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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 26
But I will make use of examples which may shew us by way of shadow, that the Only-Begotten shared in the suffering as far as belongs to the ownness of His Body, yet remained free from suffering, as God. Almighty God then was bidding the most wise Moses to work miracles, that Israel might believe him that he was sent from God, and that they should be set free from violence: He says, And thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the earth, and the water which thou shalt take from the river, shall he blood upon the earth. But we say that the water is an image of life, and that the Son proceeding out of the Father as out of a river, by reason of being of the Same Essence, is by Nature Life, and therefore quickens all things. But when (He says) thou shalt have poured forth the water, it shall be blood upon the earth. Hence, when He was made flesh of the earth, i. e., when He girt Himself with flesh from the earth, then is He said to have suffered death in it like to our death, albeit He is by Nature Life.
In Leviticus God intimates that the leper is polluted and impure and therefore bids that he should be put forth of the camp, and that if the disease be healed, he should thus be cleansed. And they shall take for him that is cleansed two clean birds and cedar wood and scarlet wool and hyssop, and the priest shall command and they shall hill one of the birds in an earthen vessel in living water, and the living bird shall he take and shall bathe it in the blood of the bird that was killed in the living water and he shall sprinkle upon him who is cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and he shall be clean. Us there rendereth clean and washeth away the soils of our uncleanness and driveth off the mortality of fleshly desire the Most Precious Blood of Christ and the purification of all-holy Baptism. But note this (for letting alone subtil search into the force of the Scriptures, we will for the present make mention of what helps to the mystery): he compares Christ to two birds [37], not as though there were two sons, but rather one out of two, the Godhead and the manhood, gathered together into union. The birds are clean, for our Lord Jesus Christ did no sin, but the Word was holy, in Godhead and in Manhood: He is likened again to flying things, by reason of His being high above the earth and from above, for Christ is the Man out of Heaven, albeit the holy Virgin bare His Flesh [38]. How then is He from above and out of Heaven? God the Word from above and out of the Father, taking flesh from the holy Virgin and manifesting it as His own, as though He had brought it down from above and out of Heaven, said, No man hath ascended up into Heaven, save He That came down from Heaven, the Son of Man: for He ever allotteth to His own Flesh that which is His own, and once united to it is accounted one with it.
37. [m] We still possess a long Letter of S. Cyril's to Acacius Bishop of Scythopolis (or Bethshan), illustrating the unity of Godhead and Manhood in Christ, as typified, 1, in the two goats (Lev. xvi. 7 sqq.), whereof one was sacrificed, one went free, yet both were needed to make up the perfect Atonement: 2, in the two birds for the cleansing of the leper, as here. Epp. pp. 121 -132.
38. [n] See Ecumenic Letter to John archbishop of Antioch, 3 Epp. p. 72, and above p. 44 note e. S. Gregory of Nazianzum, in his famous Letter to Cledonius (Ep. ad Cled. 1) speaks of that Apollinarian error, of which S. Cyril was suspected, in these words, "If any one say that the Flesh hath come down out of Heaven, and is not hence and of us (παρ' ἡμῶν), be he anathema. For that the second Man is out of Heaven, and As is the Heavenly, such too they that are heavenly, and, No one hath gone up into Heaven except He Who came out of Heaven, the Son of Man, and whatever else there is, is to be understood as said, because of the union with the Heavenly (διὰ τῆν πρὸς τὸν οὐράνιον ἕνωσιν)." t.1 p. 740 ed. Par. 1609.
S. Cyril in 7th Paschal homily (A.D. 420, probably almost ten years before his books against Nestorius) had said, " God the Word was born on earth through the holy Virgin, after the flesh, but came down from heaven. How then does He say that the Son of man came down out of Heaven? how again does He say that He will go up where He was before (S. John vi. 62)? Thou seest therefore how drawing in the ineffable concurrence in union unparted and unsevered (ἀδιαστάτῳ τε καὶ ἀδιορίστῳ . . . ἑνότητι), He would have One Christ both before flesh and with flesh confessed by us. Therefore He says that His flesh albeit by nature of earth came down from above and out of Heaven, and will ascend into Heaven too where it was before. For that which is inherent in Him by Nature He puts about His own flesh as being not other than it as regards the Economic union. And we will not because of the utter union of things unlike in their nature, take away the fact that One is properly the Radiance of the Father, the other again the little flesh (τὸ σαρκίον) of earth or perfect man: but even thus distinguishing and in mere ideas (see above p. 78 note z) parting the plan of each, we will draw them in to union again unparted. For the Word was made flesh, according to the holy Evangelist, not turned into flesh." p. 102 b c d. See also de recta fide to the Emperor, p. 36 a b.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/incarnation-only-begotten.asp?pg=26
