Interpretation of the book of the prophet Habakkuk

Between 412 and 418 St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote a series of interpretations on the minor prophets - a total of 12 parts, according to the number of prophetic books. The preface to each book describes the historical setting and purpose of the prophecies. The beginning of the preface to the interpretation of the Book of the Prophet Hosea is an introduction to the entire corpus of interpretations. Interpretations of St. Kirill are reduced to the unity of typological (proto-educational), spiritual (anagogical) and literal (historical) methods. In his opinion, the books of the prophets do not need allegorical interpretation to clarify their Christological meaning, since by their nature they prophesy about Christ. For St. Cyril of Alexandria, there are only two meanings of Holy Scripture: literal and spiritual, which seem to penetrate each other. The area of ​​spiritual interpretation certainly includes the disclosure of moral meaning, examples of which are contained in these comments. The subject prophecy is laid out for us in a very clear and skilful manner; it, as we will see, is built in a manner befitting saints, for it is fitting for the saints themselves to exclaim and say: “You will not be the ones who speak, but the Spirit of your Father will speak in you” (Matthew 10:20). But those who want to understand it require considerable insight, because everyone can see that the prophecy contains a double meaning - spiritual and historical together. But for the benefit of the matter, I will first briefly outline the parts of the prophecy and say on what occasion it was pronounced; for in this case the readers will easily understand the meaning (of the prophecy) and will not find anything difficult in it. So, since Israel was not a little indignant at the predictions of the prophets (for he undoubtedly knew that one day he would be a captive and would fall into the hands of enemies, and would bear the yoke of extraordinary slavery), then blessed Habakkuk tries to show him that this will happen to him one day according to the just determination of the sovereign God over all and for quite sufficient reasons; for they, having loved a life contrary to the law and indecent and inclined towards everything reprehensible, did not cease to arouse a pure mind against themselves until, finally, events brought them to such a disaster. And he clearly shows this by pronouncing an accusation against those who lived wickedly and setting this as the goal and content of the entire prophecy, then introducing God into speech, threatening the despisers with an attack by the Babylonians. In these words we briefly expressed to you the purpose of the entire prophecy. Now let's look at each saying in as much detail as possible. You might be interested in: