Cyril of Alexandria

At the end of time our Lord Jesus Christ will be reconciled with Israel, his ancient persecutor, just as Jacob kissed Esau after his return from Haran. No one who listens to the words of holy Scripture can actually doubt that with the passing of time Israel also will have to be received again into the love of Christ through faith. The Lord proclaims to everybody through the voice of one of the holy prophets: “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an altar, and without priesthood and without manifestations. And afterward the children of Israel shall return and shall seek the Lord, their God, and David, their king, and shall be amazed at the Lord and at his goodness in the latter days.” While Christ, the Savior of us all, gathers believers from the nations, Israel is deserted, since it has no law to elect its leaders, and it cannot offer to the divine altar the sacrifices prescribed by the laws. It therefore awaits Christ’s return from his action of converting the nations, so that he may receive it as well and unite it with the law of his love to the others. See how Jacob, who rejoiced in the generation of his children and in his numerous herds of sheep, came back from Haran and received again Esau into his friendship. In time Israel itself will be converted after the calling of the nations and will admire these riches in Christ.

Those who are brothers according to faith to the injured one, if they are in the priestly order, like Levi, are among the subjects (Simon, in fact, is interpreted as “obedience”). They are extremely displeased if somebody who is their intimate friend according to faith is offended. However, they should not proceed to demand blood, nor should they expect extremely severe punishments for the corruptors, so as not to listen to Christ, who said to them, “You have made me hateful, so that I am now evil in the eyes of all the inhabitants of the land.” It is necessary to remember what Jesus said in reproof to Peter, who was holding his sword, “Put up again your sword into its sheath: all those who take the sword shall perish with the sword.” In fact, it is not fitting for us, who are inclined toward piety in God, to be armed with swords but rather to be patient. Even though some people want to persecute us, we must reproach them to be good. We must be patient but never silent, as we must refer to him who judges rightly. Those who want to avoid destruction must be careful not to leave the tabernacle of the father, that is, the house of God, in order not to be received into the herds of the heretics and other strangers. After moving out of the father’s tabernacle, Dinah was brought to the house of Shechem. She would have never been reproached if she had stayed in the paternal houses and had lived constantly in the holy tabernacles. David declares how that thing is beautiful and very useful by singing, “One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will earnestly seek: that I should dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I should behold the fair beauty of the Lord and survey his temple. For in the days of my affliction he hid me in his tabernacle: he sheltered me in the secret of his tabernacle.”

After he was called by God, Jacob ascends to Bethel, that is, to the house of God (this is how the name Bethel is interpreted), offers sacrifices to God and is declared chief and master of the holy rites. He teaches his successors and descendants how they must enter the house of God. He orders the foreign gods to be rejected like dung and filth and to change the garments. It is fitting for us to do likewise when we are called before God, or enter the divine temple, especially in the time of the holy baptism. We, as if we drive away the foreign gods and part from such error, must assert, “I refuse you, Satan, and all your pomp and all your worship.” We also must change completely our garment by stripping off “the old self that is corrupt through deceitful lusts” and by clothing ourselves with “the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to image of its Creator.” The women who were with Jacob took off their earrings. And in fact women by entering the house of God without wearing any carnal ornament and with loose hair remove from their head any accusation of pride. That is why, I believe, those women took off the precious stones they wore in their ears.

And Joseph was loved by his father a great deal. And he gave him a multicolored garment as an excellent gift and a proof of the love with which he accompanied him. And this was an incentive to envy for his brothers and a cause of hatred, as the following events will demonstrate. In fact, the Pharisees were inflamed with anger against the beloved, that is, Christ, because he had been clothed by God the Father with a multiform glory. He was admirable in different forms, partly as a vivifying God, partly as a light that was able to illuminate those who were in the darkness, and to purify the lepers, and to raise from the dead those who were already decomposing, and to reprove the seas and to be carried on the waves through his power. And the Jews being in difficulty and burning with the flames of envy, said to each other, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.” The multicolored garment is the symbol of the multiform glory with which God the Father clothed the Son made similar to us through his human nature. However, with regard to his own nature, he himself is the Lord of glory, even though, because of the likeness he has with us, he says, “Father, glorify your Son.” Therefore for the reasons that I have examined, the sons of the concubines were induced to anger and envy and became suspicious after the dream was related. Since they knew in advance that in time they would have become subjects to their brother and would have adored him, and he would have been superior to them by far and would have been brought to such a glory to be adored by their own parents, they gnashed their teeth and planned to kill him. And so the Jews were angered too, and not less afflicted, since they understood that the Immanuel would have been superior to the holy patriarchs themselves and would have been necessarily adored by all the people and indeed by the whole world. And being aware of this, they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”

In the first place it must be said that, even though there are some famous characters who are discovered to be guilty of acting in a not entirely honest way, however, since God in the holy Scriptures produces through them something useful for our salvation, let us drive away from us what may offend. If we take good care of our wisdom and intelligence, we are not unaware of what regards our profit. Let us consider how the blessed prophet Hosea took a prostitute as his wife, nor [did he refuse] a notorious marriage and was called the father of hateful sons, whose names were “Not my people” and “Unpitied.” I will not hesitate to declare what this means. In fact, after those who were the nobles and the princes in Israel opposed the preaching of the prophets and the divine word was unpleasing to them, in the meantime God acted through his saints so that they might see the future from what was happening as if it was magnificently and expressly depicted in a picture. God did this so they might rededicate their minds to understanding their hope and might look with the strongest application for what would have been salutary to them and might also persuade others to do the same. And they learned that they would not have been the elected people anymore but would have been received among those who show no mercy, if they behaved with hardness and immoderation. Were not they afflicted by evils and overwhelmed by them everywhere?… Since we now understand the criterion and direction of the divine plan in those times, we will not condemn anymore the adultery of Tamar and Judah, but rather we will say that their union occurred in the divine plan. In fact, the former was in need of the seed of procreation as her legitimate husband was lacking it. The latter was guilty of a slight fault since he was free after his first wife had already died. So this union and generation teach us about our spiritual union and the rebirth of our mind. The human mind cannot be drawn to truth in a more appropriate way.

When Joseph was still young and at the end of his adolescence, he overcame the impudence of the Egyptian woman, even though he was dragged with great force to commit what was not lawful. In fact, this woman arguing with him impudently took the clothes off him and urged him to sin against his will. Actually he escaped from the furious lust of the woman after abandoning his cloak and could not be defeated by her strong will. Therefore he was accused of that action, since the woman turned the fault to him. In that dishonorable accusation, however, Joseph demonstrated great modesty and nobility. And he was thrown into the prison. Christ also was among the pagans, especially in the person of the holy apostles, who declared that they carried around on their own body his scars. They did not want to adjust themselves to those things that belong to the world but kept away from any desire of the flesh. And such is always the life of the saints. Therefore, for this reason, they were the object of many plots and were oppressed by the slander of those who were accustomed to regard those who wanted to live in Christ as unbearable, so that they fell into tremendous temptations and were imprisoned. However, they always bore in mind Christ’s saying: “If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, therefore the world hates you,” exactly as the lustful woman hated Joseph.

And to that we also add that Joseph together with Benjamin was recognized by his brothers who had arrived, and he admitted them to his dining table, as I have just said. However, he did not give them any gift but ordered them to leave again in order that they bring to him the father, I mean, Jacob. After he came down and Joseph saw him there together with his children and family, he gave them the best parts of his land. This narrative is a clear sign that the Israelites themselves, by coming back in the latter times of the world, will be received by Christ, that is, when they will be in accord with the new people, that is symbolized, as I have said, by Benjamin. In addition, the inheritance we hope for will be given to us only by the holy fathers. As those who died in the faith, as the wise Paul says, “did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect,” so we wait for the fathers, so that we will not be made perfect apart from them. In the same manner and together with the holy fathers of the first, the second and the last people we will receive the very good inheritance of the heavenly kingdom that is not made by human hands in Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to God the Father with the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.

And we the last became the first through faith, and the nation of the Gentiles inherited the glory of the firstborn. They obtained that honor through obedience and faith. And Christ himself testified about them by saying, “A people whom I did not know served me, with their ear’s hearing they obeyed me.” Even though we were born from a mother of different kinds, since the church was called among different nations, Christ is sufficient for us as a mediator, who unites us to God the Father, and ascribes some to the lot of the saints, and gives them the right glory and declares us to be a holy generation. But see how through Jacob’s love for Joseph he placed the sons of Joseph among his own sons. And so we are also beloved in Christ, and after we were born again through him in a spiritual generation, we are received by the Father, as I have already said, and added to the saints who preceded us. In fact, if we have been called children of God the Father, we also must be under the power and control of the one who led us and united us to him, that is, Christ. See how the holy Jacob received Ephraim and Manasseh among his own sons: “As for the offspring born to you after them, they will be yours.” You understand now that even though we are called children of God, nonetheless we will be children of Christ. And this is, I believe, what he says to the Father in another passage: “Those whom you gave me from the world were yours, and you gave them to me, and I have been glorified in them.”

In these blessings, the way that they expressly introduced the listeners to the prophecy concerning the incarnation of our Savior is extremely clear. At the beginning of the blessing the meaning of the name itself is set before the reader’s eyes, and also the fact that the tribe of Judah was superior to all the others for its glory. If one wants to interpret the name Judah, it means “praise” or “hymn” or “celebrated with hymns.” These words therefore must be referred to Christ, who obviously is from the tribe of Judah according to the flesh. He was born from Judah, Jesse and David and from that virgin who was assumed for the generation of the flesh.… You must be praised, and to God you will give back the glory that is due him. No one else is suited to be glorified but only the living and well-known God. Even though you appeared human and emptied yourself, you are known to be holy and eternal. Your brothers according to human nature will not be related to you as man but rather will praise you as Lord, though placed among your brothers, and will glorify you as Creator, though you have placed yourself with them among the creatures. They will recognize you as the Lord and the King, even though you appeared veiled under the “form of a slave.” Moreover, he foretold the fact that the Immanuel would have overcome all those who opposed him … saying, “Your hands on the back of your enemies.” And Christ himself, through the voice of David, foretold the same thing. He said, “I will pursue my enemies and will take them, and I will not return until they are defeated. I will crush them, and they will not be able to stand but will fall under my feet.” Then Jacob said rightly, “His hands will be on the back of his enemies,” that is, as those of the one pursuing rather than those of one fleeing, as those of the one striking rather than those of one who is struck. What is declared in the book of the Psalms is true: “The enemy shall have no advantage against him, and the son of iniquity shall not hurt him again.” If he gives us the power to “tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy,” how can we not be confident that he has under his control those who want to oppose him and to exalt themselves impiously? The divine Jacob foretold that Christ cannot flee but only pursue and that he would defeat everyone effortlessly (in fact, he conquered the world), when he said, “Your hands will be on the back of your enemies, and the children of your father will adore you.”