Purification outside camp; third and seventh day; Eleazar after Moses
ful over your souls, as about to give back a word.’ And after the womenfolk’s and children’s destruction, the divine Moses does not allow the warriors unwashed to lodge in the camp, but orders that they must first be thoroughly cleansed, saying: ‘And you will camp outside the camp seven days; everyone who has killed and who touches the wounded will be purified on the third day, and on the seventh day—you and your captivity—and every wrap, and every leather vessel, and every work from goat, and every wooden vessel you will purify.’ You see that even the best and approved race of the chosen in us is not altogether blameless; for ‘No one is clean from filth,’ even if someone should be very much of those accustomed to be approved; for the perfectly holy has been kept unto the age about to be. Outside the camp therefore he seats the conquerors, and says they must be purified on the third day and the seventh. The third day either signaling for us the third time, in which the cleansing through Christ came to be after the time according to Moses, and in which the choir of the holy prophets was shown, or rather that of the resurrection, in which Christ lived again, having nailed to the precious cross the handwriting against us, and having endured the suffering that looses sin for us. And the seventh persuading us to understand the time upon the completion of the present age, in which having shaken off the burden of sin wholly, and going unto an allotment of sanctification, we will be with Christ, wearing a clean and purified life, and in blessedness according to Christ.
Palladius: It holds well, according at least to what seems to me.
Cyril: And you might still also wonder at the mystery next upon these; for Eleazar the priest at once succeeds Moses’ speech, and says toward the men of the power coming from the war’s array: ‘This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord arranged for Moses, except the gold and the silver, and bronze, and iron, and lead, and tin, every deed which will pass through in fire and will be cleansed, yet by the water of the purification it will be purified; and all things as many as will not pass through fire will pass through water; and you will wash your garments on the seventh day, and will be cleansed, and after these things you will go into the camp.’ Observe that Moses first was making clear to the conquerors the time of being thoroughly wiped, yet no longer also the manner. For the law fore-proclaims the time of the cleansing through Christ; and second and after Moses the priest has addressed—that is, Eleazar. For Christ arranges after Moses, and no longer makes clear to those playing the man the time of the cleansing; for he himself was the time; yet he introduces the manner, and somehow already thereafter sets in sight
Greek
πνοῦσιν ὑπὲρ τῶν ψυχῶν ὑμῶν, ὡς λόγον ἀποδώσοντες.» Μετὰ δὲ τὴν τῶν γυναικῶν τε καὶ παιδίων ἀναίρεσιν, ἀναπονίπτους οὐκ ἐᾷ τοὺς πολεμιστὰς ὁ θεσπέσιος Μωσῆς ἐναυλίζεσθαι τῇ παρεμβολῇ, προαποκαθαίρεσθαι δὲ δεῖν ἐπιτάττει, λέγων· «Καὶ ὑμεῖς παρεμβαλεῖτε ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας· πᾶς ὁ ἀνελὼν καὶ ὁ ἁπτόμενος τοῦ τετρωμένου ἁγνισθήσεται τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τρίτῃ, καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ὑμεῖς καὶ ἡ αἰχμαλωσία ὑμῶν, καὶ πᾶν περίβλημα, καὶ πᾶν σκεῦος δερμάτινον, καὶ πᾶσαν ἐργασίαν ἐξ αἰγείας, καὶ πᾶν σκεῦος ξύλινον ἀφαγνιεῖσθε.» Ὁρᾷς ὅτι καὶ τὸ ἄριστόν τε καὶ εὐδόκιμον ἐν ἡμῖν τῶν ἀπολέκτων γένος οὐκ ἀμώμητον παντελῶς· «Καθαρὸς γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἀπὸ ῥύπου,» καὶ εἰ σφόδρα τις εἴη τῶν εὐδοκιμεῖν εἰωθότων· τετήρηται γὰρ τὸ τελείως ἅγιον εἰς αἰῶνα τὸν μέλλοντα. Ἔξω τοιγαροῦν καθίζει τῆς παρεμβολῆς τοὺς νενικηκότας, καὶ ἀφαγνίζεσθαι δεῖν αὐτοὺς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ φησὶ τῇ τρίτῃ καὶ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ. Τῆς μὲν ἡμέρας τῆς τρίτης ἢ τὸν τρίτον ἡμῖν σημαινούσης τὸν καιρὸν, καθ' ὃν ἡ διὰ Χριστοῦ γέγονε κάθαρσις μετὰ χρόνον τὸν κατὰ Μωσέα, καὶ καθ' ὃν ὁ τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν ἀνεδείχθη χορὸς, ἤτοι τὸν τῆς ἀναστάσεως, καθ' ὃν ἀνεβίω Χριστὸς, προσηλώσας τῷ τιμίῳ σταυρῷ τὸ καθ' ἡμῶν χειρόγραφον, καὶ λυτικὸν ἁμαρτίας τὸ δι' ἡμᾶς ὑπομείνας πάθος. Τῆς γε μὴν ἑβδόμης τὸν ἐπὶ τῇ συντελείᾳ τοῦ παρόντος αἰῶνος καιρὸν ἀναπειθούσης νοεῖν, καθ' ὃν ὁλοτρόπως τὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἄχθος ἀποσεισάμενοι, καὶ εἰς λῆξιν ἰόντες ἁγιασμοῦ, συνεσόμεθα τῷ Χριστῷ, καθαρὰν καὶ ἡγνισμένην, καὶ ἐν μακαριότητι τῇ κατὰ Χριστὸν τρίβοντες ζωήν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ ἔχει, κατά γε τὸ ἐμοὶ δοκοῦν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Θαυμάσαις δ' ἂν καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἔτι τὸ ἐφεξῆς μυστήριον· διαδέχεται γὰρ εὐθὺς τὴν Μωσέως λαλιὰν Ἐλεάζαρ ὁ ἱερεὺς, καί φησι πρὸς τοὺς ἄνδρας τῆς δυνάμεως τοὺς ἐρχομένους ἐκ τῆς παρατάξεως τοῦ πολέμου· «Τοῦτο τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ νόμου ὃν συνέταξε Κύριος τῷ Μωσῇ, πλὴν τοῦ χρυσίου καὶ τοῦ ἀργυρίου, καὶ χαλκοῦ, καὶ σιδήρου, καὶ μολίβδου, καὶ κασσιτέρου, πᾶν πρᾶγμα ὃ διελεύσεται ἐν πυρὶ καὶ καθαρισθήσεται, ἀλλ' ἢ τῷ ὕδατι τοῦ ἁγνισμοῦ ἁγνισθήσεται· καὶ πάντα ὅσα μὴ διαπορεύσεται διὰ πυρὸς, διελεύσεται δι' ὕδατος· καὶ πλυνεῖτε τὰ ἱμάτια ὑμῶν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ, καὶ καθαρισθήσεσθε, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα εἰσελεύσεσθε εἰς τὴν παρεμβολήν.» Ἐπιτήρησον ὅτι Μωσῆς μὲν πρότερος τοῖς νενικηκόσι τὸν τοῦ διασμήχεσθαι κατεδήλου καιρὸν, οὐκέτι δὲ καὶ τὸν τρόπον. Προανακηρύττει γὰρ ὁ νόμος τῆς διὰ Χριστοῦ καθάρσεως τὸν καιρόν· δεύτερος δὲ καὶ μετὰ Μωσέα προσπεφώνηκεν ὁ ἱερεὺς, τουτέστιν, ὁ Ἐλεάζαρ. Διατάττει μὲν γὰρ μετὰ Μωσέα Χριστὸς, καὶ τὸν καιρὸν μὲν οὐκέτι τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ τοῖς ἀνδριζομένοις καταδηλοῖ· αὐτὸς γὰρ ἦν ὁ καιρός· τὸν δὲ τρόπον εἰσηγεῖται, καὶ αὐτό πως ἤδη λοιπὸν ἐν ὄψει τίθησι
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 4 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 4 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 4 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 4)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 4)
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.