νῦν
παρεδόθη. Cyril
means that at the beginning of this present Lecture he had delivered to
the Catechumens those articles of the Creed which he was going to
explain. Compare Cat. xviii. 21, where we see that Cyril first
announces (ἐπαγγέλλω)
the words which the learners repeat after him (ἀπαγγέλλω).
The clause, Whose
Kingdom shall have no end, was not contained in the original
form of the Creed of Nicæa, a.d. 325, but
its substance is found in many earlier writings. Compare Justin
M. (Tryph. § 46: καὶ αὐτοῦ
ἐστιν ἡ
αἰώνιος
βασιλεία); Const.
Apost. vii. 41; the Eusebian Confessions 1st and 4th Antioch,
and the Macrostich, a.d. 341, 342, 344.
Bp. Bull asserts that the Creed of Jerusalem, containing this clause,
was no other than the ancient Eastern Creed, first directed against the
Gnostics of the Sub-Apostolic age (Judicium Eccl. Cathol.
vi. 16).