No sacrifice to vanities; Church alone hosts Christ-mystery; no blood-eating
Cyril: …to their vanities, to which they themselves will fornicate away after them.’ So then he denies altogether the sacrificing indiscriminately, to whichever someone should wish, and that the worships must be finished for the God by nature alone, he says very well.
Palladius: How most excellently the word holds for us.
Cyril: And it would also benefit us not moderately in another manner I think to think that it is profitable and somehow already necessary that the sacrifices must be practiced in the holy tent alone, and the sacred victims be brought forward.
Palladius: How have you said?
Cyril: Or were we not saying that the calf being slaughtered beside the holy tent concerning both priest and ignorances of people is an image and type of Emmanuel?
Palladius: We were saying.
Cyril: So then we say that in this way the mystery of Christ must be finished in holy tents, the Churches of God. For this again he was typing for us also elsewhere. For having legislated in beginnings in what manner the lamb must be slaughtered unto a type of Christ for those from Israel departing land of Egyptians: ‘In one house it will be eaten,’ (Deuteronomy 12:13–15) he says, ‘and you will not carry out from its meats outside.’ (Leviticus 17:7) So then the differently-minded heretics undo what seems good to God, pitching another tent for themselves beside the tent that is truly holy, and sacrificing the lamb outside, and carrying it away somewhere farthest from the one house, and dividing the undivided; for one and perfect in all is Christ. But wise and hierophant Moses for us also charges saying in the Deuteronomy, ‘Take heed to yourself lest you bring up your whole-burnt-offering in every place which you should see, but unto a place which Lord your God should choose it, in one of your cities, there you will bring up your whole-burnt-offerings, and there you will do all things as many as I command you today…’ (Exodus 12:46) So then a fault and writing of the most abominable mind is to dare to sacrifice in every place, and not to fulfill the mystery of Christ in house of God.
Palladius: You speak well; yet speak that. The law has adulterated the eating of blood, and very reasonably. And what again would the mind in at least the letter be?
Cyril: So then, if it seems good, come let us also say the things oracled upon this, also in the Leviticus. For it holds thus: ‘And the human of the sons of Israel, or of the proselytes attached among you, who should eat every blood, I will set my face upon the soul eating the blood, and I will destroy it from its people. For the soul of every flesh is its blood (Leviticus 17:10–11) (Deuteronomy 12:13)
Greek
αὐτῶν τοῖς ματαίοις, οἷς αὐτοὶ ἐκπορνεύσωσιν ὀπίσω αὐτῶν.» Οὐκοῦν ἀποφάσκει παντελῶς τὸ θύειν ἀδιακρίτως, ᾧπερ ἂν βούλοιτό τις, δεῖν δὲ δὴ μόνῳ τῷ κατὰ φύσιν Θεῷ τὰς λατρείας ἐπιτελεῖν, εὖ μάλα φησί.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς ἄριστά γε ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὀνήσειε δ' ἂν καὶ οὐ μετρίως ἡμᾶς καθ' ἕτερον οἶμαι τρόπον τὸ χρῆναι νοεῖν ὡς ἔστι λυσιτελὲς καὶ ἀναγκαῖον ἤδη πως τὸ, ἐν μόνῃ δεῖν τῇ ἁγίᾳ σκηνῇ πράττεσθαι τὰς θυσίας, καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ προσφέρεσθαι θύματα.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς ἔφης;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἦ οὐκ εἰκόνα καὶ τύπον ἐλέγομεν εἶναι τοῦ Ἐμμανουὴλ, τὸν ἱερέως τε πέρι καὶ ἀγνοημάτων λαοῦ πρὸς τῇ ἁγίᾳ σκηνῇ σφαζόμενον μόσχον;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἐλέγομεν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Χρῆναι δὴ οὖν ταύτῃ τοι φαμὲν, ὡς ἐν σκηναῖς ἁγίαις ταῖς Ἐκκλησίαις τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦ Χριστοῦ τελεῖσθαι μυστήριον. Τουτὶ γὰρ ἡμῖν καὶ ἑτέρωθί που διετύπου πάλιν. Θεσμοθετήσας γὰρ ἐν ἀρχαῖς τίνα δὴ τρόπον προσήκει σφάζεσθαι τὸν ἀμνὸν εἰς τύπον Χριστοῦ τῆς Αἰγυπτίων ἀπαίρουσι γῆς τοῖς ἐξ Ἰσραήλ· «Ἐν οἰκίᾳ μιᾷ βρωθήσεται, φησὶ, καὶ οὐκ ἐξοίσετε ἀπὸ τῶν κρεῶν αὐτοῦ ἔξω.» Οὐκοῦν παραλύουσι τὸ Θεῷ δοκοῦν, οἱ ἑτερόφρονες αἱρετικοὶ παρὰ τὴν οὖσαν ἀληθῶς ἁγίαν σκηνὴν, ἑαυτοῖς ἑτέραν διαπηγνύντες, καὶ ἔξω θύοντες τὸν ἀμνὸν, καὶ ἀπωτάτω που τῆς μιᾶς ἀποφέροντες οἰκίας, καὶ μερίζοντες τὸν ἀμέριστον· εἷς γὰρ καὶ τέλειος ἐν πᾶσι Χριστός. Ἀλλ' ὅγε σοφός τε ἡμῖν καὶ ἱεροφάντης Μωσῆς παρεγγυᾷ λέγων ἐν τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ, «Πρόσεχε σεαυτῷ μὴ ἀνενέγκῃς τὸ ὁλοκαύτωμά σου ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ᾧ ἐὰν ἴδῃς, ἀλλ' ἢ εἰς τόπον ὃν ἂν ἐκλέξηται Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου αὐτὸν, ἐν μιᾷ τῶν πόλεών σου, ἐκεῖ ἀνοίσεις τὰ ὁλοκαυτώματά σου, καὶ ἐκεῖ ποιήσεις πάντα ὅσα ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαί σοι σήμερον· ἀλλ' ἢ ἐν πάσῃ ἐπιθυμίᾳ σου θύσεις, καὶ φάγῃ κρέα κατὰ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τῆς ψυχῆς σου· κατὰ τὴν εὐλογίαν Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου, ἣν ἔδωκέ σοι ἐν πάσῃ πόλει. Ὁ ἀκάθαρτος ἐν σοὶ καὶ ὁ καθαρὸς ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ φάγεται αὐτὸ, ὡς δορκάδα ἢ ἔλαφον, πλὴν τὸ αἷμα οὐ φάγεσθε, ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἐκχεεῖτε αὐτὸ, ὡς ὕδωρ.» Διανοίας οὖν ἄρα τῆς βδελυρωτάτης ἀμπλάκημα καὶ γραφὴ, τὸ ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ θύειν ἀποτολμᾷν, καὶ μὴ ἐν οἴκῳ Θεοῦ πληροῦν τὸ Χριστοῦ μυστήριον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ λέγεις· πλὴν ἐκεῖνο φράσον. Τὴν αἵματος βρῶσιν κεκιβδήλευκεν ὁ νόμος, καὶ μάλα εἰκότως. Τί δ' ἂν εἴη πάλιν ὁ ἔν γε τῷ γράμματι νοῦς;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν, εἰ δοκεῖ, τὰ ἐπὶ τῷδε τεθεσπισμένα, καὶ ἐν τῷ Λευιτικῷ φέρε δὴ λέγωμεν. Ἔχει γὰρ ὧδε· «Καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, ἢ τῶν προσηλύτων τῶν προσκειμένων ἐν ὑμῖν, ὃς ἂν φάγῃ πᾶν αἷμα, ἐπιστήσω τὸ πρόσωπόν μου ἐπὶ τὴν ψυχὴν τὴν ἔσθουσαν τὸ αἷμα, καὶ ἀπολῶ αὐτὴν ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτῆς. Ἡ γὰρ ψυχὴ πάσης σαρκὸς αἷμα αὐτοῦ
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 10 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 10 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 10)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 10)
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.