Fragments Against Diodore

1From a homily by Cyril entitled “On ‘Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven’ (Matthew 24:29); but about that day and hour no one knows.”

But when he says this too, he does not at all mean himself. For he did not add precisely “nor the Son of God,” but says in an unqualified way “nor the son,” so that you understand something like this: the disciples were eager to learn everything with precision, and they were attempting, if I may put it this way, to pry into the very depths of the Lord. But the matter was very much beyond them.

2So then, so that he would not seem in some way to grieve his sincere followers by having refused the explanation they wanted to learn, he says in a veiled way, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels, nor the son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36).

3He said that only the Father knows. Understand it this way: even if a human being has been called to adoption and has been shown to be a new son, he must not seek what is beyond nature, nor think it right to learn what not even. Text breaks off.

4The Father has not revealed it to the angels. And if an angel does not know, neither will a human being know, even if he has been called to adoption.