Christ above the mercy seat; the golden table and the bread from heaven
Cyril: …ministering, sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation’ (Hebrews 1:14). ‘From above the mercy seat I will make myself known to you,’ he says, ‘and I will speak with you’ (Exodus 25:22). Through this too, I think, he shows two things. The first is that Christ, though he is man, will speak things beyond human nature, and will not keep only within the limits of his self-emptying (Philippians 2:7), because by nature he is God and from God. For he said, ‘I and the Father are one’ (John 10:30), and, ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14:9). Or perhaps it is this: He is known above the mercy seat and the cherubim, that is, in a preeminence and glory beyond what is human and beyond every created thing, the highest and most exalted of which are the seraphim, even though he became flesh (John 1:14). The mercy seat was of gold, and so were the seraphim themselves (Exodus 25:17–18). For God is the glorious and most beautiful nature, while created things bear a likeness to him by participation. To those who stand around him and near him he imparts a share in his own natural radiance, as light, reflected onto something near it, lights up whatever it meets with its own brightness.
Palladius: That is right, and the argument has been finely worked out for us in keeping with the truth.
Cyril: After the making of the mercy seat, he sketches the mystery of Christ for us in yet another way, saying, ‘And you shall make a table of pure gold’ (Exodus 25:23). He commanded that rings be fixed to it and golden carrying poles be put through them, and he set out very clearly its measurements and the methods of fine workmanship by which it would attain the highest beauty of form (Exodus 25:24–28). ‘And you shall set on the table,’ he says, ‘the loaves of the presence, before me continually’ (Exodus 25:30). He also ordered that its vessels be made of gold: dishes and incense cups, and ladles too, and pitchers for drink offerings (Exodus 25:29). Was not the bread from heaven plainly being shown to us here, the bread that would be set out at the appointed times on the holy tables of the churches and that gives life to the world (John 6:33)?
Palladius: Very plainly.
Cyril: And the dishes and incense cups, the ladles and pitchers, and all the things by which the mystical and most sacred service of the holy table is carried out: would they not be a type of the sacred treasures, my friend?
Palladius: Certainly.
Cyril: But these things are in Exodus. Concerning the table, and the setting out of the loaves as well, the lawgiver has spoken his oracles in Leviticus. There he widens the command, as it were, and teaches clearly how the loaves are to be set out, speaking thus (Leviticus 24:5–9): ‘And you shall take fine flour and make twelve loaves of it; each loaf shall contain two tenths. And you shall set them in two rows, six loaves to a row, on the pure table before the Lord. And you shall put pure frankincense and salt on the row, and they shall be for the loaves as a memorial, set before the Lord. On the Sabbath day…
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