Cyril of Alexandria

He replied, “I already told you, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

“Would ye also become His disciples? He has now confessed distinctly, and without any evasion, that he has been made a disciple, if not by argument yet in consequence of the marvellous deed; and has become a believer, accepting his miraculous sight in the place…”

Then they heaped insults on him and said, “You are His disciple; we are disciples of Moses.

“We almost see the Evangelist smile as he says this. For he beholds those whose lot it was to hold sacred offices degraded in mental stupor so far as to make an object of reviling that which was so excellent, namely discipleship under Christ; smitten…”

We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this man is from.”

“Boldly do they speak again, armed with that folly which is so familiar and dear to them; and in undiminished shamelessness they once more boastfully exclaim: We know.”

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, He found the man and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

“And finding him, He said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? The man who had been blind has been cast out by the Pharisees, but after no long interval of time Christ seeks him, and finding him, initiates him. in mysteries.”

“You have already seen Him,” Jesus answered. “He is the One speaking with you.”

“Being asked upon whom it was proper to believe, Jesus points to Himself, and not simply by saying "It is I," but by saying that the Person Whom the other was looking at and by Whom he was being addressed, was the Son of God…”

Then Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”

“Christ, when explaining to us by the voice of Isaiah the cause of His manifestation, I mean in this world, says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me: He hath sent Me to preach good tidings unto the poor to…”

Jesus spoke to them using this illustration, but they did not understand what He was telling them.

“Simple is the language of the saints, and far removed from the elaborateness of the Greeks: for God chose the foolish things of the world, according to the word of Paul, that He might put to shame them that are wise.”

The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again.

“If we see ourselves in our own child, we are drawn to an intensity of love whenever we see that child.”

“I already told you,” Jesus replied, “but you did not believe. The works I do in My Father’s name testify on My behalf.

“Even Christ therefore considered it superfluous to say the same things over again to those who had often heard them and had not been persuaded by them.”

My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.

“A willing readiness to obey characterises the sheep of Christ, as disobedience marks those that are not His.”

My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.

“The faithful also have the succour of Christ, the devil not being able to snatch them; and they who have an endless enjoyment of good things, remain in it, no one henceforth snatching them away from the bliss that is given to them into punishment…”

At this, the Jews again picked up stones to stone Him.

“For not refraining themselves from Him, when He said that Himself was One with the Father, they rush to kill Him; although each of the works wrought by Him proclaimed that He was in His Nature God.”

“We are not stoning You for any good work,” said the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because You, who are a man, declare Yourself to be God.”

“But this also we must understand, in opposition to the Arians, that in His saying: I and the Father are One, there is signified, not the proof of sameness of will, but the Oneness of their Essence.”

Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’?

“I said, Ye are gods, ... Since therefore the Father called certain men gods, and of necessity the honourable name was something external, super-added to them, for He Who is God by Nature is One only; lest Jesus also should be deemed to be one…”

then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world?

“But perhaps when the Divine Scripture saith that the Son was sent from the Father, the heretic straightway deems the expression a support to his own error, and will say in all probability: "Ye who refuse to speak of the Son as inferior to the…”

If I am not doing the works of My Father, then do not believe Me.

“What He says is this. Though it is easy for any one to call God Father, yet to demonstrate the fact by works is hard and impossible to a creature.”

Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had first been baptizing, and He stayed there.

“Leaving Jerusalem, the Saviour seeks a refuge in a place possessing springs of water, that He might signify obscurely as in a type how He would leave Judaea and go over to the Church of the Gentiles which possesses the fountains of Baptism: there also…”

(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)

“With a purpose does the Evangelist make mention of the names of the women, showing that they were distinguished for their piety. Wherefore also the Lord loved them.”

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

“The women send to the Lord, ever wishing to have Him near them, but on this occasion sending under a fair pretext on account of him who was sick.”

When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death.

“The Lord now says this, not that the men may go away and report it to the sisters of Lazarus, but as God foretelling what should come to pass, because He saw that the conclusion of the affair would be for the glory of God…”

So on hearing that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days,

“And He deferred His arrival in order that He might not heal him while sick, but raise him when dead; which is a work of greater power, so that He would be more greatly glorified.”

and then He said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“Now when the Lord said: Let us go into Judaea again, He seems almost to declare "Even though the people there are unworthy of kindness, yet now that an opportunity presents itself of conveying them some advantage, let us go back to them;" but the…”

After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”

“"A worthy cause draws Me towards Jerusalem;" for so much is signified by the words: Our friend is fallen asleep; "and if we should let it pass neglected, we should incur the reputation of being devoid of compassion.”

They thought that Jesus was talking about actual sleep, but He was speaking about the death of Lazarus.

“They, not understanding the force of the words, thought that Jesus spake of taking rest in sleep, which when sick men can do, they generally experience refreshment; wherefore the disciples say: "It is not worth while to go and disturb Lazarus from his sleep, for…”

and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

“The disciples therefore not understanding that He had called death by the name of sleep, He made His meaning clearer, saying: He is dead.”