Jonas 2
Cyril of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Jonas 2:1
The event would rightly be taken to be truly remarkable and surpassing rhyme or reason. If God were said to be responsible however; who would still demur? the Divinity is powerful, and easily changes the nature of living things to whatever he chooses, nothing standing in the way of his ineffable wishes. — Commentary on the Twelve Minor Prophets, Jonah
Jonas 2:7
Having been saved by the ineffable power of God, he wished to send up more splendid odes of thanksgiving. He surely recounts in some way what happened, and he teaches subtly with what calamity he was encompassed, and again he proclaims how he was saved. That he was, then, in the sea, and in a great abyss, and in the clefts of mountains, as the sea monster likely plunged down among rocks and the caves in the sea, he was not ignorant as a prophet; but he says he reached a land whose bars are eternal bolts, that is, Hades, not that he had been there; for we shall not find him to have died; but that the greatness of the danger and the weight of what had happened was in no way short of seeming to have died completely, and to have arrived in Hades itself, from where no one could depart, and one who had once been entrapped would in no way return. For I think this is what signifies to have its bars as possessors forever, as it were unbreakable and never overcome or loosened by anyone. But that he did not die, but lived, as I said, in the sea monster, and was in it, having suffered nothing that leads to death or corruption, would easily show that he was also in hope of being saved again. For this reason he says, "Let my life come up from corruption, O Lord my God." For he prays to be given to the light, and to be brought up, as it were, from Hades, from the belly of the sea monster. — Commentary on the Twelve Minor Prophets: Jonah
Jonas 2:8
When my soul was fainting within me, I remembered the Lord; and let my prayer come to you, into your holy temple. For those who wish to be well-pleasing, toil is not without profit, nor would affliction be considered burdensome. And the blessed David will bear witness, saying, "In my affliction I called upon the Lord;" and another of the holy prophets, "O Lord, in affliction we remembered you." And it seemed very fitting to the divine Paul to accept and praise affliction, that is, the affliction that happens for the sake of virtue. For he said, "Because affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put to shame." So then, as the Prophet's soul was fainting, that is, enduring the toil that leads to danger and to the last extremities, something profitable was again being done. For not, as some, having immediately slipped into despondency, did he make a denunciation of the divine judgments, but he remembered the one who saves. For he cried out to him, he thirsted for help, not ignorant of his gentleness and the preeminence of his strength, he made his supplications to him, begging that his own life be delivered from death and corruption. — Commentary on the Twelve Minor Prophets: Jonah
Jonas 2:9
Those who keep to vain and false things have forsaken their own mercy. But I with the voice of praise and thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay to you for my salvation by the Lord. For others, he says, being ignorant of you, the Master of all, the Creator, then being entangled in the snares of vanity, and assigning reverence to falsely-named gods, and chasing flying birds—that is, the hope in them—and shepherding the winds, do not ask mercy from you, nor have they ever come within such a hope. But I am not like them; how could I be? But I know you as the helper, the good and merciful one. Therefore with voice and supplication I will confess to you, he says, and just as some of the most fragrant incenses I will offer up odes, that is, I will bring to you thanksgiving and spiritual sacrifices, doxology, praises. And I will complete, and very eagerly, the vows for salvation, that is, whatever things work out my salvation and benefit my soul. And this was obedience to anything whatsoever that seems good to God, and the fulfillment of the prophetic ministry, with all hesitation and faint-heartedness removed. — Commentary on the Twelve Minor Prophets: Jonah