Cyril of Jerusalem — Commentary on Scripture

Hebrews 12:2

We preach not one coming of Christ but a second as well, far more glorious than the first. The first gave us a spectacle of his patience; the second will bring with it the crown of the kingdom of God. In general all things are twofold in our Lord Jesus Christ. His birth is twofold, one of God before the ages and one of a virgin in the consummation of the ages. His descent is twofold, one lowly, “like the rain upon the fleece,” and a second, his manifest coming, which is yet to be. In his first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger; in his second he will be “robed in light as with a cloak.” In his first coming he “endured the cross, despising the shame”; in his second he will come in glory, attended by a host of angels. We do not rest, therefore, in his first coming, but we look also for his second. Just as we said of his first coming, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” so we shall repeat the same at his second.

Catechetical Lecture 15:1

Hosea 4:2

After Moses, prophets were sent to heal Israel. But in their exercise of healing they deplored the fact that they could not overcome evil, so that one of them says, “The faithful are gone from the earth, among men the upright are no more,” and again, “All alike have gone astray; they have become perverse; there is not one who does good, not even one.” And again, “Cursing, and theft, and adultery, and killing have overflowed” upon the land. “They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.” They engaged themselves in auguries and enchantments and divinations; and again, “they fastened their garments with cords and hung veils next to the altar.”

CATECHETICAL LECTURE 12:6

Hosea 6:2

A few of the Jews of that time were persuaded, but the world hearkened to the truth. Those who concealed the truth were buried in oblivion, but those who received it were made manifest by the power of the Savior, who rose from the dead and raised the dead himself. In the person of the risen dead the prophet Hosea says plainly, “He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence.”

CATECHETICAL LECTURE 14:4

Hosea 9:12

God is not ashamed to take flesh from such members, for he framed these very members. Who tells us this? The Lord said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I dedicated you.” If in fashioning me, therefore, he touched them and was not ashamed, was he ashamed in forming for himself the holy flesh, the veil of his Godhead? It is God who even now creates the babes in the womb, as it is written in Job, “Did you not pour me out as milk, and thicken me like cheese? With skin and flesh you clothed me, with bones and sinews knit me together.” There is nothing corrupt in the human bodily frame unless one defiles it with adulteries and wantonness. He who formed Adam formed Eve also; and male and female were fashioned by the divine hands. None of the members of the body, as fashioned from the beginning, is corrupt. Let all heretics be silent who slander their bodies, or rather him who formed them. But let us be mindful of Paul’s words: “Do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you?” Again, the prophet has foretold in…

God is not ashamed to take flesh from such members, for he framed these very members. Who tells us this? The Lord said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I dedicated you.” If in fashioning me, therefore, he touched them and was not ashamed, was he ashamed in forming for himself the holy flesh, the veil of his Godhead? It is God who even now creates the babes in the womb, as it is written in Job, “Did you not pour me out as milk, and thicken me like cheese? With skin and flesh you clothed me, with bones and sinews knit me together.” There is nothing corrupt in the human bodily frame unless one defiles it with adulteries and wantonness. He who formed Adam formed Eve also; and male and female were fashioned by the divine hands. None of the members of the body, as fashioned from the beginning, is corrupt. Let all heretics be silent who slander their bodies, or rather him who formed them. But let us be mindful of Paul’s words: “Do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you?” Again, the prophet has foretold in the person of Jesus, “my flesh is from them.”

CATECHETICAL LECTURE 12:26

Isaiah 1:7-8

Isaiah lived almost [two] thousand years ago and saw Zion in a hut. The city was still standing, beautiful with public squares and clothed in honor; yet he says, “Zion shall be plowed like a field,” foretelling what has been fulfilled in our day. Observe the exactness of the prophecy; for he said, “Daughter Zion will be left like a hut in a vineyard, like a shed in a melon patch.” Now the place is full of melon patches.

Catechetical Lecture 16:18

Isaiah 1:18

The Father will be seated, having “his garment white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool.” This is spoken anthropomorphically. And the spiritual sense? That he is the King of such as are not defiled with sins. For God says, “Your sins shall be as white as snow, and shall be as wool.” Wool is the emblem of forgiveness of sins, as also of innocence.

Catechetical Lecture 15:19-21

Isaiah 2:2

He calls the church a mountain when he says, “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established.”

Catechetical Lecture 21:7

Isaiah 3:9-10

They bound Jesus and led him to the meeting place of the high priest. Can you recognize that this was already written? Isaiah says, “Woe to their souls because they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying, ‘Let us bind the just one, for he is troublesome to us.’ ” Woe to their souls indeed! Let us see why. Isaiah was sawn in two, but afterwards the people were restored. Jeremiah was thrown into the dungeon, but the Jews had their wound healed. In these instances the sin was against a man, and therefore less. However, when they sinned not against a man but against God become human, then woe to their souls!

Catechetical Lecture 13:12

Isaiah 6:3

We make mention also of the seraphim, whom Isaiah in the Holy Spirit saw standing around the throne of God, and with two of their wings veiling their face, and with two their feet, while with two they flew, crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” For the reason of our reciting this confession of God, delivered down to us from the seraphim, is this, that so we may be partakers with the hosts of the world above in their hymn of praise.

Catechetical Lecture 23:6

Isaiah 11:2-3

Isaiah signifies that the Spirit was indeed one and indivisible, but his operations diverse.

Catechetical Lecture 16:30

Isaiah 11:4

He [Christ] does not esteem the learned above the simple, nor the rich above the poor.

Catechetical Lecture 15:23

Isaiah 25:6

Having been counted worthy of this holy chrism, you are called Christians, verifying the name also by your new birth. For before you were deemed worthy of this grace, you had properly no right to this title but were advancing on your way toward being Christians.Moreover, you shall know that in the old Scripture there lies the symbol of this chrism. For at the time Moses imparted to his brother the command of God and made him high priest, he anointed him after bathing him in water. And Aaron was called Christ or anointed, evidently from the typical anointing. So also the high priest, in advancing Solomon to the kingdom, anointed him after he had bathed in Gihon. To them, however, these things happened in a figure, but to you not in a figure but in truth; because you were truly anointed by the Holy Spirit. Christ is the beginning of your salvation. He is truly the first fruit, and you are what follow. If the first fruit is holy, obviously its holiness will pass to the remainder also. Keep this teaching unspotted, for it shall teach you all things, if it abide in you.… For this holy thi…

Having been counted worthy of this holy chrism, you are called Christians, verifying the name also by your new birth. For before you were deemed worthy of this grace, you had properly no right to this title but were advancing on your way toward being Christians.Moreover, you shall know that in the old Scripture there lies the symbol of this chrism. For at the time Moses imparted to his brother the command of God and made him high priest, he anointed him after bathing him in water. And Aaron was called Christ or anointed, evidently from the typical anointing. So also the high priest, in advancing Solomon to the kingdom, anointed him after he had bathed in Gihon. To them, however, these things happened in a figure, but to you not in a figure but in truth; because you were truly anointed by the Holy Spirit. Christ is the beginning of your salvation. He is truly the first fruit, and you are what follow. If the first fruit is holy, obviously its holiness will pass to the remainder also.
Keep this teaching unspotted, for it shall teach you all things, if it abide in you.… For this holy thing is a spiritual safeguard of the body and salvation of the soul. Of this the blessed Isaiah prophesying of old time said, “On this mountain shall the Lord make for all nations a feast; they shall drink wine, they shall drink gladness, they shall anoint themselves with ointment.”

Catechetical Lecture 11:5-7

Isaiah 26:19

Isaiah the prophet says, “The dead men shall rise again, and those who are in the tombs shall awake.” And the prophet Ezekiel, now before us, says most plainly, “Behold, I will open your graves and bring you up out of your graves.” And Daniel says, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame.”67And there are many Scriptures that testify of the resurrection of the dead. For there are many other sayings on this matter. But now, by way of remembrance only, we will make a passing mention of the raising of Lazarus on the fourth day and just allude, because of the shortness of the time, to the widow’s son also who was raised. And merely for the sake of reminding you, let me mention the ruler of the synagogue’s daughter, and the rending of the rocks, and how “there arose many bodies of the saints which slept,” their graves having been opened. But especially be it remembered that “Christ has been raised from the dead.”

Catechetical Lecture 18:15-16

Isaiah 26:19

Do not listen to those who say that this body is not raised up; for raised it is, as Isaiah witnesses, saying, “The dead shall arise, and they in the tombs shall be raised.” Or, as Daniel says, “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame.” But while rising again is the common lot of all people, the manner of rising again is not alike for all. For while we all receive everlasting bodies, those bodies are not alike for all. That is to say, the righteous receive such bodies as may enable them to join with the band of angels throughout eternity, while sinners received bodies in which to undergo through the ages the torture of their sins.

Catechetical Lecture 4:31

Isaiah 28:14-15

When you renounce Satan, trampling underfoot every covenant with him, then you annul that ancient “league with hell,” and God’s paradise opens before you, that Eden, planted in the east, from which for his transgression our first father was banished.

Catechetical Lecture 1:9

Isaiah 28:16

Was his tomb made with hands? Does it rise above the ground, like the tombs of kings? Was the sepulcher made of stones joined together? And what is laid upon it? Tell us exactly, O prophets, about his tomb also, where it lies, and where we shall look for it. But they answer, “Look upon the solid rock which you have hewn,” look and see.… I, who am “the chief corner stone, chosen, precious,” lie for a while within a stone, I, who am “a stone of stumbling” to the Jews but of salvation to them that believe.

Catechetical Lecture 13:35

Isaiah 30:10

The chief priests and the Pharisees, through the agency of Pilate, sealed the tomb; but the women saw him who was risen.… The chief priests lacked understanding, but the women beheld with their own eyes. When the soldiers came into the city and told the chief priests what had happened, they said to the soldiers, “Say, his disciples came by night and stole him while we were sleeping.” Well did Isaiah foretell this also, in their persons: “But tell us, and relate another error.” Christ has risen and come back from the dead, and by a bribe they persuade the soldiers.

Catechetical Lecture 14:14

Isaiah 30:15

Would you know the power of repentance? Would you understand this strong weapon of salvation and the might of confession? By confession Hezekiah routed 185, of the enemy. That was important, but it was little compared to what shall be told. The same king’s repentance won the repeal of the sentence God had passed on him. For when he was sick, Isaiah said to him, “Give charge concerning your house, for you shall die, and not live.” What expectation was left? What hope of recovery was there when the prophet said, “For you shall die”? But Hezekiah did not cease from penitence, for he remembered what was written: “In the hour that you turn and lament, you shall be saved.” He turned his face to the wall, and from his bed of pain his mind soared up to heaven—for no wall is so thick as to stifle reverent prayer—“Lord,” he said, “remember me.” “For it is sufficient for my healing if you remember me. You are not subject to circumstances but are yourself the legislator of life. For not on birth and conjunction of stars, as some vainly say, does our life depend. No, you are the arbiter, accordin…

Would you know the power of repentance? Would you understand this strong weapon of salvation and the might of confession? By confession Hezekiah routed 185, of the enemy. That was important, but it was little compared to what shall be told. The same king’s repentance won the repeal of the sentence God had passed on him. For when he was sick, Isaiah said to him, “Give charge concerning your house, for you shall die, and not live.” What expectation was left? What hope of recovery was there when the prophet said, “For you shall die”? But Hezekiah did not cease from penitence, for he remembered what was written: “In the hour that you turn and lament, you shall be saved.” He turned his face to the wall, and from his bed of pain his mind soared up to heaven—for no wall is so thick as to stifle reverent prayer—“Lord,” he said, “remember me.” “For it is sufficient for my healing if you remember me. You are not subject to circumstances but are yourself the legislator of life. For not on birth and conjunction of stars, as some vainly say, does our life depend. No, you are the arbiter, according to your will, of life and the duration of life.” He whom the prophet’s sentence had forbidden to hope was granted fifteen further years of life, the sun turning back its course in witness thereof. Now while the sun retraced its course for Hezekiah, for Christ it was eclipsed, the distinction marking the difference between the two, I mean Hezekiah and Jesus. Now if even Hezekiah could revoke God’s decree, shall not Jesus grant the remission of sins? Turn and lament, shut your door and beg for pardon, that God may remove from you the scorching flames. For confession has the power to quench even fire; it can tame even lions.

Catechetical Lecture 2:15

Isaiah 34:4

So, our Lord Jesus Christ comes from heaven, and he comes with glory at the last day to bring this world to its close. For this world will accomplish its course, and the world that once came into being is hereafter to be renewed. For seeing that corruption, theft, adultery and every form of sin has been poured out on the earth, and in the world fresh blood has been ever mingled with previous blood, this astonishing habitation filled with iniquity is not to last. This world passes away that the fairer world may be revealed. Now would you have this proved by the express words of Scripture? Listen to these from Isaiah: “And the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all the stars shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.”

Catechetical Lecture 15:3

Isaiah 38:3

Do you want to know the power of repentance? Do you want to understand this strong weapon of salvation and the might of confession? By confession Hezekiah routed 185, of the enemy. That was important, but it was small compared with what else happened. The same king’s repentance won the repeal the sentence God had passed on him. When he was sick, Isaiah had said, “Give direction for your household, for you will surely die, and not live.” What expectation was left? What hope of recovery was there? The prophet had said, “You will surely die.” But Hezekiah remembered what was written: “In the hour that you turn and lament, you will be saved.” He turned his face to the wall, and from his bed of pain his mind soared up to heaven (for no wall is so thick as to stifle fervent prayer). He said, “Lord, remember me.” … He whom the prophet’s sentence had forbidden to hope was granted fifteen further years of life, the sun turning back its course as a witness.

Catechetical Lecture 2:15