Interpretation of the book of the prophet Joel

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 God-speaking Joel seems to prophesy in those times to which the prophets placed before him belong - I mean Hosea, as well as Amos, because, according to the Jews, he should not be placed after Micah, but next to the first. It seems to me that he preaches against the Israelites and makes the strongest reproof for them in the fact that they have reached such arrogance, feeble-mindedness and insensibility that no disaster stops them at all, and they are not humbled by the misfortunes that follow so quickly, as if side by side one after another, and there is no period of time left in which there would be even a short rest from evil. He will find that Isaiah also uses the same words - namely, he says: “And the Lord of hosts was angry with his people, and laid his hand on them” (Is. 5:25), and a little later: and in all of these his wrath was not turned away, but his hand was still high. Notice, no matter how much they suffer, the striker’s hand remains raised, as if still threatening them with other blows. Indeed, just as intractable diseases sometimes require not just one section, but many, so the human mind, having reached a state of insensibility, needs frequent blows, which finally bring it to an understanding of how to begin fruitful activity. So, it seems that Joel, when Israel, even with so many blows, remained unreasonable, wisely gives instructions: he advises to leave abominations, strive for what is pleasing to God, also adds, as something most pleasant for them, a promise if they decide to repent, and inspires hope that they will find the Lord good and all-merciful. This is the general content of the prophecy, and we will talk about the details separately when we consider what is proposed. You might be interested in: