Saint Cyril of Jerusalem**:  “....and was crucified for our sake during the time of Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried....”

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But let us now return to the subject of prophetic proofs that you asked for. The Lord was crucified - you have heard all the testimonies. You have seen the location of Golgotha hill. You agree with the information and applaud it as praiseworthy and you glorify it. But take care lest there come a time during a period of persecution that you renounce Him.  Do not delight in the Cross only during a period of peace, but preserve the same faith also during a period of persecution. Do not be a friend of Jesus in a time of peace, and in a time of war become an enemy. (…)

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So, Christ was crucified for our sake:  He, who had been judged during an icy-cold night – which is why there was a coal burning fire nearby:

John 18:18: “Now the slaves and servants who had made a fire of coals stood there, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves. And Peter was with them and warming himself.”

Christ was crucified at the third hour:

Mark 15:25:  “Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him”...

(The “third hour” means it was 3 hours after sunrise, that is, at 9 in the morning when they crucified Him)

Matthew 27:45: “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.”

(The 6^th hour was 12 noon, so from 12 noon, darkness covered the entire land, until 3 in the afternoon).

Could these same details have been written by the Old Testament Prophets also? Let us check it out:

The prophet Zacharias said:

Zacharias 14:7:  “On that day there shall be no light; it will be cold and icy for one day – and that day is known to the Lord – and it is not day and not night, and at evening time there shall be light.”

(During that one day, there will be no sunlight, so it will be a cold, icy day – hence Peter warming himself at a coal fire outside).

”So?  Didn't the Lord know about the other days?  Indeed, days are many, but this was the day of the Lord's patience, a day “which the Lord had created” (Psalm 117:24).  He likewise knew the day that was “not day and not night” (Zacharias 14:7).

What was the meaning of this enigma mentioned by the Prophet: “...and that day is known to the Lord – and it is not day and not night”?

What was that day? What should we call it?

The Gospel interprets this, as it narrates the events:  It was not “day”, because the sun did not shine while moving from east to west; instead, from the 6th hour (12 noon) until the 9th (3 afternoon), complete darkness prevailed (as above, Matthew 27:45), in the middle of the day! Hence, darkness suddenly prevailed in the middle of the day – which darkness God had named “night” (Genesis 1:1: “...and God called the light “day”, and the darkness He called “night”).

That is why it was neither “day” nor “night” literally, for there was not enough light to be called “day”, nor dark enough to be called “night”, given that after the 9^th hour (3 afternoon) the sun shone again in the sky. This too was foretold by the Prophet when saying: “not day and not night” (Zacharias 14:7), and adding at the end of v.7: “and at evening time there shall be light”.

Do you see the accuracy of the Prophets? Do you see how much truth there is in what has been prophesied and written in advance of the actualized events?

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Do you want to know exactly what time the sun was blotted out from the face of the earth? Was it perhaps on the 5^th hour or the 8^th or the 10^th?  

Then state the exact time to the inconvincible Jews, o Prophet! When did the sun set?

The prophet Amos said:

“And it will be on that day, says the Lord God, and the sun will set at noon, and the light will be darkened upon the earth in the daytime.”  (Amos 8:9)

– exactly as above:  

“Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.” (as above, Matthew 27:45)

What season would it take place in, o Prophet, and what day will it be?  

“And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. And I will bring sackcloth on every loin and baldness on every head. And I will make Him like the mourning for a loved one and those with Him like a day of suffering” (Amos 8:10]

These details implied the feast days of Unleavened Bread and the Jewish Passover - which was to “contain” the event of the Crucifixion during those days.  To which the Prophet adds the following:  “And I will make Him like the mourning for a loved one and those with him like a day of suffering.”

“And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him”  (Luke 23:27)

While the Apostles may have remained in hiding, nevertheless, their souls were also filled with despair and mourning....

This prophecy also deserves our admiration.

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Now someone else might say:  Find yet another characteristic from the Passions of Christ which had been preannounced by the Prophets with such precision.'

What other accurate evidence is there, related to the event of the Crucifixion?  When Jesus was being led to be crucified, He was wearing only a tunic and His robe was thrown over Him.

“Then the soldiers, after they had crucified Jesus, took His clothes and made them into four parts, to each soldier one part, and also His undergarment (tunic). Now the tunic was seamless, woven from the top all in one piece.”  (John 19:23)

This garment was not torn into parts, as it would have become useless. So they decided to cast lots to see who it would fall to:

“They said therefore among themselves, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be’, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: ’They divided My garments among them, and on My clothing they cast lots.” (John 19:24)

Was this also mentioned somewhere else?  Let us see what the Book of Psalms (11^th century B.C.)says:  

“they divided my clothes for themselves, and on my tunic they cast lots.”  (Psalm 21:19)

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Also, when He was being interrogated by Pilate, He had been wrapped in a red cloak:  

“And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him”. (Matthew 27:28)

They had intentionally stripped Him, wishing to mock Him for making claims of royalty.

Was this also written in the old Testament?

Isaiah says:

“Who is He that has come here from Edom, with a redness of garments from Bosor – so splendid in apparel, mighty, with power?”   (Isaiah 63:1)

Who is He that wears scarlet and is being dishonoured? Bosor apparently had such an interpretation for the Jews.

“Why are your clothes red, and your garments like those of a wine press worker?”  (Isaiah 63:2)

To which He replied:

“I had My arms outstretched all day long towards an inconvincible and contrary people who did not walk in a true way, but after their own sins.”   (Isaiah 65:2)

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He extended His arms upon the Cross, thus “embracing” the ends of the inhabited world. Because the centremost point on earth is Golgotha. And this is not my own reasoning. The Prophet is the one who said:

“Yet God is our King from before aeons; He laboured for salvation in the midst of the earth.”  (Psalm 73:12).

 (You, o Lord, forged our salvation through Your world-saving Passions at the centre of the earth).

He who had stretched out the firmament with His divine arms has stretched out His human arms, which were pierced with nails so that when His human nature was nailed to the Cross – bearing the sins of mankind – and eventually perished, sin would also perish with it, but we would also be resurrected blameless and righteous.

“For one may die with difficulty for a righteous man; but for a good man, perhaps someone may dare to die”. (Romans 5:7)

So, because death originated from a man (Romans 5:17), life was restored also by a Man – our Saviour - who died voluntarily. To be certain that this is the case, remember the One who said:

“No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.  I have authority to lay it down, and I have power to take it back again”.    (John 10:18].

(No-one has the authority to take my life and kill Me if I do not want it. But I give it up on my own. I have the authority to offer my life, and I have the authority also to take it back again)

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But He of course had endured all these things in order to save everyone, but His people reciprocated with a wretched repayment.  Jesus said “I am thirsty” (John 19:28].  He who made abundant water spring from a steep precipice, and had asked for the fruits of the vine that He had planted:

“Yet I planted you as a fruitful vine, from pure stock. How did you turn to bitterness, you foreign vine?”  (Jeremiah 2:21):

But what was that “vine”?  As regards its nature, it is of course mentioned by the Holy Fathers; as for its proclivity, it was Sodomic, because their vine originated in Sodom and its branches in Gomorrah; and yet, when the Lord thirsted, they took a sponge dipped in vinegar, tied it to a reed and offered that to Him!

“Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with soured wine, and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.”  (Matthew 27:48)

 In the book of Psalms we read:

“And they gave gall as my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”     (Psalms 68:22)

Do you see the transparency in the foretelling by Prophets?  Well, what kind of gall (bile) did they put in His mouth? They gave him, he says, 'wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it”  (Mark 15:23).

Myrrh is disgusting and terribly bitter to taste; is that how you reciprocate to the Lord?  Is that the kind of offering that the vine gives to its master?  Isaiah has rightly mourned for you ever since, saying:  

“I must sing to my beloved one a song concerning My vineyard: A vineyard was created for My beloved one upon a hill, on a fertile place”.    (Isaiah 5:1)

But let us see what he says further on:

2 And I put a border around it and furrowed it and planted a Sorech vine, and I built a tower in the midst of it and dug out a wine vat in advance in it and I waited for it to produce grapes but, it produced thorns. And now, those who dwell in Jerusalem and you of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard.  4 What more should I do for My vineyard that I have not done for it? For I have waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.5 So now I will announce to you what I will do to My vineyard:  I will remove its border and it shall be seized; and I will tear down its wall, and it shall be trampled on. 6 And I will abandon My vineyard and it shall not be pruned or dug, and they shall walk over it as if it is a wasteland of thorns; and I shall command the clouds to not deposit any rain on it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord Shavaoth is the house of Israel and the man of Judah is the beloved new plant. I waited in order to make judgment, but it has made lawlessness; not justice, but noisiness.”  (Isaiah 5:2-7)

Look at the border of thorns that they surrounded My head with; I waited for the vine (Israel) to make Me grapes to quench My thirst with its wine, but My vineyard brought forth thorns.... So what decision should I make? I will order the clouds not to let rain fall on this vineyard... And of course the clouds stopped raining over that vineyard - that is, the prophetic voice stopped revealing God's will to them.

And as the apostle Paul said, Prophets thereafter would act within the Church:

“28 But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.   30 But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be encouraged. 32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.   (1 Corin.1:28-33)

And elsewhere:

“And He Himself gave that some  be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for edifying the body of Christ.”  (Ephesians 4:11-12)

Agabus was also a prophet, who tied his hands and feet with a waistband and thus prophesied the apostle's imprisonment in Jerusalem

“10 And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 When he had come to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit - thus shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentile Romans.’ ”    (Acts 21:10-11)

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Saint Cyril of Jerusalem on the Creed**

Cyril became Bishop of Jerusalem ca. 350, during the years of Arian controversy that persisted after the first ecumenical Council of Nicea, convened by the emperor Constantine in 325. Cyril came to accept wholeheartedly the Nicene Creed’s definition of the divinity of Christ as “consubstantial” with God the Father. He attended the First Council of Constantinople in 381. Of his many writings, Cyril’s twenty-four famous catecheses (lectures on aspects of the faith), which he delivered as bishop in about 350, have been preserved. The first five of the catecheses concern 1) the prerequisites for Baptism, 2) repentance and remission of sins, 3) the Sacrament of Baptism, 4) ten key points of doctrine, and 5) on faith and the Creed, or Symbol of Faith.

Following is an excerpt from his Catechesis No. 5 on the Creed, §§12 and 13.

But in learning the Faith and in professing it, acquire and keep that only, which is now delivered to you by the Church, and which has been built up strongly out of all the Scriptures.  For since all cannot read the Scriptures, some being hindered as to the knowledge of them by want of learning, and others by a want of leisure, in order that the soul may not perish from ignorance, we comprise the whole doctrine of the Faith in a few lines.  This summary I wish you both to commit to memory when I recite it, and to rehearse it with all diligence among yourselves, not writing it out on paper, but engraving it by the memory upon your heart, taking care while you rehearse it that no catechumen chance to overhear the things which have been delivered to you.

I wish you also to keep this as a provision through the whole course of your life, and beside this to receive no other, neither if we ourselves should change and contradict our present teaching, nor if an adverse angel, transformed into an angel of light (II Corinthians 11:14) should wish to lead you astray.  For though we or an angel from heaven preach to you any other gospel than that you have received, let him be to you anathema. (Galatians 1:8-9)

So for the present listen while I simply say the Creed, and commit it to memory; but at the proper season expect the confirmation out of Holy Scripture of each part of the contents. For the articles of the Faith were not composed as seemed good to men; but the most important points collected out of all the Scripture make up one complete teaching of the Faith.  And just as the mustard seed in one small grain contains many branches, so also this Faith has embraced in few words all the knowledge of godliness in the Old and New Testaments.  Take heed then, brethren, and hold fast the traditions which you now receive, and write them on the table of your heart. (§12)

Guard them with reverence, lest per chance the enemy despoil any who have grown slack; or lest some heretic pervert any of the truths delivered to you. For faith is like putting money into the bank, even as we have now done; but from you God requires the accounts of the deposit. I charge you, as the Apostle says, before God who quickens all things, and Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession, that you keep this faith which is committed to you, without spot, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A treasure of life has now been committed to you, and the Master demands the deposit at His appearing, “which in His own times He shall show, Who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only has immortality, dwelling in light which no man can approach unto; Whom no man has seen nor can see. To Whom be glory, honor and power for ever and ever. Amen”. [I Timothy 6:15-16] (§13)

Translated by Edwin Hamilton Gifford. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 7. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co.,1894.) Revised and edited by Kevin Knight for New Advent. Reprinted with permission. (Complete text: newadvent.org/fathers/310105.htm).

https://adoremus.org/2010/11/saint-cyril-of-jerusalem-on-the-creed/