The Minor Prophets as Christian Scripture in the Commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Cyril of Alexandria by Hauna T. Ondrey (review)

Is there any genuine Christian content within Theodore of Mopsuestia's Old Testament commentaries? Can we label Cyril's of Alexandria's interpretation of the prophets as "christocentric" without remainder? These are the questions Hauna Ondrey addresses in this close reading of the Minor Prophets' commentaries by these two traditional rivals. Ondrey admits that there is "a real and notable contrast in the degree of christological interpretation" between Theodore and Cyril (4n24), but she seeks to modify recent readings of these two ancient antagonists. In short, Ondrey argues that these interpretations ascribe "too little christological content to Theodore's interpretation of Old Testament prophecy and too much to Cyril's" (7).

Ondrey divides the study into two distinct parts. In the first, she investigates how each commentator interprets the Minor Prophets in terms of their ministry to Old Testament Israel; in the second, she asks how Theodore and Cyril interpret the Twelve in terms of their ministry to the church of their own day. One major conclusion of this study is that both Theodore and Cyril—Antiochene and Alexandrian—are concerned with history and historicity in the text: "In an important way, Theodore and Cyril are interested in history . . . . Their concern is salvation history and not a modern conception of history, but we should not deny the first in avoidance of the second" (15). From this follows Ondrey's plea that the conventional static account of Alexandrian-Antiochene exegetical rivalry be jettisoned entirely and replaced with "a dynamic account that attends to the complex development of Christian interpretation over time" (217).

Ondrey helpfully uncovers the hermeneutical principles that guide Theodore's interpretation of the prophets. Theodore's reticence in seeing New Testament realities in the Old Testament follows from his conviction that the prophets themselves had no direct knowledge of the divine persons of the Trinity. For Theodore, then, "because the prophets did not know or expect any person of the divine Trinity, their interpreter should not explain their oracles by reference to the divine Son or Spirit" (86). Ondrey identifies precisely five prophetic oracles that Theodore believes directly speak of the coming of Christ (93), though she acknowledges that by "Christ" Theodore means the human son of David, not the divine Word of God. In line with his characteristic christology, Theodore identifies "the homo assumptus as the object of the messianic prophecies" (115).

Positively, Theodore reads the Minor Prophets as testifying to the superiority of the benefits secured under the new covenant and to the constancy of God's plan across the two ages. Ondrey argues that Theodore's approach is primarily "teleological" (whereas for Cyril it is primarily "typological," 227). This means that for Theodore "Christian history forms the second of two acts in a linear journey" (228). His commentary provides a "theological history lesson" (229) that shows how the Old Testament prophets prepared the way for Christ.

Ondrey's chief burden when assessing Cyril's interpretation of the Minor Prophets is to show that his reading is not narrowly christocentric (as often claimed) but reveals much more attention to the original context in Israel on the one hand, and a rich application to the life of the church on the other. Though Cyril pays close attention to the setting of the prophetic writings in their original context, Ondrey recognizes that "his concern is not finally the Old Testament Israel but his present setting" (167). Cyril moves with ease from the words of the prophets to their immediate application to fifth-century readers. In the end, Ondrey concludes that "Cyril's range and extent of christological interpretation far surpasses Theodore" (225).

Perhaps the most significant contribution of this study appears when Ondrey brings to the surface Cyril's ecclesiological reading of the prophets. Drawing on Cyril's reference to the Christian community as the new politeia, Ondrey argues persuasively that...