Nothing raw before God; vows must be kept without delay
Cyril: …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…
Greek
ὠμὸν οὐκ ἔχοντα καὶ ἀπηχθημένον. Διεπύθου δέ που τὸν ἐν ἁγνείαις ἐπὶ τὴν σωτήριον τροφὴν, ὥσπερ ἰδίαν ὀνομάζοντος τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ λέγοντος τοῖς ἁγίοις μαθηταῖς· «Ἐγὼ βρῶσιν ἔχω φαγεῖν, ἣν ὑμεῖς οὐκ οἴδατε.» Διαμέμνησο δὲ ὅτι καὶ καταθύεσθαι μὲν ἐκέλευε τὸν ἀμνὸν, εἰς τύπον Χριστοῦ, προσενομοθέτει δὲ λέγων· «Οὐ φάγεσθε ἀπ' αὐτῶν ὠμὸν, οὐδὲ ἑψημένον ἐν ὕδατι, ἀλλ' ἢ ὀπτὰ πυρί·» τὸ ἀπαράδεκτον, οἶμαί που, καὶ τὸ οἱονείπως εἰς πέψιν οὐκ εὐχερὲς, ὠμὸν εἶναι λέγων. Χρῆναι δὴ οὖν ἄρα φησὶν ἑφθὸν λαμβάνεσθαι τὸν βραχίονα· τοῦ ἀνέφθου σημαίνοντος τὸ μήτε ἡδὺ, μήτε βρώσιμον, ταύτῃτοι καὶ ἀπαράδεκτον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς ἰσχνὸς ἄγαν καὶ ἀληθὴς ὁ λόγος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀποδοτέον οὖν ἄρα τὰς ὁμολογίας Θεῷ, καὶ ἅπερ ἂν εὔξαιτό τις, διαπεραινέτω μελλήσας οὐδὲν, ὡς τό τοι μὴ δρᾷν τὰ τοιάδε γοργῶς, τῶν ὅτι μάλιστα δεινῶν καὶ σφαλερωτάτων φαίην ἂν ἔγωγε, καὶ αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ Γράμμα τὸ ἱερόν. Εἰ γὰρ εἶναι λογιούμεθα φρονοῦντες ὀρθῶς τῶν ἄγαν ἐκτοπωτάτων, τὸ ψευδοεπείας ἁλῶναι γραφῇ, πῶς οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο τῶν λίαν αἰσχρῶν, ὁμολογῆσαι μέν τι καὶ ὑποσχέσθαι Θεῷ, ψεύσασθαι δὲ μετὰ τοῦτο τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν; Παντὸς μὲν οὖν εὐξαμένου καὶ μελλήσαντος, καὶ γοῦν καὶ εἰσάπαν ἀναδυομένου τὴν ἔκτισιν, καταγράφει τὴν ἁμαρτίαν. Ἀνίησι δὲ τῶν αἰτιαμάτων τοὺς ἔχοντας μὲν παντελῶς ἴδιον οὐδὲν, δεσμῷ δὲ ὥσπερ ἀναγκαίῳ κατεζευγμένους, καὶ ὑφ' ἑτέρου πράττοντας χεῖρα. Γέγραπται δὲ οὕτως ἐν τοῖς Ἀριθμοῖς· «Καὶ ἐλάλησε Μωσῆς πρὸς τοὺς ἄρχοντας τῶν φυλῶν τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, λέγων· Τοῦτο τὸ ῥῆμα ὃ συνέταξε Κύριος· Ἄνθρωπος ὃς ἂν εὔξηται εὐχὴν Κυρίῳ, ἢ ὀμόσῃ ὅρκον, ἢ ὁρισμῷ ὁρίσηται περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ, οὐ βεβηλώσει τὸ ῥῆμα αὐτοῦ. Πάντα ὅσα ἐξέλθῃ ἐκ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ ποιήσει. Ἐὰν δὲ εὔξηται γυνὴ εὐχὴν Κυρίῳ, ἢ ὁρίσηται ὁρισμὸν ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῆς ἐν τῇ νεότητι αὐτῆς, καὶ ἀκούσῃ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτῆς τὰς εὐχὰς αὐτῆς, καὶ τοὺς ὁρισμοὺς αὐτῆς οὓς ὡρίσατο κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτῆς, καὶ παρασιωπήσῃ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτῆς· καὶ στήσονται πᾶσαι αἱ εὐχαὶ αὐτῆς, καὶ πάντες οἱ ὁρισμοὶ αὐτῆς οὓς ὡρίσατο κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτῆς, μενοῦσιν αὐτῇ. Ἐὰν δὲ ἀνανεύων ἀνανεύσῃ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτῆς, ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ ἀκούσῃ πάσας τὰς εὐχὰς αὐτῆς, καὶ τοὺς ὁρισμοὺς αὐτῆς, οὓς ὡρίσατο κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτῆς, οὐ στήσονται, καὶ Κύριος καθαριεῖ αὐτὴν, ὅτι ἀνένευσεν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτῆς.» Ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ γένοιτο, φησὶν, γυνὴ συνηρμοσμένη κατὰ νόμους ἀνδρὶ, ὁ αὐτὸς κρατείτω νόμος. Χήρας δὲ καὶ ἐκβεβλημένης ἵστησι τοὺς ὁρισμοὺς, καὶ διαπεραίνεσθαι δεῖν πάντη τε καὶ πάντως τὰς ὑποσχέσεις εὖ μάλα φησὶ, πανταχῆ τὸ ἐλεύθερον καὶ ἔξω ζυγοῦ ταῖς αἰτίαις ὑποτιθεὶς, εἰ μὴ δρᾷν ἕλοιτο τὰ ἐπηγγελμένα· τόγε μὴν οὐχ ὧδε ἔχον, ἄπρακτόν τε καὶ ὑφ' ἑτέροις, ἀνιεὶς εἰκότως. Τοῖς γάρτοι κυρίοις, πατρί τε, φημὶ, καὶ ἀνδρὶ, συνθεμένοις μὲν καὶ οἱονεὶ συννεύσασι