Third-day / yesterday fat = obsolete law after Christ; end of law and prophets
Cyril: If eating he should eat from the meats on the third day, it will not be accepted for him who brings it forward, it will not be reckoned for him, it is a pollution; and the soul which should eat from it will be polluted, and will take the sin.’ So then a third-day victim is sent away, and he was clarifying that he also declines the yesterday’s saying. ‘And if you should sacrifice a sacrifice of a vow of gladness to the Lord, unto acceptable for you you will sacrifice it. On that very day it will be eaten, it will not be left from the meats unto the morning; I am Lord; he will take the sin.’ (Leviticus 7:18)
Palladius: Then what mind of these also would come to be?
Cyril: The law has shown beforehand for us in the things above very often, that it is custom for the divine Scripture to cut all time, sometimes unto two, according to which the law was, and according to which Christ has shone upon; and sometimes again, unto three with the chorus of the holy prophets also being brought in between and arranging the things, yet that also in time the according to Moses, and in that of the holy prophets, the manner of worship was the same, as still in shadows the according to law. And when morning has come to be—that is, when the third time has been shown again, and the intelligible light, that is, Christ, flashing around the under-sun, and with the ancient mist having been loosed—the manner of the worship then is no longer acceptable, but whether yesterday’s, or the third-day fat, or victim, is no longer acceptable, but abominable and rejectable beside God, and having been reckoned in an order of pollution for those who have chosen to bring forward not in season. Or do you not say it is true, that with Christ flashing upon the souls of the saints with the Gospel pedagogies and mystagoguing very well unto the spiritual worship, the things in law are somehow already superfluous and unbeneficial?
Palladius: I say. For I will remember all-divine Paul, who has called the boasts according to law dung and loss, through the surpassing of the knowledge of Christ. And I hear him having written to some: ‘And I say to you that if you should be circumcised, Christ will benefit us nothing.’ (Leviticus 19:5–8)
Cyril: You have spoken uprightly. So then it is sin and pollution, when Christ has been shown, and the time has driven past according to which the law and the prophets were, to hold against the worship as in shadows; and to attempt to bring forward to God a sheep, or fat, or frankincense; though the Son says clearly to God and Father: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not will, but a body you fitted for me. Whole-burnt-offerings and concerning sin you were not well-pleased, then I said, Behold I have come; in a heading of a book it has been written concerning me, to do, O God, your will.’ (Philippians 3:8) For having dedicated himself as an unblemished victim for us, the Son has set the things in law, not able to take away sins; for end of law and of prophets is Christ (Galatians 5:2) (Hebrews 10:5–7) (Romans 10:4).
Palladius: You have spoken well.
Greek
Ἐὰν δὲ φαγὼν φάγῃ ἀπὸ τῶν κρεῶν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ, οὐ δεχθήσεται αὐτῷ τῷ προσφέροντι αὐτὸ, οὐ λογισθήσεται αὐτῷ, μίασμά ἐστιν· ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ ἤτις ἂν φάγῃ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ, μιανθήσεται, καὶ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν λήψεται.» Τριταῖον μὲν οὖν ἀποπέμπεται θῦμα, παραιτεῖται δὲ ὅτι καὶ τὸ χθιζὸν, διεσάφει λέγων. «Ἐὰν δὲ θύσῃς θυσίαν εὐχὴν χαρμοσύνης τῷ Κυρίῳ, εἰς δεκτὸν ὑμῖν θύσετε αὐτό. Αὐτῇ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ βρωθήσεται, οὐ καταλείψεται ἀπὸ τῶν κρεῶν εἰς τὸ πρωΐ· ἐγώ εἰμι Κύριος· τὴν ἁμαρτίαν λήψεται.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εἶτα τίς ἂν γένοιτο καὶ τῶνδε ὁ νοῦς;
{ΚΥΡ.} Προαποδέδειχεν ἡμῖν ὁ νόμος ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω πλειστάκις, ὅτι τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον κατατέμνειν ἔθος τῇ θείᾳ Γραφῇ, ποτὲ μὲν εἰς δύο, καθ' ὃν ἦν ὁ νόμος, καὶ καθ' ὃν ἐπέλαμψεν ὁ Χριστός· ποτὲ δὲ αὖ, εἰς τρεῖς παρεισκρινομένου τε καὶ τὰ τάττοντος μεταξὺ, καὶ καθ' ὃν ὁ τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν ἀνέλαμψε χορὸς, πλὴν ὅτι καὶ ἐν χρόνῳ τῷ κατὰ Μωσέα, καὶ ἐν τῷ τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν λατρείας ἦν τρόπος ὁ αὐτὸς, ὡς ἐν σκιαῖς ἔτι ταῖς κατὰ νόμον. Πρωΐας δὲ γενομένης, ἤτοι τοῦ τρίτου λοιπὸν πάλιν ἀναδειχθέντος καιροῦ, καὶ τοῦ νοητοῦ φωτὸς, τοῦτ' ἔστι, Χριστοῦ, τὴν ὑφ' ἥλιον περιαστράπτοντος, λελυμένης δὲ λοιπὸν τῆς παλαιᾶς ἀχλύος, οὐκέτι δεκτὸς τῆς τὸ τηνικάδε λατρείας ὁ τρόπος, ἀλλ' εἴτε χθιζὸν, εἴτ' οὖν εἴη τὸ τριταῖον στέαρ, ἢ θύμα, δεκτὸν μὲν οὐκέτι, βδελυρὸν δὲ καὶ ἀπόβλητον παρὰ Θεῷ, καὶ ἐν μιάσματος τάξει λελογισμένον τοῖς οὐκ ἐν καιρῷ προσκομίζειν ᾑρημένοις. Ἢ οὐκ εἶναι φὴς ἀληθὲς, ὅτι Χριστοῦ καταλάμποντος τοῖς εὐαγγελικοῖς παιδεύμασι τὰς τῶν ἁγίων ψυχὰς καὶ εἰς λατρείαν τὴν πνευματικὴν μυσταγωγοῦντος εὖ μάλα, περιττά πως ἤδη καὶ ἀνωφελῆ τὰ ἐν νόμῳ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φημί. Μεμνήσομαι γὰρ τοῦ θεσπεσίου Παύλου, σκύβαλα καὶ ζημίαν ἀποκεκληκότος τὰ κατὰ νόμον αὐχήματα, διὰ τὸ ὑπερέχον τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Ἀκούω δὲ γεγραφότος τισί· «Λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν ὅτι ἐὰν περιτέμνησθε, Χριστὸς οὐδὲν ἡμᾶς ὠφελήσει.»
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὀρθῶς ἔφης. Οὐκοῦν ἁμαρτία καὶ μολυσμὸς, ἀναδειχθέντος Χριστοῦ, καὶ παρελάσαντος τοῦ καιροῦ, καθ' ὃν ἦν ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται, τῆς ὡς ἐν σκιαῖς λατρείας ἀντέχεσθαι· καὶ Θεῷ προσάγειν ἐπιχειρεῖν ὄϊν, ἢ στέαρ, ἢ λιβανωτόν· καίτοι λέγοντος ἐναργῶς τοῦ Υἱοῦ τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρί· «Θυσίαν καὶ προσφορὰν οὐκ ἠθέλησας, σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μοι. Ὁλοκαυτώματα καὶ περὶ ἁμαρτίας οὐκ ηὐδόκησας, τότε εἶπον, Ἰδοὺ ἥκω· ἐν κεφαλίδι βιβλίου γέγραπται περὶ ἐμοῦ, τοῦ ποιῆσαι, ὁ Θεὸς, τὸ θέλημά σου.» Ἄμωμον γὰρ ὥσπερ ἱερεῖον ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀναθεὶς ὁ Υἱὸς, ἔστησε τὰ ἐν νόμῳ, περιελεῖν ἁμαρτίας οὐ δυνάμενα· τέλος γὰρ νόμου καὶ προφητῶν ὁ Χριστός.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ ἔφης.
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.