Moses and the Mystery of Christ in Cyril of Alexandria's Exegesis, Part II

Abstract

Having set out his unrepentant Alexandrian hermeneutical principles generically in this way, Cyril advances into the precise exegesis of the nativity of Moses ( Exodus ch. 5 ) working from consistently Christocentric bases. The story of the birth is prefixed in the biblical text by the desperate state of Israel, forced to work like slaves under harsh overlords. This, for Cyril, signifies the state of humanity at the time of Christ, when all the nations of the earth were labouring under the worst dominion of demons. The children of Israel, are a type of humanity under the tyranny of sin. The Pharaoh is the evil Prince of this world (Satan), whose overseers ( localised demons) keep the people enslaved, and at a time when misery could hardly increase, the evil king devises a plan for the blotting out of male Israelite children. These signify those in whom the desire to serve God is still strong (virile) : in other words, the last hope among the elect for the world to turn back to God in the future. It is at the lowest ebb of the world’s fortunes that God decides to send his Son for the salvation of the race. Cyril does not explicitly cite his fundamental source for this but it is surely an echo of the fifth chapter of Romans which draws the distinction between the covenant of death (Phthora corruption as Cyril will have it ) stretching from Adam to Moses, and that of life, from the time of Jesus onwards. The macro-context again ensures that he draws the