Father greater; ten cubits; double silver base; eleven goat curtains
Cyril: …: ‘My Father is greater than I,’ (Exodus 26:7–11) though according to nature of divinity holding equal-measure, and not being worsted of the superiority of the one who begot. And length for the wood, ten cubits. For all-perfect as in heights of the divinity is Christ. And a sign of perfection, the number running unto ten, is taken in the divine Scripture. And a gold head for the wood, and indeed also a gold body. For the temple from the Virgin is enriched with the lodging of the uppermost nature. And a symbol of divinity is the gold, having superiority according to all, as somehow in a word of such material. And from silver and from two is the base. And bright and transparent on earth is Christ, according at least to the, ‘God is Lord, and he has appeared to us’ (John 14:28); and he somehow has a two-natured knowledge; for in him both God and human are understood. For this, I think, is having as it were a double base and from silver.
Palladius: You liken uprightly.
Cyril: Yet look at that, O friend.
Palladius: What then?
Cyril: For having commanded the whole tent to be stretched unto ten curtains, he says in the middle: ‘And you will make goat-hair hides, a covering upon the tent; eleven you will make them hides… and you will join the five hides upon the same, and the six hides upon the same, and you will double the sixth hide according to the face of the tent…’ (Psalm 118:27) What then is the matter, O Palladius? For he raises ten curtains. Then how are the hides not equal-numbered to these, and one is superfluous—that is, the eleventh? For you will join, he says, the five hides upon the same, and the six hides upon the same.
Palladius: I am not able to say.
Cyril: But the placement at least will clarify what is sought.
Palladius: How have you said?
Cyril: For he says that five curtains compressed to one another must become; and another five, according to the same shape, and in equal manner opposed. Therefore the two having been raised opposite-faced, as somehow from north and south, or from dawn and indeed also west, an eleventh side somehow in the middle was thereafter designed, making the ten part by part, divided into two, upon which perhaps also the eleventh hide has been stretched around, holding together both sides with rings and hooks; and according to likeness of the others also this one’s pillars, yet fewer in number. For the ten curtains, as I already said before, were stretched unto length of cubits eight and twenty, and the eleventh and most middle of the others has been stretched toward the breadth of the five (four-cubited
Greek
μενος· «Ὁ Πατήρ μου μείζων μου ἐστὶ,» καίτοι κατὰ φύσιν θεότητος, ἰσομέτρως ἔχων, καὶ τῆς τοῦ τεκόντος ὑπεροχῆς οὐχ ἡττώμενος. Μῆκος δὲ τῷ ξύλῳ, δεκάπηχυ. Παντέλειος γὰρ ὡς ἐν ὑψώμασι τῆς θεότητος, ὁ Χριστός. Τελειότητος δὲ σημεῖον, ὁ εἰς δέκα τρέχων ἀριθμὸς παρά γε τῇ θείᾳ λαμβάνεται Γραφῇ. Χρυσῆ δὲ τῷ ξύλῳ κεφαλὴ, καὶ μὴν καὶ σῶμα χρυσοῦν. Φύσεώς γε μὴν τῆς ἀνωτάτω καταπλουτεῖ τὸν ἐναυλισμὸν ὁ ἐκ Παρθένου ναός. Σύμβολον δὲ θεότητος, ὁ χρυσὸς, ὑπεροχὴν ἔχων τὴν κατὰ πάντων, ὡς ἐν ὕλης τυχὸν τῆς τοιᾶσδε λόγῳ. Ἐξ ἀργύρου δὲ καὶ ἐκ δυοῖν ἡ βάσις. Λαμπρὸς δὲ καὶ διαφανὴς ἐν γῇ ὁ Χριστὸς, κατά γε τὸ, «Θεὸς Κύριος, καὶ ἐπέφανεν ἡμῖν·» καὶ οἱονεὶ διφυᾶ τὴν γνῶσιν ἔχει· νοεῖται γὰρ ἐν αὐτῷ Θεός τε καὶ ἄνθρωπος. Τουτὶ γὰρ, οἶμαι, ἔστι, τὸ διπλῆν ὥσπερ ἔχειν καὶ ἐξ ἀργύρου τὴν βάσιν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εἰκάζεις ὀρθῶς.
{ΚΥΡ.} Θέα γε μὴν ἐκεῖνο, ὦ τᾶν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὅ τι δή;
{ΚΥΡ.} Εἰς αὐλαίας γὰρ δέκα προστεταχὼς ὅλην ἐκτείνεσθαι τὴν σκηνὴν, ἐπιλέγει μεταξύ· «Καὶ ποιήσεις δέῤῥεις τριχίνας, σκέπην ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς· ἕνδεκα ποιήσεις αὐτὰς δέῤῥεις, τὸ μῆκος τῆς δέῤῥεως τῆς μιᾶς ἔσται τριάκοντα πήχεων, καὶ τεσσάρων πήχεων τὸ εὖρος τῆς δέῤῥεως τῆς μιᾶς· τὸ αὐτὸ μῆκος ἐπὶ ταῖς ἕνδεκα δέῤῥεσι. Καὶ συνάψεις τὰς πέντε δέῤῥεις ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, καὶ τὰς ἓξ δέῤῥεις ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, καὶ ἐπιδιπλώσεις τὴν δέῤῥιν τὴν ἕκτην κατὰ πρόσωπον τῆς σκηνῆς· καὶ ποιήσεις ἀγκύλας πεντήκοντα ἐπὶ τοῦ χείλους τῆς δέῤῥεως τῆς μιᾶς, τῆς ἀνὰ μέσον κατὰ τὴν συμβολήν. Καὶ πεντήκοντα ἀγκύλας ποιήσεις ἐπὶ τοῦ χείλους τῆς δέῤῥεως τῆς συναπτούσης τῆς δευτέρας.» Τί τὸ χρῆμα λοιπὸν, ὦ Παλλάδιε; δέκα μὲν γὰρ ἐγείρει τὰς αὐλαίας. Εἶτα πῶς οὐκ ἰσάριθμοι ταύταις αἱ δέῤῥεις, περιττεύει δὲ μία, τοῦτ' ἔστιν ἡ ἑνδεκάτη; Συνάψεις γὰρ, φησὶν, τὰς πέντε δέῤῥεις ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, καὶ τὰς ἓξ δέῤῥεις ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οὐκ ἔχω φράσαι.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀλλ' ἥ γε θέσις σαφηνιεῖ τὸ ζητούμενον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς ἔφης;
{ΚΥΡ.} Πέντε μὲν γὰρ αὐλαίας ἀλλήλαις συνεσφιγμένας ὅτι προσῆκε γενέσθαι φησίν· ἑτέρας δὲ πέντε, κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ δὲ σχῆμα, καὶ ἐν ἴσῳ τρόπῳ ἀντιτεταγμένας. Τοιγαροῦν ἀλλήλαιν καὶ ἀντιπροσώπως ἀντεγηγερμέναιν, ὡς ἐκ βοῤῥέου τυχὸν καὶ νότου, ἤγουν ἐξ ἠοῦς καὶ μέντοι καὶ δυσμῶν, ἑνδεκάτη τις ἡ διὰ μέσου λοιπὸν ἐσχεδιάζετο πλευρὰ, ἀνὰ μέρος ποιουμένη τὰς δέκα, διῃρημένας εἰς δύο, ἐφ' ᾗ τάχα που καὶ δέῤῥις ἡ ἑνδεκάτη περιτετά[ν]νυσται, κρίκοις τε καὶ ἀγκύλαις ἄμφω συνέχοντα τὰς πλευράς· καθ' ὁμοιότητα δὲ τῶν ἄλλων, καὶ οἱ ταύτης στύλοι, πλὴν ἥττους ἐν ἀριθμῷ. Αἱ μὲν γὰρ δέκα αὐλαῖαι, καθάπερ ἤδη προεῖπον, εἰς μῆκος ἐξετείνοντο πήχεων ὀκτὼ καὶ εἴκοσιν, ἥ γε μὴν ἑνδεκάτη καὶ μεσαιτάτη τῶν ἄλλων, τὸ εὖρος τῶν πέντε (τετραπήχεις
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 9 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 9 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 9)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 9)
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.