Pure olive oil and true teaching; the lamps outside the veil
Cyril: …unholy heretics’ lightless and murky little fables. So the Savior’s light would be seen to be continual and unceasing in the churches, as long as the teachers in them rightly interpret the divine proclamations of the gospel. And the oil is pure; for the right and true teaching about the divine doctrines, unmixed with anything worse, is entirely free, as it were, of all dregs and dirt. It always stirs up the Savior’s light, not because it adds any brightness of its own to Christ (for it is utterly foolish to think that he needs a human being), but because Christ, being the true light (John 1:9) and the radiance of the Father (Hebrews 1:3), appears to the minds of believers as what he truly is through the sound words of the teachers.
Palladius: And why does he say the oil is to be from olives? Such exact wording is perhaps pregnant with some insight we need.
Cyril: You think very well, and I will tell you what comes to my mind. Those skilled in these matters, Palladius, are accustomed to make the oil we use not only from olives but also from various other seeds, spurious and earthier. The truly genuine oil will come from the finest olives; but the oil that comes, so to speak, from forcing and contrivance is somehow counterfeit and, as it were, not true, and by this I mean the oil from the earthier seeds. So we do well to compare the oil from olives with the word that is genuine and true, and that is supplied to the worthy through the wisdom from above (James 3:17). But the word devised from human notions and demonic inspiration is like the oil that comes from some people’s craft and peddling, and whose use is spurious. Such a word is useless and to be thrown away, and contributes nothing at all to the light of the knowledge of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). That is why it is not received in the churches. It does not have the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, for ‘no one says “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 12:3); nor does it have the genuineness and unclouded clearness of the truth, which is needed if it is to do real good. Notice, too, that the law says the oil from olives must be brought by the sons of Israel (Exodus 27:20–21). For, as I said before, a true word will be our fruit and our spiritual offering to God, a word that does not let the light from Christ grow weak in those being initiated into the mysteries. The lamps are placed outside the veil, and they are lit there too (Exodus 27:21). For Christ, being light by nature, needs no light; but into us, who are outside the Godhead inasmuch as we are created, he puts his own light. For the ark lay within the veil (Exodus 26:33), as a figure and image of Christ.
Palladius: Well said.
Cyril: Then he says (Exodus 30:22–23): ‘And the Lord spoke to Moses: And you, take spices: flower of choice myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half of this, two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant…
Greek
ἀνοσίων αἱρετικῶν ἀφεγγῆ τε καὶ ἀμυδρὰ μυθάρια. Διηνεκὲς οὖν ἄρα καὶ ἀκατάληκτον τοῦ Σωτῆρος τὸ φῶς ὁρῷτο ἂν ἐν Ἐκκλησίαις, διερμηνευόντων ὀρθῶς τὰ θεῖά τε καὶ εὐαγγελικὰ κηρύγματα τῶν ἐν αὐταῖς διδασκάλων. Καθαρὸν δὲ τὸ ἔλαιον· τρυγὸς γὰρ ὥσπερ καὶ ῥύπου παντὸς ἀπήλλακται παντελῶς ὁ περί γε τῶν θείων δογμάτων ὀρθός τε καὶ ἀληθὴς καὶ ἀμιγὴς τοῦ χείρονος λόγος, ὃς ἀεὶ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἐγείρει τὸν φωτισμὸν, οὐκ αὐτὸς οἴκοθέν τι προστιθεὶς εἰς λαμπρότητα τῷ Χριστῷ (κομιδῇ γὰρ εὔηθες τὸ ἀνθρώπου δεῖσθαι νομίζειν αὐτὸν), ἀλλ' ὅτι φῶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν καὶ ἀπαύγασμα τοῦ Πατρὸς ὑπάρχων ὁ Χριστὸς, τοῖς εἰς ὀρθότητα τῶν διδασκάλων λόγοις, τοῦθ' ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἀληθῶς, ταῖς τῶν πιστευόντων διανοίαις φαίνεται.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ διατί τὸ ἔλαιον ἐξ ἐλαιῶν εἶναί φησι; τοιγάρτοι λίαν ἀκριβὲς τοῦ λόγου, τάχα τι τῶν ἀναγκαίων ὠδίνει θεωρημάτων.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄριστα διανοῇ, καὶ τόγε εἰς νοῦν ἧκον ἐρῶ. Οὐκ ἐκ μόνων ἡμῖν ἐλαιῶν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τὴν τοῦ ἐλαίου χρείαν ἐπιτηδεύειν ἔθος τοῖς ταῦτα σοφοῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐξ ἑτέρων ὅσων νόθων τε καὶ γεωδεστέρων σπερμάτων. Καὶ τὸ μὲν γνήσιον ἀληθῶς ἐξ ἐλαιῶν ἔσται τῶν δοκιμωτάτων, κίβδηλον δέ πως τὸ ὡς ἐκ μοχλείας καὶ τέχνης, καὶ οἱονεί πως οὐκ ἀληθὲς, τὸ ἐκ σπερμάτων τῶν γεωδεστέρων, φημί. Οὐκοῦν λόγῳ τε τῷ ἀκιβδήλῳ καὶ ἀληθεῖ, καὶ διὰ σοφίας τῆς ἄνωθεν τοῖς ἀξίοις χορηγουμένῳ, τὸ ἐξ ἐλαιῶν ἔλαιον εὖ μάλα παρεικαστέον. Τόγε μὴν ἐξ ἀνθρωπίνων ἐννοιῶν καὶ δαιμωνιώδους ἐμπνοίας ἐξευρημένον, τὸ ἐκ τῆς τινων τέχνης καὶ καπηλείας, καὶ νόθην ἔχον τὴν χρῆσιν. Ἀχρεῖος δὲ καὶ ἀπόβλητος ὁ τοιόσδε λόγος, καὶ ἀσυντελὴς παντελῶς πρὸς φωτισμὸν τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ ἀπαράδεκτος ἐν Ἐκκλησίαις, οὔτε τὸ εὐῶδες ἔχων τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος («Οὐδεὶς γὰρ λέγει, Κύριος Ἰησοῦς, εἰ μὴ ἐν Πνεύματι ἁγίῳ»), οὔτε μὴν τὸ γνήσιον καὶ ἀθόλωτον τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ εἰς χρησίμην τὴν ὄνησιν ἀναγκαῖον. Ἐπιτήρει δὲ ὅτι παρὰ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ προσκομίζεσθαι δεῖν τὸ ἐξ ἐλαιῶν ἔλαιον ὁ νόμος φησίν. Ὡς γὰρ ἔφην φθάσας, καρπὸς ἔσται παρ' ἡμῶν καὶ δωροφορία πνευματικὴ τῷ Θεῷ, λόγος ἀληθὴς, τὸν παρὰ Χριστοῦ φωτισμὸν οὐκ ἀφιεὶς ἀσθενεῖν ἐν τοῖς μυσταγωγουμένοις. Ἔξωθεν δὲ τοῦ καταπετάσματος, ἥ τε τῶν λύχνων θέσις, καὶ μὴν καὶ ἡ καῦσις. Φῶς γὰρ ὑπάρχων κατὰ φύσιν ὁ Χριστὸς, οὐ δεῖται φωτὸς, ἀλλ' ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς τοῖς ἔξω θεότητος, καθὸ γενητοῖς, τὸ ἴδιον ἐνίησι φῶς. Ὡς ἐσωτέρω δὲ τοῦ καταπετάσματος ἡ κιβωτὸς ἦν, εἰς ὑποτύπωσιν καὶ εἰκόνα κειμένη Χριστοῦ.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Εἶτά φησι· «Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωσῆν· Καὶ σὺ λάβε ἡδύσματα, ἄνθος σμύρνης ἐκλεκτῆς πεντακοσίους σίκλους, καὶ κινναμώμου εὐώδους τὸ ἥμισυ τούτου, διακοσίους πεντήκοντα, καὶ καλά