Christ the calf at tent door; blood sprinkling; outside gate = world
Cyril: …or somehow having been forced unwillingly, unto at least the least seeming good to God the Master of all. In this way also the all-divine David was sounding-upon for us: ‘Sins of my youth and of my ignorance do not remember.’ (Psalm 25:7) And as being good by nature, both kind and pity-loving and not having been ignorant of the strengthless of our nature, all but also the blessed Job clearly charges, both about to and drawing-back toward releasing for some the sins. And he says thus: ‘And why did you not make a forgetting of my lawlessness, and a cleansing of my sin?’ (Job 7:21) So then the law cries-up-further, that in Christ and in him alone those held-in by the sins will be justified through faith. For he himself is the one as a calf being sacrificed over us beside the doors of the sacred and divine tent, in order that he may widen-out for us the entrance unto the inside, he himself the one lifting our sins, according to the prophet’s voice (Isaiah 53:4). For this I think to signal, the putting the hands upon the calf, he himself the one having gone-in through the blood into the Holies of holies, and having found for us a holy ransoming (Hebrews 9:12), and by one offering having perfected unto the continual those being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14), according to the voice of the blessed Paul; he himself is the one in the sprinkling of his own blood sanctifying the Church, and this richly. ‘For the priest will dip,’ he says, ‘the finger into the blood, and will sprinkle from the blood seven times with the finger opposite Lord.’ (Leviticus 4:6)—‘For we have come-near,’ he says, ‘to a heavenly Jerusalem, and to a Church of firstborn ones having been written-up in heavens, and to a blood of sprinkling speaking better, than Abel.’ (Hebrews 12:22-24) For the blood of Abel was crying-down toward God, condemning of the murderer, and the precious blood of Christ the Savior of us all, speaks about us the better things toward God. … And the most sacred Paul was signaling the outside of the gate (Hebrews 13:12), the outside of the world to think. For the wishing to follow Christ stands us out of worldly life. And Paul will witness again. For he said thus about Christ: ‘Through whom for me a world has been crucified, and I to the world.’ (Galatians 6:14) And walking upon the earth the holy ones are eager to live-through no longer earthily, but rather to have in heaven the citizen-
Greek
ἤγουν ἀνεθελήτως ἐκβεβιάσθαι τυχὸν, εἴς γε τὸ ἥκιστα δοκοῦν τῷ πάντων Δεσπότῃ Θεῷ. Ταύτῃτοι καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος ἡμῖν ἐπεφώνει Δαβίδ· «Ἁμαρτίας νεότητός μου καὶ ἀγνοίας μου μὴ μνησθῇς.» Ὡς δὲ ἀγαθὸν ὄντα φύσει, χρηστόν τε καὶ φιλοικτείρμονα καὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας φύσεως οὐκ ἠγνοηκότα τὸ ἄναλκι, μονονουχὶ καὶ καταιτιᾶται σαφῶς ὁ μακάριος Ἰὼβ, μέλλοντά τε καὶ ἀναδυόμενον πρὸς τὸ ἀνεῖναί τισι τὰς ἁμαρτίας. Οὕτω δέ φησι· «Καὶ ἵνα τί οὐκ ἐποιήσω τῆς ἀνομίας μου λήθην, καὶ καθαρισμὸν τῆς ἁμαρτίας μου;» Προσανακεκράγει δὴ οὖν ὁ νόμος, ὡς ἐν Χριστῷ τε καὶ μόνῳ δικαιωθήσονται διὰ πίστεως οἱ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἐνισχημένοι. Αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ μόσχου δίκην ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν σφαγιαζόμενος παρὰ τὰς θύρας τῆς ἱερᾶς τε καὶ θείας σκηνῆς, ἵν' ἡμῖν ἀνευρύνῃ τὴν εἰς τὸ εἴσω πάροδον, αὐτὸς ὁ τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν αἴρων, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ προφήτου φωνήν. Τουτὶ γὰρ οἶμαι δηλοῦν, τὸ ἐπιτίθεσθαι τὰς χεῖρας τῷ μόσχῳ, αὐτὸς ὁ διὰ τοῦ αἵματος εἰσπεφοιτηκὼς εἰς τὰ Ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, καὶ λύτρωσιν ἡμῖν ἁγίαν εὑράμενος, καὶ μιᾷ προσφορᾷ τελειώσας εἰς τὸ διηνεκὲς τοὺς ἁγιαζομένους, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου φωνήν· αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ ἐν τῷ ῥαντισμῷ τοῦ ἰδίου αἵματος ἁγιάζων τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ τοῦτο πλουσίως. «Βάψει» γὰρ, φησὶν, «ὁ ἱερεὺς τὸν δάκτυλον εἰς τὸ αἷμα, καὶ προσρανεῖ ἀπὸ τοῦ αἵματος ἑπτάκις τῷ δακτύλῳ ἔναντι Κυρίου.»–»Προσεληλύθαμεν» γὰρ, φησὶν, «Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐπουρανίῳ, καὶ Ἐκκλησίᾳ πρωτοτόκων ἀπογεγραμμένων ἐν οὐρανοῖς, καὶ αἵματι ῥαντισμοῦ κρεῖττον λαλοῦντι, παρὰ τὸν Ἄβελ.» Τοῦ μὲν γὰρ Ἄβελ τὸ αἷμα κατεκεκράγει πρὸς Θεὸν, καταδικάζον τοῦ φονευτοῦ, τὸ δὲ τίμιον αἷμα τοῦ πάντων ἡμῶν Σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ, λαλεῖ περὶ ἡμῶν τὰ ἀμείνω πρὸς Θεόν. Ἐκκέχυται γὰρ τῆς ἁπάντων ζωῆς ἀντάλλαγμα. Προσεχεῖτο δὲ τοῦ μόσχου τὸ αἷμα τῇ βάσει τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου· καὶ γάρ ἐστιν ἅγιός τε καὶ ἱερὸς ἀληθῶς ὁ Χριστοῦ θάνατος. Καὶ ἀναφέρεται μὲν τὰ ἐντόσθια, πιμελὴ καὶ νεφροὶ καὶ λοβὸς ὁ τοῦ ἥπατος. Εὐώδη γὰρ πάντα τὰ ἐν Χριστῷ, τά τε ἐξωφανῆ, καὶ τὰ κεκρυμμένα· ὁ Λόγος γὰρ ἦν ἅγιος, καὶ οὐδὲν ἐν αὐτῷ τὸ μὴ καθαρόν. Κατακαίεταί γε μὴν ἔξω τῆς πύλης τὸ δέρμα καὶ τὰ λοιπά· οὐδὲ αὐτὸν ἡμῖν ἀπαράδεκτον τοῦ πάθους τὸν τόπον ἐῶντος τοῦ νόμου. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὁ θεσπέσιος ἔφη Παῦλος· «Ἐξερχώμεθα οὖν ἔξω τῆς πύλης τὸν ὀνειδισμὸν αὐτοῦ φέροντες,» τοῦτ' ἔστι, τὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τε καὶ δι' ἡμᾶς σταυρόν. Καὶ αὐτὸς δέ πού φησιν ὁ Σωτήρ· «Ὃς οὐ λαμβάνει τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀκολουθεῖ ὀπίσω μου, οὐκ ἔστι μου ἄξιος.» Ἔοικε δὲ τὸ ἔξω τῆς πύλης ὁ ἱερώτατος Παῦλος, τὸ ἔξω τοῦ κόσμου νοεῖν. Ζωῆς γὰρ ἡμᾶς ἐξίστησι κοσμικῆς τὸ θέλειν ἕπεσθαι τῷ Χριστῷ. Καὶ μαρτυρήσει πάλιν ὁ Παῦλος. Ἔφη γὰρ ὧδε περὶ Χριστοῦ· «Δι' οὗ ἐμοὶ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται, κἀγὼ τῷ κόσμῳ.» Περιπατοῦντες δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς οἱ ἅγιοι, διαβιῶναι σπουδάζουσιν οὐκέτι μὲν ἐπιγείως, ἔχειν δὲ μᾶλλον ἐν οὐρανῷ τὸ πολί
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 15 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 15 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 15 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 15)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 15)
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.