Leprosy and bosom: fall from God’s shelter; restoration in Christ

—dead somehow already is the one who has suffered this, and the dead is abominable and unclean. Therefore the being able to heal a leper has been kindled as something supernatural and beyond our measures, or only to the divine and ineffable nature and energy. Therefore also Christ was wondered at when saying with authority to the one made leprous: ‘I will; be cleansed.’ For the all-working voice, which also raises the dead themselves from tombs, has fulfilled in that case the wonder superior to death and corruption. He therefore ordered him to hide the hand in the bosom, then having stripped it of the bosom’s covering, to show it leprous through and through; and again having hidden it in the bosom a second time, he shows it at once freed from what had befallen—so that those from Israel might understand from this that, as it were all but armored with some unspeakable and ineffable power, he will stand for those wronged and unholy yoked under the Egyptians’ greed. And this word is not deep, but useful for the history. But I think it is necessary, examining precisely the sense of what lies before us, to seek this: what the hiding of the hand in the bosom would be; and what the having become outside, being terribly leprosed; and still besides the manner of the cleansing. For putting the hand into the bosom, he was freeing from the passion.

Palladius: You speak well. For the test on each point would benefit us not moderately.

Cyril: Therefore it seems to me that the marvel indicates something such as in a shadow. For as long as the human made according to the divine image was as it were nursed in God’s bosom, and had not yet trampled the commandment given, clothed with sparing and love from him, he continued pure and sanctified, and not knowing the death-making through death. But when he went out from the shelter and friendship under God through the bendings toward the base, he was clearly convicted as unholy and abominable, and having sickened with the uncleanness of death. And when God and Father received us again in Christ and clothed us with the divine grace, and as it were somehow having us in his bosom through adoption, having cast off together with the uncleannesses also the death-making from the ancient curse, we spring up again unto what was in the beginnings. For it is written concerning Moses’ hand that ‘It was restored to the color of his flesh.’

Palladius: You have spoken most elegantly.

Cyril: And the third sign for us upon this cries out most clearly and openly the mystery of Christ. For God said again thus to Moses: ‘And if they will not believe you, nor listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe you the voice of the second sign.’ And indeed what this is he clarified, saying: ‘And it will be if they will not believe these two signs, nor listen to your voice,’