In a treatise addressed to the Empresses Arcadia and Marina, Cyril is undertaking to prove that our Lord is very and eternal God.[1011] His method is to establish several short theses all tending to this one object, by citing from the several books of the N. T., in turn, the principal texts which make for his purpose. Presently, (viz. at page 117,) he announces as his thesis,—“Faith in Christ as God;” and when he comes to 1 Timothy, he quotes iii. 16 at length; [pg 465] reasons upon it, and points out that Θεὸς ἐν σαρκί is here spoken of.[1012] There can be no doubt about this quotation, which exhibits no essential variety of reading;—a quotation which Euthymius Zigabenus reproduces in his “Panoplia,”—and which C. F. Matthæi has with painful accuracy edited from that source.[1013]—Once more. In a newly recovered treatise of Cyril, 1 Tim. iii. 16 is again quoted at length with Θεός,—followed by the remark that “our Nature was justified, by God manifested in Him.”[1014] I really see not how you would have Cyril more distinctly recognize Θεὸς ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί as the reading of 1 Tim. iii. 16.[1015]
You are requested to observe that in order to prevent cavil, I forbear to build on two other famous places in Cyril's writings where the evidence for reading Θεός is about balanced by a corresponding amount of evidence which has been discovered for reading ὅς. Not but what the context renders it plain that Θεός must have been Cyril's word on both occasions. Of this let the reader himself be judge:—
(1) In a treatise, addressed to the Empresses Eudocia and Pulcheria, Cyril quotes 1 Tim. iii. 16 in extenso.[1016] “If” (he begins)—“the Word, being God, could be said to inhabit [pg 466] Man's nature (ἐπανθρωπῆσαι) without yet ceasing to be God, but remained for ever what He was before,—then, great indeed is the mystery of Godliness.”[1017] He proceeds in the same strain at much length.[1018] Next (2) the same place of Timothy is just as fully quoted in Cyril's Explanatio xii. capitum: where not only the Thesis,[1019] but also the context constrains belief that Cyril wrote Θεός:—“What then means ‘was manifested in the flesh’? It means that the Word of God the Father was made flesh.... In this way therefore we say that He was both God and Man.... Thus” (Cyril concludes) “is He God and Lord of all.”[1020]
But, as aforesaid, I do not propose to rest my case on either of these passages; but on those two other places concerning which there exists no variety of tradition as to the reading. Whether the passages in which the reading is certain ought not to be held to determine the reading of the passages concerning which the evidence is about evenly balanced;—whether in doubtful cases, the requirements of the context should not be allowed to turn the scale;—I forbear to enquire. I take my stand on what is clear and undeniable. On the other hand you are challenged to produce a single instance in Cyril of μυστηριον; ὅς ἐφανερώθη, where the reading is not equally [pg 467] balanced by μυστήριον Θεός. And (as already explained) of course it makes nothing for ὅς that Cyril should sometimes say that “the mystery” here spoken of is Christ who “was manifested in the flesh,” &c. A man with nothing else but the A. V. of the “Textus Receptus” before him might equally well say that. See above, pages [427-8].
Not unaware am I of a certain brief Scholium[1021] which the Critics freely allege in proof that Cyril wrote ὅς (not Θεός), and which as they quote it, (viz. so mutilated as effectually to conceal its meaning,) certainly seems to be express in its testimony. But the thing is all a mistake. Rightly understood, the Scholium in question renders no testimony at all;—as I proceed to explain. The only wonder is that such critics as Bentley,[1022] Wetstein,[1023] Birch,[1024] Tischendorf,[1025] or even Tregelles,[1026] should not have seen this for themselves.
The author, (whether Photius, or some other,) is insisting on our Lord's absolute exemption from sin, although for our sakes He became very Man. In support of this, he quotes Is. liii. 9, (or rather, 1 Pet. ii. 22)—“Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” “S. Cyril” (he proceeds) “in the 12th ch. of his Scholia says,—‘Who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit;’ for He was in no way subject to our infirmities,” and so on. Now, every one must see at a glance that it is entirely to misapprehend the matter to suppose that it is any part of the Scholiast's object, in what precedes, to invite attention to so irrelevant a circumstance as that Cyril began his quotation of 1 Tim. iii. 16, with ὅς instead of [pg 468] Θεός.[1027] As Waterland remarked to Berriman 150 years ago,[1028] the Scholiast's one object was to show how Cyril interpreted the expression “justified in the Spirit.” Altogether misleading is it to quote only the first line, beginning at ὅς and ending at πνεύματι, as the Critics invariably do. The point to which in this way prominence is exclusively given, was clearly, to the Commentator, a matter of no concern at all. He quotes from Cyril's “Scholia de Incarnatione Unigeniti,”[1029] in preference to any other of Cyril's writings, for a vastly different reason.[1030] And yet this—(viz. Cyril's supposed substitution of ὅς for Θεός)—is, in the account of the Critics, the one thing which the Scholiast was desirous of putting on record.
In the meanwhile, on referring to the place in Cyril, we make an important discovery. The Greek of the Scholium in question being lost, we depend for our knowledge of its contents on the Latin translation of Marius Mercator, Cyril's contemporary. And in that translation, no trace is discoverable of either ὅς or ὅ.[1031] The quotation from Timothy begins abruptly at ἐφανερώθη. The Latin is as follows:—“Divinus Paulus magnum quidem ait esse mysterium pietatis. Et vere ita se res habet: manifestatus est enim in carne, cum sit Deus Verbum.”[1032] The supposed hostile evidence from this quarter proves therefore to be non-existent. I pass on.
[l] The argument e silentio considered.
The argument e silentio,—(of all arguments the most precarious,)—has not been neglected.—“But we cannot stop here,” you say:[1033] “Wetstein observed long ago that Cyril does not produce this text when he does produce Rom. ix. 5 in answer to the allegation which he quotes from Julian that S. Paul never employed the word Θεός of our Lord.”[1034] Well but, neither does Gregory of Nyssa produce this text when he is writing a Treatise expressly to prove the Godhead of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. “Grave est,”—says Tischendorf.[1035] No, not “grave” at all, I answer: but whether “grave” or not, that Gregory of Nyssa read Θεός in this place, is at least certain. As for Wetstein, you have been reminded already, that “ubi de Divinitate Christi agitur, ibi profecto sui dissimilior deprehenditur.”[1036] Examine the place in Cyril Alex. for yourself, reading steadily on from p. 327 a to p. 333 b. Better still, read—paying special attention to his Scriptural proofs—Cyril's two Treatises “De rectâ Fide.”[1037] But in fact attend to the method of Athanasius, of Basil, or of whomsoever else you will;[1038] and you will speedily convince yourself that the argument e silentio is next to valueless on occasions like the present.
Certain of the Critics have jumped to the conclusion that the other Cyril cannot have been acquainted with S. Mark xvi. 19 (and therefore with the “last Twelve Verses” of his Gospel), because when, in his Catechetical Lectures, he comes to the “Resurrection,” “Ascension,” and “Session at the Right Hand,”—he does not quote S. Mark xvi. 19. And yet,—(as it has been elsewhere[1039] fully shown, and in fact the reason is assigned by Cyril himself,)—this is only because, on the previous day, being Sunday, Cyril of Jerusalem had enlarged upon the Scriptural evidence for those august verities, (viz. S. Mark xvi. 19,—S. Luke xxiv. 51,—Acts i. 9); and therefore was unwilling to say over again before the same auditory what he had so recently delivered.