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Christ, as you say? For Elijah also, being a man, having been deemed worthy of the same glory was taken up into the heavens.

To whom we shall speak with boldness: Why, O Jews, do you plunder the books like blind men, and not see with accuracy what is written in them? Why do you read, and not recognize? For what does the divine Scripture say? And Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind *as if* into heaven; but the phrase, *as if* into heaven, has a doubtful meaning; whereas, *into* heaven, shows the clear truth. But that neither Elijah, nor any other, has ascended into heaven, except only the only-begotten Son of God who came down from heaven, He himself says, assuring all concerning himself: No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven; the good shepherd, who left the ninety-nine sheep of the angels on the heavenly mountains, and having found the lost sheep, and carrying it on his shoulders of loving-kindness, and having brought it to the heavenly harbor, bringing it as a gift to his own Begetter, he proclaims: I have found, Father, the lost sheep, which the deceitful serpent tricked with treacherous arts, and showed the ways of wickedness, and with the clay of polytheism defiled the purity of the knowledge of God. Seeing it, therefore, drowning in the mire of life, I quickly snatched it up with the right hand of my divinity; and with the bowels of my compassions I washed it in the streams of the Jordan, and having anointed it with the fragrance of my Holy Spirit, through the resurrection I have now come, bringing to you a gift worthy of your divinity, the rational sheep.

Today the devil bewails his own defeat, seeing our body being taken up into the heavens; today sin, through the ascension of Christ Jesus, is dissolved like smoke; today the devil laments, saying, What shall I do, wretched one that I am? Having snatched from me all those from the beginning of time like a swift-flying hawk, he has left me desolate, and having clipped my wings on every side, has dashed me to the earth. The son of Mary has deceived me. I did not know that God was hidden in a human body. I saw him clothed in a human body, and thinking him a mere man, I stirred up the Jews against him; and what I did not dare to do by myself, these things I accomplished through the Jews. Μυ43.484 I invented countless slanders; I devised every kind of insolence against him; with a reed and a sponge I gave him drink; with thorns I crowned his head; with slaps I dishonored him, with nails I fastened him to a cross; having finally subjected him to death, as if I had conquered, I celebrated with the Jews.

But when I saw that he was raised on the third day, as I said before, as if receiving a sword suddenly against my heart, I fell down; but seeing that he was eating and drinking, I prepared another cross again. But as I was considering these things to myself, I see him ascending into heaven with glory, from where I had fallen with shame. Therefore a Psalmist also cried out from long ago, saying: All you nations, clap your hands; shout to God with a voice of exultation, for the Lord is most high, a terrible king, great over all the earth; and again: God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. I want to pursue him, and like lead I am carried downwards; I wish to seize him, and invisibly I am thrust aside. What shall I, the wretched one, do? He has driven me from all sides. From the heavens he slung me down to the earth like a very small stone. And having fallen on the earth, I wished to hide in the waters; and finding me hiding in the streams of the Jordan, like a dragon, he seized and scourged me. I wish to seize at least the earth, and all, as guardians of the master's pasture, shout the cry against me: The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell in it. The earthquake showed that the earth is the Lord's. For the earth, not bearing the name of the Lord, was boiling with unbearable trembling, because of the disorder of the

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ὁ Χριστὸς, ὡς λέγετε; Καὶ γὰρ Ἠλίας, ἄνθρωπος ὢν, τῆς ὁμοίας δόξης ἀξιωθεὶς ἀνελήφθη εἰς οὐρανούς.

Πρὸς οὓς μετὰ παῤῥησίας φθεγξόμεθα· ∆ιὰ τί, ὦ Ἰουδαῖοι, τὰς βίβλους ὡς τυφλοὶ σκυλεύετε, καὶ τὰ γεγραμμένα ἐν αὐταῖς μετὰ ἀκριβείας οὐ βλέπετε; ∆ιὰ τί ἀναγινώσκετε, καὶ οὐκ ἐπιγινώσκετε; Τί γάρ φησιν ἡ θεία Γραφή; Καὶ ἀνελήφθη Ἠλίας ἐν συσσεισμῷ ὡς εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν· τὸ δὲ, ὡς εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, ἀμφίβολον ἔχει τὴν ἔννοιαν· τὸ δὲ, εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, τρανὴν δείκνυσι τὴν ἀλήθειαν. Ὅτι δὲ οὔτε Ἠλίας, οὔτε ἕτερός τις ἀνέβη εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, εἰ μὴ μόνος ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβὰς ὁ μονογενὴς τοῦ Θεοῦ Υἱὸς, αὐτὸς περὶ ἑαυτοῦ πάντας πληροφορῶν λέγει· Οὐδεὶς ἀναβέβηκεν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, εἰ μὴ ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβὰς, ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ· ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλὸς, ὁ τὰ ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα τῶν ἀγγέλων πρόβατα καταλιπὼν ἐπὶ τὰ οὐράνια ὄρη, καὶ τὸ πεπλανημένον πρόβατον εὑρηκὼς, καὶ ὤμοις φιλανθρωπίας βαστάζων, καὶ εἰς τὸν οὐράνιον λιμένα ἀνενεγκὼν, τῷ ἰδίῳ Γεννήτορι δωροφορῶν φθέγγεται· Εὗρον, Πάτερ, τὸ πρόβατον τὸ πλανώμενον, ὅπερ ὁ ἀπατεὼν ὄφις δολοτρόποις τεχνάσμασιν ἠπάτησε, καὶ κακίας ὁδοὺς ὑπέδειξε, πηλῷ δὲ τῆς πολυθεΐας τὴν καθαρότητα τῆς θεογνωσίας ἐμόλυνε. Θεασάμενος οὖν αὐτὸ ἐν τῷ βορβόρῳ τοῦ βίου πνιγόμενον, τῇ τῆς θεότητός μου δεξιᾷ ταχέως ἀνήρπασα· καὶ τοῖς τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν σπλάγχνοις ἐν τοῖς τοῦ Ἰορδάνου ῥεύμασιν ἀπέπλυνα, καὶ μυρίσας τῇ εὐωδίᾳ τοῦ ἁγίου μου Πνεύματος, διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως νῦν παραγέγονα, ἄξιον τῆς σῆς θεότητος προσκομίζων σοι ξένιον, τὸ λογικὸν πρόβατον.

Σήμερον ὁ διάβολος τὴν οἰκείαν ἧτταν ὀδύρεται, ὁρῶν τὸ ἡμέτερον σῶμα εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἀναγόμενον· σήμερον ἡ ἁμαρτία διὰ τῆς ἀναλήψεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ ὡς καπνὸς διαλέλυται· σήμερον ὁ διάβολος θρηνεῖ λέγων, Τί ποιήσω, ὁ ἄθλιος; Πάντας τοὺς ἀπ' αἰῶνος ὡς ἱέραξ ὀξυπετὴς ἁρπάξας παρ' ἐμοῦ, ἔρημόν με κατέστησε, καὶ πανταχόθεν με πτεροκοπήσας εἰς γῆν κατέῤῥαξεν. Ἠπάτησέ με ὁ τῆς Μαρίας υἱός. Οὐκ ᾔδειν, ὅτι Θεὸς ἐν ἀνθρωπίνῳ κρύπτεται σώματι. Ἔβλεπον αὐτὸν σῶμα ἀνθρώπινον περικείμενον, καὶ ἄνθρωπον αὐτὸν νομίσας ψιλὸν, κατ' αὐτοῦ τοὺς Ἰουδαίους ἐκίνησα· καὶ ἅπερ δι' ἑαυτοῦ μὴ ἐτόλμων διαπράξασθαι, ταῦτα διὰ Ἰουδαίων ἐνήργησα. Μυ43.484 ρίας συκοφαντίας ἐφεῦρον· πᾶν εἶδος ὕβρεως εἰς αὐτὸν ἐπενόησα· καλάμῳ καὶ σπόγγῳ αὐτὸν ἐπότισα· ἀκάνθαις τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ ἐστεφάνωσα· ῥαπίσμασιν αὐτὸν ἠτίμωσα, σταυρῷ διὰ ἥλων προσήλωσα· θανάτῳ τέλος ὑποβαλὼν, ὡς νικήσας, μετὰ Ἰουδαίων ἑόρταζον.

Θεασάμενος δὲ αὐτὸν ὅτι τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐγήγερται, καθὼς προεῖπον, ὡς ξίφος κατὰ καρδίας ἀθρόως δεξάμενος κατέπεσον· θεασάμενος δὲ αὐτὸν ὅτι ἐσθίει καὶ πίνει, πάλιν ἕτερον σταυρὸν κατεσκεύαζον. Ἀλλ' ὡς ταῦτα ἐνεθυμούμην πρὸς ἑαυτὸν, ὁρῶ αὐτὸν μετὰ δόξης εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀνερχόμενον, ὅθεν ἐγὼ μετ' αἰσχύνης ἐξέπεσον. ∆ιὸ καὶ Ψαλμῳδὸς ἐκ πολλῶν τῶν χρόνων ἐβόα λέγων· Πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, κροτήσατε χεῖρας· ἀλαλάξατε τῷ Θεῷ ἐν φωνῇ ἀγαλλιάσεως, ὅτι Κύριος ὕψιστος, βασιλεὺς φοβερὸς, μέγας ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν· καὶ πάλιν· Ἀνέβη ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἀλαλαγμῷ, Κύριος ἐν φωνῇ σάλπιγγος. Θέλω αὐτὸν καταδιῶξαι, καὶ ὡς μόλιβδος κάτω φέρομαι· βούλομαι αὐτὸν κρατῆσαι, καὶ ἀοράτως ἐξαγκωνίζομαι. Τί ποιήσω ὁ τάλας; Πανταχόθεν με περιήλασεν. Ἐξ οὐρανῶν με ὡς λίθον βραχύτατον εἰς γῆν ἐσφενδόνησε κάτω. Πεσὼν δὲ ἐν τῇ γῇ, ἐν τοῖς ὕδασι κρυβῆναι ἠθέλησα· καὶ εὑρών με ἐν τοῖς τοῦ Ἰορδάνου ῥείθροις κρυπτόμενον, ὡς δράκοντα, κρατήσας ἐμάστιξε. Θέλω κἂν τῆς γῆς κρατῆσαι, καὶ πάντες ὡς δεσποτικῆς νομῆς φύλακες, τὴν κατ' ἐμοῦ φωνὴν βοῶσι· Τοῦ Κυρίου ἡ γῆ καὶ τὸ πλήρωμα αὐτῆς, ἡ οἰκουμένη καὶ πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐν αὐτῇ. Ἔδειξεν ὁ σεισμὸς, ὅτι τοῦ Κυρίου ἡ γῆ. Ἡ γὰρ γῆ τὸ τοῦ Κυρίου ὄνομα μὴ φέρουσα ἀκαρτερήτῳ τρόμῳ ἐβράσσετο, διὰ τὴν ἀταξίαν τῶν