THEOSISCyrill of Alexandria
Cyril. The time of our Savior's Resurrection offers those sanctified by the Spirit and justified through faith the ability to produce the fruit of a new and blameless life, as the law clearly indicates by stating: ‘And then you shall bring a new grain offering to the Lord: From your dwellings you shall bring two loaves of libation, which shall consist of two tenths of an ephah of wheat flour, and shall be baked sour, as the firstfruits unto the Lord; and with the loaves you shall present seven lambs without blemish, of one year old, and of cattle one calf and two rams. ...; let these be a burnt offering to the Lord, and the grain offering and the libation to them, a sacrifice, a sweet savour to the Lord.
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Prepare also out of the flock of goats one goat for a sin offering, and two yearling lambs for a peace-offering.... And the priest shall bring it, shaking it before the Lord, together with the first-fruits loaves and the two lambs, and it shall be a holy thing unto the Lord: to the priest that bringeth it shall belong: and ye shall call the people this day, a holy convocation shall ye have; ye shall work no work: this is an everlasting ordinance in all your dwellings throughout your generations’ (Leviticus 23:16-21). The inception and, in a sense, the firstfruits of creation, being restored for the renewal of the created order, is Immanuel; and among us, He is regarded as the first bread and the new batch; we that enter upon the same path can also, in a manner of speaking, be considered a new mixture. This is clearly represented by the offering of bread made from new fruits; however, the law specifies that not just one loaf should be offered, but two: for there are two nations, which are united through Christ the Intercessor. Yet, it is stated that only the leavened bread shall be baked. What is the significance of this profound declaration? Shall we interpret this leaven as that which embodies wickedness and unrighteousness? Wouldn’t that be illogical? For how could we regard those entering into the renewal of the gospel life as removed from wickedness? In what way would this connect to renewal? And how could one be identified as a new mixture if any trace of this leaven still resides within him, preventing him from being entirely free from unholy and vile sin? Thus, using sound reasoning, we must perceive here a different type of leaven, one which is not to be condemned, but rather, in divinely inspired Scripture, acknowledged as admirable. The Savior equates the glorious and beneficial power of the Divine evangelical teaching to leaven, stating: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which the woman took and put into three measures of flour, until all was leavened’ (Matthew 13:33): for when it enters the mind and heart, the life-giving impact of the gospel instruction transforms the soul, body, and spirit into its own essence. This, therefore, is the leaven that the nations, represented in the form of loaves, must be understood to be leavened with. Each of them is ‘of two tithes,’ a symbol that hints at a dual nature of instruction.