holy to the priest, together with the breast of the wave offering and the arm of the heave offering; and after this the one who has vowed shall drink wine. This is the law of the one who vows, whoever vows his gift to the Lord for his vow, besides whatever his hand can find, according to the measure of the vow he vows, according to the law of purity’ (Numbers 6:17–21). For when the one who owes God the vow to purify himself has, as it were, thrown off the burden of the coarseness of the Mosaic history, and has freed his mind from worship in type and shadows as from a long and heavy head of hair, and has instead, like hair growing again, the truly purifying knowledge and teaching of the decrees given through Christ, he will be holy and consecrated, and acceptable besides. He would offer himself to God as a fragrant aroma, and will dedicate to him, as it were an acceptable sacrifice, the glorious and blameless excellence of his own way of life. ‘For he shall bring,’ it says, ‘his gift: a lamb a year old for a whole burnt offering, and again a ewe lamb for a sin offering, and also a ram for a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened loaves moistened with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil’ (Numbers 6:14–15). By the lamb we may fitly understand the childlikeness in Christ of the one who brings the sacrifice, and by the ram what is mature in mind and, as it were, in bearing fruit. For he says: ‘Brothers, do not be children in your minds; rather, be infants in evil, but in your minds be mature’ (1 Corinthians 14:20). Between them stands the ewe lamb, offered for sin. Through this again it is easier for us to see that even the life of those who are thoroughly purified, who live, as it were, in the simplicity and innocence understood in Christ and have been made perfect in soundness of mind, is not wholly without blame, but certainly needs cleansing. For no one will possess what is wholly beyond reproach. It is reserved for Emmanuel alone, and will remain his own, to say in truth: ‘For the ruler of this age is coming, and he will find nothing in me’ (John 14:30). So in the lamb, the ewe lamb and the ram one may see what I have said. In the unleavened loaves the sincere and pure life is signified; for the most wise Paul writes somewhere to the sanctified: ‘So clean out the old leaven, so that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened’ (1 Corinthians 5:7). And in the wafer is the savor, and as it were the sweetness, of the life of the saints. We shall offer ourselves, then: as in a lamb, because of our infancy in Christ; as in a ewe lamb, because of the weakness of our nature and how easily it is driven to wrongdoing, for the female is a type of weakness; as in a ram, mature and having reached…

Justified by mercy; the vow paid, the hair burned, and Christ our forerunner§25

25Cyril: …the measure of the stature that is in Christ (Ephesians 4:13); as in unleavened loaves, pure; as in wafers, sweet; yet as those who have received mercy through Christ. For we have been justified not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his great mercy (Titus 3:5). That is why the oil was rightly poured on the loaves. The priest again acts as mediator, and brings first the sin offering, then the whole burnt offering, and third, after these, the ram of the peace offering (Numbers 6:16–17). For with Christ mediating and bringing us to God the Father, we shall be accepted as we bring prayers for our own sins and ask forgiveness for our former offenses. We are also offered as whole burnt offerings in a spiritual sense, that is, entirely and completely, holy and consecrated, and we shall be dedicated to God as a fragrant aroma, not divided toward the things of the world; for the whole burnt offering was consumed entire by the fire. We shall also dedicate thank offerings for our own salvation and life, honoring God not with perishable and earthly things, but bringing him, as it were, a guest’s gift fit to be accepted: a life that is pure and unleavened, sweet and holy; for such, in some way, is the life of the saints. When the priest has brought the sacrifice according to the law, ‘Let the one who has vowed shave his head,’ it says, ‘at the doors of the tent of witness, and lay the hair on the fire’ (Numbers 6:18).

Palladius: And what do you say this means?

Cyril: The paying of the vow, and so to speak the fulfillment of what was promised. For we shall not take the manner of the shaving here to be like that of the one defiled by a dead body, who shaved off hair already most dishonored and profane. Rather, as one already made perfect in Christ, who has grown another head of hair after the eighth day, he dedicates to God, as in a type, what he promised. And the sign that God has accepted the offering is that the hair is consumed by fire; for the holy Scripture always clothes the divine nature in the form of fire. Indeed, the inspired Moses said: ‘Our God is a consuming fire’ (Deuteronomy 4:24), likening to fire, I think, the all-powerful might of the divine and pure nature. Notice how the shaving at the completion, that is, the end of all our righteousness and purification, takes place at the doors of the tent. For how could whatever purity and righteousness may come from us, on their own, bring us into the Holy of Holies, when they are not wholly free from blame and fault? ‘For no one is wholly clean from filth’ (Job 14:4). But Christ brings us in, setting us free without holding our wrongs against us, and releasing us from every sin. For he has entered as a forerunner on our behalf (Hebrews 6:20), not, surely, for himself, but for those outside the doors who have now come, in a way, to the very threshold of the holy tent, smoothing the way in for them.

Palladius: True.

Cyril: For he is said to have opened for us a new… (Hebrews 10:20)

The boiled arm, the bread and the wafer: Christ receives the gifts§26

26Cyril: …and living way (Hebrews 10:20). After the man has come to the very doors of the holy tent and been shaved, and has burned his hair in the fire (Numbers 6:18), it says: ‘The priest shall take the boiled arm of the ram, and a loaf and a wafer, and shall put them on the hands of the one who made the vow; and taking them up again,’ it says, ‘he shall bring them as an offering before the Lord, and it shall be holy to the priest, like the breast of the portion set apart’ (Numbers 6:19–20).

Palladius: Then what would the law mean to show by this?

Cyril: In the God-inspired Scripture the arm is always understood as a type of what is strong, that is, of achievements done in strength; the unleavened bread, in turn, as a type of a holy and pure life; and the wafer, kneaded with oil and made into a flat cake, would show in itself what is gracious and sweet. One may very fittingly assign the role of the mediating priest to Emmanuel. So the one who has achieved the highest purity, and has brought a splendid offering to the all-pure God, lays upon his own hands, so to speak, the works that come from strength (clearly spiritual strength), as in the arm of the ram; a blameless life, understood as in the unleavened bread; and the sweetness and grace of a life lived in holiness, as in the wafer. These he offers up to God through Christ the mediator, who receives the gifts, as it were, from hand to hand, and honors the truly genuine worshipper with the highest honors, above all in this. That is why it says that the one who completes so holy and all-pure a vow, having laid them on his own hands, will hand them to the priest as an offering, a choice portion assigned to him, just like the breast of the ram, as the lawgiver decided. Just as we say that the arm signifies achievements that come from strength, or strength itself, so the breast of the ram signifies understanding and mind. For we have our understanding in our inward parts and in the breast. And divine Scripture often makes no distinction: sometimes it takes the head as a type of the mind, sometimes it uses the breast to indicate understanding. Holy and choice, then, and all but brought from hand to hand, and well received through him by God the Father, are the spiritual strength of those who are being made pure, and their understanding as well. For it is true to say that the saints could never succeed in doing what pleases God in any other way than through spiritual strength and a good understanding.

Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: He ordered the arm to be taken boiled, so as to drive away from the strength of the saints whatever is, so to speak, raw and out of keeping with what is fitting. For those dedicated to God must not be harsh, nor have a mind that is untempered; they must press on to achieve what belongs to virtue gently, tenderly and with great skill. In this way, and in no other, would the achievements of the saints be wholesome and fit food for God,…

Nothing raw before God; vows must be kept without delay§27

27Cyril: …with nothing raw or distasteful about them. You have learned, I think, that the one who lives in purity serves as saving food, food that Christ, as it were, calls his own when he says to the holy disciples: ‘I have food to eat that you do not know’ (John 4:32). Remember too that he commanded the lamb to be slaughtered as a type of Christ (Exodus 12:6), and laid down a further law, saying: ‘You shall not eat any of it raw, nor boiled in water, but only roasted with fire’ (Exodus 12:9). By ‘raw’ he means, I think, what is unacceptable and, as it were, hard to digest. So he says that the arm must be taken boiled, since what is uncooked signifies what is neither sweet nor fit to eat, and therefore unacceptable.

Palladius: How very subtle, and how true, the argument is!

Cyril: So we must pay to God what we have promised, and whatever anyone vows, let him carry it out without delay. For I would count failing to do such things promptly among the most dreadful and dangerous of faults, and so does sacred Scripture itself. If, thinking rightly, we reckon it among the most outrageous things to be convicted on a charge of lying, how would it not be utterly shameful to pledge something and promise it to God, and afterwards to prove false to that promise? So whenever anyone has vowed and then delayed, or has even shrunk back from paying altogether, the law records it against him as sin (Deuteronomy 23:21). But it releases from the charge those who have nothing at all of their own, but are yoked as by a binding necessity and act under another’s hand. It is written thus in Numbers: ‘And Moses spoke to the rulers of the tribes of the sons of Israel, saying: This is the word that the Lord has commanded. Any man who vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath, or binds himself with a pledge, shall not profane his word; he shall do all that comes out of his mouth. And if a woman vows a vow to the Lord, or binds herself with a pledge in her father’s house in her youth, and her father hears her vows and the pledges with which she has bound herself, and her father keeps silent, then all her vows shall stand, and all the pledges with which she has bound herself shall remain binding on her. But if her father firmly forbids it on the day he hears all her vows and her pledges with which she has bound herself, they shall not stand, and the Lord will cleanse her, because her father forbade it’ (Numbers 30:1–5). And even if, it says, the woman is lawfully married to a husband, the same law is to hold (Numbers 30:6–8). For a widow, however, and for a divorced woman, he lets the pledges stand (Numbers 30:9), and says, very rightly, that the promises must be carried out in every way and by all means. Everywhere he holds anyone who is free and outside the yoke liable to blame, if they will not choose to do what they promised; but anyone not so placed, who has no power to act and lives under others, he rightly releases. For against the masters, I mean the father and the husband, if they have agreed and, as it were, nodded assent…

Vows of those under authority; offerings must be freely given§28

28Cyril: …to the vows of those under their hand and authority, he brings the charge of impiety if they do not choose to fulfill what was promised (Numbers 30:14–15). But when they refuse, he also rules that there must be release from sin; for offerings dedicated to God are the fruits of free choice, not of compulsion.