St Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on Isaiah 1:10-20

Note: This translation renders St. Cyril of Alexandria's commentary on Isaiah 1:10-20 from the Latin version of his work. Biblical quotations follow the sense of the Vulgate and Septuagint traditions that Cyril employed. Some technical theological terms (e.g., "pedagogue," "typical/significative") are retained to preserve patristic precision. Greek phrases appearing in the Latin text are transliterated and translated in parentheses. Translated by Qwen.

Is 1:10-14

"Hear the word of the Lord, you princes of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 'To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?' says the Lord. 'I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or of male goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates.'"

Having sufficiently terrified them by the threat of future evils, and having foretold that these things would most certainly and inevitably come upon them in their own time—unless they should choose to think better thoughts and likewise carry out what the divine laws require—he appropriately shifts his discourse and shows what is to their advantage, so that they might be willing to think and feel better things, that they may be freed from the impending punishment.

For because the Israelites raged against Christ, they perished; and furthermore, we say that they fell because of the wickedness of those who were appointed to the province of teaching. For although they knew that He was the heir, nevertheless they killed Him; for they wished to make His vineyard their own portion. That stupid Israel, following the malignity of its princes, fell away from the hope of Christ, the God of all confirms, speaking through the voice of the prophets: "Many pastors have corrupted My vineyard; they have defiled My inheritance; they have made My desirable portion a desolate wilderness. It is made a desolation, mournful to me, laid waste." And again: "Because the pastors have acted foolishly and have not sought the Lord, therefore all the flock has not understood, and they are scattered."

Truly the pastors acted foolishly and brought destruction upon their people. Was it not fitting that they, being well instructed in the mystery of Christ through the Law and the Prophets, should rather open the way for others to believe in Him? Yet the Savior says that they received glory from men, but did not seek the glory that comes from God alone. "For if they had believed Moses, they would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me." They therefore became blind guides of the blind; and so they fell headlong and collapsed into the abyss of destruction.

What then does the prophet attempt? To change them by good admonitions, so that they might think more wisely and be obedient to the Savior's word. To these admonitions he also usefully mingles terror, healing in them these wounds of folly by applying, as it were, various medicines. And so he says: "Hear the word of the Lord, you princes of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah."

Do you hear how, with love and pious affection, he wields the rod against both the people and the princes, and strikes those corrupted by the disease of disobedience? He compares Jerusalem to the most lost and utterly impious cities, as being covered with many vices and having nothing at all in itself by which it might seem likely that it could escape the force and onslaught of threats.

For the God of all wished to burn the cities of the Sodomites, and He communicated the matter to Abraham. To whom Abraham said: "Will You indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? Shall not the righteous be as the wicked?" And God promised that if ten righteous men were found in Sodom, He would cease from His wrath. Yet they were not found; and so they suffered punishments worthy of and equal to their crimes.

Such also was this Jerusalem, the murderess of the Lord, in which there was a great scarcity of righteous men. For when the prophet Jeremiah was interceding for her, God said: "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know; seek in her broad places if you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes justice, who seeks the truth; and I will pardon her," says the Lord. Because therefore she was defiled and rolled in the filth of crimes in many ways, and suffered from a great lack of holy men, He calls her Sodom and Gomorrah, and casts upon both people and princes the reproach of Sodomitic impurity.

For what does He say? "Hear the word of the Lord, you princes of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah." "Awake," He says, "for a little while, and with the eye of your mind fixed upon the words of the most wise Moses, understand the mystery of Christ." For Moses said: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from your brethren, like me; Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He speaks to you."

"Hear therefore the word of the Lord; give ear to the law of God"—that is, understand even yourselves the force of these oracles. This Moses commanded; for he is the pedagogue leading to Christ, and the end of the legal oracles pertains to the mystery concerning Him. He calls the law of God a "reproach."

"But do you think," He says, "that you please God beautifully because you strive to fulfill typical and shadowy things? Hear Him speaking the ancient law and saying to you: 'To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?' says the Lord. 'I am full.'" For if you offer as to one who is needy, you have already departed from your duty and have strayed from considered and true reason. For absolutely nothing is lacking to that Nature which fills all things, because all things are His, and from Him all things are supplied to others. "For what do you have that you did not receive?" For this might rightly be said to the creature.

"For I am now," He says, "wearied and full, nor would I desire sacrifices from them any longer." Tell me, what profit is there to the God of all in a sacrificed ram? What profit in the fat of lambs? And if the blood of bulls and goats is offered, what pleasure would God derive from these? "Who has required these things from your hands?" For although Moses spoke concerning victims and offerings, nevertheless that ancient manner of worship was by no means acceptable to God. Clearly, through figure and shadow they needed to be instructed in the truth; the legal ordinances were established until the time of restoration, nor were they established in such a way as to be pleasing to God in themselves. Nor did He speak about legal things absolutely and without qualification, but because the weak mind of those who were then being instructed by these elementary principles was being led as by the hand through type and shadow to the truth.

But when the time arrived in which beauty ought to shine forth, the type is a useless shadow. Therefore He says: "If you continue to tread My courts, if you offer fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to Me." For we, enlightened by faith in Christ and offering spiritual sacrifices to God, fill His holy courts—namely, the churches. But Christ by no means receives Jewish worship in the churches. For those who wish to offer fine flour mixed with oil and incense that falls under the senses are by no means admitted. For we remember that God spoke concerning this: "It is an abomination to Me."

And indeed we celebrate sacred feasts in Christ; but the Jews, not departing from typical significations, blow trumpets at the New Moons, think the Sabbath day is to be observed, and cultivate the day that is called "the great day"—that is, the last day of the feast called Tabernacles. Even if they fast to God and humble themselves with scourging, let them therefore hear Him saying: "Your feasts My soul hates." But He says this so that He may lead them from types to truth, and persuade them to submit their neck to Christ's oracles, so that they may conduct themselves evangelically with us, may soothe God with the sweetness of spiritual fragrances, and as it were consecrate to Him spiritual incense: modesty, charity, mutual love, patience, temperance, and above all faith. By these God is propitiated, and with these ornaments of evangelical promises He crowns believers.

Is 1:15

"You have become a weariness to Me; I will no longer forgive your sins. When you spread out your hands, I will turn away My eyes from you; even though you multiply prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood."

Those things that produce satiety and nausea ought also to be utterly despised—indeed, they come to be hated. For the most wise Solomon says: "Seldom set foot in your neighbor's house, lest he become full of you and hate you."

God therefore says to the Jews: "I am sated; the obsolete shadow [wearies Me], and I consider you troublesome if you enter to appear before Me. I abhor even your assemblies." For formerly, when the Israelites had impiously revolted so as to provoke the God of all against themselves by worshiping the creature and adoring the works of their hands, they were delivered to the Babylonians, led captive from Judea, and dwelt in the territories of the Persians and Medes, undergoing a bitter and unbearable servitude.

Finally, after seventy years, merciful God again took pity. For as is written in Zechariah, the blessed angel offered supplicatory prayers for them, saying: "O Lord Almighty, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which You were angry these seventy years?" And to this God replied: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy; I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was angry but a little, and they helped toward the affliction." So then He forgave their sins; for he was liberated and again led back into their own land.

But after the crucifixion of the Savior, He declares that He will no longer forgive sins, because they persisted in them; for a long time indeed they remained subject to the fury and stroke of His wrath. Yet that in the last times they might obtain mercy, being justified in Christ together with us, the sacred writings proclaim—but as I said, far longer than the time of wrath lasted—therefore He says: "I will no longer forgive your sins."

You may add, if you please, another consideration to this sentence: The Israelites, according to the ancient rite and institution of the Law, used to offer sacrifices for their sins; a goat or lamb was slain, and God granted forgiveness. Indeed, even the old Law was not ineffective in helping, for the mystery of Christ was sketched in it. But when Christ was to show that the legal purification ought henceforth to be weak, since the truth had now arrived, the shadow of the Law is therefore not sufficient for the remission of sins to those who do not anticipate Christ's redemption. He teaches this, saying: "I will no longer forgive your sins." For, He says, since the truth has not yet been granted so that types might be able to help those entangled in sins—out of reverence for the truth itself He does this also—when it is present and demonstrated, the figure and shadow are of little efficacy.

"And I will no longer forgive your sins; but if you spread forth your hands, I will turn away My eyes from you; and if you multiply prayers, I will not receive them." Has then the Maker of all ceased to be benign? Has God forgotten to be merciful? By no means, He says; for I am, and I am human and good and merciful—only I turn away My eyes unwillingly. "For your hands are full of blood."

Do you hear Him, passing over other crimes, impute to them the charge of murder? Although we discover that they were entangled in many vices. For they heard: "Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters!" But when they also slaughtered the prophets and laid their impious hands upon Christ Himself, the [Prince] of us all, hence and indeed most justly He brings against them a most grave accusation and one sufficient to condemn them, saying: "Your hands are full of blood."

Moreover, God and the Father turns away His face, as not enduring to see the hands of the murderers red with the blood of His Son: πρόσωπον ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Πατήρ ὡς ὁρᾶν οὐκ ἔχων τὰς χεῖρας ("God and the Father turns away His face, as not having [the capacity] to see the hands...").

Is 1:16

"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean."

Having recalled their sins to memory, He does not allow them to despair, but most appropriately introduces grace proceeding from goodness and clemency, nor does He exclude them from the benefit which through Christ is proposed to all throughout the whole world. For they did not decline [this benefit] simultaneously and become useless; "and the world became subject to God." Because they worshiped the creature, the Israelites violated the Law given to them through Moses. Moreover, the nations were called to Christ and to His admirable light; and those who were once "not a people" were made a people. But the Jews, wretched, raged against Him; they put to death impiously the Prince of life, although He again rose as God.

But because He is good and wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and wishes to open for them also the way of salvation, He therefore also bids them to cast away sins, being justified freely—not from works of the Law, but rather through faith and holy baptism. And therefore He says: "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean."

What the old Law also figured for them through shadows, and grace through the sacred laver it proclaimed beforehand. For God somewhere says to the priest Moses: "Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and purify them; and thus you shall do to them for their purification: sprinkle them with water of purification, and let a razor come upon their whole body, and let them wash their clothes, and they shall be clean." Then what sort of thing the "water of purification" is, the most wise Paul will teach with these words: "For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ...?"

Wherefore the Law indeed effected a carnal purification through the water of purification; but Christ through baptism cleanses away all defilements of the soul. For we have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, which refines every kind of vice in us and, as it were, melts down and consumes as useless material and as it were refuse. For this is the work and property of fire. The blessed Paul makes this plain, saying: "By faith Noah, being divinely warned, prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water, which also now saves us—baptism, which is not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God."

What He urges the Jewish people to do, saying "Wash, be clean"—that is, wash away the stain, with Him who was insulted among you justifying you by clemency and benignity. We see also the divine Peter rebuking them because they killed the Prince of life, and because they asked that a murderer, namely Barabbas, be granted to them. Yet he also stirs them to repentance, saying: "And now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as also your rulers. Repent therefore, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children..." εἰσιν αἱ ἐπαγγελίαι καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις ὑμῶν ("the promises are to you and to your children").

Is 1:16 (continued)

"Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes; cease to do evil."

For the salutary and sacred laver suffices for the washing away of sin, and wipes away the stain of former transgressions. But those who have once been sanctified ought, as far as lies in them, to keep their souls pure and unspotted, and to be mindful of Him who says: "Keep your heart with all diligence." And again: "If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place; for conciliation pacifies great offenses."

For great pleasure, which is even joined with baseness, especially shakes the soul of man; and above all others, the law in the members of the flesh that is innate and fierce; besides, wicked thoughts that utterly plunge our mind into every kind of vice. Those who have been baptized therefore ought to desist from all such crimes—not only from those parts that are outward and placed in sight, but also to remove wickedness from their soul, especially since God sees and inspects all things. For sometimes they feign goodness and hunt for a reputation for probity, and as it were steal inwardly while being rapacious wolves, according to that which is written: "With their mouth they speak peaceably, and in their heart they harbor hatred." Indeed, even by the voice of David: "Their words were smoother than butter, but they were drawn swords." However much they may wish to hide, He who dwells in the heavens will laugh them to scorn, and the Lord will mock them. For He knows, He knows hearts and reins.

But he who is truly good will be so both before God and before men, as Paul also says: "Providing things honest not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men." Great therefore is this: to remove iniquities from the eyes of God. Such was Nathanael, concerning whom Christ said: "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile."

"Desist therefore," He says, "from your iniquities"—that is, cease committing sin, which coalesces and adheres with us; turn your heart to better things. But if Christ speaks these things, accusing the Jews, consider what they did when they raged against Him, laid snares, dug pits, and with every means and with all their strength plotted every kind of cruelty against Him. For now they suborn certain of His disciples with those who are called Herodians, so that they might ask and say: "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" Now also again they come and say: "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"—so that they might accuse Him. Let them therefore hear Him saying: "Cease from the crimes of your souls before My eyes; desist from your iniquities."

Is 1:17-18

"Learn to do good; seek justice, relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

He defined the weakness of legal worship when He said: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? says the Lord; I am full." And where He subjoined: "Who has required these things from your hands?" He now appropriately expounds anew the dignity and, as it were, the elegance of evangelical conduct, and shows the way of holy life, which truly has praise and approval not in types or shadows, but from the things themselves and the ornaments of virtues.

For what does He say? "Learn to do good." Does anyone then, I ask, say that He utterly removes [us] from the precept of the Law, and does not permit us at all to look to those precepts divinely handed down through Moses? Yet how does Christ afterward say: "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to destroy but to fulfill"? And how does Paul also say: "Therefore the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good"?

To which we in turn will reply: The Law is indeed good, if indeed it is understood spiritually; nor does Christ utterly remove us from the Law, but rather leads us to that which is more excellent and preeminent, since he has laid the pedagogy of the Law as a foundation in us, and has shown those shadows as types of true worship, as a preliminary exercise and training for the ancients.

Moreover, this also must be said: The Mosaic Law teaches abstention from vice and sin, and is a pointer to baseness. Paul therefore says: "I would not have known sin except through the Law." But the preaching of the Gospel renders us zealous for every virtue. Therefore, rightly and properly and truly, "good" can be said of it in reality. For that "You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery" indeed deterred the initiated from sin, yet it did not show what the Good is—namely, that one ought not to be angry with a brother, not to lust, nor did it lead to the summit and ornament of virtue. It is excellent to conquer anger; it is admirable to be able [to resist] evil desires and not to permit the mind to wander to the principles of most execrable lust. Therefore truly good is the discipline of the Gospel, and the virtue and efficacy of Christian instruction.

It must therefore be cried out to the lovers of the letter: "Learn to do good; seek judgment"—namely, that you may judge rightly. For besides all other basenesses, the Jewish Synagogues labored under this disease: having obtained authority, they by no means judged rightly, but rather passed unjust sentences and were corrupted by the allurements of bribes and gifts, inflicted injury, and supported the impious by their counsel. For as the prophet says: "Her princes judge for rewards."

Necessary therefore is the precept also for those who desire to live evangelically, nor is it useless for justice to judge rightly—not only in external matters, but also in others which pertain to the mind and heart: for example, when God condemns vice, Satan praises it; when the Law of the Savior persuades that the good is to be loved, he draws to the contrary. Then our mind is as it were a judge and arbiter. If it approves what is good and assigns to it the superior parts, it has then "sought judgment." But if it adjudges victory to vice, it then departs from judging rightly, and will deservedly hear: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."

The glory and praise of the Gospel therefore is to judge rightly and to defend the oppressed. For this, I think, is "Relieve the oppressed." Moreover, a certain compassion must be exercised, nor must there be respect of persons. "Defend," He says, "the fatherless and plead for the widow; come and let us dispute," says the Lord—not as though contending in judgment with the Lord. For He will certainly be justified in His words, and will prevail when He is judged. For no one will be whole and pure of defilements, nor will anyone boast that he has a clean heart; but rather, let them, as it were, accusing and proving before themselves whether the magnitude of divine munificence is great and to be embraced. As also the wise Paul writes to us: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

To those therefore who are transferred, as it were by faith, from the institution and conduct of the Law to the elegance of Christian life, He promises the remission of those things in which they had formerly offended. For that is the entrance of our hope, and the firstfruits of divine clemency toward us, and as it were a door and way. And He makes it credible that the grace of Faith will suffice for cleansing both for those who are greatly defiled and also for those who are only slightly afflicted by the disease, saying: "If your sins are as purple, I will make them white as snow; and if they are as crimson, I will make them as wool." For nothing is washed away with difficulty by God cleansing. As Paul also says: "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more." And again: "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is he who condemns?"

Is 1:19-20

"If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword"; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

The God of all addressed the Israelites through the most wise Moses: "Behold, I have set before you the way of life and the way of death." For a path is placed before us for either [outcome], and the fruit of each one's volitions is, as it were of flowers, to live splendidly and lawfully or, on the contrary, culpably. Nor can there be any doubt that those who live a probative and splendid and most acceptable life to God are always borne up to life; but those who are given over and addicted to evil pleasures have an end tending to destruction and ruin.

Therefore the fruit of obedience will be "to eat the good of the land," which is prepared for the saints, of which even our Lord Jesus Christ makes mention to this effect: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." But the fruit of malice and a flagitious life is useless repentance, and from divine wrath, the sword and destruction—as was said—and what evils are not of this sort?

Moreover, the prophet demonstrates that his utterance is worthy of belief when he immediately adds: "For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things." For since it cannot happen that God should lie—for He always remains the same, which is truth—is it not necessarily to be understood that those things which have been foretold will most certainly come to pass?

Indeed, it is necessary to consider that the prophetic word profits wonderfully and remarkably both the souls of the perfect and mature, and also of those who are not yet confirmed in genuine and true faith. For when the God of all has placed in the inclination of those who are being instructed both the choosing of good and the turning away from evils, He clearly proves that He has given to each mortal the reins of things to be done and to be avoided, so that each might be able to go freely to that which he has chosen.

Since this is true, vain and cold indeed is the pretext of contending and saying that evil is natural in man, or that fortune or fate or nativity governs the helm of human affairs and drives whomever to whatever pleases them, so that they cultivate vice or virtue not by voluntary impulse, but as though subjected and enslaved to the unavoidable nod of dominating necessity, driven reluctantly and with difficulty. For if evil is by nature and inheres in substance—as these triflers babble—how does it either grow strong or grow weak according to the will of each? For if I should wish to be good, nothing prevents me from also appearing such. If likewise [I wish to be] evil, nothing will likewise prevent me from falling into that. Where then is the power of fortune and fate? And what is that nativity which imposes the yoke of necessity upon any of men, if indeed this follows the will of each, so that those who show obedience "eat the good of the land," and those who through disobedience and stubbornness oppose the divine laws perish by the sword?