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to enjoy divine gifts as was their custom, until it should dare that unholy and dreadful daring deed, I mean the cross against the Savior, who, being called Holy of holies, since He is indeed the fount of holiness, is anointed according to His humanity with the Holy Spirit, and seals and confirms the ancient prophecies, fulfilling all the things foretold by them, and grants remission of sins to those who have believed in Him. Then the divine archangel teaches from where one must begin the number of the seventy weeks. 25. "And you shall know," he says, "and understand, from the going forth of the words to answer, and to build Jerusalem, until Christ the prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." Some, therefore, suppose that the beginning of the building which happened in the time of Cyrus is the beginning of the number of the weeks, while others begin the number from the sixth year of the reign of Darius the son of Hystaspes; for at that time the building of the temple received its proper end, since the neighboring peoples, on account of their ill will toward the Jews, had become an impediment to the building in the intervening time, and Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, having been deceived by them, had also hindered the building. But none of these things holds the truth. For in the first place, a number of more years will be found, if anyone should wish to count from this point; then, it is not possible to find in another the blotting out of sins that has occurred, and the remission of iniquities, and the gift of everlasting righteousness, and the fulfillment of the prophetic decrees, and the anointing of the Holy of holies, than in the Lord Christ 81.1476 alone. But if these things are so, and those who command the number of weeks to be reckoned in this way agree, let them count the four hundred and ninety years from the bottom up. For if we begin to count backward from the manifestation that took place by the Jordan, when our Savior and Lord began to preach and to teach and to work miracles, we will find this number reaching not only not as far as Cyrus, but not even as far as Darius, but being completed in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes, at which time Nehemiah, being the cupbearer of this king, filled with zeal, and having besought God, and enjoying help from on high, implores the king to permit him the building of the walls of Jerusalem, and having found the king favorable, he arrives at his fatherland, and with all eagerness he adds also the remaining things to the divine temple; and he raises up the walls of the city, and having fortified them on all sides with towers he sets up the gates, and having urged the priests, he makes the city, which was desolate of inhabitants, full of those who dwell there. This the divine archangel also said, hinting at it: "And you shall know, and understand from the going forth of the words to answer, and to rebuild Jerusalem, until Christ the prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. And it shall return, and a broad place and an outer wall shall be built, and the times shall be renewed." For beginning, he says, to count from the building of the city, once it has received its own walls, and has accepted a multitude of inhabitants, so that it becomes a broad place on account of the multitude of its residents, you will find until Christ the prince seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. And He called Him Christ the prince again, whom He had called Holy of holies, as the blessed Peter said when addressing the Jews: "But you killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, having loosed the pains of death." And He is our Prince according to His humanity, as the firstborn of all creation, that is, of the new: "For if anyone," he says, "is in Christ, he is a new creation." And as the firstborn from the dead, that He might become, as Paul says, "in all things Himself pre-eminent." For this reason holy Gabriel also called Him Christ the prince. Until Him, therefore, from the building of Jerusalem, "seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." But lest some should suppose that we are idly talking about these things, come and

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θείων συνήθως δω ρεῶν ἀπολαύειν, ἕως ἂν ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἀνόσιον καὶ φρι κῶδες τολμήσῃ τόλμημα, τὸν κατὰ τοῦ Σωτῆρός φημι σταυρὸν, ὃς Ἅγιος ἁγίων ὀνομαζόμενος, ἅτε δὴ ἁγιωσύνης ὑπάρχων πηγὴ, χρίεται μὲν κατὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπειον τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, σφραγίζει δὲ καὶ βεβαιοῖ τὰς παλαιὰς προφητείας, πληρῶν ἅπαντα τὰ ὑπ' ἐκείνων προηγορευμένα, ἄφεσιν δὲ ἁμαρ τημάτων τοῖς εἰς αὐτὸν πεπιστευκόσι χαρίζεται. Εἶτα διδάσκει ὁ θεῖος ἀρχάγγελος, πόθεν ἄρξασθαι δεῖ τοῦ τῶν ἑβδομήκοντα ἑβδομάδων ἀριθμοῦ. κεʹ. "Καὶ γνώσῃ, φησὶ, καὶ συνήσεις, ἀπὸ ἐξόδου λόγων τοῦ ἀποκριθῆναι, καὶ τοῦ οἰκοδομηθῆναι Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ἕως Χριστοῦ ἡγουμένου, ἑβδομάδες ἑπτὰ καὶ ἑβδομάδες ἑξήκοντα δύο." Τινὲς μὲν οὖν ὑπολαμ βάνουσι τὴν ἐπὶ Κύρου γενομένην τῆς οἰκοδομίας ἀρχὴν, ἀρχὴν εἶναι τοῦ τῶν ἑβδομάδων ἀριθμοῦ, τι νὲς δὲ ἀπὸ ἕκτου ἔτους τῆς βασιλείας ∆αρείου τοῦ Ὑστάσπου τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ ἄρχονται· τηνικαῦτα γὰρ τοῦ ναοῦ ἡ οἰκοδομὴ τέλος ἔλαβε τὸ προσῆκον, τῶν περιοίκων διὰ τὴν πρὸς Ἰουδαίους δυσμένειαν ἐμ ποδὼν τῇ οἰκοδομίᾳ ἐν τῷ μέσῳ χρόνῳ γεγενημένων, καὶ Καμβύσου δὲ τοῦ Κύρου υἱέως ὑπὸ τούτων ἐξ απατηθέντος καὶ τὴν οἰκοδομίαν κωλύσαντος. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲν τούτων ἔχει τὸ ἀληθές. Πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ πλειό νων ἐτῶν ἀριθμὸς, εἴ τις ἐντεῦθεν ἀριθμῆσαι θε λήσειεν, εὑρεθήσεται· ἔπειτα οὐκ ἔστιν εὑρεῖν ἐπ' ἄλλου ἐξάλειψιν ἁμαρτημάτων γεγενημένην, καὶ ἄφεσιν ἀδικημάτων, καὶ δικαιοσύνης αἰωνίου δόσιν, καὶ πλήρωσιν τῶν προφητικῶν θεσπισμάτων, καὶ Ἁγίου ἁγίων χρίσιν, ἢ ἐπὶ μόνου τοῦ ∆εσπότου Χρι 81.1476 στοῦ. Εἰ δ' οὕτως ταῦτα ἔχει, καὶ συνομολογοῦσιν οἱ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν ἑβδομάδων οὕτω ποιεῖσθαι κε λεύοντες, κάτωθεν ἄνω τὰ τετρακόσια καὶ ἐννενή κοντα ἀριθμήτωσαν ἔτη. Εἰ γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς ἐπιφανείας τῆς παρὰ τὸν Ἰορδάνην γεγενημένης, ὁπηνίκα τοῦ κηρύττειν τε καὶ διδάσκειν καὶ θαυματουργεῖν ὁ Σω τὴρ καὶ Κύριος ἡμῶν ἤρξατο, ἀρξάμενοι τοῦ ἀρι θμεῖν ἐπὶ τὰ ἄνω χωρήσαιμεν, οὐ μόνον οὐ μέχρι Κύρου, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ἕως ∆αρείου τοῦτον εὑρήσομεν φθά νοντα τὸν ἀριθμὸν, ἀλλὰ τῷ εἰκοστῷ ἔτει τῆς Ἀρ ταξέρξου τοῦ Ξέρξου βασιλείας συμπληρούμενον, καθ' ὃν καιρὸν ὁ Νεεμίας, οἰνοχόος ὢν τοῦδε τοῦ βα σιλέως, ζῆλον λαβὼν, καὶ τὸν Θεὸν ἀντιβολήσας, καὶ τῆς ἄνωθεν ἀπολαύσας ῥοπῆς, ἱκετεύει μὲν τὸν βασιλέα ἐπιτρέψαι αὐτῷ τὴν τῶν περιβόλων τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ οἰκοδομίαν, τυχὼν δὲ εὐμενοῦς τοῦ βα σιλέως, καταλαμβάνει μὲν τὴν πατρίδα, σὺν πάσῃ δὲ προθυμίᾳ καὶ τὰ λείποντα τῷ θείῳ προστίθησι νεῷ· ἀνίστησι δὲ καὶ τὰ τῆς πόλεως τείχη, καὶ πύρ γοις πάντοθεν ὀχυρώσας ἐπιτίθησι τὰς πύλας, καὶ προτρέψας τοὺς ἱερέας, ἔρημον οὖσαν τῶν οἰκητόρων τὴν πόλιν, πλήρη τῶν ἐνοικούντων ποιεῖ. Τοῦτο καὶ ὁ θεῖος ἀρχάγγελος αἰνιττόμενος ἔφη· "Καὶ γνώσῃ, καὶ συνήσεις ἀπὸ ἐξόδου λόγων τοῦ ἀποκριθῆναι, καὶ ἀνοικοδομηθῆναι Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ἕως Χριστοῦ ἡγουμένου, ἑβδομάδες ἑπτὰ, καὶ ἑβδομάδες ἑξήκοντα δύο. Καὶ ἐπιστρέψει, καὶ οἰκοδομηθήσεται πλατεῖα, καὶ περίτειχος, καὶ ἐκκαινωθήσονται οἱ καιροί." Ἀρξάμενος γὰρ, φησὶν, ἀριθμεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκοδο μίας τῆς πόλεως, ἀπολαβούσης μὲν τὰ οἰκεῖα τείχη, δεξαμένης δὲ πλῆθος τῶν οἰκητόρων, ὡς πλατεῖαν αὐτὴν γενέσθαι διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἐνοικούντων, εὑ ρήσεις ἕως Χριστοῦ ἡγουμένου ἑβδομάδας ἑπτὰ καὶ ἑβδομάδας ἑξήκοντα δύο. Χριστὸν δὲ ἡγούμενον αὐτὸν πάλιν ὠνόμασεν, ὃν Ἅγιον ἁγίων ἐκάλεσεν, ὡς ὁ μακάριος Πέτρος ἐν Ἰουδαίοις ἔφη δημηγορῶν· "Τὸν δὲ ἀρχηγὸν τῆς ζωῆς ἀπεκτείνατε, ὃν ὁ Θεὸς ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν, λύσας τοῦ θανάτου τὰς ὠδῖ νας." Ἡγούμενος δὲ ἡμῶν ἐστι κατὰ τὸ ἀνθρώ πειον, ὡς πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, τῆς νέας δηλονότι· "Εἴ τις γὰρ, φησὶν, ἐν Χριστῷ, καινὴ κτίσις." Καὶ ὡς πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, ἵνα γένηται, ᾗ φησιν ὁ Παῦλος, "ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς πρω τεύων." Τούτου χάριν αὐτὸν καὶ ὁ ἅγιος Γαβριὴλ Χριστὸν ἡγούμενον προσηγόρευσεν. Ἕως τοίνυν αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκοδομίας τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ, "ἑβδο μάδες ἑπτὰ καὶ ἑβδομάδες ἑξήκοντα δύο." Ἵνα δὲ μὴ μάτην ταῦτα ληρεῖν τινες ἡμᾶς ὑπολάβωσιν, φέρε καὶ