Commentary on the Gospel of John by St. Cyril of Alexandria Part 11

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter one commentary on the Gospel of John, book eleven.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Commentary on the Gospel of John,
Book eleven by Cyril of Alexandria, translated by Reverend Thomas Randall.

(00:24):
Chapter one. That the Holy Spirit is naturally of God,
and in the Sun, and through Him, and in his substance. Fourteen,
he shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine
and shall declare it unto you. As the Holy Spirit
was about to reveal to those who should be found

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worthy the mystery that is in Christ, and to demonstrate
completely who he is by nature, and how great is
his power and might, and that he reigneth over all
with the Father. Christ is impelled to say, he shall
glorify me, for He sets our mind above the conceits
of the Jews, and does not suffer us to entertain

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so limited a dwarf to conception as to think that
he is a mere man, slightly surpassing the prophets in
the stature they attained, or even falling short of their renown.
For we find that the leaders of the Jews had
this idea concerning him, because they, not knowing the mystery
of piety, frequently uttered blasphemies against Christ, and, encountering his

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sayings with their mad folly, said on one occasion, who
art thou, Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead,
And thou sayest if a man keep my word, he
shall never see death? Who makest thou thyself? And on
another occasion they cast in his teeth the meanness of

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his birth according to the flesh, and his great insignificance
in this respect? Is not this the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How then doth he say,
I am come down out of heaven? Note here in
the miserable reasoning of the Jews, as then the multitude

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were so disposed and thought that the Lord was not
truly God, because in this human frame he was liable
to death, and because they did not scruple to entertain
the basest conception of his nature. The Spirit, when he
came down from heaven, illustrated completely his glory to the saints.

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Not that we should say that he merely convinced them
by wise words, but that he by actual proof, also
satisfied the minds of all that he was truly God
and the fruit of the substance of God the Father.
What then, is this proof? And how did he increase
the honor and admiration in which Christ was held? By

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exercising his activity universally in a marvelous and divine manner,
and by implanting in the scene's complete and perfect knowledge,
he furthered his glory. For to the sovereign nature of
the universe alone must we ascribe omniscience and the sight
of all things naked and laid open to the view,

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and the ability to accomplish all his purposes. The comforter, then,
that is, his own spirit, being omnipotent and omniscient, glorifies
the Sun. And how does he glorify him? Surely what
his spirit knows and is able to affect, Christ knows

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and is able to affect. And if, as he says,
the Spirit receives of him the spirit himself being omnipotent,
surely he himself has a power which is universal. And
we must in no wise suppose that the comforter, that is,
the Spirit, is lacking an innate and inherent power in

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such a way, that if he did not receive assistance
from without, his own power, would not be self sufficient
to fully accomplish the divine designs. Anyone who merely imagined
any such idea to be true about the Spirit would
with good reason undergo the charge of the worst blasphemy

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of all. But it is because he is consubstantial with
the Son and divinely proceeds through him, exercising universally his
entire activity and power, that Christ says he shall receive
of me. For we believe that the Spirit has a

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self supporting existence, and is in truth that which he is,
and with the qualities predicated of him. Though being inherent
in the substance of God, he proceeds and issues from it,
and has innate in himself all that that nature implies.

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For the divine substance is not his by participation or
by relation. Still less is it his as though he
had a separate existence from it, since he is an
attribute of it. For just as the fragrance of sweet
smelling flowers proceeding in some sort from the essential and

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natural exercise of the functions or qualities of the flowers
that emit, it conveys the perception thereof to the outer
world by meeting those organs of smell in the body.
And yet seems in some way, so far as its
logical conception goes to be separate from its natural cause,

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while as having no independent existence, it is not separate
in nature from the source from which it proceeds and
in which it exists. Even so you may conceive of
the relation of God and the Holy Spirit, taking this
by way of illustration. In this way, then the statement
that his spirit receives something from the only Begotten is

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wholly unimpeachable and cannot be caviled at. For proceeding naturally
as his attribute through him, and having all that he
has in its entirety, he is said to receive that
which he has. And if this meaning is conveyed in
language that is obscure, far from being offended at it,

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we should, with more justice lay the blame on the
poverty of our own language, which is not able to
give expression to the divine truths in a suitable way.
And what language is adequate to explain the ineffable nature
and glory of God. He says, then, that the comforter

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will receive of mind and will show it unto you.
That is, he will say nothing that is not in
harmony with my purpose. But since he is my spirit,
his language will be in every way identical with mine,
and he will show you of my will. End of

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Chapter one. Chapter two, Part one of Commentary on the
Gospel of John, Book eleven by Cyril of Alexandria, translated
by Reverend Thomas Randall. This LibriVox recording is in the
public domain. Chapter two. That his spirit, that is, the

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Holy Spirit, is naturally in the sun and in his substance,
as he is also in the substance of the Father. Fifteen.
All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine. And therefore
I said unto you that he taketh of mine, and
shall declare unto you. The Son once more shows to

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us herein the complete and perfect character of the person
of the Father himself also and allows us to see
why he said that he, being the fruit of the
Father's substance, engrosses in himself all that belongs to it,
and says that it is all his own, and with reason,

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for as there is nothing to dissever or estrange the
Son from the Father so far as their complete similarity
and equality is concerned, save only that he is not
himself the father. And as the divine substance does not
show itself differently in the two persons, surely their attributes

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are common, or rather identical, so that what the Father
hath is the son's, and what he that begat hath
belongs also to him that is begotten of him. For
this reason, I think, in his watchful care over us,
he has thus spoken to us concerning this. For he

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did not say all things whatsoever the Father hath, I
have also, in order to prevent our imagining, he meant
a mere likeness founded on similarity, only molded by adventitious
graces into conformity with the archetype, as is the case
with us, for we are after God's likeness. Rather, when

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he says all things whatsoever the Father hath our mind,
he illustrates hereby the perfect union which he hath with
his father, and the meaning of their consubstantiality existing in
unchangeable attributes. And this you may see that he clearly
says elsewhere when addressing the Father, all things that our

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mine are thine, and thine are mine. For surely they
are identical in nature, and in whom there is no
severance at all but complete and perfect essential equality and likeness.
God the Father then hath of himself and in himself
his own spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, through whom

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he dwelleth in the saints, and reveals his mysteries to them,
Not as though the spirit recalled to perform a merely
ministerial function. Do not think this, but rather as he
is in him essentially and proceeds from him inseparably and indivisibly,

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interpreting what is in reality his own when he interprets
that which belongs to him, in whom he exists and
from whom he springs. For God only has union with
the creation through his son in the Spirit. And this
spirit is also an attribute of the only Begotten, for

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he is consubstantial with the Father. Since then, he says,
it is seen to be natural to God the Father
to reveal himself in his own spirit to those who
are worthy of him, and to accomplish through him all
his purposes. And since this kind of action belongs to me.

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Also for this cause, I said, he receiveth of me
and will show it unto you. And let no man
be perplexed when he here hears the word receiveth. But rather,
let him consider the following fact, and he will do well.
The things of God are spoken of in language as

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though God were even as we are, but this is
not really the case, for his ways are superhuman. We say, then,
that the Spirit receives of the Father and the Son
the things that are theirs in the following way, not
as though at one moment he were void of the
knowledge and power inherent in them, and at the next

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hardly acquires such knowledge and power when he is conceived
of as receiving from them. For the Spirit is wise
and powerful, nay rather absolute wisdom and power, not by
participation in anything else, but by his own nature, but rather,

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just as we should say that the fragrance of sweet
smelling herbs, which assails our nostrils, is distinct from the
herbs so far as their conception in thought is concerned,
but proceeds from the herbs in which it originates only
by being a recipient of their faculty of giving scent
in order to its display, and is not in fact

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distinct from them, because its existence is due to and
is wrapped up in them. Even such an idea, or
rather one transcending those must to imagine about the relation
of God to the Holy Spirit, for he is, as
it were, a sweet savor of his substance, working plainly

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on the senses, conveying to the creature an affluence from
God and instilling in him through itself, participation in the
sovereign substance of the universe. For if the fragrance of
sweet herbs imparts some of its power to garments with
which it comes in contact, and in some sort transforms

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its surroundings into likeness with itself, surely the Holy Ghost
has power, since he is, by nature of God, to
make those in whom he abides partakers in the divine
nature through himself. The Son, then, being the fruit and
express image of the Father's person, by nature, engrosses all

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that is his, and therefore he says, all things whatsoever
the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I unto you,
that he taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you.
The Spirit, that is who is through Him and in Him,

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by whom he personally dwells in the saints. For his
spirit is not distinct from him, even though he may
be conceived of as having a separate and independent existence.
For the Spirit is spirit and not the son sixteen
a little while, and ye behold me no more. And

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again a little while, and ye shall see me. Because
I go to the Father. After having first said that
he would reveal to them by his spirit everything that
was necessary and essential for them to know, he discourses
to them of his passion nigh unto which was his
ascension into Him heaven, rendering the coming of this spirit

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very necessary, for it was no longer possible for him
after he had gone up to the Father to hold
converse in the flesh with his holy apostles. And he
makes his discourse with the greatest caution, thereby robbing their
sorrow of its sting. For well he knew that great
fear would once more reign in their hearts, and that

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they would be consumed with an agony of grief, expecting
to be overwhelmed by terrible and unendurable evils when their
bereavement should come to pass. And the Savior as end
to the Father for this cause, I think he does
not tell them that he would die the madness of

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the Jews requiring even his life of him, but keeps
this secret. Rather, in his great consideration for them, he
greatly softens the rigor of his discourse, and chows them
them that close upon their suffering would follow the joy
of heart which his resurrection would occasion, them, saying, a

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little while, and he behold me no more. And again
a little while, and ye shall see me. For now
the time of his death drew nigh, which would take
the Lord out of the sight of his disciples for
a very short season, until after despoiling hell and throwing
open the gates of darkness to those who dwelt therein,

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he built up again the temple of his body, whereupon
he manifested himself once more to his disciples, and promised
to be with them alway, even under the end of
the world. According to the scripture, for even though he
be absent in the body, taking his place for our

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sake at the Father's side, and sitting at his right hand,
still he dwells by the spirit with those who are
worthy of him, and has perpetual converse with his saints,
for he has promised that he will not leave us comfortless.
As then there was but a short interval of time
before his passion would begin, he says, a little while,

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and ye see me no more, For he was to
be hidden from sight in a manner by death for
a brief space. And again he says, a little while,
and ye shall see me. For on the third day
he revived, having preached under the spirits in prison, the
proof of his love towards mankind was hereby rendered most

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complete by his giving salvation. I say, not merely to
the quick, but also by his preaching remission of sins
to those who were already dead, and who sat in
darkness in the depths of the abyss, according to the
scripture and remark, how with reference to his past USh

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and his resurrection, he said, a little while, and ye
behold me no more. And again a little while, and
ye shall see me. And how merely, adding because I
go to my Father, leaves the rest unsaid. He did
not explain to them how long he would remain there,

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or when he would come again. And why was this?
Because it is not for us to know times and
seasons which the Father hath set within his own authority,
According to the words of our Savior himself seventeen eighteen.
Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, what

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is this that he saith unto us a little while,
and ye behold me not and again a little while,
and ye shall see me. And because I go to
the Father. They said, Therefore, what is this that he
saith a little while? We know not what he saith?
The inspired disciples, not yet understanding what he had said,

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converse among themselves and are endowed as to what a
little while, and again a little while, and ye shall
not see me? Might mean. Christ, however, anticipates their desire
for information, and once more, very seasonably shows them that
he knows their hearts as God, and that He is

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as well aware of what they are turning over in
their minds, and what was as yet buried in the
depths of their hearts, as though they had already given
utterance to it in speech. For what is there which
can be hid from him before whom all things are naked?
Wherefore also he saith to one of the saints, who

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is this that hideth counsel from me? And putteth together
words in his heart? And thinketh that he keepeth a
secret from me? He then, at every turn uses occasion
as it offers to nurture in them secure and unshaken faith.
Nineteen twenty. Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask him,

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and he said unto them, do ye inquire among yourselves
concerning this that I said, a little while, and ye
behold me not, And again a little while, and ye
shall see me verily. Verily, I say unto you that
ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice.
Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned

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into joy. As then they were thirsting for information and
sought to know more exactly the meaning of his words,
he gives a clearer exposition of his passion and vouchsafes
them the foreknowledge of the sufferings that he was about
to undergo to their great profit. It was not in

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order that he might engender in them premature alarm that
he deemed it meet to give them this explanation beforehand,
but in order that, fore armed by their knowledge, they
might perchance be found more courageous to withstand the terror
that would assail them. For that of which the advance

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is expected is milder in its approach than that which
is wholly unlooked. For. When then, you who are truly
mine and united to me by your love towards me,
shall behold your guide and master, undergoing the brunt of
the madness of the Jews, their insults and outrages, and

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all that their mad frenzy will prompt. Then indeed ye
shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice. That is,
those who are not minded to follow God's will, but
are as it were, enchained by worldly lust. He refers
also to the vulgar herd of Jewish rabble, as well

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as the impious band of enemies of God who had
secured the lead. Among them, namely the scribes and Pharisees,
who made jest at the trials our Savior had to
endure and raised many cries to their own damnation, at
one time saying, if thou art the Son of God,

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come down now from the cross, and we will believe thee.
And at another thou that destroyest the temple and buildest
sit in three days, save thyself, For such will be
the foul utterances of the blasphemous tongue of the Jews.
But while the men of the world would be of

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this mind, and such will be their deeds, and Christ
you will mourn, But not for long will you have
this suffering to endure. For your sorrow will be turned
into joy, For I shall live again and will wholly
remove the cause of your despondency. And I will comfort
the mourners and will renew in them a good courage

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that will be eternal, end without end. For the joy
of the saints ceaseth not, for Christ is a lie
for evermore, and through him the bonds of death are
loosed for all mankind. It is perhaps too not impertinent
to reflect that the worldly will contrariwise be doomed to

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a fate of endless misery. For if when Christ died
after the flesh, those who were truly his mourned, but
the world rejoiced at his passion, And if when death
and corruption were rendered powerless by the resurrection of our
savior Christ from the dead, the mourning of the saints

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was turned into joy, surely in like manner also the
joy of the worldly minded will be lost in sorrow.
Twenty one twenty two. A woman, when she is in travail,
hath sorrow because her hour is But when she is
delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish

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for the joy that a man is born into the world.
And ye therefore now have sorrow. But I will see
you again and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy
no one taketh from you. He once more dilates upon
the solace he had given them, and illustrates it by
divers words in every way, aiding them to dispel the

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bitterness of their sorrow. For observe how earnestly he persuades
them by obvious illustration, of the necessity of endurance and
of not being over dismayed by troubles or sorrows. If
they must surely and inevitably end in rejoicing for the child,
he says, is the fruit of sore travail. And it

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is through pain that the joy they have in their
children comes to mothers. And if at the first they
had felt a faint heart at the prospect of the
travail of childbirth, they would never have consented to conceive,
but would rather have chosen to escape marriage, which is
the cause, and would never have become mothers at all,

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avoiding by their cowardice, a state which is highly desirable
and thrice blessed. In like manner. Then will your suffering
also not fail to meet its reward, For you will
rejoice when you see a new child born into the world,
incorruptible and beyond the reach of death. Plainly he alludes

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to himself. Here he tells them that the joy of
heart that they will have in him cannot be taken
away from them or lost. For as Paul says, or
rather as the very truth itself implies, having died once
for all, he dieth no more. The joy of heart,

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then that rests upon him. Hath in very truth is
your foundation. For if we mourned his death, who shall
take from us our joy? Now that we know that
he lives and will be alive forevermore, He who gives
and ordains for us all spiritual blessings. No man then

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taketh their joy from the saints, as our Savior says.
But they who nailed him to the cross were bereft
of their joy once and forever. For now that his
suffering is ended, which they thought an occasion for rejoicing, sorrow,
will be their portion of inevitable necessity twenty three twenty four.

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And in that day ye shall ask me nothing, verily,
Verily I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything
of the Father, he will give it you in my name.
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name? Ask? And
ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled. He said,

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ays that his holy disciples will increase in wisdom and
knowledge when they should be clothed with power from on high,
according to the scripture, and with their minds illumined by
the torch light of the Spirit, should be able to
conceive all wisdom, even though they asked no question of
Him who was no longer present with them in the flesh.

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The Savior does not indeed say this because they will
have no more need of light from him, but because
when they had received his own spirit and had him
in dwelling in their hearts, they would have in their
minds no lack of every good thing, and would be
fulfilled with the most perfect knowledge. And by perfect knowledge

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we mean that which is correct and incapable of error,
and which cannot endure to think or say any evil thing,
and which has a right belief concerning the Holy and
consubstantial Trinity. For if we see now in a mirror darkly,
and we know in part still, while we wander not

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astray from the doctrines of the truth, but adhere to
the spirit of the Holy and inspired writings, the knowledge
that we have is not imperfect, a knowledge which no
man can acquire save by the light of the Holy
Spirit given unto him. Hereby he exhorts the disciples to
pray for spiritual graces, and at the same time gives

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them this encouragement that what they ask they will not
fail to obtain, adding the comforting assurance of the word
verily to his promise that if they will go to
the Father's throne and make any request, they will receive
it of him, he himself acting as mediator and leading

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them into the Father's presence. For this is the meaning
of the words in my name. For we cannot draw
nigh unto God the Father, save by the Son alone.
For through him we have obtained access in one spirit
unto the Father, according to the scripture. Therefore also he saith,

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I am the door, I am the way. No one
cometh unto the Father but by me. For inasmuch as
the Son is also God, together with the Father, he
conveys good gifts to the saints, and associates himself with
him in granting us the portion of the blessed. Moreover,

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the inspired Paul most evidently confirms our belief herein by
writing these words grace to you in peace from God,
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and in right
of his titles mediator, high priest and advocate, he conveys
to the Father prayers on our behalf, for he gives

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us all to address the Father in the name. Then
of our Savior Christ, we must make our request, For
so will the Father most readily grant them, and will
give to those that ask good gifts, that we may
take them and rejoice therein. So, being fulfilled with spiritual

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graces and enriched with the grant of knowledge from Him
through the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, we shall
gain a very easy triumph over every strange and abominable lust.
And thus being active in good works and attaining to
the practice of every virtue with fervent zeal, and strengthened

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with everything whatsoever that maketh for sanctification, we rejoice with
exceeding joy at the prospect of the reward that awaits us,
and dismissing the despondency that springs from an evil conscience.
We have our hearts enriched with the joy that is
in Christ. This did not enter into the life of

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the men of old time. They never practiced this manner
of prayer. For they knew it not. But now is
it ordained for us by Christ at the appropriate season,
when the time of the accomplishment of our redemption was fulfilled,
and the perfect fruition of all good was gained for
us by Him. For just as the Law accomplished nothing,

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and His righteousness according to the Law was incomplete, so
also was the mode of prayer inculcated thereby end of
Chapter two, Part one, Chapter two, Part two of Commentary
in the Gospel of John, Book eleven by Serale of Alexandria,

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translated by Reverend Thomas Randall. This LibriVox recording is in
the public domain. Twenty five these things have I spoken
unto you in Proverbs? The hour cometh when I shall
no more speak unto you in Proverbs, but shall tell
you plainly of the Father. By Proverbs, he means language

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that is indistinct and does not bear its meaning on
the surface, but is in some sort veiled by obscurities,
so subtle that he says, his hearers could not very
readily comprehend it, for this was the fashion of what
was said in Proverbs. What I have told you, then,
he says, I have told you, as it were in

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proverbs and riddles, reserving for the fitting season, which has
not yet come, though it is drawing nigh. The revelation
of these things beyond possibility of doubt. For the hour
will indeed come. He says, that is the proper time
in which I shall, in plain language, expound to you
the things that concern the Father's glory and implant in

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you a knowledge that surpasses human understands. What that time
would be, he did not tell them very clearly. We
must surmise that he either meant that time when we
were enriched with the knowledge that comes to us through
the spirit whom Christ himself brought down to us after
his resurrection from the dead, or it may be the

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time to come after the end of the world, in
which we shall behold, unveiled and open to our gaze,
the glory of God, who will himself impart to us
knowledge concerning himself in perfect clearness. Therefore, also paulssys that
prophecies shall be done away, and knowledge shall cease, having

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no other meaning in his mind than that which we
have accepted for this passage. For we see in a mirror,
and we know in part as we just now said.
But when that which is perfect is come, that which
is in part shall be done away. How or in
what manner this shall come to pass, I will go

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on to explain, if you are willing to listen. For
just as in the darkness of the night, the bright
beauty of the star shines forth, each casting abroad its
own ray of light. But when the Sun arises with
his radiant beams, then that light, which is but in part,
is done away, and the luster of the stars waxes

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feeble and ineffective. In like manner, I think also the
knowledge that we now have will cease, and that which
is in part will vanish away. At that moment of
time when the perfect light has come upon us and
sheds forth its radiancy, filling us with perfect knowledge of God.

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Then when we are enabled to approach God in confidence,
Christ will tell us the things which concern his Father.
For now, by shadows and illustrations and various images and
types deduced from different phases of human life, we feebly
trace our steps to a vague, uncertain knowledge through the

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inherent weakness of our minds. Then, however, we shall stand
in no need of any type or riddle or parable,
but shall behold after a fashion, face to face, and
with unshackled mind, the fair vision of the divine nature
of God the Father, having seen the glory of Him

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who proceeded from him. For we shall see him even
as he is according to the saying of John. For
now we know him in the perfection of the glory
that belongs to his divine nature, because of our humanity.
But when the season of his incarnation is past, and

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the mystery of our redemption completely wrought out, henceforth he
will be seen in his own glory and in the
glory of God the Father. For being God by nature
and thereby consubstantial with his Father, he will surely enjoy
equal honors with him, and will shine henceforth in the

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glory of His Godhead. Twenty six twenty seven. In that
day ye shall ask in my name, And I say
not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you.
For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved
me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.

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He suffers them not to ask for anything at all
by prayer and supplication, except only in his name. He promises, however,
that his Father will very readily grant their request, not
indeed as induced thereto by the intercessions of the Son
in his capacity as our mediator and advocate, but prompted

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by his own will to be liberal in his dealing
towards them, and making haste to shower upon those who
love Christ the exceeding riches of his goodness, as though
he were but paying them their due. And no man
in his senses can think, nor can anyone be so
ignorant as to affirm, that the disciples or any others

(37:10):
of the Saints, stand in no need of the mediation
of the Son in working out their own salvation. For
all things proceed through him from the Father in the spirit,
since he is the advocate, as John saieth, not for
our sins only, but also for the whole world. And

(37:31):
in saying this he shows us too to our prophet,
that very acceptable to God the Father is the honor
and love which we have towards his offspring. Not understanding this,
the miserable people of the Jews did not shrink from
assailing him with intolerable blasphemies, and sought to kill him.

(37:52):
According to the scripture, because of the conversion of the
mind of his believers from the obscure commandment of the
law to the clearness of the life according to the Gospel.
For these wretched men said in their ignorance, or rather
in their desire to sharpen their blasphemous tongues against him.
If this man were from God, he would not have

(38:15):
broken the Sabbath day. He says, then, that God the
Father will very readily vouchsafe his favor to those who
have undoubting faith and are well assured that he came
out from God the Father. For the Father will, as
it were, he says, hail in advance, and anticipate the

(38:35):
request of the mediator, and overwhelm with spiritual blessings the
mind of those who have a right understanding concerning me,
and not according to the imaginations of those who are
too much enamored of the letter of the law. And
by the words I came out from God, we must

(38:56):
surmise that he means either I was begotten from and
manifested myself out of his substance, the words being taken
with reverence to what goes before, as to his existing
in a sense independently of his Father, but not altogether
separately from him, for the Father is in the Son,

(39:17):
and the son again by nature in the Father. Or
we must take the words I came out from as
meaning I became even as you are, that is a man,
endeed with your form and nature. For the peculiar nature
of any being may be conceived of as the place

(39:37):
from which it proceeds when it is transformed into anything
else and becomes what it was not before. We are
indeed far from asserting that when He took the form
of man, even as ourselves, being at the same time
truly the only begotten, he divested himself of his Godhead,

(39:58):
for he is the same yes, yesterday and to day,
yea and forever. But when he took upon himself a
nature that was not his own, while at the same
time he retained his peculiar attributes, he may be conceived
of as having come forth from God. In a sense
appropriate to this passage. You may take if you choose

(40:22):
the words I came forth from the Father, and yet
another sense as follows the Pharisees only apt in error,
as I have already said, thought that Christ came before
the world like one of the false prophets, with no
mission from God, but of his own motion, inasmuch as
they were accustomed to point out to those that went

(40:45):
to him that Christ teaching conflicted with the law, and
for this reason they considered him guilty of disobedience, declaring
that the keeping of the law is most acceptable to
God the Father, but it was broken by his tear.
They therefore rejected Christ as an enemy of God and
as having chosen to oppose the dispensation given to them

(41:08):
from him through Moses, and argued that he was for
this reason an alien from God. But not so the
blessed Disciples. For it they loved him and had their
minds exalted above the madness of the Jews, and they
had a genuine faith that he came out from God,
as we have just been told. For this cause, then

(41:31):
were they beloved of the Father, and were requited, as
it were, by receiving equal favor from him. And if
they who believed that the Son came out from God
are very dear and acceptable to God the Father, surely
they who are diseased with the contrary opinion are accursed
and abominable in God's sight. And if God is very

(41:55):
ready to hearken to those who love the Son, clearly
he will not except the prayers of his enemies. And
this is what is said by the mouth of Isaiah
to them. And when ye spread forth your hands to me,
I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when ye
make many prayers, I will not hear your hands are

(42:16):
full of blood. Twenty eight I came out from the Father,
and am come into the world again. I leave the
world and go unto the Father herein. Then, in the
fact that our Lord went back to the Father and
returned with power to the place from which he knew

(42:36):
that he had gone forth, is proved clear and incontrovertible
that he was not one of the false prophets, and
that he did not come to utter to us the
promptings of man's private judgment, or to teach us doctrines
contrary to the Father's will, as the demented Jews ignorantly imagined. Granting,

(42:58):
then so a man might speak, wishing to combat the
perverse opinions of the Jews, that he was not the
true Christ, as you say, o Jews, and that without
the approval of God the Father, he introduced the teaching
of the life according to the Gospel, showing that the
commandment of the law was now barren and so profitless

(43:20):
for the attainment of perfection and piety. For you accuse
him as a sabbath breaker, And when he did any
wonderful works among you, you impiously said that he used
to do them by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils.
How then, was it that he ascended into heaven itself?

(43:42):
How was it that the Father gave a share of
his throne, and the angels threw open wide the gates
of heaven to him who combated his decrees as you say,
and propound a doctrine's contrary to the will of the
sovereign of the universe? Was his sension unobserved of a truth?

(44:03):
Great was the crowd of witnesses, to whom the divine
and heavenly messengers spake the words, Ye, men of Galilee,
Why stand ye looking into heaven. This Jesus, which was
received up from you into heaven, shall so come in
like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven. What
hast thou, o Jews, to say? In reply? Wilt thou

(44:27):
not honor with obedience even the voice of an angel?
Wilt thou not accept the testimony of the witnesses, though
those who gazed upon the scene were many in number.
And yet the Law says clearly, in the mouth of
two or three witnesses, shall every word be established? How then,

(44:48):
any longer can the reproach of being a false prophet
be brought with any justice against him who, of his
own power returns to the Father in heaven. And will
it not rather follow, by the convincing logic effects, that
we should entertain the firm conviction that he came from God,

(45:09):
that is, from the Father, and is in fact no
other than he whom the Law and the prophets foretold
unto us. And when he says that he came into
this world and again left the world and went to
the Father, he does not mean that he either abandoned
the Father when he became man, nor that he abandoned

(45:31):
the race of man when in his flesh he went
to the Father. For he is truly God, and with
his ineffable power, filleth all things, and is not far
from anything that exists. Twenty nine thirty. His disciples say
unto him, lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.

(45:56):
Now know we that thou knowest dull things, and needest
none that any man should ask thee. By this we
believe that thou camest forth from God. They marvel at
the convincing nature of the proof he gives them, and
are amazed at the clearness of his language, for without
any concealment, he made his speech to them right openly.

(46:18):
They rejoice therefore at receiving a proof rid of all difficulty,
and declare that his words have in them nothing hard
to understand, but that his language here is so easily
intelligible that it does not seem in the smallest degree
to partake of the nature of a parable. And they
get also this additional benefit, since thou knowest, they say,

(46:43):
what is whispered in secret, and hast now given us
this information in the words Thou hast just spoken, anticipating
thereby the questions we might have asked in our desire
to elicit it. We are persuaded that thou art indeed
come from God. For to know they say, what a
secret and hidden can belong to the God of all

(47:06):
and to none other. And since thou knowest all things
of thyself, is it not beyond question that thou hast
emanated from God, that knoweth all things. So this truly
divine and marvelous sign also availed to nurture in the
disciples with the rest undoubting faith, so that we can

(47:26):
see in them the truth of the saying. Give instruction
to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser.
Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
And they say, now, are we sure? Not meaning thereby
that they then let into their minds the first beginning

(47:47):
of faith when they heard these words and recognized the sign,
I mean the omniscience of Christ. But rather that they
begin to establish firmly in their hearts the faith that
have had at first gained admittance there, and to attain a
state of unalterable conviction that He was God and sprang

(48:08):
from the true and Living God. We shall accept then
the expression, now are we sure as referring not to
the first beginning of faith, but to the occasion of
its first being firmly settled in that apprehension of Christ's
nature now honored with approval thirty one thirty two. Jesus

(48:30):
answered them, do ye now believe? Behold the hour cometh
yea is now come that ye shall be scattered every
man to his own and shall leave me alone. And
yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
The Savior, however, very gently tells them that the time

(48:51):
when they should be confirmed in all goodness was not yet,
but that this would come to pass on the occasion
of the descent of the Holy Ghost, until them from
heaven and power from on high according to the scripture,
for then declaring that their human feiintheartedness was perfected in strength,

(49:11):
they were pre eminent for their invincible hardihood, not fearing
the risings of the Jews against them, nor the unbridled
wrath of the Pharisees, nor any other peril, but showing
themselves the champions of the divine message, and openly declaring,
we must obey God rather than men, for we cannot

(49:33):
but speak the things which we saw and heard. While
then he points out that they are not yet confirmed
in perfect faith through their not having partaken of communion
with the Spirit, setting before them as a proof the
cowardice that they would presently display. At the same time,
by foretelling that this would shortly come to pass, he

(49:55):
manifestly confers on them no small benefit, for they would
be grounded more firmly in faith that he was by
nature God, when they had fully grasped the belief that
the future was in no way hid from him. Behold,
then he says, the time will shortly come, Nay, is
now at hand when ye will leave me alone and

(50:18):
depart to your own. Herein, he says indirectly, only by
implication that overcome by unmanly cowardice, they would take thought
only for their own lives, and, preferring their own safety
to the affection they owed to their master, would flee
to the nearest place of refuge. How then, are ye

(50:40):
now sure when you have not yet quit yourselves of
the reproach of imputations on your courage, because as yet
you have no participation in the courage which is given
by the Spirit. And that the blessed disciples betook themselves
to flight and were terrified at the onslaught of the
Jews when the True Great appeared, bringing with him the

(51:01):
impious band of soldiers and the servants of the leaders,
is beyond question. Then did they leave Christ alone, that is,
with reference to the absence of all those who were
wont to follow and attend upon him. For he was
not alone insomuch as he was God and of God,
and in God by nature and indivisibly. Christ indeed says this,

(51:28):
speaking rather as man, and for our sakes with intend
to teach us that when we are assailed by temptation, persecution,
and such like, and are called to encounter some peril
that may bring us glory I mean in God's service,
we are not therefore to be fainthearted about our ability
to escape, because none of our brethren of kindred soul

(51:51):
to us are running the raised side by side with us,
cheering us so far as in them lies, and all
but sharing by their sympathy the danger which is imminent.
For even if all these betake themselves to flight, gaining
in their own persons and advantage over us by their cowardice,
which is grievous and hard to bear, we ought to

(52:13):
bear in mind that God's arm will not be shortened
on that account, for He will alone avail to save
him that is faithful unto him. For we are not alone.
And though we see no friend beside us, as I
have just said, we have God, who is all powerful
with us at our side to aid and fight in

(52:36):
the conflict, shielding us with all sufficient succor as the
Psalmist says, with favor, hast thou encompassed us as with
a shield. We make these observations on this passage, not
as considering love of life something honorable and worthy admiration
on occasions when we can bring our life in the

(52:57):
body to a glorious end, fighting in the ranks with
those who risk their lives for God's sake, but that
we may rather be persuaded of this, that even though
there be none willing and zealous to share the conflict
with us, we ought not to be faint at heart,
for we shall not be alone, for God is with us.

(53:21):
Thirty three These things have I spoken unto you, that
in me ye may have peace. In the world ye
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world Christ herein so to say, well sums up
to our prophet his discourse to them, and compressing into

(53:42):
a few words the meaning of what he has said,
sets before them in brief the knowledge of his will.
For I have now he says, spoken these words unto you,
exhorting you to have peace in me, and that ye
may also know clearly that ye will meet with trouble
in the world and will be involved in many tribulations

(54:04):
for my sake. But you will not be vanquished by
the perils that encompass you. For I have overcome the world,
but that I may make what I have said as
clear as possible unto you. Come. Let me first explain
what having peace in Christ means for the world. Or

(54:25):
those who are enamored of the things in the world
are continually at peace among themselves, but in no wise
have they peace in Christ. As for example, the dissolute
seekers of the pleasures of sense are therefore most dear
and acceptable to those of similar pursuits. And the man

(54:45):
who covets riches that do not belong to him, and
is for this reason grasping or thievish, will be altogether
to the taste of those who practice a kindred vice.
For every creature loves his kind according to the sin,
and man will be attracted to his like. But in
all connections of this sort, the Holy name of Peace

(55:08):
is put to base uses. And the proverb is true,
but it is not with the saints as it is
with the wicked. For sin is not the bond of peace,
but faith, hope, love, and the power of piety. Towards God.
And this is in Christ. The chiefest, then of all

(55:29):
good gifts towards us is clearly peace in Christ, which
brings in its training brotherly love is near akin to itself.
Paul says that love is the perfect fulfilling of the
divine law, and that to those who love one another
will surely come the love of God himself above all things.

(55:50):
Else is beyond question. As John says that if a
man love his brother, he will, as a consequence, love
God himself. He points out also another truth. I mean
in the words, in the world ye have tribulation, but
be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Any

(56:13):
One choosing to construe these words in a simple sense
might reason, thus Christ appeared superior to and stronger than
every sin and worldly hindrance. And since he has conquered,
he will also bestow the power to conquer upon such
an attempt the struggle for his sake. And if any

(56:34):
man seek to find a more recondite meaning for the words,
he might reflect in this wise, just as we have
hereby overcome corruption and death, Since as man for us
and for our sakes, Christ became alive again, making his
own resurrection, the beginning of the conquest over death. The

(56:56):
power of his resurrection will surely extend even unto us us,
since He that overcame death was one of us, insomuch
as he was incarnate man, and as we overcome sin,
and as we overcome death that wholly died in Christ.
First Christ, that is, being the purveyor to us of

(57:19):
the blessing as his own kindred, so also we ought
to be of good cheer, because we shall overcome the
world for Christ, as man overcame it for our sakes,
being herein the beginning and the gait and the way
for the race of man. For they who once were
fallen and vanquished, have now overcome and are conquerors through

(57:43):
Him who conquered as one of ourselves, and for our sakes.
For if he conquered as God, then it profiteth us nothing,
but if as man, we are herein conquerors, for He
is to us the second Adam, come from Heaven, according
to the scripture. Just as then we have borne the

(58:06):
image of the earthy according to its likeness, falling under
the yoke of sin, so likewise also shall we bear
the image of the heavenly, that is Christ. Overcoming the
power of sin and triumphing over all the tribulation of
the world. For Christ has overcome the world. End of

(58:30):
chapter two, Chapters three and four of commentary in the
public domain. Chapter three. That no man should consider that

(58:54):
the sun has any lack of God befitting glory. Though
he be found to say, Father, glorify thy son. Seventeen
one these things spake Jesus, and lifting up his eyes
to Heaven, he said, Father, the hour is come, glorify
thy son, that thy son may also glorify thee. Having

(59:19):
given his disciples a sufficiency of things necessary for salvation,
and incited them, by fitting words and arguments, to a
more accurate apprehension of his doctrines, and made them best
able to battle against temptation, and confirmed the courage of
each one, he straightway changes the form of his speech

(59:40):
for our prophet and turns it into a kind of prayer,
allowing no interval to elapse between his discourse to them
and his prayer to God the Father. Herein also by
his own conduct, suggesting to us a type of admirable life.
For the man who aims at serving God ought. I
think to bear in mind that he ought, at all events,

(01:00:03):
either to be fond of discoursing to his brethren of
things profitable or necessary for their salvation, or, if he
be not so engaged, to hasten to employ the service
of the tongue in supplications to God, so as to
render it impossible for any random words to slip in between.

(01:00:23):
For in this way the governance of the tongue may
be well and suitably ordered. For is it not quite
obvious that in vain conversations things blameworthy may very readily
escaping man. Moreover, a wise man has said, in the
multitude of words, thou shalt not escape sin. But he

(01:00:45):
that refraineth his lips is wise. You may find besides
another thing to admire, which is in no small degree
profitable for us. The beginning of his prayer has reference
to his own glory and that God the Father, and afterwards,
in intimate connection with this, he introduces his prayer for us.

(01:01:07):
And why is this? The reason is one which convinces
the pious man that loves God and actually disposes the
worker of good deeds to prayer. For just as we
ought to perform good actions and do all things, not
turning to our own glory our zeal herein, but to
the glory of the Father of the universe, I mean God.

(01:01:32):
For he says, let your light shine before men, that
they may see your good works and glorify your Father,
which is in heaven. So also it best befits us
when occasion calls us to prayer, to pray for what
redounds to God's glory, before what concerns ourselves. As indeed

(01:01:53):
Christ also himself and enjoins us when he says, after
this manner, pray ye, our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom. Come, Thy will be
done as in heaven. So on earth, give us this
day our daily bread. What Christ here does then ought

(01:02:15):
to be to us the pattern of prayer. For it
was necessary that not an elder or messenger, but Christ
himself should manifest himself to be our leader and guide
in all good and in the way which leadeth to God.
For we are called and are in very truth, as
the prophet says, taught of God, and what he says

(01:02:38):
to his father, it is right that we should consider
with the greatest care, For I think we ought, in
a spirit of the most earnest attention, to handle the
investigation of his words and most carefully search after the
true intent of his teaching father. Then he says, the

(01:02:58):
hour is come, glorify thy son, that thy son may
also glorify THEE. So far as the mere form of
his language is concerned, one could think that the speaker
had some lack of glory. But anyone who considers the
majesty of the only Begotten, would, I think, quickly shrink

(01:03:19):
from so grievous a conclusion, For it were great folly
to think that the son has any lack of glory
or fall short of the honor which is his due.
Though he is the Lord of glory, for so the
inspired writings call him, especially when in another place we
observe him saying to his father, O, Father, glorify me

(01:03:43):
with the glory which I had with THEE before the
world was Then who can any longer doubt, or who
is so demented and so far the enemy of all
truth has not to know and confessed that the only
Begotten is not bereft of divine glory so far as
his own nature is concerned, but that, since being in

(01:04:05):
the form of God and in perfect equality with Him,
he counted it not a prize to be on an
equality with God, but nevertheless descended to the humiliation of
human nature, and emptied himself of his glory, wearing this
mean body, and from love towards us, putting on the

(01:04:26):
likeness of human littleness. Now that the fitting time had
actually arrived at which he was destined, after fulfilling the
mystery of our redemption, to gird himself about with his
pristine and essential glory, having wrought out the salvation of
the whole world and secured life and the knowledge of

(01:04:46):
God to those that are therein. Herein I say he
shows that he has God's will and favor, and makes
this speech to him, saying that he ought to recover
the majesty do unt to his nature? And how does
he ascend into Heaven? Surely, he, that even in the flesh,

(01:05:07):
showed himself able to accomplish the deeds of a God,
was not in this subject to another's power, but ascended
of himself, being the wisdom and might of God the Father.
For we must think that thus in no other way
he accomplishes the words of a God with power. For
all things are from the Father, but not without the Son.

(01:05:32):
For how could God the Father perform any of his
proper functions if his wisdom and might, I mean the
Son were not with him and accomplishing with him those
things in which his power is seen in active operation. Therefore,
also the wise evangelist who wrote this book, at the
beginning of his work says all things were made by him,

(01:05:56):
and without him was not anything made. Since then the
doctrine of his consubstantiality compels us, by consequence to think
that all things proceed from the Father but wholly through
the Son in the Spirit, and that he, having splain
death and corruption and taken away from the devil his kingdom,

(01:06:19):
was about to illumine the whole world with the light
of the Spirit, and to show himself thereby. Henceforth, in
very deed the true God by nature, he is impelled
to say, Father, glorify thy son, that thy son may
also glorify thee. And no man of sense would maintain

(01:06:41):
that the Son ask glory from the Father as a
man from man, but rather that he also promises to
give him glory as it were in return, for it
would be very unbecoming, nay rather wholy foolish, to have
such an idea about God. The Savior indeed spake these

(01:07:02):
words to show how very necessary his own glory was
to the Father, that he might be known to be
consubstantial with him, For just as it would entail dishonor
on God, the Father that the son that was begotten
of him should not be such as he that is
God by nature and of God ought to be. So

(01:07:24):
I think to have his own son invested with those
attributes which he is conceived of as having and which
are predicated of him, will confer honor and glory upon him.
The Father therefore is glorified in the glory of his offspring,
as I said just now, giving glory to the son

(01:07:46):
by considering throughout his earthly career, both from how great
and of what a father the only begotten sprang, and
in turn receiving glory from the son by the consideration
of how great indeed is the son of whom he
is the Father. The honor and glory, then, which is

(01:08:07):
theirs essentially and by nature, will be reflected from the
Son on the Father and in turn from the Father
on the son. If any man concede that, owing to
the degradation of his incarnation, our Lord here speaks more
humbly than his true nature warrants, for this was his custom,

(01:08:29):
he will not altogether mis arriving at a proper conclusion,
but will not quite attain to the truth and the inquiry.
For if he were seeking only honor from the Father,
there would be nothing unlikely in setting down the request
to the inferiority of human nature. But since he promises
to glorify the Father in turn, does it not follow

(01:08:52):
of necessity that we should readily embrace the view we
have just given. Four, that it will in no way
damage the glory of the son when he is said
to have received aught from God the Father. Since for
this we can assign a pious reason. Two, even as

(01:09:14):
thou gavest him authority over all flesh, that whatsoever thou
hast given him to them, he shall give eternal life.
In these words, Christ expands once more to us the
kind of glory whereby God will exalt and glorify his
own son, and he will also himself be glorified in

(01:09:34):
turn by his own offspring, and he expands the saying
and makes the point clear to our edification and prophet.
For what need had God the Father, who know with
all things of learning the kind of request he invites,
then the Father's goodness towards us, For since he is

(01:09:55):
the high priest of our souls insomuch as he appeared
as man, though being by nature God, together with the Father,
he most fittingly makes his prayer on our behalf, trying
to persuade us to believe that he is even now
the propitiation for our sins and a righteous advocate, as

(01:10:17):
John saith. Therefore, also Paul, wishing us to be of
this mind, thus exhorts us, for we have not a
high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but one that hath been in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Then, since

(01:10:38):
he is an high priest insomuch as he is man,
and at the same time brought himself a blameless sacrifice
to God the Father as a ransom for the life
of all men, being as it were, the first fruits
of mortality, that in all things he might have the
pre eminence, as Paul says, and he reconciles to him

(01:11:01):
the reprobate race of man upon the earth, purifying them
by his own blood and shaping them to newness of
life through the Holy Spirit. And since, as we have
often said, all things are accomplished by the Father through
the Son. In the spirit, he molds the prayer for
blessings towards us as mediator and high priest. Though he

(01:11:26):
unites with his Father in giving and providing divine and
spiritual graces. For Christ divideth the spirit according to his
own will and pleasure to every man, severally as he
will so far with reference to this, Now, let us
examine and declare what is meant by the form of

(01:11:47):
prayer used Father. Then he saith glorify thy son, that
thy son may also glorify thee. How then, or in
what manner will what I have said be brought to pass?
I will? He says that as thou hast given me
power over all flesh, that so also all that thou

(01:12:10):
hast given me may have life eternal. For the Father
glorified his own son, putting the whole world under his rule,
and he was glorified himself also in turn by him,
For the Son was glorified of the Father, being believed
of all to be the offspring and fruit of him
that is all powerful, and at his pleasure, puts all

(01:12:33):
things under the yoke of his son's kingly power. And
the father was glorified in turn, so to speak, by
his own son. For since the son was known to
be able to accomplish all things at his pleasure, the
splendor of his reputation has reached to him that begat him.

(01:12:53):
As therefore he says, thou didst glorify and wast glorified,
giving to the son power and sovereignty over all after
the man are just now stated, So I will that
nothing that thou hast given me be lost, for this
honor will pass from the father to the son, and
from the son to the father. For it was meet

(01:13:16):
that all those who were wholly subject to and under
the rule of the word the all powerful God, now
having been saved once for all, should also abide in
blessings without end, so as to be freed from the
power of death and the dominion of corruption and sin,
and should no longer lie in subjection to their ancient enemies.

(01:13:41):
And as the words thou gavest him authority over all
flesh may possibly perplex some simple minded hearers. Let us
make a few reflections thereon, which may be useful without scruple,
as it is necessary. Even the language may be wholly
inadequate to such an exposition. For the Lord will say

(01:14:02):
this most suitably in the character he had assumed. I mean,
his humiliation and his lowly humanity. For listen to the argument.
If indeed we feel ashamed when we hear that he
became a slave for our sakes, though lord of all
with the Father, and that he was set up as

(01:14:23):
king upon his holy hill of Zion, though he had
the power to reign over the universe by right of
his own nature, and borrowed it not from others, we
must needs also feel ashamed if he says that he
receives anything as man, And if we marvel at his
voluntary subjection, when we bear in mind the dignity that

(01:14:46):
is his by birthright, why are we not also astunded
when we hear this saying for possessing all things as God?
He says that he receives as man, to whom kingly
power comes not by natural right, but by gift. For
what hast thou that thou didst not receive wilt suit

(01:15:06):
the limitations of created beings. And Christ is also a
creature in so far as he is man, though by
nature uncreate, in so far as he came from God.
For all things are conceived of as naturally an individually
being in God's hand, and are so in truth. But
all good things in us are borrowed and brought down

(01:15:29):
to us by divine grace. When, then, as man, being
appointed to rule over us, he says that the Father
has given him power over all flesh. We must not
be offended at it, for we must bear in mind
the scheme of our redemption. But if you choose to
listen to his words as having more reference to his divinity,

(01:15:51):
think on what the Lord said to the Jews. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, no man can come to me
except the Father, which sent me draw him, for whom
the Father will quicken them, as by his own life
giving power he brings to his son, and through him
gives them power and wisdom. Nay, if he will to

(01:16:15):
bring any into subjection to his own rule, he calls
them in no other way save by the living and
all sufficient might, whereby he rules over the universe, I
mean his Son. For men who have of themselves no
power to accomplish anything that is above and beyond themselves,

(01:16:36):
borrow from God the power which can bring all things
superhuman into subjection. For through him kings have their dominion
according to the scripture, and monarchs through him rule over
the earth. And the God of the universe, having this
power in himself alone, subjects to himself the race of man,

(01:16:59):
who are reprobates from His love and have shaken off
the yoke of his kingdom, together withal beside, receiving as
it were, from his own might, the gift of dominion
over them, and subjugating thereby whatsoever he will. For God
the Father subjects them to his son, as to his
own power, and through him wholly, and in no other way,

(01:17:23):
all things that exist become his willing subjects through obedience
to his yoke. For as he endows with wisdom and
quickens with life all things through him, so also he
rules over the universe through him. We must observe, however,
that it was not to Israel alone any longer that

(01:17:45):
the favor of the divine love of mankind was confined,
but it was extended to all flesh, for that which
is wholly subject to the power of the Savior will
wholly partake in life and grace from Him. End of
chapter four. Chapters five and six of Commentary on the

(01:18:12):
public domain. Chapter five. That the Son will not be
excluded from being true God, even though he named God
the Father, the only true God. Three And this is

(01:18:35):
life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God,
and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ. He
defines faith as the mother of eternal life, and says
that the power of the true knowledge of God will
be such as to cause us to remain forever in

(01:18:55):
a state of incorruption and blessedness and sanctification. And we
say that that is true knowledge of God, which cannot
incur the reproach of turning aside to aught else, or
running after things unseemly. For some have worshiped the creature
rather than the Creator, and have dared to say to

(01:19:17):
a block of wood, thou art my father, and to
a stone thou hast begotten me. For to such abysmal
ignorance did the miserable men relapse, that they even gave
in all its fullness the great name of God to
senseless blocks of wood, and invested them with the ineffable

(01:19:37):
glory of that nature which is over all. He calls
God the Father, then, the only true God, by contrast
to spurious gods, and with the intention to distinguish the
True God from those who are so named in error,
for this is the object of his words. Very appropriately,

(01:19:57):
then he first speaks of God asa being one and
one only, and then makes mention of his own glory
in the words and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
For a man can in no wise attain to complete
knowledge of the Father, unless side by side and in
most intimate connection with it, he lay hold on the

(01:20:19):
knowledge of his offspring, that is, the Son. For if
a man know what the Father is, he cannot but
know also the Son. When then he said that the
Father was the true God, he did not exclude himself,
for being in him and of him by nature, he
will be also himself the true God and the only God,

(01:20:43):
as he is the only God. For beside him, there
is none other God who is the only true God.
For the gods of the Heathen are devils, for the
creation is enslaved. And I know not how any worship
them or think into such a slew of unreasoning and
sensuous folly. With the many gods then in this world,

(01:21:07):
who are erroneously so conceived and have won this furious title.
The only true God is brought into contrast, and the
Son also, who is by nature in him and of
him at once in diversity and an identity of nature
according to a natural unity. I say in diversity of nature,

(01:21:28):
because he has in fact an individual existence, for the
Son is the son and not the Father, in identity
of nature. Also because the Son, who came forth from
him is inseparably joined by nature with the existence of
his father, for the Father is one with the Son,

(01:21:49):
even though he is the father and is so spoken of,
because he did in fact beget him. This, then, he says,
is eternal life, that they should know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent, then
one of those who are never weary of hearkening to

(01:22:09):
the scripture and seriously pursue the study of divine doctrines,
will ask, do we say that knowledge is eternal life,
and that to know the One True and Living God
will suffice to give us complete security of expectation, and
nothing else be lacking? Then how is faith apart from

(01:22:31):
works dead? And when we speak of faith we mean
the true knowledge of God and nothing else. For by
faith comes knowledge. And the prophet Isaiah bears us witness,
who said to some, if ye do not believe, neither
shall ye understand, And that the writings of the Holy

(01:22:51):
Men are referring to the knowledge which consists in barren speculations,
a thing wholly propheitless. I think ye will perceive from
what follows. For one of the Holy disciples said, thou
believest that God is one thou doest dwell. The devils
also believe and shudder. What then, shall we say to this?

(01:23:14):
How does Christ speak truth when he says that eternal
life is the knowledge of God, the Father, the One
True God, and with him of the Son. I think
indeed we must answer that the saying of the Savior
is wholly true. For this knowledge is life, travailing as
it were in birth of the whole meaning of the mystery,

(01:23:37):
and a vouchsafing unto us participation in the mystery of
the Eucharist, whereby we are joined unto the living and
life giving Word. And for this reason I think Paul
says that the Gentiles are made fellow members of the
Body and fellow partakers of Christ inasmuch as they partake

(01:23:57):
in His blessed body and blood. For our members may
in this sense be conceived of as being members of Christ.
This knowledge, then, which also brings us to the Eucharist
by the spirit, is life, for it dwells in our hearts,
shaping anew those who receive it into sonship with Him

(01:24:18):
and molding them into incorruption and piety towards God through
life according to the Gospel, Our Lord Jesus Christ, then,
knowing that the knowledge of the One True God brings
unto us and so to speak, promotes our union with
the blessings of which we have spoken, says that it

(01:24:39):
is eternal life insomuch as it is the mother and
nurse of eternal life, being in its own power and nature,
pregnant with those things which cause life and lead unto it.
And I think we ought attentively to observe in what way.
Christ says that the knowledge of the One True God

(01:25:00):
God is perfected in us in all its fullness. For
see how it cannot exist apart from the contemplation of
the Son. And it is clear that it cannot exist
apart from the Holy Spirit. For such is the nature
of the belief in each person of the Trinity. According
to the Scripture, the Jews, indeed, following in the steps

(01:25:22):
of Moses commandments, rejected the many false gods and betook
themselves to the worship of the One True God. Under
his guidance, thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, saith
the Law, and him only shalt thou serve. But those
who still cling to the worship of the One True God,

(01:25:44):
as not yet having complete knowledge of him they worship,
are called thereto. To know not that the creator of
all things is one only, the One True God, but
that he is a father and has begotten a son.
And moreover, and yet more than all this, to gaze
attentively on him in his unchangeable likeness, that is the Son.

(01:26:09):
For through the lineaments of that which is modeled, we
can readily attain to perfect knowledge of the model very necessary, then,
was it for our Lord Jesus Christ to tell us
that those who have been called through faith to sonship
and eternal life not only ought to learn that the
true God is one only, but that he is also

(01:26:33):
a father, and is the father of one who became
flushed for our sakes, and who was sent to restore
the corrupted nature of rational beings, that is of mankind.
Chapter six. That the Son is not bare of god
befitting glory, even though he is found saying to the Father,

(01:26:55):
and now glorify me with the glory which I had,
And so forth four five I glorified THEE on the earth.
I accomplished the work which thou hast given me to
do it. And now, o, Father, glorify thou me with
thine own self, with the glory which I had with

(01:27:15):
THEE before the world. Was our Savior's speech now intertwines
the human element in his nature with the divine, and
is of a composite nature, looking both ways, not merging
over much the person of the speaker in the perfect
power and glory of his divinity, nor allowing it altogether

(01:27:37):
to rest on the lowly level of his humanity. But
mingling the twain into one which is not foreign to either.
For our Lord Jesus Christ thought that he ought to
teach his believers not merely that he is God, the
only Begotten, but that he also became man for us,
that he might reconcile us all to God the Father,

(01:28:00):
and mold us into newness of life, purchasing humanity with
his own blood, and venturing his life for the salvation
of the world. While though he was one, he was
more precious than all mankind. He says then that he
glorified the Father upon the earth, for he finished the

(01:28:20):
work which he gave him to do. Come, now, let
us follow out, as it were, two roads in our
investigation of this passage, and say that it has referenced
both to his divine and his human nature. If, then,
as man, he says this, you may take it in
this way. Christ is for us a type and origin

(01:28:44):
and pattern of the divine life, and shows us plainly
how and in what way we ought to live our lives.
For after this fashion, the commentators on the Divine Writings
give a most subtle exposition of the passage. He instructs us, then,
by what he here says that each one of us.

(01:29:05):
If he fulfills his allotted task and follows out to
the end what is commanded of God, then in truth
he glorifies him by his righteous acts, not indeed, as
though he had any lack of glory, for the ineffable
nature of God is complete, but because he causes his
praise to be sung by those who see his acts

(01:29:27):
and are profited thereby. Yea, the Savior, saith, let your
light shine before men, that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. For
when we are made truly manly and willing to do
good works for God's sake, we are not winning for

(01:29:47):
our own selves the reputation thereof, but are carrying God's
worship into our actions, to the honor and glory of
Him that ruleth over all. For just as when for
lee reading a profligate life displeasing to God, we are
rightly called to account as doing despite unto His unspeakable glory,

(01:30:08):
and make our own souls liable to punishment. As the
prophet tells, if we hearken to his voice, my name
through you is continually blasphemed among the gentiles on the
same grounds I think that when we display pre eminent virtue,
we are then preparing for him a song of praise.

(01:30:29):
When therefore we have accomplished the work that God has
given us to do. Then, and most rightly, may we
attain to a freedom of speech in his own moost
seemly words, and claim, as it were, like glory in
return from God who has been glorified by us. For
as I live, saith the Lord them that honor me,

(01:30:53):
will I honor And he that lightly esteemeth me shall
be lightly esteemed, in order then that He might show
us that we might suitably ask for glory in return
from the only true God. I mean glory in the
world to come when we have displayed towards him perfect
and blameless obedience, and have shown ourselves keepers of his commandments.

(01:31:17):
To the letter, Christ says that he glorified the Father
when he finished the work upon earth that he gave him.
He request, however, for himself in return, no foreign or
borrowed glory as we do, but rather that honor and
renown which is his own, for we were bound to

(01:31:39):
ask for it, and not he observe. How in and
through his own person, he first renders possible to our nature.
This boldness of speech unto accounts for in Him first,
and through Him we have been enriched both with the
ability to fulfilled those things essential to our salvation, which

(01:32:00):
are entrusted to us by God, and also the duty
of boldly asking for the honor which is due to
those who distinguished themselves in His service for of old time.
Through the sin that reigned in us and the fall
that was in Adam, we both failed of ability to
accomplish any of those things which make for virtue, and

(01:32:22):
also were very far removed from freedom of speech. With God,
yea God. To that end, out of the abundance of
His kindness, spake consolation by the voice of the prophet, saying,
fear not because thou hast been ashamed, neither be confounded,
because thou hast been put to shame. As then in

(01:32:45):
all other things that are good, Our Lord Jesus Christ
is the beginning and the gate and the way. So
also is he here. But if the Savior is seeking
his own glory that he had before the world begun,
and we, suiting the meaning of the passage so as

(01:33:06):
to make it apply to our case, maintain that we
ourselves ought also with great zeal to do God's will
and so boldly ask for glory from above. Let no
one think that we say this that it becomes a
man imitating Christ to ask for some ancient glory that
was before the world began, as do also to himself.

(01:33:30):
But let him rather remember that each ought to speak
according to his deserts. For if Christ, like us, had
only the human element in his nature, let him then
speak only as befits the earth born, and not exceed
the limits of humanity. But if the word being God

(01:33:50):
became flesh, when he says anything as God, it will
be suitable to himself alone, and not to those who
are not as he is. Considering then the passage as
though he spoke it more as a man, we shall
take it in the sense given above. But if we reflect,
on the other hand, on the divine dignity of Christ,

(01:34:13):
we rightly think it as a meaning above human nature.
We say then that he glorified his own father God
when he fulfilled the work which he received from him,
not being his servant or in any ministerial capacity. And
this as of necessity, that the Lord of all might
not appear in the lowliness of our nature, and that

(01:34:36):
of the creation, which is enslaved. For to perform the
duties of a servant and submissively obey the divine commands
is the part of men and angels. Rather, we say
that he, being the power and wisdom of his Father,
well accomplished the task of our redemption, and trust it

(01:34:57):
as it were to him, as indeed also said the
Divine Psalmist, expounding the meaning of the mystery, O God,
command thy strength, Strengthen O God, that which thou hast
wrought for us, for in order that he may clearly
prove that the Son is the power of the Father,

(01:35:19):
though not separate from him so far I mean, as
his identity of essence and nature is concerned. He first says,
command thy strength, bringing in a duality of persons, I
mean him that commands and him to whom the command
is given. He suddenly unites them in their natural unity,

(01:35:42):
attributing to the ineffable nature of God in its entirety
the result achieved, For he says, in his wisdom, strengthen,
O God, that which thou hast wrought for us. The
Son then receives, or has entrusted to him from the
Father the work of saving the world. But in what

(01:36:04):
manner or how God commands his own strength we ought
to examine and explain so far as it is possible
humanly to interpret things which exceed man's understanding. Let us take,
for example, then some man among us, and imagine him
learned in the art of making bronzes. Then let us

(01:36:25):
suppose that he sets himself to Moldy's statue, or perhaps
to repair one that is decayed or mutilated. How then
will he work or how will he repair? As he
has determined clearly he will entrust to the power of
his hands and his skill in the art the fulfillment

(01:36:46):
of what he chooses to do. But if anyone thinks
his wisdom and power appear distinct in some sense from himself,
so far as their conception is concerned, still are they
not in fact distinct? For these also are included in
the definition of his essence. You must think the case

(01:37:07):
is somewhat like this wise, but must not accept the
illustration as exactly similar. For God is above all things,
and must be thought superior to any power of illustration.
The sun and the fire taking this by way of
illustration may be thought to occupy a similar relative position.

(01:37:28):
For just as the sun commands the light which it
sheds to illumine the whole world, and a lot to
the power of its rays as their function, so to say,
to cast the power of their heat on all things
that receive it. So likewise also the fire commands and
enjoins in some sort the peculiar qualities of its nature

(01:37:51):
to fulfill its peculiar duties. But we do not on
this account say that the ray and the light are
in the position of ministers and servants to the son,
or the power of burning to the fire. For each
of the two works by means of its own inherent qualities.
But if they appear to be, in a sense not

(01:38:12):
self working, yet are they not distinct in nature from
their own Some such idea we must hold about the
relation between God the Father and the Word, who is
by nature begotten of him. Whenever he is said to
be entrusted with work to do to us word his
wisdom and power. Therefore that is Christ glorified, God the Father,

(01:38:38):
upon the earth, having finished the work which he gave him.
And as he brings his work to its fitting termination,
he claims the glory which always attaches to him. And
now that occasion calls for the recovery of his ancient glory.
He seeks it. What work then has he fulfilled? Whereby

(01:38:58):
he says that he glory grorified the Father. For while
he was the true God, he became man by the
approval and will of the Father, through his desire to
save the whole world and raise up anew the fallen
race on the earth to endless life and the true
knowledge of God. And this was in very truth accomplished

(01:39:20):
by the divine power and might of Christ, who made
death powerless, upset the dominion of the devil, destroyed sin,
and showed incomparable love towards us by remitting the charges
against us all and giving light to those astray who
now know the One True God Christ. Then, having accomplished

(01:39:44):
this by his own power, the Father was glorified by
all I mean all those in the world who knew
his wisdom and power and the mercy and love towards
mankind which is in him. For he has shown forth
and manifested himself in the Son, who is, as it were,

(01:40:05):
the likeness and express image of his person. And by
its fruit. The tree is known according to the scripture,
and when the works were fulfilled, and the wonderful scheme
of our redemption brought to its fitting conclusion. He returns
to his own glory and assumes his ancient honor, save

(01:40:27):
only that, being still endued with the human shape. He
molds accordingly the form of his prayer and asks, as
though he possessed it. Not for man hath all things
from God? For though in the fullest sense, as he
was God of God the Father, he was invested with

(01:40:48):
divine glory. Still, since at the season of his incarnation
for us, he in a sense diminished it. Taking upon
him this mean body, with reason seeks it as though
he had it, not speaking the words as man the wise.
Paul also himself had some such idea, when he enjoins

(01:41:10):
us concerning him, let this mind be in each of you,
which was also in Christ. Jesus, who being in the
form of God, counted it not a prize to be
on an equality with God, but emptied himself taking the
form of a servant. Being made in the likeness of men,

(01:41:30):
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,
becoming obedient even unto death, yea the death of the cross.
Wherefore also God highly exalted him and gave unto him
the name which is above every name. That in the
name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow of things

(01:41:52):
in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. For though
the sun is high, inasmuch as he proceeded as God
and Lord from the Father, nonetheless is the Father recorded

(01:42:13):
to have exalted man in him. For on man, the
degradation of his nature brings the need of exultation. He prays, then,
for the recovery of his own glory, even in the flesh.
He is not wholly bereft of his own glory when
he so speaks, even though he were to ask without receiving,

(01:42:35):
for the word, being the true God, was never robbed
of his own majesty. He rather refers to the glory
which belongs ever to him and its appropriate temple in
the heavens, and his own return thither in the raiment
of the flesh on which the interval of his humiliation
had been consequent. For that he may not appear to

(01:42:58):
be claiming for him self a strange and unusual glory
to which he had not been accustomed in time past.
He distinguishes it by the addition of the epithet before
the world was and the words with thine own self.
For the Son has never been excluded from the honor

(01:43:20):
of the Father, but ever reigneth with him, and with
him is adored and worshiped by us and by the
Holy Angels, as God and of God, and in God
and with God. And this is I think what the
inspired evangelist John means to teach us when he says,

(01:43:42):
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. End of chapter six, chapter seven,

(01:44:03):
and eight of commentary in the Gospel of John, Book
eleven by Cyril of Alexandria, translated by Reverend Thomas Randall.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter seven
that the fact that something is said to have been
given to the Son from the Father does not rob
him of god befitting dignity. But he plainly appears to

(01:44:26):
be consubstantial and of the Father, even if he is
said to receive aught six seven eight, I manifested thy
name unto the men whom thou hast given me out
of the world thine they were, and thou hast given
them to me, and they have kept thy word. Now

(01:44:46):
they know that all things whatsoever thou hast given me
are from THEE. For the words which thou hast given me,
I have given unto them, and they received them and
knew of a truth that I came forth from THEE.
And they believed that thou didst send me. I have
previously stated with reference to the passages I have just examined,

(01:45:11):
not without care, if I may say so, that Christ
made his prayer to the Father in the heavens, both
as man and also as God. For he carefully moderates
his language so as to avoid either extreme, neither keeping
it altogether within the limits of humanity, nor yet allowing
it to be wholly affected by his divine glory. And

(01:45:35):
none the less. Here also may we see the same
characteristic observed, For as being by nature God and the
express image of his unspeakable nature, he says to his Father,
I manifested thy name unto the men, using the word
name instead of glory. For this is the usual practice

(01:45:57):
and speech amongst us. Moreover, the wise Solomon wrote, a
good name is more to be desired than great riches.
That is, a good reputation and honor is better than
the splendor and eminence which wealth confers. And God himself
says by the mouth of Isaiah, to those who have

(01:46:19):
made themselves eunuchs, for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake, let
not the eunuchs say, behold, I am a dry tree.
For thus saith the Lord. Unto the eunuchs that keep
my commandments and choose the things that please me. Even
unto them will I give in mine house and within
my walls a place and a name better than of

(01:46:40):
sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name,
And no man ought to imagine. I think, if he
be wise, that the honor with which God will requite
them will be paid out in bare names and titles,
to those who, with noble and virtuous aspirations, have have
wrestled with worldly pleasure, and have mortified their members which

(01:47:04):
are upon the earth, and regarded only those things which
are not displeasing to the divine law. Rather, he uses
the word name instead of glory, for they who reign
with Christ will be enviable and worthy all admiration. The
Savior therefore plainly declares that he has manifested the name

(01:47:27):
of God the Father, that is, he has established his
glory throughout the whole world, and how clearly by the
manifestation of himself through his exceeding great works. For the
Father is glorified in the Son as in an image
and type of his own form. For in the lineaments

(01:47:49):
of that which is modeled, the beauty of the model
is always clearly seen. The only Begaunton, then has manifested himself,
being in his essence wisdom and life, architect and creator
of the universe, superior to death and corruption, wholly, blameless, compassionate, sacred, pure.

(01:48:13):
Hereby all men know that he that begat him is
even as he is, for he cannot be different in
nature from his offspring. He showed himself therefore as in
an image and type of his own form, in the
glory of the Sun. Such was indeed the language concerning
him among the men of old time. But now has

(01:48:35):
he manifested himself to our very sight. And that which
we see with our eyes is more convincing than any words.
I think, indeed, that what we have here stated is
not irrelevant. We must, now, however, tread another path, that is,
enter on another line of speculation. For the Son manifested

(01:48:57):
the Father's name clearly by bringing us to the knowledge
and perfect apprehension. Not of the fact that he is
God alone, for this message was conveyed to us before
his coming by the inspired scripture, but that besides being
God in truth, he is also Father in his spurious sense,

(01:49:19):
having in himself and proceeding from himself his own offspring,
coequal and co eternal with his own nature, for he
did not beget in time the creator of the aegis,
and God's name of Father is in some sort greater
than the name God itself, for the one is symbolical

(01:49:41):
only of his majesty, while the other is explanatory of
the essential attribute of his person. For when a man
speaks of God, he indicates the sovereign of the universe.
But when he utters the name of Father, he touches
on the definition of his individual duality. For he manifests

(01:50:02):
the fact that he beget, and Christ himself gives to
God the name of Father, as in some sense a
more appropriate and truer apellation, saying, on one occasion not
I and God, but I and the Father are one,
and on another occasion, with reference to himself. For him

(01:50:26):
the Father, even God hath sealed. And also when he
bade his disciples baptize all nations, he did not bid
them do this in the name of God, but he
expressly enjoined them to do this into the name of
the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
And the inspired Moses, when he was explaining the origin

(01:50:50):
of the world, did not attribute its creation to a
single person. For he wrote, and God said, let us
make man in our imams image after our likeness. And
by the words, let us make and in our likeness.
The Holy Trinity is signified. For the Father created and

(01:51:12):
called into being the universe through the Son in the Spirit.
But the men of old found such expressions hard to
understand and the language obscure, for the Father was not
individually named, nor was the person of the Son expressly introduced.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, however, without any concealment and with

(01:51:36):
perfect freedom of speech, called God his father, and by
naming himself Son and showing that he was himself in
very truth, the offspring of the sovereign nature of the universe.
He manifested the Father's name and brought us to perfect
knowledge of Him. For the perfect knowledge of God and

(01:51:59):
the creator of the youth universe, standeth not in believing
merely that He is God, but in believing also that
He is the Father, and the father also of a son,
not unaccompanied, of course, by the Holy Spirit. For the
bare belief that God is God suits us no better

(01:52:19):
than those under the Law, for it does not exceed
the limit of the knowledge the Jews attained. And just
as the Law, when it brought in this axiom of instruction,
which was insufficient to sustain a life of piety in
God's service, perfected nothing, so also the knowledge which it
instilled about God was imperfect, only able to restrain men

(01:52:44):
from love of false gods and persuade them to worship
the One True God. For thou shalt have, it says,
no other gods beside me. Thou shalt worship the Lord
Thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. But our
Lord Jesus Christ sets better things before those who were

(01:53:06):
under the Law of Moses, and giving them instruction clearer
than the commandment of the Law, vouchsafed them better and
clearer knowledge than that of old. For he has made
it plain to us not merely that the originator and
sovereign of the world is God, but also that he
is a father. And facts prove this. For he has

(01:53:28):
set himself before us as his likeness, saying he that
hath seen me, hath seen the Father. I and the
Father are one, and this as we suppose. As being
God and of God by nature. He saith openly in
his divine character to his Father. But he adds at once,

(01:53:51):
speaking more as man, whom thou hast given me out
of the world, thine they were, and thou hast given
them to me. We must think that our Lord says this,
not as though some separate and particular portion had been
allotted and belonged to the dominion of the Father, in
which the son himself had no part. For he is

(01:54:14):
king before the ages began, as the Psalmist says, and
eternally shares the father's rule. Moreover, the wise evangelist John,
teaching us that all things belong to him and are
put under his sway, wrote, he came unto his own,
and they that were his own received him, not calling

(01:54:37):
those his own who knew him, not and were rejecting
the yoke of his kingdom. He spake this on this
occasion from the wish to make clear to his hearers
that there were some in this world who did not
even so much as receive into their minds the One
True God, but served the creature and devils, and the

(01:54:58):
inventions of devils. Still, though they knew not the creator
of the world, and were astray from the truth, they
were gods insomuch as He is Lord of all as
their creator. For all things belong to God, and there
is nothing that exists over which the One God is
not ruler. Though the creature may not know his maker.

(01:55:22):
For no man can maintain that the fact that some
have gone astray from him can avail to deprive the
creator of the world of his universal dominion. But he
must rather admit that all things are subjected to his rule,
through his having made them and brought them into being.
Since then this is the truth. Even they who were

(01:55:45):
fast bound by the snares of the devil and entangled
in the vanities of the world belonged in fact to
the Living God. And how were they given to the Son.
For God the Father consented that a Manuel should reign
over them, not as though he then first began his reign,

(01:56:06):
for he was ever lurd and king, as being God
by nature. But because, having become man and ventured his
life for the salvation of the world, he purchased all
men for himself, and through himself brought them to God
the Father. He, then, that of old reigneth from the

(01:56:26):
beginning with his father, was appointed king as a man
to whom, like all else, the scepter comes by gift
according to the limitations of human nature. For not in
the same sense as that in which man is a
rational being, capable of thought and knowledge, these things be

(01:56:46):
included in his natural advantages, is he also a king.
For while the former attributes are comprehended in the definition
of his essence, the latter is extraneous and additional, and
not among those which attach inseparably to his nature. For
kingly power is given and taken away from a man,

(01:57:08):
without effecting in any degree at all the definition of
his essence. The dignity of kingship therefore is thrust upon
a man by God as a gift, and from without.
For by me, he says, king's rule and prince's reign
over the earth. He then that ruleth over all with

(01:57:30):
the Father, insomuch as he was and is and will be.
By nature, God receives power over the world according to
the form and limits proper to a man. And therefore
he saith all things whatsoever thou hast given me, are
from THEE. For in a special and peculiar sense, all

(01:57:54):
things are God's and are given to us His creatures.
Universal possession, and power are most appropriate to God, but
to us it is most fitting to receive. He bore witness, however,
before his devout believers, to what was fitting to the servant,
and prompted to obedience. For he saith the words which

(01:58:17):
thou hast given me, I have given unto them, and
they received them and knew of a truth that I
came forth from THEE, and they believed that thou didst
send me. He expressly here calls his own words the
sayings of God the Father, because of their identity of substance,
and because he is God, the word declaratory of his

(01:58:41):
Father's will, just as the word which proceeds out of
our own mouths, and by its utterance assailing the hearing
of one who stands by interprets the hidden mysteries of
the heart. Therefore, also the saying of the prophet declared
concerning him. His name is called Messenger of Great Counsel.

(01:59:03):
For the truly, great, wonderful, and mysterious counsel of the
Father is conveyed to us by the word that is
in him and of him, through the words he uttered
as a man when he came among us, and also
by the knowledge and light of the Spirit after his
assentant to Heaven. For he revealeth to his saints his mysteries,

(01:59:27):
as Paulbert's witness, saying, if ye seek a proof of Christ,
that speaketh in me. He testified then to those who
love him, that they received and kept the words given
him by the Father, and were besides satisfied that he
came and was sent from God, while those who were

(01:59:49):
diseased with the contrary opinion were otherwise minded. For they
who neither received his words nor kept their minds open
to conviction, were not disposed to believe that he came
from God and was sent by him. Moreover, the Jews said,
on one occasion, if this man were from God, he

(02:00:10):
would not have broken the Sabbath. And on another we
are disciples of Moses. We know that God hath spoken
unto Moses, but as for this man, we know not
whence he is. You see how they denied his mission,
so that they even cried in their shamelessness they knew

(02:00:31):
not whence he was, and that they did not admit
his unspeakably high birth from everlasting I mean his proceeding
from God the Father. Diseased as they were by the
great perversity of their thoughts, and ready to stone him
with stones, merely because of his incarnation. You may easily

(02:00:53):
satisfy yourself if you will listen to the words of
the evangelist for this cause. There where the Jews sought
to kill him, because he not only break the Sabbath,
but also called God his own father, making himself equal
with God. And what the impious Jews said unto him

(02:01:13):
is also recorded for a good work. We stone thee
not but for blasphemy, because that thou, being a man,
makest thyself God. You will understand them very clearly that
those who truly kept his words have believed and confessed
that he manifested himself from the Father. For this is

(02:01:36):
I think what I came forth means and that he
was sent to us to tell us the commandment of
the Lord, as is said in the Psalms. While they
who laughed to scorn the word, who was thus divine
and from the Father, rejected the faith and plainly denied
that he was God and from the Father, and that

(02:01:59):
he came to us for our salvation and dwelt among us.
Yet without sin. Justly then does he commend to God
the Father those who are good men and are his own,
and have submitted their souls to the hearing of his words,
and will ever hold them in remembrance, that what he

(02:02:19):
said may be made clear beginning from the time of
his sojourn amongst us. And what are his words? Every
one therefore, who shall confess me before men him, will
I also confess before my Father, which is in heaven.
But whosoever shall deny me before men him, will I

(02:02:40):
also deny before my Father, which is in heaven. This
also God the Father himself long ago declared that he
would do. Speaking by the mouth of Isaiah, Ye are
my witnesses, saith the Lord and the servant whom I
have chosen. Our Savior then speaks at the same time,

(02:03:01):
in his character as God and in his character as man,
for he was at once God and man, speaking in
either character without reproach, suiting each occasion with appropriate words,
as it required chapter eight that nothing which is spoken
of as belonging to the Father will be excluded from

(02:03:24):
the kingdom of the Son, for both alike rule over all.
Nine ten eleven. I pray for them. I pray not
for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me,
For they are thine, and all things that are mine
are thine, and thine are mine. And I am glorified

(02:03:45):
in them, and I am no more in the world,
and these are in the world, and I come to thee.
He once more mediates as man, the reconciler and mediator
of God and men, And being our truly great and
all holy high Priest, by his own prayers, he appeases
the anger of his Father, sacrificing himself for us, for

(02:04:10):
he is the sacrifice, and is himself our priest, himself
our mediator, himself a blameless victim, the true lamb which
taketh away the sin of the world. The mosaic ceremonial was, then,
as it were, a type and transparent shadowing forth of
the mediation of Christ shown forth in the Last Times,

(02:04:34):
and the High Priest of the Law indicated in his
own person that priest who is above the law, for
the things of the law are shadows of the truth.
For the inspired Moses and with him, the eminent Eron
continually intervened between God and the assembly of the people,
at one time deprecating God's anger for the transgressions of

(02:04:57):
the people of Israel and inviting mercy from above upon
them when they were faint, and another praying and blessing
the people and ordering sacrifices according to the Law, and
offerings of gifts besides in their appointed order, sometimes for
sins and sometimes thank offerings for the benefits they felt

(02:05:19):
that they had received from God. But Christ too manifested
himself in the Last Times above the types and figures
of the Law. At once our high Priest and Mediator
prays for us as man, and at the same time
is ever ready to co operate with God, the Father
who distributes good gifts to those who are worthy. Paul

(02:05:41):
showed us this most plainly in the words grace to
you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. He then prays for us as man, and
also unites in distributing good gifts to us as God.
For he, being a holy high priest, blameless and undefiled,

(02:06:02):
offered himself not for his own weakness, as was the
custom of those to whom was a law to the
duty of sacrificing according to the law, but rather for
the salvation of our souls, and that once for all
because of our sin, and is an advocate for us,
and he is the propitiation for our sins, as John saith,

(02:06:26):
and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
But perhaps someone wishing to controvert what we have said,
will exclaim is not what the disciple says, quite contrary
to the Saviour's words. For our Lord Jesus Christ expressly

(02:06:47):
in these words repudiates the necessity of praying to God
for the whole world, while the wise John affirmed quite
the contrary, for he maintains that the Savior will be
the advocate and propitiation not merely for our sins, but
also for the sins of the whole world. It is
not hard to find the solution to this difficulty, or

(02:07:09):
to say how the disciple may be seen to be
in accord with his master's singing for the Blessed John,
as he was a Jew and of the Jews, that
some might not perhaps think that our Lord was merely
an advocate for the Israelites, and not in any sense
for the rest of the nation scattered over the whole world,

(02:07:30):
though destined to distinguish themselves by faith on Him and
to be shortly called to knowledge of salvation through Christ,
is perforce impelled to declare that our Lord will not
only be the propitiation for the race of Israel, but
also for the whole world, that is, those of every
nation and kindred who shall be called through faith to

(02:07:53):
righteousness and sanctification. Our Lord Christ distinguishes from his own
those who were otherwise minded and to have chosen to
insult him by stubborn disobedience, and referring to those who
are prone to listen to His divine commands and to
have already submitted, as it were, the next of the hearts,

(02:08:15):
and well nigh bound round them the yoke of submission
to God, said that for them only it was most
fitting for him to pray for to those only whose
mead eader and high priest he is. He thought it
meet to bring the blessings of his mediation to those
I mean who he says were given to himself, but

(02:08:37):
were the fathers. As there is no other way of
fellowship with God save by the Son. And he will
himself teach you this in the words, no one cometh
unto the Father, but by me. For observe how the Father,
when he gave to his son those of whom he speaks,
won them over to himself. And the Fussel, who was

(02:09:01):
so conversant with the sacred writings, knowing this well, says
God was in Christ reconciling the world too himself. For
when Christ acted as mediator and received those who come
to him by faith and brought them a right through
himself to the Father, the world was reconciled to God. Therefore,

(02:09:24):
also the prophet Isaiah taught us in anticipation to choose
peace with God in Christ. Let us have peace with Him.
Let us who are in the way, have peace. For
if we banish from our hearts, whatsoever estrangeth us from
the love of Christ. I mean the base lasciviousness, which

(02:09:46):
hankers after sinful pleasure and is ever inclined to the
delights of the world, and is besides the mother and
nurse of all vice, and leads us widely astray. We
shall become union united in fellowship with Christ, and shall
make peace with God, being joined to the Father himself

(02:10:06):
through the Son. Inasmuch as we receive in ourselves the
word that was begotten of Him and cry out in
the spirit aba Father. Those then who have been given
to Christ are the fathers, but are not therefore removed
from Christ. For God the Father reigneth with him, and

(02:10:28):
through him ruleth over his own. For the Holy and
consubstantial Trinity share the same kingdom, and their universal dominion
is one and the same. And whatever is the Sons
will be subject to the glory of the Son and
the Father. And also whatsoever is said to be under

(02:10:49):
the rule of the Father, over that the Son will
surely hold sway. And therefore he saith, and all mine
are thine, and thine are mine. For as in them
perfect identity of nature is visible and evident. The opinion

(02:11:09):
held about their majesty is not various, and does not
attribute anything individually to one apart from the other, but
considers one and the same glory identical in every respect
to attach to both, for he that is, by right
of his nature the air of his father's divine dignities,

(02:11:32):
will clearly have all that the Father hath, and will
also show that his father hath all that he himself hath.
For either naturally reveals the other in himself, and the
son is seen in the Father, in the Father also
in the son. This kind of instruction the inspired writings

(02:11:53):
gave us in the Mystery. When then universal dominion is
one of the dignities of the Father, it will belong
also to the Sun, for he is the express image
of his person, and can endure no shadow of unlikeness
or variance at all. He declares that he has been
glorified in them, showing that his prayer for them is,

(02:12:17):
as it were, a recompense well deserved. What then, is
his request and why does he endeavor to obtain God's
favor for his followers. I am no more in the world,
he says, And these are in the world, and I
come to thee. For while he yet lived in converse

(02:12:39):
with his holy apostles in the flesh upon earth, the
consolation of His visible presence was ever with them in
their daily path, as it were, to give instant succor
to those in peril, and they were therefore sustained and courage.
For the mind of man is readier to rely upon
the things that are seen than things that are unseen

(02:13:01):
for encouragement or pleasure. When we say this, we are
far from asserting that the Lord is powerless to save
if he be not visibly present. For any one who
thought this would rightly be convicted of folly. For Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and to day, yea and forever.

(02:13:22):
But he knew that his disciples were very faint at heart,
left desolate as it were on the earth, with the
world raging round them like fierce billows, and ever ready
to beleague her with intolerable terrors and imminent and great
dangers those who persist in bearing God's tidings to the uninitiated.

(02:13:44):
Since then, he says, I come to thee, for I
shall soon ascend to sit on the throne of God
the Father and reign with him, And these will remain
the while in the world. I pray for them, for
thou gavest them me and as thine and mine. Now
I rightly care for them, and I am glorified in them.

(02:14:07):
For all things whatsoever thou hast given me are thine,
and thine are mine. And the saying is true for
those in the world who have been given to Christ
and are on that account. The fathers have not therefore
disavowed the duty of praising Him through whom they were

(02:14:28):
united to God the Father, and having been brought to Him,
will remain nonetheless his, for he hath all things in
common with the Father, together with his inherent Godhead and power.
For there is one God in us, who is worshiped
in the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, and we all of

(02:14:50):
us belong to the One True God, being subject as
servants to the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. End of Chapter eight,
Chapter nine, Part one of commentary in the Gospel of John,

(02:15:11):
Book eleven by Cyril of Alexandria, translated by Reverend Thomas Randall.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter nine
that the dignity of Godhead is inherent in the Sun,
even though he is said to have received this from
the Father because of his humanity and the form of

(02:15:32):
his humiliation. Eleven, Holy Father, keep them in thy name,
which thou hast given me, that they may be one.
Even as we are, he still preserves the blending of
two things into one, the human element I mean, which,
so far as we are concerned, imparts humiliation, and the

(02:15:54):
divine element, which is pregnant with the most exalted majesty
for his speed. Each is combined of both, And just
as we stated in our interpretation of the foregoing passage,
the Divine element is not perfectly exalted to the height,
nor yet is it wholly sundered from the limitations of humanity,

(02:16:15):
holding as it were, a middle place by an unspeakable
and ineffable fusion of the two, so as not to
pass outside the limits of true Godhead, nor yet altogether
to leave behind those of humanity. For his ineffable descent
from God, the Father exalts him inasmuch as he is

(02:16:36):
the Word and only Begotten into a divine nature and
the majesty which naturally accompanies it, while his humiliation brings
him down in some sword to our level, not as
though it availed perforce to overpower the kingship over the
universe which he shares with the Father, for the only

(02:16:56):
Begotten could never submit to violence against him will. Rather,
was his humiliation self chosen accepted and maintained from love
towards us. For he humbled himself, that is, of his
own will, and not by any compulsion, For he would
be proved to have undergone the incarnation against his will

(02:17:19):
if there were any one at all able to prevail
over him, and who bade him unwillingly take this upon him.
He humbled himself therefore willingly for our sakes, for we
should never have been called his sons and gods if
the only Begonton had not undergone humiliation for us and
on our account, to whose likeness we are conformed by

(02:17:43):
participation in the spirit, and so become children of God
and God's whenever. Therefore, in his sayings he blends together
in some way the human with the divine. Do not
be therefore offended nor lightly relinquished the admiration you ought
to feel at the incomparable art displayed in his sayings,

(02:18:06):
skillfully preserving for us in diverse ways their twofold character,
so that we can see at the same time the
God and the man speaking truly in his nature, marvelously
combining the humiliation of his humanity with the glory of
his ineffable divinity, preserving wholly blameless and irreproachable the harmonious

(02:18:31):
fusion of the two. And how is it that when
we say this, we do not affirm that the nature
of the word is degraded from its original majesty. To
think this would indeed display the greatest ignorance, For that
which is divine is altogether and wholly changeless, and endureth

(02:18:52):
no shadow of turning, but rather ever remaineth on one's day.
We rather make such a statement because the manner of
his voluntary degradation, as by necessary inference investing him with
the form of humiliation, causes the only begotten, who is
coequal with and in the likeness of the Father and

(02:19:15):
in him, and proceeding from him, to be apparently in
an inferior position to him, be not astonished at hearing this,
if the son appear to fall short of the Father's
majesty because of his humanity, When for this very reason
Paul declared that he was thus inferior even to the angels.

(02:19:36):
In the following words, him who hath been made a
little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, though the
holy angels were bidden to worship him. For when he
says he bringeth in the first Born into the world,

(02:19:56):
he saith, and let all the angels of God will
worship him, as well as also the Holy said Aphim,
who stood around and fulfilled the office of servants when
he appeared unto the prophet sitting on a high and
lofty throne. Then so far as his being begotten and
proceeding from God the Father is concerned, his humanity is

(02:20:20):
not proper to the son, but it is proper to
him in so far as he is incarnate man, and
remaineth ever what he was and is, and will be
such forevermore, and debaseth himself to what he was not
of old. For our sakes, he saith, then, Holy Father,

(02:20:41):
keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me,
that they may be one even as we are. He
desires his disciples to be kept by the power and
might of the ineffable divine Nature, well and suitably attributing
the power of saving whomsoever he will yea and with
ease to the True and Living God. And thereby again

(02:21:06):
he glorifies no other nature than his own, as in
the person of the Father, from whom he proceeded as God.
Therefore he saith, Father, keep them in thy name, which
thou hast given me, that is the name of God.
He says again that the name of God was not

(02:21:28):
given unto him, as though he had not been God
by nature, and were now called from without to the
dignity of Godhead. For then would he be created and
possess a spurious and elective glory and an adulterate nature,
which it were impious for us to imagine, for thereby

(02:21:48):
he would be malted of his inherent character of sonship.
But since, as the inspired writings prophesy, the word became flesh,
that is man, he says that he received divine attributes
by gift, for clearly the title and actuality of divine
glory could not naturally attach to man. But consider and

(02:22:13):
attentively reflect how he showed himself the living and inherent
power of God the Father, whereby he do with all things.
For when addressing his Father, he says, keep them. He
did not indeed suffice for them alone, but suitably brought
in himself as working for their preservation, and being for

(02:22:35):
that purpose also the power and instrument of his Father,
For he says, keep them in thy name, which thou
hast given me. Note how guarded the saying is, for
allotting and attributing is suitable only to the nature of
god providential care over us. He declares at once that

(02:22:57):
to himself has been given the glory of life Godhead,
because of the form of manhood, saying that what was
his by natural right was given to him. That is
the name which is above every name. Therefore also we
say that this name belongs to the Son by nature,

(02:23:17):
as proceeding from the Father. But so far as he
is man, those things are his by gift, which he
receives as man, using herein the form of speech applicable
to ourselves. For man is not God by nature, but
Christ is God by nature, even though he be conceived
of as human, because he was amongst us. He wishes, indeed,

(02:23:43):
the disciples to be kept in unity of mind and purpose,
being blended, as it were, with one another in soul
and spirit, in the bond of brotherly love, and to
be linked together in an unbroken chain of affection, so
that their unit may be so far perfected as that
their elective affinity may resemble the natural unity which exists

(02:24:07):
between the Father and the Son, and remaining undebased and invincible,
may not be distorted by anything whatever that exists in
the world, or by the lust of the flesh, into
dissimilarity of purpose, but rather preserving in the unity of
true piety and holiness the power of love intact, which

(02:24:30):
also came to pass. For as we read in the
Acts of the Apostles, the multitude of them that believed
were of one heart and soul, in the unity that
is of the Spirit. And this is what Paul himself
also meant when he said one body and one Spirit.

(02:24:51):
For we who are many, are one body in Christ.
For we all partake of the one bread, and we
have all received the ung of one Spirit, that is
the Spirit of Christ. As then they were to be
one body and to partake of one and the self
same spirit. He desires his disciples to be preserved in

(02:25:13):
a unity of spirit which nothing could disturb, and in
unbroken singleness of mind. And if any man suppose that
after this manner, the disciples are united, even as the
Father and the Son are one, not merely in substance,
but also in purpose. For the Holy nature of God

(02:25:34):
has one will and one and the self same purpose altogether.
Let him so think, for he will not stray wide
of the mark, since we can see identity of purpose
among true Christians, though we have not consubstantiality as the
Father and the Word that proceeded from him and is
in him. Twelve thirteen. While I was with them, I

(02:25:59):
kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me,
and I guarded them, and not one of them perished,
but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I come to thee. Our Savior's speech soon
proceeds to illustrate his meaning more plainly. And while at
the first dark hints were given, it is now proclaimed

(02:26:22):
and revealed like a storm breaking into sunshine. For the
disciples thought that Our Savior's abandonment of them, I mean
in the flesh, would inflict on them great loss, for
nothing could prevent his being with them as God. But
they expected that no one could then save them after
Christ's dissension into heaven, but that they would fall a

(02:26:45):
prey to those who wished to injure them, and that
there would be nothing to restrain the hand of their
powerful adversaries. But rather that anyone so disposed might work
his will on them without hindrance and involve them in
any peril. But wise as they were in fathers in
the faith, and bearers of light to the world, we

(02:27:07):
need not shrink from saying that they ought not merely
to have regarded the incarnate presence of our Savior Christ,
but to have known that, even though he were to
deprive them of converse with him in the flesh, and
they saw him not with the eye of the body,
yet that it was their duty at any rate to
think of Him as present with them for evermore, in

(02:27:29):
the power of His Godhead. For will God ever lose
the attributes of his person, or what power can resist
an omnipotent nature, or is able to perforce to hinder
it in the performance of its functions. And it is
the power or actuality of God's being to be present

(02:27:49):
everywhere and unspeakably, to fill the heavens and also the earth,
and to contain all things, but to be contained of none.
For God is not bounded by place, nor separated by distance.
Within any sphere, however great, For such like things cannot
avail to affect that nature, which has nothing to do

(02:28:12):
with the dimensions of space. Then, since Christ was at
the same time God and man, the disciples ought to
have been aware that though He were absent in the body,
yet he would not wholly forsake them, but would be
ever with them by reason of God's unspeakable might. And

(02:28:32):
for this reason also our Savior himself said in the
foregoing passage, Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which
thou hast given me. And here again, while I was
with them, I kept them in Thy name, which thou
hast given me, almost pointing out this fact to his disciples,

(02:28:55):
that the ability to save them suited rather the working
of his power is God than his presence in the flesh.
For this very flesh was not sanctified of itself, but
when by His incarnation the Word was made one with it,
it was in some sort transformed into His inherent power,

(02:29:16):
and is now become the channel of salvation and sanctification
to those who partake thereof. We must not then attribute
the whole of the divine activities of Christ to the
flesh by itself, but we shall be rather right if
we ascribe them to the divine power of the Word.
For does not keeping the disciples in the name of

(02:29:39):
the Father, mean this and nothing else, for they are
kept by the glory of God. He removes then from
his disciples minds the fear which they felt because they
thought themselves forsaken. Often following the same course of thought,
he assures them that they will be in perfect safety,

(02:30:00):
not through living with their Master and the body, but
rather because He is by nature God. Evidently the universal
dominion and might which are his have no end, for
he can suffer no change or alteration from that state
in which He dwells eternally, but will keep them safe

(02:30:20):
with ease for evermore, and rescue them from every peril
that they assail them. Consider also the forethought wrapped up
in this saying to our prophet and Edification. For when
he asks that they, I mean, His Holy Disciples, should
be kept by God the Father, he declares that he

(02:30:41):
himself had done this, showing himself like in power and
works to his Father, or rather his inherent might. For surely,
he who is seen to have the same power as God,
he who is acknowledged the true God, must be thought
to be wholly inherent in him, and to possess equality

(02:31:01):
of power and identity of nature with Him, and How
can he who kept them as God in the name
of God and as a God crown them with the
glory that proceeded from righteous actions befitting the title be
foreign to God? Or of different nature? Is he not,
in very deed shown to be that which he is,

(02:31:23):
namely God? For nothing that exists can do those works
which are peculiar to God without being in its own
nature that which we imagine God to be. He still
preserves in the passage the twofold conception of his character,
owing to his incarnation. For he takes away, as it were,

(02:31:43):
from his nature as a created being, the power of
saving and preserving all to whom this is due for
their piety towards God, and describes it to the name
of the Father, attributing to the divine nature alone the
things which are of God. And for this reason, again,
though he says that he kept the disciples, he did

(02:32:06):
not give the honor of taking up the work to
his humanity, but rather says that it was fulfilled in
the name of God, excluding himself in a manner from
its accomplishment, so far as he is flesh and is
so conceived of, but not excluding himself from the power
of keeping them, and of accomplishing the works of a God,

(02:32:30):
insomuch as he is God, and from God the all
working power of the Father, a divine force, which, even
when at rest, displays, by its very attributes the nature
from which it ineffably proceeded. And if here too again
he says that the name of God has been given

(02:32:51):
unto him, although he is in fact God by nature,
as the only begodon who proceeded from him, he is
not thereby truth degraded, nor would he thereby exclude himself
from the honoring glory which is his due. Far from it,
For to receive is appropriate to his humanity, and can

(02:33:12):
be fittingly ascribed thereto, for of itself humanity possesses nothing.
He says that he so kept his disciples and had
such care for them, that none of them was lost,
save one whom he calls the son of Perdition, as
though he were doomed to destruction of his own choice,

(02:33:33):
or rather his own wickedness and impiety. For it is
inconceivable that the traitor disciple was, by a divine and
irresistible decree, entangled, as it were, in the snare of
the fowler, and brought within the devil's noos, For then
would he surely have been guiltless when he succumbed to

(02:33:54):
the verdict of heaven, For who shall oppose the decree
of God? And now he is condemned and accursed, And
it would have been better for him if he had
never been born. And why, surely the wretched man meant
his doom as a consequence of his own volitions, and
is not convicted by destiny. He that was so enamored

(02:34:18):
of destruction may well be called a son of perdition,
inasmuch as he merited ruin and corruption, and ever awaits
the day of perdition as fraught with anguish and lamentation.
And as Christ added to the words he used concerning him,
that the scripture might be fulfilled. We have given an

(02:34:39):
explanation which may be useful to readers of this passage.
For it was not because of any prophecy in scripture
that the traitor was lost and became so vile as
to barter for a few coins the precious blood of Christ.
But rather as through his own innate wickedness, he betrayed
his Lord and was infallibly destined to destruction. On that account,

(02:35:03):
the scripture, which cannot lie, for we're told that so
it would be. For the scripture is the word of God,
who knows all things, and carries in his own consciousness
the character and life of each one of us, and
his conversation from the beginning to the end. Moreover, the Psalmist,
attributing to him knowledge of all things of the past

(02:35:27):
as well as of the future, thus addresses him, Thou
understandest all my thoughts, so far off Thou compassest my
path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all
my ways. The divine Word, then, which had complete foreknowledge
and saw the future as though it were already present.

(02:35:48):
Besides all the rest which it told us about, Christ,
revealed unto us that he that was ranked a disciple
would also die the death of a traitor still before
knowledge and for telling of the future indicated not the
pleasure and commandment of God. Nor yet was the prophecy
directed to compel the actual fulfillment of the evil that

(02:36:12):
was foreshadowed and the conspiracy against the Savior, but rather
to avert it. For when Judas had this knowledge, he might,
at any rate, if he had so chosen, have shunned
and avoided the result, as he was free to determine
his inclinations in any direction. But perhaps you will say,

(02:36:35):
how then can Christ be said to have kept his disciples,
if merely in pursuance of the inclinations and volitions of
their own wills, the rest escaped the devil's net, while
Judas alone was taken ill fated beyond the others, How
then can the safe keeping here be spoken of be
said to have been of Prophet? Nay, my good friend,

(02:36:59):
we answer, soberness is indeed a good thing, and the
keeping guard over our minds profiteth much together with an
earnest endeavor towards the doing of good works, establishing ourselves
in virtue. For so shall we work out our own salvation.
But this alone will not avail to save the soul

(02:37:20):
of man. For it stands in urgent need of assistance
and grace from above, to make what is difficult of
achievement easy to it, and to render this deep and
thorny path of righteousness smooth, and to prove to you
that we are not able to do anything at all
of ourselves without the aid of divine grace. Hearken to

(02:37:41):
the voice of the Psalmist. If the Lord build not
the house, their labor is in vain that build it.
And if the Lord keep not the city, the watchman
waketh but in vain. I say then that it is
our bound and duty to foster and practice home bred
self denial and a religious frame of mind. But in

(02:38:05):
so doing also to ask help of God, and receiving
the aid that comes from above as a panoply proof
against every assault, to acquit ourselves like men. When God
is once for all vouchsafe to grant our prayer. And
it is therefore in our power to subdue the might
of our adversaries and conquer the power of the devil.

(02:38:28):
If we do not choose to follow him when he
allures us to pleasure or any other kind of sin,
then I say, if we let our wills comply with him,
and yielding to our wicked inclinations, are entangled in his noose,
how can we any more with justice accuse any one else,
or fail to attribute our doom to our own folly.

(02:38:52):
For is this not with Solomon said long ago? The
foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fret
against the Lord. And this is unquestionably the case, if, however,
the traitor was unable to enjoy the succor of the
Savior as much as the other disciples, Let any man

(02:39:12):
only prove this, and we submit. But if while he
was in common with the rest, encompassed by the divine
grace of his own will, he relapsed into the abys
of perdition, how can Christ be said not to have
kept him when he vouchsafed him the riches of his
mercy and increased so far as it was possible in

(02:39:36):
any man's case his chance of safety, if he had
not chosen his doom of his own will. His grace, moreover,
was conspicuous in the rest, continually keeping in safety those
who made their own free will, as it were, co
operate therewith. For this is the manner in which the

(02:39:57):
salvation of each one of us is achieved. End of
Chapter nine, Part one, Chapter nine, Part two of commentary
in the Gospel of John, Book eleven by Cyril of
Alexandria translates it by Reverend Thomas Randall. This LibriVox recording

(02:40:19):
is in the public Domaine thirteen. And these things I
speak in the world, that they may have my joy
fulfilled in themselves. Keep in mind once more what we
were just now saying, and you will easily understand the
drift of the passage. For he, on all occasions preserved

(02:40:40):
the juxtaposition of the two aspects of his character, at
the same time, displaying the divine majesty for which he
was pre eminent, and not discarding the proper limitations of
the human nature which he assumed it is incarnation. For
there would be something absurd in the supposition that he
wished to disown what he had willingly taken upon himself.

(02:41:05):
For being himself in lack of nothing but the all
perfect son of a perfect father, he emptied himself of
his glory, not to do himself any service, but rather
to convey to us the blessing which would result from
his humiliation. Showing himself then to them as at the

(02:41:25):
same time both God and Man, he, as it were,
induces his disciples to reflect that absent as well as present,
he would work the things which made for their salvation
in God, and that as he had kept them in
his keeping while he was yet with them on the
earth in the form of man, so also would he

(02:41:46):
keep them while absent from them, as God through the
excellency of his substance. For that which is divine is
not bounded by space, and is not far from anything
that exists, but fills and pervades the universe, and though
present in all things, is contained of none. When addressing

(02:42:07):
his own Father, he says, Holy Father, keep them. He
at once refers, by right of its existence, to the
universal working of the power of the Father, and at
the same time shows that he standeth not apart from
his nature, but being in it and proceeding from it,
is indivisibly united with it, though he be conceived of

(02:42:30):
as independently existing. Keep them, he says, in thy name,
which thou hast given me. And again, while I was
with them, I kept them in Thy name which thou
hast given me. We are bound therefore to think that
if he had kept them hitherto in the name given

(02:42:51):
him by the Father, that is in the glory of Godhead.
For he gave unto him the name which is above
every name. And if he wishes the Father himself also
to keep them in the name given unto him, he
will not be excluded from acting in the work. For
the Father will keep those who are knit to him

(02:43:11):
by faith through the agency of the Only Begotten, who
is his power and might. For he will not exercise
his power in any way save through him. Then, if
even in the flesh he kept them by the power
and glory of His Godhead, how can we think that
he would fail to think his disciples worthy of the

(02:43:31):
mercy which they need. And how can they ever lose
his sure support? While the divine power of the Only
begonten abideth evermore, and the power which is his by
nature is forever firmly established. For that which is divine
admits of no variance at all, or of any change

(02:43:52):
into any evil agency, but shines forth forever in those
attributes which belong to it eternally. I have spoken. Then
he says these things in the world, that my disciples
might have my joy fulfilled in them. What kind of
joy is meant? We will proceed to show, putting away

(02:44:14):
from us fear of dispute because of the obscurity of
the expression. The blessed disciples then thought, indeed, that while
Christ was present with them in their daily lives. I mean,
of course, in the flesh, they could easily rid themselves
of every calamity and readily escape danger from the Jews,

(02:44:35):
and that they would remain proof against every assault of
their foes, but that when he was separated from them
and had gone up to Heaven, they would fall in
easy prey to perils of every sort, and would have
to bear the attack of the King of terrors himself,
as there was no one any more with them who
was strong to save and who could scare away the

(02:44:58):
temptations that assailed them. For this cause, then our Lord
Jesus Christ neither disavowed the manhood he had once for
all taken upon himself, nor yet showed himself deficient and
divine power, speaking plainly to this intent, and saying that
the name of God had been given to him as man,

(02:45:21):
but that through him and in him the Father showed
mercy to those who worshiped him, and had them in
safe keeping. What then, was the wise object that he
here had in view? It was that the blessed disciples
might understand and know well if they only slightly considered
this singing, that even when he was in the flesh,

(02:45:44):
it was not through the flesh that he was working
for their salvation, but in the omnipotent glory and might
of his Godhead, my absence in the flesh, then, he says,
will do my disciples no harm, while the divine power
of the only Begotten can easily keep them safe, even
though he be not visibly present in the body. We

(02:46:07):
give this explanation not as making of no account the
Holy body of Christ, God forbid, but because it were
more fitting that the accomplishment of his word should be
ascribed to the glory of the Godhead. For even the
body itself of Christ was sanctified by the power of
the Word made one with it, and it is thus

(02:46:30):
endowed with living force and the blessed Eucharist, so that
it is able to implant in us its sanctifying grace. Therefore,
also our savior Christ himself, once conversing with the Jews
and speaking many things concerning his own body, calling it
the true bread of life, said the bread which I

(02:46:51):
will give you is my flesh, which I will give
for the life of the world. And when they were sore,
amazed and perplexed to know how the nature of earthly
flesh could be to them the channel of eternal life,
he answered and said, it is the spirit that quickeneth
the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I spake unto

(02:47:13):
you are spirit and our life. For here too he
says that the flesh can profit nothing that is to
sanctify and quicken those who receive it. So far that is,
as it is mere human flesh. But when it is
understood and believed to be the temple of the Word,
then surely it will be a channel of sanctification and life,

(02:47:37):
but not altogether of itself, but through God who has
been made one with it, who is holy and life.
Ascribing everything then to the power of His Godhead, he
says that his disciples will suffer no loss from his
departure in the body, with reverence at any rate to
their seeking to be in his keeping. For the Savior,

(02:48:01):
though he be vanished into heaven, will yet not be
far from those who love him, but will be with
them by the power of His Godhead. In order then
that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves, he says,
I have spoken these things in the world. What then,

(02:48:21):
is this joy which is fulfilled and perfect? It is
the knowledge and belief that Christ was not a mere
man as we are, but that besides being as we
are yet without sin, he is also the true God
It is clear, then and beyond dispute, that He will
always have the power to save those who worship him.

(02:48:43):
At any time, he will even though he be not
present in the body. For this knowledge will involve the
perfect fulfillment of our own joy, inasmuch as we have
an ally ever near us, who is strong enough to
rescue us from every evil fourteen fifteen. I have given

(02:49:04):
them thy word, and the world hated them because they
are not of the world. Even as I am not
of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take
them from the world, but that thou shouldst keep them
from the evil one. He points out to us the
most needful increase of favor from above and from the Father,

(02:49:26):
which he says is almost owed by him to those
who incur danger for his sake, as a just and
well deserved return for the world hateth on God's account.
Those who worship Him and who are obedient to the
laws that he has laid down, and who lightly esteem
worldly pleasure, and who also, as is most right, will

(02:49:48):
receive succor and grace from Him and continuance in well being.
For surely they who after a manner rely upon Him
and are of good courage and engage in war warfare
on his account, will receive a recompense and harmony with
the aim they have in view. Therefore, the Savior says,

(02:50:08):
I have given them thy word, and the world hated
them because they are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world. For they received with
great gladness. He says, thy word given unto them by me.
That is the gospel message, which easily extricates from a
worldly life and thoughts of earth. Those who welcome it

(02:50:33):
therefore also are the hated of the world, that is,
of those who choose to have at heart the things
of this world, and who love this pleasure loving and
most impure life. For the conversation of Saints is displeasing
to worldlings, ever, making light as it does of the
hardships of this life, and pointing out how abominable is

(02:50:56):
a worldly career, and accusing its vileness and assailing with
bitter rebukes those who think that pleasure consists in succumbing
to temptation and in having continual intercourse with the evil
of this world, and triumphing over all selfish desire and
contemning ambition, and teaching men to abhor coveteousness, the mother

(02:51:19):
of all evils, and to cast it far from them,
and furthermore bidding those who are ensnared in the net
of the devil to escape from old deceits and to
betake themselves to the God of the universe. For this cause, Therefore,
O Father, he says, are they hated, for they are

(02:51:40):
an ill odor with the world, not because they have
been convicted of any crime or impiety, but because I
have given unto them thy word, so that they are
also out of the world, even as I am. For
the life and conduct that is in Christ is wholly
dissevered from earthly thoughts in worldly conversation, that life, by

(02:52:04):
following after which we shall ourselves, also, so far as possible,
escape being reckoned among the men of this world. Therefore,
the inspired Paul enjoins us to follow his steps, and
we shall then best follow him when we love only
the things that are not of this world, and, lifting

(02:52:25):
our minds above fleshly thoughts, gaze only on heavenly things.
He ranks himself too with his disciples because of his
manhount by imitating which in the conception of him as man,
we attain every kind of virtue, as we just now said,
passing unscathed through all the wickedness of the world, and

(02:52:48):
showing ourselves strangers and aliens to its wickedness. Just so,
then the divine Paulandide himself exhorts us, and with reference
to himself and Christ, through which the world hath been crucified,
unto me and I unto the world, bids us, speaking
in another place, be ye imitators of me, even as

(02:53:12):
I also am of Christ. Paul did not indeed imitate
Christ in so far as our Lord is creator of
the world, For he did not establish a new firmament,
nor did he ever reveal to us new seas or
a new earth. How then did he imitate him? Surely
it was by molding in his own character and conduct

(02:53:35):
an admirable pattern of the life of which Christ was
himself the exemplar, so far at least as Paul could
attain to it. For who can be equal to Christ?
Putting himself then on a level with us because of
his human nature, or to speak more accurately, as first

(02:53:55):
presenting us with the blessing of taking ourselves out of
the world by the life which transcends worldly things, for
the life and teaching of the Gospel is above the world.
He says that he himself is not of the world,
and that we are even as he is, since his
divine word has taken up its abode in our hearts. Furthermore,

(02:54:19):
he declares that as the world hated him, so will
it also hate them. The world indeed hateth Christ because
it is in conflict with his words and accepts not
his teaching, men's minds being wholly yielded up to Bay's desires.
And even as the world hates our Savior Christ, it

(02:54:40):
hath hated also the disciples who carry through him his message,
as Paul also did, who said, we are ambassadors. Therefore
on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us.
We beseech you on behalf of Christ. Be ye reconciled
to God. What then is his prayer? After that he

(02:55:03):
is shown that the disciples are hated by those who
are fast bound by the evil things of the world.
I pray not he saith that thou shouldst take them
from the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from
the evil one. For Christ, doest not wish them to
be quit of human affairs or to be rid of

(02:55:24):
life in the body, when they have not yet finished
the course of their apostleship or distinguished themselves by the
virtues of a godly life. But he wishes them after
they have lived their lives in the company of men
in the world, and have guided the footsteps of those
who are His to a state of life well pleasing

(02:55:45):
to God. Then, at last, with the glory they have achieved,
to be carried into the heavenly city and to dwell
with the company of the holy angels, we find moreover
one of the saints approaching the God who loves virtue,
with the take me not away in the midst of
my days. For pious souls cannot, without a pang, put

(02:56:08):
off the garment of the flesh before they have perfected
their life and holiness above their fellows. Therefore, also the
law of Moses, teaching us that sinners are visited as
in wrath and by way of penalty with premature death,
often reiterates the warning to stand aloof from evil, that

(02:56:28):
thou diest not before thy time. Besides, if the saints
chose to keep themselves apart from our daily life, it
would infer no small loss to those who are unstable
in the faith. Nay, they could in no wise be
guided in the way of righteousness without the aid of
those who were able to lead them therein. Paul knew

(02:56:52):
this when he said, to depart and be with Christ
is far better for me. Yet to abide in the
flesh is more need for your sake. Christ therefore, in
his care for the salvation of the uninstructed, says that
those who are in the world ought not to be
left desolate without the saints, who are men of light

(02:57:13):
and the salt of the earth, but praise rather for
the safe keeping of His holy ones, and that they
may be ever untouched by the malice of the evil One,
shunning the assault of temptations by the power of his
omnipotent Father. We must also remark that he calls the
Word which is his and came forth from him, I

(02:57:36):
mean the Gospel, the Word of God the Father, showing
that he is not separate from the Father, become substantial
with him. For we shall find in the writings of
the evangelists that the people of the Jews were amazed
at him because he taught them as one having authority,
and not as their scribes. For these latter were seen

(02:57:58):
to apply the teaching of the Life Law in every
case in their discourses to them, while our Lord Jesus
Christ did not at all follow slavishly the types shadowed
forth in those writings, but illumining his own word by
divine power, exclaimed it was said to them of old time,
thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you,

(02:58:22):
thou shalt not covet. Though the law expressly says, with
reference to the statutes of God, that none should add
thereto or take away therefrom But Christ took away from
and also added unto them, changing the type into truth.
Therefore he cannot be reckoned among those under the law,

(02:58:44):
that is, among creatures. For on whomsoever Nature has put
the brand of slavery on him, is imposed the necessity
of being under the law. Christ then represented his own
word as the word of the Father. For he is
the word that is in the Father and proceedeth from him,

(02:59:04):
and that enunciates the will of the Godhead, I mean
the only true Godhead, which is in the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit sixteen seventeen. They are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. Holy Father,
keep them in truth. Thy word is truth. By these

(02:59:28):
words he indicates once more and makes clear to us
the reason why he requires to ascend to God the Father,
and why so to do becomes him while he is
still our mediator and high priest and advocate according to
the Holy Scripture, and shows us that it is in
order that if at any time we encounter failure or

(02:59:52):
miss the straight path in thought or action, or are
assailed by unexpected perils or buffeted by the tempest of
the devil's malice, he may approach his Father on our behalf,
in his appropriate character as mediator, and join with him
in granting good gifts to those who are worthy, For

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it would well become him so to do, as he
is God by nature. Those, then, he says, who have
received thy word, O Father, through me, show forth my
likeness in themselves and are conformed to the pattern of
Thine own son, who like him, pass unscathed through the

(03:00:35):
ocean of the world's wickedness, and have shown themselves foreigners
and strangers to the love of pleasure in this life
and every kind of vice. Therefore, keep them in thy truth,
for exceeding purity is inherent in Christ, for he is
truly God and cannot be subject to sin nor endure it,

(03:00:56):
but is rather the fountain of all goodness and the
beauty of holiness. For the divine nature that ruleth over
all can do nothing but what is in truth suitable,
and belongeth there too. And the Holy disciples, I mean,
all who believe on Him cannot otherwise exhibit purity unspotted

(03:01:17):
by the wickedness of this world. Then by means of
forgiveness and grace from above, which putteth away the defilement
of previous offenses and the accusing sins of their past lives,
and further conferring on them the glory of a life
of sanctification, though their continuance therein be not free from conflict,

(03:01:39):
as Paul wisely teaches us, saying, wherefore, let him that
thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. For our
life is cast upon the deep, and we are tossed
by divers dorms, as the devil tempts without ceasing and
continually assails and strives to defile, if he can, by

(03:02:00):
the insidious invengeance of malice, even those who have been
already made pure. For his meat is well chosen, as
the prophet says. Having then borne witness to his disciples
that their life was out of the world, and that
they were conformed to the likeness of his own essential purity,

(03:02:21):
he proceeds to pray to his Father to keep them.
It is almost as though he said, O, Holy Father,
if they were in the world, that is, if they
live the life that has honor in this world, if
sowing the seed of earthly and temporary pleasures in their hearts,
they imprinted on themselves the foul image of the evil one.

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He would not have attacked them with temptation, nor have
armed himself against his own children, for he would have
in them the likeness of his own inherent wickedness. But
since they, following after me, laught to school, learned the
deceitfulness of this world, and are out of the world,
and moreover, in their conduct show most clearly the impress

(03:03:08):
of My incomparable holiness. And on that account of Satan,
who is ever murmuring against the saints for their bitter foe,
ever lying in wait for them. Therefore of necessity I
desire them to be in Thy safe keeping. For to
be in Thy safe keeping is not to be far
from Thy Truth, that is from me, For I am

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by nature Thy Truth, O Father, the essential, true and
living Word. We must suppose that this is what he
thinks right to say. See how in all his sayings,
so to speak, he insinuates his own person into the
action of the Father, whatever that action has reference to,

(03:03:52):
and puts himself altogether side by side with him, wishing
probably to show how true the statement is. Allings were
made by him, and without him was not anything made
in the previous passage. Indeed, he briefly besought his Father
to keep the disciples in the name which had been
given unto himself. In this however, he desires his prayer

(03:04:16):
in their behalf to be fulfilled in the truth of
the Father. What then, does this mean, or what does
the change in the language signify? Is it meant to
show that the working of the Father shown through him
in mercy to the saints is not uniform. For in
the first passage, when he says that his disciples ought

(03:04:38):
to be kept in the name of the Father, that
is to say, in the glory and power of His Godhead,
so that they should be out of the power of
the enemy, he declares that aid is vouchsafed to the
saints in whatever happens unto them. After the secret fashion,
the Christ at the properties and revealed to his disciples

(03:04:59):
when he s said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to
have you that he might sift you as wheat. But
I made supplication for thee that thy faith fail not.
For many of God's dealings concerning us are in secret,
Christ taking thought for the life of each of us

(03:05:20):
and covering us as with a shield. But here when
he says keep them in the truth, he signifies clearly
their being led by revelation of the truth to apprehend it.
For no man can attain to the knowledge of truth
without the light of the Spirit, nor can he, at
all humanly speaking, work out for himself an accurate comprehension

(03:05:43):
of the divine doctrines. For the mysteries of Holy writ
exceed our understanding, and glorious is the blessing of having
even a moderate knowledge concerning Christ. The blessed Peter. Moreover,
when he confesses that the Lord Lord was in truth,
the son of the Living God, heard the words blessed

(03:06:05):
art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.
For he reveals to the saints his son, who is truth,
and does not allow Saeyton to lead the mind of
his believers astray to false knowledge, relying on whom in

(03:06:25):
their season Emenius and Alexander have made shipwreck concerning the faith,
rejecting the true doctrine of the faith of great avail.
Then towards a right continuance in the straight path of
thought and action is our safe keeping by the Father
in the name of God and in truth, that we
may not fail in making our light shine forth in action,

(03:06:49):
nor by turning aside to folly, stray far away from
the doctrines of true holiness. And this may easily be
our lot if we are seen to be out of
the world, while not disavowing our birth in the world.
For of the dust of the earth are we all framed,
as the scripture saith. But by the quality of our

(03:07:10):
deeds we rid ourselves of life in the world. For
while they walk upon earth, those who love conformity with
Christ are citizens of heaven. We must also remark that
he very appropriately here calls the Father holy, almost as
it were reminding him that as He is holy, he

(03:07:31):
takes pleasure in those that are holy, and all men
are holy, whosoever are seen to be unspotted by the world,
and whosoever are by nature in Christ, in the Father's likeness,
adopted and chosen to be his disciples by the sanctification
according to grace and the light and goodness of their lives.

(03:07:52):
For a man may thus be conformed to the image
of God which transcends the world. The end of chapter nine,
Chapter ten of Commentary in the Gospel of John, Book eleven,
Pastile of Alexandria, translated by Reverend Thomas Randall. This LibriVox

(03:08:16):
recording is in the public domain. Chapter ten that Christ
is not wholly from participation in anything different from himself,
and that the sanctification through the spirit is not alien
to his substance eighteen nineteen. As thou didst send me

(03:08:36):
into the world, even so sent I them into the world,
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves
also may be sanctified in truth. After giving the Father
here especially the name of Holy and praying that the
disciples might be kept in the truth that is in

(03:08:57):
His spirit. For the Spirit. It is the truth, as
John says, as he is also the spirit of truth,
that is, of the only Begotten himself. He declares that
he sent them into the world after the fashion of
his own mission. For Jesus is the apostle and high
priest of our confession, as Paul says, in the appropriate

(03:09:22):
character of his manhood, and by the way of his humiliation.
He says then that the disciples, after having been once
for all thereto prepared, stand wholly in need of sanctification
by the Holy Father, who implanted in them the Holy
Spirit through the sun. For in truth, the disciples of

(03:09:43):
the Savior would never have become so illustrious as to
be the torch bearers of the whole world, nor would
they have withstood the brunt of the temptations of their enemies,
nor the terrible assaults of the devil, had they not
had their minds fortified by communion with the Spirit, and
had they not been continually thereby enabled to accomplish a

(03:10:06):
bidding unheard of before and passing mere human power, And
had they not been ever led by the light of
the Spirit without effort, to a perfect knowledge of the
inspired writings and the Holy doctrines of the Church. Furthermore,
the Savior, being assembled together with them after his resurrection

(03:10:27):
from the dead, as is recorded, and bidding them preach
grace through faith throughout the whole world, charged them not
to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise
of the Father, which they had heard of him as
well as by the mouth of the Holy prophets. For
it shall come to pass in those days, saith the Lord,

(03:10:50):
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.
And the Savior himself plainly declared that his Holy Spirit
would be shed forth upon them, in the words, I
have yet many things to say unto you, but ye
cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he the Spirit of Truth,

(03:11:10):
is come, he shall guide you into all truth. And
again I will pray the Father, and he shall give
you another comforter. For the Spirit belongeth unto God the Father,
and nonetheless also unto the Son himself, not as distinct entities,
or as though he was inherent or existed in either divisibly,

(03:11:35):
but inasmuch as the Son by nature proceeds from the
Father and is in him, being the true offspring of
his essence. The Spirit, which is the Fathers by nature
is brought down to men, shed forth indeed from the Father,
but through the Son himself, conveyed to the creature, not

(03:11:56):
merely ministerially or in the manner of a servant, but
as I said just now, proceeding from the substance itself
of God the Father, and shed forth on those worthy
to receive him through the Word, which is consubstantial with
and proceeded from Him, and so proceeded as to have
a self dependent being, and ever abideth in him at

(03:12:20):
the same time in unity, and also, as it were,
with an individual existence. For we maintain that the son
has an independent existence, but still inheres in his Father,
and has in himself him that begat him, And that
the spirit of the Father is indeed the spirit of

(03:12:40):
the Son, and that when the Father sends or promises
to distribute the spirit to the saints, the son also
vouchsafes the spirit to them as his own, because of
his identity and substance with the Father, And that the
Father works in every respect through him. He has himself

(03:13:01):
very clearly pointed out to us in the words, it
is expedient for you that I go away, For if
I go not away the comforter cannot come unto you.
But when I depart, I will send him unto you.
And again I will pray the Father, and he shall
give you another comforter. Plainly here he promises to send

(03:13:24):
us the comforter. Since then the disciples who respect my
sayings have been sent forth on their mission in the world,
even as I myself keep them, Holy Father, in thy truth,
that is in thy word, in which and through which
the Spirit which sanctifies is and proceeds. And what is

(03:13:49):
the Saviour's aim in saying this? He besought the Father
for that sanctification which is in and through the Spirit,
to be given to ourselves. And he desires that which
was in us at the first age of the world
and at the beginning of creation, by gift of God,
to be quickened anew into life. This we say because

(03:14:14):
the only Begotten is our mediator and fulfills the part
of advocate for us before our Father, which is in heaven.
But that we may free our explanation from all obscurity
and make the meaning of what is said clear to
our hearers, let us say a few words about the
creation of the first man. The Inspired Moses said concerning

(03:14:38):
him that God took dust from the earth and formed
man of it. He then goes on to tell the
manner in which, after the body was perfectly joined together,
life was given to it. He breathed, he says, into
his nostrils, the breath of life, signifying that not without

(03:14:58):
sanctification by this spirit was life given to man. Nor
yet was it wholly devoid or barren of the divine nature.
For never could anything which had sobeys an origin have
been seen to be created in the image of the
most tie, had it not taken and received through the Spirit,
molding it, so to speak, a fair mask by the

(03:15:21):
will of God. For as his spirit is a perfect
likeness of the substance of the only Begotten. According to
the saying of Paul, for whom he foreknew, he also
foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son.
He maketh those in whom he abides to be conformed
to the image of the Father, that is the Son.

(03:15:45):
And thus all thoughts are uplifted through the Son to
the Father, from whom he proceeds by the Spirit. He
desires therefore the nature of man to be renewed and
molded anew as it were, into its original likeness by
communion with the Spirit, in order that putting on that

(03:16:05):
pristine grace, and being shaped anew into conformity with Him,
we may be found able to prevail over the sin
that reigns in this world, and may simply cling to
the love of God, striving with all our might after
whatsoever things be good, and lifting our minds above fleshly lust,

(03:16:27):
may keep the beauty of His image implanted in ourselves unspoiled.
For this is spiritual life, and this is the meaning
of worship in the Spirit. And if we may sum
up in brief the whole matter, Christ called down upon
us the ancient gift of humanity, that is sanctification through

(03:16:49):
the Spirit and communion with the divine nature, his disciples
being the first to receive it. For the saying is
true that the husbandmen that laboreth must be the first
to partake of the fruits, but that he might herein
also indeed have the pre eminence. For it was meet

(03:17:09):
that he, being, as it were, one of many brethren
and still man, even as we are men, should, through
being in our likeness, be seen to be and in
fact be the beginning and the gait and the way
of every good thing for us, he is impelled to
add what follows, namely, the words for their sakes, I

(03:17:32):
sanctify myself. And indeed the saying is hard to explain
and difficult to understand. Still, the word which maketh all
things clear and discovereth deep things out of darkness, will
reveal to us even this mystery. That which is brought
by anyone to God by way of an offering or gift,

(03:17:55):
as sacred to Him, is said to be sanctified according
to the custom of the law, as for example, every
firstborn child that opens the womb among the children of Israel,
for sanctify unto me all the first born, whatsoever openeth
the womb. God said to the good Moses, that does

(03:18:17):
offer and dedicate and set down as holy. We do not,
indeed assert, nor would we listen to anyone's suggestion that
God bade Moses impose on any the sanctification of the spirit.
For the stature of created beings attains not unto ability
to perform any such act, but it is adapted and

(03:18:38):
can be ascribed to God. Only Moreover, when He wished
to appoint to office the elders together with him. He
did not bid Moses himself impose sanctification upon those who
were selected, but instead plainly said that he would take
up the spirit that was upon him, and would put
it upon each of those who were called. For the

(03:19:02):
power of sanctifying by communion with the spirit belongs only
to the nature of the ruler of the universe. And
what the meaning of sanctification is, I mean, so far
as the customs of the law are concerned. The saying
of Solomon will make quite clear to us. It is
a snare to a man hastily to sanctify anything that

(03:19:24):
is his, for after he has made his vow repentance cometh.
Since then this is what sanctification is. So far as
the custom of offering and setting a part is concerned,
we say that the Son sanctified himself for us in
this sense, for he brought himself as a victim and

(03:19:45):
holy sacrifice to God the Father, reconciling the world unto himself,
and bringing into kinship with him that which had fallen away,
therefrom that is the race of man. For he is
our p according to the scripture, and indeed our reconciliation
to God could no otherwise have been accomplished through Christ

(03:20:09):
that saveth us than by communion in the Spirit and sanctification.
For that which knits us together, and as it were,
unites us with God, is the Holy Spirit, which if
we receive, we are proved sharers and partakers in the
divine nature. And we admit the Father himself and too

(03:20:30):
our hearts through the Son, and in the Son. Further,
the wise John writes for us concerning him hereby know
that we abide in him and he in us, because
He has given us of his spirit. And what does
Paul also say, And because ye are sons, God sent

(03:20:53):
forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying
abba Father. As if we had chance to remain without
partaking of the spirit, we could never at all have
known that God was in us. And if we had
not been enriched with the spirit that puts us into
the rank of sons, we should never have been at

(03:21:14):
all the sons of God. How then, should we have
had added to us, or how should we have been
shown to be partakers in divine nature? If God had
not been in us, nor we been joined to Him
through having been called a communion with the Spirit. But
now are we both partakers and sharers in the substance

(03:21:38):
that transcends the universe, and are become temples of God.
For the only Begod, and sanctified himself for our sins,
that is, offered himself up and brought himself as a
holy sacrifice for a sweet smelling savor to God the Father.
That while he as God, came between and hedged off

(03:22:01):
and built a wall of partition between human nature and sin,
nothing might hinder our being able to have access to
God and have close fellowship with Him through communion, that is,
with the Holy Spirit, molding us anew to righteousness and
sanctification and the original likeness of man. For if sinsunders

(03:22:25):
and dissevers man from God, surely righteousness will be a
bond of union and will somehow set us by the
side of God himself with nothing to part us. We
have been justified through faith in Christ, who was delivered
up for our trespasses according to the Scripture, and was

(03:22:46):
raised for our justification. For in Him, as in the
first fruits of the race, the nature of man was
wholly reformed into newness of life, and, descending as it were,
to its own first begins, was molded anew into sanctification,
sanctify them, he says, O, Father, in thy truth that

(03:23:10):
is in me. For thy word is truth. That is
I once more, For I sanctified myself for them, that is,
brought myself as an offering one dying for many, that
I might reform them into newness of life, and that

(03:23:31):
they might be sanctified in truth that is in me.
Now that the foregoing speech has been explained and understood
in the sense we have just given out, we shall
not be slack to enter on another investigation. For to
be very zealous in searching at the meaning of difficult
passages in scripture must, I think reflect much honor, both

(03:23:56):
on those who have this desire and also on those
who listen to them attentively. Our Lord Jesus Christ then
said that he sanctified himself for our sakes, that we
also may be sanctified in truth in what sense he
is sanctified, being himself by nature holy, in order that

(03:24:18):
we may be sanctified. Also. Let us, then, adhering to
the doctrines of the Church, and not starting aside from
the right rule of faith, so far as we can
carefully consider, We say then that the only begotten, being
by nature God and in the form of God the Father,

(03:24:39):
and in equality with him, emptied himself according to the scripture,
and became man born of a woman, receiving all the
properties of man's nature. Sin only accepted, and in an
unspeakable way, uniting himself to our nature by his own
free will, in order that he might in himself first

(03:25:01):
and through himself regenerated into that glory which it had
at the beginning, And that he having proved himself the
second Adam, that is, a heavenly man, and being found
first of all, and the first fruits of those who
were built up into newness of life, in incorruption, that is,

(03:25:24):
and in righteousness and the sanctification, which is through the spirit,
he might henceforth through himself send good gifts to the
whole race. For this cause, though he is life by nature,
he became as one dead, that having destroyed the power
of death in us, he might mold us anew into

(03:25:48):
his own life. And being himself the righteousness of God
the Father, he became sin for us, For according to
the saying of the Prophet, he self beareth our sins,
and he was counted together with us among transgressors, that
he might justify us through himself rending the bond that

(03:26:11):
was against us and nailing it to his cross, according
to the scripture, being also himself by nature holy as God,
and granting to the whole creation participation in the Holy
Spirit to their continuance, establishing in sanctification. He is sanctified
on our account and the Holy Spirit. No one else

(03:26:35):
sanctifying him, but rather he himself, working for himself to
the sanctification of his own flesh. For he receiveth his
own spirit and partakes of it in so far as
he was man yea, and giveth it unto himself as God.

(03:26:55):
And he did this for our sakes, not for his own,
that originating in him first, the grace of sanctification might
henceforth reach even unto all mankind, just as by Adam's
transgression and dis obedience, as in the founder of the race,
human nature was doomed to die by the fault of

(03:27:17):
one man, the first of men. Hearing the sentence, dust
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. In the
same way, I think, through the obedience and righteousness of Christ,
in so far as he became under the law though
is God, he was himself the lawgiver the Eucharist, and

(03:27:38):
the quickening power of the Spirit might be extended into
men universally. For the Spirit reforms into incorruption that which
was by sin corrupted, and fashions into newness of life
that which was obsolete through apathy and verging to decay.

(03:27:58):
But perhaps you will ask, how then, was he that
is holy by nature sanctified and that through participation? And
in what sense does he who granteth his own spirit
to all who are worthy to receive it, both those
I mean in heaven and those on earth, do himself

(03:28:19):
this service. Such things are indeed hard to fathom or comprehend,
and difficult to explain when you consider the word that
proceeded from God is still devoid of or as only
partially endowed with the humanity so sanctified. But when you
think with wonder on his incomprehensible incarnation and union with

(03:28:43):
the flesh, and have present before your minds the true
God now become man, even as we are men, you
will no longer be surprised, but putting off all perplexity
of mind, and having before your thought the Son who
is at the same time God and man. You will

(03:29:04):
not think that the proper attributes of humanity ought to
be cast aside, even though they be merged in the
person of one who is the son by nature I
mean Christ. For do we not think, for example, that
death is foreign to the nature of the all quickening word.
Still you will say he endure death in the flesh,

(03:29:27):
for the body is mortal, and therefore is said to
die for his own body died. You are quite right
in your idea, and say, well, for of a truth
in his scheme for our redemption. He did give up
his body to die, and again infused his own life
into it, and did not that as rescue himself from

(03:29:50):
the bonds of death by the power he actually has
as God. For he came among us and became man
not for his own sake, but rather he prepared the
way through himself and in himself, for human nature to
escape from death and to return to its original incorruption.

(03:30:11):
Let us, then, by an analogous train of reasoning, find
out the manner of a sanctification. Can we, then, it all,
maintain that the body which is of the earth is
wholly by the law of its own nature, even if
it received not sanctification from God, who is by nature holy.

(03:30:32):
How could this be? For what difference could there then
be any longer between earth born flesh and that substance
which is holy and pure. And if it be true
to say that all rational creatures, and in general everything
that has been called into being in ranks among created things,

(03:30:52):
do not enjoy sanctification as the fruit of their own nature,
but as it were, borrow grace from that which is
by nature holy, would it not be the height of
absurdity to think that the flesh had no need of God,
who is able to sanctify all things, Since then the
flesh is not of itself holy. It was therefore sanctified

(03:31:16):
even in the case of Christ, the Word that dwelt
therein sanctifying his own temple through the Holy Spirit, in
changing it into a living instrument of his own nature.
For the Body of Christ is for this cause holy
and pure, as being in accordance with what I said
just now. In a corporeal sense, as Paul says, the

(03:31:40):
temple of the Word united with it. Therefore, the Holy Spirit,
in the form of a dove, descends upon him from heaven.
And the wise John bore testimony to this that we
might also know that on Christ first, as on the
first fruits of the renewed nature of man man, the

(03:32:01):
Spirit came down in so far as he was man
and so capable of sanctification. We do not indeed affirm
that Christ then became holy as to his flesh when
the Baptist saw the Spirit descending upon him, For he
was holy when he was still unborn and in the
womb yea. And it was said into the Blessed Virgin,

(03:32:24):
the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the most tie shall overshadow thee. Rather, was the
sight given as a sign to the Baptist. We are
of opinion nevertheless, that Christ's flesh was sanctified by the
spirit the Word, which is by nature holy, and proceeded

(03:32:46):
from the Father, anointing his own temple, that is in him,
like all else that is created. And the Psalmist, knowing this,
exclaimed while he gazed upon the human person of the
only being Gotten. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. For

(03:33:09):
when the Son anoints the temple of his body, the
Father is said so to do, for he only works
through the sun. For whatsoever the son doeth is referred
to the Father from whom he springs, as the Father is,
as it were, the root and source of his offspring.

(03:33:29):
And no marvel if he declares that even himself is sanctified,
though by nature he is holy, when the scripture calls
God his father, though he is himself by nature God.
But I think one may well and justly attribute such
expressions without fear of error, to the requirements of human

(03:33:50):
reason and to analogy with human relationships, just as then
he died in the flesh for our sakes as man,
though being by nature, and just as ranking himself among creatures,
and under subjection on account of his manhood, he calls
God his father, though he was lord of all. So

(03:34:13):
he affirms that He sanctifies himself for our sakes, that
when the influence thereof reaches even to us, as through
the first fruits of regenerate human nature in him, we
also may be sanctified in truth, that is in the
Holy Spirit. For the Spirit is the truth, as John says,

(03:34:35):
For the Spirit is not separate from the Son in
substance at any rate, inasmuch as he exists in him
and proceeds through him. He says that he was sent
into the world though he was in it before his incarnation,
for he was in the world though the world knew

(03:34:55):
him not according to the scripture, signifying that the man
in which his mission was given him was by the
unction of the Holy Spirit, in so far as he
was man and was the Angel of Great Council, after
the analogy of the prophetic office. And when he says
that his disciples have been prepared as he was himself,

(03:35:19):
and sent from him to announce to the world the
message of the Gospel from heaven, he declares that they
stand in great need of being sanctified in truth, that
they may be enabled well and strenuously to run the
course of their apostleship to the end end of chapter ten,

(03:35:45):
Chapter eleven of Commentary in the Gospel of John, Book
eleven by Cyril of Alexandria, translated by Reverend Thomas Randall.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter eleven.
That the Sun is naturally one with God his Father,
and that he is in the Father and the Father

(03:36:05):
in him, according to the essential bond and character of
their unity, and that likewise also we ourselves, when we
receive faith in Him, are proved one with each other
and with God, both in a corporeal and in a
spiritual sense twenty twenty one. Neither for these only do

(03:36:26):
I pray, but for them also that believe on me
through their word, that they may all be one, even
as Thou Father art in me and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us, that the
world may believe that Thou didst send me Christ is
as it were, the first fruits of those who are

(03:36:48):
built up into newness of life, and himself the first
heavenly man, For as Paul says, the second Adam is
the Lord from heaven. Therefore, all so John wrote, and
no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended
out of heaven, even the Son of Man, and in

(03:37:10):
close connection with him the first fruits yea. And far
nearer unto him than others, were those who were chosen
to be disciples, and who held the rank of his followers,
who also with their own eyes beheld his glory, ever
attending upon him and in converse with him, and gathering

(03:37:30):
in as it were, the first fruits of his succor
into their hearts. They were then and are after him,
who is far above all others, the head of the
body the Church, the precious and more estimable members thereof. Furthermore,
he praised that on them the blessing and sanctification of

(03:37:51):
this spirit may be sent down from his Father, but
through him wholly, for it could not be otherwise, since
He is the living, loving, and true, and active, and
all performing wisdom and power of Him that begat him.
But that none of those who were not well practiced
attentively to hearken to the inspired writings might thoughtlessly imagine

(03:38:15):
that upon the disciples only he prayed that the spirit
of God might come down, and that he did not
pray for us, who clearly follow after them and live
in an early age of Christianity. The mediator between God
and man, the advocate and high priest of our souls,
is induced, with a view to check beforehand the foolish

(03:38:38):
imaginations of such men to add this passage to what
he had said, namely, neither for these only do I pray,
but them also that believe on me through their word.
For it would have been in a manner absurd that
the sentence of condemnation should fall upon all men through

(03:38:59):
one man, who was the first I mean Adam, And
that those who would not sin at that time, that
is at which the founder of our race transgressed the
commandment given unto him, should wear the dishonorable image of
the earthy. And yet that when Christ came among us,
who was the man from heaven, those who were called

(03:39:22):
through him to righteousness, the righteousness of course, that is
through faith, should not all be molded into his image.
And just as we say that the unlovely image of
the earth is seen in types and in a form
bearing the defilement of sin, and the weakness of death
and corruption, and the impurity of fleshly lust and worldly thoughts,

(03:39:46):
so also, on the other hand, we think that the
image of the heavenly, that is Christ, shines forth in
purity and sincerity, and perfect in corruption and life and sanctification.
It was perhaps impossible for us, who had once fallen
away through the original transgression, to be restored to our

(03:40:08):
pristine glory, except we obtained an ineffable communion and unity
with God. For the nature of men upon the earth
was ordered at the beginning, and no man can attain
to union with God save by communion with the Holy Spirit,
who implants in us the sanctification of his own person

(03:40:30):
and molds anew into his own life, the nature which
was subject to corruption, and so brings back to God
and to his likeness that which was bereft of the
glory that this confers. And the Son is the express
image of the Father, and his Spirit is the natural
likeness of the Son. For this cause, molding Anew as

(03:40:54):
it were, into himself, the souls of men, he stamps
them with the likeness of God and seals them with
the image of the most tie our Lord. Jesus Christ
then prays not for the twelve apostles alone, but rather
for all who were destined in every age to yield

(03:41:14):
to and obey the words that exhort those who here
to receive that sanctification that is through faith, and to
that purification which is accomplished in them through partaking of
the Spirit. And he thought it not right to leave
us in doubt about the objects of his prayer, that
we might learn hereby what manner of men we ought

(03:41:37):
to show ourselves, and what path of righteousness we ought
to tread to accomplish those things that are will pleasing
to him. What then, is the manner of this prayer?
That he says, they may be one, even as Thou
Father art in me and I in thee, that they

(03:41:58):
also may be one in us Us. He asks then,
for a bond of love and concord and peace to
bring into spiritual unity those who believe, so that their unitedness,
through perfect sympathy and inseparable harmony of soul, might resemble
the features of the natural and essential unity that exist

(03:42:21):
between the Father and the Son. But the bond of
love that is in us and the power of concord
will not, of itself altogether avail to keep them in
the same unchangeable state of union as exists between the
Father and the Son, who preserve the manner of their
union in identity of substance. For the one is in

(03:42:44):
fact natural and actual, and is seen in the very
definition of the existence of God, while the other only
assumes the appearance of the unity which is actual. For
how can the imitation be wholly like the reality? For
the semblance of truth is not the same in conception
with truth itself, but presents a similar appearance and will

(03:43:07):
not differ from it, so long as there does not
occur an occasion of distinction. Whenever, then a heretic imagining
that he can upset the doctrine of the natural identity
and consequent unity of the Son with God the Father,
and then to demonstrate and establish his crazy theory, brings

(03:43:28):
forward our own case and says, just as we are
not all one by reason of actual physical identity, nor
yet by the fusion of our souls together, but in
temper and disposition to love God and in a united
and sympathetic purpose to accomplish his will, so also the
son is one with the Father. We shall then reject

(03:43:52):
him wholly and guilty of great ignorance and folly. And
for what reason? Because things superhuman not entirely follow the
analogy of ourselves. Nor can that which has no body
be subject to the laws to which bodies are subject.
Nor do things divine resemble things human. For if there

(03:44:13):
were nothing at all to separate or create a distinction
between us and God, we might then apply the analogy
of our own case to the things which concern God.
But if we find the interval betwixt us to be
something we cannot fathom, why do men sit up the
attributes of our own nature as a rule and standard

(03:44:34):
for God, conceiving of that nature which is not bound
by any law, in the light of our own weaknesses,
and so suffer themselves to be guilty of doing a
thing which is most irrational and absurd. In so doing,
they are constructing the reality from the shadow, and the
truth from that which is conformed to its image, giving

(03:44:57):
the second place of honor to that which has of
right the first, and inferring their conception of that which
is first from that which is second to it. But
that we might not seem to dwell too long on
the discussion of this subject, and so to be straying
away from the text, we must once more repeat the

(03:45:18):
assertion that when Christ brings forward the essential unity which
the Father has with himself and himself also with the Father,
as an image and type of the inseparable fellowship and
concord and unity that exist in kindred souls, he desires
us in some sort to be blended with one another

(03:45:40):
in the power that is of the Holy and consubstantial Trinity,
so that the whole body of the Church may be
in fact one, ascending in Christ through the fusion and
concurrence of two peoples into one perfect whole, For as
Paul says, for he is our Peace whom made both

(03:46:00):
one and break down the middle wall of partition, having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself
of the twain one new man, so making peace, and
might reconcile them both in one body unto God through

(03:46:21):
the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And this was
in fact accomplished those who believed on Christ, being of
one soul one with another, and receiving, as it were,
one heart, through their complete resemblance and piety towards God,
and their obedience in believing, and aspirations after virtue. And

(03:46:46):
I think that what I have said is not wide
of the mark, but is rather requisite and necessary. But
as the meaning of the passage compels us leaving this
subject to enter upon a more profound inquiry, and our
Saviour's words especially incite us there too, even ist Thou

(03:47:06):
Father art in me and I in thee that they
also may be one in us. We must attentively consider
what explanation we must here give, for in what has
gone before, we rightly maintain that the union of believers
in concord of heart and soul ought to resemble the

(03:47:26):
manner of the divine unity and the essential identity of
the Holy Trinity, and their intimate connection with each other.
But in this place we are now desirous of pointing
out a sort of natural unity by which we are
joined into each other, and all of us to God,
not altogether falling short of a kind of physical unity

(03:47:50):
I mean, with each other, even though we are distinguished
by having different bodies, each one of us, as it were,
retiring to his own personal and environment and individuality. For
Peter cannot be Paul, nor be spoken of as such,
or again Paul as Peter, even though both be in

(03:48:11):
fact one after the manner of their union through Christ.
Taking for granted then the physical unity that exists between
the Father and the Son, and also, of course the
Holy Spirit, for we believe and glorify one Godhead in
the Holy Trinity. Let us further inquire in what manner

(03:48:31):
we are proved to be one with each other and
with God, both in a corporeal and a spiritual sense,
the only Begotten then, proceeding from the very substance of
God the Father, and having entirely in his own nature.
Him that begat him became flesh, according to the scripture,
blending himself, as it were, with our nature, by an

(03:48:55):
unspeakable combination and union with this body that is earthy.
And thus he that is God by nature became and
is in truth a man from Heaven, not inspired merely
as some of those who do not rightly understand the
depth of the mystery imagine, but being at the same

(03:49:17):
time God and Man, in order that uniting, as it
were in himself things widely opposed by nature and averse
to fusion with each other, he might enable man to
share and partake of the nature of God. For even
unto us, has reached the fellowship and abiding presence of

(03:49:38):
the Spirit which originated through Christ and in Christ. First,
when he is in fact become even as we are,
that is a man receiving unction and sanctification, though he
is by nature God, insomuch as he proceeded from the
Father himself, sanctifying with his own spirit the temple of

(03:49:59):
his head body, as well as all the creation that
to him owes its being, and to which sanctification is suitable.
The mystery, then, that is in Christ, is become, as
it were, a beginning and a way whereby we may
partake of the Holy Spirit and union with God. For

(03:50:20):
in Him are we all sanctified, after the manner I
have just indicated, in order then that we ourselves also
may join together and be blended into unity with God
and with each other. Although through the actual difference which
exists in each one of us we have a distinct
individuality of soul and body. The Only Begotten has contrived

(03:50:44):
a means which his own due wisdom and the counsel
of the Father have sought out for by one body,
that is his own blessing through the mystery of the Eucharist,
those who believe on him. He makes us of the
same body with himself and with each other. For who
could sunder or divide from their natural union with one another,

(03:51:08):
those who are knit together through His Holy Body, which
is one in union with Christ. For if we all
partake of the one bread, we are all made one body.
For Christ cannot suffer severance. Therefore, also the Church is
become Christ's body, and we are also individually his members,

(03:51:31):
according to the wisdom of Paul. For we being all
of us united to Christ through his Holy body, inasmuch
as we have received Him, who is one and indivisible
in our own bodies, owe the service of our members
to Him rather than to ourselves. And that while Christ
is accounted the head, the Church is called the rest

(03:51:54):
of the body, as joined together of Christian members. Paul
will prove to us by the words, that we may
be no longer children tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of
men in craftiness, after the wiles of error, but speaking
truth in love, may grow up in all things into

(03:52:17):
Him which is the head, even Christ, from whom all
the body fitly framed in, knit together, through that which
every joint supplieth according to the working and due measure
of each several member, maketh the increase of the body
under the building up of itself in love, and that

(03:52:38):
those who partake of His Holy flesh do gain therefrom
this actual physical unity I mean with Christ. Paul once
more bears witness when he says, with reference to the
mystery of Godliness, which in other generations was not made
known unto the sons of men, as it hath now

(03:52:58):
been revealed undo his Holy apostles and prophets in the spirit,
to wit that the gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow
partakers of the promise in Christ. And if we are
all of us of the same body with one another
in Christ, and not only with one another, but also
of course with Him who is in us through his flesh,

(03:53:22):
are we not then all of us clearly one, both
with one another and with Christ. For Christ is the
bond of union, being at once God and Man. With
reference then to the unity that is by the Spirit.
Following in the same track of inquiry, we say once
more that we, all, receiving one and the same Spirit,

(03:53:46):
I mean, the Holy Spirit, are in some sort blended
together with one another and with God. For if we
being many, Christ, who is the Spirit of the Father,
and his own spirit dwells it each one of us severally,
still is the Spirit one and indivisible, binding together the

(03:54:06):
dissevered spirits of the individualities of one and all of us,
as we have a separate being in his own natural
singleness into unity, causing us all to be shown forth
in Him through himself and as one. For as the
power of His Holy flesh maketh those in whom it

(03:54:26):
exists to be of the same body. So likewise also
the indivisible Spirit of God, that abideth in all being one,
bindeth altogether into spiritual unity. Therefore, also the inspired Paul
thus addressed us forbearing one another in love, giving diligence

(03:54:48):
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even
as also ye were called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all, who is over all and through all and

(03:55:08):
in all. For while the Spirit, which is one, abideth
in us, the one God and Father of all, will
be in us, binding together into unity with each other
and with himself. Whatsoever partaketh of the Spirit. And that
we are made one with the Holy Spirit through partaking

(03:55:30):
of it, will be made manifest hereby. For if giving
up the natural life, we have surrendered ourselves holy to
the laws of the Spirit. Is it not henceforth beyond question,
that by denying, as it were, our own lives, and
taking upon ourselves the transcendent likeness of the Holy Spirit,

(03:55:53):
who is joined unto us, we are well nigh transformed
into another nature, so to say, and are become no
longer mere men, but also sons of God and heavenly men.
Through having been proved partakers of the divine nature. We
are all therefore one in the Father and the Son

(03:56:16):
and the Holy Spirit. One I mean both an identity
of mental condition, for I think we ought not to
forget what we said at first, and also in conformity
to the life of righteousness, and in the fellowship of
the Holy Body of Christ, and in the fellowship of

(03:56:37):
the Holy Spirit, which is one, as we just now said.
And of Chapter eleven, Chapter twelve, Part one of commentary
in the Gospel of John Book eleven by Cyril of Alexandria,

(03:56:57):
translated by Reverend Thomas Randall. This Librivok's recording is in
the public domain. Chapter twelve. That the Son is by
nature one with God his Father, though he says that
he received as by way of grace his being one
with the Father twenty two twenty three. And the glory

(03:57:19):
which thou hast given me. I have given unto them
that they may be one, even as we are one,
I in them and Thou in me, that they may
be perfected into one, that the world may know that
thou didst send me, and lovest them, even as thou
lovest me, we say, and therein we are justified. That

(03:57:43):
the only Begotten hath an essential and natural unity with
his Father, insomuch as he was both in the true
sense begotten, and from him proceeds and is in him.
And though he seem in his own person to have
a separate and desay distinct being, yet that he is
accounted by reason of his innate identity of substance as

(03:58:07):
one with the Father. But since in his incarnation on
our behalf, in order to save our souls, he abdicated,
as it were, that place which was his at the beginning,
I mean his equality with God the Father, and appears
to have been in some sort so far removed therefrom

(03:58:28):
as to have stepped outside his invisible glory. For this
is what is meant by the expression he made himself
of no reputation, He that of old, and from the
very beginning was enthroned with the Father. Receives this as
a gift when in the flesh, his earthy and mortal

(03:58:48):
frame and human form, which was actually part of his
nature of necessity, requiring as a gift that which was
his by nature, where he was and is in the
form of the Father and in equality with him. Though
therefore the flesh from a woman's womb that temple, wherewith

(03:59:11):
the Virgin endowed him, was not in any wise consubstantial
with God the Father, nor of like nature with him.
Yet when once received into the body of the Word,
henceforth it was accounted as one with him. For Christ
is one and the Son is one. Even when he

(03:59:33):
became man. In this aspect of his person, he is
conceived of as taken into union with the Father, being
admitted there too, even in the flesh, which originally enjoys
not union with God. And to speak more concisely and clearly,
the Only Begotten says that that which was given unto

(03:59:56):
him was given to his flesh, given two of of course,
wholly by the Father through himself in the Spirit. For
in no other way than this can union with God
be affected. Even in the case of Christ himself, so
far as he manifested himself as and indeed became man.

(04:00:19):
The flesh, that is, was sanctified by union with the Spirit,
the twain coming together in an ineffable way, and so
unconfusedly attains to God the Word, and through him to
the Father inhabit of mind, that is, and not in
any physical sense. This favor and glory, then he says,

(04:00:41):
given unto me, O Father, by THEE, that is the
glory of being one with THEE. I have given unto them,
that they may be one, even as we are one.
For we are made one with each other after the
manner already indicated. And we are also made one with God.

(04:01:05):
And in what sense we are made one with him?
The Lord very clearly explained, and to make the benefit
of his teaching, plain added the words I in them
and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one.
For the Sun dwells in us in a corporeal sense

(04:01:25):
as man, commingled and united with us by the mystery
of the Eucharist, and also in his spiritual sense, as God,
by the effectual working and grace of his own spirit,
building up our spirit into newness of life, and making
us partakers of his divine nature. Christ then is seen

(04:01:48):
to be the bond of union between us and God,
the Father as man, making us as it were his branches,
and as God by nature inherent in his own faith.
For no otherwise could that nature, which is subject to
corruption be uplifted into incorruption, but by the coming down

(04:02:09):
to it of that nature which is high above all
corruption and variableness, lightening the burthen of ever sinking humanity,
so that it can attain its own good, and by
drawing it into fellowship and intercourse with itself, well nigh
extricating it from the limitations which suit the creature, and

(04:02:32):
fashioning into conformity with itself that which is of itself
contrary to it. We have therefore been made perfect in
unity with God the Father through the mediation of Christ.
For by receiving in ourselves, both in corporeal and spiritual sense,
as I said, just now, him that is the Son

(04:02:54):
by nature, and who has essential union with the Father,
we have been glorified in come partakers in the nature
of the most High. When Christ desires us to be
admitted to union with God the Father, he at the
same time calls down upon our nature this blessing from
the Father, and also declares that the power which the

(04:03:17):
grace confers will be a convincing refutation of those who
think that he is not from God. For what ground
will there be any longer for this false accusation? If
of himself he exalts to union with the Father those
who have been brought near to him through faith and
sincere love. When, then, o, Father, they gain union with

(04:03:41):
thee through me, then the world will know that thou
didst send me, that is, that I came to succor
the earth by thy loving kindness, and to work out
the salvation of those who err therein. Besides, nonetheless, he says,
will they know who have partaken of a grace so

(04:04:03):
acceptable that thou lovest them, even as thou lovest me.
For surely he that received into union with himself him
that is man, even as we are that is Christ,
and deemed him worthy of so great love we are
arguing here concerning Christ as man, and gave to us

(04:04:25):
the chance of gaining this blessing. Surely he would speak
of his love as dealt out to us in equal measure.
And let not any attentive hearer be perplexed hereby. For
it is clear beyond dispute that the servant can never
vie with his master, and that the Father will not
give as fully measure of his love to his creatures

(04:04:47):
as to his own son. But we must consider that
we are here looking upon him, that is beloved from everlasting,
as commencing to be loved when he became man. But
therefore he then, as it were, took and received, we
shall find that he took not for himself but for us.

(04:05:08):
For just as when he lived again after subduing the
power of death, he accomplished not his resurrection for himself,
for he is the Word and God, but gave us
this blessing through himself and in himself. For man's nature
was in Christ in its entirety, passed bound by the

(04:05:29):
chains of death. In like manner, we must suppose that
he received the Father's love not for himself, because he
was continually beloved of him from the beginning, but rather
he accepts it at his hands upon his incarnation, that
he may call down upon us the Father's love, just

(04:05:51):
as then we shall be. Nay, we are even now
as in Christ first the first fruits of our race,
made conformable to his resurrection and his glory. Even so
are we, as it were, like him, beloved, but yielding
the supremacy in all things to the only begotten, and

(04:06:14):
justly marveling at the incomparable mercy of God shown towards us,
whose showers as it were upon us the things that
are his, and shares with his creatures what appertains to
himself alone. Twenty four. Father, those whom thou hast given me,

(04:06:36):
I will that where I am, they also may be
with me, that they may behold my glory, which thou
hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. After having prayed for his disciples, or
rather all those who come to him through faith, and
having required of the Father that they may have union

(04:07:00):
with Him and love and sanctification, he proceeds at once
to add these words, showing that to live with him
and to be deemed worthy to see his glory belongeth
only to those who have been already united to the
Father through him, and have obtained his love, which he

(04:07:20):
must be conceived to enjoy from the Father. For we
are loved as sons, according as we are like him,
who is actually by nature his son. For though it
be not dealt out to us in equal measure, yet
as it is a complete semblance of the love the
Father hath for the Son, and is coincident therewith it

(04:07:43):
images for the glory of the Son, I will. Therefore,
he says, o Father, that those who are mine, through
their coming to me, through faith and the light that
proceedeth from thee may be with me and see my glory.
And what language can reveal the greatness of the blessing

(04:08:04):
which is implied in being with Christ himself, For we
shall enjoy ineffable fruition of soul. And I hath not seen,
nor ear heard, nor mind conceived what God hath prepared
for those that love him. For what thing that maketh
for the fullness of joy can be lacking to those

(04:08:26):
who have allotted to them the portion of being with
Christ himself, the Lord of all Yea, the wise and
holy Paul seems to have thought it a thing surpassing conception,
for he says, to depart and be with Christ is
far better. And surely He that preferred this great and

(04:08:47):
acceptable reward to this world's life will bear us true
testimony that great is the blessing of converse with Him,
which he confers on his own. He that giveth all
things to all all men plenteously, and the words spoken
through Him to us will also help to support our
contention for having in himself Christ speaking and revealing the

(04:09:11):
powers of the age to come, he spoke also after
this manner. For the dead shall rise, he says, and
also we that are alive, that are left, shall together
with them, be caught up in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever
be with the Lord. Further, our Lord himself plainly promises

(04:09:35):
us this blessing, saying, I go and will prepare a
place for you. I will come again and will receive
you with myself, that where I am there, ye may
be also with me. For either, without thinking deeply on
the subject, we shall readily conclude that our abiding home

(04:09:56):
in heaven is meant or, following another life line of thought,
we shall suppose that the same place will be allotted
to us as to Christ, that is similar and analogous honors,
according to our likeness to himself. For we shall be
conformed to His glory and shall reign with him according

(04:10:17):
to Holy writ. And he promises that like as he
is wont we shall also be enthroned in the Kingdom
of the heavens, leaving then, for the present, as beyond dispute,
any further proof that we shall be with Christ and
share his glory and be partakers in his kingdom. We
proceed to the other point. I mean the words, that

(04:10:41):
they may behold my glory. Not therefore to the profane
and sinners, nor to those who dishonor the law of God,
would it be given to gaze on the vision of
Christ's glory, but only to the holy and righteous. This
also we may know by the prophet words, let the

(04:11:01):
impious man be taken away, that he see not the
glory of the Lord. And in the gospel message of
our savior Christ, blessed are the peer in heart, for
they shall see God. And who can the peer in
heart be? But they who by union with God through
the Son in the Spirit, have rid themselves of fleshly lusts,

(04:11:26):
and put far away from them the pleasure of the world,
and have, as it were, denied their own lives, and
resigned them wholly to the will of the Spirit. And
who are in all purity and sincerity fellow citizens with Christ,
such as was Paul, who, out of his own exceeding purity,

(04:11:46):
feared not to say, I have been crucified with Christ.
Yet I live, and yet no longer I but Christ
liveth in me. I hear also the voice of another
of the saints, and his head song. Make me a
pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

(04:12:06):
Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not
the Holy Spirit from me. Give me again the comfort
of thy salvation, and establish me with thy free spirit.
He calleth the Spirit the comfort of salvation as giving
men joy, unceasing and perpetual, and affording them guidance through

(04:12:28):
all the changes and chances of the world. For the
Spirit belongeth to the only true savior, that is Christ.
He giveth him many names and adds a pure heart
to his prayer and straightly invokes the Spirit, since they
who were not yet united unto God and made partakers

(04:12:48):
of Christ's blessing through the Spirit, have not a perfect heart,
but rather one that is forward and distraught. To sum
it up, therefore, in brief Christ desired that to his
followers might be granted and special the blessing of being
with Him and beholding his glory, For he says that

(04:13:09):
He was loved even before the foundation of the world.
Hereby clearly showing how ancient was the great mystery of
the redemption He wrought for us, and that the way
of our salvation affected through the mediation of Christ was
foreknown by God the Father. This knowledge was not indeed

(04:13:29):
vouchsafe to men upon earth at the beginning. But the
Law intervened, which was our schoolmaster, to teach us the
divine life, creating in us a dim knowledge through types,
God the Father, keeping for the fitting time the blessing
through the Savior. And this knowledge seems to us of
much avail to show how groundless was the scorn and

(04:13:52):
impious murmuring of the children of Israel, who chose continually
to advocate the Law, even when at the Aca invent
of the Truth, the attense fors to have made of
no account of the types. And it seems very useful
also to controvert the others who think that the counsel
of the Father, which contrived the great mystery of our redemption,

(04:14:14):
was an afterthought. Therefore, also Paul said, concerning Christ, destroying
the contention of those who hold this view, that he
was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was
revealed at the last times. We must observe also that
he says that the Father had given unto him the

(04:14:36):
disciples themselves, as well as divine glory and universal dominion,
not in his character, as by nature God, the Lord
of all, who therefore has kingly dignity inherent in himself,
but rather in so far as he manifested himself as
man who has all things as gifts from God and

(04:14:58):
not as his birthright. For the created world receives everything
from God, and nothing at all that is in it
is its own, though it appeared to possess things that
are good. Twenty five O, Righteous Father, the world knew
THEE not, but I knew THEE, and these knew that

(04:15:20):
Thou didst send me. He here calls the Father righteous,
where he might have used another title, for he is
wholly pure, undefiled, maker and creator of the world, and
whatever else befits the ruler of the universe. It is
very desirable, then, to inquire why Christ entitled him righteous,

(04:15:44):
when he might have given him another name. It will
then be productive to us of much profit if we
do not allow any passages of holy writ to escape us.
When then, Christ desired us to be sanctified by the
faith of his Father, fulfilling himself the character of advocate

(04:16:04):
and mediator, he made his intercession for us in the words,
Holy Father, keep them in Thy truth, meaning by truth
nothing but his own Spirit by whom he secureth our souls,
sealing them in His likeness and edifying them, as it were,
by his ineffable power, so that courage is undaunted, and

(04:16:28):
exhorting us to manifest unrestrained zeal in abundant good works,
and to let nothing stand in our way or avail
to call us back, so that we may hasten eagerly
on our course to do God's pleasure, and may set
it not the manifold inventions of the devil and the
pleasures of the world. For they who have once been

(04:16:50):
sealed by the Holy Spirit, and who receive into their
minds the earnest of His grace, have their hearts fortified,
as they are girded with power from on high. Christ
therefore besought the Father that he would sanctify us in
order that we might enjoy blessings so acceptable. Here too,

(04:17:11):
I think he seems to have some such idea in
his mind, for besides what he said about our need
of sanctification from the Father, he also added these words
concerning us and the glory which thou hast given me.
I have given unto them, that they may be one,

(04:17:31):
even as we are one. For thou lovest them, even
as thou lovest me. And again, Father, those whom thou
hast given me, I will that where I am, they
also may be with me. After thus speaking, he straitly
calls the Father Righteous and with reason, for by his

(04:17:53):
approval and consent, the Son became man, that he might
endow the nature of man, which was created for good works,
with sanctification, through the spirit and union with God, and
with an abiding place in the mansions above there to
live and reign with him. For God did not create

(04:18:14):
man at the beginning to work wickedness, but his nature
was perverted into vice by the impious wiles of the devil,
and was led astray from its guidance of old by
the hand of God. And as it were upheaved from
its foundation, Truly it well beseemed the Righteous Father to
lift up again that human nature which had been cast

(04:18:38):
down through the devil's malice, and to establish in its
former position that which had been unduly debased, and to
rid it of the foulness of sin, and as it
were transformed into its original image, as it had been
at first created. And also to subject the adversary that

(04:18:58):
assaulted man and impiously dare to compass his ruin, that
is satan, to the vengeance that was meet though methinks
any kind of chastisement were slight for him who exhibited
such madness against God. Therefore he saith, O, Righteous Father,

(04:19:19):
for thou art righteous and good and true is thy judgment,
for thou hast sent down me, who am thine own
true son, to the world, to succor and renew it.
But alas for the blindness of the world, he says,
for though thou wert such as I have said, the

(04:19:40):
world knew thee not, for surely they should straightway have
seen the loving kindness of Thy judgment and thy merciful will,
and should have hastened to welcome their savior and have
brought him willing service. Christ then held this discourse with
the Father, off erring up as it were, thanks on

(04:20:02):
our behalf and for our sake, inasmuch as he in
his righteousness had vouchsafed salvation to those who had suffered
through the devil's malice, and had doomed the devil to perdition,
and the world, he says, that is, they who opposed
the divine message of the Gospel through their worldly mindedness,

(04:20:24):
have not learned that the Father is righteous. For the
God of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving,
as Paul says, that the light of the Gospel of
the glory of Christ should not dawn upon them. But
he bore witness to his own disciples that they knew
and understood Him. And hereby he endows them once more

(04:20:47):
with a great and enviable dignity, for he shows them
to be far above all the humiliation and contumeally of
the world through their knowledge of the Father, and clearly
also through their confession that Christ was the Son. When therefore,
at the same time as the charge was brought against

(04:21:07):
the world that it knew not the Father, that is
the true and Living God, he bore witness to the
disciples that they knew him. Is it not henceforth quite
beyond dispute that they were not of the world, now
that they had become Christ, who is above the world,
According to the saying of Paul, through which the world

(04:21:29):
hath been crucified unto me and I unto the world
who saith. Again concerning us and they that are of Christ,
Jesus had crucified the flesh with the passions and the
lust thereof. When we say that the disciples were out
of the world, we do not mean that they were
absent so far as their bodies and position in space

(04:21:52):
were concerned, For they appear as lights in the world,
holding forth the word of life. There mean that while
they still walked upon earth, they were citizens of heaven,
and that, bidding farewell to the lust of the flesh,
and lifting their minds high above all worldly desire, they

(04:22:12):
had attained to an exceeding height of virtue. According to
the saying in the Psalms, the mighty men of God
have been exalted high above the earth. For they who
have reached true manliness through God have put aside the
groveling thoughts of earth and turned their minds heavenward. For this,

(04:22:33):
I think is the meaning of the words exalted the world.
Then he says, O, Father knew not THEE in thy righteousness,
But I know THEE, for I am thy counsel and wisdom.
I regarded not the glory and divine dignity that is
mine by nature, but humbled myself and descended to human poverty,

(04:22:56):
that I might save with Thine approval. The rays that
had fallen away from kinship with us. Though the world
knew not this, yet were the disciples enriched with this knowledge,
and verily comprehended that thou hast sent me, that is,
that I have come to bring Thy purpose to a
glorious issue by rescuing the world which was in peril

(04:23:22):
twenty six. And I made known unto them thy name,
and will make it known that the love wherewith thou
lovest me, may be in them, and I in them.
He says that knowledge of God the Father was at
once in him and in the disciples who attended him,

(04:23:42):
And lest any man should be beguiled into grows extravagances
of opinion and think that his disciples had this knowledge
in an equal degree with himself. Christ at once distinguishes
between them and himself and makes the difference very clear,
showing that he revealed God unto them, while they through

(04:24:04):
him received knowledge for our Lord Jesus. Christ, as he
is the Word and counsel and wisdom of the Father,
intuitively knows what is in him and concerns himself about
his father's most secret thoughts, just as indeed the mind.
If a man knows what is in him, and is

(04:24:25):
nothing that is in our hearts, is hidden from our
human understanding. The inspired disciples, on the other hand, do
not enjoy as the fruit of their own understanding, the
ability to form any conception about God. But through the
light of the Spirit, lay hold of the true meaning
of the mysteries of the Son, and so are enabled

(04:24:48):
to know the Father very appropriately. Then, and to our
prophet Christ added the words, and I made known unto
them thy name, and will make it known. Observe too,
how both persons, I mean, the Father and the Son
effectually work together to make the Godhead comprehensible to men.

(04:25:11):
For the Father makes us wise by revealing to us
his own son, and nonetheless, also the Son makes us
wise by revealing to us the Father. To the blessed Peter. Moreover,
he spake these words about the parts of cesarea called
Philippi blessed art Thou Simon Barjona, For flesh and blood

(04:25:34):
have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which
is in heaven. For the disciple confessed and maintained his
belief that he was Christ, the son of the Living God.
And now he says, concerning himself, I made known unto
them thy name and will make it known, for the

(04:25:56):
only begotton ceases not to reveal unto us the meaning
of the mystery concerning himself, as he revealed it to
his first followers at the beginning. And this he doeth continually,
implanting in each of us the light of the Spirit,
and guiding those that love him to the knowledge of

(04:26:16):
those things which pass their understanding and conception. What his
purpose is and what kind of benefit he will confer
on us. By his declaration that he had already revealed
the Father unto the disciples and would also make him
known to their successors. He pointed out to us when

(04:26:36):
he said that the love wherewith thou lovest me, may
be in them and I in them. For they who
have been able by purity of thought to know God
the Father and have been thoroughly instructed in the knowledge
of the mystery that is in Christ, will wholly gain
and indisputably enjoy the perfect love of the Father lofe

(04:27:00):
like unto the Son. For the Father loves his son
with a perfect love, and Christ also himself abideth in
him through the Holy Spirit, uniting through himself into spiritual
fellowship with God the Father, him that knows him, and
as intravail as it were, with the unperverted words of

(04:27:24):
divine truth, he makes known to us the name of
the Father by declaring to us himself, who is his son?
For hand in hand with the knowledge of Him that
was begotten will beclosely link the knowledge of Him that
begat him. Just as the converse is also true. And

(04:27:45):
if the saying is true and to be accepted without question,
that the conception of the son is necessarily implied in
that of the Father, and so also the conception of
the Father and that of the Son, and the knowledge
of one is contained in the knowledge of the other.
How can the Son anymore be a creature, as some

(04:28:08):
impious men say. For if a man speak of the son,
he thereby instills the idea of a father in his hearers,
while if he were to call him a creature, he
leads them on to the conception of a maker. But
as the Son calls God Father, not maker or creator,

(04:28:29):
he is clearly conscious that he is himself, in fact,
a son. Therefore the Son is deemed and is a son,
and not a creature, as they say, which would imply
that he that made him was his creator and not
his father, and the force of the argument will be

(04:28:49):
no wit damaged by the fact that the title of
child or son is accounted human for the attribute which
peculiarly and especially belonged to him, as being by nature
the son of God is Father. These were brought down
even to us, Holy writ often so applying them on occasion,

(04:29:10):
and at times investing those who are sons by adoption
with the attributes of a son by nature. And it
is no marvel if we also have obtained the title
of son, and that God has thus chosen to honor
us in his loving kindness, as he has even called
those gods who are avowedly sprung from the earth. End

(04:29:34):
of Chapter twelve, Part one, Chapter twelve, Part two of
Commentary in the Gospel of John, Book eleven by Cyril
of Alexandria, translated by Reverend Thomas Randall. This LibriVox recording
is in the public domain. Eighteen one two. When Jesus

(04:29:59):
had had spoken these words, he went forth with his
disciples over the brook Hedron, where was a garden, into
the which he entered himself and his disciples. Now Judas
also which betrayed him, knew the place for Jesus oftentimes
resorted thither with his disciples, after having enlightened his disciples

(04:30:22):
and turned them by suitable instruction to all those things
that make for righteousness, and after having bidden them choose
the life which is most spiritual and pleasing to God,
and besides also promising himself to fulfill them with spiritual graces,
and saying that blessings from the Father above would be

(04:30:43):
showered down upon them. Jesus goes forth readily, not shrinking
from the time of his suffering, nor yet fearing to
die for all men. For what likelihood could there be
that he should do this, who was brought face to
face with suffering, that by his own agony he might

(04:31:04):
purchase exemption for all, when too, for this purpose only
he had come, that he might by his own blood
reconcile the whole earth to God the Father. It is
true that often when the Jews chose to rage against him,
and attempted in their fury to stone him, he escaped

(04:31:24):
by his divine power, rendering himself invisible and withdrawing himself
with the greatest ease from the reach of those who
sought him, For he was not willing yet to suffer
the fitting time not yet calling him there too. But
as the time had now come, Christ left the house

(04:31:44):
where he had instructed his disciples in the mystery, and
came to the place whither he himself, the savior of
all mankind, was wont often to resort together with his
holy disciples. He did this too, from a wish to
make it easy for the traitor to find him. The
place was a garden, typifying the paradise of old, for

(04:32:08):
in it, as it were, all places were summed up,
and in it was consummated our return to man's ancient condition.
For in paradise the troubles of mankind had their origin.
While in the garden began Christ suffering, which brought us
deliverance from all evil that had befallen us in time past.

(04:32:32):
Three Judas, then, having received the band of soldiers and
officers from the chief priests and pharisees, cometh thither with
lanterns and torches and weapons. Very appropriately. Then, the inspired
evangelist says that Jesus was in the garden when no
number of men nor any crowd were congregating together or

(04:32:57):
contemplated coming to his succor, and that he was alone
with his disciples that he might display in all its nakedness,
the great folly of the thoughts the traitor harbored in
his heart. For our conscience is very apt to create
alarms in us and torment us with the pangs of

(04:33:17):
cowardice whenever we are bent on any unholy deed. Such
I think was the state of the traitor's mind when
he brought in his train the cohort, armed with weapons
of war, together with the officers of the Jews, as
though to capture a notorious malefactor. For in all likelihood

(04:33:39):
he knew that he could never take him unless he
chose to suffer and encounter death by his own will.
But he had his understanding perverted by his unholy enterprise,
and was, as it were, intoxicated by his own excessive audacity.
And so he did not see whether he was tending,

(04:34:01):
nor perceived that he was attempting what it was beyond
his power to perform. For he thought that by the
multitude of his followers and by the hand of man,
he could prevail over the divine power of Christ. And
be not amazed that the miserable man should be afflicted
with such madness and be convicted of conceiving so ridiculous

(04:34:24):
an idea. For when he gave up the rudder of
his mind into another's hand and sold to the devil
the power over his desires, he was wholly possessed by
his madness. For the devil leapt upon him once for all,
and nestled in his bosom like a poisonous snake. Surely

(04:34:46):
one may well wonder if the trader's fall, and find
in it cause for ceaseless weeping. He that had just
been supping with Christ, and shared his food and partaken
at the holy table, and equally with the rest, had
had the benefit of his words exhorting unto righteousness, and

(04:35:06):
had heard him declare plainly that one of you shall
betray me. So to say, leapt up from his seat
at that very table, and straightway, after reclining with him
at the board, hurried off to the Jews to earn
the reward of his treachery. He gave no thought to
Christ's inspiring words, entertained not the desire of future glory,

(04:35:31):
and paid no heed to the honor given unto him.
In short, preferred before the perfect blessedness, which has no end.
A mean and paltry sum of money and proved himself.
The net and snare were with the devil entrapped Christ,
the prime mover and fellow worker, with the Jews and

(04:35:52):
their iniquity against God. The following thought, too, moves my
scorn in no small degree. The crowd that attended the
traitor when they made their attack upon Christ, carried lanterns
and torches. They would seem to have guarded against stumbling
in the dark and falling into pitfalls unawares, for such

(04:36:15):
accidents often happened in darkness. But alas for their blindness,
the miserable men, in their gross ignorance, did not perceive
that they were stumbling on the stone concerning which God
the Father says, behold, I lay in sighing, a stone
of stumbling and a rock of offense. They who were,

(04:36:37):
on occasion seized with fear of a small pitfall, saw
not that they were rushing into the depths of the
abyss and the very bowels of the earth. And they
who were suspicious of the twilight of evening took no
account of perpetual and endless night. For they who impiously
plotted against the light of God, that is Christ, were

(04:37:00):
doomed to walk in darkness and the dead of night,
as the prophet says, and not only so, but also
to vanish away into outer darkness, there to give an
account of their impiety against Christ, and to be consigned
to bitter and endless punishment. Four five six. Jesus, therefore,

(04:37:24):
knowing all the things that were coming upon him, went
forth and saith unto them whom seek ye, They answered him,
Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he.
And Judas, also, which betrayed him, was standing with them.
When therefore he said unto them, I am he. They

(04:37:46):
went backward and fell to the ground. During the night,
the traitor appeared, bringing with him the servants of the Jews,
together with the band of soldiers. For as we said
just now, he thought that he would take him even
against his will, trusting in the number of his followers,
and believing that he would find him lingering in the

(04:38:09):
spot whither he was wont to resort, and that day
had not yet dawned to allow of his going forth elsewhere,
but that night would be still detaining the Lord in
the place of his lying down. Christ then, in order
to show that Judas in holding either view had been
regarding him as a mere man, and that his plans

(04:38:31):
were vain. Anticipates their attack and goes out readily to
meet them, showing thereby that he well knew what Judas
presumed to attempt, and that although it were easy for him,
through his foreknowledge, to escape unawares, he went of his
own will to meet his sufferings, and was not by

(04:38:52):
the malice of any man involved in peril. To the
intent that the scorn of philosophers among the Greeks might
not be moved thereby, who in their levity make the
cross a stumbling block and a charge against him, and
that Judas, the murderer of his lord, might not be
highly exalted against Christ. Thinking that he had prevailed over

(04:39:16):
him against his will, he inquires of those who come
to capture him, whom they have come in search of,
not because he did not know, for how could that be,
but that he might thereby prove that those who were
for that very reason come and were gazing upon him,
were not able so much as to recognize him of

(04:39:38):
whom they were in search, and so confirm us in
the true conviction that he would never have been taken
if he had not of his own will gone to
those who sought him. For observe that when he openly
asks whom seek ye, they did not at once rejoin.
We are here to take thee who thus speaketh. But

(04:40:01):
they reply as though he were not yet present or
before their eyes, and say, Jesus of Nazareth. But perhaps
some may reply the Roman soldier perhaps knew not Jesus,
and the servants of the Jews share their ignorance. We
answer that any such suggestion is groundless, For how could they,

(04:40:24):
who were selected to the priesthood fail to know him
who was in their power continually when he was teaching
daily in the temple? As our Savior himself says, but
that no one should trust in arguments of this sort
and misapprehending the truth. The inspired evangelist, foreseeing this, is

(04:40:45):
impelled to add that with the soldiers and the servants
was standing Judas also, which betrayed him. Then how could
the trader fail to recognize the Lord? You might answer
that it was night and dark, and therefore not easy
to see him of whom they were in search. How

(04:41:05):
worthy our admiration is the writer of the book in
that not even so small a point as this has
escaped his notice, for he has said that when they
came into the garden, they had lanterns and torches in
their hands. A solution therefore is found to this curious inquiry,
and the divine dignity of Christ is seen. Who brought

(04:41:28):
himself to those who were seeking him, though they could
no longer of themselves recognize him. In order to prove
that they were so blinded as not to be able
to recognize him, he says plainly, I am He, and
that he might show the fruitlessness of numbers and the
utter incapacity of all human power to affect anything against

(04:41:53):
the ineffable power of God, by merely addressing them in
mild and courteous language. He bows down to the earth
the multitude of those who sought him, that they might
be taught how powerless to endure his threatenings is the
nature of created beings, unable as it is to bear
one word of God, and that spoken in kindness, according

(04:42:18):
to the word of the Psalmist, terrible art thou, and
who shall withstand thy wrath? That which happened to a
portion and befel those who came to take him, is
as it were symbolical of the humbling of the entire race. Yea,
the prophet Jeremiah laments for the Jews, saying, the house

(04:42:40):
of Israel is fallen. There is none to raise it up.
That which here happened as a type of what inevitably
comes to pass in a similar case. For it teaches
us that he is altogether doomed to fall who practices
iniquity against Christ. Eight nine Again, therefore he asked them

(04:43:04):
whom seek ye, and they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered,
I told you that I am He. If therefore ye
seek me, let these go their way, that the word
might be fulfilled which he spake. Of those whom thou
hast given me, I lost not one. He asked them

(04:43:27):
again a second time, of set purpose, that he might
show the extent of the blindness he had put in
their minds, For they were robbed of their right judgment,
and had their minds, as it were, deranged by their impiety,
and knew not that they were speaking to him whom
they sought. Christ indeed proved by his actions the truth

(04:43:50):
of what he professed. I am, he says, the good Shepherd.
The good Shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep.
Christ then saves the Apostles, as with a shield, and
bearing the brunt of the danger, himself, advances to those
who were come to lead him to death, sent thereunto,

(04:44:12):
that is, by the high priests and Pharisees. When they
answered Jesus of Nazareth to his question, whom have ye
come to take and bind in the bonds of death,
he pointed to himself, and wellnigh, accusing them of delay,
bade them take him away and let the rest go free.

(04:44:34):
For it was necessary that one should die for all,
whose life was an equivalent for the lives of all men,
that he might be lord of both the dead and
the living. For other reasons, too, it were wholly impossible
to accept the opinion of some that the deaths of
the Holy Apostles themselves also resulted in the overthrow of

(04:44:57):
death and corruption, when they must themselves be reckoned among
those who have been delivered from death and corruption, and
with great reason, for their nature is one with ours,
and over us death had dominion. It was necessary then,
that alone, and first of all, the son of the

(04:45:18):
Living Father, should give over his own body to death
as a ransom for the lives of all men, that
by connection with the life of the Word, which was
united with itself, it might so prepare the way that
our mortal bodies might be enabled, henceforth also to triumph
over the bondage of death. For the Lord is the

(04:45:40):
first fruits of them that are asleep, and the first
born from the dead, and so by his own resurrection
makes smooth for those who come after him the way
to incorruption. He therefore withdraws the disciples from the peril
of the moment, as well, knowing that the conflict will
was in special need for himself, and showing thereby that

(04:46:04):
our redemption was the work of none other save only
that nature which is supreme over the universe. The wise
evangelist turns to a clear proof of the general and
universal mercy which will be shown to all who come
to him through faith. This partial and special care here

(04:46:25):
manifested to those who were with him, For he says,
he procured that his disciples should be suffered to go
their way, that the Word might be fulfilled, which he
spake of those whom thou gavest me I lost not one.
For how can there be any question that he will
show mercy on them that come after the disciples. For

(04:46:47):
where care is shown in small things, how can there
be neglect and greater? And is it likely that he
who showed mercy to a mere handful will pay no
heed to a multitude whom no man can number. For
the multitude of believers is exceeding great. You must receive, then,

(04:47:07):
the partial as a type of the universal. And you
can easily perceive by his refusal to put his disciples
in any danger at all? What and how great will
be his wrath against his murderers? For does he not
altogether hate whatever opposes his will? Can there be any
further doubt that severe and endless punishment awaits those who

(04:47:31):
do the things which are hateful to him? Ten Simon Peter, therefore,
having a sword, drew it and struck the high Priest's
servant and cut off his right ear. Now the servant's
name was Malchus. What was it some one may say
that induced the inspired evangelist to make mention of this

(04:47:55):
and point out to us the disciple using a sword
contrary to his wont against those who came to take
Christ and stir to a hotter and more precipitate fit
of wrath than was meet, and Christ thereupon rebuking him.
This narrative may perhaps seem superfluous, but it is not so,

(04:48:18):
for He has here given us a pattern expressly for
our learning. For we shall know from what took place
here to what lengths our zeal and piety towards Christ
may proceed without reproach, and what we may choose to
do in conflicts such as this without stumbling on something
displeasing to God. For this typical instance, forbids us to

(04:48:42):
draw a sword or lift up stones against any man,
or to strike our adversaries with his stick, when through
our piety towards Christ, we are in conflict with them,
for our weapons are not of the flesh, as Paul saith.
But we ought rather to treat even our murderers with

(04:49:02):
kindness when occasion precludes our escape. For it is far
better for other men to be corrected for their sins
against us by Him that judges righteously, than that we
ourselves should make excuses for our blood guiltiness, making piety
our plea. Besides, we may call it most irrational to

(04:49:24):
honor by the death of our persecutors, Him who to
set men free from death. Himself cheerfully suffered death. And
herein we must surely follow Christ himself. For if he
had been called to die perforce and of necessity, as
unable by his own power to repel the assault of

(04:49:44):
his foes, who were invincible through the number of the
servants of the Jews, there might perhaps have been nothing
unreasonable in those who chose to love him, succoring him
with all their might and showing the utmost courage in
order to rescue him from the peril into which he
had been brought by the impiety of his foes against

(04:50:05):
his will. But since being truly God, he was able
to destroy his adversaries root and branch, and at the
very outset of the conflict, so to say, had given
them such a token of his might as by a
single word, and that spoken in courtesy, to lay them

(04:50:26):
low on the earth, for they all fell backward. How
could it be right for us, in unbridled and inordinate wrath,
to willfully and recklessly proceed to lanes that he did not,
though he might have done so with the utmost ease.
We find also traces of the same spirit elsewhere recorded

(04:50:46):
by the Holy evangelist. For our Savior once came to
a village bordering on Judea to lodge there. It belonged
to the Samaritans, and when he was drawing nigh into it,
they roughly drew him away. The disciples were enraged thereat
and came to him and said, Lord, wilt thou that

(04:51:07):
we bid fired to come down from heaven and consume them?
And the Savior answered them, let them alone, know ye
not that I can beseeche my father, and he shall
even now send me twelve legions of angels. For he
came not as God to use his own innate power
against those who vented their fury upon him, but rather

(04:51:31):
to school us to patient forbearance unto every affliction, and
to be himself a type of the most perfect and
passionless tranquility. Therefore also he said, learn of me, for
I am meek and lowly in heart. The purpose of Peter,
in drawing his sword against the adversaries, does not trespass

(04:51:54):
outside the commandment of the law. For the law bade
us requite unreproved evil foot for foot, hand for hand,
wound for wound, stripe for stripe for with what other object.
Did they come armed with swords and staves, equipped with armor,

(04:52:14):
and banded together in numbers, then to wage such a
conflict as they thought the disciples would wage in their extremity,
For that they brought swords and staves. The Savior plainly
tells us when he says elsewhere to them, are ye
come out as against a robber with swords and staves
to seize me? I sat daily in the temple teaching,

(04:52:37):
and he took me not. The passion of Peter therefore
was lawful and accorded with the old enactments. But our
Lord Jesus Christ, when he came to give us teaching
superior to the law and to reform us to his
meekness of heart, rebukes those passions which are in accordance

(04:52:59):
with the law as incompatible with the perfect accomplishment of
true virtue. For a perfect virtue consists not in requital
of like for like, but is rather seen in perfect forbearance.
Some one may now perhaps raise the question and ask
himself why did Peter carry a sword? We reply that

(04:53:23):
the duty of repelling the assaults of evil doers, according
to the law, brought the need of a sword. For
if one of the disciples had chosen to strike the
innocent with a sword, how could the same issue have
been tried. It is likely too that the Holy Disciples,
as they were hurrying at midnight from their place of

(04:53:45):
rest and expected to find woods and gardens in their way,
were suspicious of the attacks of wild beasts, For of
these Judaea was very fertile. Perhaps you may rejoin, But
what need had the disciples of a sword? Was not
Christ sufficient for them in time of peril? And could

(04:54:06):
not he scare away wild beasts and release them from
all fear? On that account, if you say this, you say, well,
for Christ can do all things. But we shall find that,
though Christ might have affected it otherwise, the disciples continued
to live after the manner usual to men. For it

(04:54:26):
must we not suppose that Christ was able to turn
stones into bread, and out of nothing to create money
sufficient to defray their expenses. Still they fetched loaves and
carried a purse, taking alms of those who brought them.
And when Christ wished to cross the sea and their
company they entered into a ship. Though he might have

(04:54:49):
walked over the billows if he had been so minded.
It is fruitless then to cavil at the disciples, for
following the ordinary usages of mankind. Peter strikes off the
right ear of the servant, and his action points as
in a figure, to the inability of the Jews to
hear aright, For they would not hearken to Christ's words.

(04:55:13):
They rather, so to say, honored the left ear, obeying
simply the dictates of their own misguided prejudice, deceiving and
being deceived. According to the Scripture, for even when walking
in the law ordained them of old, they turned to
doctrines the precepts of Men eleven. Jesus therefore said, unto Peter,

(04:55:37):
put up thy sword into its sheath. The cup which
the Father hath given me, shall I not drink it.
Christ's bidding is fraught with the enactment of life according
to the Gospel and the spirit, not of the mosaic
law revealed to the men of old time, but of
the dispensation of Christ, which so dissuades us from using

(04:56:00):
the sword or offering resistance. That if a man choose
to smite us on one cheek, and then to demand
the other to be smitten, we ought to turn to
him the other, also cutting out as it were by
the roots the human weakness of our hearts. But he says,
in effect, even if no law had been laid down

(04:56:22):
by me concerning forbearance under evil, thy mind, Peter has
failed to reason aright, and thou hast made an attempt
altogether unsuited to the occasion. For when it was the
decree and pleasure of God the Father, that I should
drink this cup that is willingly undergo, as it were,

(04:56:44):
the deep sleep of death, in order to overthrow death
and corruption, How then can I shrink from it, when
so great blessings are certain to result to the race
of man through my drinking it. The foregoing words well
explained the drift of the passage before us. There is
another passage, also of similar purport. Our Lord Jesus Christ,

(04:57:09):
wishing to confirm the disciples in faith and to remove
in anticipation the stumbling block of his precious Cross, once
said to them in his discourse, as they were halting
on the way, Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and
the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners,

(04:57:29):
and they shall crucify him and shall kill him. And
the third day he shall be raised up and the
inspired Peter, not considering the benefits of his death, but
only regarding the ignominy of the cross, said, be it
far from thee Lord, this shall never be unto THEE.

(04:57:51):
What answered Christ, get thee behind me, Satan, thou art
a stumbling block unto me, For thou mindest not the
things of God, but the things of men. For he
that savoreest the things that be of God makes it
his end, and object to said it not worldly honors,

(04:58:11):
and to account as nothing the loss of reputation among men,
so long as the good of his vellow men is achieved.
Thereby for love, the apostle says, seeketh not his own.
But he who is absorbed in the contemplation of the
things of men, deems the loss of the paltry honors

(04:58:32):
of earth intolerable, and looks only to his own advantage,
and feels no sympathy with the losses of others. Just
as in that passage, Christ called Peter an offense unto him,
though he was not wont so to be, and though
he spoke out of love, which yet could not escape blame,

(04:58:52):
because he looked only at the death on the cross,
and not at the benefits to result therefrom Peter tried
so far as in him lay to prevent that which
had been resolved and determined for the salvation of all men.
So also here we see him doing the same by
his passion and impetuous act with his sword. He is

(04:59:15):
once more rebuked, not merely by the words put up
thy sword into its sheath, but according to another evangelist,
Christ added, for all they that take the sword shall
perish with the sword. And to repeat once more what
we said before. Seeing that his capture was affected by

(04:59:36):
his own will and did not merely result from the
malice of the Jews, how could it be right to
repel or thwart in any way, and with a sword too,
the bold attack of his combined foes and the impious
conspiracy of the Jews. He says that God the Father
gave unto him the cup that is death, though it

(04:59:59):
was prepared for him by the obstinate hatred of the Jews,
because it would never have come to pass if he
had not suffered it for our sakes. Therefore, also Christ
said to boasting Pilot, thou wouldst have no power against me,
except it were given thee from above. When Christ says

(05:00:21):
that power was given Pilot from above. He refers to
his own willingness to suffer death and the consent of
his father in Heaven. End of Chapter twelve, Part two,
Chapter twelve, Part three of commentary in the Gospel of John,

(05:00:44):
Book eleven Pasiril of Alexandria, translated by Reverend Thomas Randall.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain twelve thirteen fourteen.
So the band and the chief captain and the officers
of the Jews seized Jesus and bound him and led
him away to Hones. First, for he was father in

(05:01:07):
law to Caiaphas, which was high priest that year. Now
Caiaphas was he which gave counsel to the Jews that
it was expedient that one man should die for the people.
Now that all obstacles had been overcome, and Peter had
put away his sword, and Christ had, as it were,
surrendered himself to the hand of the Jews. Though he

(05:01:30):
need not have died, and it was easier for him
to escape. The soldiers and servants, together with their guide,
give way to cruel rage and are transported with the
ardor of victory. They took the lord who gave himself
up wholly to their will, and put fetters upon him.
Though he came to us to release us from the

(05:01:52):
bondage of the devil, and to loose us from the
chains of sin, and they bring him to Anus, who
was the fat law of Caiphas. Whence we may conclude
that he was the prime mover and contriver of the
iniquity against Christ, and that the traitor, when he received
his hire, obtained from him the band to take Christ.

(05:02:14):
He is therefore taken away to him first of all,
for the Jews were bent on showing to us that
that was indeed truly spoken of them, which the prophet
put into their mouths, Let us bind the righteous man,
for he is useless unto us. Christ was indeed, to
the Jews useless, not because of his own nature, but because,

(05:02:38):
as they were prone to love sin and pleasure, he
seemed to bring them no good thing when he expounded
to them a righteousness exceeding the law, and set before
them without concealment, the knowledge of the pleasure of the
God that loves virtue, when the Law pointed out no
such way, but rather, in the darkness of allegory, feebly

(05:03:01):
and indirectly indicated what might be a prophet to its hearers.
Just as then the sunlight is useless to those whose
sight is injured and brings them no prophet because the
disease prevents it. And just as to people in bad health,
healthy food sometimes seems the most useless, though it used

(05:03:22):
to bring the health so much desired. So likewise to
the Jews, the Lord seems useless, though he was the
prince of salvation, for they refused to be saved. They
sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Now Caiaphas
was he which gave counsel to the Jews, that it

(05:03:44):
was expedient that one man should die for the people.
The sacred and holy victim. Then, that is Christ was
captured by the malice of Annes, and the service of
his hirelings, and ensnared within the net. Was left to
him that compassed and instigated this slaughter of the innocent.

(05:04:04):
This was Caiphas, and he was adorned with the office
of the priesthood. And by his questions he seems to
have begun the shedding of blood. As he also was
convicted of having originated the impious enterprise. He receives Jesus bound,
and as the fruit of his counsel and impious designs,

(05:04:25):
the miserable man committed the most impious act that has
ever been committed. For what can be more grievous than
inn piety against Christ? Fifteen and Simon. Peter followed Jesus,
and so did the other Disciple. While the other disciples,

(05:04:45):
it seems, were panic stricken and fled from the present
wrath of the murderers. Peter, who was always moved there
too by more fervent passion, clings to his love for Christ,
and follows him at the peril of his life, and
watches the issue of events, the other disciple accompanying him

(05:05:05):
and with like courage sustaining a similar resolution. This was John,
the truly pious writer of this divine work, for he
calls himself that of the Disciple, without giving himself a
definite name, fearing to seem boastful and abhorring the appearance
of being better than the rest. For the crowning achievements

(05:05:27):
of virtue, if manifested by any of the righteous, yet
are never blazoned forth to the world by their own mouth,
For it very ill beseems a man too in praise
rather out of his own mouth than the conversation of
other men. In the Book of Proverbs, it is written,
let another man praise Thee, and not thine own mouth.

(05:05:51):
A stranger, and not thine own lips. Fifteen. Now that
disciple was known under the high priy Priest, and entered
in with Jesus into the court of the High Priest.
The apostle shows great forethought in condescending to mention this fact,
and does not scruple to enter into detail where it

(05:06:13):
is profitable for us. For as he was about to
set down in order in his book what was done
and said in the palace of the High Priest, he was,
as it were, compelled to show us how he was
able to enter there with Christ. For he says he
was known unto the high Priest. He enters therefore without

(05:06:35):
hindrance his knowledge of the leader of the people, For
he is not thought proper to say friendship, allowing him
free entrance within the doors, In order then that he
might convince us that he did not compile his account
of what took place in the palace from information drawn
from others, but that he himself saw and heard what passed.

(05:06:59):
He has given us th Us this most useful explanation
of his knowledge of the high priest. Sixteen. But Peter
was standing at the door without so the other disciple,
which was known unto the high Priest, went out and
spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter.

(05:07:21):
Peter did not lag behind from any lack of fervor
of heart, but only because the vigilance of the damsel
at the gate made entrance perilous for those with whom
she had no previous acquaintance. And though it might not
have been difficult for a man to push a woman aside,
yet it might have involved a charge of unruly behavior.

(05:07:43):
The disciple, therefore, though in great distress of mind, was
compelled to stay without till the other, seeing that he
was much grieved thereat, brought him in with himself by
speaking to the maiden presiding at the door, and asking
as a favor that his companion, in jealous fervor, might
accompany him. Seventeen. The maid therefore that kept the door

(05:08:09):
saith unto Peter, art thou also one of this man's disciples.
He saith I am not as Christ had already foretold
of Peter, that he would thrice deny our Savior Christ,
and that before the cock crew his faith would fail.
The inspired evangelist relates in detail where and how the

(05:08:31):
prophecy was fulfilled. The maid seated at the door, then
inquires of him whether he was not one of the
number of the disciples of Him who was undergoing the
unjust trial. Peter denies it and parries the question as
though it were a charge, saying, I am not not

(05:08:52):
fearing it all to be taken, or shrinking from proclaiming
the truth, but disregarding and making light of enduring any
kind of evil against his will in comparison with being
with Christ. His transgression then proceeds from love, and his
denial has its roots in the love of God, not

(05:09:13):
indeed proceeding from any just reasoning, but at any rate
testifying to the fervor of his desire to be with Christ.
Eighteen Now the servants and the officers were standing there,
having made a fire of coals, for it was cold,
and they were warming themselves, and Peter also was with them,

(05:09:36):
standing and warming himself. Peter, having passed inside the door,
and finding himself encircled by the servants, affects to do
what they do, though, bowed down with grief and with
an intolerable burden of agony at heart, that he might
not be convicted by his despondent and sorrowful countenance of

(05:09:58):
feeling sympathy with the man who was on trial, and
be cast out from the doors which contained all he loved.
For it is quite incredible that the Disciple should have
been so carnally minded as to seek out a means
of appeasing the chill of winter when he was thus
heavy with grief. For if he might have enjoyed greater

(05:10:20):
luxuries than this, he could not have borne to do so.
While Christ was thus afflicted. He intentionally models his behavior
on the apathy of the attendants, and, as though he
had no inducement to despondency, shakes off the chill of
winter in order that he might create the belief that
he was one of the inmates of the house, and

(05:10:42):
might thus for the future escape answering any further questions
with a denial. But the word of the Savior could
not be falsified, for he foretold to the Disciple what he,
as God knew would certainly happen. Nineteen. The High Priest

(05:11:02):
therefore asked Jesus of his disciples and of his teaching.
A teacher of the people learned in the law, one
of those on whom the divine bidding lays the duty
judge ye righteous judgment. After having taken the Lord as
though he had been a notorious robber by a band

(05:11:24):
of armed soldiers and a number of impious officers, asks
him of his disciples and of his doctrine, showing thereby
that he was in want of charges to bring against him,
for the man who was now on trial knew no sin.
He asks him about his doctrine to elicit from him,

(05:11:45):
whether it accorded with the Mosaic law or coincided and
concurred with the old dispensation, And what purpose his disciples
had implanted in their hearts, whether to submit to be
guided by ancient cost wisdoms, or to practice any strange
and novel kind of worship. He did this in malice,

(05:12:06):
for he supposed that Christ would make an outspoken attack
on the law, and that by pleading for the rejection
of the Mosaic dispensation, he would excite the Jews to
embittered and furious revilings against himself, so that he might
in the future appear to be paying a just penalty
for deliberately fighting against God, for to enter the list

(05:12:29):
against the divine commandments. If any mere human being were
convicted of any word or deed with that intent, were
to declare oneself an open enemy of God. And they
were treating Christ as a mere man, and thought that
they were doing well to chastise the Lord of the
Law for the transgression of the law, not remembering him

(05:12:52):
that said, impious is he that saith unto a king?
Thou art a lawbreaker? Twenty Jesus answered him, I have
spoken openly to the world. I ever taught in the
synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together,
and in secret spake I nothing. It were fruitless labor.

(05:13:17):
Christ says, to search out as obscure which is universally known,
And how can it be seemly where full knowledge is present,
to set up a pretense of ignorance. This is what
Christ seems to us to say, with the object of
releasing himself from the charges that had been fabricated and

(05:13:37):
maliciously devised against him by the malice of the leaders
of the people. But I think also that there is
a suggestion of another meaning. For he says, I have
spoken openly to the world, that is to say, the
utterances given to you by the mediation of Moses come

(05:13:58):
in types and shadows, and do not teach expressly the
will of God, but rather create a vision of the
actual truth beyond themselves, and wrapped up in the obscurity
of the letter, do not completely reveal the knowledge of
those things which are needful for us. I have spoken
openly to the world, and apart from riddles and the shadow,

(05:14:22):
as it were, of the form of that which is good,
I set before you the right and pointed out the
straight path of piety towards God, without any tortuous turnings.
I spake to the world, not, he says, to the
one nation of the Israelites. For if the things that

(05:14:42):
are of me are not yet known throughout the whole world,
they will be so in due season. I ever, taught
in synagogues, we can scarcely fail to see what he means. Here.
He reminds those of the Jews who were in his presence. Methinks, however,
reluctant of prophecy which thus spoke concerning him, For what

(05:15:06):
said the divine Isaiah, putting the words in Christ's mouth.
I have not spoken in secret in a dark place
of the earth. And again I have spread out my
hands all the day unto a disobedient and rebellious people.
For what else can not speaking in secret in a

(05:15:27):
dark place mean? But giving discourses openly and speaking in
places where there is no small concourse of hearers very
well and appropriately. He brings to their recollection the saying
of the prophet, that they might learn that they are
judging impiously that Messiah, who was the due fulfillment of

(05:15:48):
their hopes, for to the Jews, belonged the promise. As
Paul says twenty one, Why askest thou me, Ask them
that have heard me what I spake unto them? Behold,
these know the things which I said. He rebukes those

(05:16:08):
learned in the law, for that they themselves sinned against
the law in which they took pride, For before he
had been condemned, they passed premature sentence upon him, and
yet busied themselves in seeking for errors on his part. Why, then,
he says, dost thou question me and call on me

(05:16:29):
to answer, who have already endured your attack and had
punishment allotted me before conviction. Or you may put another
construction on what he said. Those who already hate me
and receive with such extreme dishonor whatever I tell them
of the things that are mine, would not perhaps shrink

(05:16:50):
from proclaiming what is faults. Learn then from the lips
of others. The search for witnesses would not be at
all difficult, for these heard my words. Someone may perhaps
imagine that he that knowed the hearts and reigns indicated
some of the bystanders as having chance to hear his words.

(05:17:13):
But it is not so, for he referred to certain
of the officers who once marveled at his doctrine. And
perhaps to make our meaning clear, we ought to explain
the time and occasion when this occurred. This same inspired
evangelists has told us that once, when our Savior Christ

(05:17:33):
was preaching and unfolding the doctrine concerning the Kingdom of
Heaven to the assembled Jews, the teachers of the Jewish
ordinances were sore, enraged and full of bitter envy of him,
and strove to remove him from their midst. In the
words of the evangelist and the chief Priest and the

(05:17:54):
Pharisees sent officers to take him. But as our Savior
was continuing his long and full discourse, those which were
sent by the Jews were convinced along with the rest,
and were more amazed than anyone else among the multitude
of his hearers. Thus speaks the evangelist. The officers therefore

(05:18:16):
came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they spake
unto them, why did ye not bring him? The officers answered, never, man,
so spake The Pharisees therefore answered them, are ye also
led astray? Observe how distressed its heart the Pharisees were

(05:18:36):
when they found that the officers had been at length
convinced and sore amazed. The Savior, then, knowing this, says,
ask them that have heard me, behold these know the
things which I said. Either then he says these no,
looking at those who were then standing by, or else,

(05:18:59):
referring to the fact that even they who ministered to
the impiety of the chief priests themselves marveled at the
beauty of his teaching. Twenty two. And when he had
said this, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus
with his hand, saying, unto him answerest thou, the high priest.

(05:19:21):
So it had been foretold by the mouth of the Prophet,
that with Christ this would come to pass. I gave
my back to the scourge, and my cheeks to them
that smite He was being led on in truth to
the end long ago foretold, to the verdict of Jewish presumption,

(05:19:43):
which was also the abolition and determination of our deserved dishonor,
for that we sinned in Adam first and trampled underfoot
the divine commandment. For he was dishonored for our sake,
in that he took our sins upon him, as the
prophet says, and was afflicted on our account, for as

(05:20:05):
he wrought out our deliverance from death, giving up his
own body to death. So likewise, I think the blow
with which Christ was smitten in fulfilling the dishonor that
he bore, carried with it our deliverance from the dishonor
by which we were burthened through the transgression and original

(05:20:27):
sin of our forefather. For he being one, was yet
a perfect ransom for all men, and bore our dishonor.
But I think the whole creation would have shuddered had
it been suffered to be conscious of such presumption, for
the Lord of Glory was insulted by the impious hand

(05:20:48):
of the smiter. And I think that it would display
a spirit of pious research to desire to learn why
this insolent and presumptuous officer might Jesus, who had made
no stubborn or angry reply at all, but had returned
a very gentle answer to all the charges brought against him.

(05:21:09):
And it may be observed that the leader of the
Jewish nation had not bidden him, might Jesus and assail
him with such extravagant impiety. Some may perhaps allege us
the reason the ordinary and received custom among the officers,
when they brought to the rulers men accused of some transgression,

(05:21:31):
to compel them to reply courteously, even against their will,
and treat them at times with contumeally when they returned
a rude answer. But I do not think this ever
occurred to excite his passion against Christ. And if we
fix our attention on what has already been said, we
shall find another reason for his insolence. For we said

(05:21:54):
just now that certain of the officers who were bidden
to take Jesus came into collision with the rulers, and
returned so far initiated into the mysteries of Christ, and
amazed at him that they openly declared, never man so
spake whereat. The Pharisees were greatly enraged, and said, are

(05:22:18):
ye also led astray? Hath any of the rulers or
of the Pharisees believed on him? But this multitude, who
know not the law, are accursed. As then the Saviour's
words reminded the rulers of the indignation then stirred up
in them against the officers, for he referred to them

(05:22:39):
as witnesses of his teaching, saying, behold, these know the
things which I said. The officer was charged before them
with having been struck with admiration of Christ, and wishing
to repel the suspicion of being well disposed towards him,
and to divert their thoughts elsewhere, smote him on the map,

(05:23:00):
not suffering him to say anything that could injure the
reckless band of officers. Twenty three. Jesus answered him, if
I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But
if well wise mightest thou me. He proved the officer
guilty of a gross wrong, even if he that was

(05:23:24):
on his trial had been a man of obscure position.
For he smote him causelessly contrary to his express duty,
not urged thereto by legal commands, but rather incited to
brutal ferocity of behavior by his own inbred madness. Call
in question if it pleased thee and refute my words

(05:23:46):
is not spoken aright. But if thou canst not do this,
wise mightest thou me with whose speech thou canst find
no fault. This is indeed the ordinary and most usual
interpretation of the passage. But I think the meaning of
the passage is different from this. For it may be

(05:24:08):
that he convicts the officer as guilty of the greater sin,
not because he smote him merely, but because, after having
been previously amazed at his teaching, and not having now
found him in any wise guilty, he yet endured to
treat him with contumally. For if he says, thou hadst

(05:24:29):
not once been struck by my words, if I had
not then seemed to you to teach most noble doctrines,
and thou hadst not been convinced that I expounded wholly
writ in a marvelous way. If thou hadst not thyself
exclaimed never man so spake, perhaps some plea might have

(05:24:51):
been found for giving mercy to thy inexperience and acquitting
thee of this chart. But since thou hast known, and
hast marveled at my teaching, and wouldst not, perhaps Christ
says have borne witness against my words. If thou didst
now think it right to bear in mind thine own words,

(05:25:13):
how canst thou have any cloak for thy sin. You
may understand the passage in this way, but also remark
how the Savior Heroin sketches for us the pattern of
his great, long suffering towards us in all its incomparable excellence,
and as in a well defined portrait, by the actions

(05:25:33):
of his life, gives us a type of the nature
of his exceeding great mercy. For he that by one
single word might have brought utter ruin on the Jews,
endures to be smitten as a slave. He offers no
resistance and does not requite his persecutors with instant chastisement.

(05:25:55):
For he is not subject to our infirmities, nor under
the dominion of passion or resentment or discomposed by their
malicious insults. But he gently puts his adversary to shame
and tells him that he did not write to strike
one who answered courteously, and in the hour of his

(05:26:16):
eminent peril, forgets not the virtues he continually practiced. For
by proper argument, he strives to induce the servant that
ministered to the malice of the Jews to abandon his
fit of passion, himself receiving evil for good according to
the scripture, but requiting those who were dishondering him with

(05:26:38):
good instead of evil. But our Lord Jesus Christ, even
when he was smitten, endured it patiently, though he was
truly God, the Lord of Heaven and Earth. And we poor,
miserable mortals, mean and insignificant, as we are, mere dust

(05:26:58):
and ashes, and likened to the green herb. For as
for men, his days are as grass, as a flower
of the field, So he flourisheth according to the scripture.
When one of our brethren happens to have some words
with us, and lets fall some vexatious expression, we think

(05:27:21):
we do right to be enraged with the fury of dragons,
and seize not to pelt him with a storm of
words in return for one, not granting forgiveness to human littleness,
nor considering the frailty of our common humanity, nor burying
in brotherly love the passions that thus arise, nor looking

(05:27:42):
unto Jesus himself, the author and perfector of our faith,
but eager to avenge ourselves, and that to the uttermost.
Though holy writ declares in one place, he that pursueth
vengeance pursueth it to his own death. And in another,
let none of you harbor resentment in your heart against

(05:28:05):
your brother. But let Christ, the Lord of all himself
be unto us a pattern of gentleness to one another,
and exceeding great forbearance, for He for this very reason
saith unto us. A disciple is not above his master,
nor a servant above his lord. End of the eleventh book,

(05:28:31):
end of Chapter twelve. End of commentary in the Gospel
of John Book eleven by Cyril of Alexandria, translated by
Reverend Thomas Randall,

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Commentary on the Gospel of John by St. Cyril of Alexandria Part 11

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Commentary on the Gospel of John by St. Cyril of Alexandria Part 11

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