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signifying both the time and the authority belonging to him and the birth from a virgin and the spreading of the teaching in all the earth, which things, with God, have all come to pass and will yet come to pass. Glory to God who foretold these things through all the prophets. Amen. JOHN THE FORERUNNER 1. Anna the prophetess, giving thanks to God. 2. Simeon; (2a) "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." 3. The holy Virgin Mary; (3a) "For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed." 4. Jesus Christ; (4a) "The Law and the Prophets proclaimed until John." 5. John the Baptist; (5a) "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." 6. Zacharias the priest; (6a) "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High." 7. Elizabeth the prophetess; (7a) "And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" 5.175 This is John the Baptist, greater than all men, who while yet in the womb was filled with the Holy Spirit and leaped, hastening to run before his Lord; the great one in the sight of God, the forerunner of the Lord, the one preparing for him a people made ready, the one superior to the prophets and born before the apostles, the one in the middle of the Old and New Testament, the last under the law and the receiver of the New, the one pointing out to all the present Lord Christ, the one surpassing all men in austerity and exceeding all men in ministry, the one who came beforehand in the spirit and power of Elijah and surpassing Elijah by baptizing the Lord, the lamp that burns before the sun of righteousness. This one points out the present Lord, saying: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," calling him "lamb" as one sacrificed, and taking away "the sin of the world" as one freeing the world from sin, making them incorruptible and immortal and unchangeable through the resurrection. The great John was deemed worthy to be the messenger of such a ministry and of such things. A note 5.176 This John, greater than all men, who had a father and mother who were fellow prophets, who not only points out the present Lord Christ as the author of the second state, but also reveals him as the judge of all, saying: "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." This one again proclaims the kingdom of heaven and prepares the way for the one coming after him and showing in his own work the kingdom of heaven, which is a second and new state. Glory to God who brought all things from non-being into being and is again re-creating them in Christ. Amen. Prologue concerning the apostles 5.177 Just as, therefore, we promised to show the ancient men and all the prophets who spoke beforehand concerning the mystery according to Christ, and that all, from the first-formed Adam until John the Baptist, look to the future state, this we have done; which both the Lord Christ and his disciples and apostles thenceforth openly proclaimed, that there is some future state much better than the one here, which the Lord Christ, having risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, first showed us in himself; which the first ones intimated with some obscurity and those after them clearly announce, and that none of them ever, neither the more recent nor the ancient, ever proclaimed or imagined another state, either older or later than these two, but that God, beginning to make the whole creation, made these two states only, decreeing this one to be lived in first, and then the one to come, to which the whole purpose of God and of his prophets looks. 5.178 Let the Greeks, therefore, be ashamed, who suppose the world to be co-eternal with God and a pre-existence

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σημάνας καὶ τὸν καιρὸν καὶ τὴν προσοῦσαν αὐτῷ ἐξουσίαν καὶ τὴν ἐκ παρθένου γέννησιν καὶ τὴν ἐξάπλωσιν τῆς διδασκαλίας ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ, ἃ καὶ σὺν Θεῷ πάντα γεγόνασι καὶ ἔτι γενήσεται. ∆όξα τῷ διὰ πάντων τῶν προφητῶν προκαταγγείλαντι ταῦτα Θεῷ. Ἀμήν. ΙΩΑΝΝΗΣ Ο ΠΡΟ∆ΡΟΜΟΣ 1. Ἄννα προφῆτις ἀνθομολογουμένη τῷ Θεῷ. 2. Συμεών· (2α) "Νῦν ἀπολύεις τὸν δοῦλόν σου, ∆έσποτα, κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμά σου ἐν εἰρήνῃ, ὅτι εἶδον οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου τὸ σωτήριόν σου, ὃ ἡτοίμασας κατὰ πρόσωπον πάντων τῶν λαῶν, φῶς εἰς ἀποκάλυψιν ἐθνῶν καὶ δόξαν λαοῦ σου Ἰσραήλ." 3. Ἡ ἁγία Παρθένος Μαρία· (3α) "Ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν μακαριοῦσί με πᾶσαι αἱ γενεαί." 4. Ἰησοῦς Χριστός· (4α) "Ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται ἕως Ἰωάννουπροεκήρυξαν." 5. Ἰωάννης ὁ Βαπτιστής· (5α) "Ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου." 6. Ζαχαρίας ὁ ἱερεύς· (6α) "Καὶ σύ, παιδίον, προφήτης Ὑψίστου κληθήσῃ." 7. Ἐλισάβετ ἡ προφῆτις· (7α) "Καὶ πόθεν μοι τοῦτο ὅτι ἡ μήτηρ τοῦ κυρίου μου ἦλθε πρός με;" 5.175 Οὗτος ὁ μείζων πάντων ἀνθρώπων Ἰωάννης ὁ Βαπτιστής, ὁ ἔτι ἐν κοιλίᾳ Πνεύματος ἁγίου πλησθεὶς καὶ σκιρτῶν καὶ ἐπειγόμενος προδραμεῖν τοῦ Κυρίου αὐτοῦ, ὁ μέγας ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ πρόδρομος τοῦ Κυρίου, ὁ ἑτοιμάζων αὐτῷ λαὸν κατεσκευασμένον, ὁ τῶν προφητῶν ἀνώτερος καὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων προγενέστερος, ὁ μέσος τῆς Παλαιᾶς καὶ Καινῆς ∆ιαθήκης, ὁ τελευταῖος ἐν νόμῳ καὶ τῆς Νέας ὑποδέκτης, ὁ παρόντα τὸν ∆εσπότην Χριστὸν πᾶσιν ὑποδεικνύς, ὁ τῇ σκληραγωγίᾳ πάντας ἀνθρώπους ὑπεραίρων καὶ τῇ διακονίᾳ πάντας ἀνθρώπους ὑπερβάς, ὁ ἐν πνεύματι καὶ δυνάμει Ἠλίου προελθὼν καὶ τὸν Ἠλίαν ὑπερβαίνων τῷ βαπτίζειν τὸν Κύριον, ὁ λύχνος ὁ καιόμενος πρὸ τοῦ ἡλίου τῆς δικαιοσύνης. Οὗτος παρόντα τὸν Κύριον ὑποδείκνυσι λέγων· "Ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου", "ἀμνὸν" ὡς θυόμενον καλέσας, καὶ "τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου" αἴροντα, ὡς ἀπαλλάττοντα τὸν κόσμον τῆς ἁμαρτίας, διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἀφθάρτους καὶ ἀθανάτους καὶ ἀτρέπτους ἀποτε λῶν. Τοιαύτης διακονίας καὶ τοιούτων πραγμάτων μηνυτὴς ἠξιώθη ὁ μέγας Ἰωάννης εἶναι. Παραγραφή 5.176 Οὗτος ὁ μείζων πάντων ἀνθρώπων Ἰωάννης, ὁ πατέρα καὶ μητέρα συμπροφήτας κεκτημένος, ὃς οὐ μόνον τὸν τῆς δευτέρας καταστάσεως ἀρχηγὸν παρόντα τὸν ∆εσπότην Χριστὸν ὑποδείκνυσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ κριτὴν αὐτὸν τοῦ παντὸς ὑποφαίνει λέγων· "Οὗ τὸ πτύον ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ διακαθαριεῖ τὴν ἅλωνα αὐτοῦ καὶ συνάξει τὸν μὲν σῖτον εἰς τὴν ἀποθήκην, τὸ δὲ ἄχυρον κατακαύσει πυρὶ ἀσβέστῳ." Οὗτος πάλιν βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν προκηρύττει καὶ ὁδοποιεῖ τῷ μετ' αὐτὸν ἐρχομένῳ καὶ ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἔργῳ δεικνύοντι τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἥτις ἐστὶ δευτέρα καὶ καινὴ κατάστασις. ∆όξα τῷ τὰ πάντα ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι παραγαγόντι Θεῷ καὶ πάλιν ἐν Χριστῷ ἀνακτίζοντι. Ἀμήν. Πρόλογος περὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων 5.177 Καθάπερ οὖν ἐπηγγειλάμεθα τοὺς ἀρχαίους ἀνθρώπους δεῖξαι καὶ τοὺς προφήτας πάντας περὶ τοῦ κατὰ Χριστὸν μυστηρίου προειρηκότας, καὶ ὅτι πάντες ἀπὸ τοῦ πρωτοπλάστου Ἀδὰμ μέχρι Ἰωάννου τοῦ Βαπτιστοῦ εἰς τὴν μέλλουσαν κατάστασιν ἀφορῶσι, τοῦτο πεποιήκαμεν, ὅπερ καὶ ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστὸς καὶ οἱ τούτου μαθηταὶ καὶ ἀπόστολοι διαρρήδην λοιπὸν ἐκήρυξαν, ὡς ἔστι τις μέλλουσα κατάστασις κρείττων τῆς ἐνταῦθα πολύ, ἣν ἐν ἑαυτῷ πρῶτος ἡμῖν ἔδειξεν ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστὸς ἀναστὰς ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν καὶ εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀνεληλυθώς, ἣν καὶ οἱ πρῶτοι σκότῳ τινὶ ἐμήνυσαν καὶ οἱ μετὰ ταῦτα σαφῶς διαγγέλλουσι, καὶ ὅτι οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν ποτε οὔτε τῶν νεωτέρων, οὔτε τῶν ἀρχαίων, ἑτέραν ποτὲ κατάστασιν, ἢ πρεσβυτέραν ἢ μεταγενεστέραν τούτων τῶν δύο, ἐκήρυξαν ἢ ἐφαντάσθησαν, ἀλλ' ὅτι ἀρξάμενος ὁ Θεὸς ποιῆσαι τὴν κτίσιν πᾶσαν τὰς δύο ταύτας μόνον καταστάσεις ἐποίησε, ταύτην πρῶτον ὁρίσας πολιτεύεσθαι, εἶθ' οὕτως τὴν μέλλουσαν, εἰς ἣν ἀφορᾷ πᾶς ὁ σκοπὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τῶν προφητῶν αὐτοῦ. 5.178 Αἰσχυνέσθωσαν τοίνυν Ἕλληνες οἱ συναΐδιον τῷ Θεῷ τὸν κόσμον ὑποτιθέμενοι καὶ προβιοτὴν