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being restored by means of seals; bound with grave-clothes he was placed in the tomb, with them again bound he was given back to life. For the people of the Jews were unbelieving, and doubtful toward the great work of the miracles. They would have said now in the case of Lazarus, just as in the case of the blind man who was once healed: This is he, it is not he. Therefore, just as one about to return a deposit, and foreseeing the suspicion of the one who deposited it, preserves the seals of the deposit, so that the sight of the seals might persuade the depositor; so also the Lord Christ, in restoring Lazarus from the dead to the Jews, the four-day deposit among the dead, brings out with him the signs of the grave clothes, like a kind of seal, so that when they loosed him they might see that it was not some other, but he himself, whom they had laid to rest.

But the incorrigible blindness of unbelief; for having recognized the dead man, they envied the miracle, and they conceived a blind plan. For the chief priests, it says, took counsel that they might kill Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in him; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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σφραγίδων ἀποδιδόμενος· δεδεμένος κειρίαις παρετέθη τῷ μνήματι, μετ' αὐτῶν αὖθις τῷ βίῳ δεδεμένος ἀπεδίδοτο. Ἄπιστος γὰρ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ὁ δῆμος, καὶ πρὸς τὴν τῶν θαυμάτων μεγαλουργίαν ἀμφίβολος. Εἶπον ἂν ἐπὶ Λαζάρῳ καὶ νῦν, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τῷ τυφλῷ θεραπευθέντι ποτέ· Οὗτός ἐστιν, οὐκ ἔστιν οὗτος. Ὥσπερ οὖν παρακαταθήκην ἀποδώσειν τις μέλλων, καὶ τὴν τοῦ παραθεμένου προορῶν ὑποψίαν, τὰς τῆς παρακαταθήκης διαφυλάττει σφραγῖδας, ἵν' ἡ τῶν σφραγίδων ὄψις τὸν παραθέμενον πείσῃ· οὕτω καὶ ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστὸς τὸν Λάζαρον ἀποδιδοὺς Ἰουδαίοις ἐκ νεκρῶν, τὴν τετραήμερον ἐν νεκροῖς παραθήκην, τὰ τῶν σπαργάνων αὐτῷ, καθάπερ τινὰ σφραγῖδα, συνεξάγει σημεῖα, ἵνα λύοντες ἴδωσιν, ὡς οὐκ ἄλλος τις, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς, ὃν κατέθεντο.

Ἀλλ' ἡ τῆς ἀπιστίας ἀδιόρθωτος πήρωσις· γνωρίσαντες γὰρ τὸν νεκρὸν ἐφθόνουν τῷ θαύματι, καὶ τυφλὴν διενοοῦντο βουλήν. Ἐβουλεύσαντο γὰρ, φησὶν, οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς, ἵνα καὶ τὸν Λάζαρον ἀποκτείνωσιν, ὃν ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν· ὅτι δι' αὐτὸν πολλοὶ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ὑπήγοντο καὶ ἐπίστευον εἰς αὐτόν· ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.