Interpretation of the Gospel of John

“Commentary on the Gospel of John” (425-428) is considered the best exegetical work of St. Cyril of Alexandria and one of his most important theological works. The saint not only explains the secrets of the Divine Economy of salvation and the Incarnation, but also polemicizes with various heresies (Manichaeans, Eunomians and Arians). The work is divided into 12 books, of which the 7th and 8th (explanation of John 10:18-12:48) are preserved only in fragments. St. Cyril explains the consubstantiality, co-eternity and equality of the Son with the Father despite their hypostatic difference. The Father and the Son have their own hypostases, and the Son, like the Father, should be called God. The essay sets out in detail topics on anthropology, Christology and soteriology, and also touches on other dogmatic issues (the Divine dignity of the Holy Spirit, the Eucharist). The saint refutes the Platonic and Origenist doctrine of the pre-existence of souls and the philosophical doctrine of predestination. Typological interpretations of the images and institutions of the Old Testament are given: manna, tabernacle, Sabbath, circumcision. In interpretations of the Gospel text, one can consider the approach of St. Cyril to the Holy Scriptures. He believes that Scripture is “not prone to error,” because. it, like the Word of God, is inspired by God. Being inspired by God, it is necessary spiritual food for every believer. *Title of the work in Greek – ῾Ερμημεία ἤτοι ὑπόμνημα εἰς τὸ κατὰ ᾿Ιωάννην Εὐαγγέλιον. *The title of the work in Latin is Commentarii in Iohannem. Contents Volume 1 Preface “The Lord will give the gospel to those who bring good news with much power” (Ps. 67:12), - the Psalmist beautifully proclaims, - and to begin this, I think, is not appropriate for everyone in general, but only for those enlightened by grace from above, since “all wisdom is from the Lord,” as it is written (Sir. 1:1), “and every good gift, and every perfect gift from above, comes down from the Father of lights” ( James 1:17; cf. Luke 21:15; 1 Cor. 12:13; etc. And indeed, reasoning about the Highest Essence of all and Its secrets turns out to be a dangerous matter and for many not harmless, but silence about this is free from danger. But for us, although we think that we should, of course, remain silent, God who is above all brings us out of it, saying to one of the saints (it was Paul): “Speak, and let not keep silence” (Acts 18:9). The law (of Moses) has the same commandment, as if in a sensual image pointing to spiritual objects. He commands those called to the divine priesthood to announce to the people with the sound of trumpets what they were about to learn. God, I think, who wanted to give the most perfect law, did not consider it necessary that the leaders of the nations, “putting their hand on their lips”, according to what is written (cf. Judges 18:19; Job 39:34), for fear of not appearing boldly taking on objects that exceed the human mind, refused reasoning, so necessary for those taught piety and knowledge of God, and chose silence, harmful for those approaching science. But at the same time, Christ’s disciple frightens us, saying: “Do not be many teachers” (James 3:1). Also, the wise Ecclesiastes, pointing out the danger of teaching such subjects, says: “He who cuts wood will cause trouble in them, if the cut falls off, his face will be crushed, and his strength will be strengthened” (Eccl. 10:9-10). “Sechivu” (axe) likens the sharpness of the mind, as being able to penetrate and reach the inner, even if it is hindered by the coarseness and whiteness of matter, and “trees” also figuratively calls the contemplation of the Inspired Scripture, arranged from books, which contain, as it were, a kind of spiritual garden and, in addition, generate the fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit. Whoever tries to reveal these spiritual “trees”, that is, the divine and mysterious contemplations of the Inspired Scripture through research and the strongest exertion of the mind and acuity, will “get into trouble” (may be in danger), especially when, he says, “the ax falls”, that is, when the mind does not correctly understand the true meaning of Scripture and, as if leaving the straight road, rushes along some other path of contemplation, far from the truth. He who is subjected to this will throw into “confusion” the “face” of his soul, that is, the heart, and will “strengthen” in himself the evil and nasty “forces,” which with bitter and perverted reasoning seduce the mind of the erring, not allowing it to look at the beauty of the truth, perverting it in various ways and inclining it to be carried away by obscene thoughts, for “no one speaks anathema to Jesus,” unless Beelzebub (1 Cor. 12:3). But let no one mistakenly think that the explanation given here for these words is false or in any way deceptive. Trees, as we have already said, the Holy Scriptures usually call the contemplations contained in the inspired Scriptures. So, through the wise Moses, the God of all says something similar to the people of that time: “If you have lived around 1 city for 2 days, fight it for many days to receive it, 3 and do not destroy its garden - lay 4 nan iron, but from it yes 5, but do not cut yourself off. Food man 6 hedgehog tree in the oak grove 7 - take 8 from your face into the visor? But a tree that weighs because it does not eat its fruit 9 consume and cut it off” (Deut. 20:19–20). Although, I suppose, it is obvious to everyone that God would not have deigned to lay down such a law for us if what was said was meant about trees growing out of the ground, however, from another commandment, I think it can be proven that God did not at all spare them (the trees) and did not attach any importance to them. For what does He command concerning false gods? “You will scatter their towers,” he says, “and you will break down their pillars, and cut down their oak groves” (Deut. 7:5). Near His altar, He does not allow trees to be grown at all, for He clearly proclaims: “Thou shalt not plant 10 oak groves near the altar of the Lord thy God” (Deut. 16:21). And if anything else needs to be added to this, then I will say like the wisest Paul: “food” about trees “is God pleased? or does he say all sorts of things for our sake?” (1 Cor. 9:9-10), through sensory images, leading to the contemplation of spiritual objects. Therefore, let us already say that by “cities” we can understand the works of wicked heretics, not without some decorations, strengthened by the wisdom of the world and the intricate deceptions of thoughts. But he begins to besiege them and in some way surrounds them, having taken up “the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:16-17), everyone who fights for the sacred dogmas of the Church and with all his strength opposes their false teachings, trying, as Paul says, “to cast down thoughts and every exaltation that is charged to the mind of God, and to take captive every mind into the obedience of Christ.” ( 2 Cor. 10:4-5 ). So, when, he says, such a warrior of Christ surrounds the hated writings of heretics as if it were some kind of foreign land and meets with garden trees, that is, if he finds words from the inspired Scripture, obviously, or the sayings of the prophets drawn for their purpose, or testimonies from the New Testament, then let him not bring the sharpness of his mind to them (places of Holy Scripture), as if with a kind of ax, for destruction and cutting off them. After all, the word of God, of course, should not be rejected just because it is used by those who do not know how to interpret it correctly. But since it is fruitful, it will rather serve as food and help for you. And indeed, by turning into a right proof of faith what they sometimes use foolishly, we will not only not find ourselves weak, but, on the contrary, we will become strong in our grounds against heresy. He immediately gives a reason that in some way convinces the listeners that the aspirations of defense should not be directed towards the destruction of Divine words, but, on the contrary, towards the destruction of what is incorrectly said by opponents: “food”, he says, “man” (is) “a hedgehog tree in an oak grove - take it from your face into the visor?” Can you really, he says, ever think that a saying taken from the Holy Scriptures, like one of the heresiarchs, can itself come out to fight you, and not vice versa - it is forcibly attracted to this by the madness of those (the heresiarchs)? So, don’t cut it down, he says, but let it also be food for you, “and the tree that weighs, because its fruit is not eaten, eat and cut”; for for those who want to think, the fruit of their writings is truly inedible. Let every ax rush against them, there let the power of the spiritual woodcutters manifest itself, and let the strong ax shine on them in defense (of truth). And the uselessness and uselessness of the chatter of other-minded people was excellently explained to us by the prophet Hosea in the words: “The hilt does not have the power to create torment; But now, I think, we should return to what we said at the beginning. It is very difficult to explain divine mysteries and, perhaps, silence is better. But since, most industrious brother, many reasons prompt us to dedicate our work, as if it were some kind of fruit of the lips and a spiritual sacrifice, I will not hesitate to do this, placing my hope in God, who makes the blind wise and demands from us not what is beyond our strength, but who accepts as sacrifice and offerings from the poor. Thus, to those who wish to bring a burnt offering to the Lord, as read at the beginning of the book of Leviticus, the Lawgiver commanded to sacrifice bulls. But having thus determined the measure of educational Old Testament piety, He then reduces it, saying that those who would not have the income for such a gift should sacrifice small livestock. 11 But He also knew, of course, that terrible and hopeless poverty can make someone unable to make such a sacrifice, which is why he says: “He will bring his gift from turtle doves or from doves” (Lev. 1:14). But even one who is even poorer than these, and who comes with even less valuable sacrifices, He deigns to accept, for He says: “Flour of wheat will be his gift” (Lev. 2:1), thus assigning a gift that is easily accessible, I can think, to everyone and is not very burdensome even for extreme poverty. The legislator knew that it was better, of course, and more excellent to bear at least a little fruit than not to bear it at all and, out of shame not to seem (in this) lower than others, to come to the conclusion that it is unnecessary to honor the Lord of all. Fully convinced by all these reasons and having removed from my soul timidity, the patron of silence, I will think that I should honor my Master with what I have - and, like some kind of wheat flour dipped in oil, I will bring a nutritious and pleasing discussion to the readers. Let us begin 12 with the writings of John, taking up a very great work, but not losing heart in the faith. Undoubtedly, we must admit that we will say and explain, of course, less than what we should. But the great difficulty of this scripture (the Gospel of John) and, what is more correct, the weakness of our minds should prompt me to ask a just excuse for this. Everywhere directing our reasoning towards dogmatic research, we will, to the best of our ability, refute the false lies of heretical teachers, not extending the scope of the word as much as possible, but removing what is unnecessary and trying to stay within proper limits. The following designation of the chapters will make it clear what we are discussing in more detail, to which we have added numbers to make it easier for readers to find what they are looking for. Πεϱί as in Greek, but omits slav. Slav. approx.: unit Vat. and many others, but Al. and many others omission Ἐπιβαλεῖν, but slav.: “placing” = ἐπιβαλών as a code. 53 at Holm. Slav.: “but only” (ἄλλ η as Vat. and others, but St. Cyrus. “yea fruit from them” ἀπ’ αὐτῶν and code. 53). Δϱυμῷ and Alex. etc. but Wat. and others: ἀγϱῷ. Εἰσελϑεῖν, slav.: “hedgehog.” Ὀυ ϰαϱπόβϱωτόν ἐστι - literally: not fruit-edible to eat. St. Cyrus approx. here: πâν, but in other words without this addition, like other Greek. From this it is clear that this was the first interpretive work of the Holy Father. You might be interested in: