SOURCE: Koen, Lars. “Cyril of Alexandria: Interpreter of the Scriptures.” In The Saving Passion: Incarnational and Soteriological Thought in Cyril of Alexandria's “Commentary on the Gospel according to St. John,” pp. 13-37. Uppsala: Uppsala University, 1991.

In the following excerpt, Koen presents an overview of Cyril's life and works before outlining the principal components of his analysis of Cyril's Commentary on John.

1.1 Cyril's Life

After hearing the news about the death of Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria, on June 27 in the year 444 a.d., Theodoret, the bishop of Cyrrhus, wrote a letter to Domnus, the bishop of Antioch expressing his feelings thus: “At last and with difficulty the beast has gone. The good and the compassionate pass; the bad lengthen their life for years.”¹ About the very same patriarch the following words are uttered in the most up-to-date encyclopedia on early Christianity: “The main architect of patristic christology.”² This...