95 The various sects of Gnostics, and the Manichees, considered certain meats and drinks, as flesh and wine, to be polluting. Vid. Iren. Haer. i. 28. Clem. Paed. ii. 2. p. 186. Epiph. Haer. xlvi. 2, xlvii. 1, &c., &c., August. Haer. 46, vid. Canon. Apost. 43. "If any Bishop, &c., abstain from marriage, flesh, and wine, not for discipline (di 0 a!skhsin) but as abhorring them, forgetting that they are all very good, &c., and speaking blasphemy against the creation, let him amend or be deposed," &c. R. W. C.
96 Acts xv. 20, 29. The prohibition of blood and things strangled has continued to the present day in the Eastern Church, though already disregarded by the Latins in the time of S. Augustine (lc. Faustum. xxxii. 13).
97 Tertullian (Apologeticus, c. 9) speaks of those "who at the gladiator shows, for the cure of epilepsy, quaff with greedy thirst the blood of criminals slain in the arena," and of others "who make meals on the flesh of wild beasts at the place of combat:" and contrasts the habits of Christians, who abstain from things strangled, to avoid pollution by the blood.
99 Compare xviii. 6, 9; Athenagoras, On the Resurrection of the Dead, c. 3.
100 XVIII. 6. John xii. 24; 1 Cor. xv. 36.
104 Gr. loutrou\ meta/noian. Other readings are lu/tron metanoi/aj, "redemption by repentance," and loutro\n metanoi/aj "a laver (baptism) of repentance."
105 Gal. iii. 24. The Paidagwgo/j is described by Clement of Alexandria (Paedag. i. 7) as one who both conducts a boy to school, and helps to teach him, - an usher: "under-master" (Wicliff).
107 tw=n a'pokru/fwn. The sense in which Cyril uses this term may be learned from Rufinus (Expositio Symboli, § 38), who distinguishes three classes of books: (1) The Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments, which alone are to be used in proof of doctrine: (2) Ecclesiastical, which may be read in Churches, including Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, Judith, and the Books of the Maccabees, in the Old Testament, and The Shepherd of Hermas, and The Two Ways in the New Testament. (3) The other writings they called "Apocryphal," which they would not have read in Churches. The distinction is useful, though the second class is not complete.
108 The The original source of this account of the Septuagint version is a letter purporting to have been written by Aristeas, or Aristaeus, a confidential minister of Ptolemy Philadelphus, to his brother Philocrates. Though the letter is not regarded as genuine its statements are in part admitted to be true, being confirmed by a fragment, preserved by Eusebius (Praeparatio Evangelica, ix. 6.), of a work of Aristobulus, a Jewish philosopher who wrote in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, 181-146, B.C. Upon these testimonies it is generally admitted that "the whole Law," i.e. the Pentateuch was translated into Greek at Alexandria in the reign either of Ptolemy Soter (323-285, B.C.), or of his son Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247, B.C.), under the direction of Demetrius Phalereus, curator of the King's library.
109 Up to this point Cyril's account is based upon the statements of the Pseudo-Aristeas. The fabulous incidents which follow, concerning the separate cells, the completion of the whole version by each translator, the miraculous agreement in the very words, proving a Divine inspiration, are found in Philo Judaeus, Life of Moses, II. 7.. Josephus, Antiquities, XII. c. ii. 3-14, following the letter of Aristeas, gives long descriptions of the magnificent presents sent by Philadelphus to Jerusalem, and of his splendid hospitality to the translators, but makes no allusion to the separate cells or miraculous agreement. On the contrary he represents the 72 interpreters as meeting together for consultation, agreeing on the text to be adopted, and completing their joint labours in 72 days. The slightest comparison of the Version with the original Hebrew must convince any reasonable person that the idea of divine inspiration or supernatural assistance, borrowed by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and other Fathers, apparently from Philo, is a mere invention of the imagination, disproved by the facts. Compare the article "Septuagint" in Murray's Dictionary of the Bible.
110 The rendering "trench not" (R. W. C.) agrees well with the etymology of the verb (paraxara/ssw). Its more usual signification seems to be "counterfeit," "forge." The sense required here, apart from any metaphor, is "transgress" (Heurtley).
111 The name "Nun" is represented by "Nave" in the Septuagint, which Cyril used.
113 The Epistle of Jeremy, which now appears in the Apocrypha as the last chapter of Baruch. On the number and arrangement of the Books of the Old and New Testaments the student should consult an interesting Essay by Professor Sanday (Studia Biblica, vol.. iii.), who traces the introduction of a fixed order to the time when papyrus rolls were superseded by codices, in which the sheets of skin were folded and bound together, as in printed books. This change had commenced before the Diocletian persecution, A.D. 303, when among the sacred books taken from the Christians codices were much more numerous than rolls. On the contents of the Jewish Canon, see Dictionary of the Bible, "Canon." B. F. W. "Josephus enumerates 20 books `'which are justly believed to be divine. 0'" One of the earliest attempts by a Christian to ascertain correctly the number and order of the Books of the O.T. was made by Melito, Bishop of Sardis, who travelled for this purpose to Palestine, in the latter part of the 2nd Century. His list is as follows: - "Of Moses five (books); Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Jesus son of Nave, Judges, Ruth, four Books of Kings, two of Chronicles, Psalms of David, Solomon's Proverbs, which is also called Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Job, Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Twelve in one Book, Daniel, Ezekiel, Esdras." (Eusebius, H.E. III. cap. 10, note I, in this s.) Cyril's List agrees with that of Athanasius (Festal Epistle, 373 A.D.), except that Job is placed by Ath. after Canticles instead of before Psalms.
114 Gr. yeudepi/grafa. For an account of the many Apocryphal Gospels, see the article by Lipsius in the "Dictionary of Christian Biography," Smith and Wace, and the English translations in Clark's Ante-Nicene Library.
115 Cyril includes in this list all the books which we receive, except the Apocalypse. See Bishop Westcott's Article "Canon," in the Dictionary of the Bible, and Origen's Catalogue in Euseb. Hist. vi. 25 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. i.).
116 Compare xix. 8. where all such acts of divination are said to be service of the devil.
2 See Procatechesis 6, and Index, Faithful.
4 1 Cor. iv. 3. See Index, Confession.
7 This sentence is a spurious addition to the text of the Septuagint, variously placed after Prov. xvii. 4, and xvii. 6. The thought is there completed by the antithesis, but to the faithless not even an obol. The origin of the interpolation is unknown.
9 It was a common objection of Pagan philosophers that the Christian religion was not founded upon reason but only on faith.
Cyril's answer that faith is necessary in the ordinary affairs of life is the same which Origen had employed against Celsus (I. 11): "Why should it not be more reasonable, since all human affairs are dependent upon faith, to believe God rather than men? For who takes a voyage, or marries, or begets children, or casts seeds into the ground, without believing that better things will result, although the contrary might and sometimes does happen?" See also Arnobius, adversus Gentes, II. 8; and Hooker's allusion to the scornful reproach of Julian the Apostate, "The highest point of your wisdom is believe" (Eccles. Pol.. V. lxiii. 1.).
10 By "aliens from the Church," and "those who are without," S. Cyril here means Pagans: so Tertullian, de Idololatriâ, c. xiv. But the latter term is applied to a Catechumen in Procatechesis. c. 12, and was also a common description of heretics: se Tertullian, de Baptismo, c. xv.
13 Is. vii. 9, according to the Septuagint. But A. V. and R. V. both render: If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.
16 1 Pet. v. 9: Whom resist, stedfast in the faith.
17 Ps. xi. 2, that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart (R. V.) The Hebrew word Peo)
, signifying deep darkness (Job iii. 6; x. 18) is vigoursly rendered by the Seventy skotomh/nh, which is explained by the Scholiast on Homer (Od. xiv. 457: Nu\c d0 a!r0 e'ph=lqe kakh\ skotomh/nioj) to be the deep darkness of the night preceding the new moon.
19 James ii. 21. Casaubon omitted mo/non, which is found in every Ms.. thus making the meaning to be, "He was justified not by works but by faith," which directly contradicts the statement of S. James, and is inconsistent with the following context in S. Cyril.
20 James ii. 23; 2 Chron. xx. 7; Is. xli. 8; Gen. xv. 6.
28 Jer. iv. 4: Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart. The Seeptuagint agrees closely with the Hebrew, but Cyril quotes frely from memory.
36 neu=ra. "Sinews" is the original meaning, the application to "nerves," as distinct organs of sensation, being later.
37 For a'nasth=sai, with Roe, Casaubon, and Alexandrides.
40 kata\ th\n proshgori/an. compare Aristotle, Categories, V. 30: tw= sxh/mati th=j proshgori/aj. Cyril's description of faith as twofold, and of dogmatic faith as an assent (sugkata/qesij) of the soul to something as credible, seems to be derived from Clement of Alexandria, Strom. II. c. 12. Compare by all means Pearson on the Creed, Art. I. and his Notes a, b, c.