THEOSISCyrill of Alexandria
Cyril. The period marking our Savior’s Resurrection leads those who are sanctified by the Holy Spirit and justified by faith to the ability to produce a new and faultless life. This is clearly indicated by the law, which further states: "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, restored for the renewal of humanity, is Immanuel. Among us, He is regarded as the first bread and the new mixture; in His image, we, too, having embarked on the same journey, are regarded in a certain sense as a new mixture. This is unmistakably indicated by the offering of bread made from new fruits; yet the law insists that not just one loaf be presented, but two: representing the two nations brought into unity through Christ, our Advocate. It is said that only leavened bread shall be baked. What does this enigmatic statement mean? Should we interpret it to indicate leaven associated with wickedness and ungodliness? That would be absurd; for how could we consider those brought into the renewal of the gospel life as free from sin? Furthermore, how could this relate to renewal? How could one be identified as a new mixture if remnants of this leaven still remain within him, preventing him from being completely cleansed of unholy and despicable evil? Therefore, from a sound perspective, we must recognize another type of leaven here, one that is not to be condemned but, on the contrary, is deemed extraordinary in the divinely inspired Scriptures.
Thus, the Savior parallels the glorious and beneficial influence of the Divine gospel message to leaven, declaring: "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). The gospel’s life-giving power, entering into the heart and mind, transforms soul, body, and spirit as if reconstituted into its divine essence. This is the leaven by which the nations, metaphorically represented as loaves, should be understood to be leavened. Each of them is "of two tithes," an image that mysteriously directs us toward a dual nature of instruction.