On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth, Book 9

Book Nine opens: the holy tent as a type of the Church§1

1ON ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH — BOOK NINE. On the holy tent: that it was a type of the Church in Christ. Love for God and for our brothers has glories plain for all to see, and through both of them the law is brought to its fulfillment (Matthew 22:37–40).

The heavenly reward, and the Church as the truer tent§2

2Cyril: …And whoever has reached this height of renown is illustrious and worthy of admiration, and will be ranked among those who are most truly genuine, as Christ cries out and says, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord’ (Matthew 25:21). For he will enter, and very readily, into the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22), and will make his home in the dwelling places above (John 14:2), delighting in good things beyond mind and speech. The prophet Isaiah also says something of this kind: ‘Your eyes will see Jerusalem, rich cities, tents that shall not be shaken; the pegs of the tent shall not be moved, nor shall its cords ever be broken’ (Isaiah 33:20). For the form of this world is passing away, as the Scriptures say (1 Corinthians 7:31), but the hope of what is to come is founded most firmly and is wholly unshakeable. But since all these things are being dissolved, as the Savior’s disciple firmly declared, what sort of people must we be found to be (2 Peter 3:11, 14)? Holy and blameless in his sight (Ephesians 1:4), honoring him as Savior and Redeemer with spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5), and practicing a holy and chosen way of life that agrees with the laws of the Gospel. In just this way the law, of course, sketched in shadow for the people of old this same life, so worthy of reverence and so well worth gaining, when it commanded them to slaughter sheep, to make their offerings by means of blood, to dedicate tithes and firstfruits to God, and thank offerings besides. Yet it laid down that these things must not be done outside the holy tent. And it set apart the tribe of Levi as chosen and dedicated to God (Numbers 3:12), making the thing a type given to us and pointing to ourselves. For we too are called in the divine Scriptures ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession’ (1 Peter 2:9). And we enter the truer tent, which the Lord pitched and not man (Hebrews 8:2), that is, the Church; not appeasing the Maker of all things with calves and goats (Hebrews 9:12), but excelling in a right and blameless faith, and giving off, in a spiritual way, a sweet fragrance through spiritual offerings of fruit. ‘For with such sacrifices God is well pleased’ (Hebrews 13:16), and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth, as the Savior said (John 4:24).

Palladius: You are right. And I would myself say that it befits us to win approval by sacrifices that surpass the law; I will agree to that. But tell me this: was not the old tent set up in the wilderness as a type, for us, of the Church gathered from the nations, showing, though still somewhat dimly, the beauty of the truer tent?

Cyril: Certainly. And I said just a moment ago that the fact that those of Levi’s blood had to be chosen with the greatest care for the sacred ministries would also be, in turn, a type of those who have been called in faith to a holy and blameless life, I mean the life in Christ.

God speaks from heaven; the altar of earth is Emmanuel§3

3Palladius: Then would you like us to say a few things about the holy tent and about the priesthood under the law, letting our discussion examine closely what was reverently decreed about both?

Cyril: It is no easy matter. It will take, I think, long labor and sweat on our part, Palladius, both to be able to understand these things and to explain them as well. Still, if you agree, let us go through them trusting in God; for you have learned that he says plainly, ‘Who gave a mouth to man? And who made the hard of hearing and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Is it not I, the Lord God? And now go, and I will open your mouth’ (Exodus 4:11–12).

Palladius: Go on, then, and make the Giver of wisdom your helper in this as well.

Cyril: Then I will go on, and I will speak, having gathered with care what the sacred Scriptures say. God, the Maker of all things, came down in the form of fire upon Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:18), and laid down laws by which each thing that was to be done might be brought to what is upright and genuine. Then, drawing them away from their former error and setting them as far as possible from the false worship of Egypt, he spoke to Moses, who was then acting as mediator. ‘Thus you shall say,’ he says, ‘to the house of Jacob, and declare to the sons of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver for yourselves, and gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves’ (Exodus 20:22–23). He did not allow them to serve gods falsely so called. Instead he commands that they must hold fast to him alone who came from above and from heaven, who by his very being holds power over all things, and whose glory lies not in the fine colors of material things but in showing that heaven is his own. But it was in some way necessary that those who had been commanded to depart from their ancient impiety and profane worship should pass at once to another custom, and come, as it were, under a yoke: the worship of him who is God by nature. For a mind left slack is unrestrained and all too ready to be carried off into anything whatever, even the most outlandish; but when fear and anxious care hang over it, it darts quite readily toward what is right and inclines toward what is profitable. And since we come to the Father through the Son, for ‘no one comes to the Father,’ he says, ‘except through me’ (John 14:6), he therefore, as was necessary, laid down in law the types of our approach through the Son and of the offering made in him, saying: ‘You shall make me an altar of earth, and on it you shall sacrifice your whole burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your sheep and your oxen, in every place where I cause my name to be named; and I will come to you and bless you. And if you make me an altar of stones, you shall not build them of hewn stones; for you have put your chisel to it, and it is defiled’ (Exodus 20:24–25). By the altar of earth he means Emmanuel, ‘for the Word became flesh’ (John 1:14); and the nature of the flesh is earth from earth.

The uncut stones, and the first gifts for the sanctuary§4

4Cyril: …In Christ, then, lies all our offering of fruit and every approach; for he himself says, ‘Apart from me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5). For just as through him we have obtained access (Romans 5:2), so too through him every sacrifice of those who have received the faith is acceptable. And to those who set up the altar of earth he promises his coming and a blessing: ‘For I will come to you,’ he says, ‘and bless you’ (Exodus 20:24). For when we had received through the all-wise Moses the types of the truth, the truth itself also shone forth in its due season, that is, Christ, through whom and in whom we have been enriched with the blessing that comes from above and from the Father (Ephesians 1:3), sealed for adoption as sons in the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). And this too, again, is fulfilled in Christ: ‘And if you make me an altar of stones,’ he says, ‘you shall not build them of hewn stones’ (Exodus 20:25). He does not allow the stones dedicated to God to be wounded with iron. For Christ was the chosen stone, the precious cornerstone (Isaiah 28:16; 1 Peter 2:6): unwounded by sins, and knowing nothing of suffering the blows that come from the devil; not divided between God and the world, even though he became flesh, but holy through and through; not divided into God separately and man separately after the ineffable union, that is, his coming together with flesh, but being one and the same, God and also man. For he is in no way divided, as the wise Paul also writes (1 Corinthians 1:13).

Palladius: So the altar of earth, and the uncut stones as well, signify Christ, in the ways already described?

Cyril: So I say; for the law is spiritual, as the Scriptures say (Romans 7:14). And once he had outlined in riddles the mystery of Christ and our approach through him, then, at that very point, God planned to show beforehand the form of the Church as well. So he called Moses, and Joshua with him, up onto Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:12–13). And understand from this that even to the holy prophets themselves the Father is approachable through the Son; for Moses and Joshua go up together. For it is written: ‘And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and take firstfruits for me from all whose heart moves them; you shall take my firstfruits. And these are the firstfruits that you shall take from them: gold and silver, bronze and blue, purple and double scarlet, and twisted fine linen, and goats’ hair, and rams’ skins dyed red, and skins dyed blue, and wood that does not decay, and sardius stones, and stones for engraving, for the ephod and for the robe that reaches to the feet. And you shall make me a sanctuary, and I will be seen among you. And you shall make it for me according to all that I show you on the mountain, the pattern of the tent and the pattern of all its furnishings; so you shall make it’ (Exodus 25:1–9). Do you see how he urges the peoples to bring as offering what is profitable and most needful for the building up of the Church, bringing gladly what matches their means and their will? For he did not ask only for gold…

Small gifts accepted; God seen in the Church; the ark§5

5Cyril: …or for things that many people perhaps find hard to come by, but also goats’ hair and rams’ skins, showing that even what is small and cheap, if the one who has chosen to bring an offering has nothing finer, is not rejected by God; perhaps it even ranks equal with the most precious gifts, or wins greater praise. So too Christ, of course, did not leave without admiration the widow in Jerusalem who brought to the treasury something small and very easy to come by (Mark 12:41–44; Luke 21:1–4), yet perhaps great for those in the deepest poverty, for whom even parting with the cheapest things is likely to be a hardship. When the firstfruits had been received, ‘You shall make me a sanctuary,’ he says, ‘and I will be seen among you’ (Exodus 25:8). For Christ appears in the Church and shines upon those within it, as the Psalms say: ‘God is the Lord, and he has shone forth upon us’ (Psalm 118:27). And observe how, although he had come down on the mountain in the form of fire and had been seen by all the people (Exodus 19:11, 18), as it is written, he says, as though he had not yet appeared, ‘I will be seen among you,’ once the sanctuary has been raised. He all but cries aloud, as one can clearly see, that those visions were shadows of the true sight of God, and that the true revelation is Christ, in whom we have seen the Father himself (John 14:9). Indeed, when the Jews supposed that on Mount Sinai they had truly seen the God of all things, he showed them how utterly foolish their thinking was, saying: ‘You have not heard his voice, nor seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe the one whom he sent’ (John 5:37–38). So he says, ‘I will be seen among you,’ when the sanctuary has been raised. And this was a type of the Church, which came into being in the likeness of the Church above. For he says, ‘You shall make it for me according to all that I show you on the mountain; so you shall make it’ (Exodus 25:9). For there was shown to the blessed Moses, as I said, a type of the holy churches, and also he himself who became man for our sake, shaped in many forms as though in shadow. Yet on each of the patterns the discussion would grow long and drawn out, and full of minute detail. But since some things belong to and suit the construction of the objects that were made, while others look toward the purpose of spiritual contemplation, come, let us speak of what is useful for this purpose, and let the rest go.

Palladius: I do not understand what you mean.

Cyril: Then look at what I mean, for you will understand it, I think, quite without effort. He commanded that an ark be made of wood that does not decay, overlaid inside and out with pure gold, and bearing within it what are called the testimonies, that is, the law on tablets. And the instructions about it did not stop there: he commands, further, that poles be made of wood that does not decay, gilded in the same way, and gold rings, and a twisted border all around. He fixed the length, breadth and height of the work (Exodus 25:10–16). But if someone wished to probe such things very closely in the mystical sense, he will perhaps find out what the ark is, and the…

The ark as a type of Christ; its gold as his Godhead§6

6Cyril: …the testimonies, and what need there was for wood that does not rot. But if he should perhaps pry closely into what the gold on the ark is meant to show, and into the things put together for the time being for use and ornament, I mean the mouldings, the twisted work, the rings and the carrying poles (Exodus 25:11–14), he will find the matter hard. Unable to fit a mystical sense to them, he will probably say more than is needed and pile a mass of idle words on the ears of those keener to learn. And what I say holds true, perhaps, not of the ark alone; I would add that it holds also of the other things he commanded to be made.

Palladius: Your thinking and your words seem to me not unconvincing. So set aside what concerns, as you say, proportion and use, that is, the ornament of the finished works, and hurry straight to what our contemplation needs: explain without hesitation in what way Christ himself is signified to us by the things shown as a pattern, that is, the things that were built.

Cyril: Well then, I will try, as far as one can speak and understand. But if I miss the truth, and reach less than I ought toward the height of these thoughts, be forgiving. For seeing in a mirror and in a riddle (1 Corinthians 13:12) can at times trip up even a precise and sensible mind.

Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: The ark, Palladius, would be for us a type and image of Christ. For when we look closely at the manner in which the Only-begotten became man, we shall see the Word who is from God the Father dwelling, as in an ark, in the temple that is from the Virgin. For ‘all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily’ (Colossians 2:9), as the Scriptures say. And the testimonies in the ark were the Word of God. Its wood did not rot, and it was adorned inside and out with pure and thoroughly tested gold (Exodus 25:10–11). For the body of Christ is incorruptible: it is held fast in incorruption, as by a kind of gold, by the power and radiance of the Word who dwells in it, and by the nature and life-giving working of the Holy Spirit. That is why Christ is also said to give life. For the Word who is from God the Father, being Life by nature, himself brought his own temple back to life by the power of his own Spirit, setting it above corruption. For ‘his flesh knows no corruption,’ in the words of holy Paul (Acts 13:37; Acts 2:31). And he also told the Jews somewhere, speaking of his own body, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (John 2:19); and Peter, too, says that he was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit (1 Peter 3:18). So the gold is a symbol of the surpassingly bright Godhead, laid over the holy body, as it were, and instilling in it, beyond telling, his own brightness and incorruption, in a way known only to the divine nature itself, which is beyond understanding. For if ‘the righteous in due…

The golden poles and rings; Christ the mercy seat§7

7Cyril: …time will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father’ (Matthew 13:43), what then will the glory of Christ himself be? And how can his radiance not pass beyond all thought and speech? The poles that carry the ark are gold, the rings are gold too, and so is everything on it; for those around him share in his glory, since they are, as it were, fastened to him in love and sanctification, and are of use. Such, too, were the blessed disciples, who received from him the power that befits God, grew rich, by participation, in the brightness of the supreme excellence that comes from above, and for this reason worked divine signs.

Palladius: You are right.

Cyril: ‘And besides the ark,’ he says, ‘you shall make a mercy seat, a cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. And you shall make two cherubim of wrought gold, and set them at the two ends of the mercy seat. One cherub shall be made at this end, and one cherub at the other end of the mercy seat; and you shall make the two cherubim at the two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall be toward one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. And you shall set the mercy seat on the top, above, and into the ark you shall put the testimonies that I will give you. And I will make myself known to you from there, and I will speak to you from above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, about everything that I command you for the sons of Israel’ (Exodus 25:17–22).

Palladius: Then what do you say the mercy seat is?

Cyril: As far as the letter and the shadow go, it was made of pure gold, and was in some way fitted on, lying upon the ark; that is why it is called a cover. And those adorned with the honors of the priesthood, when they turned toward it and looked at it, were held to be turning toward God and looking at him. But we say that the mercy seat, if it is understood spiritually, is he who became man for our sake, ‘whom God put forward as a mercy seat through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness’ (Romans 3:25). For so Paul says. And John, the wisest disciple, also writes to us: ‘Little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world’ (1 John 2:1–2). For through him come propitiation, every prayer, and the asking of good things. For ‘until now,’ he says, ‘you have asked nothing in my name (John 16:24); ask, and it will be given to you’ (Matthew 7:7). So he himself is the mercy seat. For through him the Father is gracious to us; in him every prayer reaches its end; and through him we draw near, since in no other way are we acceptable. That is why he says, ‘I am the way’ (John 14:6); and, ‘I am the door’ (John 10:9); and, ‘No one comes to the…

Angels around the mercy seat; God's face and ways beyond sight§8

8Cyril: …Father except through me’ (John 14:6). Yet even though the only-begotten Word of God became like us, lowering himself into humanity and self-emptying (Philippians 2:7), it still belongs to him by nature to be thought of in the glory that befits God and to exist in the heights that are above creation, just as he did, of course, before the flesh. That is why the cherubim stand around the mercy seat, covering it with their wings, turned toward it and always keeping their faces fixed on it (Exodus 25:20); and their station on the right and on the left is a clear proof that they are its guard of honor. And the fact that the cherubim always look toward the mercy seat seems to hint at how intent, and, as it were, insatiable, the highest powers are in beholding God.

The prophet Isaiah, too, portrays the Son in the form proper to him, saying, ‘I saw the Lord of hosts sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and seraphim stood around him’ (Isaiah 6:1–2); and he says that six wings had grown on each, and that with two they covered the feet, with two the faces, and with the others they flew (Isaiah 6:2). If someone thinks that the seraphim were covering the face of God, and his feet too, there is nothing unreasonable in taking it so. For if we put the meaning of the word ‘seraphim’ into Greek, we shall find that it signifies a fullness of knowledge, or an outpouring of wisdom. By their posture, then, these all-wise and highest powers hint very clearly that it is not lawful for God’s face to be seen by anyone. For the nature that is beyond all understanding is wholly beyond sight, and ‘dwells in unapproachable light’ (1 Timothy 6:16), in the words of blessed Paul; and ‘no one shall see the face of God and live’ (Exodus 33:20), as God rightly told the most holy Moses. Nor could anyone know his footsteps and his ways. For it is written, ‘O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how untraceable his ways!’ (Romans 11:33) Blessed David, too, sings and strikes up a wise song: ‘Your way is in the sea, and your paths in many waters, and your footsteps will not be known’ (Psalm 77:19). For just as no one could see a track in water, whether of a man, perhaps, or of a ship, or of the creatures that swim in it, so no one could make out the divine and ineffable ways. The feet would be a type of these ways.

But if someone should suppose that the holy seraphim cover their own faces and feet with their wings, let us understand that it is not lawful to see the beginning or the end of the wisdom, or knowledge, that concerns God. For it too is beyond grasp, and beyond the human mind. The beginning of every body is the head, and its end the feet. So the mercy seat is Christ, who, even when he appeared in the flesh, is no less God and Lord, by nature and in truth, and has even the highest powers standing around him in a circle as servants. And the sacred word also tells us somewhere that after Satan withdrew, giving up his testing of Christ when he had fasted for us, angels came and served him (Matthew 4:11). For ‘they are ministering spirits…

Christ above the mercy seat; the golden table and the bread from heaven§9

9Cyril: …ministering, sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation’ (Hebrews 1:14). ‘From above the mercy seat I will make myself known to you,’ he says, ‘and I will speak with you’ (Exodus 25:22). Through this too, I think, he shows two things. The first is that Christ, though he is man, will speak things beyond human nature, and will not keep only within the limits of his self-emptying (Philippians 2:7), because by nature he is God and from God. For he said, ‘I and the Father are one’ (John 10:30), and, ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14:9). Or perhaps it is this: He is known above the mercy seat and the cherubim, that is, in a preeminence and glory beyond what is human and beyond every created thing, the highest and most exalted of which are the seraphim, even though he became flesh (John 1:14). The mercy seat was of gold, and so were the seraphim themselves (Exodus 25:17–18). For God is the glorious and most beautiful nature, while created things bear a likeness to him by participation. To those who stand around him and near him he imparts a share in his own natural radiance, as light, reflected onto something near it, lights up whatever it meets with its own brightness.

Palladius: That is right, and the argument has been finely worked out for us in keeping with the truth.

Cyril: After the making of the mercy seat, he sketches the mystery of Christ for us in yet another way, saying, ‘And you shall make a table of pure gold’ (Exodus 25:23). He commanded that rings be fixed to it and golden carrying poles be put through them, and he set out very clearly its measurements and the methods of fine workmanship by which it would attain the highest beauty of form (Exodus 25:24–28). ‘And you shall set on the table,’ he says, ‘the loaves of the presence, before me continually’ (Exodus 25:30). He also ordered that its vessels be made of gold: dishes and incense cups, and ladles too, and pitchers for drink offerings (Exodus 25:29). Was not the bread from heaven plainly being shown to us here, the bread that would be set out at the appointed times on the holy tables of the churches and that gives life to the world (John 6:33)?

Palladius: Very plainly.

Cyril: And the dishes and incense cups, the ladles and pitchers, and all the things by which the mystical and most sacred service of the holy table is carried out: would they not be a type of the sacred treasures, my friend?

Palladius: Certainly.

Cyril: But these things are in Exodus. Concerning the table, and the setting out of the loaves as well, the lawgiver has spoken his oracles in Leviticus. There he widens the command, as it were, and teaches clearly how the loaves are to be set out, speaking thus (Leviticus 24:5–9): ‘And you shall take fine flour and make twelve loaves of it; each loaf shall contain two tenths. And you shall set them in two rows, six loaves to a row, on the pure table before the Lord. And you shall put pure frankincense and salt on the row, and they shall be for the loaves as a memorial, set before the Lord. On the Sabbath day…

The loaves of the presence, the firstfruits of dough, and the golden lampstand§10

10Cyril: …it shall be set before the Lord continually, before the sons of Israel, as an everlasting covenant. And it shall belong to Aaron and to his sons, and they shall eat them in a holy place; for this is most holy for them, from the offerings made to the Lord, a perpetual ordinance’ (Leviticus 24:8–9). In Numbers, again, he showed us the bread that is from heaven and also from us as one bread, for the Word, though God by nature, became like us and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He showed this when he said to Moses, the revealer of sacred rites: ‘Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you go into the land into which I am bringing you, then, when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall take off a portion set apart for the Lord, the firstfruits of your dough. You shall set apart a loaf as an offering; as an offering is taken from the threshing floor, so you shall take off the firstfruits of your dough, and you shall give an offering to the Lord throughout your generations’ (Numbers 15:18–21). Through these words one could see the mystery of the truth without effort. It will be discussed by us in detail and with precision at its proper time, when our discourse has passed on to another labor of writing. For the present, though, Palladius, there is one thing, I think, that anyone would marvel at.

Palladius: What do you mean?

Cyril: That in setting Emmanuel before our eyes in many forms, he portrays him once more through yet another passage. For he says to Moses: ‘And you shall make a lampstand of pure gold; you shall make the lampstand finely wrought. Its shaft and its branches, its cups, its knobs and its lilies shall be of one piece with it. Six branches from the second side’ (Exodus 25:31–32). Then, after adding the parts that serve the work’s beauty and use, I mean the lilies, the knobs and the almond ornaments (Exodus 25:33–35), he declared again: ‘All of it finely wrought, from one piece of pure gold. And you shall make its seven lamps, and you shall set up its lamps, and they shall shine from the one front. And its oil vessel and its trays you shall make of pure gold; you shall make all these vessels from a talent of pure gold. See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’ (Exodus 25:36–40). So the lampstand, which stands as a type of Christ, is of gold. For the Son is God by nature and in truth, and the divine splendor and preeminence must be likened to gold, as we also laid down earlier. It is finely wrought because Emmanuel is beautiful beyond all words in the beauty of form that the mind perceives. For it is written, ‘Fairer in beauty than the sons of men’ (Psalm 45:2). So the finely wrought shape of the lampstand would show Emmanuel’s surpassing beauty of form very well, and plainly this is the beauty that befits God. He says that branches grow out to the right and to the left, as from a tree, and spring up together with the central shaft, rising to an equal height (Exodus 25:32). For the Only-begotten, though he is one by nature and, as God, simple in essence, seems to be many in his various activities; yet there is nothing brought in or foreign…

The lampstand all of gold; seven lamps shining toward the front§11

11Cyril: …in him, even if in the dignities that befit God he may somehow be thought of as not simple. For he is understood as light and life, and power and incorruption. It was because he wished to teach that nothing in him is acquired from outside, I think, that he added, ‘Let the knobs and the branches be of one piece with it; all of it finely wrought of pure gold’ (Exodus 25:36). That is, he is wholly and entirely God. He was not made holy in the way created things are, nor is he like, say, the angels, who are understood to exist in a nature of their own but are made splendid by his grace and glory, and are overlaid with the gift of the Spirit as if with pure gold. Rather, he is by nature the very thing itself: God, the purest and highest nature. There are seven lamps, because the enlightening that comes from Christ takes many forms: ‘To one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge,’ and ‘the discerning of spirits,’ and the rest (1 Corinthians 12:8–10). The number seven, again, is a sign of perfection. Emmanuel is wholly perfect, both in his own nature, as God, and in the distribution of his gifts, for he is present in full in those worthy to receive them. For, in John’s words, ‘He does not give the Spirit by measure’ (John 3:34), but ‘from the fullness we have all received’ (John 1:16). Then he says, ‘And you shall set up the lamps, and they shall shine from the one front’ (Exodus 25:37). What this placing might be, he showed clearly in Numbers, saying: ‘And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and say to him: When you set up the lamps on one side, facing the front of the lampstand, the seven lamps shall give light. And Aaron did so: on the one side, facing the front of the lampstand, he lit its lamps, as the Lord had commanded Moses’ (Numbers 8:1–3). Notice, then, that the seven lamps, turned to face the front of the lampstand, sent their light to those who looked on. For the divine and spiritual light does not shine on those who stand behind and lie, as it were, under God’s turning away, but on those who have been brought into his sight through sanctification and now stand face to face with him through boldness in faith and the noble dignity of an upright life. For everything that dwells in wickedness and disobedience is loathsome and hateful, but what is obedient and willing to be guided is precious and under God’s care. For to the Jews, who chose to abuse him without restraint, he also says through the voice of Isaiah, ‘When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you’ (Isaiah 1:15). But ‘the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous’ (Psalm 34:15), as is sung in the Psalms.

Palladius: True.

Cyril: The inspired Zechariah also clearly mentions this holy lampstand, for he said (Zechariah 4:1–3): ‘And the angel who was speaking with me returned and woke me, as a man is woken from his sleep, and he said to me, “What do you see?” And I said, “I have looked, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, and its bowl, and seven lamps on it, and two olive trees above it, one on the right of its bowl, and one…

The seven eyes of the Lord and the two olive branches§12

12Cyril: …and one on the left.” And I asked and said to the angel who spoke in me, “My lord, what are these?” And he said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.”’ (Zechariah 4:3–5) So the blessed prophet asked, ‘What are these, my lord?’ And the divine angel, after inserting a short account (Zechariah 4:6–10), interprets the vision and refers the making of the lampstand to Christ, saying of the seven lamps on it, ‘These are the eyes of the Lord, which look upon the whole earth.’ (Zechariah 4:10) For if we must say something in rather bodily terms, the Godhead sees us with countless eyes and surveys human affairs, ‘knowing what is in the darkness,’ as it is written, ‘and the light is with him’ (Daniel 2:22). For if God puts light even into us who are in the world, he would surely be rich in it himself, since he has it in his own nature before all others. Or if some suspect that this is not so, it is perhaps time to cry out to those who have chosen to think that way: ‘Understand, you senseless among the people; and you fools, be wise at last. He who planted the ear, does he not hear? Or he who formed the eye, does he not perceive?’ (Psalm 94:8–9) ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than a 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 from his sight, but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes.’ (Hebrews 4:12–13) Christ, then, gives light to all things and watches over all things. That is why he also said through one of the prophets: ‘I am a God who is near, says the Lord, and not a God far off. Shall anything be hidden from me?’ (Jeremiah 23:23–24) For nothing could escape the mind that knows all things. Or do I not seem to you to have examined this very well?

Palladius: Entirely so.

Cyril: But the prophet saw something unusual about the lampstand, for olive branches were there, and so he asked further: ‘What are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on the left? And I asked a second time,’ he says, ‘and said to him, “What are the two branches of the olive trees that are beside the two golden spouts, which pour out and draw up the golden oil vessels?” And he said to me,’ he says, ‘“Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.” And he said to me, “These are the two sons of richness, who stand beside the Lord of all the earth.”’ (Zechariah 4:11–14)

Palladius: Then what need did the blessed prophet have to ask yet again? For he says, ‘I asked a second time’ (Zechariah 4:12).

Cyril: Would you not say, Palladius, that it is wise and fitting for those who have chosen to think rightly in every respect to make their inquiries about any necessary matter precise and carefully refined?

Palladius: I would.

Cyril: Well then: when the prophet saw olive shoots teeming with tender, fresh leaves, he called them olive trees, and not branches from olive trees. Then the divine angel kept silent, waiting for a more thoughtful and…

Olive shoots from Israel and the nations; the bronze altar§13

13Cyril: …true question. But when, now roused, he at last named them two branches of olive trees and begged earnestly to learn what these might be symbols of, he was taught at once, when the angel said: ‘These are the two sons of richness, who stand beside the Lord of all the earth’ (Zechariah 4:14). By the two sons of richness he meant the people from Israel and also the people from the nations, who, he says, stand beside the Lord of all the earth. So he clearly and plainly sets the craftsmanship of the lampstand as a type of Christ. Its olive branches, on the right and on the left, having as it were their place all around it, are made rich with the oil, which is a type of the Holy Spirit, who waters the mind of those who believe, as it says: ‘You have anointed my head with oil’ (Psalm 23:5).

Palladius: Then why did he call them shoots of olive trees, and not rather olive trees?

Cyril: Because, my friend, those who have believed have been taken like slender shoots and newly sprouted branches from olive trees, and are all but transplanted, with faith, into godliness: some of them come from the synagogue of the Jews, and others have been taken out of the multitude of the nations. For not all those from Israel have believed, nor has the whole multitude of the nations come in. Branches of olive trees, then, are those who have been plucked, as from trees, from the multitude of the Jews and also of the Greeks, who have come to be in the divine light and already in some way delight in the more abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit. For this, I think, is what is meant by the olive branches lying, as it were, in the spouts of the lamps. The blessed Psalmist also mentions them somewhere, singing to Christ, the Savior of all, and speaking of the bride joined to him, that is, the Church, and of her children in faith: ‘Your wife is like a flourishing vine on the sides of your house; your sons are like young olive plants around your table’ (Psalm 128:3). For we are given life by sharing in the Spirit and at the holy table of Christ, once we have received faith in him.

Palladius: Yes, you are right. For he says, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world’ (John 6:33, 51).

Cyril: But let this be what we say for the present about the lampstand and the things on it. Let our discussion now go on to the bronze altar, the most necessary thing in the worship under the law. For he says: ‘You shall make an altar of wood that does not rot, five cubits long and five cubits wide. The altar shall be square, and its height three cubits. And you shall make the horns on the four corners; the horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall cover them with bronze. And you shall make a crown for the altar, and its cover, and its bowls, and its meat forks, and its firepan; all its vessels you shall make of bronze.’ (Exodus 27:1–3) Now, five cubits in breadth and length…

Why the altar of the law had no gold§14

14Cyril: …was the altar. For it needed, yes, it needed measurements, and very generous ones. For on it were to be brought up split logs and portions of oxen, and whole burnt offerings, and offerings of sheep and goats consecrated to God. That is why its grate and firepan were of bronze, and its meat forks and bowls and all its vessels, so that they could render their own service to the sacrifices of the law and not be destroyed by the assaults of the all-devouring fire. The crown and the horns at the corners we will put down to the beauty of its form, for with the all-wise God nothing is graceless. But come, let us make this point once more, fixing our minds closely on what was decreed about each thing. He ordered an altar suited and fitting for the sacrifices of the law, but there is nothing of gold on it, such as one would certainly see on the ark, and again on the lampstand and the table and the things that go with it.

Palladius: And what, then, does this mean?

Cyril: Did we not say, Palladius, that gold very well signifies the supremacy over all things and the incomparable splendor of the divine and pure nature (splendor as the mind conceives it, I mean)?

Palladius: That is so.

Cyril: Observe, then, that the altar of the worship under the law is entirely without gold. God sets the matter before us as a kind of riddle, and a very clear one: the law in no way procures the Holy Spirit, and the power of the worship in types has not been honored with such a grace. For a spirit of slavery was upon Israel; but to us the gift was granted through Christ after his return to life from the dead. For he breathed on them, saying, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20:22). That is why Paul also said to those who had believed: ‘For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father”’ (Romans 8:15). And that the power of the worship under the law was not rich in a share of the Holy Spirit, but that this has been given rather to those justified by faith, the wise John will assure us when he says: ‘For the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified’ (John 7:39). For Christ had not yet returned to life; for it was then that human nature was, so to speak, gilded by the Spirit and by fellowship with him. This, then, as I think, is why he ordered the altar to be made without gold. But it seems that to pass over the meaning of the bronze from which it was made would not be without loss for those who love learning. For careful testing may bring forth something needful, as in the saying wisely spoken by someone: ‘In everyone who takes pains there is profit’ (Proverbs 14:23).

Palladius: What, then, could you say about this in turn?

Cyril: Listen, then. Holy Scripture says that the divine Aaron was appointed priest and leader by the decision from above. But Korah and Dathan, and the savage crowd around them, rushing most rashly against the decision from above, and…

Korah's firepans and the bronze altar; the altar of incense§15

15Cyril: …rising up against the divine laws, brought firepans uninvited, going to this of their own accord and seizing an honor not assigned to them; and out of madness and audacity they drew up their ranks with great heat against the priest who stood first and had been chosen out from all the others (Numbers 16:1–18). Through these events the madness that the Jews would later show against Christ was sketched in outline. For he himself is our High Priest, brought to this by the decision of the Father. Those men paid the penalty for such shameful attempts, and after them the Jews too will pay it, since they have become liable to the same charges. Then God said to holy Moses, and also to Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron: ‘Take up the bronze firepans from among those who were burned, and scatter this strange fire there, for the firepans of these sinners have become holy at the cost of their lives. And they made them into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, because they had been offered before the Lord and were made holy. And they became a sign to the sons of Israel.’ (Numbers 16:37–38) This is what God said at that time. And in Exodus it is written about Bezalel, whose father was Uri and whose tribe was Dan, and who led in every kind of skilled craft: ‘He made the bronze altar from the bronze firepans that belonged to the men who rebelled with the company of Korah’ (Exodus 38:22, Septuagint).

Palladius: What, then, does this mean?

Cyril: It would be of great benefit if one considered that the ark was made as a type of Christ, and so too were the other things, I mean the lampstand and the mercy seat and the table of gold, when the people brought their offerings and each one dedicated what he had in hand. For those who bear fruit for Christ and bring spiritual offerings are very acceptable, to the glory of God the Father; and those people of old were types and shadows of them. But the altar of the worship under the law is shown, mystically and by God’s design, to be a kind of memorial and proclamation in advance, lying in its very construction, of the provocation and defiance, and, if I may now put it so, the revolt, that arose against the great priest. Is the riddle clear to you? For Aaron stands as a type of Christ; and the Jews too contended against the glory of Christ, and for this reason the altar under the law is spoken against. For the worship as in shadows has ceased, and in Christ instead we give forth to the Father a spiritual fragrance. And this too he sketched for us beforehand, again as in shadows, when he said: ‘And you shall make for me an altar of incense of wood that does not rot; you shall make it a cubit long and a cubit wide. It shall be square, and two cubits high. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay it with pure gold: its grate, and its walls all around, and its horns.’ (Exodus 30:1–3) Then, after adding poles and rings and carrying bars for it, and other such things (Exodus 30:4–5), ‘you shall set it,’ he says, ‘before the…

The incense altar as a figure of Christ§16

16Cyril: …the veil that is over the ark of the testimony, from which I will make myself known to you. And Aaron shall burn on it compound incense, finely ground, morning by morning; whenever he shades the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. And when Aaron lights the lamps in the evening, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense, continually before the Lord throughout their generations. You shall offer no other incense on it, no burnt offering of sacrifice, and you shall pour no drink offering on it. And Aaron shall make atonement on it, on its horns, once a year, with the blood of the cleansing from sins, the blood of atonement. Once a year he shall cleanse it throughout their generations. It is most holy to the Lord.’ (Exodus 30:6–10)

Palladius: Are we to take this too, then, as a type of Christ?

Cyril: Certainly, Palladius. For in truth the thing would quite readily show its precious and deep mystery to those who choose to study such things closely and with exact care. The altar was made of wood that does not decay, and it was overlaid entirely with gold (Exodus 30:1, 3). For the body of Christ is incorruptible, and it is rich in the divine nature it holds within itself: ‘For the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14). Christ is our firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20), and the root of our race as it is created anew for incorruption through union with God, even if in his case this must be understood in a unique sense. The altar also has horns, like outstretched hands, and these prefigure the shape of the precious cross. If someone should say that there are four horns, that does the lover of learning no harm in understanding the matter rightly. For since the altar is square and equal on every side, the horns look the same from every side. And what does this mean? In every place Christ is known, and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2); and this is a splendid boast for those who believe in him. So the inspired Paul says: ‘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). A twisted crown is added to the work as an ornament (Exodus 30:3), for Emmanuel is truly ‘fair in beauty beyond the sons of men’ (Psalm 45:2). The things it needed were also provided, the carrying poles and the rest (Exodus 30:4–5). For the divine altar had to be carried in good order at the times of breaking camp. The inspired disciples did this too, carrying Christ about through their preaching, fittingly and in order (1 Corinthians 14:40), as servants of God (2 Corinthians 6:4) and stewards of the mysteries of Christ (1 Corinthians 4:1). ‘And you shall set the altar,’ he says, ‘opposite the veil that is over the ark of the testimonies, from which I will make myself known to you’ (Exodus 30:6).

Palladius: Then what need was there, I wonder, for the places assigned to them?

Cyril: How deep this subject is, and how very obscure! Still, I will speak as best I can, trusting in God, who makes wise even…

The ark below and the mercy seat above§17

17Cyril: …the blind (Psalm 146:8). He says that an ark was to be made of wood that does not decay and of pure gold, and the law was in it, that is, the divine word, or the testimonies (Exodus 25:10–11, 16). For the thing was a type of the Word who was born of God, who dwelt among us (John 1:14) and came in the likeness of flesh (Romans 8:3; Philippians 2:7), according to the Scriptures. Then he said that a veil stretched on four pillars must hang before the ark (Exodus 26:31–33). And the name given to the veil is the mercy seat. This too is Christ. ‘For he is the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 2:2), ‘and a mercy seat through faith’ (Romans 3:25); for so Paul named him. The cherubim, too, were depicted, as it were, around the mercy seat (Exodus 25:18–20). They signify very well that the highest powers serve under God, for the Word is God (John 1:1); that they are very near, and indeed that they stand in attendance as ministers. Then God said to Moses: ‘And I will make myself known to you from there, and I will speak to you from above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony’ (Exodus 25:22). Now the ark, as I said, was Christ, God the Word in an incorruptible body; but the ark was set on the ground, and the Only-begotten entered the low and humble state that is ours. For he took on the form of a slave and emptied himself (Philippians 2:7). Yet he himself is also the mercy seat, which lies on high and is escorted by the powers above. For the Son is made known to us not only by the ways in which he emptied himself, but also by all that makes him God and Lord of all. Even though he humbled himself on account of his humanity (Philippians 2:8), coming down, in the divine plan, into our condition, still ‘God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name’ (Philippians 2:9). And this too has its type: the mercy seat was set on high, with the cherubim depicted on its right and its left. For where the service fit for God alone is seen, there surely must also be the glory of the Godhead and a dignity supreme beyond words. ‘And from above the cherubim I will make myself known to you’ (Exodus 25:22), says the Master of all. He commands that the ineffable nature be sought not among created things, but wholly beyond whatever has been called into being. For the most fitting way to think of God’s nature, and the most fitting place for it, is what lies beyond and above everything that has come into being. So the place above the cherubim, even in visible form in the holy tent, all but shows us the divine nature. That is why he commanded that the golden altar, made as a type of Christ, be set opposite the one who gives his oracles from above the cherubim and is understood to be there (Exodus 30:6). This signifies, I think, that in Christ our affairs came, as it were, into God’s sight and before the eyes of the Father. For man had turned away and had offended God by the transgression and by much sin, and Christ set him again before the face of the Father, in himself, as the first. ‘For as a forerunner he has entered heaven on our behalf (Hebrews 6:20), now to appear in the presence of God for us’ (Hebrews 9:24), as the wise Paul writes to us. For he who always exists with his own…

Christ the compound and fine incense§18

18Cyril: …Father, is said ‘now to appear,’ because in himself, as the first, he sets human nature in the Father’s sight and removes that ancient turning away. ‘For he is our peace’ (Ephesians 2:14), as the Scriptures say.

Palladius: So it is settled that the golden altar is again an image of Christ.

Cyril: And besides this, he himself may fittingly be understood as the compound and fine incense. For he himself is the high priest: ‘For Aaron,’ he says, ‘shall burn on it compound, fine incense’ (Exodus 30:7). The incense is compound, for the Word, being God, became flesh (John 1:14). Emmanuel is in a way compounded for us, divine nature and humanity being brought together, beyond words, into a unity beyond understanding. And it is fine, because it has nothing of the coarseness of worship under the law. ‘For sacrifices and offering you did not desire; in burnt offering and sin offering you took no pleasure. But a body you prepared for me,’ he says; ‘then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God’ (Hebrews 10:5–7; Psalm 40:6–8). And what this will of the Father is, he himself has taught us in the Gospels, saying: ‘I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day’ (John 6:38–39). For he offered himself for us as a fragrant aroma, and for this reason he was also named high priest. So he himself is the high priest, and he himself is the compound and fine incense. Paul will bear witness, saying: ‘But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us reveals the fragrance of the knowledge of him in every place. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to some a fragrance from death to death, to others a fragrance of life to life’ (2 Corinthians 2:14–16). And he called to us as well: ‘Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma’ (Ephesians 5:1–2). He also fixed a clear time for burning incense, laying down that everything must be done in order and with propriety, and by means that would make plain to us the force of the insights that point inward. ‘In the morning,’ he says, ‘and in the evening, when the lamps are lit and shaded’ (Exodus 30:7–8). The evening and the morning show what is unceasing and continual. The need to burn incense by lamplight perhaps hints very well at this: when we are lit by the divine light, it is then, truly then, that we are richly filled with the fragrance of Christ, and so we come to perceive the good things within the tent, that is, the distribution of the divine gifts of grace that Christ holds out to the worthy. So if anyone has not yet come into the light through faith, he surely has no share in the spiritual fragrance either, since he does not yet know the mystery of Christ.

No other incense than Christ; the false fragrance of the Antichrist§19

19Cyril: ‘For if you do not believe, neither will you understand,’ (Isaiah 7:9) he says. For faith is the first approach that leads on to understanding, and it opens the mind, as it were, to receive the divine light. He calls the incense ‘perpetual’ (Exodus 30:8), for there is no time when Christ does not give off his fragrance in the holy tent, that is, in the Church. And he altogether forbids any drink offering to be poured out on it, or any burnt offering to be offered up on it (Exodus 30:9), meaning, clearly, on the altar, which is Christ. For in Christ the things of the law have been abolished, and the shadows are drawing to their end. That, I think, is what the drink offering and the burnt offering stand for. The prophet bears witness when he says, ‘Sacrifice and drink offering have been taken away from the house of the Lord’ (Joel 1:9). For now that worship and service in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24) have been revealed, the shadows are in a sense superfluous, and whatever is done in types is futile and wholly useless; for in Christ there is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). For those who would be justified in the law after the truth has been revealed have fallen away from grace (Galatians 5:4). ‘You shall not offer,’ he says, ‘other incense on the altar’ (Exodus 30:9). For in Christ we will accept no other whatever. We will call no one at all ‘Rabbi,’ for we have one Teacher and Master (Matthew 23:8–10), and to him alone we will hold fast, saying, ‘Your name is perfume poured out; therefore the maidens have loved you. They drew me; they ran after you toward the fragrance of your perfumes’ (Song of Songs 1:3–4). Or is this not what is meant by ‘You shall not offer other incense on it’ (Exodus 30:9)? For to those who are truly sensible, the fragrance of Christ alone in the Church would be enough; they long for no other scent, whereas the wretched Jews certainly do. For in their folly they heap insults on the compounded and finely ground incense, that is, on Christ. They have remained without any share in this sacred, or rather truly divine, fragrance; but they will receive another in his place, the son of lawlessness, ‘who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God,’ as it is written, ‘proclaiming himself to be God’ (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4). He also defiles the divine tent, since he is foreign smoke and, if I may put it so, a devilish stench. ‘For his coming,’ it says, ‘will be by the working of Satan’ (2 Thessalonians 2:9).

Palladius: I understand what you mean, for the argument is plain.

Cyril: Further, he commands Aaron to make atonement on the altar of incense once a year, smearing the tips of its horns with the blood of the purification of sins. ‘For it is,’ he says, ‘holy of holies’ (Exodus 30:10). The inspired Paul will make this clear to you when he says: ‘But when Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not through the blood of goats and bulls but through his own blood, he entered once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption’ (Hebrews 9:11–12).

Christ the altar, the incense, the priest and the cleansing blood§20

20Cyril: For, as he says again elsewhere, ‘Having died once, he dies no more; death will no longer have dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God’ (Romans 6:9–10). The revered Aaron, then, used to enter the Holy of Holies once a year with the blood of the purification of sins (Leviticus 16:34; Hebrews 9:7). See Christ again in these things, all but sprinkling his own cross with his own blood, the blood that is the salvation and life of all. For the horns are a figure of the cross, jutting out on this side and that, like arms stretched wide. Understand, then, that Christ died once, and that he is the Holy of Holies by nature, as God. For John speaks the truth when he says, ‘From his fullness we have all received’ (John 1:16). For all creation, visible and invisible, has its share in Christ. Angels and archangels, and the beings higher still, and even the Cherubim themselves, are holy in no other way than through Christ alone, in the Holy Spirit. So he himself is the altar; he is the incense and the High Priest; and he likewise is the blood of the purification of sins.

Palladius: Yes, you are right. But what the blood of the purification of sins actually is, I cannot clearly grasp.

Cyril: The law was sketching in advance the cleansing through blood and the holy victim, Christ I mean, through whom we have been saved, escaping the defilement that sin had worked deep into us. It speaks somewhat like this in Leviticus: ‘If the whole congregation of Israel errs unwittingly, and a matter escapes the eyes of the congregation, and they do any one of the things that the commandments of the Lord say must not be done, and so transgress, and the sin they have committed becomes known to them, then the congregation shall bring a young bull from the herd, without blemish, as a sin offering, and bring it to the doors of the tent of witness. And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord, and they shall slaughter the bull before the Lord. And the anointed priest shall bring some of the bull’s blood into the tent of witness. The priest shall dip his finger in the bull’s blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord, in front of the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of compounded incense, which is before the Lord in the tent of witness’ (Leviticus 4:13–18). We will speak about these things more fully in due course. But see Emmanuel again, slain for us as in the bull, freeing us from sin, taking us out of the reach of judgment and carrying us away from punishment, and passing through the greater and more perfect tent, not by bulls and goats but by his own blood (Hebrews 9:11–12), having tasted death once for all. For up on the wood, when his side was pierced with a spear, he poured out blood and water (John 19:34). And the projecting horns would be a figure of the cross, as we said before.

The bronze laver: cleansing by water, a figure of baptism§21

21Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: Yet the law, speaking in riddles, did not order cleansing by blood alone; it also commanded cleansing with holy water. For this is the most perfect path to cleansing, according to the mystery that is in Christ.

Palladius: And how has it shown this as well, or in what way?

Cyril: It is written: ‘And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Make a bronze laver, with its base of bronze, for washing. You shall set it between the tent of witness and the altar, and you shall pour water into it. Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it with water. Whenever they go into the tent of witness, they shall wash with water, and they will not die; or whenever they approach the altar to minister and to offer whole burnt offerings to the Lord, they shall wash their hands and their feet with water. Whenever they go into the tent of witness, they shall wash with water so that they may not die; and it shall be a perpetual ordinance for them, for him and for his generations after him’ (Exodus 30:17–21). It is plain enough, then, that the grace given through holy baptism was being sketched in advance here. For when we are baptized, what we gain is not the removal of dirt from the flesh (1 Peter 3:21); rather, we are set free from the defilements of mind and heart, and we wash away the stains of our offenses, by the grace and loving-kindness of the One who calls us to salvation. For we have been justified not by works of the law, as the Scriptures say, but by faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:16). Now see how Aaron, though he was holy according to the law, and those appointed to minister with him as well, first wash their hands and feet with water, and only then set their hands to the sacred tasks and run into the Holy of Holies free from fear. Here, I think, the law shows plainly and clearly, and the fact itself all but cries out, that even one who seems to be consecrated according to the law is unconsecrated before God unless he washes in the water, and that the power of worship under the law is not enough for cleansing. At any rate, they washed beforehand, even though they had been sanctified according to the law; and what is cleansed is surely not what is clean, but what is dirty and unclean. Christ himself said something of this kind: ‘One who has bathed has no need except to wash his feet, for he is clean’ (John 13:10). And the most wise Paul writes that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). So the law falls short of sanctification unless saving baptism is added for those who thirst for closeness to God. That is why the blessed John too, though richly crowned with the highest honors, and though he knew how to advance so far in virtue that he had already reached the highest rank, begged the Savior to baptize him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you’ (Matthew 3:14).

Palladius: True.

Cyril: The washing of hands and feet signifies purity and sincerity in what we do and in our course, so to speak, toward each of our duties.

Cleansed before approaching God; the laver made from mirrors§22

22Cyril: Once we have trained ourselves in this, we are allowed to enter the inner tent, to bring spiritual sacrifices to God (1 Peter 2:5), and, as if in place of incense, to consecrate in a sense the sweet fragrance of the Gospel way of life. And he gives the useful instruction that those who wish to go into the Holy of Holies, and those who have charge of the sacred works, must wash, so that they may not die (Exodus 30:20–21). For it is a perilous and truly harmful thing to draw near to God without being cleansed. That is why the wise Paul charges us, if we wish to share in the mystical blessing, to examine ourselves and only then to come forward (1 Corinthians 11:28). And he reveals that carelessness in these matters is full of danger, when he says, ‘That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a good number have fallen asleep. For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned along with the world’ (1 Corinthians 11:30–32).

Palladius: It is settled, then, that the sacred laver pointed in advance to the grace that comes to us through holy baptism.

Cyril: So it is; do not doubt it at all. And if you look closely at how it was made, you will, I think, be still more amazed. For this is written about Bezalel, who crafted the furnishings of the tent: ‘He made the bronze laver and its bronze base from the mirrors of the women who fasted, who fasted at the doors of the tent of witness on the day he pitched it’ (Exodus 38:8). ‘And he made the laver so that Moses and Aaron and his sons might wash their hands and their feet from it when they went into the tent of witness; whenever they approached the altar to minister, they washed from it, just as the Lord had commanded Moses’ (Exodus 40:31–32).

Palladius: And what is this matter of the mirrors? And who were the women who fasted?

Cyril: Many things that took place are not clearly narrated in divine Scripture; they are indicated somehow in passing, as is indeed the case with the matter before us. For Moses did not say where the women fasted, or who they were, when the holy tent had been set up. But that it happened, no one could doubt, for it is stated, even if not clearly. But let us leave this and go on to that other point, if you agree.

Palladius: Which point?

Cyril: What might the women who fasted be a figure of? And what does it mean that the bronze laver was shaped from the mirrors?

Palladius: Well, it is for you to tell me this too.

Cyril: Listen, then. The Israelites served idols while they endured slavery under the Egyptians, and they spent long years living by the Egyptians’ laws. Now it was a custom among the Egyptians, especially for the women, to go regularly to the temples dressed in linen garments, solemnly adorned with a mirror in the left hand and a sistrum in the right; these were women who,

The mirrors of the fasting women, and the tent itself§23

23Cyril: …chosen out above all the others and initiated into the rites, were barely counted worthy of such an honor, or rather of such an outrage, for that is the better and truer word. So some women of Israel’s blood found among their own belongings these remnants of the worship in Egypt, and they brought these very mirrors as an offering, and the mirrors were made over into the laver (Exodus 38:8). When the holy tent had been set up, they fasted, sitting somewhere by its doors and living purely in everything (Exodus 38:8). The event hints, I think, at this: once the truer tent had been revealed, that is, the Church, which the Lord pitched, and not man, as the inspired Paul writes (Hebrews 8:2), it is now, in a way, time for those once devoted to the glory of the herd of demons to be remade into holy vessels, fit to receive holy baptism, so that they too could shine with glories beyond the law. For this, I think, is what it means that the bronze laver was fashioned out of pagan mirrors, that is, out of the devil’s treasures. In it is the water that cleansed even Moses himself (Exodus 40:31) and served the priesthood under the law for washing (Exodus 30:19–21), a washing plainly to be understood spiritually. Or would you not say yourself, Palladius, that those who have gone astray and worshipped demons are vessels of the devil?

Palladius: How could I not?

Cyril: The women fasted beside the doors of the holy tent. This too would be a fine and wise riddle. It shows that those who have been justified in Christ do not hurry into the churches by means of blood, but are distinguished rather by spiritual sacrifices, and bring to God, as a kind of gift, their self-control, which is, so to speak, a putting to death of the flesh. For he says: ‘Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship’ (Romans 12:1). And again: ‘Glorify God in your body’ (1 Corinthians 6:20). So the women who fasted when the holy tent had been set up stand as an image of souls that are no longer schooled by the commandments of Moses, but have already shown forth a spiritual and gospel way of life. Such souls tread down earthly pleasures, not without sweat, and are being thoroughly reshaped toward a beauty without stain, because they will not bear to fall into the foul and profane offences of love of the flesh. Or is this not the manner of life for us who have been called in Christ to sanctification and spiritual leanness?

Palladius: It certainly is.

Cyril: Let this be enough for now about the holy vessels. Come, if you agree, let us also look closely at the tent itself, how it was placed and how it was built. The matter is deep and beyond our measure. Yet I think there is no harm at all in our being eager to gather from every side what makes for our profit, and in reaching, as far as we can, toward things that lie far above us.

The ten curtains: the churches joined in one§24

24Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: If someone chose to treat it in very fine detail, the discussion of each point would grow long and branch in many directions. But one should know that some features belong to the vessels and lie close to contemplation and mystical meanings, while others were devised for the adornment and use of the tent. So I will cut the length of the discussion as far as I can, speak briefly, and keep the account short. He said, then: ‘You shall make the tent with ten curtains of twisted linen, blue, purple and twisted scarlet. You shall make them with Cherubim, the work of a weaver. The length of one curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width of one curtain four cubits; all the curtains shall have the same measure. Five curtains shall be joined to one another, one to the other, and five curtains shall be joined, one to the other’ (Exodus 26:1–3). So there are ten curtains, and they are closely fastened to one another. For there are many dwelling places with the Father (John 14:2), and all who dwell in them have one holy aim, and one knowledge of God. For God has called us in peace, as it is written (1 Corinthians 7:15). If you like, you may take the ten curtains and consider them to be the full number of the churches throughout the world, not scattered into dissension or discordant opinion, but united in spirit and, as it were, bound tightly into one in the unity that is in Christ through faith. For everywhere and in all of them there is ‘one Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (Ephesians 4:5). Each of the curtains is four cubits wide and twenty-eight long (Exodus 26:2). The riddle is intricate and subtle, but I think it shows, darkly and dimly, that even the training given through the law is in some way accepted in the churches. It is very narrow, because the letter is obscure; yet as time stretches on in length, it will have as its end the mystery of Christ, that is, the eighth, the resurrection that took place on the eighth day. For Christ is the end of the law (Romans 10:4) and of the prophets, and to him the divine David cried aloud: ‘Your commandment is exceedingly broad’ (Psalm 119:96). The inspired Paul also writes to those who had valued worship under the law above faith in Christ: ‘Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians; our heart has been enlarged. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children), be enlarged yourselves as well. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers’ (2 Corinthians 6:11–14). Do you see that wanting to attach oneself to the Jews who disobeyed, who still speak the things of the law now that faith has come, makes people restricted?

Palladius: I understand.

Cyril: The cloth of the curtains is of twisted linen, blue, purple and twisted scarlet (Exodus 26:1). For the adornment of the Church is richly varied. This is what the inspired David also sings, speaking somewhere of her in this way (Psalm 45:9): ‘The queen stood at your right hand, clothed in a robe woven with gold,

The colors and the pillars as figures of Christ§25

25Cyril: …adorned in many colors’ (Psalm 45:9). Her adornment and beauty, in many forms, is Christ. He is one by nature, but he is understood through many different figures, for instance, as twisted linen. For the Word from God the Father, being fine and bodiless by nature, was in some way twisted through his interweaving, so to speak, with flesh. So he is twisted linen. He is also like blue, because he is not from the earth, but from above and from heaven; for the lofty, upper and ethereal body, which reaches even to the firmament itself, is in a way likened to blue. So he is like blue because he is from heaven, and purple because he is not a slave, as a creature is, but King from God and Lord of all. He is twisted scarlet: for, understood in his interweaving with flesh, as I said, and being truly the Word of God, he gave his own blood for us. Scarlet is a sign of blood. The figures of Cherubim on the coverings (Exodus 26:1) very well suggest, perhaps, that the things below have been joined to the things above, and that the Church on earth is now united to the powers in heaven. One should know that the most wise Solomon also carved Cherubim on the walls of the temple (1 Kings 6:29), and the design of the house shown through the voice of Ezekiel was made in this same way (Ezekiel 41:18–20). Over the curtains are coverings, fastened together with loops and rings (Exodus 26:7–11), and over these further coverings, blue skins and rams’ skins dyed red (Exodus 26:14). These hint at Christ, who shelters the Church: through the blue, again, as being from heaven and from above, and through the red color, as having come in flesh. For the color of flesh is something like that.

Palladius: I say this interpretation is not beyond reason.

Cyril: The curtains have pillars, a cubit and a half wide and ten cubits long, with their capitals and shafts covered all over with gold, and set on double bases of silver (Exodus 26:15–19; Exodus 26:29). Here again Christ is understood in each pillar: He is the support of the Church, the foundation of the truth, as Paul says (1 Timothy 3:15). He himself sets up and holds together all things. For through the cubit and a half it is indirectly suggested that he is perfect in the nature of Godhead, but lesser as one within the measures of humanity. It is not foolish to say that Christ is all-perfect, as in a whole cubit, since he is God by nature; but, as in half a cubit, lowered because of his humanity. For nothing among created things is perfect. Though he was rich, the Only-begotten became poor among us (2 Corinthians 8:9), and lowered himself into self-emptying (Philippians 2:7).

Palladius: True.

Cyril: So the humanity will not stand level with the surpassing heights of the Godhead; far from it. That is why he also said, as one who had become as we are and is understood as such:

Gold and silver in the pillars; why the coverings are eleven§26

26Cyril: …‘My Father is greater than I’ (John 14:28), although in the nature of Godhead he is equal in measure and falls short in nothing of the surpassing greatness of the One who begot him. The length of the post is ten cubits (Exodus 26:16). For Christ is all-perfect, as in the heights of the Godhead, and in the divine Scripture the number that reaches ten is taken as a sign of perfection. The post has a golden capital and a golden shaft as well (Exodus 26:29). Indeed, the temple born of the Virgin is made rich by the indwelling of the highest nature. Gold is a symbol of Godhead, since it ranks above all others, at least as far as such material goes. The base is of silver, and double (Exodus 26:19). Christ is bright and plain to see on earth, according to the saying: ‘God is the Lord, and he has appeared to us’ (Psalm 118:27). And the knowledge of him is, as it were, twofold, for in him are recognized both God and man. This, I think, is the meaning of the base being double, so to speak, and of silver.

Palladius: Your comparison is apt.

Cyril: But look at this, my good friend.

Palladius: What is it?

Cyril: He had commanded that the whole tent be spread out in ten curtains, and then he adds in between: ‘And you shall make coverings of hair as a shelter over the tent; you shall make eleven coverings. The length of one covering shall be thirty cubits, and the width of one covering four cubits; the eleven coverings shall have the same length. And you shall join five coverings together, and six coverings together, and you shall fold double the sixth covering at the front of the tent. And you shall make fifty loops on the edge of the one covering, the one in the middle at the joining, and you shall make fifty loops on the edge of the second covering that joins it’ (Exodus 26:7–10). What does this mean, then, Palladius? He sets up ten curtains. How, then, are the coverings not equal to them in number, but one is left over, that is, the eleventh? For he says: ‘You shall join five coverings together, and six coverings together’ (Exodus 26:9).

Palladius: I cannot say.

Cyril: But the arrangement will make clear what we are looking for.

Palladius: What do you mean?

Cyril: He says that five curtains were to be fastened to one another, and another five, of the same form, set opposite in the same way. So when the two sets had been raised facing each other, from north and south, say, or from east and west, an eleventh side was then formed, running through the middle, with the ten on either side of it, divided into two sets. Over it, perhaps, the eleventh covering was stretched, holding both sides together with rings and loops. Its pillars were like those of the others, except fewer in number. For the ten curtains, as I said before, stretched to a length of twenty-eight cubits, while the eleventh, which lay in the very middle of the others, across the width of the five (and these are four cubits each),

The eleventh covering and the court that widens§27

27Cyril: …is stretched to a measure of about twenty cubits. That is why he says, ‘And you shall fold over the sixth covering at the front of the tent’ (Exodus 26:9), so that the part stretched out too far would not spoil the beauty of the court. In this one, then, set between the others as an eleventh, the holy and divine vessels were placed, which in themselves portray Emmanuel in many different ways. And perhaps the number also points to this: that in the last times of the age, at the eleventh hour, as it were (Matthew 20:6), Christ appears, and so does the tent that holds Christ, that is, the Church.

Palladius: There seems to be nothing unlikely in thinking that your account of this point is sound as well.

Cyril: After the words and types concerning the tent, he says: ‘And you shall make a court for the tent. On the side toward the southwest, hangings for the court of fine twisted linen, a hundred cubits long for the one side; and their pillars twenty, and their bases twenty, of bronze; and their rings and their bands of silver. So also on the side toward the east, hangings a hundred cubits long; and their pillars twenty, and their bases twenty, of bronze; and the rings and the bands of the pillars, and their bases, overlaid with silver. And the width of the court on the side toward the sea, hangings of fifty cubits; their pillars ten, and their bases ten’ (Exodus 27:9–12). Notice, then, that the first curtains were narrow, and their length ran to somewhere between twenty and thirty cubits, for they were four cubits wide and twenty-eight long. But those that came after them were broad and long indeed: a hundred cubits matched by a hundred, and fifty by fifty, one running toward the east, the other toward the west and the southwest.

Palladius: Then what does the riddle mean?

Cyril: Is it not plainly what was promised long ago through the voice of Isaiah to the Church revealed in the last times: ‘Enlarge the place of your tent and the coverings of your curtains. Fix them; do not hold back; spread out still further to the right and to the left’ (Isaiah 54:2–3)? For the Church of Christ, confined at the beginning, afterward widens to east and west, to north and south, and reaches every place.

Palladius: True.

Cyril: Notice too that all the other pillars, those of the ten curtains and of the one in the middle, he said must be overlaid with gold (Exodus 26:29) and set on double bases made of silver (Exodus 26:19). What this means has already been explained, I think. But the pillars of the long and broad curtains he adorns in a different way. He says they must be made richly splendid with silver from head to foot, and set in turn on bases of bronze overlaid with silver (Exodus 27:10–11, 17). This too would be a figure…

Silver pillars and the resonant gospel; oil for the lamp§28

28Cyril: …of Christ. The silver shows that he shone out like light, flashing as God with rays the mind perceives. And the bronze overlaid with silver hints to us, indirectly, that the word he has spread over the earth, that is, the preaching of the gospel, is bright and resonant. For bronze rings clear, and silver is very bright and gleaming. This is true of the gospel preaching: one can see that the Savior’s word has the clearness and purity of the highest piety, and that it resounds, as it were, through the whole inhabited world. And if anyone prefers to see the holy apostles and evangelists figured in such pillars, his reasoning will be sound. For they are truly silvered, as it were, because they have come to share in Christ, who gives light. That is why it says, ‘And the brightness of the Lord our God shall be upon us’ (Psalm 90:17). They are also called ‘the light of the world’ (Matthew 5:14), and they all but stand on bronze overlaid with silver. For their support is, as it were, the bright and most resonant word they use. ‘For the Lord,’ it says, ‘will give a word to those who preach the good news with great power’ (Psalm 68:11). And it is written, ‘Beautiful too are the feet of those who bring good news of good things’ (Romans 10:15).

Palladius: The explanation is deep, but it comes close to the truth.

Cyril: Now that the commands about the court are complete, he turns to the preparation of oil, perfume and incense, saying: ‘And you, command the sons of Israel, and let them bring you pure oil from olives, free of dregs, beaten, to burn for light, so that a lamp may burn continually in the tent of witness, outside the veil that is over the covenant. And Aaron and his sons shall burn it from evening until morning before the Lord, a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations, from the sons of Israel’ (Exodus 27:20–21).

Palladius: And what does this mean?

Cyril: What it shows is most necessary, and I call the riddle a wise one. With the seven lamps (Exodus 25:37), which always burn and shine in the holy tent, we do well to compare the enlightenment that comes through Christ, which never fails in its power to shine into the mind of believers and to kindle it, or in other words to fill it. For the number seven in a way suggests completeness everywhere, as when it says, for instance, ‘The barren woman has borne seven’ (1 Samuel 2:5), that is, very many, as many as were needed to be enough. Aaron lights the lamps, and so do the rest, the priests who came after him. For the enlightenment from Christ is kept, as it were, unquenched in the churches through the uprightness of those to whom the priesthood has fallen, who make the minds of believers bright by their sound teaching of the mysteries. This, I think, is what is meant by lighting the lamps from evening until morning. And by darkness I take him to mean the deception that comes from the devil, a kind of night of the mind that comes over people, namely the…

Pure olive oil and true teaching; the lamps outside the veil§29

29Cyril: …unholy heretics’ lightless and murky little fables. So the Savior’s light would be seen to be continual and unceasing in the churches, as long as the teachers in them rightly interpret the divine proclamations of the gospel. And the oil is pure; for the right and true teaching about the divine doctrines, unmixed with anything worse, is entirely free, as it were, of all dregs and dirt. It always stirs up the Savior’s light, not because it adds any brightness of its own to Christ (for it is utterly foolish to think that he needs a human being), but because Christ, being the true light (John 1:9) and the radiance of the Father (Hebrews 1:3), appears to the minds of believers as what he truly is through the sound words of the teachers.

Palladius: And why does he say the oil is to be from olives? Such exact wording is perhaps pregnant with some insight we need.

Cyril: You think very well, and I will tell you what comes to my mind. Those skilled in these matters, Palladius, are accustomed to make the oil we use not only from olives but also from various other seeds, spurious and earthier. The truly genuine oil will come from the finest olives; but the oil that comes, so to speak, from forcing and contrivance is somehow counterfeit and, as it were, not true, and by this I mean the oil from the earthier seeds. So we do well to compare the oil from olives with the word that is genuine and true, and that is supplied to the worthy through the wisdom from above (James 3:17). But the word devised from human notions and demonic inspiration is like the oil that comes from some people’s craft and peddling, and whose use is spurious. Such a word is useless and to be thrown away, and contributes nothing at all to the light of the knowledge of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). That is why it is not received in the churches. It does not have the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, for ‘no one says “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 12:3); nor does it have the genuineness and unclouded clearness of the truth, which is needed if it is to do real good. Notice, too, that the law says the oil from olives must be brought by the sons of Israel (Exodus 27:20–21). For, as I said before, a true word will be our fruit and our spiritual offering to God, a word that does not let the light from Christ grow weak in those being initiated into the mysteries. The lamps are placed outside the veil, and they are lit there too (Exodus 27:21). For Christ, being light by nature, needs no light; but into us, who are outside the Godhead inasmuch as we are created, he puts his own light. For the ark lay within the veil (Exodus 26:33), as a figure and image of Christ.

Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: Then he says (Exodus 30:22–23): ‘And the Lord spoke to Moses: And you, take spices: flower of choice myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half of this, two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant…

The holy anointing oil: only God sanctifies§30

30Cyril: …calamus, two hundred and fifty; and of iris, five hundred shekels by the shekel of the sanctuary; and there shall be oil from olives. And you shall make of it a holy anointing oil, a perfumed ointment made by the perfumer’s art. It shall be a holy anointing oil. And with it you shall anoint the tent of witness, and the ark of the tent of witness and all its vessels, and the lampstand and all its vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offerings and all its vessels, and the table and all its vessels, and the laver and its base. And you shall sanctify them, and they shall be most holy. Whoever touches them shall be made holy. And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them to serve me as priests. And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying: This shall be a holy anointing oil for you throughout your generations. Human flesh shall not be anointed with it, and you shall not make any like it for yourselves according to this composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever makes any like it, and whoever gives any of it to a foreigner, shall be utterly destroyed from his people’ (Exodus 30:23–33). Now about the quality and the blending, and again about the unequal weights of the kinds named, I would have nothing to say; for truth is dear to those who are accustomed to think soundly. But oil blended with perfumes would signify, I think, the sanctification in Christ through the Spirit that is given to those who have received mercy, as in the words, ‘You anointed my head with oil’ (Psalm 23:5). The tent is anointed, and everything in it, for even a place may share in holiness through the one who dwells in it. The vessels too are sanctified, in the way that suits them, because they serve in the worship of God, and whoever touches them will be made holy (Exodus 30:29). So holy and sacred things may not be touched by those who are still profane; for, as it is written, ‘What fellowship has light with darkness?’ (2 Corinthians 6:14). And he absolutely forbids them to make a similar oil for themselves. For to sanctify belongs to God alone, and it will remain reserved to him as truly his own. How could a nature that has come into being and been made ever be able to sanctify others? For it is rich in holiness only with difficulty, through sharing in what comes from above. One might fittingly cry out to it in the words of the saints: ‘What do you have that you did not receive?’ (1 Corinthians 4:7). For John also says of the Only-begotten, ‘From his fullness we have all received’ (John 1:16), and, ‘He does not give the Spirit by measure’ (John 3:34); rather, being himself the fountain of holiness, he imparts the Spirit to the worthy and sanctifies the rational creation. ‘But human flesh,’ he says, ‘shall not be anointed with it’ (Exodus 30:32), although he had commanded that Aaron and those who serve as priests with him be anointed with it (Exodus 30:30). So the sacred race is already above the human, since it shares in Christ, who is above creation. That is why, raising us to a dignity beyond nature, and cutting us off, as it were, from earthly things, he assigns us to the things above. For he says,

Holy things kept from unbelievers; the incense no one may copy§31

31Cyril: …‘call no one on earth your father; for you have one Father, who is in heaven, and you are all brothers’ (Matthew 23:9, 8). And the penalty for those who give any of the oil to a foreigner is destruction (Exodus 30:33). For he says, ‘Do not give what is holy to the dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine’ (Matthew 7:6). For to bring the hidden things, the things fit only for the holy, carelessly before those who are still unbelievers is full of danger. For what is sanctified is not what is still profane and grievously sick with uncleanness, but what has already been cleansed through holy baptism.

Palladius: True.

Cyril: In the same way and on the same principle he laid down how the incense was to be prepared, saying: ‘And you, take for yourself sweet spices, stacte and onycha, fragrant galbanum and clear frankincense, an equal weight of each, and they shall make of it a perfumed incense, the work of a perfumer, blended, pure, a holy work. And you shall beat some of it very fine and put it before the testimony in the tent of witness, where I will make myself known to you. The incense shall be most holy to you. You shall not make any for yourselves according to this composition; it shall be holy to you for the Lord. Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, shall perish from his people’ (Exodus 30:34–38). Here again the passage hints to us that the things specially reserved belong to the nature that is beyond all natures. None of the things that have been made has a share in them by essence, and creation has nothing whatever in common with its Maker and Master where rank and the preeminence of honors are concerned. We will recall, too, that we called both the golden altar and the compounded fine incense itself Christ, and said that Emmanuel himself is signified to us by both. Since, then, the incense points to Christ (for its fragrance is beyond compare), we will not make for ourselves incense like it. For we will accept no other at all besides him, as the wretched Jews indeed will: they will accept the son of lawlessness (John 5:43; 2 Thessalonians 2:3). For such people will be caught compounding for themselves an incense after the pattern of that fragrant and truly unique incense of God the Father, who has made manifest to us in the Son the fragrance of the knowledge of him (2 Corinthians 2:14). Through the Son we too give off a sweet fragrance (2 Corinthians 2:15), not because we have compounded the fine incense for ourselves, but because we share in the incense, have been anointed with the grace of the Spirit, and strive to win approval by the life we live in Christ.

Palladius: So it seems that through everything made in the holy tent the mystery of the Savior is given shape for us.

Cyril: And besides this you would be amazed to learn that even the craftsmen of the holy tent portray Christ, at least in their own persons.

Palladius: In what way do you mean? I cannot work it out.

Cyril: For it is written again: ‘And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe…’ (Exodus 31:1–2)

Bezalel of Judah stands for Christ, Eliab of Dan for the apostles§32

32Cyril: …of Judah, and I have filled him with the divine Spirit of wisdom, understanding and knowledge, to plan every kind of work in gold, silver and bronze, in blue and purple, in spun scarlet and twisted fine linen, and in stonework, and to work at carpentry in wood in every kind of work. And I myself have appointed both him and Eliab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, and to all who have understanding hearts I have given understanding, and they shall make everything that I have commanded’ (Exodus 31:3–6). Notice, then, how Bezalel directs the craftwork, while Eliab carries it out.

Palladius: And what of that?

Cyril: You will learn. Judah and Dan were both sons of Jacob, but one was born of Leah, a free woman, and the other of Bilhah, a maidservant (Genesis 29:35; 30:5–6). Bezalel, then, is a clear type of Christ, who appeared to us from the tribe of Judah according to the flesh (Hebrews 7:14), and from the nature that is truly free, that is, plainly, the divine and supreme nature. And Eliab would very well represent the apostles and evangelists who worked together with Christ, born as it were of Jerusalem the slave woman (Galatians 4:25). For they became God’s fellow workers (1 Corinthians 3:9), working with him as he, so to speak, labored and crafted all that served to establish the holy churches. And all who had understanding hearts contributed to the works of the tent whatever their own zeal and goodwill supplied, and so served as images of the teachers of every age, for whom it is a matter of zeal and care to do the work of God and whatever may serve the good of the Church of Christ.