Voices and influences
Theodoret of Cyrus
He ran a poor country diocese, commented on nearly the whole Bible, and stood by his friends when it cost him his seat.
Summary
This site quotes Theodoret of Cyrus 84 times across 20 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 458.
- Quoted here most in Psalms: 20 of 84.
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Theodoret of Cyrus
- Lived
- died 458
- Tradition
- Patristic
5 of 84 quotations
Own words
Quoted at 50 words or fewer, because Theodoret of Cyrus's works are in copyright.
The blessing followed as Boaz said it would. For Ruth received the full reward from God, so that she was the progenitor of the blessing of the nations.
QUESTIONS ON RUTH, 458
Ruth 2:12 May the LORD repay your work, and may you receive a rich reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge.” BSB
Regard for truth is in danger of being snuffed out, with everyone, you might say, suffering from distrust in one another.… They pretend friendship and perform the actions of enemies.… Some use their lips to direct falsehood into their neighbor's heart; others return the compliment.
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 12:2, 458
Psalms 12:2 They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart. BSB
Not for being lowly is God exalted, nor does he receive what he does not possess; instead, what he possesses he reveals … your exaltation is revealed in your ineffable power, which we shall continue to celebrate and sing, recounting your marvelous works.
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 21:8, 458
Psalms 21:13 Be exalted, O LORD, in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power. BSB
Those constantly reared on the sacred Words have a precise knowledge from them that all the dispensations of God our Savior are tempered with mercy and truth: to some, who repent of sins committed, he extends mercy and pardon; others unconquered he proclaims and crowns …
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 25:5, 458
Psalms 25:10 All the LORD’s ways are loving and faithful to those who keep His covenant and His decrees. BSB
Prayer offered to God befits a king: it is appropriate for one appointed to rule to exercise complete care of his subjects. This is surely the reason that blessed David offered prayer not only for himself but also for a people entrusted to him, especially …
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 25:10, 458
Psalms 25:22 Redeem Israel, O God, from all its distress. BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Theodoret of Cyrus 84 times across 20 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Theodoret was born about 393 at Antioch. His mother, according to his own account, had been childless for years and had gone to a local hermit for prayer. He was raised around the monks of the district, gave away his inheritance when his parents died, and entered a monastery near Apamea. In 423, against his will, he was made bishop of Cyrrhus — a poor, mostly Syriac-speaking diocese in the countryside northeast of Antioch with about eight hundred parishes. He stayed there the rest of his life and worked at it. He records building bridges, aqueducts, baths, and porticoes for the town out of church income and his own; bringing in doctors; and travelling constantly among villages where the church had barely reached. He says he never took a bribe, never accepted a gift, and owned nothing. He was also the ablest writer his party had, which made him a target. When Cyril of Alexandria published his twelve anathemas against Nestorius, John of Antioch asked Theodoret to answer them, and he did, sharply. At the Council of Ephesus in 431 he stood with John and the Eastern bishops against Cyril. Two years later he helped negotiate the Formula of Reunion that ended the split — but he would not personally condemn Nestorius, who had been his friend, and that refusal followed him for the rest of his life. In 449, at the assembly Leo the Great called the Robber Council, Theodoret was deposed in his absence and confined to his monastery. He appealed to Rome. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 he was brought in, and the bishops shouted that he must anathematise Nestorius before he could take his seat. He tried to speak; they would not let him. Finally he said the words, was restored to his see, and went home. A century later, at Constantinople in 553, certain of his writings against Cyril were condemned as one of the Three Chapters — though the council was careful not to condemn the man, since Chalcedon had received him. His books outlasted the politics. He wrote commentaries on the Psalms, the Song of Songs, the prophets, and all fourteen letters of Paul, in a clear question-and-answer style that has kept him readable; he is one of the most quoted of the Greek fathers on Paul. He wrote a Church History continuing Eusebius to 428, a Compendium of Heretical Fables, a defence of providence in ten discourses, and Eranistes, a dialogue on the person of Christ. And he wrote the Religious History — thirty short lives of the Syrian ascetics he had known personally, including Symeon the Stylite on his pillar. It is the record of a whole movement that would otherwise be almost invisible, written by a bishop who had grown up among them. He died about 458 or shortly after. Sources: Theodoret of Cyrus, Ecclesiastical History, Letters, and Dialogues (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series volume 3); A History of the Monks of Syria, trans. R. M. Price; the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon.
84 quotations across 20 books
Where this voice is quoted
The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who wields the hammer cheers him who strikes the anvil, saying of the welding, “It is good.”
“Look, [Isaiah] says, what the newcomers to the truth say to those who are still held prisoner to the error of idols, to show them their impotence: idols can neither walk nor hold themselves up without being fastened with nails.”
See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
“It is in a perfectly appropriate way that he both shows the stupid nature of the idols and accuses of impiety those who have fashioned them. For if the idols are inanimate, their makers are full of stupidity and impiety.”
Your first father sinned, and your spokesmen rebelled against Me.
“[The Lord] has proclaimed these words in addressing those who were in Babylon. It is not I, he says, who am the cause of these misfortunes, but your ancestors, and your priests, who have transgressed my laws.”
He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
“Foolishness has mastered them; they have lost the faculty of reasoning and are slaves to folly. This is why I will put my Spirit on your descendants, so that they will be delivered from error, for in no other way can they receive the truth.”
These pairs have befallen you: devastation and destruction, famine and sword. Who will grieve for you? Who can comfort you?
“By "two," he means the bravery of the adversaries and the desertion of the auxiliaries: while the former attack with courage, the others flee in a cowardly fashion. "Downfall and destruction." He has again presented two calamities: that of falling and that of being crushed.”
For you will spread out to the right and left; your descendants will dispossess the nations and inhabit the desolate cities.
“He accordingly bids the barren one to fill the world with houses of prayer and to make them left and right, that is to say, in the south and the north.”
Then all your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their prosperity.
“Symmachus translated, "The Lord who takes pity on you says, lowly one, who has not been comforted, I have mercy for you. For I have seen you wandering aimlessly, as if surrounded by the spirits of deceit that have restless thoughts."”
Your gates will always stand open; they will never be shut, day or night, so that the wealth of the nations may be brought into you, with their kings being…
“Which power of the nations ran toward the former Jerusalem to worship? Which kings were led to worship the God of the universe?”
I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled that no one assisted. So My arm brought Me salvation, and My own wrath upheld Me.
“He calls "arm" the power of righteousness, for he guarded spotless and free from sin the nature that he assumed.”
When you see, you will rejoice, and you will flourish like grass; then the hand of the LORD will be revealed to His servants, but His wrath will be shown…
“For it is not only in the present life that I provide consolation for you through my heralds, but also in the heavenly city I will fill you with manifold joys—granting you the resurrection from the dead.”