because the substance was corrupted by old age? Have you not heard Anna boasting; ‘The barren has borne seven, and she who has many children has grown weak’? Have you not heard the prophet saying, Zacharias, ‘Signs are for the unbelievers’? You ought not to have refused, Zacharias, what was said, having been allotted a ministry greater than the prophetic liturgy? But since as an unbeliever you seek signs from God, receive in your own limbs a sign that brings a scourge; you shall be silent and not able to speak. Where there is the audacity of rashness, there also is the bridle of discipline. You shall be silent; where insolence has spoken, there is the sentence of rebuke. God indeed wished, Zacharias, for you to become a herald of such a wonder; for a commander of the heavenly king is being born and a forerunner of the cosmic redemption from sins. But since you determined the weakness of the body to be more certain than the promise of the master, you shall be silent and not able to speak, until the day these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. You see that without faith none of the necessary things happens. As soon as Zacharias heard these words, he immediately went out of the temple bearing the muzzle as the wage of his unbelief. He entered to set others free, and he himself went out condemned; he who bore the liturgical censer carried about a title of exile. The people waited to hear something good from him, and he kept gesturing; ‘Let no one approach me, I bear the horror of the master’s indignation.’ Oh, the paradoxical things. Zacharias is muzzled and Elizabeth feasts, the tongue is silenced and the womb swells, the tongue becomes barren and the barren becomes a mother; the affliction of the womb moves to the tongue, the voice is bridled and the seed is set free, Zacharias is silent and John leaps. For as soon as the barren saw the virgin and the morning star perceived the sun, John leaped greatly in his mother’s womb, blaming the slowness of nature; ‘I am the herald of the Master,’ he says. ‘Why am I bound by the same laws as my fellow servants?’ ‘Should I, by waiting for birth, lose the race?’ ‘Should the master arrive before the servant who is wrapped up in birth pangs?’ ‘May the sequence of nature not become a transgression of the order?’ ‘I have recognized the one who is present and I cannot bear to be silent; I shake the bonds of nature; for I am eager to proclaim, I become a swift signal for two paradoxical events; I trumpet the divine presence and I release my father’s tongue.’ These are the interests on the principal points we omitted on the previous day; for every principal bears interest, whence also the infant is called offspring; for as principal the husband lends the seed to the wife, for the head of the woman is the man, and the wife bears the interest on the principal ...

διὰ τὸ πεφθάρθαι τῷ γήρει τὴν υλην; Οὐκ ηκουσας Αννης καυχωμένης· ̔Η στεῖρα ετεκεν ἑπτά, καὶ ἡ πολλὴ ἐν τέκνοις ἠσθένησεν; Οὐκ ηκουσας τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος, Ζαχαρία, Τὰ σημεῖα τοῖς ἀπίστοις; Εδει μέν σε μὴ ἀνανεῦσαι , Ζαχαρία, τοῖς λεχθεῖσιν, προφητικῆς λειτουργίας μείζονα διακονίαν λαχόντα; ̓Επειδὴ δὲ ὡς απιστος σημεῖα παρὰ θεοῦ ζητεῖς, ἐν τοῖς οἰκείοις μέλεσι μαστιγοφόρον κομίζου σημεῖον· εσῃ σιωπῶν καὶ μὴ δυνάμενος λαλῆσαι. Οπου τῆς προπετείας τὸ θράσος, ἐκεῖ καὶ τῆς παιδείας ὁ χαλινός. Εσῃ σιωπῶν· οπου υβρις ἐλάλησεν, ἐκεῖ τῆς ἐπιτιμήσεως ἡ ἀπόφασις. Ηθελε μὲν ὁ θεός, Ζαχαρία, κήρυκά σε τοῦ τοιούτου θαύματος γενέσθαι· στρατοπεδάρχης γὰρ τοῦ ἐπουρανίου βασιλέως τίκτεται καὶ τῆς κοσμικῆς τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν λυτρώσεως προκαθαρτής. ̓Επειδὴ δὲ τὴν ἀσθένειαν τοῦ σώματος βεβαιοτέραν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας ὡρίσω τοῦ δεσπότου, εσῃ σιωπῶν καὶ μὴ δυνάμενος λαλῆσαι, αχρι ης ἡμέρας γένηται ταῦτα, ἀνθων οὐκ ἐπίστευσας τοῖς λόγοις μου, οιτινες πληρωθήσονται εἰς τὸν καιρὸν αὐτῶν. ̔Ορᾷς οτι ανευ πίστεως οὐδὲν τῶν δεόντων γίνεται. Μόνον ηκουσε Ζαχαρίας τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα, εὐθέως ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ τοῦ ναοῦ μισθὸν τῆς ἀπιστίας τὴν φίμωσιν βαστάζων. Αλλους εἰσῆλθεν ἐλευθερῶσαι, καὶ αὐτὸς καταδεδικασμένος ἐξῆλθεν· ὁ θυμιατῆρα λειτουργικὸν βαστάζων τίτλον ἐξορίας περιέφερεν. ̔Ο λαὸς περιέμεινε τί ἀγαθὸν ἀκοῦσαι παρ' αὐτοῦ, κἀκεῖνος διένευεν· Μηδείς μοι πλησιάσῃ, δεσποτικῆς ἀγανακτήσεως φρίκην βαστάζω. Ω τῶν παραδόξων πραγμάτων. Ζαχαρίας φιμοῦται καὶ ̓Ελισάβετ εὐωχεῖται, ἀπεστόμωται γλῶσσα καὶ ὀγκοῦται μήτρα, ἡ γλῶσσα στειρεύει καὶ ἡ στεῖρα γίνεται μήτηρ μετοικεῖ τὸ πάθος τῆς μήτρας ἐπὶ τὴν γλῶσσαν, ἡ φωνὴ χαλινοῦται καὶ ἡ γονὴ ἐλευθεροῦται, Ζαχαρίας σιγᾷ καὶ ̓Ιωάννης σκιρτᾷ. Μόνον γὰρ ειδεν ἡ στεῖρα τὴν παρθένον καὶ κατενόησεν ὁ ἑωσφόρος τὸν ηλιον, ἐσκίρτησε μέγα ὁ ̓Ιωάννης ἐν τῇ μητρικῇ νηδύϊ τὴν βραδυτῆτα τῆς φύσεως αἰτιώμενος· ∆εσπότου φησὶ κήρυξ εἰμί. Τί τοῖς ὁμοδούλοις ὁμοίως πεπέδημαι νόμοις; Μὴ περιμένων τὸν τόκον ἀπολέσω τὸν δρόμον; Μὴ δεσπότης προλάβῃ τὸν περὶ τὰς ὠδῖνας εἰλούμενον <δοῦλον>; Μὴ γένηται τῆς φύσεως ἀκολουθία παρανομία τῆς τάξεως; ̓Επέγνων τὸν παρόντα καὶ σιγᾶν οὐκ ἀνέχομαι· σαλεύω τὰ δεσμὰ τῆς φύσεως· κηρύττειν γὰρ ἐπείγομαι, δυεῖν παραδόξων πραγμάτων σύντομον γίνομαι σήμαντρον· θεϊκὴν παρουσίαν σαλπίζω καὶ πατρικὴν γλῶσσαν ἐκλύω. Ταῦτα τῶν παραλειφθέντων ἡμῖν τῇ προτεραίᾳ κεφαλαίων οἱ τόκοι· πᾶν γὰρ κεφάλαιον τόκον τίκτει, οθεν καὶ τὸ βρέφος τόκος ὀνομάζεται· ὡς κεφάλαιον γὰρ ὁ ἀνὴρ τὸν σπόρον τῇ γυναικὶ δανείζει κεφαλὴ γὰρ γυναικὸς ὁ ἀνήρ, τίκτει δὲ τῷ κεφαλαίῳ τὸν τόκον ἡ γυνή ...