Known above mercy-seat; gold table; bread of presence = bread from heaven
Cyril: …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
Greek
τουργικὰ εἰς διακονίαν ἀποστελλόμενα, διὰ τοὺς μέλλοντας κληρονομεῖν σωτηρίας.» Ἄνωθεν δὲ τοῦ ἱλαστηρίου, γνωσθήσομαί σοι, φησὶ, καὶ λαλήσω σοι, δύο που, καθάπερ ἐγᾦμαι, καὶ διὰ τούτου δηλῶν. Ἢ γὰρ ὅτι ἄνθρωπος ὢν ὁ Χριστὸς, τὰ ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπου λαλήσει φύσιν, καὶ οὐχὶ μόνοις ἐμμενεῖ τοῖς τῆς κενώσεως μέτροις, διά γε τὸ εἶναι Θεὸς καὶ ἐκ Θεοῦ κατὰ φύσιν. «Ἐγὼ γὰρ, ἔφασκε, καὶ ὁ Πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν,» καὶ, «Ὁ ἑωρακὼς ἐμὲ, ἑώρακε τὸν Πατέρα.» Ἢ ἐκεῖνό που τάχα· γινώσκεται γὰρ ἄνωθεν τοῦ ἱλαστηρίου καὶ τῶν Χερουβὶμ, τουτέστιν, ἐν ὑπεροχῇ καὶ δόξῃ τῇ ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον, καὶ παντὸς ἐπέκεινα γενητοῦ, ὧν τὸ ἀκρότατόν τε καὶ ὑπέρτατον τὰ Σεραφὶμ, εἰ καὶ γέγονε σάρξ. Ἐκ χρυσοῦ δὲ τὸ ἱλαστήριον, καὶ αὐτὰ τὰ Σεραφίμ. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ εὐκλεής τε καὶ περικαλλεστάτη φύσις, Θεός. Ἐν ὁμοιώσει δὲ τῇ πρὸς αὐτὸν κατὰ μέθεξιν, τὰ γενητά. Τοῖς δὲ ἐν κύκλῳ καὶ ἀγχοῦ γεγονόσιν αὐτοῦ, τὴν τῆς ἰδίας καὶ φυσικῆς φαιδρότητος ἐπιμερίζει μέθεξιν, ὡς φωτὸς ἐπί τι τῶν πέλας ἀντανακλωμένου, καὶ λαμπρότητι τῇ ἰδίᾳ τὸ προστυχὸν καταυγάζοντος.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθῶς ἔχει, καὶ ἀπεξεσμένος ἡμῖν εἰς τἀληθὲς, ὁ λόγος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Μετὰ δὲ τὴν τοῦ ἱλαστηρίου κατασκευὴν, καὶ ἑτέρως ἡμῖν τὸ Χριστοῦ μυστήριον σκιαγραφεῖ, λέγων· «Καὶ ποιήσεις τράπεζαν χρυσοῦ καθαροῦ.» Δακτυλίους τε αὐτῇ προσερειρῆσθαι δεῖν ἐπιτάξας, καὶ χρυσοῦς ἐμβάλλεσθαι τοὺς ἀναφορέας, μέτρα τε αὐτῆς καὶ εὐτεχνίας τοὺς τρόπους, καθ' οὓς ἂν γένοιτο λαχοῦσα τὸ ἐκπρεπὲς εἰς εἶδος τὸ ἀνωτάτω σαφέστατα διειπὼν, «Καὶ ἐπιθήσεις, φησὶν, ἐπὶ τὴν τράπεζαν ἄρτους ἐνωπίους, ἐναντίον μου διὰ παντός.» Χρυσᾶ δὲ αὐτῆς τὰ σκεύη, τρυβλία τε καὶ θυίσκας, καὶ μὴν καὶ κυάθους, καὶ σπονδεῖα γενέσθαι προστέταχεν. Ἆρ' οὐκ ἐναργῶς ὁ ἄρτος ἡμῖν ὁ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ κατεδείκνυτο, προκεισόμενος κατὰ καιροὺς ἐν ἁγίαις τραπέζαις ἐκκλησιῶν, καὶ ζωὴν διδοὺς τῷ κόσμῳ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μάλα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τρυβλία τε καὶ θυίσκαι, κύαθοί τε καὶ σπονδεῖα, καὶ τὰ δι' ὧν τῆς ἁγίας τραπέζης ἡ μυστικὴ καὶ ἱερωτάτη πληροῦται χρεία, οὐ τῶν θείων κειμηλίων τύπος ἂν εἶεν. ὦ τᾶν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀλλὰ ταυτὶ μὲν ἐν τῇ Ἐξόδῳ. Τραπέζης δὲ πέρι καὶ μὴν καὶ προθέσεως ἄρτων, κεχρησμῴδηκεν ὁ νομοθέτης ἐν τῷ Λευιτικῷ· ἀνευρύνει δὲ ὥσπερ τὴν ἐντολὴν, τίνα τε τρόπον ἡ πρόθεσις ἔσται, διδάσκει σαφῶς, λέγων οὕτως· «Καὶ λήψεσθε σεμίδαλιν, καὶ ποιήσετε αὐτὴν δώδεκα ἄρτους. Δύο δεκάτων ἔσται ὁ ἄρτος ὁ εἷς. Καὶ ἐπιθήσετε αὐτοὺς δύο θέματα, καὶ ἓξ ἄρτους τὸ ἓν θέμα ἐπὶ τὴν τράπεζαν τὴν καθαρὰν ἔναντι Κυρίου. Καὶ ἐπιθήσετε ἐπὶ τὸ θέμα λίβανον καθαρὸν καὶ ἅλα, καὶ ἔσονται εἰς ἄρτους εἰς ἀνάμνησιν προκείμενα τῷ Κυρίῳ, τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν σαββάτων
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.