Joel flesh; human sayings do not disturb; Christ Jesus means Word incarnate; 1 Cor headship
…according to “I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh.” (Joel 2:28) Let no one be disturbed even if God-breathed Scripture says something about him that befits a human; rather survey his above-world glory, from power and superiority that is God-befitting and highest.
What is most likely to weaken the mind of the simpler, I will try — as far as possible and as well as can be — to make clear, setting beside each saying the solution that suffices for explanation, God again directing our path into this. For he gives “a word to those who proclaim with much power,” (Psalm 68:11) as the inspired singer says.
In the discourse we made toward the holy virgins I set out at great length the readier sayings that have nothing hard to grasp; in the present work I have recalled the less clear. For your God-loving majesty needed to know both — these and those — so that through both what is sound for knowledge might settle, like a light, in your most pure minds. My aim in interpreting each is to be brief as I can; and the discourse on the emptying has been set first of all.
Know this nonetheless: whenever Christ Jesus is named to us, it befits us to understand the Word from God the Father as having become human and been enfleshed.
“For I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. The first human is of the earth, dusty” — that is, Adam — “the second is from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:47) (1 Corinthians 11:3) — clearly Christ. But “just as we wore the image of the dusty,
Greek
…κατὰ τὸ «ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός μου ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα.» θορυβείτω μηδένα κἂν εἰ λέγοιτό τι περὶ αὐτοῦ παρὰ τῆς θεοπνεύστου γραφῆς τῶν ὅσα ἐστὶν ἀνθρωποπρεπῆ· περιαθρείτω δὲ μᾶλλον αὐτοῦ τὴν ὑπερκόσμιον δόξαν, ἐξ δυνάμεως καὶ ὑπεροχῆς τῆς θεοπρεποῦς τε καὶ ἀνωτάτω.
ἃ δὲ ἦν μάλιστα παραλύειν εἰκὸς τὸν τῶν ἁπλουστέρων δύνασθαι νοῦν, ταῦτα δὴ, κατά γε τὸ ἐγχωροῦν καὶ ὡς ἔνι καλῶς, διατρανοῦν πειράσομαι, παρατιθεὶς ἑκάστῳ ῥητῷ τὴν ἀποχρῶσαν λύσιν εἰς διασάφησιν — Θεοῦ πάλιν ἡμῖν κατευθύνοντος καὶ τὴν εἰς τοῦτο τρίβον. δίδωσι γὰρ «ῥῆμα τοῖς εὐαγγελιζομένοις δυνάμει πολλῇ,» καθά φησιν ὁ θεσπέσιος μελῳδός.
ἐν μὲν οὖν τῷ λόγῳ τῷ πρὸς ἡμῶν γεγονότι πρὸς τὰς ἁγίας παρθένους, τῶν ἑτοιμοτέρων ῥητῶν καὶ οὐδὲν ἐχόντων τὸ δυσχερὲς εἰς κατάληψιν, πλείστην ὅσην πεποίημαι τὴν παράθεσιν· ἐν δέ γε τῷ προκειμένῳ, τῶν ἀσαφεστέρων πεποίημαι μνήμην. ἔδει γὰρ ἔδει τὸ θεοφιλὲς ὑμῶν κράτος καὶ ταῦτα εἰδέναι, κἀκεῖνα μὴ ἀγνοεῖν, ὡς ἂν δι’ ἀμφοῖν τὸ ἀρτίως ἔχον εἰς γνῶσιν, καθάπερ τι φῶς, ταῖς εὐαγεστάταις ὑμῶν εἰσοικίζοιτο διανοίαις. σκοπὸς δέ μοι τὰ ἐφ’ ἑκάστῳ διερμηνεύοντι βραχυλογεῖν, ὡς οἷόν τε· προτέτακται δὲ τῶν ἄλλων ὁ περὶ τῆς κενώσεως λόγος.
ἰστέον δ’ οὖν ὅμως ἐκεῖνο· ὅταν γὰρ ἡμῖν ὀνομάζηται Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς, ἐνανθρωπήσαντα καὶ σεσαρκωμένον προσήκει νοεῖν τὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς Λόγον.
«Θέλω γὰρ ὑμᾶς εἰδέναι ὅτι παντὸς ἀνδρὸς ἡ κεφαλὴ Χριστός ἐστι, κεφαλὴ δὲ γυναικὸς ὁ ἀνήρ, κεφαλὴ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὁ Θεός. ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἐκ γῆς χοϊκός» — τουτέστιν Ἀδάμ — «ὁ δεύτερος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ» — δῆλον δὲ ὅτι ὁ Χριστός. ἀλλ’ «ὥσπερ ἐφορέσαμεν τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ χοϊκοῦ,
About this text
Cyril’s court treatise on right faith for Pulcheria and Eudocia (CPG 5220). One Son who suffers in flesh yet remains impassible as God. English from Pusey’s Greek.
English follows Pusey’s 1877 Greek of De recta fide ad Pulcheriam et Eudociam. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Pusey, De recta fide ad reginas (Oxford, 1877) (Greek · CPG 5220 §§1–48)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.