Cyril of Alexandria’s Critique of “Jewish” Parental Sin

Original sin was one of the contentious issues that stood at the heart of the Catholic- Pelagian debate in the early 400’s. In recent years, patristic scholars have sought to uncover Cyril of Alexandria’s (376–444 CE) position on this central Catholic teaching. This essay proposes that scholars have overlooked an important indicator of Cyril’s view on this matter, that is, his multi-paged critique of the theological doctrine of parental sin that appears in his Commentary to the Gospel of John (9:1–3). I will argue that just as the debate over parental sin played an explicit and central role in the Augustinian-Pelagian debates on original sin, so too the debate over parental sin could shed some light on Cyril’s attitude toward original sin.