Commentary on the book of the prophet Haggai

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. We can see the purpose of Haggai's prophecy in some other subjects, and not in those about which, as some might think, other prophets spoke. Hosea and the prophets who followed him, up to Zephaniah, foreshadowed what was about to happen to the Jews, and in view of their approaching captivity they tried to frighten Israel, constantly mentioning military detachments, the destruction of cities, burnings, plunder, and also usefully predicting to those who fell into negligence the devastation of the entire country. They (the prophets) thought that if the Jews of their own free will did not decide to do what was pleasing to God and turn to a better life, then at least they would do this before the greatness of the disaster. Haggai composes his speeches under such circumstances, when the times of captivity had already ended and Israel had returned to the holy city from the country of the Persians and Medes. Cyrus freed them from captivity and, together with the sacred vessels, ordered them to go to their homeland, again erect a divine temple in Jerusalem and, in addition, if they wanted, even strengthen the city itself. But when this began and the first foundations of the church had already been laid, some of the inhabitants of Samaria, namely Wilem and his allies, out of envy, sent a denunciation against the Israelites under the pretext of feigned goodwill towards the ruler, pointing out that Jerusalem had become very warlike and heavily armed, even for the kings of Persia it had become difficult to tame. So they convince them to issue a decree that the Jews should stop working on the construction of the church and fortifying the city. After some time, Darius accepted the kingdom. It was precisely the second year of his reign. And so some of the Jews living in Babylon began to beg him to finally allow them to erect a divine church. Then Darius issued an order and wrote to the commanders throughout Phenicia, not only not to hinder the Jews if they wished to restore the church, but, on the contrary, to generously give them money for their costs and allow them to freely transport cedars from Lebanon. Thus, not lacking anything necessary, they then easily completed the construction of the church in honor and glory of God. But since this story is accurately and clearly told in the first book of Ezra, at this time I consider it unnecessary to talk about it in more detail here. So, since the Israelites were now able to work and build a divine church, make sacrifices and prayers and live according to the provisions of the law, and meanwhile they remained in negligence, each having built his own home well, completely abandoning himself to the pleasures of home life and caring very little about the glory of God: they are again subjected to the punishment of God, but no longer by war, but by pestilence, crop failures and the death of livestock. He wanted to make them better, not imposing on them punishments that would be equal to their crimes, but, when punishing them, having mercy on them as sufferers and at the same time correcting them with love. This, in a nutshell, is the reason for Haggai's prophecy. However, the prophet’s speech has a mixed character - and mysterious, internal and spiritual contemplation is added to historical events and speeches. You might be interested in: