No other incense; law shadows end; Antichrist alien smoke; once-yearly blood
Cyril: ‘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
Greek
«Ἐὰν γὰρ μὴ πιστεύσητε, οὐδ' οὐ μὴ συνῆτε, φησί. Προσβολὴ γὰρ ἡ πίστις, εἰς σύνεσιν ἀποφέρουσα, καὶ οἱονεὶ πρὸς παραδοχὴν τοῦ θείου φωτὸς ἁπλοῦσα τὸν νοῦν. Ἐνδελεχισμοῦ δὲ ὀνομάζει τὸ θυμίαμα. Καιρὸς γὰρ οὐδεὶς, καθ' ὃν οὐκ εὐωδιάζει Χριστὸς ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ σκηνῇ, τουτέστιν, ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ. Ἀποφάσκει δὲ παντελῶς, τὸ δεῖν ἐπ' αὐτοῦ, δῆλον δὲ ὅτι τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου τοῦ Χριστοῦ, σπονδὴν κατακεῖσθαι, καὶ ἀναφέ[ρε]σθαι κάρπωμα. Κατήργηται γὰρ ἐν Χριστῷ τὰ ἐν νόμῳ, καὶ εἰς τέλος ἕρπουσιν αἱ σκιαί. Τοῦτο, οἶμαι, ἔστι σπονδὴ καὶ κάρπωμα. Καὶ μαρτυρεῖ λέγων ὁ προφήτης· «Ἐξῆρται ἐξ οἴκου Κυρίου θυσία καὶ σπονδή.» Ἀναδεδειγμένης γὰρ ἤδη τῆς ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ προσκυνήσεως καὶ λατρείας, περιτταί πως αἱ σκιαὶ, καὶ τὸ ἐν τύποις εἰκαῖον καὶ ἀνόνητον παντελῶς· καινὴ γὰρ κτίσις ἐν Χριστῷ. Τῆς γὰρ χάριτος ἐκπεπτώκασιν οἱ ἐν νόμω δικαιούμενοι μετὰ τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας ἀνάδειξιν. «Οὐκ ἀνοίσεις δὲ,» φησὶν, «ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον θυμίαμα ἕτερον.» Παραδεξόμεθα γὰρ ἐν Χριστῷ ἕτερον παντελῶς οὐδένα. Ῥαββὶ δὲ τῶν ὄντων ἐροῦμεν οὐδενί. Εἷς γὰρ ἡμῶν διδάσκαλος καὶ καθηγητὴς, καὶ αὐτῷ δὴ μόνῳ προσκεισόμεθα, λέγοντες, «Μῦρον ἐκκενωθὲν ὄνομά σου. Διὰ τοῦτο νεάνιδες ἠγάπησάν σε. Εἵλκυσάν με, ὀπίσω σου εἰς ὀσμὴν μύρων σου δραμοῦσαι.» Ἢ οὐχὶ τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ, «Οὐκ ἀνοίσεις ἐπ' αὐτὸ θυμίαμα ἕτερον;» Μόνου γὰρ Χριστοῦ τὸ εὐῶδες ἐν Ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῖς γε ἀληθῶς ἐχέφροσιν ἐξαρκοίη ἂν, ἑτέρας ὀσμῆς οὐκ ἐφιεμένοις· καθάπερ ἀμέλει καὶ οἱ τάλανες Ἰουδαῖοι. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ θυμίαμα τὸ σύνθετον καὶ λεπτὸν, τουτέστι, Χριστὸν, ταῖς ἀπονοίαις περιυβρίζουσιν. Καὶ ἀμέτοχοι μὲν τῆς ἱερᾶς ταύτης ἢ καὶ θείας ἀληθῶς μεμενήκασιν εὐωδίας· ἕτερον δὲ ἀντ' αὐτοῦ παραδέξονται, τὸν τῆς ἀνομίας υἱὸν, «τὸν ἀντικείμενον καὶ ὑπεραιρόμενον ἐπὶ πάντα λεγόμενον Θεὸν ἢ σέβασμα, ὥστε αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν ναὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, καθίσαι, ἀποδεικνύοντα ἑαυτὸν ὅτι ἐστὶ Θεὸς,» ὃς καὶ τὴν θείαν σκηνὴν καταμιαίνει, καπνὸς ὢν ἀλλότριος, καὶ ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω, κακοσμία διαβολική· «Ἔσται γὰρ αὐτοῦ,» φησὶν, «ἡ παρουσία κατ' ἐνέργειαν τοῦ Σατανᾶ.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Συνίημι ὃ φής. Καὶ γάρ ἐστιν ἐναργὴς ὁ λόγος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐξιλάσασθαί γε μὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου τοῦ θυμιάματος, προστάττει τῷ Ἀαρὼν ἅπαξ τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ καταχρίοντι τῷ αἵματι τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν, τὰς τῶν κεράτων ἀρχάς. «Ἅγιον γὰρ,» φησὶ, «τῶν ἁγίων ἐστί.» Καὶ τοῦτό σοι σαφὲς καταστήσει, λέγων, ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος· «Χριστὸς δὲ παραγενόμενος ἀρχιερεὺς τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν, διὰ τῆς μείζονος καὶ τελεωτέρας σκηνῆς, οὐ χειροποιήτου, τουτέστιν, οὐ ταύτης τῆς κτίσεως· οὐδὲ δι' αἵματος τράγων καὶ μόσχων, διὰ δὲ τοῦ ἰδίου αἵματος εἰσῆλθεν ἐφάπαξ εἰς τὰ ἅγια, αἰωνίαν λύτρωσιν εὑ
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 9 of a seventeen-book dialogue — not the whole work.
English follows Migne PG 68 (Aubert reprint). The PDF and a cleaned text of the same print were checked against each other. This page is Book 9 of seventeen. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 68 De adoratione Book 5 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 9)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 9)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.