Zechariah’s seven eyes; God’s nearness; two olive branches = sons of fatness

Cyril: …from the left. And I asked, and said toward the angel speaking in me, saying, Lord, what is this? and he said toward me, saying, Do you not know what this is? And I said, No, Lord.’ So then the blessed prophet was thoroughly inquiring, saying, What is this, Lord? And the divine angel, inserting a short narration, interprets the vision, and refers the construction of the lampstand unto Christ, saying concerning the seven lamps in it, ‘These are the eyes of the Lord, looking upon all the earth.’ (Zechariah 4:4–14) For if one must also say something of the thicker things, with however many countless eyes the divine sees us and looks down upon human things, knowing the things in the darkness, according to what has been written, ‘And the light is with him.’ For if God also sends the light into us who are in the world, he would be enriched with it also before the others, having obtained it in his own nature. Or if some suspect it does not hold thus, it is somehow time perhaps to call out to those choosing to think thus, ‘Understand already, senseless ones among the people, and fools, sometime be wise. The one who planted the ear, does he not hear? Or the one who molded the eye, does he not look down? For living is the word of God, and energetic, and sharpened more than a two-mouthed sword, going through as far as division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrows, and critical of thoughts and notions of heart, and there is no creation unapparent before him. And all things are naked and neck-bent to his eyes.’ (Job 12:22) So then Christ both illuminates and oversees all. Therefore he was also saying through one of the prophets: ‘I am a God drawing near, says the Lord, and not a God from afar. Will anything be hidden from me?’ (Psalm 94:8–9) For nothing would escape the mind that knows all. Or do I not seem to you to have examined these things most excellently?

Palladius: Altogether so.

Cyril: And seeing something uncustomary about the lampstand—for there were branches of olives—the prophet was further inquiring, saying, ‘What are these two olives, those from the right of the lampstand and from the left? And I asked,’ (Hebrews 4:12–13) he says, ‘a second time, and said toward him: What are the two branches of the olives, those in the hands of the two gold nozzles, that pour and lead up the gold funnels? And he said toward me,’ (Jeremiah 23:23–24) he says, ‘Do you not know what this is? And I said, No, Lord. And he said to me: These are the two sons of the fatness; they have stood beside the Lord of all the earth.’

Palladius: What need then somehow has become for the blessed prophet, of needing to inquire also again? For I asked, he says, a second time.

Cyril: Or would you not say, O Palladius, that it is both wise and fitting, for those who have altogether chosen to think upright things, to make exact and polished inquiries upon whatever of the necessary things?

Palladius: I say so.

Cyril: So then the prophet, having seen branches of olives blooming with soft and newly blooming foliage, was naming them olives, and not branches from olives. Then the divine angel has been silent, waiting for the more sensible and