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Introduction
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INTRODUCTION [54.227.136.157] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 10:36 GMT) INTRODUCTION 1. The Commentary on the Twelve Prophets among Cyril’s works The identification of Cyril with Alexandria in Egypt arises particularly from his election to the see on the death of his uncle Theophilus in 412. At the midpoint of his episcopate in Alexandria , which lasted till his death in 444, there occurred the event that would affect the whole church of the east and embroil Cyril in theological controversy, namely, the election of Nestorius to the see of Constantinople in 428. Statements immediately emanating from Nestorius on Mary’s claim to the title Theotokos prompted a response from Cyril in Alexandria that ushered in a long period of animosity between the two prelates and two major sees of eastern Christendom,1 and that drastically altered the character of Cyril’s theological writings. Cyril’s early education had been conducted under the watchful eye of his uncle Theophilus, bishop since Cyril’s childhood; but, to judge from references even in the Commentary on the Twelve Prophets, it gave him a degree of familiarity with classical authors as well (if not sureness of touch in matters of sacred history). We find him quoting verses from the poem Alexandra (or Cassandra) of the third century B.C.E. poet Lycophron in comparing Jonah’s stay in the belly of the fish to Hercules’ three-day visit to the underworld ; and in commentary on Zec 8.4–5 he describes the peace promised by the Lord to Jerusalem as kourotrophon, “nursing mother,” a rare term found in Homer and later in Euripides, confirming the judgment of a well-known Cyril scholar that he “was anything but a total stranger to the humanities.”2 The rela- 1. It was the second ecumenical council, the Council of Constantinople in 381, that ranked Constantinople as second in Christendom after Rome, ahead of Alexandria and Antioch. 2. A. Kerrigan, St. Cyril of Alexandria. Interpreter of the Old Testament, AnBib 2 (Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1952), 9. tive peace that Cyril himself treasured in the early period of his writings after becoming bishop was rather the pax Romana, on which he comments favorably more than once; the promise of peace in Hos 2.18 he typically sees realized in New Testament times: “When the celebrated Roman generals were given command against all nations, they brought the whole world into subjection , with God in his plan allotting the glory to them.” We find similar expressions of appreciation of this peace throughout the empire in Theodoret, who works on The Twelve with Cyril’s Commentary before him,3 to be broken in the next decade with incursions of Huns and Persians as he moves to comment on the Psalms.4 It is theological tranquillity in particular, however, which marks this Commentary on the Twelve, composed in the period before 428 in which it is thought Cyril wrote his biblical commentaries; we shall see him making only conventional, generic references to heretics along with Jews and pagans in applying prophetic references to enemies and conflicts, with no element of personal theological polemic ever appearing. It is thought that he began his exegetical career with two works on the Pentateuch, the De adoratione et cultu in spiritu et veritate5 and the Glaphyra (“elegant comments ”);6 in commentary on Mal 2.4 Cyril seems to refer to chapter 11 of the De adoratione: “Comment on the innards and the sacrifices performed according to the Law has briefly been given in our other writings.” Commentaries on John and Luke also appeared in that period, as well as an extant work on Isaiah7 (and possibly works on the Psalms and the other major prophets, no longer extant). Although Kerrigan reports that “in the course of our examination of the commentary on Isaiah and that on the Minor Prophets we have discovered no literary allusions which might enable us to decide which of these is the older,”8 a reader INTRODUCTION 3. PG 81.1545–1988. 4. Theodoret mentions the invasion of Huns in 434 and Persians in 441 in commentary on Ps 18.12–14 (PG 80.977). 5. PG 68.134–1126. 6. PG 69.9–678. 7. PG 70.9–1450. 8. St. Cyril of Alexandria, 14. See also Georges Jouassard, “L’activité littéraire de saint Cyrille d’Alexandrie jusqu’à 428: Essai de chronologie et de synthèse,” Mélanges E. Podechard: Études de sciences religieuses offertes pour...