Cyril of Alexandria — Commentary on Scripture

1 Timothy 1:7

This, therefore, is the upright and most exact faith of the holy Fathers, that is, the confession of faith. But as Paul says, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers that they should not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Accordingly some, after having ceased to go along the straight road of truth, dash themselves against the rocks, “when they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertions.” For after attributing the glory of the sonship only to the Word begotten of God the Father, they say that another son of the seed of David and Jesse has been conjoined to him and has a share in the filiation and of the glory proper to God and of the very indwelling of the Word and has had almost everything from him but has nothing at all of his own.

LETTERS 55.41

2 Corinthians 3:15

Yet the shadows bring forth the truth, even if they are not at all the truth themselves. Because of this, the divinely inspired Moses placed a veil upon his face and spoke thus to the children of Israel, all but shouting by this act that a person might behold the beauty of the utterances made through him, not in outwardly appearing figures but in meditations hidden within us. Come, therefore, by taking off the veil of the law and by setting the face of Moses free of its coverings, let us behold the naked truth.

LETTER 41

2 Corinthians 5:10

From this we learn that the soul was not punished for sins committed before it acquired a body. In fact, the soul did not exist before the body.

LETTER 81.4

2 Corinthians 5:14

But how is it that “one died for all,” one who is worth all others, if the suffering is considered simply that of some man? If he suffered according to his human nature, since he made the sufferings of his body his own.… The death of him alone according to the flesh is known to be worth the life of all, not the death of one who is as we are, even though he became like to us, but we say that he, being God by nature, became flesh and was made man according to the confession of the Fathers.

LETTER 50

2 Corinthians 5:16

After the resurrection it was the same body which had suffered except it no longer had the human infirmities in it. For we assert that it was no longer receptive of hunger, or of weariness or of anything else of such a kind but was thereafter incorruptible, and not only this but also life-giving. For it is the body of life, that is, the body of the Only Begotten, for it has been made resplendent with the glory most proper to his divinity and is known to be the body of God. Therefore, even if some might say that it is divine, just as, of course, it is the human body of a man, he would not err from proper reasoning. Whence I think that the very wise Paul said, “And even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.” For being God’s own body, as I said, it transcends all human bodies.

LETTER 45.12

2 Corinthians 5:21

We do not say that Christ became a sinner, far from it, but being righteous (or rather, righteousness, because he did not know sin at all), the Father made him a victim for the sins of the world.

LETTER 41.10

2 Corinthians 5:21

For this reason, we say that he was named sin; wherefore, the all-wise Paul writes, “For our sakes he made him to be sin who knew nothing of sin,” that is to say, God the Father. For we do not say that Christ became a sinner. Far from it, but being just, or rather in actuality justice, for he did not know sin, the Father made him a victim for the sins of the world.

LETTER 41

2 Peter 1:8

Those who have chosen to live the glorious and beloved way of life devised by Christ must first be adorned with simple and unblemished faith, and then add virtue to their faith. When this has been done, they must strive to enrich their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and ascend to the most complete understanding of him.

LETTERS 1.3

2 Peter 1:16

The constructions of the heretics are myths and human fantasies, which Paul wants us to avoid, as he writes: “Warn a heretic once or twice, and after that have nothing to do with him.” Peter is here already starting to do battle against the heretics. To the extent that they do not possess the truth, heretics are obliged to concoct a lie by using flowery words. But we are not like that, he says, because we saw the truth with our eyes when we were with him on the mountain. Therefore we have the prophets who have proclaimed the same truth to us, and even better, as we came to behold ourselves, the Word came to us. What the prophets foretold, Christ fulfilled when he appeared. We were witnesses of this, and we heard the Father’s testimony also.

CATENA

2 Peter 1:19

For those who have died in the faith, the light-bearing lamp has risen and the day dawns, according to the Scriptures, and to them the light of truth is sent, which is the face of the Holy Spirit.

LETTERS 55.6

2 Peter 2:4

When Christ came from heaven, he bound the leaders of the demons in hell. This is clear from the way in which he commanded the spirits, lest they be thrown into the abyss. For he bound some and ordered others to depart, as we can see from sayings like “Look, I have given you power over unclean spirits”; “Cast out demons,” and so on. Afterwards, in order to perfect the punishment of those whom he had earlier bound, he cast them into eternal fire.

CATENA

2 Peter 2:12

The inspired psalmist said this when he sang: “Man, when honored, had no understanding. He is like the beasts that perish.” Although human beings had laws, their morals were irrational, and they soon degenerated into animals whose only end was destruction.

CATENA

2 Peter 3:16

It seems that some people find Paul hard to understand, no doubt because he speaks about the wisdom which comes from above, for in him Christ himself is speaking.

CATENA

2 Peter 3:17

Peter has to warn his people so that they will not be deceived. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself warned us for our safety, that we should “beware of those who come to us in sheep’s clothing, but inside they are ravenous wolves.” And again: “Take care that you are not deceived. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and they will deceive many.” And Paul cries: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers claiming to believe in the Lord Jesus.” For those who deform the truth by their doctrines of ungodliness and works of evil are like those who killed the prophets and apostles. Indeed, they are worse, because they have killed not only the living but those who have been saved as well.

CATENA

2 Thessalonians 3:11

There are some other men going about, as they say, pretending only to devote themselves to prayer and doing no work, making piety a pretext for cowardice and a means of gaining a living, but not thinking rightly. Let them say that they are better even than the holy apostles who worked when opportunity gave them time for it, and they were exhausted for the word of God. How did they miss reading the holy Paul writing to certain people, “For I hear that some among you are living irregularly, doing no work but busy at meddling.” The church does not admit those who do this. It is necessary without doubt that those who live a quiet life in the monasteries pray continually. But it does no harm and rather is exceedingly helpful to work so that he who accepts the labors of others for his own need may not be found to be burdensome to others. It might be possible from his labors to relieve the widow and the orphan and some of the weak ones of his brothers.

LETTERS 83.7

Acts 3:18

In this discourse the Lord shows that the law was necessary to make ready the way, and the ministry of the prophets to prepare men for faith in this marvellous act, that so when the resurrection really took place, those who were troubled at its greatness might remember what was said of old, and be induced to believe. He brings forward therefore Moses and the prophets, interpreting their hidden meaning, and making plain to the worthy what to the unworthy was obscure, so settling in them that ancient and hereditary faith taught them by the sacred books which they possessed. For nothing which comes from God is without its use, but all and several of them have their appointed place and service. In their due place servants were sent before to make ready for the presence of the Master, by bringing in beforehand prophecy as the necessary preparative for faith, that, like some royal treasure, what had been foretold might in due season be brought forward from the concealment of its former obscurity, being unveiled and made plain by the clearness of the interpretation.

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Sermon 152

Acts 4:10

That the Father is said to have raised from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ (the effect of the act being on his flesh, clearly) is not in doubt. He, being the life-creating and active power of the Father, gave life to his own temple, as in “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” What was made alive was not another’s body, nor indeed one belonging to a man among us, but his own, the body of the Word.

CATENA ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 4.10

Acts 10:14

The law is spiritual and does not provide an explanation that stops at physical meanings. For while the holy Peter still desired to follow the customs of the Jews, and since he was trying to advance towards better things, yet because he was terribly overcome by his reverence for these figures, God sent down from heaven the linen filled with animals, which … were condemned figuratively by the decrees of the law as impure. He then ordered Peter to kill and, if he should choose, to eat. But the disciple was reluctant and spoke as a Jew: “Absolutely not, Lord, because I have never eaten anything that is common and unclean, and no impure meat has entered my mouth.” So the voice of the Lord came down, not only because God was rebuking him but also he was saying clearly, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” Then [Peter] immediately understood that the time had come when the shadows had to be transformed into truth. And so the passage of the figures into truth fulfilled them and should not show, as some people think, that they were placed there without a reason. Doubtless, the…

The law is spiritual and does not provide an explanation that stops at physical meanings. For while the holy Peter still desired to follow the customs of the Jews, and since he was trying to advance towards better things, yet because he was terribly overcome by his reverence for these figures, God sent down from heaven the linen filled with animals, which … were condemned figuratively by the decrees of the law as impure. He then ordered Peter to kill and, if he should choose, to eat. But the disciple was reluctant and spoke as a Jew: “Absolutely not, Lord, because I have never eaten anything that is common and unclean, and no impure meat has entered my mouth.” So the voice of the Lord came down, not only because God was rebuking him but also he was saying clearly, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” Then [Peter] immediately understood that the time had come when the shadows had to be transformed into truth. And so the passage of the figures into truth fulfilled them and should not show, as some people think, that they were placed there without a reason. Doubtless, the lawgiver does not consider a pig, or the other animals, now clean, now unclean. No, for he knows that they are well-made, for it is written, “And God saw all that he had made, and behold all was very good, and he blessed it.” For to the extent that each thing of creation has come to be and to the extent that it has been made, it will only have, so I suppose, in itself what is good. So even though the pig cannot chew the cud, it is not unclean, but rather is perfectly edible, and what is proper to something’s nature does not pollute it. As I have said, the law was figures and shadows that remained “until the time of correction.”

AGAINST JULIAN 9.318-19

Acts 13:33

The only one who knows the Father and who is only known by the Father as his Wisdom and Word and as “the Angel of great counsel” according to the prophet, perfectly explains to us the mystery of the incarnation. Since he was Son by nature and by truth and had shone forth from the very essence of God the Father, he was made flesh, that is, man, according to John. He desired to be called the brother of those who are in the world and to be born according to flesh like us. However, he was before time and sat with his parent even though he was made flesh. The Father knew him also as Son and said to him, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” Observe the explicit confession, nay rather, the proclamation! Indeed, he said, “you are” in order to point out that he existed before time. Actually, he was never in time but was always the same, to be sure, the Son. And he added, “today I have begotten you,” in order to indicate his final generation according to the flesh that he voluntarily underwent in the womb of the holy Virgin so that he was also called “begotten of God.”

CATENA ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 13.33

Acts 15:16

The tabernacle of David means the race of the Jews. It must be known that after Cyrus had freed Israel from captivity, they returned to Judea and built the temple of God. Then, after they had again fortified the cities that had been destroyed before, they lived in security day by day for a long time, that is, for many days and long periods. They became an example and an assurance for all the other nations that it was necessary thereafter to turn to God.… This is an explanation of the history of these things, but a more hidden and truer interpretation would be in Christ. Indeed after he came back to life from the dead in his tabernacle that had fallen into death, that is, after God had raised his earthly flesh, then at that very moment he brought all human things back to their original ordering and all our things that had been overthrown have been brought to a new dignity. For if, as Scripture states, anyone in Christ is a new creation, we have then been raised together with him. So whereas death demolished the tabernacles of all, God the Father rebuilt them in Christ.

CATENA ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 15.16-17