TRV
Cyril of Alexandria
Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500
2,177 passages across 38 books of the Bible · Who was this?
On Isaiah
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Isaiah 63:9
We say that these human things are his by an economic appropriation, along with the flesh all the things belonging to it. We recognize no other Son apart from him, for the Lord has saved us, giving his own blood as a ransom for the life of all.
ON THE UNITY OF CHRIST
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Isaiah 63:13
Where is he who put in them the Holy Spirit, that is, he who established the divine and saving Spirit in them? For the Spirit descended from the Lord and guided them, saying, “David divinely uttered, ‘Send forth your word and heal us.’ ” For the Lord is the Spirit; he works through the Spirit that is of the same nature. Where then is he? For they forgot him and did not seek him, when they clearly should have remembered him and loved him. Where is he who led Moses by the right hand? Moses was great, famous and lofty in dignity. And this is shown in that it says [Moses] led them, working through [the Spirit] who is the right hand of God.
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Isaiah 63:13
Indeed just as the Lord and the Son are one, the Lord is the Father. For they come together, and the Holy Spirit both is and can be understood to be in both, and he makes sharp the straight way of truth whenever the mind of believers lacks correct thinking. On account of this being the case, the Spirit is Lord and God, as the Scriptures declare, with the great Isaiah speaking concerning the race of Israel, “The Spirit came down from the Lord and led them.”
ON THE HOLY AND CONSUBSTANTIAL TRINITY 7
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Isaiah 63:13
It seems that Isaiah is making mention here of the resurrection of Christ, the Savior of us all. “He who has gone up” is said in place of “he who has risen”—from the earth—the chief shepherd of all, not just that he was rising up from the dead, but in the sense that he was clearly distinct among human beings. For he became like one of us, undergoing birth from a woman according to the flesh—he who was the only-begotten Word of the Father.
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Isaiah 63:15
Here onwards the prophet prays for every nation, and in the person of the Israelites he presents his supplication. He prays that God will withhold his wrath from them and cease rebuking them and in a forgiving manner subdue Israel’s desertion; for there was no one on earth for them other than the true God, one having a glorious home in heaven, their father. Although God is said to dwell in heaven, this should not be thought of him in physical terms. For we say that God is not in a place or to be circumscribed; he is simple, and without a body he fills all things.
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Isaiah 63:19
The church is often called “the holy mountain” in the sacred Scriptures, and those from Israel are only a small part of it. For if they had demonstrated faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the company of the faith would have sprung from them for the most part and the Gentiles would have been added in to complete the number. But because of the serious disobedience of the Jews, the people of the church were consequently largely drawn from the nations, and these provided the majority; the former people were few in number (for a remnant shall be saved), so only in small measure will they be called on to the holy mountain, that is, into the church.
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Isaiah 64:4
The divine is invisible in nature. “For no one has ever seen God,” as it is written. But God can be seen by the eyes of faith from those things that happen without explanation and beyond speech. For the invisible things, since the foundation of the world, are clearly understood by the things that are made, that is, his heavenly power and godhead. For he is often recognized through those in whom he works the good and makes a sign of the serenity dwelling in him, marvelously saving those deprived of all hope, and he extends a saving hand from the ground to those lying on the earth. In like manner, they who make this prayer speak, “From the foundation of the world we have not heard nor have we seen such a God, except now for you and you alone. For you give mercy to those who wait for you and put their hope in you, refining and making them to fit together, those who work for your justice and who are mindful of your paths, that is, all who carry out the things you want. For we say that his commandments are the ways of the Lord.”
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Isaiah 64:6-7
Some translators try to alter the meaning of this passage.… For it is not, they say, that the divine anger was the cause of their misdeeds, but that because they misbehaved, God was angry. For they are afraid lest God's anger be thought of as the effector of sins. I think it ought to be said that there is no condemning the divine anger, if those receiving it were insufficiently motivated to flee the attack of sin. As long as the Savior is pleased in us, let us flee sin and forcefully leave the filth of vices and with increase be crowned in spiritual success.… For God is the Lord of powers.… Just as the kind clemency from above shows us how to be strong and brave for the resistance of evil, by the same reason when we fall under divine wrath, it is necessary that we bow in servile fashion.
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Isaiah 64:9
They entreat God insistently concerning his removal from friendship with them. Since they had come to this situation through their many sins, they wove their prayers with great skill. For since they are unable to mollify the one who could save them with their own works and blameless lives, they now take another route. They ask him as the creator of his own work to be reasonable and sparing with those who were brought into being and life by him.… “We are not unaware that we have offended you; we confess that we showed ourselves to deserve judgment and acted savagely towards the Son.”
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Isaiah 64:11-12
The defendants speak of the damage in the soul and that they have been caught in their sins; they are like leaves blown about by every wind and, scattered all over, now remember the external misfortunes that came on them. And the destruction of Jerusalem is deplored along with the temple’s burning. For after the Savior’s crucifixion, these things were fulfilled.
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Isaiah 65:9
The holy Scripture often calls the church “the holy mountain” whose lesser part came from Israel. For if Israel had received the faith that is in our Lord Jesus Christ, they would have formed the greater part of the church’s composition, and the multitude of the nations would have been added to them. But because they did not believe, they became the lesser of the two. The nations became greater, while Israel became quite small. For the remnant will be saved. Therefore they inherit a small portion in the holy mountain, that is, the church.
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Isaiah 65:15
All things have been made new in Christ—worship and life and the making of laws. For we no longer adhere to shadows and ineffective types, but rather we offer adoration and worship, in spirit and truth, to the God who is above all. We do not take our name like the physical descendants of Israel from one of the first ancestors or fathers, such as Ephraim, or Manasseh, or some other tribe; nor do we follow the path of the scribes and the Pharisees, who value the antiquity of the letter above all else; but we submit to Christ in the newness of the life of the gospel, and having been given his name, like a crown, we are called Christians. This celebrated and blessed name has spread throughout the world. And because we have been blessed by Christ, we, in turn, try to make him rejoice with blessings and ceaseless praises.
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Isaiah 65:18
Instead of the former affliction, the prophet says, “they shall find in her joy and exultation.” To what does “in her” refer? Without a doubt it can be said that it refers to the church of Christ. It must be noted that some commentators refer this passage not to the period of our earthly life but to the one that is to come after this present age. For the prophet says that the just will find joy and gladness and will enjoy endless delight, that is, spiritual delight, when this creation had been transformed and renewed. For one of the holy apostles said: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. But according to his promise we wait for new heaven and a new earth.” Choose, therefore, whichever of these interpretations appeals to you, the former or the latter. For one should not reject what brings benefit to us.
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Isaiah 66:6
For it was the Lord’s voice that said, “rendering recompense to his enemies,” ordering and exhorting those who destroy to spare none of those captured, savagely attacking the enemies and not only simply with the wrath of warriors but also with the will of the Sovereign. For this was only the means of their captivity and suffering.
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Isaiah 66:7-9
Again Isaiah teaches that Jerusalem will not be destroyed root, branch and all. For when he foretold the complete captivity of Jerusalem, he mentioned those chosen to survive. For a not insignificant number will be saved, obviously through faith in Christ—and he wants to make this clear. But the Jews were enraged with him and killed the prince of life. But when he rose again, trampling on death, he returned to his God and Father in heaven. In the meantime, the divine apostles proclaimed him to all, and they called even those who had been enraged with him to repentance and to salvation through faith and the forgiveness of sins through baptism.
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Isaiah 66:10-12
This struggle is the correction of noble good deeds in them. For their sweat is profitable, and they have youth-like endurance in order to gain not an earthly possession but rather so that they become filled with graces from God and are satisfied in every desire. To these he makes this promise, “Like infants at the breast you will be filled by the breasts of consolation.” Since Isaiah has previously compared the figure of a woman with the new Zion, he remains in this way of speaking and compares this comfort with that of the breasts and milk of the Holy Spirit. For in the Song of Songs it says, “Your breasts are better than wine.” … And Scripture calls Christ “glory,” for the psalmist says about him, “to prepare glory in our land.” This entrance is the mystery of the economy in the flesh. Being God by nature, he became man through his incarnation and in such manner came into the world. Those feed on the precise message of faith concerning him, and they learn in what way the glory, that is, Christ came into the world. And directly connected to this, the divine prophet speaks of his cl…
This struggle is the correction of noble good deeds in them. For their sweat is profitable, and they have youth-like endurance in order to gain not an earthly possession but rather so that they become filled with graces from God and are satisfied in every desire. To these he makes this promise, “Like infants at the breast you will be filled by the breasts of consolation.” Since Isaiah has previously compared the figure of a woman with the new Zion, he remains in this way of speaking and compares this comfort with that of the breasts and milk of the Holy Spirit. For in the Song of Songs it says, “Your breasts are better than wine.” … And Scripture calls Christ “glory,” for the psalmist says about him, “to prepare glory in our land.” This entrance is the mystery of the economy in the flesh. Being God by nature, he became man through his incarnation and in such manner came into the world. Those feed on the precise message of faith concerning him, and they learn in what way the glory, that is, Christ came into the world. And directly connected to this, the divine prophet speaks of his clear appearance in the flesh, taking on Christ’s voice as he says, “I will descend on them as a river of peace, and as a spring I will wash over the glory of the nations.” -
Isaiah 66:16
“For he will come like fire.” … For he will descend from heaven in the glory of God the Father and with the angels. This is his chariot, as it is praised in the Psalms: “The chariot of the Lord is ten thousand in dimensions with thousands of those rejoicing.” For he will come to give judgment in anger and to cast them off with a flame of fire. For “casting off” means rejection, just as he says to those who are dead in their sins, “Depart from me, you evildoers.”
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Isaiah 66:18-21
Christ makes here in these words something like a summary of the whole message and of the whole prophecy, and in short compass in summary form he announces the things from start to finish and the power of his economy in the flesh. He mentions the calling of the nations, the election of the holy apostles, and that he will be worshiped by the whole wide world. For the former law gathered one people only, that is, those from Israel, and called to those only speaking that language. But our Lord Jesus Christ did not grant the power of his economy in the flesh only to those from Israel by blood but to every nation and language.…For like something consecrated to God, the host of the nations are given over to God’s glory, released from all charges through faith and washed from all filth through holy baptism, like a guest’s gift, as if given out of the apostolic fervor for God. On that account they rejoice, naming him their joy and crown. For that the return of the nations to God happens in an extremely comfortable fashion and without sweat and struggle is clearly declared in parabolic fashio…
Christ makes here in these words something like a summary of the whole message and of the whole prophecy, and in short compass in summary form he announces the things from start to finish and the power of his economy in the flesh. He mentions the calling of the nations, the election of the holy apostles, and that he will be worshiped by the whole wide world. For the former law gathered one people only, that is, those from Israel, and called to those only speaking that language. But our Lord Jesus Christ did not grant the power of his economy in the flesh only to those from Israel by blood but to every nation and language.…For like something consecrated to God, the host of the nations are given over to God’s glory, released from all charges through faith and washed from all filth through holy baptism, like a guest’s gift, as if given out of the apostolic fervor for God. On that account they rejoice, naming him their joy and crown. For that the return of the nations to God happens in an extremely comfortable fashion and without sweat and struggle is clearly declared in parabolic fashion when he speaks for our instruction, saying that “they will be led with horses, chariots, now with illuminations, now with shade.… And I will take from them priests and Levites.” From whom? This is not yet so clear, meaning either those sent to call them out from the nations or from those who were thus called out. For the divine disciples served through Christ as priests. But many were called to the priesthood, and many are still called who are of Greek stock, once God has changed them into the newness of life and knowledge. -
Isaiah 66:22-24
This is the immovable hope that Christ promises in all goodness to those who love him and who acknowledged his epiphany. As it says, “When I remake the heaven and the earth, I will allow them to remain, and no passing of time will destroy them.” So your seed and your name will stand before me. For we are the new heaven and the new earth and his promised things, just as they are written about. For the hope of the saints will stand forever and endures, as Paul confirms. …These misfortunes piled on the Jews are meant to be the things we say happened to them at the hands of the Romans, when the temple was destroyed and all were subjected to cruel slaughter. For suffering such things they became a spectacle for all, but their suffering was not prolonged indefinitely. Yet this is what perhaps is meant when it says, “Their worm will not die nor the fire go out.” Some, however, want to refer these words concerning them to the time of the end of the age.… In any case, Christ will deliver us from all such things, through whom and with whom may glory be to God the Father and the Holy Spirit for…
This is the immovable hope that Christ promises in all goodness to those who love him and who acknowledged his epiphany. As it says, “When I remake the heaven and the earth, I will allow them to remain, and no passing of time will destroy them.” So your seed and your name will stand before me. For we are the new heaven and the new earth and his promised things, just as they are written about. For the hope of the saints will stand forever and endures, as Paul confirms. …These misfortunes piled on the Jews are meant to be the things we say happened to them at the hands of the Romans, when the temple was destroyed and all were subjected to cruel slaughter. For suffering such things they became a spectacle for all, but their suffering was not prolonged indefinitely. Yet this is what perhaps is meant when it says, “Their worm will not die nor the fire go out.” Some, however, want to refer these words concerning them to the time of the end of the age.… In any case, Christ will deliver us from all such things, through whom and with whom may glory be to God the Father and the Holy Spirit forever.