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This Part: 115 Pages
Page 75
To remove therefore from them the habit of thinking and speaking of Him in a derogatory and contemptuous manner, He asked them, saying, "How say they that Christ is David's Son?" But they, as I have already remarked, were silent from malicious motives, and thereby condemned themselves as unworthy of eternal life, and of the knowledge of the truth.
And we too will put to the Pharisees [1] of later days a similar question: Let them, who deny that He Who was born of the holy virgin is very Son of God the Father, and Himself also God, and divide the one Christ into two sons; let them, I say, explain to us, in what manner David's son is his Lord, and that not so much with regard to human lordship as divine. For to sit at all at the right hand of the Father is the assurance and pledge of supreme glory. For those who share the same throne are equal also in dignity: and those who are crowned with equal honours are understood of course to be equal in nature. But to sit by God can signify nothing else than sovereign authority, and the throne declares to us that He possesses empire over every thing, and supremacy by right of His substance. How therefore is the Son of David David's Lord, and seated also at the right hand of God the Father, and on the throne of Deity? Or is it not altogether according to the unerring word of the mystery, that the Word being God, and sprung from the very substance of God the Father, and being in His likeness and on an equality with Him, became flesh, that is, man, perfectly, and yet without departing from the incomparable excellence of the divine dignities, continuing rather in that estate in which He had ever been, and still being God, though He had become flesh and in form like to us. He is David's Lord therefore according to that which belongs to His divine glory and nature and sovereignty: but his son according to the flesh.
It was the duty therefore, the duty, I say, of the chiefs of the Jews, as they prided themselves so much upon their knowledge of the divine laws, not to let the words of the holy prophets escape their notice. For the blessed Isaiah says, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son: and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." But the Word was with us as God, when He took our likeness, and despised not the low estate of human kind, in order that He might save all beneath the heaven. And it is written again, "And you Bethlehem, the house of Ephrata, are small to be among the thousands of Judah: out of you shall He come forth for Me Who shall be the Head of Israel." For Bethlehem was indeed small, and in comparison with the general populousness of the Jews, its inhabitants were very few; yet from it came forth Christ, as having been born in it of the holy virgin: not as one subject to the shadows of the law, but rather as ruler both over the law and the prophets.
We therefore follow neither the ignorance nor the newness of the foolish talking of men, lest with them we fall into a reprobate mind: but join ourselves rather to the pure teachings of the holy apostles and evangelists, who every where show that Christ the Saviour of all is at once both the Son and the Lord of David, in the manner we have already described.
"There is therefore one Lord, one faith, one baptism:" one Lord has purchased us, "not with corruptible things, with silver or with gold, but with His own blood rather," as it is written, in order that we may serve Him, and by and with Him the Father. For in Him and by Him we have an access (to the Father).
But, as I said, the rulers of the Jews had no regard whatsoever for the truth: and if any one would learn the reason of their obdurate dislike of instruction, he shall hear it from me. It was their determination not to depart from their inbred love of praise, nor to abandon their accursed lust of lucre. For the Saviour Himself once rebuked them, saying; "How can you believe, who receive glory one of another, and wish not for the glory that comes from the one God?" For it was their duty to desire the glory which comes from God, rather than that of men, which is but for a time, and like a dream vanishes away.
Usefully therefore, that He may keep the company of the holy disciples free from faults so disgraceful, He testifies, saying, "Beware of the Scribes and Pharisees;" that is, expose not yourselves to be the prey of their vices, nor be you partakers of their disregard of God. For what was their custom? To walk in the streets beautifully attired, dragging with them a pompous dignity, to catch thereby the praises of those who saw them. And while they were wicked, and their heart full of all improbity, they falsely assumed to themselves the reputation of piety: and with a gravity of manners not founded on reality, they diligently lengthened out their speaking in their prayers, supposing perchance that unless they expended many words, God would not know what their requests were. But the Saviour of all did not permit His worshippers to act so shamefully, saying, "When you pray, babble not as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking:" but He commanded them to be humble, and not lovers of boasting, nor to pay any regard to the desire of vain glory, but rather to seek the honour that comes from above, from God. In such He deposits the knowledge of His mystery: such He appoints instructors of others, as possessing an exact and blameless knowledge of the sacred doctrines: such He makes to know how David's Son is also David's Lord: with whom we also will range ourselves, God the Father illuminating us with divine light in Christ: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen.
1.[u ]The Nestorians, as explained in the margin. I have before however shown that Nestorius denied that he held the doctrine of two sons: and so S. Cyril quotes his words in lib. ii. c. 6. adversus Nest. (Aubert vol. vi. 44.)
"For we hold not two Christs, nor two Sons; for in our view there is no first and second, nor one and another, nor one again and again another: but the same one Son is twofold not in rank, but in nature."
Against this Cyril argues, that "Christ is not twofold, but one and the same Lord and Son, being the Word from God the Father, not without flesh;" and concludes with these words,
"You then who say that we ought not to speak of two Christs, nor to acknowledge two Sons, putting on the semblance of dogmatic orthodoxy upon this point, are nevertheless convicted of saying that there are two Christs, and of separating into their specific difference man and God."
In Cyril's view therefore the essence of Nestorianism consists in the endeavour to distinguish the limits of the two natures in Christ: and so to do, he argued, was virtually to make two Sons.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/luke-commentary-3.asp?pg=75
