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Theodoret of Cyrus (393-457) on 1 Thessalonians 2:15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:13

1 Thess 2:15:

 

So then, brethren, stand firm, and hold fast to the traditions you have been taught, either in word or in our latter (v. 15): keep as the norm of doctrine the words offered you by us, which we preached to you when present and wrote when absent. (Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Letters of St. Paul, 2 vols. [Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2001], 2:130)

 

 

2 Thess 2:13:

 

We also give thanks unceasingly to God for this, that you received the word of God you heard from us and accepted it, not as a word of human beings, but as it really is, word of God, which is also at work in you believers (v. 13). Since he had instilled fear into them with his adjuration, he comforted them with commendation, saying, You accepted not as human words but as divine words what was offered by us. Actual experience also shows them to be like that: in receipt of the charism of inspiration, they themselves prophesied, spoke in tongues and performed remarkable wonders. The text hinted not only at that but also at the perils brought upon them by the adversaries; the sequel indicates as much, In fact, you became imitators, brethren, of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea in suffering the same things form your own compatriots as they did from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, and are hostile to everyone (vv. 14-15). (Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Letters of St. Paul, 2 vols. [Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2001], 2:111, emphasis in bold added)

 

Theodoret of Cyrus (393-457) on 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

  

Now, all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (v. 18). He indicated God’s ineffable lovingkindness: who was not reconciled to us (he is saying), although he it was who was insulted by the Fall; rather, he reconciled us to himself, not employing a human being as mediator, but making the only-begotten Son a mediator of peace. To us he also entrusted the good news of reconciliation. Namely, God it was. A break must be observed here. In Christ reconciling the world to himself (v. 19): the God of all it was who by means of Christ achieved reconciliation with human beings. Now, what is the manner of this reconciliation? Not reckoning their falls against them, and assigning to us the preaching of reconciliation: he granted the forgiveness of sins, and commissioned us as ministers of peace.

 

We act, therefore, as ambassadors of Christ (v. 20). Since he claimed to have appointed minister of reconciliation, he was obliged to set the ambassadorship; and to show its trustworthiness he went on, since God’s exhortation comes through us. Now, what is the message he brings as ambassador? We beg you in Christ’s name, be reconciled to God. The words are sufficient to make even the most unfeeling be ashamed: he said first that with the execution of Christ he not only did not bear resentment but sent us as ambassadors to win all people over, respect his longsuffering, be ashamed at the murder of Christ, and be reconciled to the Creator, God and Lord. He goes on to add to the aforesaid the dishonor of the passion. After all, the one who did not know sin he made sin for our sake so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (v. 21): though free of sin he underwent the death of sinners in order to undo people’s sins, and bearing the name that we have he gave us the name of what he himself is—that is, he regaled us with the riches of righteousness. (Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Letters of St. Paul, 2 vols. [Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2001], 1:273-74)

 

Theodoret of Cyrus (393-457) on Romans 5:12

  

From this point on he reveals the mystery of the Incarnation, and brings out the reason for becoming man. Hence, just as through one human being sin entered the world, and through sin death, and thus death spread to all human beings for the reason that all sinned (v. 12). On creating Adam and dignifying him with the gift of reason, the Lord God gave the single commandment of exercising his reason; it was impossible that, sharing in reason and enjoying the discernment of good and its opposite, he should live his life apart from any law. He was deceived and broke the law; and from the beginning the lawgiver linked the threat of punishment to the commandment. Becoming subject to the rule of death, then, Adam begot Cain, Seth and the others. All of them, therefore, on the grounds of their lineage from his man, had a nature subject to death; such a nature is in need of many things—food and drink, clothing and habitation, and diverse skills. Use of these things, however, often stimulates the passions to intemperance, and intemperance generates sin. Consequently, the divine apostle means that, since Adam had sinned and death had occurred through sin, both spread to the race: death spread to all human beings for the reason that all sinned. In other words, it is not because of the sin of the first parent but because of their own that each person is liable to death. (Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Letters of St. Paul, 2 vols. [Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2001], 1:72)

 

The translator Robert Charles Hill noted that:

 

Theodoret, like all the Greek Fathers before John Damascene, reads εφ’ ω in this verse and renders it “for the reason that”; he is well aware that Paul is referring to the etiological story of the Fall in Gen 3 but does not see Adam as an antecedent to the pronoun (as likewise in commenting on Ps 51.5). Adam’s sin is beyond question for him, and—without explaining how—he sees both sin and death spreading to the whole race; but he is insistent that each person’s sin and not Adam’s is responsible for each one’s liability to death. As always, he avoids the heavy moralizing tone of preachers like Chrysostom in commenting on the Fall, as well as their tendency to transfer guilt to the woman. (Ibid., 1:146 n. 7)

 

Theodoret of Cyrus (393-457) Teaching Baptismal Regeneration in his Commentaries on Jeremiah and Ezekiel

  

Jer 31:34 (LXX: 38:34):

 

They will no longer teach one another, each one their neighbor and each one their brother, saying, Know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them (v. 34). The future life achieves the fulfilment of these words: in it we shall no longer need instruction from one another, things being patently obvious, sufferings at an end, bodies incorrupt, souls immune to change. Now it is customary with the divine Scriptures to mix the prophecies together: it connects those about the recall with those about the captivity, and the Lord in the sacred Gospels cites at the one time the sayings about Jerusalem and those about the consummation. Because I shall be merciful to their iniquities, and shall no longer remember their sins. The grace of all-holy baptism grants this favor: after forgiveness, he does not remember the former sins. (Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentaries on the Prophets, 2 vols. [trans. Robert Charles Hill; Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2006], 1:117-18, emphasis in bold added)

 

 

Ezek 36:25:

 

The blasphemy will be canceled though your being saved, which will demonstrate my power; learning how my name is great and sufficient for the assistance of my own, they will glorify and sing the praises of my lordship. He indicated as much, in fact, by saying, The nations will know that I am the Lord God when I am sanctified in you before their eyes. I shall take you from the nations, and gather you from all the races, and I shall bring you into your land (vv. 23-24).

 

While this applies to all who returned, since those wanting to return were granted the right of return, what follows applies not to everyone but only to those choosing to believe in the Gospel. He says, in fact, I shall sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be cleansed of all your uncleanness, and I shall cleanse you of all your idols (v. 25). By clean water he referred to the water of rebirth, in which we are baptized and receive the forgiveness of sins. (Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentaries on the Prophets, 2 vols. [trans. Robert Charles Hill; Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2006], 2:242, emphasis in bold added)

 

As Robert Charles Hill, the translator, noted about Theodoret reading baptismal regeneration into various Old Testament texts:

 

The bishop can always find a baptismal reference in a text. (1:220 n. 15)

 

Theodoret is simply reflecting the unanimous consent of the earliest Christians on water baptismal regeneration.

Examples of "Non-Calvinistic" Interpretations of Passages in Theodoret of Cyrus's (393-457) Commentary on Jeremiah

  

Jer 1:4-5:

 

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you left the womb I consecrated you (vv. 4-5). The election was not without basis: knowledge preceded it. He had knowledge, note, and then he consecrated; for he knows everything before its coming to be. (Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentaries on the Prophets, 2 vols. [trans. Robert Charles Hill; Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2006], 1:23)

 

 

Jer 18:7-8:

 

Do not despair of salvation, he is saying: even if I condemn a nation and threaten ultimate punishment, I extend mercy. On the other hand, if I promise an abundance of good things, but they scorn me and embrace wickedness, I shall not fulfill the promise of good things. Knowing this, then, do not despair of better things, but apply repentance and reap salvation. (Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentaries on the Prophets, 2 vols. [trans. Robert Charles Hill; Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2006], 1:85)

 

Matthew J. Grey and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel on the Use of εγω ειμι in John 18:6

  

Jesus’s simple response, “I am he,” is more theologically loaded than the King James Version suggests. First, note that “he” is italicized. In the King James Bible, words that were added by the translators but that are not found in the original Greek manuscripts are placed in italics. These added words were meant to make the translation more readable when it was difficult to find a corollary word in English. To ensure that the reader knows that these words were not in the original manuscripts, they are printed in italics.

 

While in some instances this type of clarification is helpful, in others it can obscure the intended nuances of the Greek text. In the case of Jesus’s utterance in the garden, removing the italicized word renders Jesus’s response as “I AM” (Greek: ego-eimi). Therefore, Jesus’s response is not merely an indication that he is the one the arresting party is looking for; rather it is a declaration of the divine name of God from the Old Testament. For instance, the story of Moses’s encounter with God at the burning bush reads: “Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me not you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:13-14).

 

In uttering the name I AM, therefore, Jesus seems to be referring to himself as the God who appeared to Moses and who desires the full trust of his people. Jesus applied this same name to himself earlier in John’s Gospel (see, for example, John 8:58), and in this moment in the garden, he applies it to himself again. To heighten the impact o this declaration during Jesus’s arrest, John notes that the large, armed party of Roman soldiers and Jewish temple police all step backward and fall to the ground in response (see John 18:6; cf. Psalms 27:2; 35:4). In doing so, John describes Jesus’s adversaries as falling to the ground in the garden, rather than Jesus falling to the ground as recorded in the Gethsemane narratives of Mark and Matthew.

 

These details in John’s Gospel suggest that Jesus, as God, has power over the forces of darkness that have come out to arrest him in the middle of the night with torches. His statement of “I AM” reinforces the idea that Jesus could not have been arrested unless he permitted it. That belief is further substantiated by Jesus when he later stands before Pilate and says: “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11). In these remarkable ways, John’s account of Jesus’s final night replaces the synoptic emphasis on Jesus’s suffering in Gethsemane with an emphasis on Jesus’s revelation of his divine identity in the garden. (Matthew J. Grey and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, A Place Called Gethsemane: Seeing the New Testament Story and Site in Its First-Century Context [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2025], 58-59)