Paul’s Greeting and the One Church
By the same holy Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria: a few fragments on the First Epistle to the Corinthians.
“Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:1). The inspired Paul says that he has been sent by Christ, by the good pleasure of God the Father. For this, I think, is what “through the will of God” means (1 Corinthians 1:1). Since the Father’s willing and working are through the Son, we say that it is again through the Son that the saints have been appointed to their apostleship.
“And Sosthenes the brother,” and so on (1 Corinthians 1:1). Paul makes it plain that the power of the preaching will benefit not only the Corinthians but also all who have been called in Christ to the sanctification that comes through faith, when he says, “to those sanctified in Christ in every place, theirs and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:2). For the Law did not command this to be done in every place; it commanded them to come to the divine temple itself in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 12:13–14). It feared, as one would expect, how easily their minds could be carried away: if they were commanded to worship or sacrifice in every place, they might perhaps take the Law as a pretext for turning to more shameful things, and worship carved images, setting up temples and altars for themselves.
But now that we who come from the Gentiles have been called, through faith in Christ, into a close bond with God, and have been enriched with the security that comes through the Holy Spirit, we are commanded to worship, not all of us in Jerusalem, but in every place. This, then, was what was spoken through the prophets: “And they shall worship the Lord, each one from his own place” (Zephaniah 2:11).
So he writes, together with Sosthenes, to the church of God, which Christ presented to himself (Ephesians 5:27). And who were seen to be that church? All who have been sanctified and called through Christ to justification, and who call upon his name “in every place, theirs and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:2), that is, whether in the land of the Jews or in the cities and countries of the Gentiles. He proclaims Christ to be God by nature, and with him and through him he renders glory to God the Father. For he names the sanctified “the church of God,” and yet he assigns them to Christ, saying, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9).
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:3). He crowns those who have believed with the grace that comes from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. For through him and in him all things come from God the Father. He is co-giver and co-provider, with the one who begot him, of the good things from above, and he distributes the gifts from heaven. He himself is the peace of all (Ephesians 2:14), and by the grace that comes from himself he makes radiant principalities, thrones and authorities (Colossians 1:16), and, to put it simply, every rational creature.
“But be joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10). It was both necessary and wise to persuade them that they ought to take their honor from the Master’s name, as the Master himself says through one of the holy prophets: “But those who serve me shall be called by a new name, which shall be blessed upon the earth” (Isaiah 65:15–16). For we have been named Christians, and we are rich in the new name. Some are rightly deprived of it: those who desert the right teaching of the Church and give themselves to deceiving spirits (1 Timothy 4:1) and to the wonder-mongering of certain unholy false teachers. They have taken those teachers’ name, and very fittingly, for they are not Christ’s. They have each taken a share in the blasphemy against him and have been split into differing opinions and judgments, although Christ called his own in peace.
It was needful also to persuade them that Christ himself is one and is not divided (1 Corinthians 1:13). So we are all one in Christ (Galatians 3:28), and for this we have been joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, since he has bound us into one soul by a spiritual union, he who says of us to God the Father, “I desire that, as I and you are one, so they too in […]” (John 17:21–22).
Greek
ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΥ ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΑΛΕΞΑΝ∆ΡΕΙΑΣ ΑΠΟΣΠΑΣΜΑΤΑ ΟΛΙΓΑ ΤΙΝΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗΝ Α. ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΥ ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΑΛΕΞΑΝ∆ΡΕΙΑΣ ΑΠΟΣΠΑΣΜΑΤΑ ΟΛΙΓΑ ΤΙΝΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗΝ Α. Παῦλος κλητὸς ἀπόστολος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. ἈΠΕΣΤΑΛΘΑΙ φησὶν ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος παρὰ Χριστοῦ, εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρός· τοῦτο γὰρ οἶμαί ἐστι τό ∆ιὰ θελήματος Θεοῦ· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ δι' Υἱοῦ τὸ θέλειν καὶ τὸ ἐνεργεῖν ἐστι τοῦ Πατρὸς, δι' αὐτοῦ πάλιν τοὺς ἁγίους εἰς ἀποστολὴν προκεχειρῆσθαί φαμεν. Καὶ Σωσθένης ὁ ἀδελφὸς κ.τ.λ. Ὅτι ὀνήσει τῶν κηρυγμάτων ἡ δύναμις οὐ μόνον Κορινθίους, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἐν Χριστῷ κεκλημένους εἰς τὸν διὰ πίστεως ἁγιασμὸν, διατρανοῖ λέγων Ἡγιασμένοις ἐν Χριστῷ ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ αὐτῶν τε καὶ ἡμῶν· ὁ μὲν γὰρ νόμος οὐκ ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ κεκέλευκε τοῦτο δρᾶν, ἀλλ' εἰς τὸν θεῖον 250 αὐτὸν ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις νεὼν ἀφικέσθαι· ἐδεδίει γὰρ τῆς παρ' αὐτοῖς διανοίας ὡς εἰκὸς τὸ εὐμετακόμιστον, μὴ ἄρα πως προσκυνεῖν ἢ θύειν ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ κεκελευσμένοι, πρόφασιν τῆς εἰς τὰ αἰσχίω μεταβολῆς [ἔχοιεν] τὸν νόμον, καὶ προσκυνήσειαν τοῖς γλυπτοῖς, ναοὺς ἑαυτοῖς ἱστῶντες καὶ βωμούς· ἐπειδὴ δὲ κεκλήμεθα λοιπὸν οἱ ἐξ ἐθνῶν διὰ πίστεως τῆς εἰς Χριστὸν εἰς οἰκειότητα τὴν ὡς πρὸς Θεὸν, καὶ τὴν διὰ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἀσφάλειαν πεπλουτήκαμεν, προσκυνεῖν τετάγμεθα οὐκ ἔν γε τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις ἅπαντες, ἀλλ' ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ· καὶ τοῦτο ἦν ἄρα τὸ διὰ τῶν προφητῶν λεγόμενον "Καὶ προσκυνήσουσι τῷ Κυρίῳ ἕκαστος ἐκ τοῦ "τόπου αὐτοῦ." Ἐπιστέλλει δὴ οὖν ἅμα Σωσθένει τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἣν αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ παρέστησεν ὁ Χριστός· καὶ τίς αὐτὴν ὦπτο; πάντες οἱ ἡγιασμένοι καὶ κεκλημένοι διὰ Χριστοῦ πρὸς δικαίωσιν, ἐπικαλούμενοί τε τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ αὐτῶν τε καὶ ἡμῶν, τουτέστιν εἴτε ἐν τῇ τῶν Ἰουδαίων γῇ, εἴτ' οὖν ἐν ταῖς τῶν ἐθνῶν πόλεσί τε καὶ χώραις. Θεὸν δὲ κατὰ φύσιν διακηρύττει Χριστὸν, καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ τε καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ τὴν δόξαν πραγματεύεται· Θεοῦ μὲν γὰρ ἐκκλησίαν ὀνομάζει τοὺς ἡγιασμένους, Χριστῷ δὲ πάλιν αὐτοὺς προσνέμει λέγων "Εἰ δέ τις Πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ "οὐκ ἔχει, οὗτος οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῦ." Χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Χάριτι στεφανοῖ τοὺς πεπιστευκότας τῇ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς καὶ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ· δι' αὐτοῦ γὰρ καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς, συνδοτήρ τε ἐστὶ καὶ συνχορηγὸς τῷ γεγεννηκότι τῶν ἄνωθεν ἀγαθῶν, καὶ διανομεὺς τῶν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ χαρισμάτων, καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν ἡ πάντων εἰρήνη, τῇ παρ' ἑαυτοῦ χάριτι καταλαμπρύνων 251 ἀρχὰς, θρόνους τε καὶ ἐξουσίας καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς εἰπεῖν πᾶσαν κτίσιν λογικήν. Ἦτε δὲ κατηρτισμένοι ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ νοῒ καὶ ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ γνώμῃ. Ὅτι ὀνόματι τῷ δεσποτικῷ κατασεμνύνεσθαι δεῖν, ἀναγκαῖον ἦν ἅμα καὶ σοφὸν ἀναπεῖσαι, λέγων αὐτὸς δι' ἑνὸς τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν "Τοῖς δὲ δουλεύουσί μοι κληθήσεται "ὄνομα καινὸν, ὃ εὐλογηθήσεται ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς·" χριστιανοὶ γὰρ ὠνομάσμεθα, καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τὸ καινὸν πεπλουτήκαμεν, οὗ δικαίως ἐστέρηνταί τινες τῶν ὀρθῶν τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ἀποφοιτῶντες· καὶ προσκείμενοι πνεύμασι πλάνοις καὶ ἀνοσίων τινῶν ψευδοδιδασκάλων τερατισμοῖς, τὸ αὐτῶν ἐσχήκασιν ὄνομα, καὶ μάλα εἰκότως· οὐ γὰρ εἰσὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ δυσφημίαν μερισάμενοι, καὶ εἰς διαφόρους δόξας τε καὶ γνώμας κατεσχισμένοι, καίτοι 1 Χριστοῦ τοὺς ἰδίους κεκληκότος ἐν εἰρήνῃ. καὶ ὅτι εἷς ἔστιν αὐτὸς, καὶ οὐ μεμέρισται· ἓν οὖν οἱ πάντες ἐσμὲν ἐν Χριστῷ, κατηρτίσμεθά τε πρὸς τοῦτο ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ νοῒ καὶ ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ γνώμῃ, συνδέντος ἡμᾶς εἰς ὁμοψυχίαν καθ' ἕνωσιν τὴν πνευματικὴν τοῦ περὶ ἡμῶν λέγοντος τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρί Θέλω ὥσπερ ἐγὼ καὶ σὺ ἕν ἐσμεν, οὕτως "καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν