Olive shoots from Israel and the nations; the bronze altar
Cyril: …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…
Greek
ἀληθῆ περιμένων πεῦσιν· ἐπειδὴ δὲ διεγηγερμένος, δύο κλάδους ἐλαιῶν ὠνόμαζε λοιπὸν, καὶ ἀναμαθεῖν ἐλιπάρει, τίνος ἂν εἴη σύμβολα ταυτὶ ἐδιδάσκετο παραχρῆμα, τοῦ ἀγγέλου λέγοντος· «Οὗτοι οἱ δύο υἱοὶ τῆς πιότητος παρεστήκασι τῷ Κυρίῳ πάσης τῆς γῆς.» Υἱοὺς δὲ πιότητος δύο, τόν τε ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ μέν τοι τὸν ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἀπεκάλει λαὸν, οὓς καὶ τῷ Κυρίῳ πάσης τῆς γῆς παρεστάναι φησὶ, σαφῶς τε καὶ ἐναργῶς εἰς τύπον Χριστοῦ, τὸ ἐπὶ τῇ λυχνίᾳ τέχνημα τιθεὶς, ἧς οἱ κλάδοι τῶν ἐλαιῶν, εἰς δεξιά τε καὶ εὐώνυμα, καὶ οἱονεὶ τὴν ἐν κύκλῳ λαχόντες στάσιν τῷ ἐλαίῳ καταπιαίνονται, ὅ ἐστιν ἁγίου Πνεύματος τύπος, τὸν τῶν πιστευόντων κατάρδοντος νοῦν, κατὰ τὸ, «Ἐν ἐλαίῳ ἐλίπανας τὴν κεφαλήν μου.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εἶτα τί μὴ μᾶλλον ἐλαίας αὐτὰς, κλῶνας δὲ μᾶλλον ἐλαιῶν ἀπεκάλει;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὅτι, ὦ ἑταῖρε, καθάπερ ἐξ ἐλαιῶν μόσχια λεπτὰ καὶ ἀρτιθαλεῖς ἐξῄρηνται κλάδοι, μόνον δὲ οὐχὶ μεταβοθρεύονται μετὰ πίστεως εἰς εὐσέβειαν οἱ πεπιστευκότες, οἱ μὲν ἐκ τῆς Ἰουδαίων ὄντες συναγωγῆς, οἱ δὲ, τῆς ἐξ ἐθνῶν πληθύος ἐξῃρημένοι· πεπιστεύκασι γὰρ οὐχὶ πάντες οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ, οὔτε μὴν ἅπασα τῶν ἐθνῶν εἰσέφρησεν ἡ πληθύς. Κλάδοι τοίνυν ἐλαιῶν, οἱ ὡς ἐκ δένδρων ἀπεσπασμένοι πληθύος Ἰουδαϊκῆς, καὶ μὴν καὶ Ἑλληνικῆς, καὶ ἐν φωτὶ τῷ θείῳ γεγενημένοι, καὶ ἐνσπαταλῶντες ἤδη πως τῇ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἀφθονωτέρᾳ χύσει. Τοῦτο γὰρ οἶμαι δηλοῦν, τὸ, ὡς ἐν μυξωτῆρσι τῶν λύχνων τοὺς τῶν ἐλαιῶν κεῖσθαι κλάδους, ὧν καὶ ὁ μακάριος Ψαλμῳδὸς διαμέμνηταί που, πρὸς τὸν τῶν ὅλων Σωτῆρα Χριστὸν ἀναμελῳδῶν τε καὶ λέγων περί τε τῆς συνηρμοσμένης αὐτῷ νύμφης, τουτέστι, τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, καὶ τῶν ἐν πίστει τέκνων αὐτῆς· «Ἡ γυνή σου ὡς ἄμπελος εὐθηνοῦσα ἐν τοῖς κλίτεσι τῆς οἰκίας σου. Οἱ υἱοί σου, ὡς νεόφυτα ἐλαιῶν κύκλῳ τῆς τραπέζης σου.» Ζωοποιούμεθα γὰρ ἐν μεθέξει Πνεύματος, καὶ ἐν ἁγίᾳ τραπέζῃ Χριστοῦ, τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν πίστιν εἰσδεδεγμένοι.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ναὶ λέγεις ὀρθῶς· «Ἐγὼ γάρ εἰμι,» φησὶν, «ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν, ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβὰς, καὶ ζωὴν διδοὺς τῷ κόσμῳ.»
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀλλὰ λυχνίας μὲν πέρι, καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ, ταυτὶ πρὸς ἡμῶν εἰς παρὸν εἰρήσεται. Ἴτω δὲ ὁ λόγος ἐπὶ τὸ χαλκοῦν ἤδη θυσιαστήριον, τῆς κατὰ νόμον λατρείας, τὸ χρειωδέστατον. «Ποιήσεις γὰρ,» φησὶ, «θυσιαστήριον ἐκ ξύλων ἀσήπτων. Πέντε πήχεων τὸ μῆκος, καὶ πέντε πήχεων τὸ εὖρος. Τετράγωνον ἔσται τὸ θυσιαστήριον, καὶ τριῶν πήχεων τὸ ὕψος αὐτοῦ· καὶ ποιήσεις τὰ κέρατα ἐπὶ τῶν τεσσάρων γωνιῶν, ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἔσται τὰ κέρατα, καὶ καλύψεις αὐτὰ χαλκῷ, καὶ ποιήσεις στεφάνην τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ, καὶ τὸν καλυπτῆρα αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὰς φιάλας αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὰς κρεάγρας αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὸ πυρεῖον αὐτοῦ, πάντα τὰ σκεύη αὐτοῦ ποιήσεις χαλκᾶ.» Πεντάπηχυ μὲν οὖν εἰς εὖρός τε καὶ μῆκος