On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth, Book 8

Love of the brothers, and the law on stolen calves and sheep (Exodus 22:1-4)§1

The stolen calf and sheep as souls stolen from the Church§2

Sins done in darkness, and the penalty for those who steal souls§3

3Cyril: …he does not allow to be in danger, for the works of night and darkness are punished, but the things as in light thereafter no longer. And God has justified release from the ancient charges, and from those in ignorance and darkness. And indeed let it also be said to those who have arrived from sin unto the intelligible light, ‘You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord.’ (Ephesians 5:8) Thus the Lord has also justified the divine Paul, who was formerly a blasphemer and persecutor and insolent man; for beyond measure he persecuted the Church of God and was laying it waste.

Palladius: You have spoken most excellently.

Cyril: And if he should not be able, he says, five calves instead of one, and four sheep instead of one, let him be sold instead of the theft. You see how the law clearly writes down the slavish dishonor of those who have continuous and unwashed-out sin, and who are not even able, so to speak, to beat off the charges with ransom, both through weakness of resolve not enduring to sweat unto repentance, and through the labors unto this to propitiate God? So he says very well that they are to be sold. For he does not allow those so polluted to be numbered among those freed through the divine grace. And being thrust out from the honor fitting for free persons, they also will hear: ‘Behold, you were sold for your lawless deeds.’ (Isaiah 50:1) And if he should be caught having stolen, he says, but not yet having destroyed—that is, if someone of those accustomed to think otherwise should be caught having begun deceit and trickery unto others, but not yet having conquered and brought the hearers down unto destruction—he will repay double. For the master of the flock will take back what is his own, and the buffoon will also be required to give accounts; for this would be the thing in the double; and he will endure the penalty unto death. For what he wished to do unto others, he himself would suffer, and very fittingly.

Palladius: How truly destructive and altogether terrible is the matter of the deceivers, concerning whom I think somehow Christ himself also foretold: ‘Take heed from those who come toward you in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15), but inwardly they are rapacious wolves.’

Cyril: Rightly then the law adjudges that every such one must have died as of wild beasts. For it has been written in Exodus: ‘If someone should steal one of the sons of Israel, and having overpowered him should sell him, and he should be found in him, let him die by death.’ (Exodus 21:16) And in Deuteronomy: ‘And if a human should be caught stealing a soul from his brothers, the sons of Israel, and having overpowered him should sell him, that thief will die.’ (Deuteronomy 24:7) For it is not lawful that the holy race in Christ be laid waste, and be brought down somehow into an unfamiliar slavery by those accustomed to do this; for just as those who deceive boys separate them from city and households, and sending them out from free persons’ boasts, bring them under the yokes of forced slavery; in the same way, I think, those who lead away those who have chosen to think uprightly, and who practice the life fitting for free persons, onto (Exodus 21:16) (Deuteronomy 24:7)

Avoiding heretics, and the laws on virgins and betrothed women§4

The soul wedded to Christ and the betrothed learner of the faith§5

Field without teacher; unbetrothed soul; heretics snatch Gentiles/Jews§6

6Cyril: …the city of the living God, but somehow in a field and in a countryside, where there was no helping mystagogue, and much emptiness of those accustomed to persuade unto the better, and the deceit as in scarcity of pedagogues, let only the one who forced be in danger; for the deed is already grasping, and a suffering without help, and a necessity somehow hard to flee will turn aside the charge; or shall we say it is not superfluous to blame those upon whom things have been brought unwillingly as involuntary?

Palladius: Altogether so; for the law is holy.

Cyril: You speak well; and it makes the examination of the deeds thinner, and somehow measures the angers to the wrongs, neither releasing altogether the lesser wrong from needing to be punished, nor setting it in equality with what is beyond this, but somehow turning the motion equal-sized to the charges. For he said again: ‘And if someone should find the virgin girl who has not been betrothed, and having forced her should sleep with her, and it should be found, the human who slept with her will give to the father of the young woman fifty didrachms of silver, and she will be his wife, instead of those things for which he humbled her; he will not be able to send her away for all time.’ (Deuteronomy 22:28–29) So adultery made the one joining with a betrothed woman liable, according clearly to the modes already said. And if she should appear, he says, still unjoined, and not yet pledged to Christ through the faith, as a soul in the form of a virgin, and then someone should be caught having defiled her with words unto impiety, and having led her aside from wandering unto wandering—such a thing as heretics do, sometimes snatching those from the nations and from Jews, and persuading them to follow themselves—he will find the attempt not without penalty. For he will repay to the Father of spirits—that is, to God—the accounts of the wrong, the penalty being very well typed as in a loss of money. And ‘She will be his wife’ (Exodus 22:16) is useful to the history.

Palladius: I understand what you say; for the law is double—fleshly and spiritual.

Cyril: And observe how not even the word of the ancient commandment was ignorant of what Christ said concerning man and woman: ‘What therefore God has yoked, let a human not separate.’ (Matthew 19:6) For let her be his wife, he says, instead of those things for which he humbled her; he will not be able to send her away for all time. And in addition to this, consider how high as in boasts is the height of all-holy virginity; for the word of the God-inspired Scripture both knows and thinks fit to name as humiliation the taking-away of virginity, and as it were the putting-off of solemnity.

Palladius: You have spoken uprightly.

Cyril: Having then declared as God-hated and truly unholy the deceit of the otherwise-thinking, and the turning unto baseness of those accustomed to corrupt those who have chosen to walk uprightly, and the leading-away onto what it does not fit

Idle word-fights; pregnant struck; faith as embryo; Galatians travail§7

Harming faith being formed in a soul, and shunning corrupt teaching§8

8Cyril: …completion according to flesh they were practicing, having been transferred unto the worship of the law; for this very reason they were also making the formation of Christ in themselves incomplete, somehow aborting the good lying in themselves as in a womb. So the perfect in knowledge and the unmixed unto faith will house the formation of the Savior in the souls of all of us, and this in us will be as somehow a divine sowing. Whenever then some should be scandalized as from the word-fight of certain ones; and then the soul that has suffered this should abort the faith and knowledge lying as in travails and treasured within unto mind—if it should be, he says, not yet formed, that is, if still incomplete and less beautiful, the cause of the scandal will altogether and in every way endure a penalty, which the bridegroom of this one should lay on, he says—that is, Christ; and he will give with dignity, that is, let him also confess grace, not having undergone the penalty unto complete destruction. And if the intelligible conception of the soul should be formed, he says—that is, if there should be knowledge and faith of Christ wearing formation—he will be subject to the accounts concerning the last things, as already also a murderer. For death of soul is the putting-off of the blameless faith, and the loss of knowledge that holds rightly. Therefore he says that needing to share unholy teachings, and whatever words a man would make, having become devilish prey, and somehow food of the herd of demons, is a pollution; and he forbids again, saying as in a riddle, ‘And flesh taken by beasts you will not eat; throw it to the dog.’ (Exodus 22:31) For it is custom of the divine Scripture to name as dog the shameless and unclean human. And every word somehow foul and stinking would be fitting for such a one, I think, and composed from Beelzebul himself, as of a wild beast having eaten down the soul that fell under him and serves unto this; ‘For no one says, Anathema Jesus, except in Beelzebul.’ (1 Corinthians 12:3) And for holy ones to come into participation of thoughts and words so shameful or adulterated is altogether unfitting. ‘For there is no communion of light toward darkness.’ (1 Corinthians 12:3)

Palladius: Truly.

Cyril: And that it is fitting for those allotted to lead, and leaders of flocks, to stay awake, he again oracled. And what manner of our fairness unto this would become, he hints, saying in Leviticus: ‘You will not make your cattle mount with a differently yoked animal, and you will not sow your vineyard with different seed.’ (Leviticus 19:19) For to herds of goats and sheep, or indeed to a vineyard, one must very well liken the multitude under hand. For the divine Peter heard: ‘Simon of Jonah, do you love me? Feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep.’ (John 21:15-17) And concerning those from Israel, the prophet Isaiah was saying: ‘For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and (Isaiah 5:7)

Shepherd keeps flock pure; bestiality type of alien teaching; slaves next§9

9Cyril: …a human of Judah, a beloved newly planted.’ So a virtue of a shepherd is not to let loose upon sheep some animal of another form, so that they fall under somehow foreign mountings, lest it bear something of another nature, and having bent away from the natural good birth present in it; and the caretaker of vineyards, if he should be sensible and have practiced farming most excellently, would never endure the dry of the seeds to grow under the vines themselves, lest, the moisture being spent for them unto the alien, they themselves fall short concerning what is their own. Come then already somehow from an image now unto the spiritual: let us not allow the rational flocks to be led unholily under the sowings of the otherwise-teaching—intelligible ones clearly, and the introductions as in word; for the fruit from dissimilar resolve is very ugly, and the words of those not of like faith would become providers of base conceptions for those who have received them; and we being vineyards, and lying in the order of orchards, it is somehow fitting to be crowned with single-formed fruit, and to decline the double-natured mode. For there is no word unto natural likeness for wheat and clusters. So let there be for none of us a place of alien seeds.

Palladius: You speak well.

Cyril: And in another way also he shows the differently mannered as unjoined and incompatible, and split from communion toward one another, having set beside as a type the most outlandish and altogether strange joining of the rational animal toward what is not such, but of another form and out of tribe. And indeed he also says in Exodus: ‘Whoever should sleep with a beast, you will kill him by death.’ (Exodus 22:19) And more clearly again in Leviticus: ‘And whoever should give his lying in a four-footed animal, let him be put to death by death, and you will kill the four-footed; and a woman who should approach unto every beast to be forced by it, you will kill the woman and the beast; let them be put to death by death; they are liable.’ (Leviticus 20:15-16) For converses and as it were intelligible mixings and joinings toward those for whom it would least be fitting, and for whom the mind has sickened unto unreason the last, are providers of death, both for those who corrupt and for those who endure the corruption as voluntary.

Palladius: Most uprightly and very holily the law speaks.

Cyril: And you would still marvel also at this; for there were somehow some who, as from unbearable grasping, even if they should not wish to endure the corruption from uprightness of thoughts unto what holds sideways, also somehow from necessity, perhaps not without tears, suffer the wandering. So the law did not think fit to overlook even such a race as without help.

Palladius: What sort of thing do you mean?

Cyril: The one bound tight with a yoke of slavery and held down by the authorities of those who have bought them.

Slaves set free when harmed, and leaving masters who lead astray§10

Slaves with free minds, and sharing joy and grief§11

11Cyril: …the obedience in this at least; for having borne the neck of the body under the burden of slavery, they keep the mind unmuddied in themselves, and they have believed that needing to know clearly and without wandering the word concerning the true faith is worth very much, rather the whole, and they make the matter a spiritual food, as if grinding with the mind as with a tooth what comes into the ear, and chewing again the power of the divine thoughts.

Palladius: How clear for us, and uprightly holding, is the word.

Cyril: And the law also habituates us otherwise unto mutual love, persuading us to honor sitting-together with those near, and both abhorring and punishing the modes of inequality.

Palladius: How then do you say?

Cyril: Hear already; for he writes again: ‘If someone’s bull should gore the bull of the neighbor, and it should die, they will give back the living bull, and they will divide its silver, and they will divide the dead bull. And if the bull should be known that it is a gorer before yesterday and before the third day; and they should have been testified to its master, and he should not make it disappear, he will repay a bull instead of a bull, and the dead one will be his.’ You see the riddle, and the word upon this somehow going straight for us from a most clear example? For if it should come about that so-and-so’s bull has died, he says, and fallen under another bull, they will divide the living bull, and the dead one will again be for both—that is, if a mode of grasping and wrong should come about from someone not willing unto another, let the wronged one luxuriate, he says, in the goods of the one who grieved him, and let him have the joys in common. For this, I think, is dividing the living bull; and let the one who has struck unwillingly also make common, he says, the misfortunes of the one who has suffered; for this I think hints, dividing the dead one. You see then how the law still riddlingly and shadowedly introduces the mutual-loving mode? Or is this not the thing, ‘To rejoice with those rejoicing, and to weep with those weeping’ (Romans 12:15)?

Palladius: It seems so.

Cyril: And if indeed, he says, the grasper should know clearly that the neighbor will suffer something terrible, the modes of grasping not having been taken away, he himself will endure the equal penalty, and will pour the misfortune of the sufferer upon his own soul alone. For this riddlingly is, ‘He will repay a bull instead of a bull, and the dead one will be his.’ (Exodus 21:36) For the word is not only as far as falling away from their own goods for those who wrong, but they will have their own misfortune, and the passion will be theirs, what has befallen the neighbor.

Palladius: How well the word holds for us.

Seek others’ things; grazing field; heretics devour Lord’s vineyard§12

Gentleness has measure; glean ears not sickle; do not bottle teachers’ ad-lib§13

Bird-nest: take chicks, spare mother-virtue; return enemy’s ox§14

Returning a brother's lost goods and helping one's enemies§15

Mercy toward the weak, the poor, the stranger, and the orphan§16

16Cyril: …tongue, and to decline speaking-down upon whatever, rather upon every human? For ‘Do not speak against one another, my brothers,’ (James 4:11) says the disciple of the Savior. And now the law says: ‘You will not speak badly of a deaf person,’ (Leviticus 19:14) wanting somehow, I think, through a riddle to mark that those truly fair in manner must necessarily depart from wrongdoing, even if being able readily to suffer should befall some; for a deaf or blind person is not free of weakness; for they are sick in the things from the body, and have been maimed in the senses—I mean sight and hearing. And the deaf would not hear the one wanting to speak against, nor would a blind person look down upon the one adding a scandal. So then it is nothing hard to escape notice, even if someone should wish to plot against them. But those whom one ought rather to pity, as already weakened from the misfortune from home, will also be caught wronging in addition—crushing with a scandal the blind person who does not know, and with insults the deaf person, sometimes even persuading him to smile as upon good reports, yet striking often even somehow into the most vital things themselves. So the evil-doing upon both would be hidden, if someone should choose, yet it would not pass out from a charge of hardness and of the too-great hate of one another.

Palladius: Truly.

Cyril: For that it also sets us as mutual-loving and pity-loving, even the ancient oracle, you would more easily learn hearing him say, at one time, that ‘Opening you will open your bowels to your brother who is in need among you’ (Deuteronomy 15:11); and at another time again, ‘And a sojourner you will not mistreat, nor will you afflict him; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. Every widow and orphan you will not mistreat; and if with evil you should mistreat them, and having cried out they should cry down toward me, with hearing I will hear their voice, and I will be angered with wrath, and I will kill you with a sword, and your women will be widows, and your children orphans. And if you should lend silver to your poor brother beside you, you will not be pressing him, nor will you set interest upon him; and if you should take in pledge the garment of your neighbor, before sunsets you will give it back to him. For this is his only wrapping, this the garment of his shame; in what will he sleep? If then he should cry down toward me, I will hear him; for I am merciful.’ (Exodus 22:22-27) You hear how, setting forward the sweet lesson of mutual love, he threatened the anger? And all but also apologizes kindly to those about to undergo it, if they should not make the compassion unto brothers a matter of eagerness? ‘For I am merciful,’ he says—that is, being good by nature, and pitying as God, I will altogether receive the cry-down of the one who has suffered, and I will readily pity the tear of those weighted down by poverty. So then the speaking-down of the poor man is to be declined. For that it is fitting to be sharing, and to think love of the poor worthy of the most urgent eagerness, he has again put to shame in Deuteronomy, saying, ‘You will not deprive a wage of a poor man, or of one in need from your brothers, or from the sojourners

Same-day wage; sell and give; gleanings; no interest to brother§17

17Cyril: …of those in your cities, you will give back his wage the same day. The sun will not set upon him, because he is poor, and upon him he has the hope; and he will not cry down against you toward the Lord, and there will not be sin in you.’ You understand then that he persuades to dread the cry-down of the poor man, driving together unto mutual love? And the new Writing also through Christ, bringing in the perfectly good, ‘Sell the belongings,’ (Luke 12:33) it says, ‘and give alms, and behold all things will be well-wayed for you’ (Luke 11:41); which indeed some of those who have believed have also done. ‘For they were bringing prices of fields and houses, and were setting them beside the feet of the apostles, and it was being distributed to each, according as anyone had need.’ (Acts 4:35) And since the law is an elementary teacher, and carries back unto beginnings of the oracles of God, it commands to make as somehow a fore-practice of the path unto this the ungrudging as in few things; for this reason it says: ‘And if you should reap your harvest in your field, and should forget a sheaf in your field, you will not turn back to take it (Deuteronomy 24:19); it will be for the poor and the sojourner and the orphan and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands; and if you should gather olives you will not turn back to glean the things behind you, it will be for the sojourner and the orphan and the widow, and you will remember that you were a house-slave in the land of Egypt, for this reason I command you to do this word. And if you should vintage your vineyard, you will not vintage it again the things behind you, it will be for the sojourner and the orphan and the widow, and you will remember that you were a house-slave in the land of Egypt. For this reason I command you to do this word.’ (Deuteronomy 24:19-22) For it is beautiful in good cheer to remember labors, and the more ancient affliction; for the matter calls toward love of the poor, and the breadth of fair weather does not allow forgetting the evils in want.

Palladius: Truly.

Cyril: And see how most craftily and very urbanely he unhabits us from the worse things, and persuades us to be eager away from the unpitying, and leads us toward the better, and embarks us into the modes of mutual love; for he urges, if they should somehow need something, to lend out to brothers, and he bars interests, and commands to push away increasings. And having further ordered that one must not be burdensome, nor lie upon those who owe, he bids to make a release of debts. And he writes thus: ‘You will not take interest from your brother—interest of silver, and interest of foods, and interest of every matter—what you should lend to the alien, you will not take interest; that the Lord your God may bless you in all your works upon the earth which you are entering there to inherit.’ (Deuteronomy 23:19-20) For as far as concerns the lawgiver’s wish, the right-handed and honor-loving of the things in breadth of surplus would have lain ungrudgingly for alien and brothers together; ‘For to everyone asking you give,’ (Luke 6:30) says Christ, ‘and from the

The year of release as a figure of forgiveness in Christ§18

18Cyril: …one taking your things, do not demand back.’ And since the mind of those in beginnings upon righteousness is not very strong, unto being able to finish the good blamelessly, the law goes forward little by little upon it as pedagogue, and measures out the mode of righteousness; as unto brothers and neighbors, the exact of compassion, and the ungrudging unto aliens, and the sharing unto all, keeping by the more perfect pedagogy—for the shadows are until a time of correction; and this time was that of Christ’s presence.

Palladius: You have spoken most urbanely.

Cyril: Having then further ordered the needing to lend across, and having cut off increasings, and promising blessing to those who choose to do this, when seven years are left upon the debts, he commands to let go, honoring the time of the release of all—that is, of Christ’s presence—according to which we all have been justified by the faith, gaining the amnesty of the ancient failings, he having nailed to his own cross the handwriting against us, and having made out of the midst the accounts which we owed the judge. And he says thus again in Deuteronomy: ‘Through seven years you will make a release, and thus the ordinance of the release: You will release every private debt which the neighbor owes you, and you will not demand back from your brother, because a release has been called upon the Lord your God. The alien you will demand back whatever should be for you with him. And to your brother you will make a release of your debt, because there will not be a needy one in you, because blessing the Lord your God will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you in a lot to inherit.’ (Deuteronomy 15:1-4) And after other things again: ‘And if there should be in you a needy one from your brothers, in one of your cities, in the land which the Lord your God gives you, you will not turn away your heart, nor will you tighten your hand from your brother who is in need. Opening you will open your hand to him, lending you will lend him as much as he should need, and according as he falls short. Take heed to yourself lest there should ever become a hidden word in your heart, a lawless thing saying: The seventh year draws near, a year of release, and your eye should do evil to your brother who is in need, and you should not give to him, and he will cry against you toward the Lord, and it will be a great sin for you; giving you will give to him, and lending you will lend him as much as he should need of you, and you will not be grieved in your heart when you give to him; because for this word the Lord your God will bless you, in all your works, and in all where you should set your hand.’ (Deuteronomy 15:1–11) You will not be grieved, he says, in the heart when you give to him; ‘For God loves a cheerful giver,’ (2 Corinthians 9:7) according to the voice of the blessed Paul.

Palladius: Then how does this seventh year make clear the presence of our Savior, according to which the time of the release of all was shown, or rather the mode has been perfected?

Age as week; Sabbath Christ; Our Father debts; Edom embassy begins§19

19Cyril: Or will you not remember us having also said in the things already passed, that it is customary for the divine Scripture to liken the whole interval of the present and standing age to a week, because of the cycling-back unto the beginning of the days? For an end of a week is the Sabbath, and neighbor at once is the eighth, bringing in for us as somehow a new beginning of an age, through the resurrection of Christ.

Palladius: I will remember.

Cyril: He has visited then according to the Scriptures, upon a completion of the present age, and somehow as on a Sabbath—Christ—when he also released all, bound tight with cords of their own sins, and having owed him the accounts of the transgression. Therefore also in the Gospels he likens us to debtors saying: ‘Two debtors were to one human; the one owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And not having to give back, he gifted both.’ (Luke 7:41–42) And still shaping for us the type of the prayer, ‘Thus then you pray,’ (Matthew 6:9) he says: ‘Our Father who is in the heavens, let your name be hallowed, let your kingdom come, let your will become as in heaven and upon the earth, give us today our bread for the coming day, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.’ (Matthew 6:9–12) So sideways then and riddlingly the law was hinting the divine mystery for us, commanding to make the release through seven years, and embarks us upon the paths of kindness, teaching to make better than money the loving unto brothers, persuading us to be ready to share and communal, and as somehow setting the gentleness unto brother and neighbor for now as a practice of the more ungrudging reverence unto all.

Palladius: Thus it holds. For I would agree with you wanting to speak most excellently.

Cyril: And the still greater, if you should learn, you would marvel, O Palladius.

Palladius: What sort?

Cyril: For the law wants us to advance unto this of kindness and mutual love, so as to consider nothing equal-balanced to the love unto brothers. And to follow so nobly the distresses upon them, as also to be seen stronger than anger, even if they should not become toward us such as they must be and be seen, and should choose to grieve by unlovingnesses. You have also the type of this in Numbers: ‘For Moses sent,’ he says, ‘messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the toil that found us, and our fathers went down into Egypt, and we sojourned in Egypt many days, and the Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers, and we cried up toward the Lord, and the Lord heard our voice, and having sent an angel, led us out from Egypt, and now we are in Kadesh city, from

Edom refuses passage; Israel turns aside; no spite; forty stripes§20

20Cyril: …a part of your borders. We will pass through your land; we will not go through fields, nor through vineyards, nor will we drink water from your cistern; by a royal way we will go; we will not turn aside right or left, until we pass your borders. And Edom said to him: You will not go through me; and if not, in war I will go out unto meeting you. And the sons of Israel say to him: Beside the mountain we will pass; and if I and my beasts should drink of your water, I will give you a price; But the matter is nothing; beside the mountain we will pass. And he said: You will not go through me. And Edom went out unto meeting him in a heavy crowd, and in a strong hand. And Edom did not wish to give Israel to pass through his borders, and Israel turned aside from him.’ You hear how those from the blood of Israel, usefully counting out the miseries in Egypt, and composing above and below the modes of the grasping, urbanely ask the favor that wrongs nothing, all but being eager to make the one of like race a fellow-helper—for they were brothers of Jacob from Esau; and the others, though it was necessary to pity, and to allow them to do what they would know useful and beneficial for them, hard and unsoftened and not knowing how to suffer-with, were convicted through the matters themselves; for they shut them out from a way, though the people said clearly that they would damage neither vineyards nor the good fruits of fields anywhere, but would also draw water not without silver. And he, if they should not wish to withdraw from the things asked, not only threatened the attack, but was already also in arms, and with the whole army was arrayed. And what then toward this? Israel was stronger than smallness of soul; for he turned aside from him, it says, pushing away the quarrelsome toward brothers, and having honored the law of near-kinship with the too-great forbearances. Or will you not think these things hold thus?

Palladius: And very much.

Cyril: So then checking angers and reining in wraths, and measuring out the judgments proportionally to each one’s failings, and indeed also that the judgments upon each must be practiced by us upright and altogether unslanderable, we will reckon as a fruit and result of the love unto brothers.

Palladius: And very justly.

Cyril: It is present then already for you if you wish, to be persuaded again, when he says at one time, ‘And you will not bear a grudge against the sons of your people’ (Leviticus 19:18); and at another time again: ‘And if there should become a dispute in the midst of humans, and they should come forward unto judgment, and they should judge and justify the just and condemn the impious, and if the one doing impiously should be worthy of blows, and having sat him down before the judges, they will also whip him before him, according to his impiety, with a number of forty they will whip him, they will not add; and if they should add to whip him, more blows beyond these, your brother will be unseemly before you.’ (Leviticus 19:18) (Deuteronomy 25:1–3)

Forty stripes shadow Christ’s passion; fifth hour and eighth day§21

21Palladius: And what word would again be seen by us, of needing those condemned to be struck with blows by a number of forty alone? And how it shames some, say the thing beyond this.

Cyril: In many modes for us the mystery of Christ is well sketched through the ancient commandment, and the saving passion is somehow molded for us, in which and through which we have been released from everything able to harm, and casting us into incurable misfortunes; and as I said just now, the being released through seven years of those who have owed somehow hints the time of the release of all. For we have been justified in Christ, and have been taught to say in prayers, toward the Father and God in the heavens, ‘Forgive us our debts’ (Matthew 6:12); so also here, the advancing as far as forty blows for those striking, or being struck, the outrages through whips, shows the thrice-longed time for us of the economy with flesh of the Only-begotten, according to which by his bruise we were healed, and he himself has been softened because of our sins, those from Israel having insolently treated him, and Pilate having brought the blows upon the back, yet we have been taken out from penalty and punishment. For of old many were the whips of the sinner, according to what has been written, but Christ was whipped for us; for just as he died for all, so also again he was being whipped for all, being one worth all. And having cut the forty-day number into five times eight, you will find useful for the signifying of the time the five and the eight, for the Only-begotten has visited in a fifth time, according at least to the Gospel parable; for someone was hiring the workers into the vineyard; and going out about the first hour, and third and sixth, and ninth and eleventh; and he has been raised according to the eighth, having dissolved the power of death, and destroying together with it the mother of the brought-in corruption—that is, sin—which having been taken away, whips also must be idle, and the penalties and punishments through it. Therefore the law does not allow the whip still to overrun the fortieth number, as far as the presence of Christ and somehow standing the punishments, and marking down the time of the release. For the types of the truth travail the beauty. And one must know that Israel having struck against, was wandering the desert a fortieth year; for God swore with an oath not to lead them into the land of the promise. And this was a bound for them of the anger, and the time having passed, the anger has been loosed, and those from them crossed the Jordan, and entered into the land, the indignation not having overrun the fortieth year. So then a clear type also of this is some being struck as far as forty blows, for the time after this is of release, bringing in for us the mystical crossing of the Jordan, and indeed also flint knives—that is, the circumcision in spirit—and the generalship of Jesus (Isaiah 53:5) (Psalm 32:10) (Matthew 6:12)

Christ after Moses; just judges; no alien ruler; Antichrist foreshadowed§22

22Cyril: …ship; for Christ has become a leader for us, after Moses and law.

Palladius: I am persuaded.

Cyril: So then that the things falling in may be discerned uprightly and without bribes, and the modes of grasping may be made to vanish, ‘Judges,’ he says, ‘and scribes-introducers you will set for yourself in all your cities which the Lord God gives you, according to tribes, and they will judge the people a just judgment. They will not turn aside judgment, nor will they recognize a face, nor will they take gifts; for the gifts blind eyes of wise ones, and take away words of just ones.’ (Deuteronomy 16:18–19) For the law thought it necessary, and very fittingly, that those who would have been led unto judging also be seen better than loving to make money, and not granting to reverence toward certain ones the stepping-beyond of what holds well and without slander, and indeed also shaking off the otherwise-leaning as unholy, and weighing each of the matters lawfully, and imitating the judge of the wholes—that is, Christ—whom the law itself also has clearly pre-announced, knowing him also as being judge as God. And he said thus again: ‘And if you should enter into the land which the Lord your God gives you in a lot, and should inherit it, and should dwell upon it, and should say, I will set a ruler upon myself just as also the remaining nations around me, setting you will set upon yourself a ruler whom the Lord your God should choose; him from your brothers you will set upon yourself as ruler; you will not be able to set upon yourself an alien human, because he is not your brother.’ (Deuteronomy 17:14–15) For we must not worship the creation beside the God who created, casting ourselves as inward to lean toward the words of the truth, and to call in as into the holy land—that is, the promise of God through faith in Christ; and thus to set upon ourselves as ruler and judge the Son born from God, even if he should be understood with flesh; and he says concerning us: ‘And I was set king by him, upon Zion his holy mountain, announcing the ordinance of the Lord.’ (Psalm 2:6) And altogether upon him we will receive no other, and we will not put the neck under yokes of aliens; for one leader is for us—Christ. For the wretched Jews have remained outside through unbelief, and least of all have they received Christ upon themselves unto ruler and judge, though brought down from heaven, by will and good pleasure of the God and Father, and in addition to these things that they have also elected upon themselves an alien human—the son of destruction—that is, the Antichrist, out-of-tribe and other-born, and not even from blood of Israel, though the law said clearly, ‘You will not be able to set upon yourself an alien human, because he is not your brother.’ (Deuteronomy 17:15) And they were hearing also Christ himself saying

Christ vs own-name coming; no vain hearing; poor not favored in judgment§23

23Cyril: …of Christ: ‘I have come in the name of my Father, and you do not receive me. If another should come in his own name, that one you will receive.’ (John 5:43) For Christ has visited unto glory of God the Father. And the son of lawlessness will come according to times, not unto glory of God the Father—for this I think is the, In the name of the Father—but setting around his own head, the wretched one, the name of the divinity. ‘For he will sit into the house of God showing himself, that he is God.’ (2 Thessalonians 2:4) But Jews would not worship him, nor would they ever receive him as Christ while keeping the law; for that Christ would spring up from blood of Israel, it has clearly pre-announced. But they, having also let this go as stale, will receive an alien and other-born human.

Palladius: So then they will eat the fruits of their own way, and will carry home the equal-balanced judgment of the shameful random-counsel.

Cyril: You have spoken well; for God who judges the just things will distribute then altogether to each according to his work. And let these things hold thus for us here, and let the word be sufficient. But indeed to those led unto judging others, and unto the seat fitting for those judging, the law was calling out again: ‘You will not receive a vain hearing’ (Exodus 23:1–3)—that is, a false word and full of sycophancy; ‘You will not be added with a multitude to turn aside with more, so as to turn aside judgment.’ (Exodus 23:2) And again after other things: ‘You will not twist a judgment of a poor man in his judgment; from every unjust saying you will stand away.’ (Exodus 23:6) For the blameless in words would most of all be fitting for those masters of judging, and the one owing to vote upon each of the accused what seems good to the lawgiver must speak uprightly. And usefully also the, ‘A poor man you will not pity in judgment,’ (Exodus 23:3) has been brought on. For it is a ready and predisposed matter among those judging to look upon both sides, when the one judged is not rich, and altogether easy to run toward grasping is a man weighted down by poverty; and he has not incapably sometimes also toward being able to force down the word of the just, calling the softer of those judging unto pity. So then the law shuts out both needing to be grasped-against and pitying those in want and misery, keeping the beauty of just-judging uncorrupted, and setting the one judging everywhere as president of equality; ‘For justly you will pursue the just,’ he says. As what grieves the law, even if something should seem to exist of the goods, would fittingly be understood not without fault; ‘For there is a just one being destroyed in his just,’ according to what has been written. So then the good needs good craft, and pitying not in season would not flee a charge of wrong unto law. Those then caught in measured accusations he corrects with the outrages through whips. And see how slavish the matter is and altogether unfree, and do not marvel; for a spirit of slavery was in them. For this reason blows no longer follow the ordinances through Christ

Sons not slaves; murder vs injury; turn other cheek; slave rod; cities of refuge begin§24

Cities of refuge and the death of Christ the great High Priest§25

25Cyril: …thus there those fleeing upon involuntary failings. And he defines again a time of release also for those who have done wretchedly here—the death of the overlying and preeminent priest. And he writes thus in Numbers: ‘And if suddenly not through enmity you should push him, or should throw upon him every vessel, not from ambush, or with every stone with which he will die in it, not knowing, and it should fall upon him, and he should die, and he himself was not his enemy, nor seeking to do evil, and the Synagogue will judge between the one who struck and between the one near-kin for the blood according to these judgments, and the Synagogue will take out the one who murdered from the one near-kin for the blood. And the Synagogue will restore him into the city of the refuge-flight where he fled; and he will dwell there until the great priest should die, whom they anointed with the holy oil.’ (Numbers 35:22–28) Then after other things: ‘And after the great priest has died, the one who murdered will turn back into the land of his possession.’ (Isaiah 49:9)

Palladius: So then a loosing of the everlasting-flight for them is the death of the priest just now said to us.

Cyril: This is a figure for the types. And the shadows travail the mystery of Christ.

Palladius: In what manner?

Cyril: It is not unpersuasive, O Palladius, to think somehow that those caught in the sins are as somehow murderers of their own soul, and have slipped into this misery not willingly, but somehow forced into stepping-beyond, and into striking against God, because the understanding of the human lies upon the evil things from youth, and because of the law that tyrannized in the members of the flesh of the untamed love of pleasure. Therefore the wretched soul of the human is fined with the flight from world and body, and having sat as into some city of refuge-flight in the recesses of death, was continuing through long times, and was released scarcely when Christ the great priest died, who having endured the death for all, has gone down into Hades, and opened gates for those below, and was releasing from bonds, ‘saying to those in bonds, Come out, and to those in the darkness, Be uncovered.’ (Genesis 8:21)

Palladius: How clear the word.

Cyril: And the law, not persuading the more ancient ones to be well-reputed in one mode alone, but to have been well composed through all, and to hold most excellently, that the human of God may be fitted, equipped toward every good work, also orders marital joinings toward the solemn, and so that these things may be practiced blamelessly before God and humans, he sets clearly. So then he banishes fornication and uncleanness altogether, and makes male-lying and adultery as far away as possible, saying in Leviticus: ‘And toward the wife of your neighbor you will not give a lying of your seed, to be defiled toward her, and with a male (Leviticus 18:20–22)

Abominations self-condemned; divorce bill; false virginity charge begins§26

26Cyril: …you will not sleep a womanly lying; for it is an abomination.’ From itself, he says, such things suffer the having-been-condemned, and much the foul smell melted into them is found without toil, and those led unto this of abomination will not need a long word unto proof, as having from home so shameful and unbeautiful a glory, and the writing from nature itself. Therefore having set such things aside, he examines the things done lawfully, and not outside reason, saying in Deuteronomy: ‘And if someone should take a woman and should cohabit with her; and it will be, if he should not find favor before him; because he found in her an unseemly matter, he will write for her a book of standing-away, and will give it into her hands, and will send her out from his house; and if having gone away she should become to another man, and the last man should hate her, and should write for her a book of standing-away, and should give into her hands, and should send her out from his house, or also her last man should die, who took her for himself as wife, the former man who sent her out will not be able, having turned back, to take her for himself as wife, after she has been defiled, because it is an abomination before the Lord your God, and you will not defile the land which the Lord your God gives you in a lot.’ (Deuteronomy 24:4) For to make a genuine cohabiter of the woman parted from a husband upon reasonable charges and having endured insolence under another is not safe, rather altogether also unlearned. ‘For the one holding,’ (Proverbs 18:22) he says, ‘an adulteress, is foolish and impious.’ (Proverbs 18:22) And just as he forbids needing to be pleased with the things manifestly shameful and unambiguously condemned, so again he does not allow to slander the solemn things as unsolemn. For in an equal word of fault will lie both thinking worthy of affection what is better to flee, and stripping of disposition what fear declines. ‘For woe,’ he says, ‘those who say the sweet bitter, and the bitter sweet; the beautiful evil, and the evil beautiful; those who set the light darkness, and the darkness light.’ (Isaiah 5:20) So then he does not allow to adopt again the woman who has become sent-away, nor yet does he permit harms from word-loving to be brought upon those not yet condemned. And he said thus again: ‘And if someone should take a woman, and should cohabit with her, and should hate her, and should set upon her pretexting words, and should bring down upon her an evil name, and should say, I have taken this woman, and having come toward her I have not found her virginities; and the father of the child and the mother, having taken, will bring out the virginities of the child toward the elders upon the gate, and the father of the child will say to the elders: I have given this my daughter to this human as wife, and this one now having hated her sets upon her pretexting words, saying, I have not found virginities for your daughter; and these are the virginities of my daughter. And they will unfold the garment before the elders of the city, and the elders of that city will take that human, and will discipline him, and will fine (Deuteronomy 22:13–17)

Finishing good work, and reaching the inner fruit of the law§27

27Cyril: …him a hundred shekels, and they will give to the father of the young woman, because he brought out an evil name upon a virgin Israelite, and she will be his wife. He will not be able to send her out for all time.’ You understand then how he has commanded that the one who unjustly slighted the woman not yet condemned must not altogether depart from the council without penalty. For I think one must very well tend the good, and not hastily rush toward seeming to choose to sycophant the solemn as unsolemn; but rather try to think reverence worthy, to lie beside every beautiful thing, and to love to dwell-with the best unto good report. For the one not admitting the carelessnesses through the midst of the matters finishes the aim upon what would become well. And that it is fitting for us to be such the law was again hinting, calling under: ‘If you should build a new house, you will make a crown for your roof. And you will not make a murder in your house, if the one falling should fall upon it.’ (Deuteronomy 22:8) For just as a house empty of a fillet is unbeautiful, and of the after-buildings not having been brought upon it, in the same way, I think, every good work is altogether unpersuasive for us, if it should not be led toward the end fitting for it; and not only as far as these things, but danger will also follow those who are idle. For this, I think, is someone slipping down from the house. ‘For woe,’ he says, ‘those who do the work of the Lord carelessly.’ (Jeremiah 48:10) So through however many myriads the law carries us away toward what benefits. And it does not yet set beside the manly and more solid food, but nurtures with milk as being infants, carrying the more ancient ones little by little toward the mystery of Christ. For that the law is spiritual, and as far as concerns shadow and types, somehow not edible, nor yet necessary unto spiritual food it would become, yet will be such, if at least it should be reshaped toward Gospel contemplation, and unto the mystery of Christ, you will understand very well from the all-wise Moses having written thus about it. For he said in Leviticus: ‘And when you should enter into the land which the Lord your God gives you, and should plant every edible tree, you will clean around its uncleanness; its fruit will be for you three years uncleansed-around, it will not be eaten. And in the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, praiseworthy to the Lord. And in the fifth year you will eat its fruit. An addition for you its offspring. I am the Lord your God.’ (Leviticus 19:23-25) For the Writing of Moses seems to us like most well-growing gardens, travailing a many-formed sprout of oracles, and leafy as with trees—the laws upon each. But upon each tree you will clean, he says, its uncleanness—that is, you will cut off the random of the history, and will take around the somehow wooden of the letter, and you will come upon the heart of the plant itself—that is, you will busy-around the inward fruit of what has been oracled, and will make it food. ‘But it will be,’ (Hebrews 5:12–14) he says, (Leviticus 19:23–25)

The ages of the law and their fruit in Christ§28

28Cyril: …‘its fruit, three years uncleansed-around; it will not be eaten.’ (Leviticus 19:23–25) He sets the year unto a time; for first three times have become, according to which the law was still uncleansed-around, weighted down with the thickness of the history, and somehow lying around as random refuse—the shadow. And three times I say there are—that of Moses, that of Joshua, that of the Judges; a fourth time was after those, according to which the bright chorus of the holy prophets grew up. Then the fruit of the law became both holy and praiseworthy. For from holy prophets the things in law began to be set aside, and the things as in shadows not even to be named, and the truth to be preached openly, and the mystery of Christ’s presence to be praised. And at once the forerunner was a neighbor, both crying out and saying: ‘Repent; for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.’ (Matthew 3:2) So then in a fourth time toward beginnings of the things in law being thoroughly cleaned it has become, and the fruit was already somehow holy. Yet, in a fifth edible, according to which the presence of Christ is witnessed both through the law and through the prophets. For this reason he says, ‘Its fruit will be an addition for you.’ (Leviticus 19:25) For toward the Gospel preachings also the legal training, led toward spiritual contemplation, is most needful for those loving to learn; and indeed the Savior was saying that ‘Every scribe having been discipled to the kingdom of the heavens is like a rich human, who casts out from his treasure new things and old’; saying new things—the Gospels—and old things—the things in law—bringing in together for us not ignobly the knowledge in Christ; to him the glory unto the ages of the ages, Amen.