Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures

of

Archbishop of Jerusalem.

The “blessedness” is the grace of Baptism, the hope of which is as a fragrant odour already borne towards the Candidates. These were called no longer Catechumens, but φωτιζόμενοι, as already on the way “to be enlightened.” Compare xvi. 26, the last sentence, and see Index, “enlighten.”

νοητά. The word is much used by Plato to distinguish things which can be discerned only by the mind from the objects of sight and sense. Here “the spiritual (or, mental) flowers” are the Divine truths in which “the fragrance of the Holy Spirit” breathes.

By “the vestibule” is meant “the outer hall of the Baptistery” (xix. 2), and by “the King’s Palace” the Baptistery itself, which Cyril calls “the inner chamber” (xx. 1) and “the bride-chamber” (iii. 2; xxii. 2). See Index, “Baptistery.” Here the local terms have also an allegorical sense, Baptism being regarded as the marriage of the Soul to Christ.

Another allegory, from the season of Spring, when the Lectures were delivered.

ὀνοματογραφία. See Index.

That the Candidates on their first admission carried torches or lighted tapers in procession is a conjecture founded on this passage and Lect. I. 1: “Ye who have just lighted the torches of faith, preserve them in your hands unquenched.” But see Index, “Lights.”

Rom. viii. 28. In S. Paul’s argument the “purpose” is God’s eternal purpose of salvation through Christ (Eph. i. 11; iii. 11): but Cyril applies it here to sincerity of purpose in coming to Baptism.

Acts viii. 13.

Rom. vi. 4; Col. ii. 12.

Greek, ὑπογραφή, meaning either an “indictment,” or a descriptive “sketch.” For the former meaning, see Plato, Theaet. 172, E. ὑπογραφὴν …ἣν ἀντωμοσίαν καλοῦσιν.

1 Cor. x. 11.

Heb. xii. 15.

“The faithful” are those who have been already baptized, and instructed in those mysteries of the Christian Faith which were reserved for the initiated. See Index, “Faithful.”

Matt. xxii. 12. The same passage is applied to Baptism in Cat. iii. 2.

See Cat. xxii. 8 and Index, “White.”

The Greed word (χρῶμα) is used by Ignatius in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans of a discolouring stain.

Compare § 1, note 6.

The Greek word (ἐπιστήμη) which commonly means “knowledge” or “understanding,” is applied here and in vi. 35 to the intelligence and skill displayed in the arrangement of the public services of the Church. Compare Apostolic Constitutions, ii. 57, where the Bishop is exhorted to have the assemblies arranged μετὰ πάσης ἐπιστήμης.

In the same passage of the Apostolic Constitutions precise directions are given for reading a Lesson from the Old Testament, singing the Psalms, and reading the Epistle and Gospel.

By “the ordained” (κανονικῶν) are meant all whose names were registered as bearing office in the Church, Priests, Deacons, Deaconesses, Monks, Virgins, Widows, all having their appointed placed and proper duties. Apost. Canon. 70, εἴ τις ἐπίσκοπος, ἢ πρεσβύτερος, ἢ διάκονος, ἢ ὅλως τοῦ καταλόγου τῶν κληρικῶν, κ.τ.λ.

Compare Apost. Const. as above: “Let the Presbyters one by one, not all together, exhort the people; and the Bishop last, as being the commander.”

S. Aug. de Civit. Dei., ii. 28: “Though some come to mock at such admonitions, all their insolence is either humbled by a sudden conversation (immutatio) or suppressed by fear or shame.”

Greek, προθεσμία. Compare Gal. iv. 2: “the time appointed of the father.” At Athens it meant a “limitation,” or fixed period within which a debt must be claimed or paid, or an action commenced.

Index, “Lent.”

Compare xvii. 36.

S. Ambrose on the 119th Psalm, Serm. xx. § 48, speaks of some who pretended to be Christians in order to marry one whose parents would not give her in marriage to a heathen.

Matt. xiii. 47.

Rom. vi. 11, 14.

S. Cyril plays upon the word “Catechumen,” which has the same root as “echo.”

Rom. viii. 9, 11.

1 Cor. i. 9.

1 John i. 9.

Ps. lxxxi. 6.

Compare xvii. 36.

Eph. iv. 5.

This sentence is omitted in one ms. (Paris, 1824), but probably only through the repetition of the word “baptism.” On the laws of the Church against the repetition of Baptism, and concerning the re-baptism of heretics, see Tertull. de Baptismo, c. xv: Apost. Const. xv.: Bingham, xii. 5: Hefele, Councils, Lib. I. c. 2: Dictionary Christian Antiq. I. p. 167 a.

Rufinus, in the Exposition of the Creed, on the Remission of sins: “The Pagans are wont to say in derision of us, that we deceive ourselves in thinking that crimes which have been committed in deed can be washed out by words.”

The reading in the Benedictine Edition, μηδὲ ὁ νοῦς σου ῥεμβέσθω, has little authority, and is quite unsuitable. See below, τὸ βλέμμα ῥεμβόμενον.

Index, “Exorcism.”

Index, “Veiling.”

The Samaritans are frequently mentioned by Epiphanius and other writers of the 4th century among the chief adversaries of Christianity. “In their humble synagogue, at the foot of the mountain (Gerizim), the Samaritans still worship, the oldest and the smallest sect in the world.” (Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 240.)

Eph. vi. 17.

See above, § 4, note 3.

On the Disciplina Arcani, or rule against publishing the Christian Creed and Mysteries to Catechumens and Gentiles, see Index, “Mysteries.”

The title “King” (Βασιλεύς) is used in the Greek Liturgies and Fathers of the Roman Emperor, as in the Clementine Liturgy: ὑπὲρ τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ τῶν ἐν ὑπεροχῇ, where it is taken from 1 Tim. ii. 2. Compare Cat. xiv. 14, and 22: Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ βασιλέως.

Ps. xlvi. 10. Sept. σχολάσατε, “give attention freely.”

From S. Augustine, de Symbolo, i. 1 (Migne T. vi. p. 930), we learn that the Candidates were brought in before the Congregation one by one for exorcism; and so, as Cyril here shews, they had to wait outside till the others returned.

Chrys. in Matt. Hom. lxxiv. § 3:

These barriers had not yet been introduced at Jerusalem, or Cyril’s admonition would have been needless. Compare Apostolic Constitutions, II. 57.

1 Cor. xiv. 34; 1 Tim. ii. 12.

1 Sam. i. 13, 20. On the various interpretations of the name Samuel, see Dict. Bib. “Samuel,” and Driver on the passage. Cyril adopts the meaning “heard of God.”

Ps. cxxxix. 12. On Easter Eve the Church was full of lights which were kept burning all night, and the newly-baptized carried torches. Gregory of Nyssa, preaching on the Resurrection (Orat. iv.) describes the scene: “This brilliant night, by mingling the flames of torches with the morning rays of the sun, has made one continuous day, not divided by the interposition of darkness.”

Or, as the Benedictine Editor conjectures, “the waters which have a Christ-bearing (χριστοφόρον) fragrance.” On the epithet χριστοφόρος, see Bishop Lightfoot’s note on Ignat. ad Eph. § 1 and § 9. Its meaning, as well as that of Θεοφόρος is defined in the answer of Ignatius to Trajan, ῾Ο Χριστὸν ἔχων ἐν στέρνοις (Martyr. Ign. Ant. § 2).

Cat. xxi. 1: “made partakers therefore of Christ, ye are rightly called Christs.”

Ps. xxxii. 1, which verse is still chanted in the Greek Church as soon as the Baptism is completed.

S. Basil has a passage in praise of Baptism almost the same, word for word, with this. It is more likely to have been borrowed from Cyril by Basil and other Fathers, than to be a later interpolation here.

1 Pet. v. 8.

Eph. vi. 15.

Is. xxvii. 1.

1 Cor. iii. 12, 15.

Greek προσθέσθαι, Sept. Deut. xiii. 4, “cleave unto Him.” Compare Josh. xxiii. 12; Ps. lxii. 10, “Set not your heart upon them.”

Col. ii. 14.

2 Cor. vi. 7; Rom. vi. 13.

It is doubtful whether this caution proceeded from Cyril himself when issuing a written copy of his Lectures, or from some later editor. Eusebius (E.H. v. 20) has preserved an adjuration by Irenæus at the end of his treatise, On the Ogdoad: I adjure thee, who mayest transcribe this book, by Our Lord Jesus Christ, and by His glorious advent, when He cometh to judge the quick and the dead, to compare what thou hast written and correct it carefully by this copy, from which thou hast transcribed it; this adjuration also thou shalt write in like manner, and set it in the copy.

Gr. τὸ σύνολον. Plat. Leg. 654 B; Soph. 220 B.

FIRST CATECHETICAL LECTURE

of

Our Holy Father Cyril,

Archbishop of Jerusalem,

The title prefixed to this Lecture is given in full. In the following Lectures the form will be abbreviated. See Index, ἀνάγνωσις and σχεδιασθεῖσα.

To those who are to be Enlightened, delivered extempore at Jerusalem, as an Introductory Lecture to those who had come forward for Baptism[^n458]:

Is. i. 16.

Ezek. xviii. 31.

Luke xv. 7.

Matt. xi. 28.

Compare xv. 25.

Is. i. 16.

Ps. xxxii. 1. See Procat. 15.

Procat. 1, note 6.

See Index, “Confession.”

Eph. iv. 22; Col. iii. 10.

2 Cor. i. 22.

Luke xvi. 9.

Compare xv. 25.

John iii. 8.

Matt. xxv. 21.

Ps. vii. 10.

Matt. vii. 6.

Gr. νοητόν, i.e. the true Paradise, to be seen by the mind, not by the eye. Apoc. xii. 7, 17.

See preceding note.

Rom. xi. 24.

John xv. 1, 4, 5.

Matt. xxi. 19.

Ps. lii. 10.

νοητή, see note 1, above.

1 Cor. iii. 6. When Paul plants and Apollos waters, it is God Himself who works through His ministers.

2 Cor. vi. 2.

Literally “human.”

Some mss. omit τῇ προσευχῇ after σχολάζεις.

Ps. xlvi. 10: σχολάσατε. Compare Procat. 13.

Compare Procat. 17: xviii. 1.

See Index, σύναξις.

Ps. xxiii. 1–3.

Is. viii. 18; Heb. ii. 13.

Lecture II.

For references to Cyril’s doctrine of Free-will, see Index, “Soul.”

Jer. ii. 21.

Eccles. vii. 29.

Eph. ii. 10.

Prov. vi. 27.

Milles and the Benedictine Editor omit these clauses, but the more recent editions of Reischl and Alexandrides insert them on the authority of Munich, Jerusalem, and other good mss.

Prov. iv. 25.

Omitted by recent editors with the best mss.

Gr. κεκοίμηται “has fallen asleep.”

Eccles. x. 4. Compare Eph. iv. 27: “Neither give place to the devil.”

1 John iii. 8; John viii. 44.

On Cyril’s doctrine of the Angels, see Index, “Angels.”

1 Kings v. 4, &c.

Ezek. xxviii. 12–17, an obscure passage, addressed to the Prince of Tyre, and meaning that he was “the perfect pattern” of earthly glory, set in a condition like that of Adam in Paradise, and, seemingly, blameless as Adam before his fall. Cyril seems to regard the Prince of Tyre as an embodiment of Satan, because he was deified as the object of national worship: v. 1, “Thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God.”

Luke x. 18.

Literally, “its old age” (τὸ γῆρας). Compare iii. 7, and Dict. Chr. Biogr., Macarius, p. 770 a.

Ps. xxxi. 20.

Ps. xxxii. 5.

This is the reading of the Septuagint instead of—“He placed at the east of the garden of Eden.”

Gen. iv. 12: “A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the earth.”

Josh. ii. 11.

Ps. lxxxvii. 4. “Rahab” is there a poetical name of Egypt, and the passage has nothing to do with Rahab the harlot. The Benedictine Editor rightly disregards S. Jerome’s suggestion, that Rahab is, like Egypt, a type of the Gentile Church.

2 Tim. ii. 13.

Ex. xxxii. 4.

Deut. ix. 20.

For “all time,” the reading of the best mss., the Benedictine text has “all mankind.”

The Benedictine has, “But if thou wilt I will set before thee other examples also of our state? Come on to the blessed David.”

2 Sam. xii.

Bened. “The king, the wearer of the purple.”

Bened. “blinded.”

Heb. xi. 27.

2 Sam. xii. 13.

Ps. cii. 10.

Ib. vii. 7.

2 Sam. xvi. 10, 11.

Resch. (Agrapha, p. 137) quotes various forms of this saying from early writers, and regards it as a fragment of an extracanonical Gospel. But see Lightfoot, Clem. Rom. c. xiii.

Prov. xxiv. 32, Sept. Heb. “Set my heart.” The passage has no reference to repentance: it means, “I considered the field of the slothful.” Hilary, Ps. lii.; Ambrose, Apolog. 1, Prophetæ David, c. iii. and other Fathers affirm the repentance of Solomon. Augustine (c. Faustum, Lib. xxii. c. 88) maintains that Scripture says nothing of his repentance or forgiveness. See Dante, Paradiso, Canto x. 109.

1 Kings xviii. 4.

Ib. xxi. 29.

1 Kings xiii. 6.

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, § 120 charges the Jews with having cut out a passage referring to the death of Isaiah. Theophylact commenting on Heb. xi. 37, says: “They were sawn asunder, as Isaiah by Manasses: and they say that he was sawn with a wooden saw, that his punishment might be the more painful to him from being prolonged.” Jerome on Is. i. 10, says that he was slain because of his calling the Jews “princes of Sodom and people of Gomorra,” and because he said, “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.”