ONE of the holy prophets has said; "Whoever thirst, come ye to the waters." For he sends us to the writings of the holy Evangelists as to fountains of water. For just as " waters are pleasant to the thirsty soul," as Scripture saith, so to the mind that loveth instruction is the life-giving knowledge of the mysteries of our Saviour. Let us, therefore, draw from the sacred springs the living and life-giving waters, even those that are rational and spiritual. Let us take our fill: and weary not in thy drinking: for in these things more than enough is still for edification: and greediness is great praise. What then it was the Saviour said:----That fountain which came down from heaven, That river of delight,----we learn from what has here been read to us. "In that same hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, and said,"----Whosoever then loveth instruction, must approach the words of God not carelessly, and without earnestness; but, on the contrary, with eagerness: for it is written, "That for every one that taketh care, there is something over." Let us, therefore, examine them, and especially what is meant by the expression, that He "rejoiced in the Holy Ghost."
The Holy Ghost then proceedeth from God the Father as from the fountain; but is not foreign from the Son: for every property of the Father belongeth to the Word, Who by nature and verily was begotten of Him. Christ saw therefore that many had been won by the operation of the Spirit, Whom He bestowed on them that were worthy, and whom He had also commanded to be ministers of the divine message: He saw that wonderful signs were wrought by their hands, and that the salvation of the world by Him,----I mean by faith,----had |297 now begun: and therefore He rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, that is, in the works and miracles wrought by means of the Holy Ghost. For He had appointed the twelve disciples, whom He also called apostles, and after them again seventy others, whom He sent as His forerunners to go before Him unto every village and city of Judaea, preaching Him, and the things concerning Him. And He sent them, nobly adorned with apostolic dignities, and distinguished by the operation of the grace of the Holy Ghost. "For He gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out." They then, having wrought many miracles, returned saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us in Thy Name."And therefore as I have already said, well knowing that those who had been sent by Him had benefited many, and that above all others, they had themselves learned by experience His glory, He was full of joy, or rather of exultation. For being good and loving unto men, and wishing that all should be saved, He found His cause of rejoicing in the conversion of those that were in error, in the enlightenment of those that were, in darkness, and in the answer of the understanding to the acknowledgment of His glory, of those who had been without knowledge and without instruction.
What then does He say? "Father, I confess Thee, Lord of the heaven and the earth." And these words, "I confess Thee," He says after the manner of men, instead of, "I accept Thy kindness," that is, "I praise Thee ." For it is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to use the word |298 confession in some such way as this. For it is written, that "they shall confess, O Lord, Thy great name; for it is terrible and holy." And again, "I will confess Thee, O Lord, with all my heart, and I will tell all Thy wonders."
But I perceive again, that the mind of these perverted men departs not from its depravity; and some of them perhaps will object to us the following argument: 'Lo! the Son makes confession of gratitude to the Father: and how must He not be inferior to Him?' But whosoever is skilful in defending the doctrines of truth may well reply to this: 'And what hinders, O worthy sir, the Son, though equal in substance, from thanking and praising His Father, for saving by His means all beneath the heaven? But if thou thinkest that because of this thanksgiving He is inferior to the Father, observe that also which follows; for He calls the Father "Lord of the heaven and the earth." But of a certainty the Son of Almighty God is equally with Him Lord of all, and above all: not as being inferior, or different in substance, but as God of God, crowned with equal honours, and possessing by right of His substance equality with Him in all things.' And thus much then in answer to them.
But let us consider the words which He addresses to His Father respecting us and in our behalf. "Thou hast hid, He says, all these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes: Yea, O Father, that so it seemed good in thy sight." For God the Father has revealed unto us the mystery, which before the foundations of the world was hidden and reserved in silence with Him: even the Incarnation of the Only-begotten, which was foreknown indeed before the foundations of the world, but revealed to its inhabitants in the last ages of the world. For the blessed Paul writes, that "to me who am the least of all saints, has this grace been given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and clearly teach them all, what is the dispensation of the mystery that for ages has been hid in God Who created all." The great and adorable mystery of our |299 Saviour was hidden therefore even before the foundations of the world, in the knowledge of the Father. And in like manner we also were foreknown and foreordained to the adoption of sons. And this again the blessed Paul teaches us, thus writing, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him, having foreordained us in love to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ unto Himself." To us therefore, as unto babes, the Father has revealed the mystery that for ages had been hidden and reserved in silence.
And yet multitudes of men have preceded us in the world past numbering, who, as far as words went, were wise, who had a practised and skilful tongue, and beauty of stylo, and grandeur of expression, and no mean reputation for wisdom: but as Paul said, "They had become empty in their reasonings, and their foolish heart was darkened: while professing to be wise, they had made themselves fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and into that of birds, and four-footed beasts and reptiles. For this cause they were given up to a reprobate mind;" "and God made the wisdom of this world to be folly:" neither did He shew unto them the mystery. And to us too it is written, "Whosoever seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become foolish, in order that he may become wise: for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." It may truly therefore be affirmed, that he who possesses merely and by itself the wisdom of the world, is foolish and without understanding before God: but that he who seems to be a fool to the wise men of the world, but possesses in his mind and heart the light of the true vision of God, is wise before God. And Paul again confirms this, saying, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach: not with wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ be made ineffectual. For the speech of the cross is to them who are perishing foolishness; but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and take away the understanding of the prudent." And to others also he sent, saying, "For see your calling, |300 brethren: that there are not among you many wise men after the flesh: nor many mighty, nor many of high birth; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, that He may confound the wise." To those therefore who seemed to be foolish, by which is meant, men of an innocent and guileless mind, and simple as a child in wickedness, the Father hath revealed His Son, as being themselves also foreknown and foreordained to the adoption of sons.
Nor is it in my opinion unreasonable to add also the following. The Scribes and Pharisees, who held high rank among the Jews, as having the reputation of legal learning, were regarded as wise men. But they were convicted by the very result of not being so in reality. For even the prophet Jeremiah thus somewhere addressed them: "How say ye, that we are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? The lying cord of the scribe is for emptiness. The wise men are ashamed; they fear and are taken: what wisdom is in. them, because they have rejected the word of the Lord?" Because then they rejected the word of the Saviour, that is, the saving message of the Gospel, or in other language, the Word of God the Father, Who for our sakes became man, they have themselves been rejected. For again the prophet |301 Jeremiah said of them, "Call ye them reprobate silver, because the Lord hath rejected them." And the mystery of Christ was also hid from them: for He somewhere even said to his disciples concerning them, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; but to them it is not given." "To you," that is, to whom? Plainly to those who believed: to those who have recognised His appearing, who understand the law spiritually, who can perceive the meaning of the previous revelation of the prophets, who acknowledge that He is God and the Son of God, to them the Father is pleased to reveal His Son: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen.
[Selected footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. Almost all marginalia, any purely textual footnotes, most Greek or Syriac material has been omitted without notice]
1. The marginal note, which literally means, "Fit to be read when any one is shaven," refers to the rite of admission into the monastic order, and is of course of the date, not of the original work, but of its translation into Syriac, or even its transcription, that is, of the seventh or eighth century. In the Syriac historian, John of Ephesus, the phrase is of frequent occurrence, and always in the sense of becoming a monk. Thus in p. 47, we read that Photius, son of Antonina, the wife of Belisarius, 'for some reason or other, left the army, and shaved his hair, and put on the monastic habit: but being unable to submit to monastic rule, he went to Justin II., still clad in the monkish stole, and was by him made governor of Samaria:' where for twelve years he gave free licence to his ungoverned temper and avarice: as an instance of which, the historian mentions, that he hung the bishop of Ascalon up by one arm, ordering him not to be loosed for three days, unless upon payment of three talents of gold. Again, in p. 55 he mentions, that at the time when the great eunuch Narses received orders to proceed on his last expedition to Italy, he was occupied in building a monastery in Bithynia, intending 'to retire thither, and shave his hair,' i. e. become a monk. Even ladies had to submit to this rite: for in p. 88 he tells us, that in the severe persecution carried on in Justin's latter years by the patriarch, John of Sirmium, against the Monophysites, two noble ladies, Antipatra, whose daughter was married to the consul John, and Juliana, the emperor's own sister-in-law, having refused to receive the holy communion from a bishop who accepted the council of Chalcedon, were sent to a nunnery, with strict orders 'that their hair should be shorn, and that they should wear the black habit of the nuns, and be compelled to perform the most menial labours:' which these ladies found so painful, that they submitted, and were allowed to return to their families. Similar testimonies have already been collected from Greek and Latin authors, as, e. g. Socrates, 1. 3. c. 1. says of the apostate Julian, iv χρῷ κειράμενος τὸν τῶν μοναχῶν ὑπεκρίνετο βίον . To shave the head was peculiar to the monks; for of the clergy nothing more was required than that modesty of dress and apparel which became the gravity of their office; so Conc. Carth. iv. c. 44. "Clericus nec comam nutriat, nec barbam radat," letting the hair grow long, and shaving the beard, being equally marks of luxury and effeminacy. So Morinus Com. de Sac. Eccles. Ordin. P. iii. 266, grants that the clergy for many centuries did not shave the head; and Jerome bears witness to the same effect in his Commentary on Ezech. xliv. 20.
2. Although the translator generally takes the Septuagint text, he has here preserved the name of this place as found in the Syriac version, and calls it Morat.
3. The reader has probably already noticed how constantly S. Cyril uses "disciples," as synonymous with "apostles."
4. The passage in which S. Cyril compares the seventy disciples to the palm trees in Elim, is contained in a brief form both in Mai and Cramer, hut ascribed by the latter to Titus of Bostra. Another passage, rightly assigned by Cramer to Cyril, but at the end of which the Catenist has referred his readers to his collections on St. Matthew's Gospel for the explanation of Luke x. 2, 7, and 16, has evidently puzzled both editors. Mai puts one full stop between the verb προεγράφετο , and τὰ ἀκόλουθα its nominative case: but Cramer puts two full stops, and begins the verb with a capital letter. Nor is this by any means a solitary instance on the part of this latter editor, of his punctuation rendering his text unintelligible. (Cf. ii. p. 85, last three lines.) In his next page, he again contains a passage belonging to Cyril, but given under the name of Titus of Bostra: followed by one which really does belong to this writer.
5. Literally, "a son of peace;" the Syriac with all the best MSS. rejecting the article. It is, moreover, written in one word .... Similar instances of this idiom are, ... man, literally, a son of man; ... immediately, literally, son of the hour. So also a counsellor is a son of counsel; a secretary, a son of the secret; like, a son of likeness; connatural, a son of his nature; brought up together, σύντροφος , a son of his bringing up; a fellow-heir, a son of his inheritance, &c. The translators of the A. V. do not seem to have understood this, as they translate, "your peace shall rest upon it," the house: whereas Christ's peace rests upon the man who is worthy of it.
6. This is not a different reading from the Greek text, but the substitution of the customs of the East for those of Greece. In Greece when friends met they embraced one another, and therefore their word for salutation is ἀσπάζομαι , amplecti ; in Rome they said Salve, Be well, whence Saluto: and in the East they asked of one another's peace, 2 Kings ix. 22; whence the phrase in the text. In the present day Orientals greet by saying, Peace be to you; to which the answer is, And to you peace: Cf. also John xx. 26: it is thus that the word for peace, Salaam, has become equivalent with us to salutation.
7. The use of this conjunction leads to the conclusion that "by having been enlightened" is meant having been baptized: and thus two stages of feeling would be marked in those who might meet them; they might either be men disposed to look favourably upon the labours of the Apostles, or they might even have publicly acknowledged their convictions, and been received into the church by baptism. That φωτίζω constantly has this meaning is well known, and the Peschito, which often is rather a paraphrase than a translation, renders φωτισθέντας in Heb. vi. 4. by "who have gone down to baptism;" and in Heb. x. 32. by "ye have received baptism."
8. S. Cyril explains σπερμολόγος in almost the same terms as Theophylact, and others of the Fathers. Casaubon, however, from Eustathius, has shewn that the word was applied by the Athenians contemptuously to the worthless fellows who hung about the market-place to pick up any thing that might fall: and hence the explanations given in Suidas and Hesychius of εὐρολόγος and φλύαρος . And in this sense it is taken in the A. V.
9. Scarcely any of this part of the commentary has been discovered by Mai; he has however a very short summary of this sermon, in which the Catenist has interpolated an illustration of our Lord's command to the disciples by referring to Elisha's similar instruction to Gehazi to salute no one by the way, when sent to visit the Shunamite's dead son, 2 Kings iv. 29.
10. S. Cyril has passed over without notice, vv. 8-15, containing the denouncement of the woes upon Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, for not having received Christ's teaching. On several other occasions he has similarly omitted passages, probably as having been explained by him in his other commentaries.
11. Namely, the position invented for our Lord by the Arians, who considered Him greater than all created beings, but less than God. Subsequently, I have inserted, virtually, because S.Cyril does not mean that the Arians rejected the Scripture absolutely, but that the legitimate deductions from their doctrines are irreconcilable with its plain meaning. This must be borne in mind all through his argument, as otherwise it is unintelligible.
12. Literally, "the paradise," a word borrowed from the Persian language, and exactly signifying "the pleasure ground immediately attached to a house."
13. As the English translation "I thank " has already obviated the difficulty in the original, it may be necessary to say, that it literally means as rendered above, "I confess," "I make confession to Thee, O Father:" but as the Greek language has no word strictly meaning "to thank," the Sept. use this verb to express the Hebrew [Hebrew], gratias egit, laudavit, and hence its use in biblical Greek in this sense. The Syriac periphrasis is also remarkable, being, "I accept thy grace or kindness," the acceptance of it; as a favour being supposed to convey an acknowledgment of gratitude. The Latin of Corderius gives the general sense of the passage very correctly: Confiteor Tibi, Pater, dicit more hominum, pro gratiam agnosco, quare laudo Te, gratias ago tibi. Solet enim divinitus inspirata scriptura confessionis nomen secundum talem aliquem modum sumere. Scriptum est enim ; Confiteantur nomini Tuo magno: et iterum; Confitebor Tibi, Domine, in toto corde meo. The Greek has not been preserved.
14. Οἰκονομία . The reading of the textus receptus κοινωνία , 'fellow-ship,' has scarcely any MS. authority, and is rejected in all modern edd. There is considerably more support for its addition of διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ , but far outweighed by the evidence for its rejection.
15. With the exception of the Peschito, I am not aware of any other authority for the reading "among you," which otherwise however makes a very good sense, 'Observe that in your company, forming the Christian church at Corinth, ye do not find many men distinguished either for wealth, power, or lineage, but principally the poor and ignoble.' Most probably the translator, though not quoting it literally, had the Peschito in his mind, as otherwise he would scarcely have used the obsolete plural...
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