On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth, Book 9

Book 9 opens: holy tent type of Church in Christ; twin loves crown law§1

1ON ADORATION AND WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH — BOOK NINE. Concerning the holy tent, that it was a type of the Church in Christ. So then the boasts of love unto God and unto brothers are conspicuous, and the law is finished through both

Enter heavenly Jerusalem; desert tent types Gentile Church; chosen priesthood§2

2Cyril: …the law. And everyone who has arrived unto this of good fame is bright and worthy of marvel, and will be ranked among the most genuine, Christ crying and saying, ‘Well, good and faithful slave, you were faithful over few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord.’ For he will enter also very readily into the heavenly Jerusalem, and will dwell in the upper abodes, reveling in the goods beyond mind and word. Something such also the prophet Isaiah says: ‘Your eyes will see, Jerusalem, rich cities, tents which will not be shaken, nor will the pegs of the tent be moved, nor will its ropes be torn apart.’ For the form of this world is passing, according to the Scriptures. But most firm and altogether unshaken is the hope of the things that will be. But when all these are being loosed, as also a disciple of the Savior affirmed, we must be found rivers, holy and blameless before him, both honoring with spiritual sacrifices as Savior and Redeemer, and practicing a holy and chosen way of life agreeing with the Gospel laws; just as indeed the law was sketching for the more ancient ones the life thus solemn and worthy of taking; commanding to slaughter sheep, and to make the approaches through bloods, and to consecrate tenths and firstfruits to God, and still in addition thank-offerings. Yet he was legislating that these things must not be practiced outside the holy tent. And he was dedicating to God the chosen race from Levi, setting the matter as a type for us and unto us ourselves. For we also have been called in the divine Scriptures ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people unto acquisition.’ And we also drive into the more true tent, which the Lord pitched and not a human—that is, the Church—not propitiating the Creator of the wholes through calves and goats, but as excelling in upright and blameless faith, and intellectually fragrant with spiritual fruit-bearings. ‘For with such sacrifices God is well pleased,’ and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth, according to the Savior’s voice.

Palladius: You have spoken uprightly. And that it was fitting for us to be well-reputed with sacrifices beyond law, I myself would say; for I will agree. Yet say that: was not the old tent pitched in the desert set for us unto a type of the Church from the nations, somehow still showing dimly the beauty of the more true?

Cyril: Very much so. And I also said just now that the needing for those from Levi’s blood to have been taken most excellently toward holy liturgies, and for those called in faith toward a holy and blameless life—I mean the one in Christ—would again be a type.

Sinai fire; no silver gods; earth altar = Emmanuel; stone altar uncut§3

3Palladius: Do you wish then that we say a few things both concerning the holy tent and concerning the priesthood according to law, the word examining for us the things solemnly oracled upon both?

Cyril: The matter is not roughless; for long labor will be needed, I think, and sweat for us, O Palladius, both toward being able to understand these and indeed also to say them. Yet, if it seems good, let us go through trusting God; for you thoroughly learned him saying clearly, ‘Who gave a mouth to a human? And who made hard-of-hearing and deaf, seeing and blind? Did not I the Lord God? And now go, and I will open your mouth.’

Palladius: Come then already, making also toward this the provider of wisdom a fellow-helper.

Cyril: So then I am yours, and indeed I will also speak, having brought together very well the things from the holy Writings. For God the creator of all leaped down in a form of fire upon mount Sinai, and was setting laws according to which each of the things to be practiced was to be carried toward the straight and what holds unadulterated. Then carrying them away from the more ancient wandering, and setting them as far as possible from the false-worship in Egypt, he was speaking toward Moses who was then mediating. ‘These things you will say,’ he says, ‘to the house of Jacob, and you will announce to the sons of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken toward you from the heaven; you will not make for yourselves silver gods, and gold gods you will not make for yourselves.’ For he was not releasing them to worship the falsely named gods. And he commands that they must lie beside only the one come from above and from heaven, and the one who has essentially taken up the power over all, not having the conspicuous in fair colors of materials, but in showing heaven as being his own. And there was somehow a necessity that those ordered to depart from the ancient unholiness and profane worship transfer at once unto another habit, and somehow come under as a yoke the worship under God who is by nature. For a mind let loose, unrestrained, and very ready unto carrying-off, toward every one of the most outlandish fears and cares hung over, passes through altogether without toil toward the straight, and declines toward what benefits. And since we approach the Father through Son: ‘For no one comes toward the Father,’ he says, ‘except through me.’ Thereafter necessarily he was legislating the approach through Son and the types of the fruit-bearing in him, saying: ‘An altar from earth you will make for me, and you will sacrifice upon it the whole-burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, your sheep and your oxen, in every place where I should name my name there; and I will come toward you, and I will bless you. And if you should make an altar for me from stones, you will not build them cut; for you have cast your knife upon it, and it has been defiled.’ For he names an earthly altar Emmanuel; ‘For the Word became flesh.’ And earth from earth is the nature of flesh

Without me nothing; cornerstone uncut; Moses and Jesus on Sinai; firstfruits§4

4Cyril: …nature. In Christ then is every fruit-bearing and every leading-toward; for he himself says, ‘Without me you are not able to do anything.’ For just as we have had the leading-toward through him, so also every sacrifice is acceptable through him, of those who have received the faith. And to those who set the altar from earth he promises both arrival and blessing. ‘For I will come,’ he says, ‘toward you, and I will bless you.’ For to us who through all-wise Moses received the types of the truth, the truth itself also shone according to times—that is, Christ—through whom and in whom we have been enriched with the blessing from above and from the Father, having been sealed unto sonship in holy Spirit, and this again is finished through in Christ. ‘And if you should make an altar for me from stones,’ he says, ‘you will not build them cut.’ He does not allow the stones consecrated to God to be wounded with iron. For Christ was a chosen stone, cornerstone, honored, unwounded by sins, and not knowing how to suffer the blows from the devil, not divided for God and world, and if he became flesh, yet being wholly holy, not being divided into God privately and into human specifically after the ineffable union, or the joining toward flesh, but existing one—God and human the same. For he has been divided in no way, as also the wise Paul writes.

Palladius: So then the altar from earth, and indeed also the unwounded stones, signify Christ, according to the modes already said?

Cyril: Thus I say; for the law is spiritual, according to the Scriptures. And since he was typing riddlingly the mystery of Christ and the approach through him, then already, then God was also considering to show beforehand the form of the Church. So then he was calling Moses and with him Joshua upon the mount Sinai. And understand from here that even to the holy prophets the Father is approachable through Son; for Moses and Joshua spring up with one another. For it has been written, ‘And the Lord spoke toward Moses saying: Say to the sons of Israel, and take for me firstfruits from all to whom it should seem good in the heart; you will take my firstfruits, and this is the firstfruit which you will take from them—gold and silver, bronze and hyacinth, purple and double scarlet, and twisted linen, and goat hairs, and skins of rams dyed red, and hyacinth skins, and unrotting woods, and sardius stones, and stones for the carving, for the shoulder-piece and for the foot-length robe, and you will make me a holy place, and I will appear among you. And you will make for me according to all things whatever I should show you in the mountain—the pattern of the tent, and the pattern of all its vessels; thus you will make.’ You see how unto needing to bear fruit he urges peoples toward the profitable and most needful for constitution of Church, bringing forward cheerfully the things according to strength and resolve? For he was not seeking only gold

Small gifts accepted; sanctuary = Church; ark of acacia/gold begins§5

5Cyril: …or the things perhaps hard to get for many, but also goat hairs and rams’ skins, showing that even the small and cheap, if the one who has chosen to bear fruit should have nothing brighter, is not cast away by God; or somehow even in equality with the most honored, or even in greater praise, just as indeed Christ was not leaving unmarvelled the widow in Jerusalem bringing toward the treasury something small and altogether easy to get, yet perhaps great for those in extreme poverty, whom it is likely even the selling of the very cheapest things wears down. And the firstfruits having been taken, ‘You will make me a holy place,’ he says, ‘and I will appear among you.’ For Christ appears in Church, and shines upon those in it, according at least to the in Psalms, ‘God is Lord, and he has appeared to us.’ And observe how, though having come down upon the mountain in a form of fire, and having been seen by the whole people—for it has been written thus—as not yet having appeared, he says the, I will appear among you, when the holy place has been raised. For he is seen all but crying out clearly that those visions were shadows of the true God-sight. And the true showing-forth is Christ, in whom we have also beheld the Father himself. And indeed he was refuting Jews thinking that they had truly beheld on mount Sinai the God of the wholes, disposing themselves most mindlessly, saying: ‘Neither have you heard his voice, nor have you seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because whom that one sent, this one you do not believe.’ So then I will appear, he says, among you when the holy place has been raised. And this was a type of Church, having become according to likeness of the upper. For indeed he says, ‘You will make for me according to all things whatever I show you in the mountain; thus you will make.’ For a type was shown to the blessed Moses, as I said, of the holy Churches, and he himself in many forms as in a shadow being molded—the one who became human because of us. Yet upon each of the patterns the word would become much and long, and full of thin-speech. And since some things are private and fitting for the construction of the things that have become, and others have declined toward the need of the contemplations, come, let us say the things profitable unto this, having let the others go.

Palladius: I do not understand what you say.

Cyril: Look then already at what I say; for you will understand, I think, even very without toil; he has commanded an ark to become from unrotting woods, packed densely inside and outside with pure gold, and travailing the so-called testimonies—that is, the law as in tablets—and not only as far as these the things upon it; for he commands again carriers to become from unrotting woods, gilded in equality, and gold rings and twisted things in a circle. And he defined length and breadth and height for the craft. But if someone should wish to busy himself very well with such things mystically, he will perhaps find what the ark ever is, and the things in it

Not every ornament forced; ark = Christ’s virgin temple; gold = divinity§6

6Cyril: …testimonies, and what need there has become of unrotting woods. And what the gold for the ark would wish to show, and the things composed for now in the order of need and adornment—I mean moldings, twisted things, rings and carriers—if he should busy himself perhaps, he will find the matter hard. And not having a mystical word to fit them, he will perhaps speak superfluously, and will heap a crowd of random words upon the hearings of those more loving of learning. And the word is true for us not upon the ark alone perhaps—I would add that also upon the others which he has commanded to become.

Palladius: You seem to me to think and say things not unpersuasive. Therefore having let go what belongs, as you say, unto proportion and need, or unto adornment of the finished things, hurry to run through upon what is necessary for the contemplations—that is, in what manner Christ himself is signified for us through the things shown, or constructed; clarify without neglect.

Cyril: So then I will try, as far as it is possible to say and understand. And to one missing the true, and striking less than must upon the superiority of the thoughts, be forgiving. For seeing in a mirror and in a riddle would sometimes also throw off even the exact and sensible mind.

Palladius: You speak well.

Cyril: The ark for us, O Palladius, would be a type and image of Christ. For looking into the manner of the becoming-human of the Only-begotten, we will see as in an ark—the temple from the Virgin—the Word from God the Father lodged. ‘For in him all the fullness of the divinity dwelt bodily,’ according to the Scriptures. And the testimonies in the ark were Word of God. And its woods were unrotting, and it was beautified with the pure and most tested gold, inside and outside. For the body of Christ is incorruptible, being held through unto incorruption as with some gold—by the power and brightness of the indwelling Word, and by the life-making nature and energy of the holy Spirit. For because of this indeed Christ is also said to make alive. For the Word from God the Father, being life by nature, himself was making alive again his own temple by the power of his own spirit, setting it above corruption. ‘For his flesh did not know corruption,’ according to the voice of the holy Paul. And he was also addressing somewhere to Jews concerning his own body: ‘Loose this temple, and in three days I will raise it’; and indeed also Peter says that he has been put to death in flesh, yet has been made alive in spirit. So then a symbol of the over-bright divinity is the gold, as having been smeared upon the holy body, and secretly sending in its own brightness and incorruption, and as only the divine and beyond-mind nature itself and according to itself knows. For if ‘The just according to

Just will shine; mercy-seat = Christ propitiation; cherubim face it§7

7Cyril: …times will shine out as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,’ what then will the glory of Christ himself be? And how will the shining-out not be beyond every mind and word? And having gold carriers of the ark, gold also the rings, and all the things in it; for those around him are sharers of the glory, and as fixed and useful in love and sanctification. Such also were the blessed disciples, receiving the God-fitting power from him, and having been enriched participatively with the brightness of the upper superiority, and for this reason fulfilling the God-signs.

Palladius: You have spoken uprightly.

Cyril: ‘And toward the ark you will make,’ he says, ‘a mercy-seat, a cover of pure gold, of two cubits and a half the length, and a cubit and a half the breadth. And you will make two gold cherubim turned; and you will set them from both sides of the mercy-seat. Cherubim will be made—one from this side, and cherubim one from the second side of the mercy-seat. And you will make the two cherubim upon the two sides. The cherubim will be stretching the wings from above, overshadowing with their wings upon the mercy-seat, and their faces toward one another; toward the mercy-seat will be the faces of the cherubim. And you will set the mercy-seat upon the head from above, and into the ark you will cast the testimonies which I should give you. And I will be known to you from there, and I will speak to you from above the mercy-seat between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony, according to all things whatever I should command you toward the sons of Israel.’

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

Cyril: As far as concerns letter and shadow, it had been made from pure gold, and was somehow hung lying upon the ark; for it has been called a cover because of this. And those beautified with the boasts of the priesthood, having been turned toward it and looking, seemed to have been turned toward God and to look. And we say that the mercy-seat, if it should be understood spiritually, is the one who became human because of us, ‘whom God set forward as a mercy-seat through faith in his blood, unto a showing of his righteousness.’ For Paul says thus. And John the most wise disciple also writes to us: ‘Little children, I write these things to you that you may not sin, and if someone should also sin, we have a comforter toward the Father, Jesus Christ just, and he himself is propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the whole world.’ For through him is propitiation, and every prayer, and asking of goods. ‘For until now,’ he says, ‘you have asked nothing upon my name; ask, and it will be given you.’ So then he himself is the mercy-seat. For through him the Father is merciful to us, and every end of prayer lands upon him, and through him we approach, being acceptable not otherwise. Therefore he says, ‘I am the way’; and, ‘I am a door’; and, ‘No one comes toward the

Cherubim escort; Isaiah Seraphim; God unseen; feet = untraceable ways§8

8Cyril: …Father, except through me.’ Yet even if the only-begotten Word of God has become according to us, lowering himself into humanity and emptying, still it is also naturally his own to be understood in the God-fitting glory, and to exist in superiorities beyond the creation, just as indeed also before the flesh. For this reason the cherubim stand around the mercy-seat, covering with the wings, and turned toward it, and always fixing the face, and a clear proof of escort is the standing unto right and left. And the somehow intense and unsated unto God-sight of the uppermost powers seems to hint the cherubim always looking upon the mercy-seat. And in his own form the prophet Isaiah also writes the Son, saying: ‘I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting upon a high and lifted throne, and Seraphim were standing in a circle around him,’ and six wings he says had grown for each, and they cover—with two the feet, and with two the faces, and fly with the others. And if someone should think that the Seraphim were covering the face of God, and indeed also the feet, it is not unlikely to think something such. For turning the meaning of Seraphim into a voice of Greeks, we will find a fullness of knowledge or a pouring of wisdom being signified. Therefore the all-wise and uppermost powers hint also very clearly by the form that it is not lawful for God’s face to be seen by anyone. For the nature beyond every mind is altogether out-of-sight, and dwells in unapproachable light, according to the voice of the blessed Paul, and ‘No one will see God’s face and live,’ according at least to what was said uprightly by him toward Moses the most holy. But neither would anyone know both his tracks and his ways. For it has been written, ‘O depth of wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable his judgments, and untraceable his ways!’ And the blessed David also sings, and strikes up a wise song: ‘In the sea is your way, and your paths in many waters, and your tracks will not be known.’ For just as no one would see a track in waters—perhaps of a human or of a ship, or of those swimming in them—so no one would look down upon divine and ineffable ways. Of which the feet would be unto a type. And if indeed someone should suspect that the holy Seraphim pack down with the wings their own faces and feet, let us think that it is not lawful to see a beginning or end of the wisdom about God, or knowledge. For it itself is also incomprehensible, and beyond human mind. And beginning of every body is head; and end the feet. So then the mercy-seat is Christ, who even having appeared in flesh is no less God and Lord, by nature and truly, having even the uppermost powers themselves standing around in a circle in a slave-fitting way. And a holy word also said somewhere to us that after Satan stood away, having let go the trial in Christ, when he had fasted for us, angels came forward and were serving him; ‘For they are ministering spirits

Known above mercy-seat; gold table; bread of presence = bread from heaven§9

9Cyril: …spirits sent unto service because of those about to inherit salvation.’ And from above the mercy-seat I will be known to you, he says, and I will speak to you, somehow showing two things, as I at least think, also through this. For either that Christ, being human, will speak the things beyond human nature, and will not remain only in the measures of the emptying, because of being God and from God by nature. ‘For I,’ he was saying, ‘and the Father are one,’ and, ‘The one who has seen me has seen the Father.’ Or perhaps that; for he is known from above the mercy-seat and the cherubim—that is, in superiority and glory beyond human, and beyond every generated thing, of which the Seraphim are the most extreme and highest—even if he became flesh. And from gold is the mercy-seat, and the Seraphim themselves. For the well-famed and most beautiful nature is God. And in likeness toward him according to participation are the generated. And to those who have become in a circle and near him he distributes a share of his own and natural brightness, as of light being reflected upon something of those near, and illuminating with its own brightness what happens upon it.

Palladius: The word holds uprightly for us, and has been polished unto the true.

Cyril: And after the construction of the mercy-seat, he also sketches for us the mystery of Christ otherwise, saying: ‘And you will make a table of pure gold.’ And having ordered that rings must have been fixed to it, and the gold carriers cast in, and having said most clearly the measures of it and the modes of good craft according to which it would become having obtained the conspicuous unto the uppermost form, ‘And you will set,’ he says, ‘upon the table face-breads before me through all.’ And he has commanded its vessels to become gold—bowls and censers, and indeed also ladles and drink-offering cups. Was not the bread from heaven clearly being shown to us, about to lie forward according to times upon holy tables of churches, and giving life to the world?

Palladius: And very much.

Cyril: Bowls and censers, ladles and drink-offering cups, and the things through which the mystical and most holy need of the holy table is fulfilled—would they not be a type of the divine treasures, O friend?

Palladius: Altogether so.

Cyril: But these things in Exodus. And concerning table and indeed also setting-forward of breads the lawgiver has oracled in Leviticus; and he somehow widens the commandment, and teaches clearly in what manner the setting-forward will be, saying thus: ‘And you will take fine flour, and you will make it twelve breads. Two tenths will be the one bread. And you will set them two settings, and six breads the one setting upon the pure table before the Lord. And you will set upon the setting pure frankincense and salt, and they will be unto breads unto a remembrance lying forward for the Lord; on the day of the sabbaths

Shewbread for priests; dough firstfruit; lampstand = Emmanuel begins§10

10Cyril: …it will be set before the Lord through all before the sons of Israel, an age-long covenant; and it will be for Aaron and his sons. And they will eat them in a holy place; for this is Holies of holies of them, and from the things sacrificed to the Lord, an age-long lawful thing.’ And in Numbers, as again one bread for us—the one from heaven and from us; for the Word, being God by nature, became according to us, and tented among us—he was showing, saying toward the hierophant Moses: ‘Speak to the sons of Israel, and you will say toward them: In your going into the land which I lead you into there, and it will be, when you yourselves eat from the breads of the land, you will take away a take-away set-apart for the Lord—a firstfruit of your dough; a bread take-away you will set it apart as a take-away from a threshing-floor; thus you will take away a firstfruit of your dough, and you will give to the Lord a take-away unto your generations.’ And without toil one would somehow look down through these upon the mystery of the truth. And it will be said by us in its own time thinly and exactly, the word having transferred for us unto another sweat of writing. Yet that, I think somewhere, one would set down for us for the present at least, O Palladius.

Palladius: What sort of thing do you say?

Cyril: For making Emmanuel clear for us in many forms, he also molds him again through another word. For toward Moses he says: ‘And you will make a lampstand from pure gold; turned you will make the lampstand; its stem and the little reeds, and the bowls, and the sphere-makers, and the lilies will be from it. Six little reeds from the second side.’ And again upon these having added the things finishing unto adornment and need for the craft—I mean lilies, and sphere-makers and little nuts—he was calling out again: ‘Whole turned, from one pure gold; and you will make its lamps seven, and you will set its lamps. And they will shine from the one face. And its funnel and its bases from pure gold; you will make all these vessels of a talent of pure gold. See, you will make according to the type shown to you in the mountain.’ So then the gold lampstand holds a type of Christ. For by nature and truth the Son is God; and one must liken to gold, as we were also defining in the things above, the divine brightness and superiority. And turned because Emmanuel is most beautiful and beyond every word, as far as concerns the intelligible fair form. For it has been written that ‘He is fair in beauty beside the sons of humans.’ So then the lampstand having been turned out unto a conspicuous form—clearly the God-fitting—would show very well Emmanuel. And unto right and left, as little reeds grown from a tree, he says they spring up together with the middle stem, and are raised unto height the equal-balanced. For the Only-begotten, being one by nature, and in the simplicity according to essence as God, seems to be many-fold in differing energies, but nothing mixed-in or alien

Lampstand wholly God; seven lamps = gifts; light for those face-to-face§11

11Cyril: …in him, even if he should somehow be understood as not simple in the God-fitting dignities. For he is understood as light and life, and power and incorruption. For wanting to teach that nothing is brought-in in him, he added, I think somewhere, the, ‘The sphere-makers and the little reeds will be from it; whole turned from pure gold’—that is, wholly through-and-through God, not consecrated in equality with the generated, nor as angels perhaps understood in their own nature, yet made bright from that one’s grace and glory, and as with pure gold anointed with the giving of the spirit, but the thing itself by nature—God, the most pure and highest nature. And seven are the lamps; for in many modes is the illumination from Christ. And, ‘To one has been given a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge, and discernment of spirits,’ and the rest. And a sign of perfection is again the number seven. And all-perfect also according to his own nature is Emmanuel, as God, and of the gifts from him in distribution, he lies perfectly in those worthy to take. For he does not ‘give the spirit from measure,’ according to John’s voice, but ‘from the fullness we all received.’ Then he says: ‘And you will set the lamps, and they will shine from the one face.’ But what such a setting would somehow become, he was making clear in Numbers, saying thus: ‘And the Lord spoke toward Moses saying: Speak to Aaron, and you will say toward him: When you set the lamps from a part according to the face of the lampstand, the seven lamps will give light; and Aaron did thus from the one part according to the face of the lampstand, and lit its lamps, as the Lord arranged for Moses.’ Understand then already that the seven lamps turned according to the face of the lampstand were sending the light into those who see. For the divine and intelligible light does not shine upon those lying behind and somehow as in turning-away from what is with God, but upon those led into sight through sanctification, and already become face-to-face through the frankness in faith, and the all-beautiful solemnity in living uprightly. For everything as much as is in baseness and disobedience is abominable and hated. And honorable and in God’s oversight is the obedient and easy-to-rein. For to Jews choosing to revel against him unrestrainedly, he also says through Isaiah’s voice: ‘When you stretch out the hands toward me, I will turn my eyes away from you.’ ‘And eyes of the Lord are upon just ones,’ according to what is hymned in Psalms.

Palladius: Truly.

Cyril: The divine Zechariah also clearly remembers this holy lampstand; for he said that ‘And the angel speaking in me turned back, and raised me, in the manner a human was raised from his sleep, and said toward me, What do you see? And I said, I have seen, and behold a lampstand gold whole, and its little torch, and seven lamps upon it, and two olives upon it; one from the right of its little torch, and one

Zechariah’s seven eyes; God’s nearness; two olive branches = sons of fatness§12

12Cyril: …from the left. And I asked, and said toward the angel speaking in me, saying, Lord, what is this? and he said toward me, saying, Do you not know what this is? And I said, No, Lord.’ So then the blessed prophet was thoroughly inquiring, saying, What is this, Lord? And the divine angel, inserting a short narration, interprets the vision, and refers the construction of the lampstand unto Christ, saying concerning the seven lamps in it, ‘These are the eyes of the Lord, looking upon all the earth.’ For if one must also say something of the thicker things, with however many countless eyes the divine sees us and looks down upon human things, knowing the things in the darkness, according to what has been written, ‘And the light is with him.’ For if God also sends the light into us who are in the world, he would be enriched with it also before the others, having obtained it in his own nature. Or if some suspect it does not hold thus, it is somehow time perhaps to call out to those choosing to think thus, ‘Understand already, senseless ones among the people, and fools, sometime be wise. The one who planted the ear, does he not hear? Or the one who molded the eye, does he not look down? For living is the word of God, and energetic, and sharpened more than a two-mouthed sword, going through as far as division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrows, and critical of thoughts and notions of heart, and there is no creation unapparent before him. And all things are naked and neck-bent to his eyes.’ So then Christ both illuminates and oversees all. Therefore he was also saying through one of the prophets: ‘I am a God drawing near, says the Lord, and not a God from afar. Will anything be hidden from me?’ For nothing would escape the mind that knows all. Or do I not seem to you to have examined these things most excellently?

Palladius: Altogether so.

Cyril: And seeing something uncustomary about the lampstand—for there were branches of olives—the prophet was further inquiring, saying, ‘What are these two olives, those from the right of the lampstand and from the left? And I asked,’ he says, ‘a second time, and said toward him: What are the two branches of the olives, those in the hands of the two gold nozzles, that pour and lead up the gold funnels? And he said toward me,’ he says, ‘Do you not know what this is? And I said, No, Lord. And he said to me: These are the two sons of the fatness; they have stood beside the Lord of all the earth.’

Palladius: What need then somehow has become for the blessed prophet, of needing to inquire also again? For I asked, he says, a second time.

Cyril: Or would you not say, O Palladius, that it is both wise and fitting, for those who have altogether chosen to think upright things, to make exact and polished inquiries upon whatever of the necessary things?

Palladius: I say so.

Cyril: So then the prophet, having seen branches of olives blooming with soft and newly blooming foliage, was naming them olives, and not branches from olives. Then the divine angel has been silent, waiting for the more sensible and

Olive shoots = remnant Jew/Gentile; bronze altar of law begins§13

13Cyril: …true inquiry; and when having been awakened he was naming thereafter two branches of olives, and was begging to learn again of what these would be symbols, he was taught at once, the angel saying: ‘These are the two sons of the fatness; they have stood beside the Lord of all the earth.’ And sons of fatness two—he was calling the people both from Israel and indeed from the nations, whom he also says stand beside the Lord of all the earth, clearly and evidently setting the craft upon the lampstand unto a type of Christ, whose branches of the olives, unto right and left, and as having obtained the standing in a circle, are fattened with the oil, which is a type of holy Spirit, watering the mind of those believing, according to the, ‘With oil you fattened my head.’

Palladius: Then why was he not rather calling them olives, but rather branches of olives?

Cyril: Because, O companion, just as thin saplings and newly blooming branches have been taken out from olives, the ones who have believed are all but transplanted with faith unto piety—some being from the synagogue of the Jews, and others taken out from the multitude from the nations; for not all from Israel have believed, nor yet has the whole multitude of the nations entered in. So then branches of olives are those as torn from trees of a Jewish multitude, and indeed also of a Greek, and having become in the divine light, and somehow already reveling in the more ungrudging pouring of the holy Spirit. For this I think shows the lying of the branches of the olives as in the nozzles of the lamps, of which also the blessed Psalmist somewhere makes mention, singing back toward the Savior of the wholes, Christ, and saying concerning both the bride fitted to him—that is, the Church—and her children in faith: ‘Your wife as a vine thriving in the sides of your house. Your sons, as newly planted olives in a circle of your table.’ For we are made alive in a share of Spirit, and at Christ’s holy table, having received the faith unto him.

Palladius: Yes you speak uprightly; ‘For I am,’ he says, ‘the living bread that came down from the heaven, and giving life to the world.’

Cyril: But concerning a lampstand, and the things in it, these things will be said by us unto the present. And let the word go already upon the bronze altar, the most needful of the worship according to law. ‘For you will make,’ he says, ‘an altar from unrotting woods. Of five cubits the length, and five cubits the breadth. Square will be the altar, and of three cubits its height; and you will make the horns upon the four corners; from it will be the horns, and you will cover them with bronze, and you will make a crown for the altar, and its cover, and its bowls, and its flesh-hooks, and its fire-pan; all its vessels you will make bronze.’ So then five-cubited unto breadth and length

Law altar without gold = no Spirit of sonship yet; Korah preview§14

14Cyril: …is the altar. For it needed, it needed measures for it, and very most ungrudging. For upon it they were also about to split and bring up portions of oxen, and whole-burnt-offerings, and bringings-up of sheep and goats consecrated to God. For this reason also a bronze grate and fire-pan for it, flesh-hooks and bowls, and all its vessels, so that they might be able, bringing in the need from themselves for the sacrifices according to law, not to be destroyed by the assaults of the all-eating fire. And a crown and the horns upon the corners we will add to the beauty of the shape. For nothing is graceless with the all-wise God. Yet, let us say that again already, fixing the exact mind upon the things oracled upon each. He has commanded an altar like and fitting for the sacrifices according to law, but nothing gold in it, just as indeed one would look down upon the ark, and again a lampstand and table, and the things around it.

Palladius: What then somehow is this also?

Cyril: For were we not saying, O Palladius, that the gold very well makes clear—as in understanding I mean—the superiority over all of the divine and unmixed nature, and the incomparable brightness?

Palladius: Thus it holds.

Cyril: Look then already: the altar of the worship according to law is altogether without gold, God somehow setting the matter as a riddle for us, and very clearly, that the law is least a provider of holy Spirit, and the power of the worship in type has not been honored with such a grace. For a spirit of slavery was upon Israel; and to us the gift has been distributed through Christ after the living-again from dead ones. For he breathed in, saying, ‘Receive holy Spirit.’ Therefore also Paul was addressing those who have believed, ‘For you did not receive a spirit of slavery again unto fear, but you received a spirit of sonship, in which we cry, Abba the Father.’ And that the power of the worship according to law was not enriched with the share of the holy Spirit, and they have rather been given to those justified in faith, the wise John will confirm saying: ‘For holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’ For Christ had not yet lived again; for then all but was human nature gilded with the Spirit, and with communion toward him. So then without gold, for this reason, he commanded the altar to become, as I at least think; and to run past the word upon the bronze, from which it had also been made, is not without loss, as it seems, for those loving to learn. For the testing would cut out something of the necessary things, just as what has been said wisely by someone, In every one who cares there is something superfluous.

Palladius: What then would you have to say also upon this again?

Cyril: Hear already; for by a vote from above the holy Writing says that the divine Aaron has been elected unto priest and leader. And Korah indeed and Dathan, and those around them—the wild multitude most readily running down upon the vote from above, and

Korah vs Aaron types Jewish rage; incense altar of pure gold begins§15

15Cyril: …rising up against the divine laws, were bringing fire-pans—uncalled and going of themselves unto this, and snatching an honor not distributed to them—setting beside very warmly the things from mindlessness and boldness against the preeminent priest, and the one chosen out selectly from all the others. And through these was being sketched the coming mindlessness of the Jews against Christ. For he himself is our high priest, led unto this by a vote from the Father, and those of such shameful attempts have paid penalties; and after them Jews will also pay, having become liable to the equal charges. And God then said toward Moses the holy, and indeed also toward Eleazar, the priest from Aaron: ‘Take up the bronze fire-pans from the midst of the burned, and sow that alien fire there, because he consecrated the fire-pans of these sinners in their souls. And they made them beaten scales, a surround for the altar, because they were brought before the Lord, and were consecrated. And they became unto a sign for the sons of Israel.’ Thus then God said at that time. And in Exodus it has been written concerning Bezalel, who was from a father Uriah, and of the tribe of Dan, and leader of all good craft: ‘This one made the bronze altar from the bronze fire-pans, which were for the men who rebelled with the synagogue of Korah.’

Palladius: What then is this at least?

Cyril: It would have much benefit, if it should be understood that the ark has been made unto a type of Christ, and indeed also the others—lampstand, I mean, and the mercy-seat, and a table from gold—the people having brought forward and each having dedicated what was in hands. For those who bear fruit to Christ are very acceptable unto glory of God and Father, and bring forward spiritual gift-bearings, of which those were types and shadows. And the altar of the worship according to law, of the provocation and contradiction, and that I may say thus thereafter, of the uprising that has become against the great priest, is somehow signified as a reminder and fore-announcement lying in the construction itself, mystically and economically. Is the riddle clear for you? For Aaron is unto a type of Christ; and Jews also have contended with the glory of Christ, and for this reason the altar according to law is contradicted. For the worship as in shadows has ceased; and in Christ rather we make fragrant for the Father the intelligible good smell; and this again was typing under for us as in shadows, saying: ‘And you will make for me an altar of incense from unrotting woods, and you will make it of a cubit the length, and a cubit the breadth; square it will be, and of two cubits the height. From it will be its horns, and you will gild it with pure gold—its grate, and its walls in a circle, and its horns.’ And having added rods and rings and carriers for it, and other such things, and you will set it, he says, ‘Before the veil

Incense altar = Christ; incorrupt body; horns = cross; apostles as carriers§16

16Cyril: …of the veil that is upon the ark of the testimony, in which I will be known to you there as God; and Aaron will burn upon it compound thin incense in the morning, morning; when he overshadows the lamps, he will burn upon it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he will burn upon it incense of continuity through all before the Lord unto their generations. And you will not bring up upon it another incense; a fruit of sacrifice, and a drink-offering you will not pour upon it. And Aaron will propitiate upon it upon its horns, once of the year from the blood of the cleansing of the sins of the propitiation. Once of the year he will cleanse it unto their generations; it is Holy of holies to the Lord.’

Palladius: Will we then also receive this unto a type of Christ?

Cyril: Very much so, O Palladius. For it is true that the matter is his honored and deep mystery; it would show also very easily to those who have chosen to busy themselves with such things thinly and with a file. For it had been made from unrotting woods, and had been entirely anointed with gold. For the body of Christ is incorruptible, and enriched in itself with the divine nature; ‘For the Word became flesh, and tented among us.’ And Christ is our firstfruit, and a root of the race being remade unto incorruption through the union toward God, even if the matter should be understood exceptionally upon him. And horns for the altar, and as hands stretched out, and pre-molding the shape of the honored cross. And if someone should say the horns are four, it wrongs nothing, at least unto understanding uprightly for the one loving to learn. For the altar happening to be square and equal-sided everywhere, the sight of the horns is equal from every side; and what is the word of this? For in every place Christ is known, and this one crucified; and this is a bright boast for those who believe unto him. And indeed the divine Paul, ‘And for me may it not become to boast, except in the cross of Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’ And there has been added to the craft the things finishing unto adornment—a twisted crown; for truly ‘Fair in beauty beside the sons of humans’ is Emmanuel. And the things unto need for it have also been brought on—the carriers and the rest. For the divine altar needed to be carried in the world according to the times of the breakings-camp. And the divine disciples were also doing this, carrying Christ around through the preaching both seemly and according to order, as servants of God and stewards of mysteries of Christ. ‘And you will set,’ he says, ‘the altar opposite the veil that is upon the ark of the testimonies, in which I will be known to you from there.’

Palladius: Then what is the necessary also of the places themselves, I think, that have been ordered?

Cyril: How deep the word, and very dim; yet I will say as is possible, trusting God who also makes wise

Ark below / mercy-seat above; kenosis and exaltation; forerunner in heaven§17

17Cyril: …the blind. An ark to become from unrotting woods and pure gold, he says, and the law was in it—that is, the divine word, or the testimonies. For the matter was a type of the Word sprung from God, who tented among us, and became in a likeness of flesh, according to the Scriptures. Then a veil somehow stretched upon four pillars, he said must be hung from the ark. And a name for the veil—the mercy-seat. And Christ is also this. ‘For he is propitiation for our sins, and a mercy-seat through faith.’ For Paul was naming him thus; and the cherubim had also somehow been written in a circle of the mercy-seat, signifying very well the slavery under God of the uppermost powers—for the Word is God—and the being very near, and indeed also the standing beside liturgically. Then God said toward Moses: ‘And I will be known to you from there, and I will speak to you from above the mercy-seat between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony.’ And the ark was, as I said, Christ, as God Word in an incorruptible body, yet the ark unto earth; and the Only-begotten has also become in a lowering and in the lowliness according to us. For he put on the slave-fitting form, and emptied himself. And he himself again is the mercy-seat, lying high, and escorted by the upper Powers. For the Son is not known to us only from the modes of the emptying, but also from those by which he is God and Lord of the wholes. For even if he has humbled himself because of the human, having come down economically in the things according to us, yet ‘God highly exalted him and gifted him a name, the one above every name.’ And a type of this also would be the mercy-seat having been set high, the cherubim having been written unto right and left. For where the liturgy fitting for God alone would appear, there somehow would altogether also be the glory of the divinity, and the superiority of the dignities beyond word. ‘And from above the cherubim I will be known to you,’ says the Master of all, commanding the ineffable nature not to be sought in what creation is, but altogether beyond what has been called unto existence; for by nature both word and most fitting place of God is the beyond and above every generated thing. So then the place above the cherubim, even sense-wise in the holy tent, all but makes clear the divine nature for us; for this reason he has commanded the gold altar, having become unto a type of Christ, to lie opposite the one who both oracles and is understood above the cherubim—somehow signifying this: that the things according to us have become in Christ as into God’s sight and in the Father’s eyes. For the human being in turning-away, and having struck against God through the stepping-beyond and much sin, Christ set again in the face of the Father as in himself and first. ‘For a forerunner for us he has entered into the heaven, now to be shown to the face of God for us,’ as the wise Paul writes to us. For the one existing always with his own

Compound incense = God-and-flesh; fragrance of Christ; morning/evening lamps§18

18Cyril: …Father, is now said to be shown as in himself at least and first, setting beside in the Father’s sight the human things, and transferring that ancient turning-away. ‘For he himself is our peace,’ according to the Scriptures.

Palladius: So it has been fitted that again an image of Christ is the gold altar.

Cyril: And in addition to this he himself would fittingly be understood as the compound and thin incense. For he himself is the high priest; ‘For Aaron will burn,’ he says, ‘upon it compound thin incense’; and compound is the incense; for the Word, being God, became flesh. And Emmanuel has somehow been compounded for us, divine nature and humanity having been brought together ineffably unto a unity beyond mind. And thin, because it does not have the thick of the worship according to law. ‘For sacrifices and offering you did not wish. Whole-burnt-offering and concerning sin you were not well pleased. But a body you prepared for me, he says; then I said, Behold I have come; to do, O God, your will.’ And what then this will of the Father is, he himself has initiated us in the Gospels saying that ‘I have come down from the heaven, not that I may do my will, but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that everything which he has given me, I may not destroy from it, but may raise it in the last day.’ For he has brought himself forward for us unto a smell of fragrance, and has for this reason also been named high priest. So then he himself is the high priest, he himself the compound and thin incense; and Paul will witness saying: ‘And to God thanks, who always triumphs us in Christ, and makes apparent the smell of his knowledge through us in every place, because we are a fragrance of Christ to God, among those being saved, and among those being destroyed; to some a smell from death unto death, and to others a smell of life unto life.’ And he was also addressing us: ‘Become then imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, just as also Christ loved us, and gave himself over for us—an offering and sacrifice to God unto a smell of fragrance.’ And he also makes clear the time of the burning incense, legislating that all things must be practiced in order and good adornment, and through what the power of the inward contemplations would hold well for us. For ‘In the morning,’ he says, ‘and at evening when the lamps are lit and overshadowed’—the evening and morning showing the unceasing and continuous, and the needing to burn incense under lamps somehow very well hinting that, illuminated with the divine light, then already, then we are richly filled with the fragrance of Christ, and thus we go toward a sense of the goods inside the tent—or of the distribution of the divine gifts, which Christ stretches to the worthy; so that if someone has not yet become in light through faith, he is somehow altogether also without a share of the intelligible fragrance, still not knowing the mystery of Christ.

No other incense; law shadows end; Antichrist alien smoke; once-yearly blood§19

19Cyril: ‘For if you should not believe, you will not understand,’ he says. For faith is an approach, carrying off unto understanding, and somehow unfolding the mind toward reception of the divine light. And he names the incense of continuity. For there is no time according to which Christ is not fragrant in the holy tent—that is, in the Church. And he altogether forbids needing to lay a drink-offering upon it—clearly the altar of Christ—and to bring up a fruit. For the things in law have been abolished in Christ, and the shadows creep unto an end. This, I think, is drink-offering and fruit. And the prophet witnesses saying: ‘Sacrifice and drink-offering have been taken out from the house of the Lord.’ For the worship and service in spirit and truth having already been shown, the shadows are somehow superfluous, and the random and altogether useless in types; for a new creation is in Christ. For those justified in law have fallen from the grace after the showing of the truth. ‘And you will not bring up,’ he says, ‘another incense upon the altar.’ For we will receive altogether no other in Christ. And we will say Rabbi to none of the things that are. For one is our teacher and leader, and to him alone we will lie beside, saying, ‘Your name is myrrh emptied out. For this reason maidens loved you. They drew me; behind you unto a smell of your myrrhs we ran.’ Or is this not the, ‘You will not bring up another incense upon it’? For the fragrant of Christ alone in Church would suffice for those truly sensible, not desiring another smell—just as indeed also the wretched Jews. For with mindlessnesses they insult the compound and thin incense—that is, Christ. And they have remained without a share of this holy or also truly divine fragrance; and instead of him they will receive another—the son of lawlessness, ‘the one opposing and lifting himself up upon every so-called god or object of reverence, so as for him to sit into the temple of God, according to what has been written, showing himself that he is God,’ who also defiles the divine tent, being alien smoke, and that I may say thus, a diabolic foul smell; ‘For his presence will be according to an energy of Satan.’

Palladius: I understand what you say. For the word is also clear.

Cyril: And indeed he commands Aaron to propitiate upon the altar of the incense, once of the year anointing with the blood of the cleansing of the sins the beginnings of the horns. ‘For it is,’ he says, ‘Holy of holies.’ And the divine Paul will set this clear for you, saying: ‘And Christ having arrived as high priest of the coming goods, through the greater and more perfect tent, not hand-made—that is, not of this creation; nor through blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood he entered once into the holies, having found age-long redemption

Once-for-all death; horns = cross; calf blood type; side blood and water§20

20Cyril: ….’ For as he himself somehow says again, ‘Having died once, he no longer dies; death will no longer lord it over him. For what he died, he died to the sin once; and what he lives, he lives to God.’ So then the divine Aaron was entering into the Holies of holies, once of the year, through blood of the cleansing of the sins. And see Christ again in these things, with his own blood of the salvation and life of all, all but sprinkling down his own cross. For a type of a cross are the horns, having bent out this way and that as in an order of hands stretched. So then think Christ having died once, and being Holy of holies, according to nature, as God. For John is also true, saying that ‘From his fullness we all received.’ For the whole visible and invisible creation is a sharer of Christ. For angels and archangels, and the things still beyond these, and the cherubim themselves, are not otherwise holy, except that through Christ alone, in holy Spirit. So then he himself is the altar, and he himself the incense, and high priest, and likewise he himself the blood of the cleansing of sins.

Palladius: Yes you speak uprightly. Yet what the blood of the cleansing of the sins ever is, I am not able to understand clearly.

Cyril: The law, pre-typing the cleansing through blood and the holy victim—I mean Christ, through whom we have also been saved, fleeing the pollution melted into us from sin—says somehow thus in Leviticus: ‘And if all the synagogue of Israel should be ignorant, and a word should escape from eyes of the synagogue, and they should do one from all the commandments of the Lord which will not be done, and should fail, and the sin which they sinned in it should be known to them, and the synagogue will bring forward a calf from oxen blameless concerning the sin, and will bring it forward beside the doors of the testimony of the tent, and the elders of the synagogue will set their hands upon the head of the calf before the Lord, and will slaughter a calf before the Lord, and the anointed priest will bring in from the blood of the calf into the tent of the testimony. And the priest will dip the finger from the blood of the calf, and will sprinkle seven times before the Lord opposite the holy veil, and from the blood the priest will set upon the horns of the altar of the compound incense, which is before the Lord, which is in the tent of the testimony.’ And more broadly concerning these things will be said for us according to times; yet look how again Emmanuel is slaughtered for us as in a calf, and releases us from sins, and sets us out from judgment, and carries us away from penalty, and goes through the greater and more perfect tent, not through calves and goats, but through his own blood, and having tasted death once. For upon a wood above, having opened the side with a spear, he poured out blood and water. And a type of a cross would be, as we also said having anticipated, the projections of the horns.

Laver of bronze: baptism with blood; Aaron washes; John needs baptism§21

21Palladius: You have spoken well.

Cyril: But not yet by blood alone did the law riddlingly command needing to be cleansed, but it has also ordered with the holy water. For this is a most complete way unto cleansing, according at least to the mystery in Christ.

Palladius: And how then has it shown this also, or in what manner?

Cyril: For it has been written that ‘And the Lord spoke toward Moses, saying: Make a bronze laver, and its base bronze, so as to wash. And you will set it between the tent of the testimony and between the altar. And you will pour water into it; and Aaron and his sons will wash from it the hands and the feet with water. When they enter into the tent of the testimony, they will wash with water, and they will not die; or when they come forward toward the altar to liturgize, and to bring up the whole-burnt-offerings to the Lord, they will wash the hands and the feet with water… and it will be for them an age-long lawful thing.’ That then the grace through holy baptism was being pre-written as in this is not unclear. For we are baptized, not gaining a putting-off of dirt of flesh, but being released from pollutions of mind and heart, and washing off the stains of failings, by grace and love-of-human of the one calling unto salvation. For we have been justified not from works of law, according to the Scriptures, but from faith of Jesus Christ. And see already how Aaron, though holy according to law, and indeed also those ordered to liturgize with him, wash off hands and feet with water, and thus touch the holy labors, and indeed run into the Holies of holies free of terrors—the law clearly showing, I think, this also, and the matter itself all but crying out, that even the one seeming to be somehow holy according to law is unholy before God, if he should not wash off with the water, and that the power of the worship in law is not enough unto cleansing. For they were washing beforehand, though consecrated according to law; and what is cleansed is not somehow the pure, but the dirty and unclean. And such a thing Christ himself has also said: ‘The one who has been bathed has no need, except to wash the feet, for he is pure.’ And most wise Paul also writes that it is impossible for blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. So then the law is incomplete unto sanctification, unless the saving baptism should also come to those thirsting for intimacy toward God. Therefore also the divine John, though very well crowned with the greatest boasts, and knowing how to excel unto this of virtue so as already to become unto the uppermost limit, was calling the Savior to be baptized saying: ‘I have need to be baptized by you.’

Palladius: Truly.

Cyril: And hands and feet being washed off signify the pure and unadulterated of deed and of a walk as toward each of the things to be practiced

Wash before holy things; laver from fasting women’s mirrors§22

22Cyril: …signify. And to us who have practiced this it is allowed both to enter into the more inward tent, and to bring forward spiritual sacrifices to God, and as in an order of incense to consecrate somehow the good smell of the Gospel way of life. And he usefully recommends that those wanting to drive into the Holies of holies, and caretakers of the holy works, must wash off, that they may not die. For it is a slippery and truly damaging matter to draw near to God not having been cleansed. Therefore also wise Paul enjoins us, if we should wish to share the mystical blessing, to prove ourselves, and thus thereafter to come forward. And that the careless in these things is also full of danger, he uncovers saying: ‘Because of this many among you are weak and sick, and enough sleep. For if we were judging ourselves, we would not be judged. And being judged by the Lord, we are trained, that we may not be condemned with the world.’

Palladius: So then it has been fitted that the holy laver was showing beforehand for us the grace through holy baptism.

Cyril: Thus it holds; for do not hesitate altogether. And having looked around at the manner of its construction, you will be, I think, even more amazed. For it has been written thus concerning Bezalel, who crafted the things in the tent: ‘This one made the bronze laver, and its base bronze, from the mirrors of the women who fasted, who fasted beside the doors of the tent of the testimony, on which day he pitched it… as the Lord arranged for Moses.’

Palladius: And what is the matter of the mirrors? And who then also are the ones who fasted?

Cyril: Many of the things that have become do not have a clear narration in the divine Scripture. Yet it is somehow signified from a running-by, just as indeed also this in hands. For where, or who have fasted when the holy tent was raised, Moses has not spoken. Yet that it has become, one would not hesitate; for it has been said, even if not clearly. But having set this aside, let us go upon that, if it seems good.

Palladius: What sort?

Cyril: Of what would the women who have fasted be unto a type? And what is the molding of the bronze laver from the mirrors?

Palladius: And indeed, yours already somehow also to say this.

Cyril: Hear already; Those from Israel have served idols, having endured the slavery under the Egyptians, and living through with those ones’ laws, they have finished long times. So then a custom of Egyptians especially for women is to go into temples, arranged in linen clothing, and consecrated in a priest-fitting way with a mirror in the left and a sistrum in the right, who

Mirrors to baptism vessels; Church pitched by Lord; spiritual fasting§23

23Cyril: …most selected from the others and temple-initiates, were scarcely thought worthy of such an honor—of insolence then; for thus is better and true to say. So then women of those from blood of Israel, having found leftovers of the worship in Egypt in their own vessels, brought forward these mirrors unto fruit-bearing, which were also remade into the matter of the laver. And when the holy tent was raised they fasted, sitting somehow beside the doors, and living through all things purely—the matter somehow hinting, I think, that when the more true tent has been shown—that is, the Church which the Lord pitched, and not a human, as the divine Paul writes—it is somehow already a time for those once dedicated unto glory of the herd of the demons to be remolded into holy vessels, and fittingly holding toward reception of the holy baptism, so as also to be able to excel with the boasts beyond law. For this, I think, is the molding of the bronze laver from Greek mirrors, or diabolic heirlooms, in which also the water, which also cleanses Moses himself, and is useful to the priesthood according to law unto washing-off—clearly the intelligible. Or would you yourself not also say, O Palladius, that those who have wandered and have served the demons are diabolic vessels?

Palladius: For how not?

Cyril: And the women have fasted beside the doors of the holy tent. And these things also would be a beautiful and wise riddle—of those justified in Christ not running into churches through bloods, but rather excelling with spiritual sacrifices, and bringing forward as somehow a gift-bearing to God the self-control, the as-it-were deadening of the flesh. ‘For present,’ he says, ‘your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God—your rational worship.’ And again: ‘Glorify already God in your body.’ So then the ones who fasted when the holy tent was raised finish unto an image of souls, no longer being trained still with Mosaic commands, but having already shown a spiritual and Gospel way of life, and not without sweat trampling the earthly pleasures, and being well remolded toward the unmixed beauty, through not enduring to suffer the foul and profane charges of love-of-flesh. Or is not the manner of life thus for us who have been called in Christ unto sanctification and the spiritual thinness?

Palladius: Altogether so.

Cyril: But let these things be said for the present concerning holy vessels. And come, if it seems good, let us also look down upon the tent itself—how it holds of placement and construction. And deep is the matter, and beyond the measures according to us, yet I think there is altogether no harm in loving to collect from every side what finishes unto benefit, and striking as is possible upon the things very overlying.

Ten curtains = churches; four/twenty-eight cubits; law narrow, Christ eighth§24

24Palladius: You have spoken well.

Cyril: If then someone should choose to speak very thinly, the word upon each would become long and many-branched. And one must know that some things of vessels are near contemplation and mystical words, and some have been crafted unto adornment and need of the tent; and having cut the length of the word as is possible, I will speak in short things, and will draw together the narration. He said then that ‘And you will make the tent ten curtains, from twisted linen, and hyacinth and purple, and twisted scarlet. With cherubim, a work of a weaver, you will make them; length of the one curtain, eight and twenty cubits, and breadth of four cubits the one curtain will be; the same measure will be for all the curtains. And five curtains will be held together from one another, one from the other, and five curtains will be held together, one to the other.’ So then ten are the curtains; and held tight to one another; for many are the abodes with the Father, and of those dwelling in them somehow one and holy is the aim of all, and one also the knowledge about God. For in peace God has called us, according to what has been written. And receive, if it seems good, the ten curtains, and think them to be the fullness of the Churches unto adornment of the world, not scattered unto discord, or unto a dissonant glory, but united in spirit, and somehow as compressed into one according to the unity in Christ through faith. For everywhere and in all one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And breadth for each of the curtains four cubits, and eight and twenty the length. And the riddle is both over-busy and thin, yet I think it shows darkly and dimly that the training through law is also somehow acceptable in Churches, being most narrow because of the unclear of the letter; yet as time advances unto length, it will have as end the mystery about Christ—that is, the eighth, or the resurrection that has become in an eighth. For end of law and prophets is Christ, toward whom also the divine David has cried up: ‘Very broad is your commandment.’ And the divine Paul also writes to those who have preferred the worship in law to the faith unto Christ: ‘Our mouth has opened toward you, Corinthians; our heart has been broadened; you are not narrowed in us, but you are narrowed in your bowels. And the same repayment as to children I say. Be broadened also yourselves; do not become differently yoked with unbelievers.’ You see that wanting to lie beside the Jews who have disobeyed and still speak the things in law after the faith makes one be narrowed?

Palladius: I understand.

Cyril: And sails for the curtains from twisted linen, and hyacinth and purple, and twisted scarlet. For many-colored is the adornment of the Church. This indeed also the divine David sings, saying somehow thus concerning her: ‘The queen stood at your right in a gold-through clothing, wrapped,

Christ as linen/hyacinth/purple/scarlet; pillars = Christ support§25

25Cyril: …variegated.’ And adornment and beautifying in her of many forms is Christ, existing one according to nature, yet understood in many and differing riddles—as, bring to say, also twisted linen. For the Word from God the Father, being thin and bodiless according to nature, has somehow been twisted through the as-it-were intertwining toward flesh. So then both twisted linen, and indeed also as hyacinth, because not from earth, but from above and from heaven; for somehow the high and upper and ethereal body, the one reaching even as far as the firmament itself, is likened to hyacinth. So then as hyacinth because of from heaven, and purple, because not a slave, as generated, but from God a king, and Lord of the wholes. And twisted scarlet; for in an intertwining, as I said, toward flesh being understood, and truly existing, the Word of God has given his own blood for us. For a sign of blood is the scarlet; and cherubim, the writing of the skins, somehow showing very well that the things below have been joined to the things above, and the Church upon the earth has thereafter been united to the powers in heaven. And one must know that also the most wise Solomon engraved the cherubim on the walls of the temple. And in this same manner also the patterning of the house signified through a voice of Ezekiel has been thoroughly made. And covers for the curtains—hides, compressed with hooks and rings. And indeed also over-covers, hyacinth skins, and skins of rams dyed red, hinting the shelterer of the Church—Christ—through the hyacinth again as from heaven and from above, and through the red color as he has become in flesh. For somehow such is the color of the flesh.

Palladius: I say these things have been contemplated not outside word.

Cyril: And pillars for the curtains, going unto breadth one cubit and a half, and indeed length unto ten, sprinkled through with gold in heads and bodies, and fixed upon double and silver bases. And again Christ is understood as in each pillar—the support of the Church, the foundation of the truth, according to Paul’s voice. And he himself also sets and holds together all things. For through the one and a half cubit, as perfect according to nature of divinity, yet lesser again as in measures of humanity, he is sideways hinted. And it is not silly to say that all-perfect as in a whole cubit is Christ, since indeed he is God according to nature. And as in a half cubit, lowered because of the human. For nothing perfect is among generated things. And being rich, he became poor among us, and the Only-begotten lowered himself unto emptying.

Palladius: Truly.

Cyril: So then the human will not weigh equal with the superiorities of the divinity; far from it. Therefore he was also saying, as having become according to us and being understood

Father greater; ten cubits; double silver base; eleven goat curtains§26

26Cyril: …: ‘My Father is greater than I,’ though according to nature of divinity holding equal-measure, and not being worsted of the superiority of the one who begot. And length for the wood, ten cubits. For all-perfect as in heights of the divinity is Christ. And a sign of perfection, the number running unto ten, is taken in the divine Scripture. And a gold head for the wood, and indeed also a gold body. For the temple from the Virgin is enriched with the lodging of the uppermost nature. And a symbol of divinity is the gold, having superiority according to all, as somehow in a word of such material. And from silver and from two is the base. And bright and transparent on earth is Christ, according at least to the, ‘God is Lord, and he has appeared to us’; and he somehow has a two-natured knowledge; for in him both God and human are understood. For this, I think, is having as it were a double base and from silver.

Palladius: You liken uprightly.

Cyril: Yet look at that, O friend.

Palladius: What then?

Cyril: For having commanded the whole tent to be stretched unto ten curtains, he says in the middle: ‘And you will make goat-hair hides, a covering upon the tent; eleven you will make them hides… and you will join the five hides upon the same, and the six hides upon the same, and you will double the sixth hide according to the face of the tent…’ What then is the matter, O Palladius? For he raises ten curtains. Then how are the hides not equal-numbered to these, and one is superfluous—that is, the eleventh? For you will join, he says, the five hides upon the same, and the six hides upon the same.

Palladius: I am not able to say.

Cyril: But the placement at least will clarify what is sought.

Palladius: How have you said?

Cyril: For he says that five curtains compressed to one another must become; and another five, according to the same shape, and in equal manner opposed. Therefore the two having been raised opposite-faced, as somehow from north and south, or from dawn and indeed also west, an eleventh side somehow in the middle was thereafter designed, making the ten part by part, divided into two, upon which perhaps also the eleventh hide has been stretched around, holding together both sides with rings and hooks; and according to likeness of the others also this one’s pillars, yet fewer in number. For the ten curtains, as I already said before, were stretched unto length of cubits eight and twenty, and the eleventh and most middle of the others has been stretched toward the breadth of the five (four-cubited

Eleventh hour = Christ appears; court expands Isa 54; bronze bases§27

27Cyril: …are these), toward the twenty-cubit measure somewhere. For this reason he says: And you will double the sixth hide according to the face of the tent, that the superfluously stretched may not damage the beauty of the court. So then in this between the others and as eleventh the holy and divine vessels were ordered, patterning Emmanuel in many ways in themselves; the number perhaps also marking this—that in last times of the age, and as in the eleventh hour somehow Christ appears, and the tent having Christ—that is, the Church.

Palladius: Nothing, as it seems, unlikely to think also the word upon this holds well.

Cyril: And after the words and types upon the tent, ‘And you will make,’ he says, ‘a court for the tent, unto the side toward the southwest… length a hundred cubits… twenty pillars… bronze bases…’ Look then already, that the first courts have become narrow, and reaching unto a third decade of cubits. For breadth for them four, and length eight and twenty; and those after those, both broad thus and long; for a hundred upon a hundred, and fifty upon fifty, running—the one unto dawn, and the other unto evening and southwest.

Palladius: Then what is the riddle?

Cyril: Is this not clearly the thing long ago promised through a voice of Isaiah toward the Church shown in last times: ‘Broaden the place of your tent, and the hides of your curtains. Fix, spare no longer; unto the right and unto the left spread out.’ For the Church of Christ, being narrowed in beginnings, thereafter is broadened unto dawn and setting, and north and south, and comes through every place.

Palladius: Truly.

Cyril: And observe that all the other pillars of the ten curtains, and of the one in the middle, he said must be sprinkled through with gold, yet fixed upon double bases made of silver. And what the word of this is has been said, as I at least think; and the pillars of the long and broad courts he variegates with another word. With silver from head unto feet he says they must be very well glorified, yet again fixed upon bronze and silver-around bases. And a type

Silver light / bronze sound = gospel; oil for perpetual lamps§28

28Cyril: …of this also would be Christ, because he has shone through in the manner of light, flashing with intelligible rays as God—the silver signifying. And that bright and well-sounding is the word about earth made for him—that is, the Gospel preaching—the silver-around bronze sideways hints to us. For well-sounding also is the bronze, and very bright and transparent is the matter of the silver. And this is in the Gospel preachings, and one would look down upon the Savior’s word, having the clear and pure of piety unto the extreme, and as buzzing around the whole inhabited world. And if someone should choose to pattern the holy apostles and evangelists as somehow in such pillars, he will reckon the likely things. For they are truly as silvered, through having become in a share of Christ who illuminates. Therefore he says: ‘And the brightness of the Lord our God will be upon us.’ And they are also named ‘Light of the world,’ all but also having stepped in silver-around bronze. For a support for them is as to use the bright and most well-sounding word. ‘For the Lord,’ he says, ‘will give a word to those evangelizing with much power.’ And beautiful also are the feet of those evangelizing the goods, it has been written.

Palladius: Deep is the word, yet near truth.

Cyril: The things oracled upon the courts having then also been concluded, he turns unto construction of oil and myrrh and indeed also incense, saying thus: ‘And you, arrange for the sons of Israel; and let them take for you oil from olives, unpressed, pure, beaten unto light to burn, that a lamp may burn through all in the tent of the testimony, outside the veil that is upon the covenant, and Aaron and his sons will burn it from evening until morning before the Lord, an age-long lawful thing unto your generations, from the sons of Israel.’

Palladius: And what then is this?

Cyril: It has a most necessary showing, and I say the riddle is wise; for with seven lamps, always burning and shining in the holy tent, one must very well liken the illumination through Christ, holding sufficiently unto being able to shine and kindle, or fill, the mind of those believing. For the number unto seven somehow hints everywhere the showing of perfection. As at least in saying somehow, ‘And a barren woman bore seven’—that is, both most and as many as must be unto self-sufficiency. And Aaron and the remaining priests after him kindle the lamps. For as unquenchable the illumination from Christ is kept in Churches by the fairnesses of those allotted to be priests, who with initiations unto uprightness make bright the mind of those believing. For this, I think, is the lamps being kindled from evening until morning. And I think darkness is the wandering from the devil, and as somehow an intelligible night happening according to mind for humans—the

Pure olive oil = true doctrine; light outside veil for us§29

29Cyril: …unholy heretics’ lightless and dim little myths. So then continuous and unending would the Savior’s light be seen in Churches, the teachers in them interpreting uprightly the divine and Gospel preachings. And pure is the oil; for as of lees and of every dirt the upright and true and unmixed-with-the-worse word about the divine dogmas has been altogether released, which always raises the Savior’s illumination—not itself adding something from home unto brightness for Christ (for altogether silly is thinking him to need a human), but because Christ, existing as the true light and radiance of the Father, with the teachers’ words unto uprightness appears to the understandings of those believing as what he truly is.

Palladius: And why does he say the oil is from olives? Therefore the very exact of the word perhaps travails something of the necessary contemplations.

Cyril: You think most excellently, and I will say what has come unto mind. It is not from olives alone, O Palladius, customary for those wise in these things to prepare the need of the oil, but also from however many other bastard and more earthy seeds. And the genuine will truly be from the most tested olives, and somehow counterfeit is what is as from force and craft, and as somehow not true—what is from the more earthy seeds, I mean. So then to the uncounterfeit and true word, also supplied through the wisdom from above to the worthy, one must very well liken the oil from olives. Yet what has been found from human notions and a demonic breathing-in is what is from certain ones’ craft and retail, and has a bastard use. And useless and cast-away is such a word, and altogether unprofitable unto illumination of the knowledge of Christ. Therefore also unacceptable in Churches, having neither the fragrant of the holy Spirit (‘For no one says, Lord Jesus, except in holy Spirit’), nor yet the genuine and unmuddied of the truth, and necessary unto useful benefit. And observe that the law says the oil from olives must be brought forward from the sons of Israel. For as I said having anticipated, a fruit will be from us and a spiritual gift-bearing to God—a true word, not allowing the illumination from Christ to be weak in those being initiated. And outside the veil is both the placement of the lamps and indeed also the burning. For Christ, existing as light according to nature, does not need light, but into us ourselves who are outside divinity, inasmuch as generated, he sends his own light. And as more inward than the veil was the ark, lying unto a patterning and image of Christ.

Palladius: You have spoken well.

Cyril: Then he says: ‘And the Lord spoke toward Moses: And you take spices, flower of chosen myrrh five hundred shekels, and of fragrant cinnamon the half of this, two hundred fifty, and of fragrant reed

Holy anointing oil = Spirit in Christ; only God sanctifies; priests beyond flesh§30

30Cyril: …two hundred fifty, and of iris five hundred shekels of the holy, and oil from olives will be, and you will make it oil—a holy anointing, a myrrh-working myrrh by craft of a myrrh-worker. It will be oil of holy anointing. And you will anoint from it the tent of the testimony, and the ark… and Aaron and his sons you will anoint, and you will sanctify them to priest for me… Upon flesh of a human it will not be anointed, and according to this composition you will not make likewise for yourselves… Whoever should make likewise, and whoever should give from it to an other-born, will be utterly destroyed from his people.’ So then of quality, and indeed also of composition, and again of inequality unto weight, I mean, of the named kinds, I would have nothing to say; for truth is dear to those accustomed to think well. And oil mixed with myrrhs would mark, as I at least think, the sanctification in Christ through Spirit supplied to those who have been pitied. According at least to the, ‘You fattened my head with oil.’ And the tent is anointed, and all the things in it, for a place also would share sanctification through the one dwelling in it. And the vessels are also sanctified, according at least to the manner fitting for them, because useful for God’s liturgies, and the one touching them will be sanctified. So then untouchable for those still profane are the holy and sacred things; ‘For what communion of light toward darkness?’ according to what has been written. And he altogether forbids needing to make for yourselves the like construction of oil. For sanctifying is private of God alone, and as truly exceptional the matter will lie up for him, and for a generated and made nature—how would being able to sanctify others ever hold? For it is scarcely enriched with the sanctification from a share from above. And it would be fitting for it to be called upon through a voice of the holy ones. ‘For what do you have which you did not receive?’ And John also says concerning the Only-begotten that ‘From his fullness we all received.’ And, ‘He does not give the Spirit from measure,’ but rather existing himself as a spring of sanctification, he measures out the Spirit to the worthy, and sanctifies the rational creation; ‘And upon flesh of a human,’ he says, ‘it will not be anointed,’ though having commanded Aaron and those priesting with him needing to be anointed from it. So then already beyond human is the holy race, inasmuch as also a sharer of Christ who is beyond the creation. Therefore also leading us up toward the dignity beyond nature, and as cutting us off from the earthly, he assigns us to the upper; ‘Father,’ he says,

No earthly father-title; holy to dogs ban; incense recipe = Christ alone§31

31Cyril: …‘do not call yours upon the earth; for one is your Father, the one in the heavens, and all you are brothers.’ And destruction is the judgment for those providing from it to an other-born; ‘For do not give,’ he says, ‘the holy things to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before the pigs.’ For bringing forward carelessly to those still unbelieving the hidden things, and the things fitting for holy ones alone, is full of danger; for what is still profane and sick extraordinarily with the uncleanness is not sanctified, but what has already been cleansed through the holy baptism.

Palladius: Truly.

Cyril: According to this equal manner and word he was also patterning the construction of the incense, saying: ‘And you take for yourself sweet things, drop and onyx, and galbanum of sweetening, and translucent frankincense, equal to equal it is, and they will make for it myrrh-working incense; a work of a myrrh-worker mixed, pure, a holy work… According to this composition it will not be made for you yourselves… Whoever should make likewise, so as to smell in it, will be destroyed from his people.’ And the word upon this again hints for us that the things exceptionally private are beyond all nature. And none of the made things shares them essentially, and nothing is altogether common for the creation toward the maker and master, as far as concerns a word of dignity and superiority of honors. And we will also remember having said both the gold altar, and the compound and thin incense itself, are Christ, and Emmanuel himself is marked for us through both. So then the incense being referred unto Christ (for incomparably fragrant), we will not make for ourselves according to that incense itself. For we will receive altogether no other upon him—just as indeed also the wretched Jews, the son of lawlessness. For such ones will be caught having compounded for themselves, and according to that fragrant and truly exceptional incense of the God and Father, who has made apparent for us the smell of his knowledge in the Son, through whom we also are fragrant—not having compounded the thin incense for ourselves, but as sharers of the incense, and anointed with the grace of the Spirit, and being eager to be well-reputed through the way of life in Christ.

Palladius: Through all then, as it seems, of what has become in the holy tent, the mystery of our Savior is patterned for us.

Cyril: And in addition to this you would also marvel, if you should learn that even the craftsmen of the holy tent themselves mold Christ, as at least in themselves.

Palladius: In what manner do you say? For I am not able to think.

Cyril: For it has been written again: ‘And the Lord spoke toward Moses, saying: Behold, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur of the

Bezalel = Christ from Judah; Eliab = apostles; Amen§32

32Cyril: …tribe of Judah, and I filled him with divine Spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge. And in every work to understand the gold, and the silver, and the bronze, and the hyacinth, and the purple, and the spun scarlet, and the twisted linen, and the stone-works, and unto the carpenter works of the woods to work according to all the works. And I have also given him, and Eliab of Ahisamach, from tribe of Dan, and to every understanding heart I have given understanding, and they will make all things whatever I have arranged.’ Look then already how Bezalel leads the craft-works, and Eliab works.

Palladius: What then is this at least?

Cyril: You will learn then already; Judah and Dan, both from Jacob, but the one from the free woman Leah, and the other from the maidservant Bilhah. So then a type also clear is Bezalel of Christ who has appeared for us from tribe of Judah according to flesh, and from a nature truly free—clearly the divine and uppermost. And Eliab would hint very well those who have worked with Christ as from the slave woman Jerusalem—apostles and evangelists; for they have become fellow-workers of God all but laboring and crafting the things unto constitution of the holy Churches. And all the understanding in heart were bringing together the things from their own eagerness and fairness unto the works of the tent, fulfilling images of the teachers according to times, for whom in eagerness and care is working the things of God, and whatever would finish unto benefit of the Church of Christ; to him the glory unto the ages of the ages, Amen.