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Theodoret of Cyrus

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 1,374 passages across 50 books

Commentary

201–220 of 1,374
2 Timothy 4:8

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

He calls the “crown of righteousness” that which has been prepared for the righteous, which is given by a just sentence. When? On that day. By whom? By the just judge. I have known him as just; I have known him as the judge. I trust in his judgment. I look for a sentence. In this way Paul offers consolation to all children of faith.

INTERPRETATION OF THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY

Acts 1:11

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Now they saw his nature as limited. For I have heard the words of the Lord, “You shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven,” and I acknowledge that what is seen by human eyes is limited, for the unlimited nature is invisible. Furthermore to sit upon a throne of glory and to set the lambs upon the right and the kids upon the left indicates limitation.

DIALOGUE 2

Acts 2:24

Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

Peter said, “God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ” and said too, “This Jesus whom you crucified God has raised up.” Now it was the humanity, not the Godhead, that became a corpse, and he who raised it was the Word, the power of God, who said in the Gospel, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” So when it is said that God has made him who became a corpse and rose from the dead both Lord and Christ, what is meant is the flesh, and not the Godhead of the Son.

DIALOGUE 3

Acts 2:31

He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

These and similar passages clearly point out that God the Word assumed not only a body but also a soul.

DIALOGUE 2

Acts 2:33

Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

Who then was exalted? The lowly or the most high? And what is the lowly if it be not the human? And what is the most high save the divine? But God being most high needs no exaltation, and so the apostle says that the human is exalted, exalted that is in being “made both Lord and Christ.” Therefore the apostle does not mean by this term “he made” the everlasting existence of the Lord but the change of the lowly to the exalted that took place on the right hand of God. By this word he declares the mystery of religion, for when he says “by the right hand of God exalted” he plainly reveals the ineffable economy of the mystery that the right hand of God, which created all things, which is the Lord by whom all things were made and without whom nothing consists of things that were made, through the union lifted up to its own exaltation the manhood united to it.

DIALOGUE 2

Acts 2:34-35

For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,

The words “Sit on my right hand” he speaks as to man, for they are not spoken to him that sits ever on the throne of glory, God the Word after his ascension from earth, but they are said to him who has now been exalted to the heavenly glory as man, as the apostles say, “for David is not ascended into the heavens, but he himself says that the Lord said to my Lord ‘Sit on my right hand.’ ” The order is human, giving a beginning to the sitting; but it is a divine dignity to sit together with God “to whom thousand thousands minister and before whom ten thousand times ten thousand stand.”

DIALOGUE 2

Acts 7:55

But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

The divine nature is invisible, but the thrice blessed Stephen said that he saw the Lord, so even after the resurrection the Lord’s body is a body, and it was seen by the victorious Stephen, since the divine nature cannot be seen.

DIALOGUE (DEMONSTRATIONS BY SYLLOGISMS) 11

Acts 8:2

And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

And yet it was the body only which was deemed proper for burial, while the soul was not buried together with the body; nevertheless the body alone was spoken of by the common name. Similarly the blessed Jacob said to his sons, “Bury me with my fathers.” He did not say, “Bury my body.”

LETTER 144

Acts 10:41

Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.

For since eating is proper to them that live this present life, of necessity the Lord by means of eating and drinking proved the resurrection of the flesh to those who did not acknowledge it to be real. This same course he pursued in the case of Lazarus and of Jairus’s daughter. For when he had raised up the latter he ordered that something should be given her to eat, and he made Lazarus sit with him at the table39 and so showed the reality of the rising again.

DIALOGUE 2

Acts 13:30

But God raised him from the dead:

So it is clear to them that pay attention that at the raising of the body the Son is said by Paul to have been raised from the dead, for he refers what concerns the body to the Son’s person. Similarly when he says “the Father gave life to the Son,” it must be understood that the life [the Father gave the Son] was given to the flesh. For if he himself is life, how can the life receive life?

DIALOGUE 3

Acts 22:25

And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?

For the divine command made what seems shameful honorable. Thus the apostle called himself at one time a Pharisee and at another a Roman, not because he was afraid of death but because it was fair to do so in a fight. Likewise he appealed to Caesar upon learning of the Jews’ plot against him. He sent his sister’s son to the tribune to report the plots being hatched against him, not because he clung to this present life but in obedience to the divine law. For our Master certainly does not wish us to throw ourselves into obvious peril. This [Jesus] taught us not only with words but also through action, for more than once he avoided the murderous violence of the Jews.

LETTER 3

Acts 28:3

And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.

And so the viper, which drove its teeth into the apostle’s hand, since it did not find any entry of sin in him, immediately released him and threw itself into the fire by inflicting on itself a punishment, because it had made an attack against an impenetrable body. Therefore let us fear the beasts, if we do not possess the full armor of virtue.

CATENA ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 28.3

Amos 3:3-5

Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

As it is impossible for two people to share a journey at the same time, he is saying, unless indicating to each other where and why they are traveling, or for a lion to roar if there is no prey, or for a bird to fall without a hunter, or for all the other things mentioned, so it is impossible for any punishment to be imposed without God willing it. He calls punishment “evil,” note, by use of a general custom: we are accustomed to use “troubles” of diseases, chastisements, untimely deaths, famines, wars, and the like, not because they are troublesome by nature but because they are troublesome to human beings and the source of distress and grief.

COMMENTARY ON AMOS 3:6–8

Amos 5:18

Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

Since there were some buoyed up by audacity and temerity who resisted the prophetic oracles, raging against them, calling the divine pronouncements false and demanding the fulfillment of the prophecies, the Lord declares these people lamentable for longing to see darkness instead of light. Those who long to see the fulfillment of prophecy, he is saying, are no different from a person fleeing an attacking lion and after that running into a bear, or fearfully going into a house and, with one’s soul in the grip of panic, putting a hand on the wall and being bitten by a venomous snake. In other words, as that person on that day sees darkness and not a gleam of light, so these people will be given over to deep darkness on the day of punishment.

COMMENTARY ON AMOS 5:18–20

Daniel 1:1

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.

Naturally, at the outset, the king who ruled is revealed and the year made clear, when the capture first occurred. And so by calling to mind the king that reigned at that point, he [Daniel] demonstrates … that he is a prophet. For other prophets begin in the very same way.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 1:1

Daniel 1:3-4

And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes;

And so the God of all makes evident the foolishness, infirmity and loathsome ways of the world in order to put to shame its power and wisdom. People who care for bodily things and seek beauty, greatness and great bodily strength know nothing of divine wisdom but rather only a false and artificial sort of eloquence. And thus is the distance between humanity and God. The false pretense of the king is shown as he wished not only the other captives be servants but also that they be descendents from kings. Now all this happened just as Isaiah had predicted to Hezekiah …: “And some of your own sons will become slaves, yes eunuchs, in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 1:3-4

Daniel 1:5-6

And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.

So here he informs us of the king’s generosity in providing them with nourishment that was not of an ordinary kind fit for captives and slaves; instead, he gave orders for them to share in the king’s table. Shortly afterward he mentions their self-control and sound values, not indulging in self-glorification but proposing a beneficial lesson to those prepared to accept benefit. It is possible to see also the moderation in his thinking: after mentioning above that the king ordered young men of royal birth to be chosen, fair to behold and of becoming stature, and citing at this point the persons’ names, he simply referred to the tribe of Judah and concealed their royal connections.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 1:5-6

Daniel 1:8

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

For those who love God do not seek after the God of all in just one place, but even in the midst of this misfortune they worshiped as if in the house of the Creator. In that place there are many wondrous moments to be found. For having been reared on the teachings of the Jews and having learned the customary service to God, they now were dwelling in a foreign land and were being forced into slavery exactly at the prime of their life. They were forced to abide under the foreign customs. But having seen the Babylonians offer defiled meat to the idols and the polluted libations at the temple, they took heed and, neglecting their own safety, rejected the king’s banquet, beseeching the chief eunuch to allow them to be excused from partaking of the king’s food.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 1:8

Daniel 1:10

And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king.

This pointless objection of the eunuch was cowardly. He [the eunuch] was a man whose spirit did not know grace but took pleasure in his own sensuality. Of this man and human morality, take heed as there is the opinion that sumptuous feeding on nutritious foods provides for the body nourishment enough for it to flourish. In fact, it is not with such indulgence that you should chance your life, for it was with a small portion and by way of self-control that they [Daniel and his friends] flourished.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 1:10

Daniel 2:1

And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.

We learned earlier that at the beginning of his [Nebuchadnezzar’s] reign, he advanced with the army to Judea in the third year of the reign of Joachim.… So most blessed Daniel, recalling the first year after the capture of the Jews, … now adds, “in the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream.” He [Daniel] added this not without reason but that we should know the time with precision. This is like the divine ways of the prophets, noting the facts related to the kings, a sure reference to the number of years.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 2:1

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