Cyril of Alexandria's Appropriation and Advancement of Athanasius' Exegesis of Proverbs 8:22

Perhaps more than any other biblical passage, Proverbs (Prov.) 8:22 was the central exegetical locus for the trinitarian debates of the fourth century. On the one hand, Arius and other non-Nicenes understood this passage to clearly support their belief that God created the Son as a mediator or instrument through whom the rest of creation was brought into being. On the other hand, throughout his Orationes Contra Arianos , chiefly the “Second Oration,” Athanasius interprets the creation of Wisdom in this passage as referring to the Word's assumption of flesh, which he kenotically appropriated for the sake of humanity. While many scholars have studied the extent to which and the various ways in which certain pro-Nicene figures adopted Athanasius' exegesis of this passage, none have investigated and explicated how Athanasius' most eminent and self-conscious follower and Alexandrian heir, Cyril of Alexandria, appropriates and deepens various aspects of Athanasius' interpretation of this passage. This paper will therefore investigate Cyril's “Fourth Dialogue” of his Dialogues on the Trinity , where he explicitly responds to the request of his interlocutor, Hermias, to provide his explanation of Prov. 8:22. From this investigation, this paper will argue that while much of Cyril's engagement with this passage is rooted in Athanasius' own arguments from his “Second Oration,” at the same time, Cyril uniquely advances Athanasius' treatment of this passage by more deeply reflecting upon how the “Arian” understanding of Prov. 8:22 disfigures the in se character and being of God so that he is no longer perceived to be powerful, good, and beautiful, but weak, envious, and ugly.