Cities of refuge; high priest’s death = Christ; Leviticus purity begins
Cyril: …thus there those fleeing upon involuntary failings. And he defines again a time of release also for those who have done wretchedly here—the death of the overlying and preeminent priest. And he writes thus in Numbers: ‘And if suddenly not through enmity you should push him, or should throw upon him every vessel, not from ambush, or with every stone with which he will die in it, not knowing, and it should fall upon him, and he should die, and he himself was not his enemy, nor seeking to do evil, and the Synagogue will judge between the one who struck and between the one near-kin for the blood according to these judgments, and the Synagogue will take out the one who murdered from the one near-kin for the blood. And the Synagogue will restore him into the city of the refuge-flight where he fled; and he will dwell there until the great priest should die, whom they anointed with the holy oil.’ Then after other things: ‘And after the great priest has died, the one who murdered will turn back into the land of his possession.’
Palladius: So then a loosing of the everlasting-flight for them is the death of the priest just now said to us.
Cyril: This is a figure for the types. And the shadows travail the mystery of Christ.
Palladius: In what manner?
Cyril: It is not unpersuasive, O Palladius, to think somehow that those caught in the sins are as somehow murderers of their own soul, and have slipped into this misery not willingly, but somehow forced into stepping-beyond, and into striking against God, because the understanding of the human lies upon the evil things from youth, and because of the law that tyrannized in the members of the flesh of the untamed love of pleasure. Therefore the wretched soul of the human is fined with the flight from world and body, and having sat as into some city of refuge-flight in the recesses of death, was continuing through long times, and was released scarcely when Christ the great priest died, who having endured the death for all, has gone down into Hades, and opened gates for those below, and was releasing from bonds, ‘saying to those in bonds, Come out, and to those in the darkness, Be uncovered.’
Palladius: How clear the word.
Cyril: And the law, not persuading the more ancient ones to be well-reputed in one mode alone, but to have been well composed through all, and to hold most excellently, that the human of God may be fitted, equipped toward every good work, also orders marital joinings toward the solemn, and so that these things may be practiced blamelessly before God and humans, he sets clearly. So then he banishes fornication and uncleanness altogether, and makes male-lying and adultery as far away as possible, saying in Leviticus: ‘And toward the wife of your neighbor you will not give a lying of your seed, to be defiled toward her, and with a male
Greek
τως ἐκεῖ τοὺς ἐπ' ἀκουσίοις πταίσμασι φεύγοντας. Καὶ καιρὸν ἀφέσεως ὁρίζει πάλιν καὶ τοῖς ὧδε πεπραχόσιν ἀθλίως, ἱερέως θάνατον τοῦ ὑπερκειμένου καὶ προὔχοντος. Γράφει δὲ οὕτως ἐν τοῖς Ἀριθμοῖς· «Ἐὰν δὲ ἐξαπίνης οὐ δι' ἔχθραν ὤσῃ αὐτὸν, ἢ ἐπιῤῥίψῃ ἐπ' αὐτὸν πᾶν σκεῦος, οὐκ ἐξ ἐνέδρου ἢ παντὶ λίθῳ, ἐν ᾧ ἀποθανεῖται ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ εἰδὼς, καὶ ἐπιπέσῃ ἐπ' αὐτὸν, καὶ ἀποθάνῃ, αὐτὸς δὲ οὐκ ἐχθρὸς αὐτοῦ ἦν, οὐδὲ ζητῶν κακοποιῆσαι, καὶ κρινεῖ ἡ Συναγωγὴ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ πατάξαντος, καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ ἀγχιστεύοντος τὸ αἷμα κατὰ τὰ κρίματα ταῦτα, καὶ ἐξελεῖται ἡ Συναγωγὴ τὸν φονεύσαντα ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀγχιστεύοντος τὸ αἷμα. Καὶ ἀποκαταστήσουσιν αὐτὸν ἡ Συναγωγὴ εἰς τὴν πόλιν τοῦ φυγαδευτηρίου, οὗ κατέφυγε· καὶ κατοικήσει ἐκεῖ ἕως ἂν ἀποθάνῃ ὁ ἱερεὺς μέγας, ὃν ἔχρισαν αὐτὸν τῷ ἐλαίῳ τῷ ἁγίῳ.» Εἶτα μεθ' ἕτερα· «Καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν τὸν ἱερέα τὸν μέγαν, ἐπαναστρέψει ὁ φονεύσας εἰς τὴν γῆν τῆς κατασχέσεως αὐτοῦ.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Λύσις οὖν ἄρα τῆς ἀειφυγίας αὐτοῖς, ὁ τοῦ προλεχθέντος ἡμῖν ἀρτίως ἱερέως θάνατος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Σχῆμα τοῦτο τοῖς τύποις. Ὠδίνουσι δὲ τὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μυστήριον αἱ σκιαί.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Τίνα τρόπον;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκ ἀπίθανον, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τό γε οἴεσθαι τυχὸν τοὺς ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἐγκατειλημμένους, φονευτὰς ὥσπερ τινὰς τῆς ἰδίας ὑπάρχειν ψυχῆς, καὶ κατολισθῆσαι εἰς τοῦτο ταλαιπωρίας οὐκ ἐθελουσίως, ἐκβεβιασμένους δὲ ὥσπερ εἰς παράβασιν, καὶ εἰς τὸ προσκροῦσαι Θεῷ, διὰ τὸ ἐγκεῖσθαι τὴν διάνοιαν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐπὶ τὰ πονηρὰ ἐκ νεότητος, καὶ διὰ τὸν ἐν τοῖς μέλεσι τῆς σαρκὸς τῆς ἀτιθάσσου φιληδονίας, τυραννήσαντα νόμον. Φυγῇ τοιγαροῦν τῇ ἀπὸ κόσμου καὶ σώματος ἡ ἀθλία ψυχὴ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ζημιοῦται, καὶ ὥσπερ εἰς πόλιν τινὰ φυγαδευτηρίου τοῖς τοῦ θανάτου μυχοῖς ἐνιζήσασα, μακροὺς διετέλει χρόνους, ἀνείθη δὲ μόλις ἀποθανόντος Χριστοῦ τοῦ μεγάλου ἱερέως, ὃς τὸν ὑπὲρ πάντων θάνατον ἀνατλὰς, καταπεφοίτηκε μὲν εἰς ᾅδου, πύλας δὲ ἤνοιξε τοῖς κάτω, καὶ δεσμῶν ἠφίει, «λέγων τοῖς ἐν δεσμοῖς, Ἐξέλθετε, καὶ τοῖς ἐν τῷ σκότει, Ἀνακαλύπτεσθε.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς σαφὴς ὁ λόγος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐ καθ' ἕνα δὲ τρόπον εὐδοκιμεῖν ἀναπείθων τοὺς ἀρχαιοτέρους ὁ νόμος, ἀλλ' εὖ συντεθεῖσθαι διὰ πάντων, καὶ ὡς ἄριστα ἔχειν, ἵνα ᾖ ἄρτιος ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος, πρὸς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἐξηρτημένος, καὶ συνόδους γαμικὰς καταῤῥυθμίζει πρὸς τὸ σεμνὸν, καὶ ὡς ἂν ἀμωμήτως πράττοιτο ταυτὶ παρά τε Θεῷ καὶ ἀνθρώποις, καθίστησιν ἐναργές. Πορνείαν μὲν οὖν καὶ ἀκαθαρσίαν ἐξορίζει παντελῶς, ἀῤῥενομιξίαν δὲ καὶ μοιχείαν, ὡς ἀπωτάτω ποιεῖται, λέγων ἐν τῷ Λευιτικῷ· «Καὶ πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ πλησίον σου οὐ δώσεις κοίτην σπέρματός σου, ἐκμιανθῆναι πρὸς αὐτὴν, καὶ μετὰ ἄρσε
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 8 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 8 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 8)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 8)
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.