Cyril of Alexandria

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500

2,177 passages across 38 books of the Bible · Who was this?

On Philippians

7 of 7
  1. Philippians 2:7
    If we take him simply and solely to be a man made from a woman, how could he be said to be in the form equal to the Father? If only a man, how could he have the fullness that would make sense of his being emptied? What height could he have occupied before that he might be said to have “humbled himself?” How did he “come to be in the likeness of men” if he was already so by nature?

    SCHOLIUM 12 ON THE INCARNATION OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN

  2. Philippians 2:7
    What sort of emptying is this? To assume the flesh, even in the form of a slave, a likeness to ourselves while not being like us in his own nature but superior to the whole creation. Thus he humbled himself, descending by his economy into mortal bounds.

    ON THE UNITY OF CHRIST

  3. Philippians 2:7
    He let himself be “emptied.” It was not through any compulsion by the Father. He complied of his own accord with the Father’s good pleasure.

    DIALOGUES ON THE TRINITY 1

  4. Philippians 2:7
    By this alone let the difference between the divinity and humanity in him be perceived. For Godhead and humanity are not the same in natural quality. Otherwise how has the Word, being God, been “emptied,” having let himself fall among lesser beings such as ourselves? But when we speculate on the mode of incarnation the human mind inevitably sees two things commingled by an inexpressible and unconfused union yet in no way divides the united elements but believes and firmly accepts that there is one from both, who is God, Son, Christ and Lord.

    LETTER TO ACACIUS 14

  5. Philippians 2:8
    He “humbled himself,” according to the Scriptures, “taking on himself the form of a slave.” He became like us that we might become like him. The work of the Spirit seeks to transform us by grace into a perfect copy of his humbling.

    FESTAL LETTER 10.4

  6. Philippians 2:10
    God the Word inhabited as his own temple the body taken from the woman. In this body lived a rational soul. God remade it into his own glory. On this account the holy Scripture declares that worship is proper only to the one who is God by nature. This is what Paul means when he writes that “at the name of Christ Jesus every knee shall bow.

    FESTAL LETTER 8.6

  7. Philippians 2:10
    He worships as one who has assumed the worshiping nature of humanity. It is this same One who is now worshiped as transcending the worshiping nature of humanity. He is now known to be God.

    SCHOLIUM 34 ON THE INCARNATION OF THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN

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