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Translated by P. E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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44 Pages
Page 40
A. I will then proceed very gladly, but I would say that they have missed the truth in coupling, as though another son, him who is of the seed of David with Him Who is by Nature and truly, I mean the Only-Begotten, albeit holy Writ clearly cries aloud, The first man of earth earthy, the second [69] out of Heaven, and moreover the Son Himself, I have come down from heaven not in order to do Mine Own Will but the Will of Him that sent Me, and this is the will of Him that sent Me that everything which He hath given Me I should not lose ought from it but should raise it at the last Day. Whom then do they say is He Who hath come down out of Heaven? for the body hath been born of a woman.
B. The Word that is begotten from forth God the Father, for I suppose that they will not please to think anything else than this.
A. Right my friend, and the all-wise John too hath somewhere written, He that cometh from above is above all. Then how, when it pleaseth the Father that all which is given Him should rise, and the thing is good and moreover God-befitting (for to save is like God), does He say that He came down not to do His own will but that of the Father? will then any man among us suppose that the Son Who is born of Him comes behind the Clemency of God the Father and is in no wise good, but that raising up that which is given and ridding it of decay is a thing uncongenial to Him?
B. There is risk of it.
A. Yet we should with reason deem that since He is the genuine Offspring of a Good Father, He will be conceived of as Himself also Good, or Goodness itself. For from the fruit the tree is known [70], according to His own voice, and He will be True, saying He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, I and the Father are One.
B. You say well: clear up then yourself what seems to have been obscurely said.
A. We say that annulling death and driving away decay from men's bodies was a thing not unwilled by the Son, for He delighteth not in the destruction of the living, and the generations of the world were healthful, as it is written, but by envy of the devil death entered into the world. But in no other way was it possible to shake off the cheerless mastery of death save by only the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten. Therefore hath He appeared as we and He made His own a body subject to decay according to the inherent plan of its nature, in order that since Himself is Life (for He hath been begotten of the Father Which is Life) He might implant therein His Proper Good, life. And when He had once chosen out of His Clemency and Loving-kindness to undergo likeness with us, needs must the Passion too befall Him, when the impiety of the Jews was raging against Him. But the disrepute in His Passion was burdensome to Him. And in truth when the time was coming on, wherein He had to endure the cross for the life of all, in order that He might shew that the Passion was not willed [71], He made His approach as beseems man and in form of prayer, saying, Father if it be possible let this cup pass from Me, yet not as I will but as Thou. He says that He came down out of Heaven, to make that which was grievous, not unwilled, in order that He might achieve resurrection for then on the earth, which He Alone hath new-wrought for the race of man. For He has been made First-born from forth the dead according to the flesh and first-fruits of them that are fallen asleep.
69. [q] In this place both the Syriac translation and the Greek ms. omit ὁ Κύριος but there is considerable variation in other places of S. Cyril: see Schol. § 4, above p. 189 and note there.
70. [r] See the verse explained in the same way of the SON's Generation from the FATHER, in S. Cyril's commentary on S. John, pp. 643, 644, 676 O.T.: and on xvii. 4, 5 p. 958 d, Greek.
71. [s] On the Passion being willed and not willed by the Incarnate Son, see above pp. 170 sqq: see especially that very famous chapter of S. Cyril's commentary on S.John, (pp.383 sqq. O.T.) which was so largely quoted in Act. 10 of the sixth General Council holden at Constantinople A. D. 680: also in S. Joan. lib. x. 1 (xiv. 30, 31) pp. 853 e 854 a b c, S. Cyril speaks of its being willed "out of reverence to the Father and love to Him."
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/christ-one.asp?pg=40
