St Cyril of Alexandria Commentary on Luke (First Part)

Translated by R. Payne Smith

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This Part: 128 Pages

Page 11

1:72. To perform mercy.

Christ is mercy and justice: for we have obtained mercy through Him, and been justified, having washed away the stains of wickedness through faith that is in Him.

1:73. The oath which He sware to our father Abraham,

But let no one accustom himself to swear from hearing that God sware unto Abraham. For just as anger, when spoken of God, is not anger, nor implies passion, but signifies power exercised in punishment, or some similar motion; so neither is an oath an act of swearing. For God does not swear, but indicates the certainty of the event,----that that which He says will necessarily come to pass. For God's oath is His own word, fully persuading those that hear, and giving each one the conviction that what He has promised and said will certainly come to pass.

1:76. And thou, child, shalt be called Prophet of the Highest.

Observe, I pray, this also, that Christ is the Highest, Whose forerunner John was both in his birth, and in his preaching. What remains, then, for those to say, who lessen [3] His divinity? And why will they not understand, that when Zacharias said, "And thou shalt be called Prophet of the Highest," he meant thereby "of God," of Whom also were the rest of the prophets.

1:79. To give light to them that sit in darkness, and the shadow of death.

For those under the law, and dwelling in Judea, the Baptist was, as it were, a lamp, preceding Christ: and God so spake before of him; "I have prepared a lamp for My Christ." And the law also typified him in the lamp, which in the first tabernacle it commanded should be ever kept alight. But the Jews, after being for a short time pleased with him, flocking to his baptism, and admiring his mode of life, quickly made him sleep in death, doing their best to quench the ever-burning lamp. For this reason the Saviour also spake concerning him; "He was a burning and shining lamp, and ye were willing a little to rejoice for a season in his light."

1:79. To guide our feet into the way of peace.

For the world, indeed, was wandering in error, serving the creation in the place of the Creator, and was darkened over by the blackness of ignorance, and a night, as it were, that had fallen upon the minds of all, permitted them not to see Him, Who both by nature and truly is God. But the Lord of all rose for the Israelites, like a light and a sun.

3.[c] "He means the Arians, who said the Son was indeed God, but nevertheless inferior to the Father: as Eusebius, who was an Arian writer, especially in his interpretation of the 78th Psalm." Mai.----This charge against Eusebius, the late Professor Lee has endeavoured to disprove in the preface to his translation of the Theophania, a Syriac version of which was discovered among the Nitrian MSS. His translation is, however, inaccurate to the last degree; and the treatise in question leaves no doubt that Eusebius was the precursor of Arian doctrines.

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