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Translated by P.E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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31 Pages
Page 23
Hear Me, ye isles, and give ear, ye nations: after long time shall He stand, saying, The Lord from the womb of My mother shall they call My Name. The Word being God, was not ignorant that He should undergo birth, Incarnate of a woman for our sakes: He knew that He shall be called Christ Jesus, God the Father afore proclaiming unto us the New Name of His Son which is blessed in the earth [33]. And note how He mentions His own Mother who bare His Body. Hence if He knows that He is Very God, she who bare Him after the flesh is called Mother of God, and rightly so: but if He be not God, as some daringly, yea rather wickedly, think: let them deprive the holy Virgin herself of this name, that she be not called Mother of God.
32. That the Only-Begotten is called God even when appearing as Man.
Solomon praying says, And now, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy word be credible which Thou spakest unto Thy servant David: shall God in very deed dwell with men on earth? Observe that he marvels at the Incarnation of the Word, for it seemed a thing incredible: for then did He dwell with men upon the earth when He was made Man. Else how is this anything special or how worthy of marvel, that God should not depart from these things which Himself had created, cherishing them that is, and holding together the things which had been already made, creating those which have not been yet made? But verily it is a special miracle that God made Man should have dwelt on earth with men, according to the promises long before given to the Divine David. For it is written, The Lord sware unto David and will not reject him, Of the fruit of thy belly shall I set upon thy seat. But verily he, albeit he believed that the Almighty God would never deny His Promise, yet did more carefully search out the place itself of the Birth and say, If I go up upon my bed, if I give sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eyelids or rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. At length when he had found out this too through the Spirit, and knew the place of the Birth after the flesh of the Only-Begotten, then did he preach it and say, Lo we heard of it at Ephratah, that is, in Bethlehem, we found it in the fields of the wood. And that in saying Ephratah, he means Bethlehem, the Prophet hath proved, And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephratah. But note that Him, Whom he believed to have been created [34] as we in Ephratah, he names the God of Jacob, Whose dwelling was in the Tabernacle: for there[ ]did the holy Virgin bear Jesus.
Elsewhere too does he call Him the God of Abraham, saying, The princes of the people are gathered together with the God of Abraham. For well-nigh, instructed in the knowledge of things to come, did he see with the eyes of his mind and the illumination of the Holy Ghost, the princes of the people, i. e., the holy Apostles, in the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Seeing therefore that He is named God of Abraham and God of Jacob, Who is born of a woman, why is not the holy Virgin Mother of God?
33. [h] Either Immanuel, With us is God, or, Jesus, Saviour, are new names, as specially belonging to the time of the Incarnation. S. Cyril elsewhere speaks of each: in his Thesaurus he had said, "Except the Son were God by Nature, He would not have been called, With us is God, which took place when He was born through a woman, assuming likeness with us. Not at all of an angel or of any other generate being is the word, Emmanuel, the invention, but the Father thus named the Son. And the holy Prophet will be our witness, saying of the Divine Offspring, And they shall call His name that new Name which the Lord shall give Him (Isa. lxii. 2 LXX). For a new name verily to the Son is Emmanuel, that is, With us is God. For before His Presence in the world with flesh, He was and was called merely God; after the Birth from the Virgin, no longer merely God, but, with us, i. e. God made man. Since therefore the Father calls His own Son God, let them blush who impiously and unlearnedly say that He was made. For what is by Nature God, is not a creature," cap. 32 p. 303 b c. "This new Name (Jesus) we say has been given to the Word through the Angel's voice." de recta fide to the Emperor, p. 2p d. "Before the times of the Incarnation no one is found naming the Word out of God, Jesus or Christ, unless by foreknowledge that He should be called this in due time when He also was made flesh. A new name therefore to Him is the Name Jesus, when He was made man." de recta fide to the Princesses, p. 120 d. "For a new name to the Word is Jesus, concurrent with the birth of the flesh. And the Prophet's oracle will support us, which says, And they shall call His Name the new name which the Lord shall give Him." Dial. v. 551 d. "For when will any shew that the Word was called Jesus or Christ, save because He was made man? for He is Jesus, because He saves His people, Christ, because anointed for our sakes. Therefore not the Word out of God the Father, as yet bare before the Incarnation, but made in flesh does he call both Jesus and Christ: and of Him questionless does he say that He was yesterday and to-day, The Same too for ever." Hom. Pasch. vii. (A.D. 420) p. 101 b c.
34. [i] Creatum, made, = γεγενηαένον: the Syriac version gives γεγεννημένον, born.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/incarnation-only-begotten.asp?pg=23
