Glaphyra on Genesis, Book 1 opening: Christ’s mystery throughout Moses
Of our father among the saints Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria: First book of Elegant Comments on Genesis.
That through the whole of Moses’ writing the mystery of Christ is signified in riddles.
Search the Scriptures, Christ cried out to the Jewish crowds, saying most clearly that no one could reach eternal life in any other way than by digging, as it were, through the letter of the Law like a treasure-ground and carefully examining the pearl hidden in it — that is, Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, hidden, according to the voice of the blessed Paul.
Concerning wisdom or knowledge so august and worthy of love Solomon also said somewhere: If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
Nothing equals this for those who praise a blameless life, who choose what is best and most excellent of all, and who fill their own mind with the divine light — because one must feast without weariness on the words about God, and make the sacred Letter a kind of lamp, as the holy Psalmist cries: Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.
Since, then, clearly and openly, loving to examine Christ’s mystery is what procures eternal life and is for us the road of every cheerfulness, come — adding sweat again that profits first ourselves — let us gather what would mark out Christ’s mystery well for us, and take care to say how each thing stands in thought, so that what we say, even if it carries only slender images, may sometimes become for the more teachable a good occasion of truer contemplations, and a kind of ascent carrying them up toward the better and highest-lying knowledge.
We will first set out usefully what was done in the history; then, once we have clarified those things in due measure, and as if reshaping the narrative out of type and shadow, we will make the telling plain, our discourse turning toward Christ’s mystery and having him as its end — if it is true that Christ is the end of the law and the prophets.
And if somewhere we should miss what is more fitting, because of thinness of thoughts and much obscurity, those who will read ought to be forgiving.
Know this too: having composed seventeen books On Worship and Service in Spirit and in Truth, and having gathered in them a great throng of thoughts, we have for economy’s sake passed over in the present writing the chapters already treated there, and have left them unexamined — even if somewhere we happened to mention one of them as from a necessary argument.
So we will begin with the more elegant comments on Genesis; and then, running in order through Moses’ five books, we will examine beside them also what from the rest of Scripture is useful for the aim before us.
Greek
ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΥ ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΑΛΕΞΑΝ∆ΡΕΙΑΣ ΓΛΑΦΥΡΩΝ ΕΙΣ ΓΕΝΕΣΙΝ ΛΟΓΟΣ ΠΡΩΤΟΣ Ὅτι διὰ πάσης τῆς Μωσέως γραφῆς, τὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μυστήριον αἰνιγματωδῶς σημαίνεται. Ἐρευνᾶτε τὰς Γραφὰς, τοῖς Ἰουδαίων δήμοις προσπεφώνηκεν ὁ Χριστός· οὐχ ἑτέρως ἂν ἰσχύσαι τῆς αἰωνίας ζωῆς ἐφικέσθαι τινὰς, ἐναργέστατα λέγων, εἰ μὴ καθάπερ τινὰ θησαυρὸν ἀνορύττοντες τὸ γράμμα τὸ νομικὸν, τὸν ἐν αὐτῷ κεκρυμμένον περιεργάζοιντο μαργαρίτην, τουτέστι, Χριστὸν, ἐν ᾧ πάντες εἰσὶν οἱ θησαυροὶ τῆς σοφίας καὶ γνώσεως οἱ ἀπόκρυφοι, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου φωνήν. Περὶ τῆς οὕτω σεπτῆς καὶ ἀξιαγάστου σοφίας ἤτοι γνώσεως ἔφη που καὶ Σολομῶν· Ἐὰν ζητήσῃς αὐτὴν ὥσπερ ἀργύριον, καὶ ὡς θησαυροὺς ἀνερευνήσῃς αὐτὴν, τότε συνήσεις φόβον Κυρίου, καὶ ἐπίγνωσιν Θεοῦ εὑρήσῃς. Γένοιτο δ' ἂν οὐδὲ τοῦ τοιοῦδε τὸ ἰσοστατοῦν, παρά τε τοῖς τὴν ἀμώμητον ἐπαινοῦσι ζωὴν, καὶ κατορθοῦν ᾑρημένοις τὰ πάντων ἄριστα καὶ ἐξαίρετα, καὶ φωτὸς τοῦ θείου τὸν οἰκεῖον ἀναπιμπλᾶσι νοῦν· διά τοι τοῦ δεῖν τοῖς περὶ Θεοῦ λόγοις ἀκαταλήπτως ἐντρυφᾷν, καὶ λύχνον ὥσπερ τινὰ ποιεῖσθαι τὸ Γράμμα τὸ ἱερὸν, κατὰ τὸν ἅγιον Ψαλμῳδὸν διακεκραγότα τε καὶ λέγοντα· Λύχνος τοῖς ποσί μου ὁ νόμος σου, καὶ φῶς ταῖς τρίβοις μου. Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδήπερ σαφῶς καὶ ἀναφανδὸν ζωῆς ἐστι τῆς αἰωνίου πρόξενον, καὶ ἁπάσης ἡμῖν εὐθυμίας ὁδὸς τὸ περιεργάζεσθαι φιλεῖν τὸ Χριστοῦ μυστήριον· φέρε δὴ πάλιν ἱδρῶτα προσθέντες τὸν ὀνησιφόρον, καὶ πρό γε τῶν ἄλλων καὶ ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς, τὰ δι' ὧν ἂν ἡμῖν τὸ Χριστοῦ μυστήριον εὖ μάλα 69.16 κατασημαίνοιτο, συναγεῖραί τε ἅμα, καὶ ὅπως ἂν ἕκαστον ἐννοιῶν ἔχοι, διειπεῖν σπουδάσωμεν· ὡς ἂν γένοιτο τὰ πρὸς ἡμῶν εἰρημένα λεπτὰς ἔχοντα φαντασίας, ἔσθ' ὅτε τὸ ἀληθέστερον θεωρημάτων, πρόφασις ἀγαθὴ τοῖς εὐμαθεστέροις, καὶ ἀναβασμοὶ τρόπον τινὰ, πρὸς τὴν ἀμείνονά τε καὶ ὑπερτάτω κειμένην ἀνακομίζοντες γνῶσιν. Ἐκθησόμεθα δὲ χρησίμως, πρότερον μὲν, τὰ ἱστορικῶς πεπραγμένα· διασαφήσαντες δὲ τὰ τοιάδε συμμέτρως, καὶ οἷά περ ἐκ τύπου καὶ σκιᾶς μεταπλάττοντες τὸ διήγημα, σαφῆ ποιησόμεθα τὴν ἀφήγησιν, ἀπονενευκότος ἡμῖν τοῦ λόγου πρὸς τὸ Χριστοῦ μυστήριον, καὶ αὐτὸν ἔχοντος πέρας, εἴπερ ἐστὶν ἀληθὲς, ὅτι τέλος νόμου καὶ προφητῶν ὁ Χριστός. Εἰ δέ πη γένοιτο καὶ ἀφαμαρτεῖν τῶν πρεπωδεστέρων ὡς ἐν ἰσχνότητι νοημάτων καὶ ἀσαφείᾳ πολλῇ, συγγνώμονας εἶναι προσήκει τρὺς ἐντευξομένους. Ἰστέον δὲ δὴ, ὅτι Περὶ τῆς ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ προσκυνήσεως καὶ λατρείας ἑπτακαίδεκα συνθέντες βιβλία, καὶ πολλὴν ἐν ἐκείνοις ἀθροίσαντες νοημάτων πληθὺν, παρήκαμεν οἰκονομικῶς τῇ προκειμένῃ συγγραφῇ τὰ ἐντεταμένα κεφάλαια, καὶ ἀβασάνιστα τετηρήκαμεν· κἂν εἴ που συνέβη μνημονεῦσαί τινος ὡς ἐξ ἀναγκαίου λόγου. Ἀρξόμεθα τοίνυν τῶν ἐπὶ τῇ Γενέσει γλαφυρωτέρων· οὕτω τε λοιπὸν ἐφεξῆς τὰ πέντε Μωσέως δραμόντες βιβλία, περιεργασόμεθα πρὸς αὐτοῖς καὶ τὰ ἐκ τῆς ἑτέρας γραφῆς τῷ προκειμένῳ χρήσιμα σκοπῷ.
About this text
Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch (Greek). SERIES on this page: Genesis through Deuteronomy CLOSEOUT.
English follows PG 69 Greek (CPG 5201). Lunn FOTC / modern English syncs were not used as wording. Glaphyra SERIES CLOSEOUT Genesis–Deuteronomy.
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG 69 — Glaphyra in Pentateuchum (Greek)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.