Cyprian — Commentary on Scripture

Isaiah 3:12

But now, what wounds can the conquered show, what injuries to gaping vitals, what tortures of the limbs, when faith did not fail in combat but perfidy arrived before the combat? Nor does the necessity of the crime excuse the one who was caught, where the crime is of the will. I do not say this to burden the cases of the brothers but rather to stimulate the brothers to prayers of satisfaction. For since it is written, “They that call you blessed send you into error and destroy the way of your steps,” one who consoles the sinner with flattering blandishments furnishes the means for sinning and does not check transgressions but nourishes them. But one who rebukes at the same time that he instructs with firmer counsels urges a brother on to salvation.

Treatise III. On the Lapsed 14

Isaiah 3:12

Isaiah also, filled with the Holy Spirit, cries out and chides the daughters of Zion who have been defiled by gold and raiment, and he reproves those who have an abundance of harmful riches and withdraw from God for the sake of the pleasures of time.… This, God blames; this, he brands with reproach. By this he declares that they have been defiled; by this they have departed from the true adornment and have merited disgrace and shame. Having put on silk and purple, they cannot put on Christ; adorned with gold and pearls and necklaces, they have lost the adornments of the heart and soul. Who would not detest and shun what has caused another’s ruin? Who would seek and take what has served as a sword and weapon for the death of another? If, on draining the cup, he who had taken the potion should die, you would know that what he drank was poison; if, after taking food, he who had taken it should perish, you would know that what could kill, when taken, was deadly. Seeing this you would not eat nor would you drink from that which had been used by those who died. Now what ignorance of the tr…

Isaiah also, filled with the Holy Spirit, cries out and chides the daughters of Zion who have been defiled by gold and raiment, and he reproves those who have an abundance of harmful riches and withdraw from God for the sake of the pleasures of time.… This, God blames; this, he brands with reproach. By this he declares that they have been defiled; by this they have departed from the true adornment and have merited disgrace and shame. Having put on silk and purple, they cannot put on Christ; adorned with gold and pearls and necklaces, they have lost the adornments of the heart and soul. Who would not detest and shun what has caused another’s ruin? Who would seek and take what has served as a sword and weapon for the death of another? If, on draining the cup, he who had taken the potion should die, you would know that what he drank was poison; if, after taking food, he who had taken it should perish, you would know that what could kill, when taken, was deadly. Seeing this you would not eat nor would you drink from that which had been used by those who died. Now what ignorance of the truth it is, what madness of mind to wish for what has always been and still is harmful, and to think that you yourself will not perish from the same causes from which you know that others have perished!

Treatise II. On the Dress of Virgins 13

Isaiah 10:23

What wonder, most beloved brothers, if such [the Lord’s Prayer] is the prayer that God has taught, who by his instruction has abbreviated our every prayer in a saving word? This had already been foretold by Isaiah the prophet, when filled with the Holy Spirit, he spoke of the majesty and loving kindness of God. He said, “He will finish the word and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short word in all the world.” For when the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came to all, and gathering together the learned and unlearned alike, he gave forth the precepts of salvation to every sex and age, he made a concise compendium of his precepts. [This was] so that the memory of the learners might not be burdened in heavenly discipline but might learn quickly what was necessary to a simple faith.

Treatise IV. On the Lord's Prayer 28

Isaiah 22:13

That too great lust of food is not to be desired. In Isaiah: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. This sin shall not be atoned for to you, even until you die.” Also in Exodus: “And the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Paul, in the first [letter] to the Corinthians: “Food does not commend us to God; neither if we eat shall we abound, nor if we do not eat shall we lack.” And again: “When you come together to eat, wait one for another. If any is hungry, let him eat at home, that you may not come together for judgment.” Also to the Romans: “The kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” In the Gospel according to John: “I have food of which you don’t know. My food is that I should do his will who sent me and should finish his work.”

Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3:60

Isaiah 29:10

Not to recognize sins lest penance follow is the wrath of God, as it is written: “And the Lord gave to them the spirit of a deep sleep,” lest they actually return and be cured and be healed by their lamentations and just satisfactions after their sins.…The first degree of felicity is not to sin; the second, to recognize the sins committed. In the former, innocence runs upright and unimpaired to save; in the latter, there follows the remedy to cure. They have lost both of these by offending God.… Or do you think, brother, that crimes against God are light matters, small and of little moment, because through them the majesty of an offended God is not sought, because the wrath and fire and day of the Lord are not feared, because, with Antichrist at hand, the faith of a militant people is disarmed while vigor and the fear of Christ are taken away?

Epistle LIV:13

Isaiah 29:11

Isaiah [prophesied] that the Jews would not understand the holy Scriptures, but that they would become intelligible in the last times, after Christ had come: “And all these words shall be to you as the words of a book that is sealed, which, if you shall give to a man that knows letters to read, he shall say, I cannot read, for it is sealed.… But in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and they who are in darkness and in a cloud; the eyes of the blind shall see.”

Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 1:4

Isaiah 29:13

What is this obstinacy or what is this presumption to place human tradition before the divine plan and not to notice that God is offended and angered as often as human tradition subverts and disregards the divine precepts? He cries and says through Isaiah, the prophet, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far separated from me. In vain, moreover, they honor me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.”

Epistle LXXIII:3

Isaiah 29:14

Philosophers also declare that they pursue this virtue, but their patience is as false as is their wisdom, for how can anyone be either wise or patient unless he knows the wisdom and patience of God? For he himself warns and states concerning those who think that they are wise in this world: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject.” … Therefore, if their wisdom is not true, their patience cannot be true either. For if that man who is humble and meek is patient, and yet we see that the philosophers are not humble or meek but very pleasing to themselves, and displeasing to God by the very fact that they are pleasing to themselves, it is evident that patience is not found where there is the arrogant boldness of an affected freedom and the shameless boasting of the proud and half-naked breast.

Treatise IX. On the Advantage of Patience 2

Isaiah 42:24

In this part of the Lord’s Prayer, [Christ] shows that the enemy is powerless against us without God’s prior permission. During temptation, consequently, all our fear and devotion and attention should be focused on God, since evil has only such force as he himself permits. … Moreover, evil is given power over us according to our [willful] sins. As Isaiah writes, “Who gave Jacob up to the looters and Israel to the ponderers.” It was the Lord, against whom we sinned, in whose ways we would not walk and whose law we refused to obey. So he unleashed the fury of his anger against us. And again, when Solomon strayed from the precepts and paths of the Lord, it was recorded, “The Lord stirred up Satan against Solomon himself.”

Treatise IV. On the Lord's Prayer 25

Isaiah 43:19-20

But as often as water is named alone in the holy Scriptures, baptism is referred to, as we see intimated in Isaiah: “Remember not,” says he, “the former things, and consider not the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing.…” There God foretold by the prophet that among the nations, in places that previously had been dry, rivers should afterwards flow plenteously and should provide water for the elected people of God, that is, for those who were made children of God by the generation of baptism. Moreover, it is again predicted and foretold before, that the Jews, if they should thirst and seek after Christ, should drink with us, that is, should attain the grace of baptism. “If they shall thirst,” he says, “he shall lead them through the deserts, shall bring forth water for them out of the rock. The rock shall be cloven, and the water shall flow, and my people shall drink,” which is fulfilled in the Gospel, when Christ, who is the Rock, is cloven by a stroke of the spear in his passion; who also, admonishing what was before announced by the prophet, cries and says, “If anyone thirs…

But as often as water is named alone in the holy Scriptures, baptism is referred to, as we see intimated in Isaiah: “Remember not,” says he, “the former things, and consider not the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing.…” There God foretold by the prophet that among the nations, in places that previously had been dry, rivers should afterwards flow plenteously and should provide water for the elected people of God, that is, for those who were made children of God by the generation of baptism. Moreover, it is again predicted and foretold before, that the Jews, if they should thirst and seek after Christ, should drink with us, that is, should attain the grace of baptism. “If they shall thirst,” he says, “he shall lead them through the deserts, shall bring forth water for them out of the rock. The rock shall be cloven, and the water shall flow, and my people shall drink,” which is fulfilled in the Gospel, when Christ, who is the Rock, is cloven by a stroke of the spear in his passion; who also, admonishing what was before announced by the prophet, cries and says, “If anyone thirst, let him come and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” And that it might be more evident that the Lord is speaking there not of the cup but of baptism, the Scripture adds, saying, “But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe in him should receive.” For by baptism the Holy Spirit is received, and thus by those who are baptized and have attained to the Holy Spirit is attained the drinking of the Lord’s cup.

Epistle LXII:8

Isaiah 52:11

Who is there among those destined to be born and die who will not at some point have to leave his country and suffer the loss of his estate? But by no means let Christ be forsaken. The loss of salvation and an eternal home is a much greater threat. See how the Holy Spirit cries to the prophet, “Leave. Depart. Get out of here. Do not touch any unclean thing. Get out of the middle of such things and be separate, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.” And yet, those who are the vessels of the Lord and the temple of God do not go out from the middle of all this and leave so that they wouldn’t have to be compelled to touch the unclean things or be polluted and corrupted with deadly food. In another place, a voice is heard from heaven, warning them ahead of time what servants of God should be doing. It says, “Come out of her, my people, so that you do not become partakers of her sins and so that you do not receive her plagues.” The one who goes out and leaves does not become a partaker of the guilt. But whoever is found as a companion in her crimes will be wounded with the plagues. Therefo…

Who is there among those destined to be born and die who will not at some point have to leave his country and suffer the loss of his estate? But by no means let Christ be forsaken. The loss of salvation and an eternal home is a much greater threat. See how the Holy Spirit cries to the prophet, “Leave. Depart. Get out of here. Do not touch any unclean thing. Get out of the middle of such things and be separate, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.” And yet, those who are the vessels of the Lord and the temple of God do not go out from the middle of all this and leave so that they wouldn’t have to be compelled to touch the unclean things or be polluted and corrupted with deadly food. In another place, a voice is heard from heaven, warning them ahead of time what servants of God should be doing. It says, “Come out of her, my people, so that you do not become partakers of her sins and so that you do not receive her plagues.” The one who goes out and leaves does not become a partaker of the guilt. But whoever is found as a companion in her crimes will be wounded with the plagues. Therefore, the Lord commanded us in persecution to leave and to flee. He not only taught that this should be done; he did it himself. For just as the crown is given by the condescension of God and cannot be received unless the hour comes for accepting it, so those who remain in Christ but leave for a while do not deny their faith but instead bide their time. One who has fallen, however, after refusing to leave, remains only to deny his crown.

Treatise III. On the Lapsed 10

Isaiah 59:2

The Lord can prohibit adversities, but the merits of sinners cause him to give no aid.… Therefore, let your sins and offences be numbered; let the wounds of your conscience be considered; and let each one cease to complain about God and about us, if he understands that he deserves what he suffers.

Treatise V. An Address to Demetrianus 11

Isaiah 59:2

Let us consider our sins, and reviewing the secrets of our action and mind, let us weigh the merits of our conscience.

Treatise III. On the Lapsed 21

Isaiah 63:3

And does not also the Holy Spirit, speaking in Isaiah, testify the same thing concerning the passion of the Lord, saying, “Why are your vestments red and your garments as from treading the wine press full and well-trodden?” For can water make vestments red, or is it water that is trodden by the feet in the winepress or forced out by the press? The mention of wine is placed there, indeed, that in the wine the blood of the Lord may be known and that which was afterward manifested in the chalice of the Lord might be foretold by the prophets who announced it. The treading and pressing of the winepress are also spoken of, since wine cannot be prepared for drinking in any other way unless the cluster of grapes is first trodden and pressed. Thus, we could not drink the blood of Christ unless Christ had first been trodden on and pressed, and unless he had first drunk the chalice of which he should also give believers to drink.

Epistle LXII:7

Isaiah 66:2

We must preserve in the straight and narrow road of praise and glory; and since peacefulness and humility and the tranquility of a good life are fitting for all Christians, according to the word of the Lord, who looks to no other person than “to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles at” his word, it the more behooves you confessors, who have been made an example to the rest of the brothers, to observe and fulfill this, as being those whose characters should provoke to imitation the life and conduct of all.

Epistle VI:3