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Excerpts from the First Book, Translated by P. E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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11 Pages
Page 4
The [6] same from his discourse against Diodore beginning, We set nothing before the truth.
For he who is minded to conceive aright, when one names Him who is of the seed of David, understands at once the Word which sprang from God the Father, Who was Incarnate and made in our likeness: but thou sayest that he was the dwelling-place of the Word, surpassing indeed the holy Prophets and in more exalted place, not that He is God of God even though He was made flesh, in incomparable divergence exalted above our human condition; but that when he was formed, the Word came to him, crowning him with surpassing grace and putting in him Its own Wisdom and Glory, in order that he might become partaker of God and not be himself conceived of as God, the Only-Begotten Word of God, because He was pleased to take our likeness and to be of the seed of Divine David.
[7] Holy and without sin is the body of Christ our God and Saviour, and in this respect is incorruptible from the womb, and herein He hath ever no participation or likeness with us, because He was made like unto us in everything except sin, and in like manner with us did He take part in blood and flesh, as said the Apostle.
in his Discourse against the wicked Diodore wrote thus,
Excellent sir, (say I) thou art belching forth foolish words and sick with much absurdity : for from Mary was the Holy Body, yet at the beginning of its formation or subsistence in the womb, was it holy as being the body of Christ, and there is not an instant in which it was not His,[8] but was rather simple flesh, as thou saidst, and in equality with other flesh.
the [9] wise Cyril finding fault with this craftiness writes thus against Diodore,
Fearing therefore lest we should downright say Man openly, in his craft he calls Him flesh: else why in the world is it that we do not say that the flesh is the Son of God, but rather call it the flesh of Him Who is in truth and by Nature Son? in order that we may conceive of and say One Christ and Son and Lord.
6. [f] This fragment is preserved in same collection as 1.
7. [g] This is given by Card. Mai in a latin translation from a treatise of Severus "Questions with the heretics" (Migne t. ix. col. 1451 n. 21). It is extant also in the British Museum MS. add. 14529 fol. 27 v. I had overlooked it when editing the Syriac fragments but was directed to it later by Wright's Catalogue. This and the following paragraph make up but one piece in Mai: but are separate pieces in the London MSS. Card. Mai too gives the latter portion of this as a separate piece from the Philalethes (n. 18 in Migne) as well as in the longer n. 21, from the Questions.
8. [h] Card. Mai citing this from Severus' Philalethes ends it differently, no one will admit so much as an instant of time in which that (flesh) will be common and like other flesh as you my and not rather be the Flesh of the Word (n. 18 in Migne).
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/diodore-tarsus.asp?pg=4
