John Chrysostom, On the Birth of Saint John the Prophet

bearing the silencing of unbelief. O, the wonder! he entered to set others free, and he himself came out condemned; he who bore the liturgical censer, carried about the mark of exile.

The people waited to hear something good from him, and he beckoned; Let no one ask me; I bear the terror of the Lord's indignation. O, the paradoxical things! Zechariah is silenced, and Elizabeth rejoices; a tongue is stopped, and a womb swells; the eloquent tongue becomes barren, and the fruitless barren one becomes a mother; the affliction of the womb moves to the tongue; the voice is bridled, and the conception is set free. Zechariah is silent, and John leaps. For the barren one only saw the virgin, the morning star perceived the sun, and John leaped greatly in the maternal womb, blaming the slowness of nature. "I am the herald of the Lord," he says; "and how am I, like my fellow servants, likewise bound with chains? Let me anticipate the time of gestation; I will not wait for the birth, lest I lose the race, lest the Lord should come before the servant who is wrapped in birth-pangs, lest the sequence of nature become a transgression of the order."

I have recognized the one who is present, and I cannot bear to be silent; I have recognized the one who sent me before his face to go, to prepare his way before him. I shake the bonds of nature; for I am eager to proclaim. O, the paradoxical and wondrous things! What the angels in heaven did not know, John, being carried in the womb, recognized, and said to his mother. It escaped the Thrones, and God visiting in the womb did not pass by him; it hid from the Dominions, and to the one in the womb he revealed the mystery of the economy; and what the archangel came bringing as good news to the Theotokos, from within the leaping embryo dictated. For having visited, as you have just heard, the redeemer of our race came to his friend John, being carried in the womb, immediately; and one could see the creator embracing the clay, the king lodging in the soldier's tent, the Lord having arrived at the servant's little room. John, having seen him from womb to womb, attempted to run past the boundaries of nature, saying, "I do not know the Lord as a boundary-setter of nature, I do not await the time of gestation; a nine-month birth in the womb is not necessary for me; I do not need this imprisonment in which I am now enclosed."

And why do I not break through the bonds that hold me? Let me go out, let me proclaim a brief knowledge of paradoxical things; I am a signal of the divine presence, I am a trumpet of the incarnation of the Word of God. I will sound the trumpet, and I will make a father's tongue speak eloquently; I will sound the trumpet, and I will give life to a mother's deadened womb. Behold the strangeness of the mystery; he is not yet born, and he speaks with his leaps; he does not yet appear, and he sends forth threats; he is not yet permitted to cry out, and he is heard through his deeds; he does not yet learn of life, and he proclaims God beforehand; he does not yet see the light, and he recognizes the sun; he is not yet born, and he is eager to run ahead. For he does not bear to be held back when the Lord has come; he cannot endure waiting for the limits of birth, but strives to break the prison of the womb, and is zealous to announce beforehand the coming Savior, crying out with his leaps: The one who loosens bonds has arrived, and why am I, being bound, held back? The one who made all things by a word has come, and why do I wait for the limits of nature? Let me go out, let me run ahead, let me proclaim, let me shout to all present: Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And these were the leaps of John, or rather, his words. But for Elizabeth, it says, the time was fulfilled for her to give birth, and she bore a son. And her relatives and her neighbors heard, and they rejoiced with her. But why is it said, "She bore and she brought forth"? Because the one is a work of nature, but the other is above nature. In that she was a woman, she bore; but in that 61.761

ἀπιστίας τὴν φίμωσιν βαστάζων. Ὢ τοῦ θαύματος! ἄλλους εἰσῆλθεν ἐλευθερῶσαι, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐξῆλθε καταδεδικασμένος· ὁ θυμιατήριον λειτουργικὸν βαστάζων, τίτλον ἐξορίας περιέφερεν.

Ὁ λαὸς περιέμενέ τι ἀγαθὸν ἀκοῦσαι παρ' αὐτοῦ, κἀκεῖνος διένευσε· Μηδείς με ἐρωτήσῃ· ∆εσποτικῆς ἀγανακτήσεως φρίκην βαστάζω. Ὢ τῶν παραδόξων πραγμάτων! Ζαχαρίας φιμοῦται, καὶ ἡ Ἐλισάβετ εὐωχεῖται· ἀναστομοῦται γλῶττα, καὶ ὀγκοῦται μήτρα· ἡ εὔλαλος γλῶττα στειρεύει, καὶ ἡ ἄκαρπος στεῖρα γίνεται μήτηρ· μετοικεῖται τὸ πάθος τῆς μήτρας εἰς τὴν γλῶτταν· ἡ φωνὴ χαλινοῦται, καὶ ἡ γονὴ ἐλευθεροῦται. Ζαχαρίας σιγᾷ, καὶ ὁ Ἰωάννης σκιρτᾷ. Μόνον γὰρ εἶδεν ἡ στεῖρα τὴν παρθένον, κατενόησεν ὁ ἑωσφόρος τὸν ἥλιον, καὶ ἐσκίρτησε μέγα ὁ Ἰωάννης ἐν τῇ μητρικῇ νηδύϊ, τὴν βραδύτητα τῆς φύσεως αἰτιώμενος. ∆εσπότου, φησὶ, κήρυξ εἰμί· καὶ πῶς τοῖς ὁμοδούλοις ὁμοίως πεπέδημαι δεσμοῖς; Προλάβω τὸν χρόνον τῆς κυήσεως· οὐ περιμένω τὸν τόκον, μὴ ἀπολέσω τὸν δρόμον, μὴ δεσπότης προλάβῃ τὸν περὶ τὰς ὠδῖνας εἰλούμενον δοῦλον, μὴ γένηται τῆς φύσεως ἡ ἀκολουθία παρανομία τῆς τάξεως.

Ἐπέγνων τὸν παρόντα, καὶ σιωπᾷν οὐκ ἀνέχομαι· ἐπέγνων τὸν προαποστείλαντά με πρὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ πορεύεσθαι, ἑτοιμάσαι τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ. Σαλεύω τὰ δεσμὰ τῆς φύσεως· κηρύττειν γὰρ ἐπείγομαι. Ὢ τῶν παραδόξων πραγμάτων καὶ θαυμάτων! Ἅπερ ἠγνόησαν ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἄγγελοι, ἐγνώρισεν ὁ Ἰωάννης κυοφορούμενος, καὶ ἔλεγε τῇ μητρὶ αὐτοῦ. Θρόνους ἔλαθε, καὶ τὸν ἐν μήτρᾳ Θεὸς ἐπιδημῶν οὐ παρέδραμε· κυριότητας ἔκρυψε, καὶ τῷ ἐν γαστρὶ τὸ τῆς οἰκονομίας μυστήριον ἀπεκάλυψε· καὶ ὅπερ ἐλήλυθεν ὁ ἀρχάγγελος τῇ θεοτόκῳ κομίζων εὐαγγέλιον, ἔνδοθεν τὸ ἔμβρυον ἁλλόμενον ὑπηγόρευσεν. Ἐπιδημήσας γὰρ, καθὼς ἀρτίως ἠκούσατε, ὁ τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν λυτρωτὴς πρὸς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ φίλον Ἰωάννην ἀφίκετο κυοφορούμενος παραχρῆμα· καὶ ἦν ἰδεῖν τὸν πλαστουργὸν ἀσπαζόμενον τὸν πηλὸν, τὸν βασιλέα εἰς τὴν τοῦ στρατιώτου σκηνὴν αὐλιζόμενον, τὸν ∆εσπότην εἰς τὸ τοῦ δούλου δωμάτιον ἀφιγμένον. Ὃν ἐκ μήτρας ἐν μήτρᾳ θεασάμενος ὁ Ἰωάννης, τῆς φύσεως ὅρους παραδραμεῖν ἐπεχείρησεν, Οὐκ οἶδα, λέγων, φύσεως ὁροθέτην Κύριον, οὐκ ἀναμένω κυήσεως χρόνον· ἐν γαστρὶ ἐνναμηνιαῖος τόκος οὐκ ἀναγκαῖος ἐμοί· οὐ χρῄζω ταύτης τῆς εἱρκτώσεως, εἰς ἣν νῦν ἐγκέκλεισμαι.

Καὶ τί οὐ διαπερῶ τὰ δεσμὰ τὰ κατέχοντά με; Ἐξέλθω, κηρύξω παραδόξων πραγμάτων σύντομον γνῶσιν· σήμαντρόν εἰμι θεϊκῆς παρουσίας, σάλπιγξ εἰμὶ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου σαρκώσεως. Σαλπίσω, καὶ πατρικὴν γλῶτταν εὐγλωττήσω λαλεῖν· σαλπίσω, καὶ μητρικὴν νεκρωθεῖσαν μήτραν ζωώσω. Βλέπε τοῦ μυστηρίου τὸ ξένον· οὔπω γεννᾶται, καὶ τοῖς σκιρτήμασι φθέγγεται· οὔπω φαίνεται, καὶ ἀπειλὰς ἀποστέλλει· οὔπω βοᾷν συγχωρεῖται, καὶ δι' ἔργων ἀκούεται· οὔπω μανθάνει τὸν βίον, καὶ τὸν Θεὸν προκηρύττει· οὔπω βλέπει τὸ φῶς, καὶ γνωρίζει τὸν ἥλιον· οὔπω τίκτεται, καὶ προτρέχειν ἐπείγεται. Οὐ γὰρ φέρει τοῦ ∆εσπότου ἐλθόντος παρακατέχεσθαι· οὐκ ἀνέχεται περιμένειν τοῦ τόκου τοὺς ὅρους, ἀλλὰ ῥῆξαι φιλονεικεῖ τὸ τῆς γαστρὸς δεσμωτήριον, καὶ προμηνῦσαι σπουδάζει τὸν Σωτῆρα ἐρχόμενον, κράζων τοῖς ἅλμασιν· Ὁ λύων τοὺς δεσμοὺς παρεγένετο, καὶ τί ἐγὼ δεδεμένος κατέχομαι; ἦλθεν ὁ λόγῳ κατασκευάσας τὰ σύμπαντα, καὶ τί ἐγὼ περιμένω τοὺς ὅρους τῆς φύσεως; Ἐξέλθω, προδράμω, κηρύξω, βοήσω τοῖς πᾶσι παροῦσιν· Ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν τὰ τοῦ Ἰωάννου σκιρτήματα, μᾶλλον δὲ ῥήματα. Τῇ δὲ Ἐλισάβετ ἐπληρώθη, φησὶν, ὁ χρόνος τοῦ τεκεῖν αὐτὴν, καὶ ἐγέννησεν υἱόν. Καὶ ἤκουσαν οἱ συγγενεῖς αὐτῆς, καὶ οἱ περίοικοι, καὶ συνέχαιρον αὐτῇ. ∆ιὰ τί δὲ εἴρηται, Ἔτεκε καὶ ἐγέννησεν; Ὅτι τὸ μὲν φύσεώς ἐστιν ἔργον, τὸ δὲ ὑπὲρ φύσιν. Καθ' ὃ γυνὴ μὲν, ἔτεκε· καθ' ὃ 61.761 δὲ