St Cyril of Alexandria On the incarnation of the Only-Begotten

Translated by P.E. Pusey

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Page 8

11. That the Word being co-brought to true union with the human nature, the things united [11] have remained unconfused.

The holy Tabernacle was reared by the will of God in the wilderness and in it was manifoldly typified Emmanuel. The God of all said therefore to the divine Moses, And thou shalt make an ark of incorruptible wood, two cubits and a half its length, and a cubit and half its breadth and a cubit and a half its height, and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it. But the wood that will not rot will be a type of the incorruptible Body (for cedar does not rot); gold as matter surpassing all others will indicate to us the Excellence of the Divine Essence.  

But observe how the whole ark [12] was overlaid with pure gold within and without. For God the Word was united to the holy Flesh, and this (I deem) is it that the ark was overlaid without. But that He made His own the reasonable Soul also that was within the Body, will this shew, viz., that He bade that it should be overlaid within also. And that the Natures or Hypostases have remained unconfused, shall we see hence. For the gold that was spread upon the wood, remained what it was, and the wood was rich in the glory of the gold; yet it ceased not from being wood.

But that the ark is taken as a type of Christ one may be assured of through many proofs. For it used to precede them of Israel, seeking rest for them; Christ too somewhere says, I go to prepare a place for you.

11. [k] τὰ ἡνωμένα. substantiae, Lat. αἱ ὑποστάσεις, syr.

12. [l] The idea that the Ark was a type of Christ's Body is very ancient, see the fragment preserved to us of S. Irenaeus (p.558 O.T.). S. Irenaeus speaks of the pure gold, somewhat similarly, "For as the Ark was gilded with pure gold both within and without, so was the Body of Christ too pure and resplendent: within adorned by the "Word and without kept by the Spirit." [The latter part of the note ought to be cancelled, for S. Irenaeus (as Severus understood him) followed 2 Sam. vi. 1. in the LXX which gives 70,000 as the number which David gathered.]

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