4. After scholars had satisfactorily decided on philological evidence that the 'byssus' was cotton, the microscope has proved it to be linen. The main points of the argument were that the Hebrew word shesh, always rendered 'byssus' by the Septuagint, is the Arabic modern term for fine muslin: and that cotton garments are mentioned on the Rosetta stone as supplied by government for the use of the temples, being in great request, according to Pliny's account (xix. 8.), by the Egyptian priests. Herodotus however says, that the mummies were enveloped Σινδόνος βυσσίνης τελαμῶσι (ii. 86.), and Mr. Thompson (on the mummy cloth of Egypt, as quoted in Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, iii. 113.) has shewn, that the wrappers are invariably of linen, though occasionally so fine as not to be distinguishable from muslin, until the microscope revealed the different texture of the filaments.
5. The Syriac makes the smallness of the request more apparent, by using a term peculiar to the little finger.
6. On the meaning of philosophy, consult the note on ver. 22.
7. Ψυχικός , having a soul only. Cf. note on iv. 38.
8. Although the article might suggest, as in the Lord's prayer, that Satan, the evil one, is signified, who is to be overcome in the good One, God, yet the gender in the second clause proves this idea to be incorrect. The meaning therefore is, "Overcome evil of every kind, whatever it be, by whatever is good."
9. The Commentary, like similar works of S. Chrysostom and others, was delivered in a course of Homilies; these however the Syriac translator terms Targums, literally Interpretations or Expositions; and this title I had made use of until I met with the following heading to a sermon contained in MS. 12,165, in the British Museum, which shews that the verb signified also to "preach." -- 'Sermon upon the death of Meletius the Great, bishop of Antioch. S. Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, preached it before one hundred and fifty bishops at Constantinople.' This sermon is also extant in Greek. Upon the authority therefore of this heading I have called them Sermons.
10. A few lines follow in Mai not recognized by the Syriac, but probably taken from the Commentary on Matth. vii. 18, as they give an explanation of the different bearing of the interpretation of the two passages.
11. Lest I should be thought to have separated this word wilfully from its usual dependance upon "treasure," I may here observe, once for all, that the punctuation of the Syriac is exact to the last degree of minuteness: and in this and all similar places I have scrupulously adhered to it.
12. Syriac, God and Father.
13. Domestic service in old time by freemen was all but unknown, and therefore "servant" is equivalent to "slave." Hence the full force of Luke xvi. 13., xvii. 9., &c.; and such expressions as "sold under sin." (Rom. vii. 14.) Of their treatment, S. Chrysostom (Hom. iv. in Titium) complains that masters generally neglected their morals, and thought only of their service; and that therefore "it was a difficult thing for a slave to be a good man:" for being left without education, and not admitted into the society of freemen, there was nothing to counteract the debasing associations of his degraded position. That Christianity gradually, though very slowly, led to the amelioration of their state, we may see by the acknowledgment in the text that the slave was by nature his master's brother; and by S. Chrysostom's appeals in their behalf, as, for instance, 'If Paul was not ashamed to call a slave his son, and his own bowels, and brother and beloved, why should we be ashamed? And what say I? Paul's Lord was not ashamed to call our slaves His brothers, and are we ashamed thereat?' (Hom. ii. in Phil.)
14. As servant meant slave, so the "lord," despo&thj, was the master or owner of the household. Hence the well-known objection of the Romans to the title of Dominus, as implying the relation between master and slave. Each slave had usually a monthly allowance of food, which one of them was commissioned to distribute.
15. The name of Christ, fulfilled in the title of Christians; of which S. Gregory of Nyssa, (de perf. Chr. forma, iii. 277.) says, "The goodness of God has granted us to share in that great and most divine and chief of names, being honoured with Christ's own title, and so called Christians."
16. The greater part of the above homily has perished in the Greek, but Mai has among his fragments one from his second Catena B. not recognized in the Syriac: its style, however, differs from Cyril's; and in Cramer's Catena a part of it is quoted ἐξ ἀνεπιγράφου i. e. as given without the author's name, whereas Cyril had been very largely quoted by name almost immediately before.
17. A domestic servant was constantly styled παῖς , child. So [Hebrew] in Hebrew, "Joseph was serving boy, (in charge of the sheep probably,) with the sons of Bilhah." (Gen. xxxvii. 2.): and very frequently it is rendered "servant" in the A. V. as 1 Sam. ii. 15. The term was also applied to females, as when Boaz bade Ruth continue with his "young women" during the gleaning.
18. Cr. contains several fragments of this exposition, but anonymously, and probably on this account, not included by Mai in his collection.
19. A folium is here lost, and apparently at some distant time, as the ornamental writing of the title has left its marks on the opposite side. In the margin is a note, "Fit to be read at the commemoration of the departed." To depart was a common euphemism in the ancient church for death; cf. Suiceri Th. sub ἀποδημία : and of the Commemorations, St. Augustin says (De Civ. Dei, 1. xxii. c. 10.) Gentiles talibus diis suis, sc. qui antea homines fuerant, et templa aedificaverunt, et statuerunt aras, et sacerdotes instituerunt, et sacrificia fecerunt. Nos autem martyribus nostris non templa sicut diis, sed memorias sicut hominibus mortuis, quorum apud Deum vivunt spiritus, fabricamus.
20. Two passages follow in Mai, not recognised by the Syriac. The first from Cod. A. is as follows: "for we believe that the body of Christ makes alive, because It is both the temple and dwelling-place of the living Word, and possesses all Its activity. It was not enough therefore for Him only to command, though accustomed by a word to accomplish whatsoever He wished, but He laid also His hands on the bier, shewing that His body also possesses the power of making alive." The second from Codd. A and C. is referred also by Aquinas and Cramer's MS. to Cyril: "That fear fell upon all, and they glorified God, was indeed a great thing on the part of the senseless and ungrateful people (Cr. reads λόγῳ for λαῷ ): for shortly afterwards they regard Him neither as a prophet, nor as having appeared for the good of the people: yea they deliver up to death Him Who destroys death, not knowing that at that very time He destroyed death, when in His own person He wrought the resurrection."
21. In the preceding sermon this place was called Nair, in the same way as Beliar has occurred for Belial, and as no Gr. MS. recognises this form, it is possible that it is a Syriac provincialism, in the same way as in Sanscrit certain final letters are regularly changed into r, from the ease with which the voice rests upon that letter at the close of a word.
22. Mai from Cod. A. contains a few lines here and there not acknowledged by the Syriac, but apparently only intended to convey the general sense of the passages omitted; though even these may possibly be from other works of S. Cyril, as Niketas' acquaintance with them was evidently most complete, and instances will subsequently be pointed out of his having thus introduced single sentences into the body of the Commentary, though naturally such intrusions generally escape discovery. The subject of this sermon is again treated of by S. Cyril in his Thesaurus, c. xi.
23. For this quotation, consult the note at the commencement of Serm. 39.
24. The passage in Mai, p. 213, from B. f. 72. agrees, as far as it goes, with the Syriac. It is preceded, however, by two passages, the second of which from B. f. 71. is much too rhetorical to be really S. Cyril's, and is given by Cramer anonymously, following one taken from Titus of Bostra, whose style it much more resembles. It explains, however, more fully what Cyril very shortly refers to, viz. that John was more honourable than the prophets, as being himself the object of prophecy: and guards against a misinterpretation of the word angel in the prediction, "Behold I send My angel before Thy face." The other passage from A. 118. has the appearance of being a summary of S. Cyril's argument respecting John being the greatest of those born of women, though it includes new matter in an important interpretation of Luke xvii. 21.: to the effect that "the kingdom of heaven signifies the gift of the Holy Ghost," according to the words, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." Soon after this quotation it runs into the Syriac, at the sentence with which B. 72. ends, with some verbal differences. This sentence will be found in my translation at the commencement of the paragraph in page 148: "Even though, therefore, we be inferior to them, &c." But soon afterwards it diverges again to explain more fully than the Syriac does, that our Lord's words that from the days of John the kingdom of heaven is taken by force, would not justify the conclusion, that the saints of the old dispensation did not gain admission therein.
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