Cyril of Jerusalem

This study is an exploration of how Cyril of Jerusalem constructed Christian identity for those who were preparing to enter into full communion with the church at Easter. In order to include the full catechetical teachings of the fourth-century hagiopolite tradition, the study examined the history of liturgy arguments against Cyrillian authorship of the Mystagogic Catecheses and has found, based upon the most recent scholarship, no reason to date the text to after Cyril’s bishopric. Having also used codicological and textual critical analysis to support the claim of Cyrillian authorship, the study argues for a different preferred manuscript tradition than what is presented in the critical edition.
Since Cyril provided an identity-clarifying attribute for the new Christians to associate with each of the rites of initiation, the study looks at the scholarly literature regarding Cyril’s sacramental theology. Taking the Jerusalem catechetical writings as a pedagogical unit and examining it through word studies and flow-of-thought analysis, this study constructs a new model for Cyril’s sacramental theology based upon his doctrine of theosis, which has not been examined with sufficient academic rigor to date. It demonstrates that not only does Cyril have a fully-developed doctrine of theosis, but his expression of theosis is Trinitarian, sacramental, and inseparable from his ethical and identity forming teachings.

Монография посвящена комплексному исследованию древнеславянского перевода Поучений огласительных и тайноводственных святителя Кирилла Иерусалимского на основе изданий древнейших рукописей и работах предшествующих исследователей. Подробное рассмотрение текстологии доказывает, что древнеславянский перевод является одним из древнейших и представляет спорные чтения так, как они приняты в православной Церкви, что может быть серьёзным аргументом в дискуссиях, касающихся литургической традиции. В качестве результата анализа палеографии, фонетики, морфологии и частично лексики выдвигается предположение о типе и происхождении перевода.

В сборник вошли статьи, посвященные изучению древнеславянского перевода Поучений огласительных и тайноводственных святителя Кирилла Иерусалимского. В ходе исследования, на широком фоне сравнительных материалов данных других старославянских текстов, диалектных и этимологических словарей, предпринимается попытка выяснить какое место занимает данный памятник в истории развития древнеславянской письменности. На основе исследования палеографии и лексики древнейших славянских рукописей Поучений делается предположение о месте создания перевода. Рассматривается предположение А. Вайана об участии епископа Константина Преславского в переводе Поучений.

Christian Palestinian Aramaic has always been a mine of peculiar words and spellings despite being a rather conservative written dialect within the Western Aramaic group. Three words in this dialect, b‘š, b‘šwn’, and mb‘šwn’, which are variant derivations of b’š, have puzzled scholars for more than a century. In addition to another set of ‘incorrectly spelled’ words, these were considered doubtful in the first dictionary, grammar, and text editions, but they turned out to have sound explanations and etymological origins.

"While secondary literature has stated that Cyril of Jerusalem’s theology contains evidence of theosis (making divine), demonstration of this concept within his catechetical
and mystagogical texts has not been explored in detail. By examining Cyril’s use of words within the semantic range of koinonia (communion, fellowship), his use of the verb theopoieo (to make divine, deifying), and how the individual is incorporated into
communion with both the divine Trinity and the church through the sacraments, I shall demonstrate that Cyril expressed a theology which is undergirded by a rich doctrine of theosis. Furthermore, this implicit doctrine of theosis is the hermeneutical key to
understanding the different rhetorical strategies that Cyril employed in his teachings on baptism and the Eucharist."

This invited paper (soon to be reviewed) proves that Eucharistic transubstantiation is simply a Greek-patristic term developed out of ancient Eucharistic catechesis of Cyril of Jerusalem by Leontios of Jerusalem (c. 538). The terminology and theory developed into an advanced theory of substance-to-substance change and was thereafter neglected in extant Byzantine discussions until George-Gennadios Scholarios revivified the discussion occasioned by his preparation for the Eucharistic debates at Ferrara-Florence. "Transubstantiation" is a Greek and entirely "Eastern" Orthodox term that enjoys a fully historical and patristic pedigree before the terms invention in the Latin Medieval period around 1140 AD.

There is too little study of Cyril of Jerusalem’s notion of the ecclesiological identity of baptismal candidates. I found that his use of familial terminology was not simply limited to that of the Biblical and Patristic models, i.e., fully initiated members of the church. He applied it to unbaptized candidates as well. They shared in a primal yet real membership of the ecclesial family. They were progressively brought into church membership through the individual rites of initiation, each contributing to a growing transformation in the candidates. They could be identified as family even prior to their ultimate, baptismal adoption as members. This article fills a significant gap in research on the late fourth century theology of initiation. It provides present-day catechists with a deeper understanding of their baptismal candidates’ ecclesiological status. It opens a Patristic and ecumenical vista into the relationship of non-Orthodox Christians with the Orthodox church.

This document is the handouts to accompany a PowerPoint presentation of St. Cyril of Jerusalem's sixth lecture. I have attempted to edit St. Cyril's archaic language for a modern Catechism class. He makes very practical suggestions how the Doctrine of God has relevance in our families today

Cyril's letter to Constantius II on the Jerusalem cross-apparition of 351 has usually been read as a declaration of Cyril's loyalty during Constantius' war with Magnentius. However, the letter also includes a discussion that links the cross to the eschatological " sign of the Son of Man " (Matthew 24:30). Modern interpreters have either ignored this eschatological section or assumed that it is aimed at a non-imperial audience. This paper advances a unified reading of the letter that shows how Cyril uses explicit verbal cues and his description of the cross's appearance and position over the sacred landscape of Jerusalem to prepare his imperial reader for the switch from politics to escha-tology. Cyril thus reinforces his portrayal of Constantius as a devout Christian emperor and assures Constantius not just of military success but of the truth of the Christian faith, while still maintaining his own episcopal authority. Keywords Cyril of Jerusalem – celestial cross – Constantius II – Jerusalem – eschatology – panegyric

"Sommaire:
1. LES PÈRES DE L'ÉGLISE
2. RÉPERTOIRE FIGURÉ DU DÉCOR
3. EXPLICATION DES IMAGES AUX CATÉCHUMÈNES
4. LES SYMBOLIQUES DU PRINTEMPS
5. A L'IMAGE DE LA PERFECTION DIVINE
6. MÉTHODE D'INTERPRÉTATION PAR ANALOGIE
7. CYRILLE DE JÉRUSALEM
8. LES ANALOGIES DE L'ÉVÈQUE CYRILLE
9. ÉGLISE DES SAINTS-APÔTRES À MADABA
10. PREMIÈRE ÉGLISE DÉCOUVERTE À PETRA
11. BASILIQUE DE DOUMETIOS À NIKOPOLIS
12. BASILIQUE DE CHRISTOPOLITISSA À PAPHOS
13. ÉGLISE DE QABR HIRAM
14. ÉGLISE DE PHOTIOS À HOUARTÉ
15. ÉGLISE DE MICHAËLION À HOUARTÉ
16. ÉGLISE DE MIRATA
cf. M.T. Olszewski, L'image et sa fonction dans la mosaïque byzantine des premières basiliques en Orient: l'iconographie chrétienne expliquée par Cyrille de Jérusalem (314-387) / The image and its function in the byzantine mosaics ... : the christian iconography explained by Cyril of Jerusalem (314-387), Cahiers Archéologiques 43, 1995, pp. 9-34. "

The vast majority of people in the pre-modern world, including  the Jewish, Christian and Islamic cultures, belonged to semi-oral societies whose main access to texts was oral or via a few literate specialists. Focusing on the Bible in ancient Jewish and Christian ritual, this paper wants to address the question how Genette’s model might function for the illiterate majority of the population in such semi-oral societies.
In an oral or semi-oral society, any text has to be performed in order to “be present.” For the average Jew or Christian who was not able to read or write the main access to the fundamental text of his religion was mediated by its interpretation in ritual performances. In Genette’s terms, oral text and its paratext are phonic (“phonique”) rather than graphic (“graphique”).
The article briefly addresses textual relationships between bible texts and ritual performance for the following phenomena
a) biblical texts as ritual incentive or even as screenplays of sorts
b) liturgical reading of biblical texts
c) the chronological linking of specific liturgical events (festivals, seasons, Shabbats or Sundays) with biblical reading(s). (This linking establishes a fixed ritual and mythological context for these texts that might not have been present in the text before. Of course, an already existing metatextual or epitextual tradition outside the graphic manuscript itself might well have influenced the selection of a text for a specific liturgical event. The individual and collective memory is shaped by the ritual recurrence of combinations of various texts linked to time and geography. Those texts frequently read will be much better known than those that are rarely or never cited.)
d) Extensive biblical texts are quoted (not read) in Jewish and Christian worship: e.g., the words of institution for the Eucharist and the Pater Noster on the Christian side, the Shma‘ on the Jewish and the Priestly Blessing of Aaron and the Sanctus/Trishagion/Qedusha on both.
e) My last example is the most remote in time and the most difficult to access from extant written sources: the relation between the performance of a Temple sacrifice and its biblical prescription(s) in the time of the Temple. In fact, the whole issue is more complicated and it is important not to be bibliocentrist or overly focused on the written text. Ancient Jewish rituals have always been transmitted textually (written or oral) and ritually. These modes of transmission are obviously somehow related. Yet, which text is metatextual to which, if you have two or three parallel text histories? Where is the main text? Almost certainly, priests studied the “biblical” prescriptions of sacrifices. At the same time, the information given in the biblical texts does not by a long way suffice to carry out the sacri¬fice. Certainly, the biblical prescriptions were never the origin of the first performance of a given rite but rather a (thin) description of it at one stage or another of its existence that later attained some kind of prescriptive status.

The paper is devoted to a historical reconstruction of cultural and commercial contacts which took place between Egypt and India at the peak of the maritime Silk Road to the West in antiquity, i.e. from the first to the fifth century A.D., and to how these contacts were reflected by the Roman authors of that time. It is shown that in this context the story of Siddhārtha Gautama can have been transmitted to the West from the first to the fifth century A.D. This study is based on the world-systems approach to late antiquity and it has the following two complementary dimensions: (i) reconstructing archeological evidences for the contacts of that time; (ii) cross-cultural textual analysis. As a result, it was detected that almost all the main claims of late antique authors about Buddhism and the ways of its expansion are well confirmed by archeology.

"St. Cyril thoroughly combs the Old Testament to prove that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit were evident in the Prophets, The Virgin Mary, and since the birth of the Church at Pentecost, are available to the church today.
He gives some examples of heretical misunderstandings of the Holy Spirit."

Daavidilla on huomattava asema niiden Vanhan testamentin pyhien joukossa, joita Kyrillos Jerusalemilainen (n. 315–387) käsittelee katekeettisessa tuotannossaan. Pyhän kaupungin piispan nimellä tunnetuissa opetuspuheissa esiintyy lähes viisikymmentä viittausta tähän Vanhan testamentin kuninkaaseen, sekä lukuisia lainauksia teksteihin, joilla on katsottu olevan daavidilainen alkuperä. On ilmeistä, ettei kirkkoisä ole sattumalta nostanut Daavidia näin keskeiseen asemaan opetuksessaan. Käsillä olevan tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on vastata seuraavaan kysymykseen: Mikä on Daavidin rooli Kyrillos Jerusalemilaisen katekeettisissa opetuspuheissa?
Artikkelissa osoitetaan, että Kyrilloksen ajattelussa Daavidilla on kolme merkittävää roolia. Ensimmäisissä ja laajimmissa viittauksissaan Daavidiin Kyrillos asettaa hänet parannuksen esikuvaksi. Inhimillisenä ja erehtyvänä, mutta jatkuvaan parannukseen suostuvana tämä Vanhan testamentin autuas mies soveltuu piispan katumusta koskevan opetuksen esimerkkitapaukseksi. Toiseksi Kyrillos painottaa Daavidin roolia Kristuksen esi-isänä. Tässä yhteydessä esitetyt viittaukset Daavidiin palvelevat kaksiluonto-opin perusteluina. Samalla ne avaavat näkymän myös Kyrilloksen homileettiseen ohjelmaan painottaa kristinuskon asemaa juutalaisen uskonnon täyttymyksenä. Daavidin kolmas rooli liittyy hänen asemaansa Vanhan testamentin profeettana. Tämän roolin yhteydessä jatkokysymykseksi nousee se, millaisen katekeettisen funktion Kyrillos antaa opetukselleen, jonka mukaan Daavid on paitsi parannusta tarvitseva myös profeetalliseen tehtävään kutsuttu ihminen. Lisäksi tutkimus avaa näkökulman myös Jerusalemin piispan käsitykseen daavidilaisen pääkaupungin topografisesta merkityksestä kristillisen uskonharjoituksen keskuksessa.

Due fogli di testo slavo in cirillico risalenti al Quattrocento e provenienti dalla biblio-teca di San Giacomo della Marca sono stati pubblicati per la prima volta nel 1905. In quel periodo facevano ancora parte di un altro codice – il Margarita(rum) decreto-rum a fratre Martino –, una raccolta indicizzata dei regolamenti della Santa Sede, e ciò come rafforzamento interiore della rilegatura. Venti anni fa, per la prima volta do-po che i fogli sono stati separati dalla rilegatura del libro, è stata pubblicata la rico-struzione più completa del loro contenuto, poiché allora si poteva leggere il testo del verso delle pagine, ma erano leggibili anche le parti marginali delle pagine esteriori, che fino a quel momento erano state coperte dalla copertina. A parte il fatto che i fogli sono stati in parte danneggiati irrimediabilmente, le parti leggibili presentate da Sante Graciotti sono servite come base per la ricostruzione di tutto il testo. L’interpretazione del contenuto, invece, ha aperto molte domande anche nel corso di questa seconda, più completa lettura.
L’interpretazione di Graciotti si basa su due elementi del testo che bisogna esa-minare poiché la parte restante, con cui egli intende confermare la sua tesi che si tratta di un trattato polemico, non proviene dallo stesso testo di base, ma da altre fonti. Pri-ma di tutto, l’interprete dimostra la posizione polemica del frammento A mediante la parola inesplicabile vasapnu/vaspnu, che, ripetuta tre volte consecutive, mette nello stesso contesto pagani, ebrei e tutti i cristiani. Secondo Graciotti questa parola si-gnifica ‘sterminio’ e trova corrispondenza nel contesto della condanna, che è alla pari di un anatema. Inoltre, l’eresia del frammento B si dimostra con la prevaricazione della citazione dell’Epistola ai Romani 4:24, poiché al posto di Ma ancora per noi, ai quali sarà imputato; i quali crediamo in colui che ha suscitato da’ morti Gesù, no-stro Signore, il disputante richiama all’‘E(pistola) a Romano 4’ con le parole ki je vaskrsnul Lazara iz mrtvih, on oživi i smrtna tilesa i duše naše. Graciotti ritiene che la mutazione abbia un significato decisivo, poiché con essa si rifiuta di credere nella risurrezione del corpo e si evita di menzionare che il corpo del Figlio è stato fatto ri-sorgere da Dio.
Con la lettura riveduta di un solo dettaglio, вɑ сɑρцʜχ al posto di вɑсɑпɴɤ, è sta¬ta aperta la possibilità di un’interpretazione completamente diversa del frammento A. Mi permetto di mettere il brano intero AB2 in un altro contesto perché la parola non è chiarita semanticamente, non è confermata nelle fonti scritte, e soprattutto per-ché adesso esiste una lettura credibile del punto controverso del testo come va sar¬cih. Inoltre, la citazione che si trova nel frammento B non è un’alterazione eretica del testo di Rom. 8:11, ma una frase dell’Omelia di Cirillo di Gerusalemme (II:5).

Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus (= CSR) represents a collection of fourteen Christian Palestinian Aramaic (= CPA) palimpsest manuscripts, which have been scattered through various public libraries and private collections between St Catherine’s Monastery, the National Library of Russia (St Petersburg), Staats- und Universitätbibliothek Göttingen, the former Friedrich Grote Collection, now Martin Schøyen Collection, Oslo, and some minor fragments in private hand since the middle of the nineteenth century, when the greater part was taken by Constantin Tischendorf to St. Petersburg. The presumed rest found its way through clandestine transactions to Europe. CSR is in most parts overwritten by a Georgian hand of Iovane Zosime, but the undertexts are consisting of various contents, as there are lectionaries of the Old and New Testament, the Catacheses of Cyril of Jerusalem, the beginning of the story of Prodigal son by John Chrysostom, the Vita of Pachomios, and some unidentified homilies. Each manuscript of the early CPA period carries individual features of script, orthography, linguistic variants, and lexemes that are interesting for codological as well as for grammatical and lexical studies. The overview will help placing remaining parts among the new finds in St Catherine’s Monastery.

Patristisen initiaatioteologian nykytutkimusta ohjaa implisiittinen perusolettamus, jonka mukaan kirkon rajat voidaan määritellä tarkasti. Tämä olettamus perustuu raamatullisiin ja varhaiskristillisiin aineistoihin, jotka kuvaavat kastetta eräänlaisena rajana kirkon ulkopuolisen ja sisäpuolisen todellisuuden välillä. Tutkimuksessa ei kuitenkaan ole riittävästi huomioitu, että 300-luvun merkittävien katekeettojen Kyrillos Jerusalemilaisen ja Johannes Krysostomoksen tuotannossa kirkon rajat eivät näyttäydy ainoastaan tarkkoina, vaan myös hieman epätarkkoina. Vaikka katekeetat toki pitävät initiaatioprosessin loppuvaiheen siirtymäriittejä luovuttamattomina kristillisen identiteetin välittäjinä, he kuitenkin samalla näkevät myös koko edeltävän prosessin efektiivisenä, kirkon täyttä jäsenyyttä kohti muuttavana. Kirkon jäsenyyden tämänkaltaisesta progressiivisuudesta seuraa, että initiaatioprosessia läpikäyvien katekumeenien ja kastekandidaattien ekklesiologista statusta ei ole mahdollista määritellä eksaktisti ulko- tai sisäpuolisuuden kategorioiden puitteissa.
Käsillä olevan tutkimuksen pääkysymys kuuluu: millaisena Kyrillos ja Krysostomos näkevät kirkon rajan ylitysvaiheessa olevien kastekandidaattien teologis-ekklesiologisen aseman? Tähän kysymykseen vastattuaan tutkimus osoittaa myös miksi kirkon rajojen määrittely on muodostunut ongelmaksi systemaattisen teologian nykytutkijoille. Lopuksi esityksessä luodaan katsaus mahdollisuuksiin, joita kirkon rajojen monimuotoisempi tarkastelu voi tarjota oman aikamme ortodoksiselle kirkolliselle elämälle.

The purpose of this article is to answer the following question: In the theology of Cyril of Jerusalem, Basil of Caesarea, and John Chrysostom, what is the relationship between the healing of the soul of the individual and church membership? It is argued that, in the context of their ecclesiology, the healing of the soul has a single goal: participation in the sacramental life of the church. The realization of this objective, however, occurs in two phases: first, in the context of Christian initiation, and secondly, in the context of and in relation to the liturgical life of the church.

The imagery of light plays a key role in Basil of Caesarea’s narrative of God and salvation. Curiously, the communal aspects of this imagery have received little attention in scholarship. A systematic analysis of De Spiritu Sancto reveals that in Basil’s understanding, participation in divine light functions as a parallel concept to Church membership. To begin with, the corporate nature of participation in divine light is evident from the ecclesial rites of initiation whereby this participation is bestowed. Furthermore, Basil uses the imagery of light to underscore the corporate nature of both the mystical union between God and the baptized, and the outward expressions of the believers’ lives in the divine light: worship and public witness. In addition to shedding new light on the Basilian notion of Church membership, the study offers a fresh outlook into the ecumenical dialogue between the Orthodox Church and Lutheran Church bodies on the theology of initiation.

The article studies a phenomenon, found in some texts from Late Antiquity and Middle Ages: a miraculous apparition of a sign of cross on clothes. Author analyzes the origins of that phenomenon, various geographical, social and political contexts in which it occurs, from fourth-century Palestine (where it seems to originate) to twelfth-century England and beyond.

This review article highlights the importance of the early manuscripts of Christian Palestinian Aramaic by examining several manuscripts belonging to Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus which, because of their early date and their internal dialectal characteristics, are significant for a better understanding of Western Aramaic.

Basil uses ideas and words which appear in the Catecheses Mystagogicae of Cyril of Jerusalem for composing De Spiritu Sancto 10-15. The order in which these ideas appear remind of the order of the mystagogic homilies: profession of faith, baptism, confirmation, eucharist. We conclude thath Basil used the material which the church of Caesarea used to explain the mysteries to the neophytes fo redacting this part of the treatise.

Кадочникова О. Г. Еще раз о датировке древнеславянского перевода Огласительных слов святителя Кирилла Иерусалимского // История русского языка и культурная память народа: материалы секции XL международной филологической конференции. Санкт-Петербург, 14 – 19 марта 2011 г. / С.-Петерб. гос. ун-т; отв. ред. О.А. Черепанова. - СПб., 2011. 40-46

St. Cyril covers the many titles and names of Jesus Christ, and begins to explain the Trinity. At the time of his lectures, he was not happy with the word "homousios"(essence), which Emperor Constantine was proposing as the solution to the Christological debates, but St. Cyril was part of the Nicene council and he agreed with the results.

This review article highlights the importance of the early manuscripts of Christian Palestinian Aramaic by examining several manuscripts belonging to Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus which, because of their early date and their internal dialectal characteristics, are significant for a better understanding of Western Aramaic.

В статье излагаются особенности текстологии двух оглашений древнеславянского перевода «Огласительных слов» святителя Кирилла Иерусалимского. В первой части анализируется версия, по которой греческий письменный текст «Огласительных слов» появился в результате синхронного пе­ревода, чем можно объяснить крайнюю сложность текстологии оригинала. В результате сопоставле­ния греческого и славянского текстов оглашений установлено, что древнеславянский перевод соот­ветствует общим чтениям древнейших греческих рукописей. Так как антиграф греческих списков не установлен, данное свидетельство славянского текста говорит о его ценности для реконструкции гре­ческого оригинала. Приводится несколько образцов реляционного метода текстологического анализа греко-славянского текста, дающих представление об отражении трех греческих редакций в древней­шей полной славянской рукописи «Огласительных слов» (ГИМ, Син. 478). Вторая часть статьи по­священа анализу разночтений древнеславянского перевода и древнейших греческих рукописей. Большая часть оригинальных славянских чтений объясняется не вольностью перевода, как нередко предполагалось в работах по Хил, а следованием переводчика славянской языковой норме и неиз­вестному греческому антиграфу.

Article disponible en version d'auteur sur :
https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01525800

La tradition manuscrite copte des Actes de Pilate se limite à un manuscrit et à quelques fragments. Pourtant, nombreuses sont les homélies coptes dans lesquelles transparaissent des allusions lexicales ou thématiques à cet apocryphe. Les corpus du Pseudo-Évode et du Pseudo-Cyrille de Jérusalem sont à cet égard particulièrement riches. Cette contribution en hommage au directeur de l’équipe chargée de l’édition des Actes de Pilate est l’occasion de rassembler les indices épars pour mettre en valeur l’ampleur de la diffusion de la recension copte.

This paper examines the view on the church of the Illyrian bishop Niceta of Remesiana (c.334 - c. 414). Although his contribution to the fourth-century theological developments is unjustly neglected in patristic scholarship, his writings deserve to be reexamined. His sermon on the creed, in particular, presents two novelties for the Latin creedal literature: the first occurrences of the term 'catholicus' and of the formula 'communio sanctorum' in the description of the church in a western creed. This paper tracks down Niceta’s sources for the use of these terms to his knowledge of Greek theology (e.g. Cyril of Jerusalem) and identifies Niceta as an important mediator between the Greek and Latin speaking Christians of the late Roman Empire.