Cyril of Jerusalem, Lecture 16, Part C

Cyril of Jerusalem

Lecture 16, Part C

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“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant....  Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit….” — 1 Corinthians 12:1, 4

Summary: The Spirit’s power fills and upholds the Universe, observes St. Cyril: no heavenly Angel, Archangel, Prophet, or Apostle exists who is not comforted, ruled, taught, and sanctified by Him.  We are sealed by the Spirit in Baptism.  The seventy elders of Moses’ day were moved by Him; yet, Moses predicts that all of God’s people will receive the Spirit at Pentecost.  There is no difference in the person of the Spirit in either Old or New Testament.  It is possible that more than one hundred verses reference the Spirit in the Old Testament.

Preview:  23.  “You have seen His power, which is in all the world; tarry now no longer upon earth, but ascend on high.  Ascend, I say, in imagination even unto the first heaven, and behold there so many countless myriads of Angels.  Mount up in your thoughts, if you can, yet higher; consider, I pray you, the Archangels, consider also the Spirits; consider the Virtues, consider the Principalities, consider the Powers, consider the Thrones, consider the Dominions — of all these the Comforter is the Ruler from God, and the Teacher, and the Sanctifier.  Of Him Elias has need, and Elisseus, and Esaias, among men; of Him Michael and Gabriel have need among Angels.”  “For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.  For what man knows the thing of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.”[i]  24.  “He preached concerning Christ in the Prophets; He wrought in the Apostles; He to this day seals the souls in Baptism.  And the Father indeed gives to the Son; and the Son shares with the Holy Ghost. For it is Jesus Himself, not I, who says, All things are delivered unto Me of My Father.”[ii]  “When He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come....  He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.”[iii]  “The Father through the Son, with the Holy Ghost, is the giver of all grace; the gifts of the Father are none other than those of the Son, and those of the Holy Ghost….”  “[Which] is sufficient for our salvation.”  25.  “This Spirit descended upon the seventy Elders in the days of Moses.”  “And the Lord came down in a cloud, and took of the Spirit that was upon Moses, and put it upon the seventy Elders;[iv] not that the Spirit was divided, but that His grace was distributed in proportion to the vessels, and the capacity of the recipients.  26.  “Jesus the Son of Nun, the successor of Moses, was amazed; and came to him and said, “Have you heard that Eldad and Modad are prophesying? They were called, and they came not; my lord Moses, forbid them”.”[v]  “I cannot forbid them … oh that all the Lord's people may be prophets.”[vi]  “And he secretly alluded to what was to happen among us on the day of Pentecost; for He Himself came down among us.”  “You see the figure everywhere the same in the Old and New Testament.”  27.  “He also came down upon all righteous men and Prophets”: Enos, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; Joseph, which even Pharaoh saw[vii], Moses, Job, and Bezaleel.”  28.  “In the might of this Spirit, as we have it in the Book of Judges, Othniel judged”[viii]; as well as the other judges after him.  “by the Holy Ghost [Samuel and David] prophesied themselves, and were rulers of the prophets — and Samuel was called the Seer.”[ix]  Or, “take not your Holy Spirit from me…”[x]  “your good Spirit shall lead me in the land of righteousness.”[xi]  “You gave also Your good Spirit to instruct them.”[xii]  29.  “And if further a man peruse all the books of the Prophets, both of the Twelve, and of the others, he will find many testimonies concerning the Holy Ghost; as when Micah says in the person of God, surely I will perfect power by the Spirit the Lord;[xiii] and Joel cries, And it shall come to pass afterwards, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh...;[xiv] and Haggai, Because I am with you, says the Lord of Hosts; and My Spirit remains in the midst of you;[xv] and in like manner Zechariah, But receive My words and My statutes which I command by My Spirit, to My servants the Prophets;[xvi] and other passages.”  30.  “Esaias too … says, And the Spirit of God shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and godliness; and the Spirit of the fear of God shall fill Him;”[xvii]  “Jacob My servant.... I have put My Spirit upon Him.[xviii]  And again, I will pour My Spirit upon your seed;[xix] and again, And now the Lord Almighty and His Spirit has sent Me;[xx] and again, This is My covenant with them, says the Lord, My Spirit which is upon you;[xxi] and again, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me….”[xxii]  “But they rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit….”[xxiii]  Yet, “And I will put My Spirit within you.  And again, The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord.”[xxiv]  31.  Daniel, who also defended Susanna[xxv], was also recognized as bearer of the Spirit by Nebuchadnezzar, “O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, of whom I know, that the Holy Spirit of God is in you.”[xxvi]  32.  “And indeed it were easy to collect very many texts out of the Old Testament, and to discourse more largely concerning the Holy Ghost.  “Wherefore, being for the present content awhile with passages from the Old Testament, we will, if it be God's pleasure, proceed in the next Lecture to the remaining texts out of the New Testament.”

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[i] 1 Corinthians 2:10-11

[ii] Matthew 11:27

[iii] John 16:13-14

[iv] Numbers 11:16, 25

[v] Numbers 11:28

[vi] Numbers 11:29

[vii] Genesis 41:38

[viii] Judges 3:10

[ix] 1 Samuel 9:9; 2 Samuel 23:2

[x] Psalms 51:11

[xi] Psalms 143:10

[xii] Nehemiah 9:20

[xiii] Micah 3:8

[xiv] Joel 2:28

[xv] Haggai 2:4-5

[xvi] Zechariah 1:6 Septuagint

[xvii] Isaiah 11:2

[xviii] Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18

[xix] Isaiah 44:3

[xx] Isaiah 48:16

[xxi] Isaiah 59:21

[xxii] Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18

[xxiii] Isaiah 63:10

[xxiv] Ezekiel 36:27; 37:1

[xxv] Susanna 45-64

[xxvi] The distorters of St. Cyril cannot have it both ways: for if he can quote Daniel 4:15 and Susanna there cannot be only twenty-two books.  On the other hand, it is hard to believe that words and verses were not removed, since reference to the Holy Spirit was an embarrassment to many.  Note that St. Cyril writes long before the MT was “standardized”.  Daniel 4:15 Septuagint; Daniel 4:9