Introduction to This Volume

How this book is arranged

This is the seventy-fourth volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This volume holds Cyril of Alexandria, The Gospel of John, Books 6 to 12, from the period about AD 425.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section numbers.

The translations

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation. In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.

In this volume

Cyril was patriarch of Alexandria from AD 412 until his death in AD 444. He led the party against Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, taught that the Word of God is one with his own flesh, and made peace with the Antiochenes in AD 433. He also wrote long commentaries on Scripture.

This volume holds Books 6 to 12 of Cyril’s Commentary on the Gospel of John. Books 7 and 8 are known only in fragments. The commentary closes with the account of the Passion and Resurrection, and the last words of the Gospel.

Dates and authorship

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is uncertain.