Introduction

Cyril of Alexandria (c .378–444) lived in times when it was beginning to be difficult and even dangerous to adhere to some other creed or cult than orthodox Christianity in the Roman Empire. The first Christian “heretic” to be executed by Christian rulers, Priscillian of Avila, met his death in 386. The emperor Theodosius I outlawed all “pagan” cults in 392, and Christian monks murdered the famous philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria in 415.

Judaism in Alexandria seems to have been regaining its earlier vitality by the turn of the fifth century, but then the legal position of the Jews started to erode. Judaism began to be referred to as a superstitio instead of a religio by 416, and not only temples but synagogues too began to be attacked, and although this was outlawed, a prohibition against repairing and constructing synagogues was put in place in 423.

The paradox at the center of this essay is that despite his own strong anti-Judaism Cyril, bishop of Alexandria from 412 until his death, stood firmly in the Platonically oriented Alexandrian theological tradition that owed so much to a Jew, Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE–c. 50 CE). It is my main thesis that Cyril, in spite of never mentioning Philo, very probably both used his works and was aware of his Jewishness. Although Cyril had great difficulties tolerating the contemporary Jews, he had to face – and conceal as best as he could – the fact that he had a theological debt to Philo. He had to hide his tolerance of him.

The structure of the argument is as follows: After an overview of Cyril's attitude towards Judaism, I take a look at those Jewish sources besides the Old Testament that Cyril does acknowledge using.