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Lecture
VIII.
Almighty.
Jeremiah xxxix. 18, 19 (Septuagint).
The Great, the strong God, Lord of great Counsel, and
mighty in His works, the Great God, the Lord Almighty and of great
name1032
1032 The text is
translated from the Septuagint, in which S. Cyril found the title
Almighty (Παντοκράτωρ), one of the usual equivalents in the Septuagint for Lord of
Hosts (Sabaoth). In the English A.V. and R.V. the
passage stands thus: Jer. xxxii. 18, 19: The Great, the Mighty
God, the LORD of Hosts, is His name, Great in counsel, and mighty in
work. | .
1. By believing
In One God we cut off all misbelief in many
gods, using this as a shield against Greeks; and every opposing power
of heretics; and by adding, In One God the
Father, we contend against those of the circumcision, who deny
the Only-begotten Son of God. For, as was said yesterday, even
before explaining the truths concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, we made
it manifest at once, by saying “The Father,” that He is the
Father of a Son: that as we understand that God is, so we may
understand that He has a Son. But to those titles we add that He
is also “Almighty;” and this we
affirm because of Greeks and Jews1033
1033 “For even
the Jewish nation had wicked heresies: for of them were…the
Pharisees, who ascribe the practice of sinners to fortune and fate; and
the Basmotheans, who deny providence and say that the world is made by
spontaneous motion” (Apost. Const. VI. 6). Compare
Euseb. (E.H. IV. 22.) | together, and
all heretics.
2. For of the Greeks some have said that God
is the soul of the world1034
1034 Cicero, De Natura
Deorum, Lib. I. 27: “Pythagoras thought that God
was the soul pervading all nature.” The doctrine was
accepted both by Stoics and Platonists, and became very general.
Cf. Virg. Georg. iv. 221:
Deum namque ire per omnis
Terrasque, tractusque maris, cælumque
profundum.
and Æn. vi. 726:
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Meus agitat molem, et magno se corpore
miscet. | : and others
that His power reaches only to heaven, and not to earth as well.
Some also sharing their error and misusing the text which says,
“And Thy truth unto the clouds1035
1035 Ps. xxxvi. 5. Cyril appears to have borrowed
this statement from Clement of Alexandria, who states (Stromat.
V. xiv. § 91) that from this Psalm the thought occurred to
Aristotle to let Providence come down as far as to the Moon. | ,” have dared to circumscribe
God’s providence by the clouds and the heaven, and to alienate
from God the things on earth; having forgotten the Psalm which says,
If I go up into heaven, Thou art there, if I go down into hell, Thou
art present1036 . For if there
is nothing higher than heaven, and if hell is deeper than the earth, He
who rules the lower regions reaches the earth also.
3. But heretics again, as I have said
before, know not One Almighty God. For He is Almighty who rules
all things, who has power over all things. But they who say that
one God is Lord of the soul, and some other of the body, make neither
of them perfect, because either is wanting to the other1037
1037 See note on Lect. IV.
4. | . For how is he almighty, who has power
over the soul, but not over the body? And how is he almighty who
has dominion over bodies, but no power over spirits? But these
men the Lord confutes, saying on the contrary, Rather fear ye Him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell1038 . For unless the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ has the power over both, how does He subject both to
punishment? For how shall He be able to take the body which is
another’s and cast it into hell, except He first bind the
strong man, and spoil his goods1039 ?
4. But the Divine Scripture and the
doctrines of the truth know but One God, who rules all things by His
power, but endures many things of His will. For He rules even
over the idolaters, but endures them of His forbearance: He rules
also over the heretics who set Him at nought, but bears with them
because of His long-suffering: He rules even over the devil, but
bears with him of His long-suffering, not from want of power; as if
defeated. For he is the beginning of the Lord’s
creation, made to be mocked1040
1040 Job xl. 14, τοῦτ᾽ ἔστιν
ἀρχὴ
πλάσματος
Κυρίου,
πεποιῃμένον
ἐγκαταπαίζεσθαι
ὑπὸ τῶν
ἀγγέλων
αὐτοῦ. In this
description of Behemoth the Septuagint differs much from the Hebrew,
which is thus rendered in our English Versions, xl. 19: He is
the chief of the ways of God: he (only, R.V.) that made
him can make his sword to approach unto him. Compare
Job xli. 5: Wilt thou play with him
as with a bird? and Ps. civ. 26: There is that Leviathan
whom thou hast formed to play therein (Sept. to take thy pastime
with him). See Baruch iii. 17, with the note in the Speaker’s
Commentary. | , not by
Himself, for that were
unworthy of Him, but by the Angels whom He hath made. But
He suffered him to live, for two purposes, that he might disgrace
himself the more in his defeat, and that mankind might be crowned with
victory. O all wise providence of God! which takes the wicked
purpose for a groundwork of salvation for the faithful. For as He
took the unbrotherly purpose of Joseph’s brethren for a
groundwork of His own dispensation, and, by permitting them to sell
their brother from hatred, took occasion to make him king whom He
would; so he permitted the devil to wrestle, that the victors might be
crowned; and that when victory was gained, he might be the more
disgraced as being conquered by the weaker, and men be greatly honoured
as having conquered him who was once an Archangel.
5. Nothing then is withdrawn from the power
of God; for the Scripture says of Him, for all things are Thy
servants1041 . All things
alike are His servants, but from all these One, His only Son, and One,
His Holy Spirit, are excepted; and all the things which are His
servants serve the Lord through the One Son and in the Holy
Spirit. God then rules all, and of His long-suffering endures
even murderers and robbers and fornicators, having appointed a set time
for recompensing every one, that if they who have had long warning are
still impenitent in heart, they may receive the greater
condemnation. They are kings of men, who reign upon earth, but
not without the power from above: and this Nebuchadnezzar once
learned by experience, when he said; For His kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and His power from generation to
generation1042 .
6. Riches, and gold, and silver are not, as
some think, the devil’s1043
1043 On this doctrine of
the Manicheans see Archelaus (Disputatio, cap. 42), Epiphanius
(Hæres. lxvi. § 81). Compare Clement. Hom.
xv. cap. 9: “To all of us possessions are
sins.” Plato (Laws, V. 743): “I can
never agree with them that the rich man will be really happy, unless he
is also good: but for one who is eminently good to be also
extremely rich is impossible.” | : for the
whole world of riches is for the faithful man, but for the faithless
not even a penny1044
1044 Prov. xvii. 6, according to the
Septuagint. See note on Cat. V. 2, where the same passage is
quoted. Clement of Alexandria (Stromat. II. 5) refers to
it in connexion with the passage of Plato quoted in the preceding
note. S. Augustine also quotes and explains it in Epist.
153, § 26. | . Now nothing
is more faithless than the devil; and God says plainly by the Prophet,
The gold is Mine, and the silver is Mine, and to whomsoever I will I
give it1045
1045 The former clause is
from Haggai ii. 8; the latter, taken from the words
of the Tempter in Luke iv. 6, is quoted both by Cyril and by other
Fathers as if from Haggai. Chrysostom (Hom. xxxiv. §
5, in 1 Cor. xiii.) treats the use which some made of the misquotation
as ridiculous. | . Do thou but
use it well, and there is no fault to be found with money: but whenever
thou hast made a bad use of that which is good, then being unwilling to
blame thine own management, thou impiously throwest back the blame upon
the Creator. A man may even be justified by money: I was
hungry, and ye gave Me meat1046 : that
certainly was from money. I was naked, and ye clothed
Me: that certainly was by money. And wouldest thou
learn that money may become a door of the kingdom of heaven?
Sell, saith He, that thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven1047 .
7. Now I have made these remarks because of
those heretics who count possessions, and money, and men’s bodies
accursed1048 . For I
neither wish thee to be a slave of money, nor to treat as enemies the
things which God has given thee for use. Never say then that
riches are the devil’s: for though he say, All these
will I give thee, for they are delivered unto me1049 , one may indeed even reject his assertion;
for we need not believe the liar: and yet perhaps he spake the
truth, being compelled by the power of His presence: for he said
not, All these will I give thee, for they are mine, but, for
they are delivered unto me. He grasped not the dominion of
them, but confessed that he had been entrusted1050
1050 For ἐγκεχειρῆσθαι,
the reading of all the printed Editions, which hardly yields a suitable
sense, we should probably substitute ἐγκεχειρίσθαι. A similar confusion of the two verbs occurs in Polybius
(Hist. VIII. xviii. 6); the proper use of the latter is seen in
Joh. Damasc. (De Fide Orthod. II. 4, quoted by Cleopas),
who speaks of Satan as being “of these Angelic powers the chief
of the earthly order, and entrusted by God with the guardianship of the
earth” (τῆς
γῆς τὴν
φυλακὴν
ἐγχειρισθεὶς
παρὰ Θεοῦ). |
with them, and was for a time dispensing them. But at a proper
time interpreters should inquire whether his statement is false or
true1051
1051 On this point compare
Irenæus (Hær. V. xxi.–xxiv.), and Gregory of
Nyssa (Orat. Catech. § 5). | .
8. God then is One, the Father, the
Almighty, whom the brood of heretics have dared to blaspheme.
Yea, they have dared to blaspheme the Lord of Sabaoth1052
1052 The reference is to
Manes, of whom his disciple Turbo says (Archelai Disput. §
10), “the name Sabaoth, which is honourable and mighty with you,
he declares to be the nature of man, and the parent of lust: for
which reason the simple, he says, worship lust, and think it to be a
god.” | , who sitteth above the
Cherubim1053 : they have
dared to blaspheme the Lord Adonai1054
1054 ᾽Αδωναΐ, Heb. ינָדֹאַ,
“the Lord,” an old form of the Plural of majesty, used of
God only. | : they
have dared to blaspheme Him who is in the Prophets the Almighty
God1055
1055 παντοκράτορα,
Heb. ידַּשׁ
לא”, El-Shaddai, “God
Almighty.” | . But worship thou One God the
Almighty, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Flee from the
error of many gods, flee also from every heresy, and say like Job,
But I will call upon the Almighty Lord, which doeth great things and
unsearchable, glorious things and marvellous without
number1056
1056 Job v. 8, 9. Cyril’s quotation agrees
with the Codex Alexandrinus of the Septuagint, which has παντοκράτορα
, “Almighty,” while the Vatican and other mss. read τὸν πάντων
δεσπότην. | , and, For all
these things there is honour from the Almighty1057
1057 Job xxxvii. 23: God hath upon Him
terrible majesty (R.V.). The Vatican and Alexandrine
mss. of the Septuagint read ἐπὶ τούτοις
μεγάλη ἡ δόξα
καὶ τιμὴ
παντοκράτορος. (For these things great is the glory and honour of the
Almighty.) But Cyril’s text is the same as the Aldine
and Complutensian. | : to Whom be the glory for ever and
ever. Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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