Macarius Chrysocephalus, Metropolitan of Philadelphia

the customs of her house, she shall communicate in her own house; but she shall not enter the church until she has been purified. ^A

2. Of Caesarea. She who has been married to two brothers shall be rejected for her whole life. But at the point of death, if she promises that when she has recovered her health she will dissolve the marriage, let her be brought to repentance. If one of the spouses should die, the penance remains difficult for the survivor.

24. Of Basil the Great. A widow of sixty years, if she marries, shall not obtain pardon. But she who has not yet reached sixty years merits pardon.

41. Of the same. A widow cannot be accused if she has cohabited with another.

53. Of the same. A widow who is a slave has perhaps not sinned much if she has contracted a second marriage under the appearance of abduction. ^B

11. Of Ancyra. She who, for the sake of religious exercise, in the opinion of men takes on male clothing, let her be anathema.

12. Of the same. Likewise, she who deserts her husband, abominating marriage.

13. Of the same. And she who abandons her children under the pretext of piety.

15. Of the same. They who, for the sake of supposed godliness, in the opinion of men cut their hair, let them be anathema. ^C

2. Of St. Gregory the Wonderworker. Women whose bodies have been violated by barbarians are free from blame, unless perhaps they were known [to have been] convicted even before the captivity.

ANNO DOMINI MCCCXLV.

MACARIUS CHRYSOCEPHALUS PHILADELPHIENSIS METROPOLITA.

NOTITIA

Macarius Chrysocephalus, Archbishop of Philadelphia, perhaps the same as the Macarius of Philadelphia around the year 1350, of whom Cantacuzenus treats in Book IV, 37, page 859. He is different from John Chrysocephalus, of whom Syropulus makes mention in the *History of the Council of Florence*, section IV, chapter 29, and from John Chrysocephalus, the *hypomnematographos* and deacon of the Church of Constantinople, by whom was written in the fifteenth century the codex in which the *Catena* of Nicetas

on Luke is contained, is reported by Montfaucon, p. 251, to be preserved in the Coislinian library. It is also mentioned by Matthew Chrysocephalus, of whom I spoke in volume VIII, p. 685, just as I have spoken more fully, ibid., p. 679 et seqq., of the *Catenas* of Macarius Chrysocephalus on Genesis, Matthew [ibid., p. 645, 675 et seqq., 677 et seqq.], and those on Luke which Matthew does not mention. He wrote, moreover, a brief but accurate exposition of the canons of the apostles and councils, which Allatius testifies he read while he was staying in Chios, *Adversus Creyghthonum*, p. 680. [The same person wrote a *Florilegium*. See supra at vol. IX, p. 759, and in the Marcian codex, bibl. 452. Harl.] There also exist various homilies of his, still unedited, in the library of Cardinal Colonna, and at Rome in the colleges of the Greeks: Gerasimus Blachus and Allatius also possessed most of them, and the latter mentions them both in the aforementioned passage against Creyghthon and in his book *De Simeonibus*. I shall append an account of these from the Coislinian codex, which Montfaucon lists at p. 180 et seqq. It is presented by Leo Allatius thus:

1. On the nine orders of angels and on St. Michael; it lacks a beginning. It is divided into 14 chapters. The beginning is: *Excellent, indeed, is the splendor of visible things*. 2. Fol. 19. On the angelic princes Michael and Gabriel. The beginning: *Now to me concerning the heavenly*. Divided into 15 chapters. 3. Fol. 40. On the Meeting of the Lord (Hypapante). The beginning: *Radiant are the vestibules of the feast and fearful*. 4. Fol. 50. For the feast of Orthodoxy. The beginning: *What is the sound of those feasting*. 5. Fol. 66 verso: For the third Sunday of Lent, during which the adoration of the Cross takes place. The beginning: *Great is the present day and illustrious*. 6. Fol. 80 verso: For Palm Sunday. The beginning: *Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; proclaim*. 7. Fol. 93. On St. John the Apostle and Theologian, and his theology. The beginning: *Having purposed to hymn the apostolic sojourn*. 8. Fol. 104 verso: On the nativity of St. John the Baptist. The beginning: *I dedicate the words to the voice of the Word, O John*. 9. Fol. 120. On the beheading of St. John the Baptist. The beginning: *Again, O John, the great one, the forerunner of the word's voice*. 10. Fol. 139. On the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The beginning: *To me, the most graceful of all, and especially*. Published by Gretser in vol. II *De Cruce*, p. 1289. 11. Fol. 151, verso. On the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ. The beginning: *God the Lord has appeared upon the mountains*. 12. Fol. 173, verso. John Chrysost[omus]. On the Annunciation of the Theotokos. The beginning: *Again the good tidings of joy. Again, come*.

Thus far the sermons of Macarius Chrysocephalus in the Coislinian codex. The last is attributed to Chrysostom. Allatius mentions three others: *On the glorious Resurrection of Christ*. It begins: *The present festivity is an occasion for joy*. *On the women bearing ointments, and on Joseph of Arimathea, and concerning the Resurrection of the Lord, and the future resurrection of the whole human race through Him*. It begins: *Of the present day the good tidings*. *On the Ascension of our Lord and God Jesus Christ*. It begins: *Great is the power of the day*.

Fabricius, again, in volume VIII, p. 675.

Macarius, whether he be a writer of the fourteenth century is uncertain, a metropolitan of Philadelphia, called *Chrysocephalus* from his study of connecting *Catenas* from the writings of the holy Fathers and excerpting and collecting "golden chapters" from them. Besides the *Catena* on Genesis, which I do not know if it still survives, unless perhaps it is that *Catena* on Genesis ms. which I noted in the Caesarean library supra, § IV, p. 736 [old edition], he composed a *Catena* on Matthew, divided into three volumes, sixty *logoi*. Of these, the first volume, containing twenty *logoi*, survives in the Baroccian codex, transcribed in the year of Christ 1545. It is inscribed: Explanation of the Holy Gospel according to Matthew, collected and composed in chapters by Macarius, Metropolitan of Philadelphia, named Chrysocephalus, which has also been called "golden chapters" because of the precious and shining meaning of the thoughts contemplated in the chapters, and because of the appellation of the writer.

*A contribution of many labors, accurately wrought,* *Everything rightly and well considered,* *Nothing superfluous, nothing lacking here,* *Macarius of Philadelphia has joined together.*

Jo. Christoph Wolfius, who examined that Baroccian codex and handed down to us a more accurate account of it, testifies that the writers whose expositions and symbolical interpretations are brought forward in this *Catena*, besides...

Macarius himself, are the African, Alexander, the Anonymous, Basil, Clement of Alexandria, John Climacus, Cosmas, Cyril, Chrysostom, Dorotheus, Epiphanius, Eusebius, Gregory of Nazianzus and Nyssa, John Geometra, Isidore, Mark (perhaps the Archbishop of Alexandria in the early 11th century, who is also cited in the Corderian *Catena* on Luke), Maximus, Metaphrastes, Nilus, Origen, Philochorus, Severus, Titus of Bostra, and Victor of Antioch; and, he says, two others whose names—due to an archaic and unusual abbreviation of letters not easily recognized—were more rarely expressed. Those most frequently summoned to speak in this work are Chrysostom, the two Gregories, and Titus. (FABR.) Cf. below, Vol. X, p. 607 sqq., and the celebrated Villoison in *Anecd. Gr.*, Vol. II, p. 171 sqq., who brings forward various judgments of different scholars regarding the name and age of Macarius. Foremost among these are the matters he reports regarding the opinions of Oudin, Mill, and Ussher. For John Mill, in his *Prolegomena*, p. 130, col. 1, and p. 158, col. 2, to the Oxford 1707 edition of the N.T., opined that Chrysocephalus flourished or wrote in the year of Christ 995, based upon the faith of the Oxford manuscript 156, in which is contained the first part of his *Catena* on Matthew, which he judged to have been written either by the author himself or by a scribe in the year 995; but he is refuted by Ussher in Chapter 18 of his *Prolegomena* to the edition of the Epistles of St. Ignatius, since this very first part of the *Catena* on Matthew, which ends in this same codex, is marked as having been finished on December 22, in the year 6853, on a Wednesday, that is, in the year of Christ 1345. Oudin, in *De scriptor. eccl.*, Vol. III, p. 607, explodes this same opinion of Mill, where he pursues the life and writings of Macarius Chrysocephalus and asserts his age to be circa 1290. Then Villoison examines at length and refutes the opinion of Le Quien in *Oriente Christiano*, Vol. I, p. 872 sqq., and embraces the opinion of our Fabricius, that Macarius Chrysocephalus lived in the fourteenth century; finally, he diligently and learnedly reviews the *Rhodonia* of Macarius Chrysocephalus in the Venice Marcian codex, and notes or was the first to publish and illustrate many things from it. His age can be determined from the Vienna Imperial codex no. 15, where there is the volume of the condemnation of the followers of Barlaam the Calabrian and Gregory Acyndinus, held by a Constantinopolitan synod in the Palace of Blachernae, composed and edited in the year of the world according to the common calculation of the Church of Constantinople 6859, i.e., the year of Christ 1351, and confirmed by the subscriptions of Callistus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and many other metropolitans, and the emperors themselves, John Cantacuzenus and John Palaeologus. Among the subscribing metropolitans, therefore, is named ^A the Metropolitan of Philadelphia, superior and exarch of all Lydia, and universal judge of the Romans, Macarius. ^B That it may appear how different from those of others, both ancient and recent, the division of the Evangelist Matthew followed by Macarius was, I shall append the titles of the twenty *logoi*, not progressing beyond the first four verses of the eighth chapter, from the catalogue of the manuscripts of England, Vol. I, no. 156 (1).

Discourse I. The prolegomena contains the themes of the Gospels.

The lowly Macarius Chrysocephalus composes here the meaning of the Gospel words in twenty chapter-headings.

A similar *Catena* of the same Macarius on Luke, or on the passages of Luke for which Matthew has no parallel, divided into twenty-four books, and for that reason called by the author the "Great Alphabet," exists in the Barocci codex (2).

of Philadelphia, the dweller of the blessed Trinity. The authors from whom the Catena was woven are nearly the same as those from whom the one on Matthew was taken; more frequently than others, the testimonies of Antipater of Bostra, Anastasius, Basil, Cyril, Eusebius, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus and Nyssa, Severus of Antioch, Titus of Bostra, and Victor of Antioch are cited. Also praised are Ambrose, Asterius, Basil of Seleucia, Cassian, Clement of Alexandria, Climacus, Cosmas, the monk of Damascus, Dionysius the Areopagite, Dorotheus, Elias of Crete, Ephraim, Epiphanius, Evagrius, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Hippolytus, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Justin, the Emperor Leo, in the synodical tome, Maximus, Nicetas, Nilus, Origen, Philanthropenus, Psellus, Theophylact, and once at the threshold of the work, Manuel the Grammarian, where various meanings of the word *logos* from him are adduced. There were many Manuel the Grammarians in the 14th century, such as Manuel Moschopulus and Manuel Chrysoloras, about whom see above [vol. VI, p. 322 sqq. § 4 et 5]. Allatius testifies (De Psellis, p. 39, and against Creyghton, p. 682) that he read this great Alphabet on Luke by Macarius even up to the letter delta. It begins: "To me, the world and wealth, and before these, life and delight." His prayer against the incursions of the Barbarians exists in Greek and Latin in the Greek Euchologion, p. 817, edit. Goari. A sermon on the exaltation of the cross, but mutilated at the end, is in Gretser, De cruce, p. 1289. William Cave in his *Dissertation on Doubtful Writers* reviews his other thirteen homilies, which were in manuscript at the time of Gerasimus Blachus and Allatius, and in the library of Cardinal Colonna, and at Rome in the Greek College; he does not dare to state that Macarius Chrysocephalus is the same as the Macarius, bishop of Philadelphia, who was recommended in the year of Christ 1354 by John Cantacuzenus for the patriarchate of Constantinople, which Philotheus afterwards obtained. Although this is not entirely certain, I willingly profess that it is very likely. Just as it persuades that the name "Chrysocephalus" was not so much given him from his study of collecting "golden heads" [chrysa kephala], as it was a family name, since there occur in Syropulus, *History of the Council of Florence*, sect. 4, c. 29, mentions of a John Chrysocephalus, and Allatius, against Creyghton, p. 684, records the iambic poems of Matthew Chrysocephalus on the funeral oration of the Emperor Manuel (Palaeologus) concerning his brother Theodore, also citing these two verses of his, each of which encompasses all the letters of the Greek Alphabet: Δηδεὶς πτεροῖς ἔκλαγξε βομβώδη ψόφου Ἀβροχίτων δ' ὁ φύλαξ θηρολυγοκαμψιμέτωπος: Codex 42, a Catena on the Gospel of Luke collected from many ecclesiastical writers, which Lambecius enumerates in Comm. 3, p. 163 sqq., he judges to be truly most worthy of being published in Greek from that manuscript exemplar without any interpolation. But a little later we must speak again about that codex.

OF MACARIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF PHILADELPHIA, THE CHRYSOCEPHALUS, ORATION ON THE EXALTATION OF THE PRECIOUS AND LIFE-GIVING CROSS.

ORATION OF MACARIUS CHRYSOCEPHALUS, METROPOLITAN OF PHILADELPHIA, ON THE EXALTATION OF THE VENERABLE AND LIFE-GIVING CROSS.

οὶ μὲν τὸ χαριέστατον ἁπάντων, καὶ μάλιστα καθηδύνου μου τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις ἡ τοῦ Κυ- riou μου δόξα καθέστηκε τοῦ πάντων Θεοῦ καὶ Σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ. Αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ὁ πανσεβάσμιος σταυρός, ἡ παγκόσμος εὐπρέπεια. Καὶ τοῦτον νῦν ὑψούμενον βλέπων, συνυψοῦμαι τῇ διανοίᾳ, καὶ χαίρων τοῖς περὶ αὐτοῦ λόγοις, κοινωνοὺς ὑμᾶς ἔχειν ἀξιῶ τῆς φαιδρότητος, καὶ τῆς τῶν ἀτμάτων φιλοτιμίας. Συνδράμετε δὲ πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες τὴν οἰκουμένην, καὶ ψαλμικῶς τὰς χεῖρας κροτήσαντες, πνευματικῶς τὰς φρένας ὑψώσατε, καὶ ἐπινίκιον ὕμνον ἀνακράξατε μελώδημα τὸ εὐεργέτημα ποιησάμενοι, καὶ φωνὴν εὐφροσύνης ἐξηγήσαντες ἀναγγείλατε ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἀκουστὴν γενέσθω τοῖς πέρασι ἀγαλλίαμα, τὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ σωτήριον τερατούργημα. Καμὲ γὰρ τοῦ μυστηρίου τὸ μέγεθος, καὶ τῆς ἡμέρας ἡ δύναμις ἐπιλαθέσθαι τῆς ἀσθενείας προτρέπεται, καὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ τὴν εὐφημίαν κροτῆσαι, αὐτὸν δὲ τὸν δι’ ἐμὲ τοῦ Δεσπότου θάνατον, ὡς δυνατὸν ἐξυμνῆσαι, καὶ τὴν ζωηφόρον ἀνάστασιν καταγγεῖλαι τοῖς πέρασι, δι’ ἧς ἐδοξάσθημεν. Δόξα γὰρ τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ γέγονε δόξα, καὶ σεσωσμένοι διὰ σταυροῦ, καὶ τὴν εὐεργεσίαν ἀνακηρύττομεν. ^B

Περὶ τῆς Ὑψώσεως τοῦ Τιμίου Σταυροῦ.

Ἐβουλόμην γοῦν ἀρχόμενος τοῦ λόγου, καὶ γλῶτταν εὐθὺς ἀγγελικὴν λαβεῖν, καὶ φωνὴν εἰληφέναι φύσεως ἀνθρωπίνης κρείττονα, καὶ διὰ πάσης δυναμένην γῆς καὶ θαλάσσης ἀφικνεῖσθαι, καὶ πάντας ἀνθρώπους ἐν ὑψηλῷ καλέσαι καὶ διαπρυσίῳ κηρύγματι πρὸς τὴν ἐτήσιον ταύτην τῆς ἑορτῆς τελετήν, ἵνα τῷ τῆς χαρᾶς μεγέθει συνεπεκτείνηταί μοι καὶ τῶν εὐφραινομένων ὁ σύλλογος ἐκ περάτων γῆς καὶ παντὸς γένους ἀνθρώπων συνεστηκώς, καὶ οὕτως ὡς διὰ σάλπιγγος ἠχῆσαι μέγα καὶ διατρανῶσαι πᾶσι τῆς πανηγύρεως τὸ κεφάλαιον, σάλπιγγος οὐ χαλκοστόμου τινὸς καὶ τεχνικῆς, ἀλλὰ τῆς παγχρύσου καὶ πνευματικῆς, ἥτις μετὰ τῆς καλλίστης εὐπρεπείας καὶ τὸ ἀκήρατον ἔχει, καὶ ὅλως ἀδιάφθορον. ^C

Δυσὶν δὲ ὄντων, ἅπερ μοι συνέχοντα μετὰ τῆς φωνῆς καὶ τὸν λόγον ἀπάγειν ἐθέλει τοῦ πράγματος, καὶ τῆς ἐγχειρήσεως ἀπείργειν τὴν ἔφεσιν, ψυχικῆς ἀτονίας καὶ μήκους ἐθνῶν διασπορᾶς, πρὸς ἀμφότερα βοηθῆσαί μοι διανάστητε νῦν ὑμεῖς, καὶ τὴν μὲν ἐπιῤῥώσατε ταῖς εὐχαῖς, τὴν δὲ σπουδῇ συμπληρώσατε, προστρέχοντες ἀσμένως ἐπὶ τὸ κήρυγμα, καὶ προθυμότερον τῆς ἀκροάσεως ἐφαπτόμενοι· οὕτως ἂν ἴσως καὶ δυναίμην ἐγγύς που τῆς προθέσεως ἐλθεῖν, καὶ τὸν λόγον κατὰ σκοπὸν συμπερᾶναι τῆς οἰκουμενικῆς πανηγύρεως. Καὶ γοῦν ὑψοῦται μὲν εἰς προσκύνησιν ὁ τίμιος τοῦ Δεσπότου σταυρός, πρόκειται δὲ εἰς ἐξήγησιν, ὅπερ αὐτοῦ λέγος καὶ πληθὺς παρέστηκε τῶν φοβουμένων τὸν Κύριον, λαοί, φυλαί, καὶ γλῶσσαι ἐξ ἄκρων γῆς συνδεδραμηκότες εἰς τὴν πρόσβλεψιν ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀκρόασιν. Καὶ τῶν θαυμασίων ἀξίαν τὴν εὐφημίαν ὁ προσκομίσων ἐστὶν οὐδείς. ^D Τίς γὰρ καὶ δυνήσεται

δυνήσεται ^A to recount the mighty acts of the Lord, and to perform all his praises, as many as he has wrought from above from days of old, prefiguring the glory of the Cross, and as many as in later times he has wrought wonders through it and does not cease to perform with signs even to this day, for the boast and security of those who have hoped in it? There is, truly, no one—there is not even the ability to grasp or to contemplate in the mind—that which the whole world cannot contain: the miracles wrought by the Cross of our Lord and Savior, which are still being performed for all the eternities of ages, and which are regarded by all with the greatest admiration; and I believe that not only human, but even angelic and supercelestial power is ^B insufficient to celebrate worthily the wonders wrought by the virtue of the Cross. For its power is likewise unconquerable against adversaries, and beyond reach for the praise of those who are its own; and it is shown to be a truly skilled victor over both, terrifying the former merely by its representation, while for the latter, it transcends all discourse adapted to praise.

But since I also desire my tongue to be sanctified by speaking about the Cross, and my mind to be illuminated by constantly thinking about it, I have resolved to set forth for contemplation those things which, before the grace of the Law, were accomplished wonderfully in an image of the glory of the Cross, and in this way to satisfy the desire of your gathering. For my discourse wishes to show that the present celebration, not only because it is performed in the whole world, but because it proclaims the providence of God toward the human race from all ages, both is and is called universal. For, on the one hand, the ancient types preserved ^C the Cross, but after the death and resurrection of the Lord, it illuminates us all and pours forth divine grace; and the Cross is common and a benefactress of the whole world as far as its bounds extend. For it has obtained mighty power from above, and not only now, when it is depicted, does it put the enemies to flight in truth, but even of old, when it was symbolized by a shadow, it wrought those marvelous and extraordinary miracles. And the sea was divided by its almighty efficacy; the river, which has the likeness of the sea, was turned into blood; Egypt was scourged with various plagues; the desert was brightened with various divine signs; Marah was sweetened; the rock provided fountains of water, as if from an abyss; Amalek was warred against; Pharaoh was drowned; the deadly bites of snakes were healed; and other wonders of that kind were splendidly wrought. ^D And if the manifestation of the prefiguration was of such virtue, how great an efficacy must there be in the truth itself which has now been manifested?

Wherefore, having always admired its most radiant glory in my own soul, I have now risen to recount it in words, having summoned you as partners of my joy and participants in this deification. I hasten, therefore, with all my soul and readiness to recount the glory of God, and to make this...

^A faith of mine, which is by nature suited to receive all things requested, an offering; and I rejoice the more as I gaze upon both the multitude and the magnitude of the wonders set before us. For it is permitted to me to provide a great number of eminent discourses appropriate to this festival, and of these, some may be spoken, while others are left for the benefit of those who come after us; for the discourse concerning the Cross—much like the nature of fire—suffices for many without any diminution of itself, remaining undiminished, possessing in itself its own proper beauty, which is an eternal exultation, as Isaiah would say, and a never-ending gladness, fittingly bestowed by the Lord upon generation after generation. And just as if someone were to come to that spring which the Scripture says in the beginning rose up from the earth to irrigate the face of the earth, if someone were to reach it, he would wonder, as is natural, at the infinite nature of the wonders; yet he would by no means be able to see all the water, even if he remained for a long time for the sake of watching; for he will always see what is flowing, but he will not see the source from which it springs; so it is also with the praises of the life-giving Cross. For some things are said of these, others are understood, and others are those ^B kept in store by God for divine men, and now, even after our common resurrection in the kingdom of God, they are to be marveled at throughout the ages. The grace is therefore abundant, the gift is rich, all things are infinite and supernatural, and what else is worthy of the Cross than the things set before us? And we are not at a loss as to what must be said about the Cross, but we are at a loss for another reason: as to what we should mention first, since each point charmingly draws us to itself and persuades us to admire it first, just as the most beautiful and fragrant flowers in a meadow filled with many flowers and varied colors. Dealing in this way, and having come into a new perplexity from an overflowing abundance, we have decided that it is necessary to follow the opportunities of the times for these excellent wonders, and to take up again with [our] discourse the narrative of more ancient things, setting forth those things which long ago symbolically foreshadowed the grace of the Cross, and adding those things which were later accomplished by the Lord, and comparing both with one another; for in this way we shall dissolve the perplexity that has arisen, and we shall not err regarding the preference of the higher things. ^C But the things said first will be indeed first in order because of time, but they will not become posterior to the others in dignity due to our exposition, even if they are first as types and shadows of the truth, and are at the same time said to hold the second place; for they are surpassed only by themselves, inasmuch as they occurred in a figure, and are to be contemplated with a spiritual eye. Now, that type of the Cross which is sought from the sunrise is noble among the first. For there is the Paradise in which the tree of life, a figure of the Cross, is planted, which, provided that I had [observed] the commandments of God, lay before me as a reward ^D

^A so that, just as it was permitted to take glory from the wood—as long as it was untouched and tasted by none—so I might have culled from it the perpetuity of life. But as soon as I defiled myself with the forbidden fruit, I was excluded from this also, and for this very reason I was cut off from those highest delights. But Christ, the wood of immortality and the tree of eternal life planted by the waters, when he appeared in the new paradise of Holy Scripture and was fixed for my sake to the wood of the Cross, as the bread of life and the cluster of immortality, granted not only that I should recover the dignity with which I was formerly endowed, and which I had lost through death and corruption by having kept it, [had] it been proposed [that I dwell] in communion, but he also most kindly and liberally bestowed [the gift] that I should live splendidly and perpetually through faith.

In similar fashion, that ark which preserved Noah ^B bore the figure of the Cross, when, fleeing the shipwreck and deluge of the whole world, it kept safe and unharmed a small seed of our race—the family, namely, of that righteous man—and through eight rational souls prefigured the resurrection of Christ, which itself is the eighth, and the first, and, what is more wonderful, the unique. It is the eighth, on account of those restorations to life that were performed for a time; the first, on account of the subsequent [events] which are and shall be performed for the attainment of eternal life; and the unique, on account of the singular excellence of the awakening, because he alone of all those who have been raised from the beginning of time or who shall be raised for ages, raised himself. For it was necessary that even in the resurrection he should have something above the common course ^C and law, being the one who at his birth had obtained that holy temple of the Lord. For this reason, the resurrection of the Savior is one, as having been accomplished with all power and performed by his own authority and faculty, since it imitated the voluntary nature of both the passion and the death. Just as he himself also said concerning the passion to the judge: "You would have no power over me, unless it had been given to you from above." And concerning his death and resurrection, he foretold these things: "I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up [again]." Moreover, both the old and the new are reckoned to this unique one, which surpasses all nature, so that both might be honored: the former indeed as types of the truth, but the latter as images of the archetype. For this reason it is called ^D the first and the eighth. Nor is the Lord's resurrection only the eighth in that it was perfected on the third day, but it also happened on the eighth day: that is, the first of the days, and one of the Sabbaths, so that, just as it was undertaken for the salvation of all men who are circumscribed by the interval of time (for this indicates the three-day space), so it might also clearly designate the future age, which shall exist after this heptenary circuit of time and shall extend to one day devoid of evening, on which every creature shall rise, "some to a resurrection of life, but some to a resurrection of judgment." And the ark indeed prefigured this in the manner of a cross, and that salvation which comes to all through the Cross.

^A Moreover, Noe was a prefiguration of the Saviour, both in his name and in his way of life. For Christ, the true justice and rest, has saved us from the deluge which falls under the intellect, and has rescued the human race from the flood of sins. And then, indeed, the dove returned to the ark toward evening, bringing a branch of olive. But now the Cross has become for us a tree of mercy and loving-kindness, which Emmanuel, moved by compassion for us, accepted at the end of the age; for this is what that "toward evening" seems to me to signify. And the Holy Spirit, preaching through the mouth of the apostles the divine dispensation through the Cross, dried up the pleasures that had occupied the whole world, and checked the flood of impiety.

^B Nor is the celebrated history of Abraham devoid, in any way, of the grace which springs from the Cross. For that man was leading his only-begotten son, who was born of the promise and in whom the promise, as it were, reached its end, to the slaughter, and was hastening to sacrifice him, having been ordered to do so by God—who, I think, also wished the piety and observance of this just man toward God to be an object of admiration for all posterity, for all time—and wishing to confirm in advance the mystery of the universal sacrifice, the slaughter on our behalf of the spotless and blameless Lamb who takes away the sin of the world; and in order to show, in His tender mercy, that what was a pure benefit was, as it were, a debt due to us, and to proclaim the patriarch at once a possessor of virtue, a teacher of faith, and the author of the greatest gift; and so that in this way the foul mouth of the devil might be stopped, who attempts to overthrow the economy and dispensation of the Divine Word not only through Jewish impiety, but also through the perversity of the Greeks and Gentiles, and through those very heretics who are Christians in name only. For if man reached such a height of love toward God that he was willing to sacrifice his son to Him from whom he had received him, how could it be that our most merciful and benign Creator, moved by His infinite mercy, would not offer up His own Only-begotten Son for the salvation of the whole world?

Abraham, indeed, bearing the figure of the heavenly Father and of His benevolence toward us, brought forward his son Isaac, ^D and the boy, having taken the wood upon his shoulders, followed his father, thereby expressing the image of the Cross and foreshadowing my Jesus as He went toward the Passion; for the Only-begotten is born, according to the flesh, of the only Father, who is without beginning, and of the only Mother, and, carrying the Cross like a burden upon His shoulders, He voluntarily endured that death so celebrated by all for our sake. Furthermore, Isaac signified the impassible divinity and was forbidden by divine command to die; but by the ram, humanity was signified, and the death which Christ underwent according to His human nature. For "as a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer He was silent." Now the plant Sabec is the same as the "plant of remission," and it signifies nothing other than the Cross, by which we have obtained the remission of sins. And so also Ezechiel calls the water of remission that which prefigures the baptism

^A of salvation. For there are two things which grant the remission of sins: the passion and death of Christ, undergone and accepted by grace, and the saving waters of baptism. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of the Lord, and he saw it in an image, and rejoiced—that is, the day of the passion and the resurrection. And just as Sarah, when she received Isaac alive and safe on the third day after the completed sacrifice, took great pleasure, so too the Church, when she beheld Jesus revived on the third day after the cross, was filled with all manner of joy; and there is no one who can take this joy from her. But after the promise had begun to receive its end ^B and be fulfilled in very deed, and the seed of the righteous was destined to multiply like the stars of the heaven and like the sand upon the seashore, Jacob makes the Lord’s blessing his provision, committing that memorable theft; he is sent to his kinsman Laban, fleeing from the brother who breathed slaughter and blood. He crosses the Jordan with his staff—a thing which truly prefigured the blessings of the new people, I mean the Cross and Baptism. For in this way we have escaped the destruction we faced from him who was a murderer from the beginning; and we have been translated to Charan, signifying not a place of rest, but one containing joy that shall have no end. Jacob, fore-signifying this, came into Charan, and slept there, and saw the ladder reaching to heaven, upon which the Lord was ^C leaning. Now the Cross was surely represented by this, on which Christ was fixed aloft, and drew all men to himself. For the wood that was the cause of universal joy was fixed, so that indeed the patriarch of the world, Adam, might rest there. "And there was a stone," it says, "at his head;" and indeed the Lithostroton, that is, the place paved with stones, is the place of Calvary, on whose summit the blood of the Savior, the God-man Jesus, was poured out and sprinkled—which the divine David would call the oil of gladness 11, for it freed those who wished to be partakers of it from the sadness and anguish of sin.

What then of the all-excellent Joseph? ^D Was he not clearly a type of Christ, my God and Savior? For he is envied on account of his dreams, just as Christ was on account of his miracles; and when he came intending to visit his brothers, he was cast into a pit and a cistern. And being drawn up from there safe and sound, he imaged the Lord's providence toward the Jews, and his burial in the tomb, and his resurrection from the dead. And he is slandered before the father before the treachery, and he is slandered after the treachery before the foreigners, just as Christ, before the cross, is reviled as one opposed to God, and after his death, is proclaimed as a corrupter. His tunic is torn, but he himself remains devoid of all passion, signaling the mortality of the human nature in Christ and the immortality of the divinity. He makes sin subject to himself, he rules over the Egyptians, and becomes a dispenser of food, demonstrating in advance the victory of Christ and the [bounty] toward the nations.

table of life, through both the teaching of the Gospel and the mystical liturgy. And if he fed his brothers and brought them to worship, this too happened according to the pattern of the truth; for many who became the new Israel out of the old worship were fed in an evangelical manner and worshipped God in spiritual truth. For these reasons, therefore, Joseph is a type of Jesus.

But that old Israel, who saw things to come, becomes a pattern of the whole new and divine Israel. For this reason, leaning forward, he worshipped at the tip of his staff, ^B proclaiming the worship of the precious Cross that is established in the whole circuit of this world; for the staff prefigured this, just as the prophetic voice is said to God: "Thou didst redeem with a rod Thy inheritance;" and "A rod of uprightness is the rod of Thy kingdom." But you may also, if you wish, look further into how this type describes the truth like a shadow; for Joseph was not heard by his brothers as he truly was, nor by the Egyptian woman, but envy impelled those to call him a slave, who was free; and she falsely devised intemperance against the most temperate youth; but before his father, he held the place he deserved, ^C by whom he was also loved with the tenderest affection. Concerning Christ, likewise, the Gentiles do not think and speak as is fitting, and the Jews utter many impious and blasphemous things about Him, because to these he is a scandal, and to those the saving word of the Cross is considered foolishness. But God and Father testifies to His divinity from above, and names Him beloved Son, and through the co-natural Spirit, presents and manifests Him to the world. In this way, the most beautiful Joseph prefigured our sweetest Saviour. In this way, the shadow typically adumbrated the truth. In this way, he who provided food for Egypt, through what he suffered, what he did, and through what he acquired glory and famous renown from God, ^D symbolically foretold the Lord of glory, who feeds every breath, and has performed wonderful works for our sake, and endured sufferings.

Verily, the great Israel again calls me to himself, and shows how even in dying he expressed the type of the Cross; for that pure and God-contemplating mind was not hastening so much to prefer the younger grandson *before* the one who was older in birth—swapping his hands—as he was to signal, as if by a certain enigma, the salvation of the world; for if he had been so disposed, he could have switched those children without any trouble. But he did not do that. By this very act he clearly demonstrated the power of the life-giving Cross. For in it and through it every one who adheres to Christ is blessed by the Father of lights, and is established as His child by faith, and that: "Behold"

^A I and the children whom God has given me," since, by partaking of the most holy flesh of Christ, which He took from the seed of Abraham, we both become and are called children of Abraham, and children of Christ, and blessed of the Father in the Holy Spirit.

The crossing of the hands, therefore, which the patriarch instituted, signified the saving Cross, and the preference shown to the younger designated the prerogative of the new people, crying out, as it were, through this very action: "When the Cross shall appear for the blessing, then the lesser people shall be exalted, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted." Nor did the divine Jacob prefigure merely that instrument of the Lord in these things, and describe, as if in passing, the things that were to happen in the Church; but he also adumbrated future events when he blessed Judah; for with intellectual eyes he was looking toward the Savior of all and King Christ. For then, turning his discourse to the oracle concerning the Cross, he said: "From a shoot, my son, you have ascended," ^B by which the virginal birth is denoted; "lying down you rested as a lion and as a lion's whelp; who shall rouse him?" by which he signifies Him who effected His own resurrection of His own power, and at the same time sets before our eyes the terrible power of His might. For just as other animals fear a lion even when it is sleeping, so too did all creation tremble at the sight of Jesus, even though He was crucified. Hence it was that the sun was darkened, the earth was shaken, the rocks were rent, death melted away, Hades was despoiled, and the tyranny of Satan was dissolved: "And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose." But these things are in this wise.

And the things that follow imitate the course of rivers; and just as they are not large at their sources, but easy to cross, yet the further they proceed, having received other rivers into their channel, they are carried along equipped with greater impetus and more copious waters: so too does my discourse ^C here at this point. For the things before the Law were a beginning, and, as one might say, a fountain of the miracles of God toward us; but the things in the Law are like a river swelling, with many wonders of omnipotent grace running together from all sides, now becoming common to the people, now individually to the prophets, and they all contribute and flow into the common and holy Testament, which is, as truly, an immense sea and an abyss not even to be defined by the eyes of the mind.

But I, invoking the greatest and most valid grace of the Cross, so proceed to the things that lie before me, as one being taught about them by the Cross itself. Come therefore and assemble, O choirs of prophets, and apostolic trumpets, and the bright assembly of martyrs, and the holy congregation of the Fathers, and with common zeal compose a hymn to Him who has given the salvation in common, ^D and beseech for me the God-like illumination of the Spirit, providing the power of speech for the fulfillment of the task.

^A We were, therefore, under a bitter and pernicious master, the terrible prince of this world; for the human race had been wretchedly subverted by his deceit, and we were being oppressed by the long occupation of earthly things, in which the teachers of perdition flourished—those harsh taskmasters and fellow-apostates with the murderous tyrant. For, fearing our return to a better way of life, and lest the eye of the mind, once freed from other concerns, should gaze upon the Creator and loosen its neck from the heavy servitude of idols (for man is by nature a lover of freedom), they commanded us, as if we were of a different race, to make bricks without ceasing and to build cities. And these, indeed, were the terrible things that grew upon men after the loss of luxury, as well as the myriad swarm of passions and the pursuit of things that were vain. But since it did not befit the goodness of our Creator to leave us forever—though we were serving our own destruction—destitute of His aid, and since God was one day to come down to earth among us through the bowels of His mercy and the abyss of His compassion, so that ^B—as Isaiah says—He might reclaim that which was His own and strip the wicked one of the spoils which we were (for we are the most precious property to God), He ordered this whole matter most wisely and in a manner truly worthy of God. For He first invites men to the commandments of the law, and purifies them by the law, and speaks through the prophets, and announces this mystery. For, desiring to demonstrate to the human race the types of the benefits that were to follow, He appears to Moses, instructs him in divine matters, frees Israel from the servitude of Pharaoh, and performs stupendous works full of wonder, all of which prefigured the venerable Cross and the salvation that comes to us from it.

The lawgiver sent by God to free the people with a mighty hand was ordered, therefore, to carry a rod, and the rod prefigured the power and strength of the spiritual wood. ^C For it truly becomes a serpent, and crushes the heads of the serpents, and devours the rods of the adversaries, and refutes the artificer of wickedness together with all his ministers, and exposes their guiles and impostures. For the wisdom that is granted from above to the preachers of the Word through the passion of Christ rendered all the false-called wisdom of this world foolish and proved it to be of no consequence, publicly denouncing the myths and exposing the deception. But do not be surprised, when you hear that that instrument of envy—that beast full of venom—was a type of the Cross. For just as He ^D who is beyond all holiness, in whose sight not even the stars are clean, and all the justice of men is like a filthy rag—as, I say, He was numbered with the transgressors so that He might deliver us from the bitter tyranny of sin, so also the wood that prefigured His Cross was transformed into a serpent, so that like might be slain by like, and

the wiles and coils of Satan might be crushed by the most wise counsel of the dispensation. Moreover, although it truly turned into a serpent, and although it first terrified the seer of God, and in the second instance devoured the rods of the magicians, yet, when it was taken up again by Moses, it became wood, serving as a symbol that it was intended that, from a body hanging on wood, error would be put to death.

Following these things, God scourges Egypt, and Moses serves with divine power, and effects a decad of plagues—a perfect number of punishment against those who had committed perfect acts of transgression—and for the memory of the miracle, he prescribes a corresponding number of commandments, so that Egypt might be worthily punished by the decade of scourges, and Israel might be benefited by the decade of commandments. For the good was twofold: one part for those who were being punished, the other for those who were being instructed. ^A Now, the first of the punishments brought upon that land is the turning of the waters into blood; the second, the eruption of frogs; the third, that of the gnats; the fourth, that of the dog-fly; the fifth, the destruction of the cattle; the sixth, the emission of pustules; the seventh, that caused by fire and hail; the eighth, that caused by locusts; the ninth, that caused by palpable darkness; and the tenth, the death of the first-born.

And all these come to pass in the prefiguration of the Cross, yet not all are performed by the rod, so that it might not be held and worshipped as God by those of its own household, nor be maligned by foreigners; for otherwise, many might have supposed that these things were accomplished by magical illusions. For this reason, then, the extension of the hands and the sacrifice of the lamb possess equal power, and some things were brought to pass by prophecy alone. ^B For since three things may be observed concerning the precious Cross of the Lord—matter, form, and grace—through the rod the matter is made known, through the extension of the hands the form is delineated, and through the prophecy and the blood the grace is proclaimed.

And just as not all things were done by means of the rod, so not all things were performed by the ministry of Moses, nor all from any one of the elements, but the three first plagues from the coarser elements, namely earth and water, were committed to Aaron; an equal number from air and fire Moses effects; one, the seventh, both perform together; and the three remaining, to the completion of the decade, God attributes to Himself. ^C For it was necessary that in these miracles the strength of Moses should appear as that of a servant and subject, as a prophet, and the power of God, as the Most High, should be shown forth as that of the Creator of all.

For this reason, then, a part of the wonder-working was given to the lawgiver, and the Creator of all, the Lord, was glorified through the whole of the creation—not only by the elements which together effected all things, but also by the immaterial angels who ministered, according to the one who says: "The world shall fight with Him against the senseless." ^D For since the Egyptians, and the Gentile race, thought that some were heavenly gods, and others earthly, and others

" Sap. v, 21.

^A subterraneous; and that the former held the empire of the earth, and the latter that of the sea; and that others presided over the mountains, and others over the plains;—an opinion with which even those Syrians were imbued who said: "God of the mountains, God of Israel, and not God of the valleys" — it was necessary that the God and Lord of all should instruct the Egyptians, not only through the river and the earth, but also through the air and the sea, and should send down thunderbolts upon them from heaven, so that He might make it plain that He is the Creator and Lord of the whole. This the blessed Moses also indicated to Pharaoh, saying: "That you and your servants may know that the earth is the Lord's." For this reason, straightway, He inflicts the first and second ^B of the plagues from the river which was held by them to be equivalent to a divinity, and turns its water into blood, with Aaron performing this miracle by means of his staff, just as the Lord had commanded. The river, changed into blood, remained so for seven whole days, and many of the mortals died, and all the fish perished. For not only did the water turn red in color, but it was also changed in taste, and became thicker from the congealed moisture; and of this fact the intense thirst by which men were tormented, and the perishing of the fish, and the stench, are evident proof. "For the fish," the Scripture says, "that were in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river."

God punished the Egyptians first through the waters, because they revered water with exceptional worship, thinking it to be the principle of the generation of all things; and because ^C they were exceedingly proud of that river, and thought it to be a certain god providing them with the need of the clouds; and because of the infants of the Hebrews who had been cast into this river. For when it was changed into blood, it represented, in a certain way, the blood of the infants so cruelly shed, crying out to God for vengeance, and rebuked them for the crimes committed against the infants. For this reason, the waters also brought forth frogs as the second plague, in place of the infants who, having been exposed in those waves, had perished by suffocation. For infants, when they begin to walk, imitate frogs in a certain way, and have a similar voice. And what a plague the frogs were—separated far from the waters and cast upon the land for a long distance, for they differ in no way from ^D poisonous reptiles. Therefore, the waters, having been changed into blood, stank, and the earth also stank from the frogs. And the Egyptians, being truly flesh and blood, suffered that which they deserved. They died, some from bites, and others from the stench. For since the bruises of the Jews had putrefied, it was just that their river and their land should also putrefy and breathe out a heavy vapor. Yet those plagues did not touch the Hebrews; indeed, the Israelite people was free from every calamity, although it dwelt in the midst of the Egyptians. Nor was the saving power, prefigured, manifest only by the sending of the frogs, but also by their destruction thereafter. For Moses, having stretched out his hands and prayed, delivered the sufferers from the destruction of the bites, and the stench

^A of sin, that brings corruption and foul odor, he set all men free. For we who have believed in Christ have been delivered from the contagion of fleshly passions, and from the loathsome and bitter company of impiety, and from shameful and wicked works; rather, we perceive the stench all the more through memory. For we punish our soul with shame for what was previously lived, according to the divine Apostle who says: *What fruit had you then in those things of which you are now ashamed?* ^B The third plague after these, and a heavier one, was the bringing forth of gnats from the dust of the earth, occurring by the hand and rod of Aaron, and prefiguring the right hand of God the Father, which through the Cross smites the wicked and nefarious demons. This little creature is most troublesome and causes the greatest pain, even though it is most minute. For it does not merely damage the surface of the skin, causing a hateful itch, but also forces itself within, through the nostrils and the ears, and when it flies in, it knows how to harm especially the pupils of the eyes. This, indeed, is a testimony to the almighty power of God, and because of this, that He infuses invincible power into the small and weak, so that by them all of Egypt was brought to despair and compelled to cry out that *this is the finger of God*. For not even the entire world can subsist before the hand of God. And for this reason, in the prophecy of Joel, God named the smallest things in terms of vigor, and the most feeble in terms of strength, as His great power, saying: *I will restore to you the years which the locust, and the caterpillar, and the mildew, and the worm have eaten, my great power*. ^C The fourth plague was that of the dog-fly. The name itself signifies insolence. And the Scripture, witnessing to the pain caused by it, and how intolerable it was to the Egyptians, since it brought death, says: *The land was corrupted by the dog-fly*.

The fifth plague implies the destruction of beasts, unbearable and stronger than the previous ones; for as Pharaoh always advanced in sinning more and more, the scourges also proceeded accordingly to a greater degree. Therefore, the magicians of the Egyptians called the third plague the finger of God. But the fifth, as being more powerful, and as if the five fingers had been completed by each plague, Moses called the hand of God. *For behold*, he says, *the hand of the Lord will be upon thy cattle*. ^D He also predicts the punishment to come.

and the time when it shall be, ^A revealing it, so that no one might suspect that what happened came about by chance and accidentally.

The sixth plague in order was that of pustules and ulcers; the seventh was that of fire and hail, two opposites and (contrary to expectation) things warring against one another, joined together in such a way that the hail was not melted by the fire, nor was the fire extinguished by the moisture of the hail, but both displayed their own proper power at the same time and exhibited it; the fire, though in the midst of moisture, consumed everything by the nature of fire, and the ice, with the force of its hardened mass, crushed everything without exception, even in a region devoid of winter, most hot, and incessantly burning with great heat. But since even then they did not become better, *He said*, he says, *and there came the locust, and the bruchus, of which there was no number*. By the name of bruchus, you should understand a newly born and wingless locust.

Then also a three-day darkness prevails, which did not occur simply as a deprivation of light by happenstance, but possessed, as it were, a substantive existence; like a certain dense darkness creeping in, and dispersed in the manner of the most obscure Tartarus. It was called palpable, not only because they were groping with their hands for the sake of going out, being deprived of the use of their eyes, but also because it could almost be touched, and was perceived more thickly due to the more material nature of which it consisted.

^C That which was said to Pharaoh: *For this I have raised you up, that I might show in you my great power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth*, does not signify any injustice on the part of the one punishing, but brings about the correction of the whole. For it was a custom among those ancient physicians, the originators of that craft, to dissect those worthy of death while they were still alive, in order that they might study the force and action of the still-palpitating limbs, for the sake of curing those who might fall into such diseases. And those who are set over the administration of laws and the passing of sentences by their prescription even now publicly punish the guilty, so that the spectators, having received an example thence, may learn to be wise in better things. Therefore, Pharaoh, too, who was committing the greatest crimes without any hope of pardon, paid the penalty publicly, and by his own destruction became a salvation to all, while the divine providence was laid open, and preached to the whole world and its furthest borders was his most just and immutable judgment.

The tenth and last plague, or rather the beginning and first of all in power and in pain, as David also testifies, was that terrible death of the first-born. For about midnight, without any infirmity or morbid cause, the children of the Egyptians were slain, wherefore, awakening in the morning ^D and beholding their dearest pledges devoid of life, they could no longer contain themselves from crying out against Pharaoh; wherefore reluctantly they let the people go. Just as the sharper of all other

scourges, and the beginning of every labor, and the highest point of every pain became this for the adversaries, so to those who were familiar and joined to God, it provided a greater abundance of grace, accomplished through many paradoxes. For so that what was coming to pass might not be thought to be by some chance or spontaneous death, or merely a plague or famine that had occurred, many extraordinary things concur; and while all were present, the punishment rightly identifies its targets and is fulfilled with a warning, and in one night all are destroyed, and only the firstborn of the others die, so that the power of God, and His justice, and His providence, and His love for mankind might be made manifest here. ^B Justice, in that in one moment so great a work had been done; but that in place of the firstborn affliction which Israel endured, the firstborn of those who had oppressed them were slain; but goodness appears in this, that He punishes in such a way as to spare at the same time, not wishing, clearly, that all perish utterly. For this reason, neither did the first plague rage against men, nor did He bring His wrath without warning and prediction, since it was His purpose, partly by the danger of others, to lead them to a better mind, and partly by words to make them more measured and sane, so that it would not be necessary for them to have any feeling or experience of the scourges themselves.

And then, indeed, this prodigy invited only the faithful to joy, but now it calls us all the more, we who contemplate in spirit the things that were written, and for whom the things of the type and the shadow are interpreted according to the bright truth. For the history truly shows forth the marvelous freedom given to us through the cross, and clearly prefigures the slaughter of the divine Lamb for us, and the mystical Passover, and the universal salvation. ^C For that typical participation was not preservative of life, nor did it carry one over into freedom, but the true communion of this one knows how to bestow both immortality and the adoption of sons, and makes those who receive it heavenly from earthly beings, and gods from men. For this reason, therefore, the Passover, the transit, is celebrated in Egypt, and it sketches out the great and true Passover through the cross—the spiritual transit, that is. It occurs in the first month, because it was a figure of Christ, the principle of all things, and of the new creation in Christ after the winter of impiety, as if in a bright and sweet-smelling spring of faith, both created and renewed by Christ through the Spirit, just as He was saying to her from above: "Arise, my neighbor, my beautiful dove, for behold, the winter has passed." For we were buried with Him, and we were raised together through the laver of regeneration, and having put off the oldness of Adam, we walk in newness of life, making the true Passover our food worthy of eternal life, being nourished by the flesh and blood of God.

This to me seems to be the reason for the first month; ^D

^A for the lamb was indeed received on the tenth day, but on the fourteenth toward evening, it was sacrificed.

The first [point is this]: that the ages preceding us, in which "He who is" always was, were of long duration, and the number ten denotes these ages because of [its] perfection and fullness, and it indicates the beginning of the present age as a neighbor to that infinite one.

The second [point] is that it shows the ancient limit of the divine counsel and presents the final time of the incarnation of the Word. For the mystery of this dispensation is not new or recent, but was guarded from the foundation of the world in the foreknowledge of the Spirit, and at the same time proclaimed in the last times, as if at the end of the day; and our life, now drawing to a close, has received the end of it.

The whole time during which it was observed is divided into a pentad of days—or rather, enlightenments—as a prescribed law. ^B For the sake of healing the fall of our race, God gave orders of salvation to Adam, and spoke with Noah of things profitable for our salvation, and made a covenant with Abraham, and gave the law through Moses, and delivered oracles through the prophets, which, as they provided light for the knowledge of God, are here called "days" tropologically. In the Gospel, however, they are compared to intervals of days within which the company of the laborers was called.

And so, to the fifth [day] toward evening, the Passover is sacrificed, because the passion of Christ came to pass at the consummation of the age, and it dissolved the darkness of ignorance. For righteousness and the abundance of peace rose up in his days, since he who was unjustly destroying us was justly destroyed in his turn by him—the prince of the night, specifically—which the diminution of the moon from that point signified. ^C

It was performed by house and by the gathering of families or neighbors, because it outlined the state of the Church, which is one in faith, though manifold in its extension through various places, since truly one, perfect, and indivisible is Christ, who is everywhere and in all things; and there is one union of the churches of the world, and he who wanders outside this fold is not a participant in this great victim. For the sacrificial animal is not carried out of the house of God, nor is it distributed to those who are outside at all, but those who are of the household, these alone will eat and be saved. And the communion and society of neighbors and friends signified the concord and conjunction of those who follow the same faith.

And it was a sheep, because it served as a type of the good shepherd, who both possessed that which is above us and took on that which is ours, in order that he who is by nature God and Lord might be reckoned with us as a brother; and because of human nature, being placed under the same care of divine order and governance, like a lamb void of all malice, he might first bring forth to God the fruit of obedience owed by all human nature; and after that, offer himself as a sacrifice and holy oblation, having tasted death for all, and restored life to all. ^D

For this reason, then, the lamb was the program of the great sacrifice

great sacrifice. And this was perfect, without blemish, ^A masculine, and of one year, since all that was in Christ were perfect, God-befitting characteristics, both according to the assumption of the anointed divinity, and becoming what anointed it; and He is recognized as perfect in every virtue, as needing nothing, just as He himself says: "It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." He is "without blemish," because He alone is sinless, possessing a supernatural and insurmountable purity, and He alone has the authority to forgive sins over all the earth. For even if many have been acceptable to God and sanctified by participation, yet one alone is by nature good, and there is no one holy as the Lord, nor is there any righteous as our God. ^B And "masculine" because of His sovereignty; for He himself is the bridegroom of the Church, who truly and legitimately presides and rules, who holds all things in subjection on account of the majesty of the divinity, who comes from above, and exists above all, not having received kingship by grace, but possessing it in truth and by the birth from the Father, He who sows the seeds of the knowledge of God in us all, and, according to the prophet, makes us a willing land, He who is offered in place of that strong Adam, as one stronger, and bearing nothing effeminate or female in Himself. And "of one year," because the same One was ancient in divinity and young in humanity, and was the Creator of times, and had come under time, and is the Sun of righteousness, and while circumscribed to the observer, turning back into Himself, and a crown of kindness being blessed, and from every side equal and similar to Himself. He also gives life to the cycle of virtues, being mildly blended and mingled with one another by the law of friendship and order. ^C But if it is also because those who were to profit from the blessings of the Passion were going to celebrate the most God-befitting feast of the Passion every year, that it was prefigured as "of one year," I do not deny that this may also be added to the aforementioned reasons as fitting. And it is selected from the lambs, because He is also the Lamb of God, as John testifies, and from the goats, because He took away the sin of the world. But what reason does the slaughter of the victim and the sprinkling of blood have in relation to the salvation of the firstborn? For God does not need sacrifices to demonstrate His own goodness, ^D nor signs to recognize His own, but here too the matter serves us, and the Law testifies to our holy faith through symbols. For the victim without blemish having been slaughtered for us, the death that came from the first-created is dissolved. And the firstborn of the Egyptians die, because he who disbelieves in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. But we are saved, as many as have become children of God and the firstborn of the Church. For "If anyone," He says, "keeps my word, he shall not see death forever." And the word of Christ is kept by us through contemplation and action. And the doorpost brings the type of contemplation,

^A as it signifies the rational part; while the two doorposts present the image of action, hinting by enigma at the rectitude that is ignorant of falling in that part which is wont to be irascible and that which is wont to be concupiscible, which also are anointed on either side; for after the blood and the Spirit have truly come into one, we receive through the blood of our kin Him who is above us, the Spirit, and thence we escape death and sin, the cause of death. For when neither through irrational desires, nor through foolish and unwise thoughts, the sting of death—sin—has been fixed in us, then the destroyer passes us by, and death, which pressed upon us with its dominion, recedes.

After the anointing follows immediately the eating; and this too is not lacking in instruction, nor is it without accurate prescription. On the contrary, that whole initial arrangement and constitution bears witness to the wonderful diligence of the legislator; for he commands that it be performed when night has already fallen, in a certain manner and order; namely, that they should not eat the Lamb raw, nor boiled in water, but roasted with fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The night ^B indicates the present age, in which we are initiated into those mysteries concerning the divine dispensation which are easier to perceive and pertain to the assumed flesh. But the morning signifies the future age, in which the Holy Spirit will teach us more solid and firm things. But that which is roasted is symbolically proposed, not [to be eaten] idly—which is indicated by the raw—nor voluptuously—which is indicated by the boiled—but to show that those who partake must not live an idle life, but one that is fiery, burning with charity, and adorned with continence, so that they may fervently serve the Lord in the Spirit.

Unleavened bread signifies a mind immune to arrogance and purged from that old and bitter custom; for the new doctrine of the Gospel must not be leavened by the godless instruction of the Pharisees, nor by the multi-form superstition of the Egyptians. Bitter herbs ^C are added because of the harshness that is inherent in a life lived according to God, and they are accepted because of the bitterness arising from temptations; which we consume gladly on account of the hope of eternal joy, and we make them a matter of boasting as we work out our patience. We eat the head with the feet and the entrails, and by the head we understand the divinity of the Lamb immolated for us; by the feet, his humanity; and by the entrails, that indivisible and unconfused union of both in one person. ^D Furthermore, no uncircumcised person nor any foreigner shall eat of it; but only those are deemed worthy of this divine table who, having cut away earthly things in the putting off of the flesh through the non-manufactured circumcision—that is, baptism—have become heavenly, and are truly the people of God, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a new inheritance, as those who have put off the old man and walk in newness of life through spiritual actions.

And these again eat standing, and with haste, having their loins girded, their feet shod, and holding staffs in their hands like travelers. The belt [tempers]

temperance, since the orthodox man must be adorned with all virtues; the sandals indicate security, that we may pass through the thorns of sin without harm, and tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy. The staff shows the firm and solid confidence in the cross, by whose power we drive away those who bark at us, and support the weariness of the soul. Moreover, the standing, and to eat with haste, signifies that one should not be listless or relaxed, nor have a dejected mind, but be aroused and intense, running in such a way so as to be able to escape some things and succeed in attaining others. And the reason is clear. For it is the Lord's Passover, and a passing over of the destructive punishment, and a departure from earth to heaven; for we are straining toward the goal, for the prize of the upward calling, and we must by all means be standing ^B and higher than earthly things, eating the Passover with haste. The wise call virtue by this name, and those who are lovers of it they name diligent. And so the spiritual arrangement of the lawgiver wishes that those who are about to eat the true Passover should be especially approved and lovers of virtue, and should have virtue as a companion in life and a fellow-traveler at the end. For this alone makes us worthy of the Lord's table, and passes with us to the life beyond. What more? ^C Because of these things, Israel is liberated and is again pursued, envied for its freedom, yet not without the glory of God; Moses, having escaped from Pharaoh, works miracles by means of his staff, forming the cross, dividing the sea and leading his own people across while drowning the strangers. Hence follows the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, that not only the sea and the nature of water, but also fire and air might minister salvation to us through the tripartite cross in shadows, and prefigure baptism and the gifts of the Spirit. For the cross is tripartite, manifesting the power of the holy Trinity, and this Isaiah, prophesying of old, said that God would glorify his own place with the pine, and the cedar, and the cypress. For so much did the mystery of the cross concern the prophets that they even foretold the very woods of which the cross was fashioned. But since the discourse has proceeded to this point, it is fitting ^D that it should also remember the miracle performed at the fountain of Marah; for this too, by the benefit of wood, casts off and puts away bitterness, and prefigures the power of the cross, which also changed the bitterness of the punishing law into the sweetness of kindness—not immediately departing without mercy, but delaying punishment with great long-suffering, that it might bring about correction, and sweeten the salty and undrinkable sea of the nations, transferring them from unbelief to faith through grace. It renders no less the labors undertaken for the acquiring of virtues grateful and pleasant.

^A For even if the yoke of the Lord is gracious and His burden light, this has been spoken of because of the immensity of the eternal glory, as Paul might say, and the joy that is to come. Otherwise, the way that leads to God is entirely narrow and afflicted, and the life separated from pleasures is a certain Marah, unsuitable for drinking because of its bitterness. But when the life-giving wood is cast into the waters of the mind, and the mystery of the resurrection has been confirmed, it becomes sweet and drinkable, and more delightful than anything that usually delights the senses. For the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Because of this, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor death brought about by torture, nor a life full of labors and troubles, nor any other of the things that exist or are thought to be grievous, but in all these things we are more than conquerors through the hope we have placed in Christ.

^B You have seen the sea divided by wood, and Marah made sweet by wood. Behold also the rock broken by wood, and pouring forth rivers of water, that you may admire the power of Him who hung upon the wood. Let us return therefore to the rod, which knows both how to dry up the abysses and to reveal the hidden things in the abyss. For He who miraculously brought it about that the same cloud should shower forth dew by day and emit light by night, ^C He also, by means of the rod, while the sea gave way, provided a crossing for the Hebrews, and produced copious waters for them from a dry place. For it says: He clave the rock in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great deep. Therefore the rock was broken by the rod; and immediately the most abundant waters flowed forth, and rivers ran through the dry places, and torrents flooded them, and the people drank as if water of joy, honey from the rock, to use the words of Scripture again, and oil out of the flinty rock. For He who had opened the doors of heaven, and had sent down the sweetest food of manna, provided a drink similar to this in its sweetness. ^D And the Prophet, indicating this again, says: He fed them with the fat of wheat; and this because of the richness and the excellent juice of the manna, and He gave them to drink honey from the rock, because of the sweetness of the water. Now the rock is Christ, according to the divine Apostle, not only because He is, in that He is broken, unbreakable and unshakable and steadfast—for that divine and supreme nature is founded and made firm in its own proper goods—but also because it is as it were dry and devoid of moisture, and contrary and opposed to the infidel nations; and it is a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal to the ungrateful Jews, crushing both equally and winnowing them, as the divine oracles testify. The cross is shadowed forth by the rod, upon which, ascending the

^A side, he was wounded, and mixed a cup of salvation for those who believe. Proclaiming this, Isaiah cried out: "The rock shall be cloven, and water shall flow, and My people shall drink," says the Lord (Isa. xlviii, 21). Therefore, Christ is both the rock and is called such, for the reasons already stated; and the rod is the Cross, by which we were first called and by which we are perpetually nourished. For through the Cross, the Savior imparted all His benefits. The ancient history, interpreting typicality regarding the grace of this mystery, says: "Moses struck the rock once and again" (Exod. xvii, 6; Num. xx, 8), so that it might describe the Cross, not only by its material but also by its form. For if that abundance of water were produced by the power of God with such a great miracle, what need was there for a second blow? But since the power of the Cross was being characterized, for this reason he struck it once and ^B again—not, however, dealing the blow in the same pattern, but in the likeness of a Cross: the first blow aimed directly, and the second obliquely and transversely. Having perceived this sign, and seeing the royal image suspended over itself, the rock rendered things that were above its own nature and provided what it did not previously possess. Wherefore David also, as if questioning the creation, says: "What is it to thee, O sea, that thou didst flee? and thou, Jordan, that thou didst turn back? What has happened to you? What have you seen? What power have you beheld? Why did you mountains skip like rams, and you little hills like lambs of the flock?" (Ps. cxiii, 3, 4). The creation answers in these words: "At the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into pools of water, and the flint into fountains of water" (Ibid. 8). He calls the rod the "presence of the Lord," because it bore the image of the scepter and the kingdom of Him who was crucified. For the Cross is an act not only of ^C ineffable economy, but also of inexpressible power, having restored contraries through contraries, and having granted impassibility through passion, and immortality through death. Therefore it is called the rod of power, because it triumphed over the phalanx of demons; and it is called the rod of direction, because it repaired the world, which was rushing headlong toward the precipice of destruction. Since there was a twofold miracle performed concerning the rock—one occurring in the desert of Horeb in a place called "Temptation" and "Conviction," and the other in Kadesh, where the water is named "Contradiction"—let us observe if something similar happened regarding the intelligible Rock. Indeed, in that twofold miracle concerning the rock, there is revealed the double blow and calumny of the Jews against the Lord. First, having slandered Him before Pilate, and having denied His kingdom, they put Him to death; then, they attempted to persuade everyone that He had not risen from the dead. But He Himself, like the rock, gave the water in a twofold manner: now pouring forth water with blood from His side after death, ^D and now pouring forth from the tomb a cup of life for the world, which is truly the cause of joy and peace, sweetening the bitterness of the whole world, freeing Israel from the letter of the west, and rescuing the nations from the idolatry...

of servitude, and joining both peoples, as a cornerstone, into one new man, and associating the Church with the angels into one harmony of faith, into one modulation of divine praise; ^A he who, even before this, having accomplished the thing that is greatest of all, joined to himself within his own self, through an hypostatic union, two natures without confusion—I mean divinity and humanity.

Meanwhile, Israel undertook a war against Amalek, the people of God having advanced into the field. Where Moses, as he had long ago shadowed forth the glory of the one who suffered for us, also fashioned the cross with his extended hands. And Jesus, bearing the type of the God-man, ^B put the foreigner to flight, and slaughtered all his sons by the edge of the sword, and symbolically prefigured the victory that the faithful obtain through the cross. For if the Lord did not today also fight against that intellectual Amalek, from generation to generation, as the Scripture says, and help us, who grow brave in confidence and in the panoply of the cross, we would labor in vain, having set out to build houses of virtues; we would also watch in vain, guarding Jerusalem, the city of justice, and hastening toward the supernal metropolis.

Afterwards, spies and explorers were sent by Moses ^C to the land promised to the people, and they were commanded to bring back proofs of the region, in confirmation of the abundance they were about to receive. But when they returned and gave an account of their observation, they were at that time divided in their opinions; and some of them, out of wickedness and malice, brought back most sad and fictitious reports: to these, since the great multitude of the people lent their ears, they incited Moses to anger, and sought a leader who would lead them back to Egypt. Jesus, however, reported ^D better and more true things, and taking the cluster of grapes from Palestine—which he brought suspended from a carrying-pole—he made it a certain specimen of that fertility in which the promised land abounded. But you, when you hear the name Jesus, recall to your mind the true God and Savior Jesus, the Angel of the great counsel of the Father, and the teacher of the beatitude which has been promised to us, and the preparer of the kingdom of heaven already in the regions above, and later also the dispenser thereof, who hangs from the cross like a cluster of grapes, and who offered his own blood as a drink of immortality: which Moses himself also signified by a certain riddle, saying that they drank the blood of the grape, * so that in this way he might indicate the saving passion, and the exaltation that resulted from the cross. Are then these things, which have been said thus far, the only ones that have prefigured the cross—and indeed so splendid and full of wonders—while the tabernacle and the holy things contained therein are not at all adorned with such venerable symbols of this precious type?

How could I wrap in silence the four-part people destined for the ministries of the tabernacle, the cross-bearing...

^A procession, and the divine glory that shines in their midst? How, too, could I pass over the ark, and the things preserved within it—the jar containing the manna, the tablets of the Covenant, the propitiatory, the lampstand, the table, the altar of burnt offerings, the altar of incense, and the perpetual sacrifice—and all the other things by which the ancient worship was so greatly distinguished, and by which all those who attended to God attained glory, while those who were otherwise disposed were punished, since all these things prefigured the power of the cross? But if, for the sake of avoiding prolixity, I should set aside these things in my discourse, how could I pass over in silence the rod of Aaron, and the matters concerning the heifer, which so clearly proclaim the cross? For the former buds within the tabernacle ^B and shows who is the worthy priest, and at the same time pre-announces the great high priest, and proclaims as good news the salvation that has sprung from the wood of the cross. For we, who were at first withered by sin, now flourish once again, and we bring forth to God fruit—virtues, a holy sacrifice, an offering acceptable and truly a fragrant incense. The heifer, for its part, prefigured the saving passion by which the power of universal sin was cast down; for its being spotless and unyoked signified the sinlessness of Jesus and His freedom as a Son. By the cedar wood, the wood of the cross was depicted. For its nature, free from all rot and decay, betokened His life-giving grace and His activity, which is subject neither to old age nor to end, and the sprinkling performed through that wood revealed the grace of the Spirit, from which the forgiveness of sins, adoption as sons, and the inheritance of the kingdom of God have been granted.

^C But if it seems right, let us reserve the matters pertaining to worship for another time and discourse, and let us turn our attention again to the working of miracles. When Israel was sinning, as was their custom, they were as usual humiliated, and those who were humbled by the bite of serpents were put to death immediately, and thus they learned the ordinances of God and turned back to God. Upon turning back, the all-merciful One took pity on them and would straightway designate Moses, that he might work miracles. Against the biting serpents, therefore, he fashioned a bronze serpent by the command of God, and hung it upon a high pole, and told those who were struck to gaze upon it; and as they looked, they were saved, immune from the evils. Come then, let us repeat this entire narrative, transferring it from the figure into the truth itself. We, too, were seen by God, and by the deceitful persuasion of the serpent, we were cast headlong ^D into death. For the bite of the serpent truly is death, which first invaded our forefather. We received life, however, when Christ died on the wood of the cross in the likeness of sinful flesh, as the divine Apostle says. For just as that bronze serpent was an image of that living creature, but was devoid of the lethal venom, so too He who, because of us, was reckoned among the lawless, being sinless and by nature good, the Master, took on flesh and became like us and was called sin, that is to say, a sacrifice for the universal

^A sin. For him who knew no sin, says Paul, he made to be sin for our sake, that we might become the righteousness of God. Yet he himself did not receive even one stain of sin. He saves those who look to him—that is, those who believe that he is the living God and giver of life, and that he became flesh and wore our sinful nature—and he glorifies those who, as far as possible, strive to imitate him by crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires.

You see the correspondence of the type to the truth. There the Jews escaped death, but it was a temporary one; here, those who believe escape eternal death. There, the suspended serpent healed the bites of serpents; here, the crucified Jesus heals the wounds inflicted by the intelligible serpent. There, he who used his bodily eyes was healed; here, he who directs the eyes of his mind puts aside all sins. There, bronze was fashioned into the shape of a serpent; here, it is the Master’s body, fashioned by the Holy Spirit. A serpent bit there, and a serpent brought healing; so here too, death caused destruction, and death brought salvation. But the serpent that destroyed had venom, while the one that saved was pure. And here it is the same: the death that destroyed had sin, just as the serpent had venom, but the cross of the Master was devoid of all sin, just as the bronze serpent was devoid of venom: For he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. ^B And this is what the divine Apostle says: Stripping off the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in himself. For just as a noble athlete, when he has lifted his opponent on high and dashed him down, makes his victory more glorious, so too did Christ, with the whole world watching, strike down the opposing powers and, being suspended on the wood, heal those who had been wounded by them.

Why then, one might ask, did the suspended serpent banish the death brought on by the bite, yet not do away with those beasts, for the sake of a greater benefit, both for the Israel of that time and no less for us now? I answer that the Israelites, because the evil was present, became more modest and tractable; but we are led by what was signified toward a more sublime way of life, and those things which are prefigured provide an example for how our life should be ordered. ^C For it is manifest that we who have been saved through the cross have utterly escaped the death arising from that ancient transgression; yet we are bound to wage a perpetual war, as long as life lasts, against the author of malice and that concupiscence which ever presses upon the flesh against the spirit (which those reptiles seem to me to signify), so that through fear of Gehenna and desire for the Kingdom we may keep the commandments given after our restoration, we who did not keep the command of our first creation unto the enjoyment of the endless life. Thus, the conflagration of sensual pleasure that sprouted from the green wood, he quenched by the dry ^D

^A wood; thus the flesh, which had been put to death for my sake, put death itself to death, and granted impassibility to him who had suffered. For the empire of death was not to be everlasting; nay, it was fitting that death itself should undergo death, which indeed occurred by the ineffable wisdom of the all-powerful God. For just as where light shines, darkness is instantaneously dispelled, so too did the destruction of corruption take place the moment Christ was present.

And these things are indeed so, and the very course of the discourse, in pursuing the wonders wrought by Moses that prefigured the glory of the Cross, has led us to this height of contemplation.

Posthac cum Jesu occupari instituta oratio avet. ^B It will provide something both proper and agreeable to the present celebration. What is that? The trophy erected against Gibeon, when he made the sun stand still, and prefigured the victory of the Savior over death—at which time the sun completely withheld its rays, and in the middle of the day darkness covered the world, which proclaimed the power of Christ far more than any light. For in order that the saving passion might be manifest to all men, and that all might know that God gave his only-begotten Son for us, he commanded the sun to be darkened and thus the world to be illumined, having been instructed from on high regarding the magnitude of the benefit. A star announced his birth, but the sun clearly made known his crucifixion to the ends of the earth.

See, ^C furthermore, the wisdom of God, and the excess of his love for us: he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, he who in the form of God was God the Word, coeternal with the Father and seated on the same throne; becoming in the likeness of men, and being found in habit as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; and he gave himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

For this reason, he called the ignominy he bore for us his own glory; he called the death filled with torments a cup of exultation, and he made the day of insult a day of celebration, granting pardon to the thief, opening paradise, raising the dead, shaking the ^D earth, rending the veil, offering to the Father the prayer for those who were crucifying him, and summoning the ends of the earth with a loud cry unto rejoicing, because he had cast down the tyrant, because he had betrothed the Church to himself, because he had reconciled human nature to God. For this reason, he performed his resurrection in secret and in a hidden place, leaving its manifestation and promulgation for all the time that followed; but the cross he endured in the midst of the city, in the midst of the festival, in the midst of the people of the Jews, with Roman and Jewish judges present on either side, assembling everyone on a feast day, at midday, in the public theater of the world; and as that which was taking place, those present—

^A only looked on at what was happening, He commanded the sun, once it had been darkened, to proclaim the transgression to the entire world. Thus did the Master of creation love the Church; thus did He surrender Himself for her sake; by such a dispensation was the superabundance of divine philanthropy made known.

To these things, let divine David also come forward in our discourse; for he, too, can bring here a great gift to God, and one most appropriate to this festival. And mark the account as I tell it, so that you may admire what is being contemplated. Consider what was done by him, so that you may see how much harmony it has with the things spoken by him. He once saw Goliath, that individual vast in the mass of his body, and puffed up in spirit, that monstrous ambition of nature, daring the worst, and boasting and raving mightily against Israel. He heard him, with words full of arrogance, despising the people of God and heaping insults upon the chosen inheritance of God, and he youthfuly stood against that cursed man, arraying himself against his insulting mind and tongue; stripped, indeed, of carnal weapons, but magnificently fortified by grace from above; and with the cast of a stone, he laid low such a one as that. Then also, having seized the sword which was ^B flashing against him, he slew the blasphemer, and took away the reproach from the sons of Israel. In this manner, therefore, David, shepherd of sheep and king at once, showed that the instrument of death could be turned into a safeguard of salvation, and he brought it inside the tabernacle and dedicated it to God.

But Christ, the King of all and the true shepherd of every rational creature, transformed the wood of the cross—which formerly was for the demons an instrument for the destruction of men—into an argument of salvation, having slain the tyrant through it, and having restored liberty to the world. Therefore, we also, giving thanks, exalt and kiss the sword of God, the cross. For thus did the burnt-through mouth of Isaiah also name it: "For in that day," he says, "the Lord will bring his sword, the holy and the great and the strong, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and he will kill the dragon in that day in the sea."

Christ, therefore, by the cross, slew the one who had boasted that he would wipe out land and sea, and would seize the whole inhabited world like a nest. He mortified the deserter, he put corruption to death, and he gifted us life. For since the author and leader of wickedness labored under a fourfold arrogance, and boasted that he would place his throne above the clouds, he instead obtained the seats of the underworld, and is called Leviathan, with his seat placed in the waters. Moreover, he circles the region which is subject to the heavens, and walks about the earth. ^C Therefore, most wisely, my Savior and Master set up a fourfold defensive barrier against his tyranny, the four-part cross, which drives him out from every quarter, and casts him down to Tartarus and the Stygian homes. For were there not countless other ways of suffering death, so that perhaps even by another [means] the one who [endures] for us...

^A the dispensation might be fulfilled? What then is the rationale of the cross, because of which He speaks everywhere of it as necessary for His own death, and for the sake of which He said to the disciples after the resurrection that thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, plainly through the stretching out upon the wood? One who searches will perhaps find many causes for this, and all of them worthy of God, but two of these are preeminent: that He might at once cast out the tyrant from the whole world, and at the same time demonstrate His unsurpassable loving-kindness.

Paul interprets both, writing to the Ephesians: "That ye may be able to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." For we have known the divine love, in that He chose for our sake the most shameful of deaths for all; and we were initiated into a universal freedom through the quadriform shape of the cross. For He drew all unto Himself ^B by the recognition of His own lordship; since at that time, not only did the creation proclaim Him king and God by its own disturbance, but also the thief who died with Him, and the centurion who with his own hand opened the side of Christ, and the title of Pilate—which are truly testimonies worthy of belief from the enemies themselves; just as the God-father, prophesying from above, proclaimed, that "Our God, being King before the ages, hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth" ^C, indicating the destruction of the tyrant through the cross. For the prince of darkness has been cast out of the entire creation and has been thrown from heaven, because "The heaven of heavens is the Lord's"; and he has been cast out also from the earth and the sea, because the sea belongs to the crucified Savior, and "His hands formed the dry land." The power which raged in Hades has also been abolished, because He illuminated that place too by His descent, and henceforth there is preserved for the devil only the place of Gehenna, which has been prepared for him and those with him.

Come now, let us also irrigate our discourse from the utterances of the Solomonic Song of Songs. ^D And let that couch mentioned therein come to me, proclaiming the cross of Christ, of the King of peace in truth, who united the things that were sundered and took away from the midst the middle wall of partition; for in it Jesus, the treasury of life, rested, and slept the sleep of the fallen Adam, [which was] a resurrection sleep, from which He arose, destroying all the sinners of the earth in the morning. This quadriform couch is surrounded by sixty mighty men, a perfect chorus, and one firmly established, gathered from the ranks of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints, and the righteous, who both in themselves contain the perfection of the number ten, and together complete the sixty, and stand before the all-perfect Trinity. This royal couch David does not water with tears, but Christ, who is of the family of David according...

to the flesh, born, not because he wipes away his own sin (for by nature he is immaculate), but because he purges the sin of the world. ^A That this couch is also worthy of veneration, Isaiah proclaimed more clearly, saying, "And his rest shall be honor."

Jonas, that fugitive prophet, would have almost escaped me with that astonishing shipwreck of his and his unexpected restoration to life; but the shape of the cross which he formed within the sea-beast, and the resurrection on the third day, of which he then bore the image, made it manifest and allowed it not to remain hidden. Let Isaiah also contribute something to the completion of my discourse, he who heralded the benefits ^B of the cross not only in these prophetic words: "By his stripes we are healed, and he has borne the sins of many," but also through the things he suffered, prefigured the passion of Christ. For, being sawn asunder by a wooden saw, he fashioned the image of the cross; as did also Jeremiah, being led "as an innocent lamb to the slaughter." "They devised," he says, "evil thoughts against me, saying, Come, let us put wood into his bread, and let us root him out of the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more." These things, and others of that kind which follow, are more suited to Christ, of whom he prophesied, and for his sake they were committed to writing. Let Elisha also come and depict for us the image of the cross, while by casting wood into the waters he draws out the iron of the axe already submerged—representing, as if through a lattice, the extermination of error and the recalling of the nations from the depth of impiety.

Let not the great Daniel, nor the three youths, be absent from my discourse. For the former stopped the mouths of the lions, not accustomed to being tamed, when he spread out his hands and fashioned them into the likeness of a cross in the pit, and thus signified, through the restraint ^C of the carnivorous beasts, the gentleness of the savage nations. But the extension of the hands of those most excellent youths quenched the power of the fire and persuaded the tyrant to proclaim the kingdom of God over all the inhabited world. I pass over saying that the fourth who appeared also prefigured the four-part cross and its power throughout the whole world, which quenched the furnace of impiety and preserved the people who serve the Trinity.

Such, then, are those things which signified the common salvation of men through the cross in a certain image, and shadowed it forth for all those who came after. But not all; for the majority have been omitted by me because of their vastness. Since, however, that great mystery of our salvation has been accomplished, and the figures have passed away, and the truth has shone forth over the whole world, we can neither conceive in thought nor express in words how great are ^D the miracles wrought through the cross, for the sake of the restoration of the creation, which are indeed infinite in magnitude and innumerable in multitude—those, surely, which were done through the apostles, through the martyrs, through the Fathers, through the doctors, those in heaven, those on earth, those in every time and place, and in all the generations of men, not only those present, nor only those that have passed, but also, and especially, those that are to come, and

until the ^A heavenly radiance of the Cross, I know that it shall come to pass. And, to sum it up, there is nothing among things created, neither those things that are subject to perception, nor those that are subject to (intellectual) understanding—not heaven, not earth, not sea, nor any other existence above this world, nor anything else in the number of all other things—that so wondrously and so clearly displays to us the philanthropy of Christ as does the Cross. For this has become a foundation for heaven, a glory for the earth, and has sustained the whole world; for the heavenly beings it serves as joy, for the earthly it has provided liberty, and it has bound together those things which stood apart. For the Cross is the proof of the love of God: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish." The Cross is the manifest representation of the concern which the Son bears for us. For He says: ^B "I am the good shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep." The Cross is the beginning of the coming and indwelling of the Spirit within us: "For the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." The Cross is the will of the Father, the glory of the Son, and the instrument of the Spirit.

The Cross obliterated enmity and, having dissolved the middle wall of partition, brought about the reconciliation of God to men; and we who were formerly enemies have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son. The Cross made the earth a heaven, freed the inhabited world from error, cast down the citadel of death, and weakened the power of the devil; ^C it vanished the power of sin, chased away falsehood, brought back the truth, drove out demons, overturned the temples of idols and their altars, planted virtue, rooted the Church, made men like angels, and wrought a universal and super-cosmic rejoicing. The Cross tore asunder our written bond, rendered the prison of death useless, emptied Hades, raised the dead, destroyed the curse, and bestowed joy. The Cross opened Paradise, brought in the thief, and guided the race of men—which was about to perish, and was not even worthy of the earth—to the kingdom of heaven.

The Cross is the miracle of the heavenly, the boast of the earthly, and the bond ^D of both. The Cross is the unmade weapon of Christians, the impregnable fortress, the wall that cannot be stormed, the instrument for the suppression of heresies, the unconquered power of the Church, the firm hope of the faithful, the great safeguard of the orthodox, the annihilation of the passions, the accomplishment of passionlessness, the victory in Christ, the sign that is spoken against, the wondrous and paradoxical trophy. The Cross is the treasury of the gifts of the Spirit, the abundant provision of the gifts of Christ, the storehouse of God's good pleasure, the mediator of the kingdom of heaven. The Cross is four-parted and resplendent, which from the visible watchtower of Sion—or rather from the heights of the glory of the King of all, Christ—called together all the nations, from the East and the West, from the North and the South, from the ends of the earth, from the bounds of the...

from the ends of the earth, from the boundaries of the world, and gathered them into one Church, and into one baptism, and into the unity of sincere faith, and bound them all together with the bond of love.

^A The Cross also overthrows invisible enemies, and crushes the visible ones; it puts to death those who openly wage war against us, and renders fruitless the attempts of those who lay snares. It drives away diseases, extinguishes poisonous drugs, excludes the power of aconite, and heals the bites of venomous animals; and it is no wonder, for if it shattered the gates of hell, and threw open the vaults of heaven, and restored the entrance to paradise, and cut the sinews of the devil, what is surprising if it also crushes the teeth of the enemies, and is more powerful than pernicious drugs, and grievous illnesses, and other inconveniences of that kind? This is the rod of power that shattered the insolence and pride of the nations like a potter's vessel. This is the sword by which the spiritual Goliath fell. This is the sign at the sight of which the sun hid its rays. By this sign the veil of the temple was torn, and many bodies of the dead leaped from their tombs. By this sign the devil received an ^B incurable wound. By this sign the sting of death was destroyed, the head of the serpent crushed, the power of the dark prince of the underworld was removed, the authority of the prince of this world was dissolved, and all his dominions and powers were forcefully shamed and led in triumph. By this sign that beast which devours all things, death, was extinguished, the prison was broken, and the gates of hell were shattered. ^C

NOTES AND VARIOUS READINGS ON THE ORATION OF MACARIUS CHRYSOCEPHALUS

Most of the points regarding the Egyptian plagues which this Macarius discusses are described in the commentaries of Theodoret on Exodus, as anyone who wishes to compare Macarius with Theodoret will understand. It is said that they exist in Rome in the library of the most illustrious Cardinal Columna; whether they are distinct from this sermon, or whether that very one which we provide here is distributed there into fourteen parts, I do not know for certain. Likewise, it is said that in that same library are preserved the fourteen orations of Macarius Chrysocephalus on the Exaltation of the Cross, and a commentary by Psellus on the Crucifixion of the Lord. Would that they were one day brought forth from the darkness into the light. Macarius, Bishop of Philadelphia, is mentioned in the Euchologion of the Greeks, folio 204. One exemplar was at hand when I edited this oration. Afterward, the Reverend Father Jacobus Sirmond, of our Society, sent me from Rome another transcript of the same homily, which I took care to compare with the published edition; from which collation many lacunae were filled, and the true reading was restored to its place.

Col. 176. ^D A. "and all those who dwell in the habitable world." Ms. adds this from Psalm [XXXIII]. "draw near to him, and be enlightened, and sing psalms," and "shout out a song of victory." Ms.: "and the song of victory." Ibid. B. "and saved through the cross." Ms.: "and we have been saved through the cross." Ibid. C-D. "and complete the zeal." Ms.: "and with zeal." Ibid. D. "so I might perhaps be able to come near my purpose." Ms.: "for thus perhaps we might both come near the purpose." Ibid. "of the festival, and at least it is raised up indeed." Ms.: "of the festival, and at least it is raised up, etc." Ibid. "presented for explanation, which is his discourse." Ms.: "presented for explanation is the discourse concerning it." Col. 177 A. "there is no way for the mind to grasp it." Ms.: "there is nothing by which to grasp it." Ibid. "the miraculous things of the Master and Savior Christ which are accomplished through the cross." Ms.: "the miraculous wonders of the Master and Savior Christ, and done through the cross, for..." Ibid B. "the power of these." Ms.: "the power of this one." Ibid. "I proposed to contemplate the glory of the cross, and..." Ms.: "I proposed to contemplate the glory of the cross, and thus..." Col. 180 A. "The Scripture said at the beginning." Ms.: "The Scripture said at the start." Ibid. B. "he will wonder at the miracles." Ms.: "he will wonder at the healings." Ibid. "it may strictly remain; for the flowing..." Ms.: "it remains; for the flowing..." Ibid. C. "having it thus." Ms.: "having it so."

VARIOUS READINGS IN THE ORATION ON THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

^A Col. 180 C. "and from above to take up in the discourse the narrative of the ancients." Ms.: "and from above to take up in the discourse the narrative of the ancients." Ibid. D. "but not second in dignity through the account." Ms.: "but not second in dignity through the narrative." Ibid. D. "for there is paradise." Ms.: "for thither is paradise." Ibid. "What was set before." Ms.: "what lies before." Col. 181 A. "So that as from the untouchable." Ms.: "So that as from the untouchable." Ibid. "He bestowed." Ms.: "He wholly bestowed." Ibid. B. "To have what is above us." Ms.: "The thing above us." Ibid. "Taking this." Ms.: "Taking that." Col. 184 A. "He dried up the pleasures poured out over all the earth." Ms.: "He dried up the moist pleasures poured out over all the earth." Ibid. B. "So that at once also of virtue [one] might be allotted." Ms.: "So that at once of virtue [one] might be fulfilled." Ibid. C. "But also through Greek." Ms.: "But also through Greeks." Ibid. D. "He who is Abraham, etc.; from this point on, then, Abraham." Ibid. "He typified, for the Only-begotten of the only Father without beginning, etc." Ms.: "He typified, for the Only-begotten, and the... and moreover, Son of the unicorns, for from the only Father he is without beginning." Ibid. D. "And of a sole mother as to the flesh he has been born." Ms.: "And of a sole mother as to the flesh." Ibid. "And the cross as a shoulder-piece." Ms.: "And the cross just as a shoulder-piece." Ibid. "A type it became." Ms.: "A type it was becoming." Col. 185 B. "Had come to be for joy." Ms.: "Had become for joy." Col. 188 A. "And the table of life granted by Him to the world." Ms.: "And the table of life granted by Him to the world, etc." Ibid. "And in spiritual truth." Ms.: "And in spirit and in truth." Ibid. B. "Inasmuch as toward God." Ms.: "Inasmuch as indeed also toward God." Ibid. "But also another." Ms.: "But you, also otherwise." Ibid. "Truth, nor indeed, for." Ms.: "Truth, nor indeed, for." Ibid. "But she feigned the incontinence of the temperate." Ms.: "But she feigned the intemperance of the temperate." Ibid. C. "To whom he worked." Ms.: "To whom he did good." Ibid. D. "The great Israel." Ms.: "The great Jacob." Ibid. "He hastened the new." Ms.: "He urged on the new." Ibid. "And we become." Ms.: "And we came to be." Col. 189 B. "Hence, then, also the sun was darkened." Ms.: "Hence, then, also the sun indeed was darkened." Ibid. C. "By how much further it might happen." Ms.: "By how much further they might happen." Ibid. "For those before the law were a beginning." Ms.: "For those before the law were a certain beginning." Ibid. "Now indeed in common to the people coming to be." Ms.: "Now indeed in common to the people coming to be." Col. 192 A. "Teachers of perdition." Ms.: "Teachers of deception." Ibid. "They ordered to build cities for others." Ms.: "They commanded to build cities for others." And shortly after, ibid., "They said the same." Ms.: "They would be the same." Ibid. B. "Showing indeed to nature the types of the later benefits." Ms.: "Showing indeed to nature the types of the benefits coming later, etc." Ibid. C. "That rod, at least, etc." Ms.: "Straightway, at least, the rod." Ibid. "And the rod was prefiguring the power of the spiritual wood." Ms.: "And the rod was prefiguring the power of the wood of the cross." Col. 193 A. "From a body." Ms.: "From a human body." Ibid. D. "Not of elements only having contributed ^B all things." Ms.: "Not of elements only having contributed all things." Col. 97 A. "Of Him who stretched out His hands upon the divine cross, etc." Ms.: "Of Him who stretched out His hands upon the divine cross." Ibid. B. "Through this." Ms.: "Through this." Ibid. "That this is the finger of God." Ms.: "That this is the finger of God." Ibid. D. "An insupportable corruption." Ms.: "Especially an insupportable corruption." Col. 200 C. "They come upon those condemned." Ms.: "They come upon those judged by lot." Ibid. et seq. vers. "Here, then." Ms.: "Hence, then." Ibid. "And salvation by God." Ms.: "The cause of salvation." Col. 201 A. "The thing happening." Ms.: "The thing being done." Ibid. "And on one night all are destroyed." Ms.: "And on one night, etc." Ibid. "So that also the possible here of God." Ms.: "So that also the possible in the same of God." Ibid. B. "Willing to effect." Ms.: "Willing to have effected." Ibid. "Then the believers." Ms.: "Not those then but the believers." Ibid. "For also through the cross." Ms.: "For the [way] through the cross." Ibid. "The amazing freedom granted to us is shown by history." Ms.: "The amazing freedom granted to us is shown by history." Ibid. C. "The spiritual passage." Ms.: [with the comma replaced, he adds these two incidental clauses]: "the passing over of death, and the transition from earth to heaven," becomes, etc. Col. 204 A. "And at once also being proclaimed in the last times." Ms.: "Being proclaimed." Ibid. B. "And toward Abraham He was making the covenant." Ms.: "And toward Abraham He was making a covenant." Ibid. C. "And many by the extension according to region." Ms.: "And many by the extension according to regions." Ibid. D. "Therefore a sheep was the pattern of the great sacrifice." Ms.: "Therefore a sheep was the sheep of the great sacrifice." Ibid. B. "And having lorded over." Ms.: "Lording over." Col. 205 D. "He who is from the first-formed is loosed from death." Ms.: "He who is from the first-formed is called death." Col. 208 A. "As signifying the rational." Ms.: "As signifying the discursive faculty." Ibid. "And being anointed from both sides." Ms.: "And being anointed from both." Ibid. "Nor." Ms.: "Neither." Ibid. B. "And the dawn, the things to come." Ms.: "And the dawn, the one to come." Ibid. "And the roasted." Ms.: "And the roasting." Ibid C. "As working out endurance." Ms.: "As working out endurance [feminine accusative]." Ibid. "For us." Ms.: "For our sakes." Ibid. D. "In the putting off of the flesh, etc." Ms.: "In the putting off of the flesh." Ibid. "They are supported by staves." Ms.: "They are walking with staves." Col. 209 A. "Nor to have a cast-down mindset." Ms.: "Nor to have a recumbent mindset." Perhaps it should be rewritten "recumbent." Ibid. "And to exist stretched out." Ms.: [represents this reading]: "and to exist stretched out." Col. 209 D. "Which also changed the bitterness of the punishing law into the sweetness of kindness." Ms.: "Which also the bitterness of the punishing law, etc." Col. 212 C. "By this, indeed, the rock also was being broken by the rod." Ms.: "By this, indeed, the rock was being struck by the rod." Col. 213 A. "Upon whom having ascended." Ms.: "Upon whom having ascended." Ibid. "Since indeed." Ms.: "That indeed."

^A Col. 213. B. "According to the same pattern." Ms.: "Not according to the same," etc. Ibid. "Straightway." Ms.: "In a straight way." Ibid. "Upon itself." Ms.: "Upon it." Ibid. B. "He who turned the rock." Ms.: "He who struck the rock." Ibid. C. "That the inhabited world into the," etc. Ms.: "That the inhabited world shattered into the," etc. Col. 216 A. "And joining both the peoples." Ms.: "And joining of both the peoples." Ibid. "The greater of all." Ms.: "The greater of all things." Ibid. B. "From generation to generations." Ms.: "From generations to generations." Ibid. "Of the land promised to the people." Ms.: "Of the promised [land]," etc. Ibid. C. "And they sought the leader of the return to Egypt." Ms.: "And they sought the leader of the turning-away to Egypt." Col. 217 B. "He revealed the grace of the Spirit." Ms.: "He was revealing the grace of the Spirit." Ibid. C. "And those who were humbled by the representation of the serpents." Ms.: "And the humility by the bites of the serpents." Ibid. "Commanded by God to be lifted up." Ms.: "Commanded by God to be lifted up on a tree." Ibid. "Which indeed even seeing." Ms.: "Which indeed even those seeing." Col. 220 A. "And He became flesh." Ms.: "And if He became flesh." Ibid. "And He bore our sinful nature." Ms.: "And He bore our sin-prone nature," etc. Ibid. B. "But the cross of the Master." Ms.: "But the cross of the Master and Savior." Ibid. C. "He abolished the death [which came] from the bite." Ms.: "He abolished the death [which came] from the bites." Ibid. D. From the Roman Ms. copy there have been added: "When evil was present they came into being, He leads us to a higher [state]." ^B Ibid. "He quenched the blade of the wooden cross." Ms.: "He quenched the wood of the dry cross." Col. 221 B. "And he proclaimed darkness in the middle of the day." Ms.: "Darkness mid-day covered the inhabited world; which even more proclaimed the power of Christ." Ibid. C. "He was making the insolence." Ms.: "He was treating the insolence." Ibid. D. "With courts present from both sides, Roman and Jewish." Ms.: "Of both courts, Roman and Jewish." Col. 224 A. "Consider the things done by him." Ms.: "Consider the thing done by him." Ibid. B. "He heard him by words of pride dishonoring the people of God, and offending the chosen inheritance." Ms.: "He heard of him, by words of pride dishonoring the people of God, and offending the chosen inheritance." Ibid. "Then also the glistening [sword] which was against him he brandished. He stretched out having taken the sword." Ms.: "Then also the [sword] which was against him, glistening continuously, he brandished." Ibid. "Thus indeed then, David the prophet at once, and king." Ms.: "Thus indeed then, David the ancestor at once, and king." Ibid. "The same is the meaning of the same passage: the lethal weapon, Christ proves a saving one," etc. Ms.: "The lethal weapon, He proves a saving one, and places [it] within the holy tabernacle, and dedicates [it] to God, Christ," etc. Ibid. C. "Which the avenging spirit fastened as an instrument against nature, by it also granting freedom to the world." Ms.: "Which formerly the avenging spirit had as an instrument [or] cause of destruction, He showed as the cause of salvation, granting freedom." Ibid. "For thus he called Him even scorched by the mouth of Isaiah." Ms.: "For thus he called Him and the scorched [one] by the mouth of Isaiah." Col. 225 A. "Where as necessary." Ms.: "Whom as necessary." Ibid. B. "And we were reminded of the universal freedom." Ms.: "And we were mindful of the universal freedom." Ibid. "Which also the God-father from above fore-announcing cried out." Ms.: "Which also the God-father," etc. Ibid. "That our God existing before the age," etc. Ms.: "That our God, the King existing before the age." Ibid. C. "That the heaven of heavens [is] to the Lord." Ms.: "That the heaven of the heaven." Ibid. "It has been cast away also from earth and sea." Ms.: "It has been cast away also from earth and sea." For [alt-version omitted] Ibid. "That the sea is of the crucified Savior." Ms.: "That the sea is of the crucified Savior." Ibid. "Since they have been enlightened by that Masterly descent." Ms.: "Since he has been enlightened by that Masterly descent." Ibid. "And for the rest the place of hell is kept for the devil." Ms.: "And for the rest, for the devil a place," etc. Ibid. C. "And having in itself the perfection of the decad." Ms.: "And having in itself the perfection of the decad." Col. 218 A. "Not washing away his own sin." Ms.: "Not washing away his own sin." Ibid. B. "By His stripe we were healed." Ms.: "By His stripe we were healed." Ibid. "And because of this it is written." Ms.: "And because of that it is written." Ibid. C. "To proclaim the kingdom of God over the whole inhabited world." Ms.: "It is more corrected: having proclaimed the kingdom of God over the whole inhabited world." Ibid. D. "And to all in the end." Ms.: "To all in the end." Col. 229 A. "Not man, read from the Roman Ms. heaven." Ibid. "For the cross is the demonstration of God's love." Ms.: "For the cross is the demonstration of the love of God." Ibid. C. "The cross made the earth." Ms.: "The cross made the heaven." Ibid. "The human race about to perish," etc. Ms.: "The human race about to perish." Col. 232 A. "Who from the vantage point of." Ms.: "Who from the visible vantage point of Sion." Ibid. "But rather from the height of glory." Ms.: "But rather from the heights of glory." Ibid. "He gathered the nations." Ms.: "He gathered all the nations." Ibid. B. "And those wickedly plotting, powerless." Ms.: "And those wickedly plotting, powerless." Ibid. "And he restored the entrance of paradise." Ms.: "And he renewed the entrance of paradise, or 'he inaugurates'." Ibid. "And he struck the sinews of the devil." Ms.: "And he struck the dead [things] of the devil." After that: "And the dead," the rest is missing, which could be but few words. Ibid. C. "Which crushed the insolence of the nations as vessels of the potter."

ORATION OF MACARIUS, BISHOP OF PHILADELPHIA, ON THE INCURSIONS OF THE BARBARIANS

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord our God, who shall be compared to Thee? Who is like unto Thee among the gods, O Lord our God? What god is great, as our God is great, powerful in mercy and good in strength, to comfort and save us all? Do not keep silent, O God, nor show leniency; render recompense to the proud. For behold, Thine enemies have gained strength, and they that hate Thee have lifted up their head; they have craftily devised a plan against Thy people and have taken counsel against Thy saints; they have said: Come, let us destroy them, and let the name of Israel be remembered no more. Nations have come into Thine inheritance; they have defiled Thy holy temple, they have made Jerusalem as a storehouse of fruits; they have made the dead bodies of Thy servants food for the birds of the heaven, and the flesh of Thy saints to the beasts of the earth; they have poured out their blood in the circuit of Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. ^A But how long, O Lord, shall Thy wrath burn like fire? How long dost Thou turn Thy face away from us? How long shall sinners boast? How long shall an unlawful power be used? How long shall the rod of the impious be exalted against the lot of the sanctified? Woe is me, for our humiliation is filled, and we have been diminished before all the nations! Woe is me, for they that trouble us mightily prevail, and our wound has become set! And Thou, O Lord, who art great and strong, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem? I shall lament bitterly, as Jeremiah did, over my destruction, for we have fallen away like leaves because of our iniquities, and have been reckoned with the dead that are in ^B the grave. Yet I shall hope again, as Zechariah did, in Thee, O Lord, the lover of mercy, for Thou art a merciful God, who dissipatest the counsels of the strong and receivest the prayers of the humble. Why have we become a reproach to our neighbors and to those afar off? To those, indeed, who turn aside from the straight path into a perversion of doctrines...

and to those who have fallen away altogether into impiety, who, not understanding your word of all-wise providence, slander our visitation as if it were abandonment. ^B For they ought to have heard from the sacred words that when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned along with the world. And they ought to have learned from common understanding that it is not those who have finished their life, nor the dead, who are deemed worthy of medical care, but those living in the weakness of the flesh who enjoy the providence of those who heal them, and that we shall at last, at some time, learn to experience this universal plague being transformed into supra-mundane joy. But they did not know, nor did they understand, and for this reason they reproach us for impiety, and call our confidence in you, the true God, folly; and they assume that we suffer these things—and that they are the retribution for impiety, this plague of captivity, and not the punishment for our offences—because we worship you, the only-begotten Son of the Father without beginning, consubstantial with your co-natural Father and your all-holy Spirit, confessing one nature, one essence, one power, one Godhead, and one kingdom. These senseless men, insulting your patience and blaspheming your Godhead, pursue your providence, which is salutary to the whole world. But spare, O Lord, spare, most humane God, have compassion, O impassible and merciful Lord, and do not rebuke us further in your fury, that we might not perish; and do not rebuke us in your wrath, lest we become as we were from the beginning, before we came into being. ^C But be with us as a strong defender, because it is not impossible for you to save, whether by many or by few. Strengthen us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name have we placed our hope. Let the word you have uttered be confirmed for us, because you are with us all the days even unto the consummation of the age. Let the horn of the Christians be exalted, and let those who persecute us be put to shame, and let those who frighten us be terrified, and let them be put to shame, and let them perish, and let their strength be shattered, and let their dominion cease to be, and let all know that the Lord is your name. You alone are the Most High over all the earth, and yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, and it is you who must be worshipped as the true God and our Savior, together with your Father without beginning, and with your all-holy, and good, and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

MACARII CHRYSOCEPHALI PROOEMIUM AD COMMENTARIOS IN MATTHAEUM

Verus verbi divini amor documentum est amoris in Deum, ut ipsum illud sanctissimum Domini os, ^D True love for the divine word is the proof of love toward God, even as that most holy mouth of the Lord says,

^A "He who has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is who loves me." For this reason David says, "I loved thy commandments above gold and topaz; therefore I was directed to all thy commandments." If that great man and forefather of God loved the commandments given through Moses with such love, with how much more affection of soul ought we to embrace those things which the only-begotten Son of God himself spoke, and the Holy Spirit wrote down in letters! For there was the shadow and figure of the truth, and the letter that kills, and the ministering servant, and yet all remission was sought by men from thence. How much more justly shall this be accomplished now in these here, who live according to God, where the Spirit is life-giving, and the Lord himself is the one speaking, and the grace of divine gift is poured forth most abundantly? ^B Therefore, the Gospel must be read by me more than this air is to be breathed, and with grace and diligence one must seek the mind hidden in the sacred oracles; which, indeed, I have known since the very beginning of the age when I began to think, that it was necessary to be done—namely, to read the books composed by the Fathers diligently, and to take from them the meaning of the divine oracles, and to compose from these an individual book, concisely and, as far as possible, summarily containing the expositions of those divine men. And indeed, I have labored to compose the first, the venerable book of the Gospel according to Matthew, in five volumes, each of which is completed by twenty treatises, so that in total there are one hundred treatises, and from the seed of the Spirit, falling into good ground, this perfect fruit of number might emerge. ^C I have again divided the treatises into chapters, but these are not always equal in number, but as the context of the evangelical narrative and the literal and mystical expositions of the Fathers upon it allowed; we have composed them for all, not according to the measure of numbering, but suitable to the evangelical narrative, and to the spiritual application of the Fathers to it, and fitting the speculative exposition.

MACARIUS CHRYSOCEPHALUS IN THE PROEM TO THE COMMENTARIES ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE

^D In this way, praying from the depth of my heart to the most good God, I have placed my study and labor in reading the commentaries of the holy Fathers, and in gathering and composing in order whatever they, inspired by the grace of the Spirit, expounded concerning the divine Scripture, mostly found scattered in their own divine writings. For whether they stood in defense of our blameless faith, and fought against its enemies—the Jews, and Greeks, and the

they used scriptural proofs ^A for assistance, and revealed their meaning to the shame and confusion of their adversaries. Others, edifying the Church even in matters of conduct, took up also those things which were of the Spirit for the testimony of what was said, and again interpreted these things spiritually. There are also some who have performed this interpretation for both purposes, as the great Father, John of the golden tongue, and those who, following him, set as their task the [writing of] an interpretation. From all these, therefore, we have, as has been said, gathered more laboriously those things which seemed more useful, and have compiled a complete and perfect elucidation of the holy Gospel according to Matthew, arranged into three books, each of which is composed of twenty discourses. Afterwards, we also divided the Genesis of Moses into two volumes on account of the abundance of collected Patristic discourses; the former we named Cosmogenia, the latter, Patriarchs. But since the holy Gospel according to Luke, with few points excepted, agrees in all other respects with the Gospel according to Matthew, it did not seem right to us to take up the whole from the beginning and commit it to interpretation in the same way, but only to examine those things of which Matthew made no mention. For this reason, we have also compiled this sacred volume, consisting of twenty-four discourses, unfolding the mystery of the dispensation according to Christ, beginning from the conception and birth of the blessed John the Baptist and Forerunner, and running through all the evangelical feasts, and ending at the universal feast of Pentecost itself. We call this volume the Great Alphabet, as it contains the life-giving ^B and constitutive elements of our salvation, and because it has the beginnings of its own discourses as letters, beginning from A and ending at Ω, so that here also the Lord's word might be fulfilled, who says in the Revelation to John: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."

Of the universal solemnity of Orthodoxy, for the restoration of the honor of the sacred images

There exists in the Vatican codices a renowned oration of Macarius Chrysocephalus, "On the universal solemnity of Orthodoxy," by which title the author denotes the ecumenical feast for the restoration of the honor of the sacred images. From this illustrious oration, Cardinal Angelo Mai cites very many passages in his notes to the *Antirrheticus I* against Constantine Copronymus by Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople. See the hundredth volume of this Patrologia, cols. 251, 238, 239, 243, 246, 251, 263, 277, 281, 291, 323, 343, 403.

NOTICE

The *Rodonion*, or Florilegium, of Macarius Chrysocephalus exists in the manuscript codex of St. Mark in Venice. Villoison made a review of the work in his *Anecdota*, but he exhibited almost nothing that was not profane, as one may learn from his own words: for thus the passages excerpted are listed in the Preface: "And first, indeed, occur the titles of many unpublished Declamations of Libanius, and large specimens of them, and most excellent sentiments excerpted from them by Macarius, and now edited for the first time: after these, emendations to a chapter of Photius's *Bibliotheca*: furthermore, the titles, and first and last words, of the Declamations of Choricius, a most elegant sophist, from the Madrid and Marcian codices: and excellent and most ample fragments of them, and rare sentiments worthy of Isocrates from these Declamations by the same..."

FROM THE FLORILEGIUM

^A Macario, and now brought into the public domain for the first time, and sprinkled occasionally—though through fortuitous and haphazard circumstances—with our own notes; indeed, two entire Orations of that most eloquent sophist, now brought to light for the first time from a single codex of the Royal Library of Paris, which provided the occasion, along with our own notes born during the transcription. There follow all those things pertaining to the life and writings, both published and unpublished, of Procopius of Gaza, that most celebrated sophist and interpreter of Holy Scripture, whose student Choricius was, one of which survives hidden in the Library of St. Mark, unknown even to Fabricius; then the most elegant Oration of the same Procopius of Gaza (1), also unknown to Fabricius, in praise of the Emperor Anastasius, now published by us for the first time from a codex of St. Mark, with historical and critical notes such as could be hastily dashed off by one traveling; which Oration indeed illustrates the life and deeds of Anastasius in an admirable way, and hands down to us many things about him which we would otherwise have remained ignorant of forever. Afterwards, you will find what we think should be held regarding that most famous passage of Josephus where Christ is discussed, and which was described by our Macarius; then some things regarding Nicephorus Chumnus, and one of his Laconian epistles; some things from Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, excerpted from various Commentaries on the Gospels; some things from Gregory Cyprius, Patriarch of Constantinople, and regarding his Declamations, which were unknown to Fabricius himself; then a specimen of the Roman fable of Constantine Manasses about the loves of Aristander and Callithea, the very name of which fable had completely escaped Fabricius, Huetius, and all others; some things regarding George Pachymeres, and certain of his poems previously unpublished. These "Flowers," therefore, do not pertain to us. We shall append only the fragments of the Commentaries on the Gospels which are read on page 195.

^B The first Sunday of the Fasts, where we observe these things: David clearly foretells even the time of the coming of Christ (in the word "parousia") where he says: "I said: for ever he shall be built; in the heavens thy truth shall be established" (Ps. LXXXVIII, 3). For this prophecy indicates the time of the incarnate dispensation. For according to the Hebrews, the "aeon" (age) has the interval of a thousand years. Therefore, after the prophecy had been spoken, a thousand years are gathered together until the arrival of Christ, in this way: from the end of David to the end of Zedekiah and the captivity of Jerusalem, four hundred years; and the seventy years of the captivity, until the first year of Cyrus the King of the Persians; and from Cyrus the Persian until the beginning of the reign of Alexander, two hundred and thirty years; and from Alexander until the end of Cleopatra, and the beginning of the Roman autocracy, and the incarnate dispensation of Christ, three hundred years; so that all the times are gathered together to a total of a thousand years, or an aeon.

The second Sunday of the Fasts. The third Sunday. On the Sunday of Palms: "Glossocomon" is said to be the chest into which they used to carry and cast the things given to them for the sake of the sustenance and clothing of the poor, because it held the "glossa" (tongues); for among the ancients, "glossae" were called the coins used among us, because the ancients used to engrave "glossae" (tongues/languages) upon the coins.

The Sunday of Thomas, regarding when and in what manner, if a priest is not present, one ought to partake of the divine and awesome mysteries? A question and answer of the holy Marcianus, from the holy Anastasius of Sinai, from the holy Isidore from his letters, from the most holy John of Damascus, from Chrysostom, from the Fourth Council, from the great Basil, from the most holy John of Damascus, from his discourse concerning the divine mysteries.

In the same codex, 575, a peculiar and anonymous treatise is indicated as lying hidden, inscribed thus: "And how one ought to partake of the divine and awesome mysteries," and these are but Excerpts on this subject from various Fathers and ecclesiastical writers: and firstly, indeed, on folio 122 verso, occurs a question and answer of the holy Marcianus, then again…

… ^A Some are perplexed as to how, according to both Luke and John, although Christ appeared so many times to his disciples in Jerusalem itself, they were commanded by the women to depart into Galilee to see him there, instead of waiting to behold him in Jerusalem. And let the one who questions this assume that the disciples disbelieved the words of the women, were afraid to depart into Galilee, and were reluctant to be separated from Jerusalem. But the Lord, resolving their unbelief, appeared to them a second time while they were secretly hiding in Jerusalem; whereas in Galilee, he did not appear while they were hiding, nor once, nor twice, nor trapped by the fear of the Jews, but with great boldness he made his appearance and the demonstration of his divinity, presenting himself to them, appearing for forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. ^B One might ask how, according to John, the Savior gives the Spirit to the disciples already, whereas according to Luke, he promises that they will receive it after his ascension? For "You shall receive," he says, "power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you," and again, "He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me, that John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now." Some have resolved this secret in this way: that he does not give the perfect gift of the Spirit here—for he was about to give this at Pentecost—but that he made them suitable for receiving it. For the word "Receive" is said in place of "Become suitable for receiving the Holy Spirit." For this reason also, some have mistakenly interpreted "Receive" as "You shall receive," because he spoke of what was to happen as if it had already occurred, just as when he says, "Tread upon serpents and scorpions," instead of "You shall tread." For if they had received the Spirit from the breathing, they say, he would not have said "Receive," for the word "Receive" is appropriate for those who have not yet received. Eusebius of Pamphilus, in his letter to Marinus, ^C explains the proposition in this way: that the distributions of gifts are according to the Apostle, "But the same Spirit," and again, "To each is given the manifestation for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith in the same Spirit; to another gifts of healings; to another, distinctions of spirits; to another, kinds of tongues; but all these one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each one individually as he wills." For he clearly showed through the one and the same Spirit that there are many powers, productive of various things. See, therefore, whether he did not here grant them some partial authority and spiritual grace—not so as to raise the dead and work miracles, but so as to remit sins; for the gifts of the Spirit are varied. Therefore he also connects it by saying, "If you remit the sins of any, they are remitted to them," and the rest, showing that he bestowed this kind of spiritual gift upon them. But after the ascension, the Spirit himself, having descended, granted them the powers and operations of signs and every other gift. For this reason, he said "Receive the Holy Spirit" here without an article, signaling that he is giving them a partial operation of the Spirit; but concerning that other one, he says, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you."

Folio 200 verso. On the Sunday of the Paralytic. Ibid. On the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. Folio 201 recto. On the Sunday of the Blind Man; where we observed these things, which are most true and proven by experience: They say that what snake venom is to a human, that again is human saliva to a snake. Folio 201 recto. On the Sunday after All Saints. Folio 201 verso. On the 5th Sunday of Matthew. Ibid. On the Sunday of the Union. Folio 202 recto. On the Sunday of the Boundary. Ibid. On the 9th Sunday of Matthew. Ibid. On the 11th Sunday of Matthew. Ibid. On the 12th Sunday of the same. Folio 202 verso. On the Sunday according to Mark of the Beheading. ^D Folio 173 verso, concerning the margin of the passage taken from Josephus, where mention is made of Saint John the Baptist, regarding the venerable Forerunner. In this codex, folio 123 verso, I found another marginal note, which is not at all infrequent in the others: "It must be read morally," namely this.