In the year 253 A.H. (867 A.D.) Bisr ibn al-Sirri finished his so important translation and interpretation of the Pauline Epistles. In its first two parts the paper at hand is focussed on his commentary on Paul's letter to the Philippians and asks for central themes, with which Bisr deals in this part of his work. It will be seen that he gives among other things a special attention to the explanation of Pauline Christology, especially in Phil 2:6-7. To set his complex interpretation of these verses in a wider frame, in the third part of the paper the perspective is expanded to Bisr's explanation of central Christological passages in other 'Pauline' letters, for example in Rom 8:28-29 or 1Tim 3:16. By that it is possible to generate a deep insight in the coherence of the Christological conception of this early Arabian Bible translator.

This article considers the authenticity of a letter attributed to Cyril of Alexandria that survives only in two Georgian manuscripts. This letter stands at the head of a catena of exegetical fragments dealing with the Pauline epistles, and its author claims responsibility for compiling the subsequent collection of extracts from patristic authors. Although its existence has been known since the early twentieth century, and it was included in Cyril's corpus in the Clavis Patrum Graecorum, a critical edition of the letter was only recently published in 2003. We provide the first modern translation of the letter, and argue on the basis of its contents that Cyril was almost certainly not its author.