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How can he who is present everywhere be found or be said to be found? But Andrew knows what he says: We have found him whom Adam lost, whom Eve was deprived of, whom the cloud of sin hid from our eyes, whom disobedience separated and made to be thought far off though near and present. We have found him whom David also prided himself on seeking out; "In the day," he says, "of my affliction I sought out God." But Zephaniah also cries out: "Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth"; for when he is found he exalts the humble, raises them from the earth, delivers them from corruption, shows them to be higher than the high.
3 He found him whose finding the excellent prophet Hosea related to us: "In the day of their affliction, they will rise early to me, saying: Let us go and return to the Lord our God, for he has struck and will heal us; he will smite and will bind us up; he will make us whole after two days, and on the third day we shall be raised up before him, and we shall press on to know the Lord; we have found him ready as the dawn, and he will come to us as the early and late rain to the earth." Here summon the Jew for me to judgment, bring the ungrateful one to the tribunal. Read the prophet and close the book. Let his own things be brought against him; for it is written with him, even if it has been done with me. I speak therefore the interpretation of the prophetic words. Show somehow for yourself how and when it has happened; for that you were smitten, you yourselves confess and we perceive; but I do not see your healing, I do not behold the cure. On the contrary, the wound is inflamed, the disease has become more grievous, the sickness, being despaired of, has run its course to death. Since, therefore, you do not have the proof of the prophecy to offer, I will both interpret the prophetic word, I present the time and show the place and I call all creation to witness, not to my words but to the divine, masterly wonders.
4 Therefore God has struck us, when he condemned Adam to death, when he decreed that we should eat bread in the sweat of our face, when he commanded the earth to bring forth thorns and thistles for us, when through the first-formed man he cast the whole race <ἐκ> out of "the paradise of delight." But having struck, he healed, and having smitten, he bound up. How and in what way? Hear Isaiah saying: "The chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his stripe we were all healed," so that nothing of what was said by the prophet has been falsified. For what follows will show it especially: "He will smite us and will make us whole after two days, and on the third day we shall be raised up." Do you remember the time in which you crucified the Christ, in which you did not believe, seeing life hanging on a tree? Do you recognize the drama enacted by you and the wonders of the drama, when Christ was led up naked upon the cross as to a wedding. For having no sin, he did not need a garment; he was blameless and did not have to hide; there was nothing unseemly about him; for he himself shows the things that are seemly. Yet creation did not bear the flashes of the master's beauty, but light conquered light, sun yielded to sun, the sensible to the intelligible, the one that runs to the one that is everywhere, the one in a place to the one beyond place, the one that sets to the one that does not set, the one that brings the night to the one that set the boundaries of night and day. And it was then night; for darkness covered the whole earth, but day ran again from the ninth hour until evening, and again night followed the day according to its law, and again day succeeds the night. And the course of two days has taken place in order, and the term of the prophecy reached its end: "He will make us whole after two days."
5 Then what follows also reached its end: "On the third day," it says, "we shall be raised up." For Christ rose, and we rose with him. The liberator of the dead ascended from the dead and our race was revived, but since
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πανταχοῦ παρὼν πῶς εὑρε θῆναι δύναται ἢ λέγεται; Ἀλλὰ γὰρ οἶδεν ὁ Ἀνδρέας ὃ λέγει· Εὑρήκαμεν ὃν ἀπώλεσεν ὁ Ἀδάμ, ὃν ἐζημιώθη ἡ Εὔα, ὃν ἡ νεφέλη τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν τῶν ἡμετέρων ἔκρυψεν, ὃν ἐχώρισεν ἡ παρακοὴ καὶ μακρὰν ἐγγὺς ὄντα καὶ παρόντα νομισθῆναι πεποίηκεν. Εὑρήκαμεν ὃν ἐκζητῆσαι καὶ ∆αυὶδ ἐσε μνύνετο· «Ἐν ἡμέρᾳ», φησίν, «θλίψεώς μου τὸν θεὸν ἐξεζήτησα.» Ἀλλὰ καὶ Σοφονίας βοᾷ· «Ζητήσατε τὸν κύριον, πάντες ταπεινοὶ γῆς»· εὑρεθεὶς γὰρ τοὺς ταπεινοὺς ἀνυψοῖ, ἐγείρει τῆς γῆς, ἀπαλλάττει τῆς φθορᾶς, τῶν ὑψηλῶν ὑψηλοτέρους δείκνυσιν.
3 Εὗρεν οὗ τὴν εὕρεσιν ἡμῖν προφήτης ἄριστος Ὡσηὲ διελέ γετο· «Ἐν ἡμέρᾳ θλίψεως αὐτῶν, ὀρθριοῦσι πρός με λέγοντες· πορευθῶμεν καὶ ἐπιστρέψωμεν πρὸς κύριον τὸν θεὸν ἡμῶν, ὅτι αὐτὸς πέπαικεν καὶ ἰάσατο ἡμᾶς· πατάξει καὶ μοτώσει ἡμᾶς· ὑγιώσει ἡμᾶς μετὰ δύο ἡμέρας, καὶ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ ἀναστη σόμεθα ἐναντίον αὐτοῦ, καὶ διώξομεν τοῦ γνῶναι τὸν κύριον· ὡς ὄρθρον ἕτοιμον εὑρήκαμεν αὐτόν, καὶ ἥξει ἡμῖν ὡς ὑετὸς πρώ ϊμος καὶ ὄψιμος τῇ γῇ.» Ἐνταῦθά μοι κάλει τὸν Ἰουδαῖον εἰς κρίσιν, εἰς δικαστήριον ἄγαγε τὸν ἀγνώμονα. Ἀνάγνωθι τὸν προφήτην καὶ τὴν βίβλον περίπτυξον. Προφερέσθω κατ' αὐτοῦ τὰ παρ' αὐτοῦ· παρ' αὐτῷ γὰρ γέγραπται, εἰ καὶ παρ' ἐμοὶ πέ πρακται. Λέγω τοίνυν τὴν ἑρμηνείαν τῶν προφητικῶν. Σύστηθί πως ἐπὶ σοὶ πῶς καὶ πότε γεγένηται· ὅτι μὲν γὰρ ἐπατάχθητε, καὶ ὑμεῖς ὁμολογεῖτε καὶ ἡμεῖς αἰσθανόμεθα· ἀλλ' οὐ βλέπω σου θεραπείαν, οὐ θεωρῶ τὴν ἴασιν. Τοὐναντίον δὲ τὸ τραῦμα ἐν φλεγμονῇ, ἡ νόσος χαλεπωτέρα γέγονεν, ἡ ἀρρωστία ἀπογνωσ θεῖσα πρὸς θάνατον ἔδραμεν. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν οὐκ ἔχεις τῆς προ φητείας παρασχεῖν τὴν ἀπόδειξιν, ἐγὼ καὶ τὸν λόγον τὸν προφη τικὸν ἑρμηνεύσω· τὸν καιρὸν παριστῶ καὶ τὸν τόπον ἐπιδείκνυμι καὶ πᾶσαν καλῶ τὴν κτίσιν, οὐ τοῖς ἐμοῖς ῥήμασιν ἀλλὰ τοῖς θείοις μαρτυρῆσαι δεσποτικοῖς θαύμασι.
4 Πέπαικε τοίνυν ἡμᾶς ὁ θεός, ἡνίκα τοῦ Ἀδὰμ κατεδίκασε θάνατον, ὅτε τὸν ἄρτον ἡμᾶς ἐσθίειν ἐν ἱδρῶτι τοῦ προσώπου κατέκρινεν, ὅτε τὴν γῆν ἡμῖν ἀνατέλλειν ἀκάνθας καὶ τριβό λους ἐκέλευσεν, ὅταν διὰ τοῦ πρωτοπλάστου ὅλον τὸ γένος <ἐκ> «τοῦ παραδείσου τῆς τρυφῆς» ἐξέβαλεν. Ἀλλὰ παίσας ἰάσατο καὶ πατάξας ἐμότωσεν. Πῶς καὶ τίνα τρόπον; Ἄκουε τοῦ Ἠσαΐου λέγοντος· «Παιδεία εἰρήνης ἡμῶν ἐπ' αὐτῷ· τῷ μώ λωπι αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἰάθημεν», ὥστε οὐδὲν τῶν εἰρημένων τῷ προφήτῃ διέψευσται. ∆είξει γὰρ τὰ ἐχόμενα μάλιστα· «Πα τάξει ἡμᾶς καὶ ὑγιώσει ἡμᾶς μετὰ δύο ἡμέρας καὶ ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἀναστησόμεθα.» Ἆρα μέμνησαι τὸν καιρὸν ἐν ᾧ τὸν Χριστὸν ἐσταύρωσας, ἐν ᾧ τὴν ζωὴν ἐπὶ ξύλου θεωρῶν κρεμαμέ νην οὐκ ἐπίστευσας; Ἐπιγινώσκεις τὸ παρὰ σοῦ πραχθὲν δρᾶμα καὶ τὰ τοῦ δράματος θαύματα, ὅτε γυμνὸς ἐπὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ ὁ Χριστὸς ὡς ἐπὶ γάμον ἀνήγετο. Ἁμαρτίαν γὰρ οὐκ ἔχων, ἱμάτιον οὐκ ἔχρῃζεν· ἄμωμος ἦν καὶ λανθάνειν οὐκ ὤφειλεν· οὐδὲν ἦν ἄσχημον αὐτῷ· αὐτὸς γὰρ τὰ εὐσχήμονα δείκνυσιν. Ἡ κτίσις δ' ὅμως τοῦ δεσποτικοῦ κάλλους τὰς ἀστραπὰς οὐκ ἔφερεν, ἀλλὰ φῶς ἐνίκα τὸ φῶς, ἥλιος ἡλίῳ παρεχώρει, ὁ αἰσθητὸς τῷ νοητῷ, ὁ τρέχων τῷ πανταχοῦ ὄντι, ὁ ἐν τόπῳ τῷ ὑπὲρ τόπον, ὁ δύνων τῷ μὴ δύνοντι, ὁ τὴν νύκτα κινῶν τῷ θεμένῳ τὰ τῆς νυκτὸς καὶ τῆς ἡμέρας ὅρια. Ἦν δὲ τότε νύξ· τὸ γὰρ σκότος πᾶσαν κατέσχε τὴν γῆν, ἀλλ' ἡμέρα πάλιν ἀπὸ ἐνάτης ὥρας μέχρι ἑσπέρας ἔδραμεν, καὶ πάλιν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ νὺξ κατὰ τὸν νόμον τὸν ἐπ' αὐτῆς ἠκολούθησεν, καὶ πάλιν ἡμέρα τὴν νύκτα διαδέχεται. Ὁ δὲ ἡμερῶν δύο δρόμος κατὰ τάξιν γεγένηται, καὶ πέρας ἔσχεν ὁ τῆς προφητείας ὅρος· «Ὑγιώσει ἡμᾶς μετὰ δύο ἡμέρας.»
5 Πέρας τότε καὶ τὸ ἑξῆς ἐλάμβανεν· «Ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρί τῃ», φησίν, «ἀναστησόμεθα.» Ἀνέστη γὰρ ὁ Χριστὸς καὶ ἡμεῖς συνανέστημεν. Ἀνῆλθεν ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν ὁ τῶν νεκρῶν ἐλευ θερωτὴς καὶ τὸ γένος ἀνεβίου τὸ ἡμέτερον, ἐπειδὴ δὲ