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Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures
Edwin Hamilton Gifford; NPNF2-07 (1894) · Edition commentary
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Translator and historical edition notes (part 2)
2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13.
2 Kings xx. 1.
Is. xxx. 15.
Isaiah xxxviii. 8.
From this point the mss. differ so widely that the Benedictine Editor gives two complete recensions of the whole Lecture. The Codd. Coislin, Ottob. 2, and Grodec, with the editions of Prevot and Milles, forming as it were one family of mss., constitute the received text. On the other hand the older Munich Codex, with Codd. Roe and Casaubon, exhibit a recension of the Lecture differing from the editions. Reischl wishing to retain the received text unaltered, though preferring the other in particular passages, intended to append the other recension complete, but having left his work half finished, failed to do so. The chief variations are given in the following notes.
Roe and Casaubon (R.C.) add: “into the furnace of fire.”
R.C. “What measure.”
Song of the Three Children, v. 24.
R.C. “Much.”
R.C. “A great stream of repentance was poured forth, when they said, For Thou art righteous,” &c.
Song of the Three Children, v. 4.
R.C. “Did then repentance quench the flames of the furnace, and dost thou disbelieve that it is able also to quench the fire of hell?”
The Gospel only says, “There was darkness over all the land.” An eclipse of the sun was impossible at the time of the Paschal full moon.
R.C.
“That the narrative is not appropriate to those who are here present. For it was because Ananias and his companions refused to worship the idol, that God gave them that marvellous power. Adapting myself, therefore, to such a hearer, and looking to the profusion of instances, I come next to a different example of repentance.”
R.C. “most impious, and most fierce in temper.”
Jer. viii. 1; Baruch ii. 25.
“Knowest thou not…”
2 Kings xxv. 7.
R.C. “carried off.”
νοητά. R.C. add “and heavenly.”
Omitted by R.C.
R.C. “But those which had been constructed in the Temple, which were over the mercy-seat of the Ark.” Besides the two Cherubim of solid gold which Moses placed on the two ends of the Mercy-seat (Ex. xxxvii. 7 ff.), Solomon set “within the oracle” two Cherubim of olive wood overlaid with gold, ten feet high with outstretched wings overshadowing the Ark (1 Kings vi. 23–26; viii. 6, 7). All these were either carried off or destroyed, when Nebuchadnezzar took away “all the treasures of the house of the Lord” and “cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon, King of Israel, had made in the Temple of the Lord” (2 Kings xxiv.
13; 1 Esdras i. 54; 2 Esdras x. 22). The Benedictine editor is concerned because Cyril has paid no attention to the strange fiction in 2 Maccabees ii. 4 that Jeremy the Prophet “commanded the Tabernacle and the Ark to go with him” to Mount Horeb, and there hid them, with the Altar of Incense, in a hollow cave, to remain “unknown until the time that God gathers His people again together.”
The Greek word rendered “Sanctuary” is ἡ ἁγιωσύνη, literally “the holiness.”
2 Chron. xxxvi. 7.
R.C. “The veil of the Sanctuary he tore down, he overturned the altar, and took all the vessels and carried them away to an idol temple. The Temple itself he burned.”
R.C. Afterwards he was turned into a wild beast: “he who was like a wild beast and most cruel in disposition; but he was turned into a wild beast, not that he might perish, but that by repentance he might be saved.”
R.C. “of birds.” See Dan. iv. 33.
R.C. “after the midst of the furnace had become to Ananias and his companions as the tinkling breath of rain, he saw and believed not.”
R.C. “But afterwards he came to his senses and repented, as he says himself.”
Dan. iv. 34.
R.C.
“And after he had been scourged many years, he gave praise to Him that liveth for ever, and acknowledged Him that had given him the kingdom, and recognised the King of kings. And though he had often sinned in deeds, on making confession only in words, he received the benefit of God’s unspeakable loving kindness. He who was of all men most wicked, by the Divine judgment and loving-kindness of God who chastised him, crowned himself again with the royal diadem, and recovered his imperial throne.”
R.C. “If then there is present among you any from among the Heathen who has ever spoken evil against Christians, or in times of persecution plotted against the Holy Churches, let him take Nabuchodonsor as an example of salvation: let him confess in like manner, that he may also find the like forgiveness. If any has been defiled by lust and passions, let him take up the repentance of the blessed David: if any has denied like Peter, let him die like him for the sake of the Lord Jesus. For He who to his tears begrudged not the Apostleship, will not refuse thee the gospel mysteries. And for women let Rahab be a pattern unto salvation, and for men the manifold examples mentioned of the men of old times.
R.C.
“And be ye all of good hope, having regard to the lovingkindness of God; not that we may fall back into the same sins, but that having had the benefit of redemption, and lived in a manner worthy of His grace, we may be able to blot out the handwriting that is against us by good works; in the power of the Only-begotten, the Son of God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father, with the Holy Ghost, both now and ever, and unto all the ages of eternity. Amen.”
Lecture III.
Ps. xcvi. 11.
The invisible or spiritual (νοητός) hyssop is the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost in Baptism. Compare Ps. li. 7.
S. Cyril here, and still more emphatically in xiii. 39, distinguishes the hyssop (John xix. 29) from the reed (Matt. xxvii. 48), implying that the sponge filled with vinegar was bound round with hyssop, and then fixed on a reed. Another opinion is that the reed itself was that of hyssop. See Dictionary of the Bible, “Hyssop.”
Is. xl. 3.
σωμάτων.
So in § 15, the soul is regarded as a vessel for receiving grace.
Matt. xxii. 12.
Matt. xxv. 21.
Cant. i. 4.
Is. lxi. 10. Compare Cant. iii. 11: Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon, with the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him in the day of his espousals. In the passage of Isaiah the bridegroom’s crown is likened to the priestly mitre.
Eph. v. 27.
See Index, “Seal.”
Index, “White.”
βωμοῖς used of heathen altars only, in Septuagint and N.T.
Both here and in xix. 7, Cyril speaks of things offered to idols just as S. Paul in 1 Cor. x. 20. The Benediction of the water of Baptism is found in the Apostolic Constitutions, vii. 43:
“Look down from heaven, and sanctify this water, and give it grace and power, that so he that is to be baptized according to the command of Thy Christ, may be crucified with Him, and may die with Him, and be buried with Him, and may rise with him to the adoption which is in him, that he may be dead to sin and live to righteousness.”
Heb. x. 22.
See the note on “the twofold grace perfected by water and the Spirit,” at the end of this Lecture.
John iii. 3.
στηλή, Sept. A pillar of stone, bearing an inscription, was a common form of memorial among the Israelites and other ancient nations. See Dictionary of the Bible, “Pillar.”
Acts x. 48.
S. Cyril considers that Cornelius and his friends were regenerated, as the Apostles were, apart from Baptism; as August. Serm. 269, n. 2, and Chrysost. in Act. Apost. Hom. 25, seem to do. R.W.C.
Compare ix. 5.
Gen. i. 2.
Ephes. v. 26.
Heb. ix. 19.
Matt. xi. 13.
Mark i. 1, 4.
Matt. xi. 11.
From the Clementine Recognitions, I. 54 and 60, we learn that there were some who asserted that John was the Christ, and not Jesus, inasmuch as Jesus Himself declared that John was greater than all men, and all Prophets. The answer is there given, that John was greater than all who are born of women, yet not greater than the Son of Man.
The locust being winged suggest the idea of growing wings for the soul. Is. xl. 31: πτεροφυησουσιν ὡς ἀετοί.
Jer. i. 5.
Luke i. 44.
Matt. iii. 5.
Matt. iii. 6.
Ib. iii. 7.
The Greek word (ὑπόστασις) is used by Polybius (xxxiv. 9) for the deposit of silver from crushed ore, and by Hippocrates for any sediment or deposit. Here it means, as the context clearly shews, the old skin cast by a snake. Compare ii. 5.
Matt. vii. 13, 14.
Col. iii. 9.
Cant. v. 3. In the Song, this saying is an excuse for not rising from bed. S. Cyril applies it in a different way.
Matt. iii. 10.
Luke iii. 11.
Matt. xxi. 31.
1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.
Matt. iii. 11.
Acts ii. 2.
Mark x. 38.
1 Cor. iv. 9.
Heb. ii. 14.
Job xl. 23.
Ps. lxxiv. 14.
Luke x. 19.
Job xl. 26, in the Sept. in place of xli. 7: Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears? (A.V. and R.V.)
Job xli. 13, Sept. but in R.V. xli. 22: And terror danceth before him.
1 Cor. xv. 55.
Compare III. 3, and see Index, “Baptism.”
Rom. vi. 5.
Rom. vi. 4. Instead of “might rise again” (Roe, Casaub. Mon.), the older Editions have “might raise thee up,” which is less appropriate in this part of the sentence.
2 Cor. vi. 7.
Matt. iv. 17.
Luke iii. 22.
John i. 33.
Ib. i. 1.
Rom. viii. 17.
Acts ii. 37.
Ib. iii. 15.
Ib. ii. 58.
Zeph. iii. 14, 15.
Is. iv. 4.
Ezek. xxxvi. 25.
Cant. viii. 4, Gr. ἀδελφιδόν, “brother,” “kinsman.”
Ib. iv. 1, 2.
The Fathers sometimes speak as if Baptism was primarily the Sacrament of remission of sins, and upon that came the gift of the Spirit, which notwithstanding was but begun in Baptism and completed in Confirmation. Vid. Tertullian. de Bapt. 7, 8, supr. i. 5 fin. Hence, as in the text, Baptism may be said to be made up of two gifts, Water, which is Christ’s blood, and the Spirit. There is no real difference between this and the ordinary way of speaking on the subject;—Water, which conveys both gifts, is considered as a type of one especially,—conveys both remission of sins through Christ’s blood and the grace of the Spirit, but is the type of one, viz. the blood of Christ, as the Oil in Confirmation is of the other. And again, remission of sins is a complete gift given at once, sanctification an increasing one. (R.W.C.) See Index, “Baptism.”
Lecture IV.
The number “ten” is confirmed by Theodoret, who quotes the article on Christ’s “Birth of the Virgin” as from Cyril’s fourth Catechetical Lecture “On the ten Doctrines.” The mss. vary between “ten” and “eleven,” and differ also in the special titles and numeration of the separate Articles.
2 Cor. xi. 14.
Job xli. 24, Sept.; xli. 15: ἡ καρδία αὐτοῦ…ἕστηκεν ὥσπερ ἄκμων ἀνήλατος. These statements concerning the Devil seem to be directed against Origen’s opinion (De Principiis I. 2), that the Angels “who have been removed from their primal state of blessedness have not been removed irrecoverably.” The question is discussed, and the opinions of several Fathers quoted, by Huet, Origeniana, II. c. 25.
Matt. vii. 15. The same text is applied to Heretics by Ignatius, Philadelph. ii. and by Irenæus, L. I. c. i. § 2.
1 Pet. v. 8.
Col. ii. 8.
Prov. v. 3.
Is. xlvi. 3. Sept. παιδευόμενοι ἐκ παιδίου ἕως γήρως.
Rom. xvi. 17. Cyril has εὐγλωττίας in place of εὐλογίας.
Compare Ignatius, Trall. vi.
Matt. xxiv. 4.
Compare Rom. vi. 17: “that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered.” The instruction of Catechumens in the Articles of the Faith was commonly called the “Traditio Symboli,” or “Delivery of the Creed.”
Heb. v. 14.
Compare Hermas, Mandat. I. Athan. Epist. de Decretis Nic. Syn. xxii.: οὕτω καὶ τὸ ἄτρεπτον καὶ ἀναλλοίωτον αὐτὸν εἶναι σωθήσεται. So Aristotle (Metaphys. XI. c. iv. 13) describes the First Cause as ἀπαθὲς καὶ ἀναλλοίωτον.
Irenæus, I. c. xxvii. says that Cerdo taught that the God of the Law and the Prophets was not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: for that He is known, but the other unknown, and the one is just, but the other good. Also III. c. 25, § 3: “Marcion himself, therefore, by dividing God into two, and calling the one good, and the other judicial, on both sides puts an end to Deity.” Compare Tertullian, c. Marcion. I. 2, and 6; Origen, c. Cels. iv. 54.
This tenet was held by the Manichæans and other heretics, and is traced back to the Apostolic age by Bishop Pearson (Exposition of the Creed, Art. i. p. 79, note c). Compare Athanasius c. Apollinarium, I. 21; II. 8; c. Gentes, § 6; de Incarnatione, § 2, in this series, and Augustine (c. Faustum, xx. 15, 21, and xxi. 4).
Matt. vi. 24; Luke xvi. 13.
John i. 3; Col. i. 16.
S. Aug. in Ps. lxxv. 6: Si in aliquo loco esset, non esset Deus. Sermo 342: Deus habitando continet non continetur. Origen, c. Cels. vii. 34: “God is of too excellent a nature for any place: He holds all things in His power, and is Himself not confined by anything whatever.” Compare the quotation from Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia, in the note on Cat. vi. 8.
Ps. viii. 3.
Is. xl. 12.
See Cat. xv. 3, and note there.
ἰδέαν. Cyril uses the word in the Platonic sense, as in the next sentence he adopts the formula, which Plato commonly uses in describing the “idea:” ἀεὶ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχειν. Phaed. 78 c.