Cyril of Alexandria — Commentary on Scripture

As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

Just as “waters are pleasant to the thirsty soul,” as Scripture says, so to the mind that loves instruction is the life-giving knowledge of the mysteries of our Savior. Let us, therefore, draw from the sacred springs the living and life-giving waters, even those that are rational and spiritual. Let us take our fill, and weary not in the drinking; for in these things more than enough is still for edification, and greediness is great praise.

Proverbs 27:2

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.

No one crowns himself, and that person is justly ridiculed who devises praises for himself, for it is written, “Let your neighbor praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” Though hypocrites may be able possibly to remain undetected and thus to seize the honors that people bestow, yet God knows your hearts. The judge cannot be deceived.… He knows who steals by fraud the honor which another truly deserves.

Proverbs 27:23

Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.

It is not fitting to address simply to all who have believed in Christ instruction upon all points, for it is written, “With knowledge learn the souls of your flock.” For the way is very different by which we establish in the paths of truth one who has but just now become a disciple, from one more confirmed in mind and able to understand what is the height and depth, and what the length and breadth. In the former, use simple teaching, in which there is nothing profound or difficult to understand. Counsel him to escape from the error of polytheism and fittingly persuade him to discern by the beauty of things created, the universal creator and artificer, who is one by nature and truly God.

Psalms 2:7

I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

The word today indicates the present time in which he was made in the flesh—he who nevertheless in his own nature was the Lord of everything. John testifies to this, that he came among his own, calling the world his own. Having been called into a kingdom in accordance with his accustomed glory, he said, “I have been made king by him,” that is, by God the Father. Furthermore, he fulfilled this by being made the Son in his humanity even if then he was the Son in his own nature. He smoothed the way for human nature to participate in adoption, and he called to himself people oppressed by the tyranny of sin. Just as we, since we are weighted down by curse and death, have received the evils of the transgressions of Adam like a certain inheritance handed across the generations to the whole universe from the ancestors, so also the splendid gifts of Christ flow down to the generations of humankind into the whole universe. The Only Begotten receives them not wholly for himself but for us. He is fully God as to his nature, nor does he lack anything whatever. He himself becomes richer than all c…

The word today indicates the present time in which he was made in the flesh—he who nevertheless in his own nature was the Lord of everything. John testifies to this, that he came among his own, calling the world his own. Having been called into a kingdom in accordance with his accustomed glory, he said, “I have been made king by him,” that is, by God the Father. Furthermore, he fulfilled this by being made the Son in his humanity even if then he was the Son in his own nature. He smoothed the way for human nature to participate in adoption, and he called to himself people oppressed by the tyranny of sin. Just as we, since we are weighted down by curse and death, have received the evils of the transgressions of Adam like a certain inheritance handed across the generations to the whole universe from the ancestors, so also the splendid gifts of Christ flow down to the generations of humankind into the whole universe. The Only Begotten receives them not wholly for himself but for us. He is fully God as to his nature, nor does he lack anything whatever. He himself becomes richer than all creation with good things from above.

Psalms 13:3

Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

The right sight of the eyes hidden within is to be able to see plainly and subtly, insofar as is allowed, whatever considerations there may be concerning the words of God. “For we see through a mirror in an obscure manner and we know in part,” but “he who discloses the recesses of the darkness” sends the light of truth to those who wish to gain a knowledge concerning him rightly. It is necessary therefore that we prostrate ourselves before God saying, “Give light to my eyes that I may not sleep in death,” for to slip away from the rightness of holy doctrines would be nothing else except to sleep in death, and we depart from this rightness when we do not follow the divinely inspired Scriptures.

Psalms 16:9

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

Let us see [Jesus] … in his suffering as man but not suffering as God, and in his dying in the flesh but being greater than death, and in not remaining … in the tomb as we do and not being held fast by the gates of the underworld together with the other dead.… For he rose again, despoiling death and “saying to the prisoners: Come out, to those in darkness: Show yourselves,” and he ascended to his Father above in the heavens to a position inaccessible to people, having taken on himself our sins and being the propitiation for them.

Psalms 22:1

To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

We confess that he, the Son begotten of God the Father and only-begotten God, though being incapable of suffering according to his own nature, suffered in his own flesh for our sake, according to the Scriptures. And he made his own the sufferings of his own flesh in his crucified body impassibly, for by the grace of God and for the sake of all he tasted death by having surrendered to it his own body although by nature he was life and was himself the resurrection. In order that by his ineffable power, after having trampled on death in his own flesh first, he might become “the firstborn from the dead” and “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” and in order that he might prepare the way for the rise to immortality for the nature of people, by the grace of God, as we said just now, for the sake of all he tasted death, but on the third day he came back to life after despoiling hell.

Psalms 22:7

All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

Just as we say that the flesh became [the Word’s] very own, in the same way the weakness of that flesh became his very own in an economic appropriation according to the terms of the unification. So, he is “made like his brothers in all things except sin alone.” Do not be astonished if we say that he has made the weakness of the flesh his own along with the flesh itself. He even attributed to himself those external outrages that came on him from the roughness of the Jews, saying through the voice of the psalmist: “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes,” and again: “All those who saw me sneered at me, they wagged their tongues, they shook their heads.”

Psalms 27:14

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Great and distinguished successes are brought to completion not without labors. No doubt it is necessary that for every good thing sweat must be caused first. And no wonder if we see that such occurs in great matters, since common and inferior ones are full of care and come to pass through labors. But even in labor we have learned to say, “Be strong, and be of stout heart and wait for the Lord.” For we have taken heart that a glorious result attends zealous actions aimed at virtue, and we shall find that our reward from God is the gift of spiritual courage.

Psalms 45:11

So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.

By progressing in virtue and attaining to better things, “reaching forth to those things that are before,” according to the word of the blessed Paul, we rise ever to … spiritual beauty, so that to us too it may be said hereafter, “The king greatly desired your beauty.”

Psalms 81:9 · 2 passages

There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.

Who, then, is this one cast down from his divine preeminence and removed from the limitations of creation? The matter is completely inconceivable, and there is no discernible place or manner of speaking of someone in between creator and creation. Although they dislodged him from the throne of divinity, they have arrived at a point in their teaching that they call him the Son and God and think that he is to be adored although the law openly proclaims, “The Lord your God shall you worship and him only shall you serve,” and although God said to the Israelites through the voice of David, “There shall be no new god among you, nor shall you adore a foreign god.”

That it is none other than God the Word, who exists in the form of God the Father, the impress of his very being, who is equal in all things to the one who begot him, who has emptied himself out. And what is this “emptying out”? It is his life in the form of a slave, in the flesh that he assumes, it is the likeness to us of one who is not as we are in his own nature, since he is above all creation. In this way he humbled himself, economically submitting himself to the limitations of humanity. But even so he was God, for he did not have as a gift what pertained to him by nature. This was why he also said to God the Father who is in heaven, “Father, glorify me with that glory I had with you before the world was.” I do not think that they would say that it was David’s descendant, born in the last times of this age, who was reclaiming as his own a glory that predated the world, at least if he is a different son and distinct from the true and natural Son? No, surely this is a saying that befits the Godhead? It was necessary, yes necessary, that he should be conformed to us in the limitati…

That it is none other than God the Word, who exists in the form of God the Father, the impress of his very being, who is equal in all things to the one who begot him, who has emptied himself out. And what is this “emptying out”? It is his life in the form of a slave, in the flesh that he assumes, it is the likeness to us of one who is not as we are in his own nature, since he is above all creation. In this way he humbled himself, economically submitting himself to the limitations of humanity. But even so he was God, for he did not have as a gift what pertained to him by nature. This was why he also said to God the Father who is in heaven, “Father, glorify me with that glory I had with you before the world was.” I do not think that they would say that it was David’s descendant, born in the last times of this age, who was reclaiming as his own a glory that predated the world, at least if he is a different son and distinct from the true and natural Son? No, surely this is a saying that befits the Godhead? It was necessary, yes necessary, that he should be conformed to us in the limitations of humanity while at the same time he authentically enjoyed transcendent divine status within his own essential being; just as it is with the Father. How can the saying be true: “You must not introduce another god among you,” if according to them a man is deified by a conjunction with the Word and is said to be enthroned with God so as to share the Father’s dignity?

Psalms 104:15

And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.

People of true and good sense, who have intellectually gathered that knowledge that gives life, are never jaded by the sacred sciences. Indeed it is written that “humankind shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The word of God is food for the mind and a spiritual “bread that strengthens the heart of humankind,” as the book of Psalms sings.

Psalms 105:15

Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

You are right to conclude that he [Jesus] is called Christ only because of the anointing, just as an apostle is so called because of his apostolic function and an angel from his office as messenger. Names like these clearly indicate certain functions rather than individual realities or specific persons. Even the prophets are called Christs, as it is sung in the Psalms: “Do not touch my Christs, and do not harm my prophets” The prophet Habbakuk also said, “You came forth for the salvation of your people, to save your Christs.” But tell me this: Is it not true that even they would admit that there is only one Christ and Son, who is the Lord made man, the Only Begotten of God made flesh?

Romans 1:4

And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

As Christ was predestined to be the Son of God in power, so we too have been predestined to be sons of God, not however in power but by grace, having been made worthy of such a calling and having received it only by the will of God the Father. There is a big difference here between Emmanuel and us. For even if he was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and so we can say that the Son of God was one of us in his humanity, still, in power and in truth he is the natural Son, and it is through him that we are made sons as well.… We stand in the same relation to him as images do to their original.

Romans 3:27

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

For who will glory, or for what, when everyone has become worthless and gone out of the right way, and nobody does good works anymore? Therefore he says that all glorying is excluded.… How? We have acquired the forgiveness of our former sins and have been justified freely by the mercy and grace of Christ.

Romans 3:31

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

On account of his humanity Emmanuel is called a prophet, who following Moses is the mediator between God and humanity. The law was a shadow, but even so it presented an image of the truth. Furthermore, the truth hardly destroys its images; rather it makes-them clearer.

Romans 4:2

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

What can we say to those who insist that Abraham was justified by works because he was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar? Abraham was already an old man when God promised him that he would have a son and that his descendants would be as countless as the stars of the sky. Abraham piously believed that all things are possible with God and so exercised this faith. God reckoned him to be righteous on this account and gave Abraham a reward worthy of such a godly mind, viz., the forgiveness of his previous sins.… So even if Abraham was also justified by his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, this must be regarded as an evident demonstration of a faith which was already very strong.

Romans 5:12

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Death entered into the first man, and into the beginnings of our race, because of sin, and very soon it had corrupted the entire race. In addition to this, the serpent who invented sin, after he had conquered Adam because of the latter’s unfaithfulness, opened up a way for himself to enter the mind of man: “They are corrupt … there is none that does good.” Therefore, having turned away from the face of the most holy God, and because the mind of man willingly inclined towards evil from its adolescence, we lived an absurd life, and death the conqueror devoured us accordingly.… For since we have all copied Adam’s transgression and thus have all sinned, we have incurred a penalty equal to his. Yet the world was not without hope, for in the end sin was destroyed, Satan was defeated and death itself was abolished.

Romans 5:13

(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

The law of Moses was the power constraining the weakness of sinners. It proved to be not the answer to sin but rather a provocation to wrath. For it was necessary for transgressors to undergo the punishments prescribed by the law, and wherever there was transgression, there was also sin. So if sin brought death in its wake, it may undoubtedly be said that death, having been born of sin, was strengthened by this very thing. But when sin was taken away death was also weakened, and it disappeared along with its parent. Therefore there was death in the world until the coming of the law. For as long as the law was valid, the crime of transgression could be laid against those who had fallen, but once the law was removed, the accusation of transgression disappeared as well. Therefore when the guilt ceased, death also came to an end.