Cyril of Alexandria: Fragments on Matthew · §87

Matthew 9:3–7

The word went out and the wonder followed. Why then did he also say that the Son of Man forgives sins while a God-sign was being done? To show that he brought the authority of divinity down into human nature through the indivisible union with it.

“For if I also became man,” he says, “being God the Word, and through the economy I live and move about on earth, still I accomplish wonders beyond speech and grant forgiveness of sins. I did not take away any property of divinity or lessen it by becoming, unchangeably and truly, Son of Man according to flesh on earth.”

And a little later: he says “on earth” economically, to show that even having become man and appeared on earth he was God by nature. He commanded the paralytic to carry the bed and go home, so that through him he might also confirm to those absent what had happened to him.

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About this text

Catena fragments on Matthew (CPG 5206). Contents follow Matthew chapter and verse. Edition fragment numbers stay in About this text and under each passage.

English follows the named copy-text (Aegean/khazarzar Migne PG 72 extract). Other prints were checked as noted; no silent merge of recensions.

Witnesses

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.