11. Βελίαρ is the reading of most of the MSS. and Fathers. The Hebrew is Belial, and signifies "worthlessness," from ... without, and ... utility. Sons of Belial, therefore, as in i Sam, ii. 12., according to the ordinary Hebrew use of "son," signifies "worthless persons." Bar-bahlul says, that the word Beliar is derived from ... and means Lord of the air.
12. That is, One person consisting of both natures. The passage referred to by Mai, as preceding this extract in Aquinas, is from the Thesaurus.
13. As the Masoretic punctuation of this word as Miriam, is apparently of very modern date, I have retained the spelling of the LXX. Even Jerome apparently had never heard of it.
14. The Nestorians, to whom this doctrine is several times expressly assigned by S. Cyril in this Commentary. The phrase, "one and the same Son and Lord," was afterwards formally enacted by the Council of Chalcedon. Cf. above.
15. The Monophysites, whose doctrines Eutyches subsequently pushed to an extreme.
16. This passage being evidently collected out of the preceding, shews that the writers of the smaller Catenae rather gave an epitome in their own words than an exact transcript of the Fathers. It changes the difficult reading of the old MSS. αὐτὸν into πάντας .
17. This extract from D., which I had previously marked as suspicious, I find assigned in Cramer's Catena to Titus Bostrensis.
18. In Syriac, the ordinary language of Palestine when our Lord was upon earth, the phrase "son of man," is equivalent to man simply: and the word [Syriac] 'man' signifies "any," "some," so that we even find [Syriac], literally Deus homo, as the translation of Θεός τις . In Hebrew [Hebrew] is seldom found, except in poetry, but men are called "sons of Adam," and Adam is even used simply for "any one," as in Lev. i. 2. "Son of man" therefore signifies man absolutely, and so even Adam is called [Syriac], son of man, in the Syriac version of 1 Cor. xv. 45. This sometimes leads to an ambiguity in Scripture, as that noticed in the text by S. Cyril: and again, Luke vi. 5, where some interpret that our Saviour is Lord of the Sabbath day, whereas the sense requires us to understand it of mankind generally.
19. The Novatians are probably meant, who subsequently are more than once referred to in the course of the Commentary.
20. This extract, and some sentences in the next, apparently belong to the Commentary upon St. Mark, cf. c. ii. vv. 1.7, 18, and confirm Cramer's opinion, upon the authority of the Laudian Greek Codex xxxiii. in the Bodleian, that the Catena upon that Evangelist is to be assigned to S. Cyril, rather than to Victor of Antioch; who possibly nevertheless compiled it, as in many codices it bears his name.
21. This extract, which is taken from the same MSS. A. and H., which contained the dubious passage in page 92, [conf. note h.], is assigned by Cramer's MS. to Titus of Bostra.
22. Arius.
23. συναφθέντι κατὰ συνάφειαν Nestorius' favourite word: upon his use of which Cyril observes in his Commonitorium to Posidonius: "Therefore he always avoids the word 'union,' ἔνωσις , and calls it instead συνάφεια , a connection, like one who is from without, and as God said to Jesus, As I was with Moses, so will I also be with thee." Hard. Conc. i. 1319.
24. Mai's difficulty from finding that this passage is quoted in two codices as from a homily of S. Cyril, and also that occasionally direct addresses are made as to persons present, is cleared up by the Syriac, which shews that the whole commentary was delivered in a course of sermons.
25. In the original ἄρτος both means "bread," and a "loaf:" but this identity of the terms cannot be preserved in the translation.
26. The ἰγνύα is the hollow of the knee, where Jacob's sinew shrank. The Jews thus were lame of one knee, the Sidonians of both, as having mingled up Judaic rites with their heathenism. Conf. i Kings, xviii. 21.
27. Graecian in the Fathers is often equivalent to heathen. So "the sages of the Greeks" above means the chief writers of heathenism generally: and so S. Chrysostom, Hom. cxxi. T. v. p. 792., says, speaking of those who preceded Abraham.
28. The explanation given by S. Cyril of the names of the Apostles corresponds in great measure with that in S.Jerome.
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