Cyril of Alexandria, “Commentary on Luke”, completed and online

With great thankfulness I have now completed scanning the English translation of the “Commentary on Luke” by Cyril of Alexandria, comprising 156 sermons.  The files can be found here.

http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/index.htm#Cyril_on_Luke

The files and their contents, including my preface, are all in the public domain — please use them in any way you please.

The text did not survive in Greek. But a very literal translation into Syriac was discovered in 1842 among the manuscripts from the Syrian monastery in the Nitrian desert in Egypt which had been brought back to the UK by Archdeacon Tattam. Long fragments also existed in the catena-commentaries published by Cramer, and by Angelo Mai. Robert Payne Smith edited the text and produced the translation. The process made clear to him the need for a proper Syriac dictionary, and his name is associated with Syriac studies forever because he produced the definitive one.

The Nitrian manuscript was in two volumes. It had become mutilated during the centuries, and the final few leaves were missing, as well as odd other ones.

Share

Leave a Reply