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will be shown to have contradictions. For every one of the saints from of old, 1253 according to the true account of the mystery signified and prefigured through him, was a forerunner, proclaiming through what he suffered and did and said the archetypes of these things. Therefore they are also blamelessly taken for one another, and all for all, and each for each, and instead of the books written by them, and instead of them the books are addressed in the custom of Scripture. And the Lord clearly shows this by both making and calling John the Baptist Elijah, whether because of the equal state of virtue, as the teachers say, and the purity of mind in all things, and the intensity of his way of life, or because of the identity in both of the power in grace, or according to another hidden reason, He Himself who speaks as God would know, and those who are made wise by Him in such mysteries. And again, calling Moses the law, and the prophets their prophetic books, in which he introduced the patriarch Abraham as saying to the rich man being tormented in earthly Gehenna: They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them, citing those very men instead of the divine books written by them, I mean Moses and the prophets. And it is no wonder. For if the one who is proclaimed through them is one, all can be understood as the one whom they proclaim, and each can be piously taken for all (14∆_346> and all for all, both of those who ministered to the mystery according to the Old Testament and of those who were entrusted with the preaching of the grace according to the Gospel.

Therefore, just as the great John the Baptist can be piously understood as the forerunner for the whole Old Testament, which is the forerunner of the New Testament and the worship according to it, so too can the great John the Evangelist truly be taken as the forerunner for the whole New Testament and the worship according to it, which is the forerunner of the mystical secrecy of the ineffable good things in the age to come, as a forerunner voice of the more divine Word that is to be clearly spoken, and an image of the truth that is to be shown. For the whole mystery of our salvation was wisely ordered by shadow and image and truth. For the law had a shadow, as the divine Apostle says, of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, through which the Word instructed those under the law, in a manner appropriate to them, according to some faint impression of the true things, for the reception of the Gospel. But the Gospel possesses an image of the true things, clearly having from now on all those who have acquired the likeness of the good things to come. The Word, through hope, makes them ready for the reception of the archetypal reality of the true things, to be ensouled and to become living images of Christ, and rather identical to him according to grace than a likeness, and perhaps even the Lord himself, if the saying does not seem burdensome to some. As a Forerunner of Himself He is now addressed by the God-bearing teacher, as revealing Himself analogously to those who receive Him according to 1256 both the Old and the New Testament, Himself running ahead of Himself through riddles and voices and types, and through these leading to the truth without these, this being inferred from the words of the Lord Himself, by which He said, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now; signifying the teaching to them about Himself that was to come through the (14∆_348> divine Spirit, which was higher than the previous one, but itself also lower than the one after it.

Whence He reasonably added: But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth; or also through what He says elsewhere: Behold, I am with you all the days, until the end of the age; not as if after this He would not be with them at all, but as being about to be known in a higher way than the lower way they had known until then, according to their capacity. For in the same way

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ἐναντιώσεων ἔχων δειχθήσεται. Πᾶς γάρ τῶν ἀνέκαθεν ἁγίων 1253 κατά τόν ἀληθῆ λόγον τοῦ δι᾿ αὐτοῦ μηνυομένου τε καί προτυπουμένου μυστηρίου πρόδρομος ἦν, δι᾿ ὧν ἔπασχέ τε καί ἔδρα καί ἔλεγε τά τούτων προκηρύττων ἀρχέτυπα. ∆ιό καί ἀντι᾿ ἀλλήλων ἀμέμπτως παραλαμβάνονται, καί πάντων ἅπαντες, καί ἕκαστος ἑκάστου, καί ἀντί τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν συγγραφεισῶν βίβλων, καί ἀντι᾿ αὐτῶν αἱ βίβλοι παρά τῇ συνηθείᾳ τῆς Γραφῆς προσαγορεύονται. Καί δηλοῖ τοῦτο σαφῶς τόν Βαπτιστήν Ἰωάννην Ἠλίαν καί ποιῶν καί λέγων ὁ Κύριος, εἴτε διά τήν ἴσην τῆς ἀρετῆς ἕξιν, ὥς φασιν οἱ διδάσκαλοι, καί τήν κατά νοῦν διά πάντων καθαρότητα, καί τό τῆς πολειτείας σύντονον, εἴτε διά τήν ἐν ἀμφοτέροις ταυτότητα τῆς ἐν τῇ χάριτι δυνάμεως, εἴτε καθ᾿ ἕτερον λόγον ἀπόκρυφον, αὐτός ἄν εἰδείη ὁ λέγων ὡς Θεός, καί οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ τά τοιαῦτα μυστήρια σοφιζόμενοι. Καί πάλιν Μωϋσέα τόν νόμον, καί προφήτας τάς αὐτῶν προφητικάς βίβλους, καλέσας, ἐν οἷς πρός τόν ἐν γῇ γεένῃ βασανιζόμενον πλούσιον φήσαντα τόν πατριάρχην εἰσήγαγεν Ἀβραάμ· Ἔχουσι Μωϋσέα καί τούς προφήτας, ἀκουσάτωσαν αὐτῶν, ἀντί τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν συγγραφεισῶν θείων βίβλων αὐτούς ἐκείνους παραθέμενος, Μωϋσέα φημί καί τούς προφήτας. Καί θαυμαστόν οὐδέν. Εἰ γάρ εἷς ἐστιν ὁ δι᾿ αὐτῶν καταγγελλόμενος, οἱ πάντες ὡς εἷς ὅν καταγγέλλουσι νοεῖσθαι δύναται, καί ἀντί πάντων ἕκαστος (14∆_346> καί πάντες πάντων εὐσεβῶς ἀντιπαραλαμβάνεσθαι, τῶν τε διακονησαμένων τῷ κατά τήν Παλαιάν ∆ιαθήκην μυστηρίῳ καί τῶν πιστευθέντων τό κήρυγμα τῆς κατά τό Εὐαγγέλιον χάριτος.

Οὐκοῦν ὥσπερ εἰς ὅλην τήν Παλαιάν ∆ιαθήκην πρόδρομον οὖσαν τῆς Καινῆς ∆ιαθήκης καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν λατρείας ὁ μέγας Βαπτιστής Ἰωάννης εὐσεβῶς παραλαμβάνεσθαι δύναται, οὕτω δικαίως εἰς ὅλην τήν Καινήν ∆ιαθήκην καί τήν κατ᾿ αὐτήν λατρείαν, πρόδρομον οὖσαν τῆς ἐν μέλλοντι αἰῶνι μυστικῆς τῶν ἀῤῥήτων ἀγαθῶν κρυφιότητος, καί Ἰωάννης ὁ μέγας ἀληθῶς εὐαγγελιστής ληφθῆναι δύναται, ὡς πρόδρομος φωνή τοῦ μέλλοντος τρανῶς λαλεῖσθαι θειοτέρου Λόγου, και εἰκών τῆς δειχθησομένης ἀληθείας. Σκιᾷ γάρ καί εἰκόνι καί ἀληθείᾳ τό καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ὅλον τῆς σωτηρίας σοφῶς ᾠκονομήθη μυστήριον. Σκιάν γάρ εἶχεν ὁ νόμος, ὥς φησιν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν, οὐκ αὐτήν τήν εἰκόνα τῶν πραγμάτων, δι᾿ ἧς τούς κατά νόμον οἰκείως ἑαυτοῖς κατ᾿ ἀμυδράν τινα τῶν ἀληθῶν ἔμφασιν πρός τήν τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου παραδοχήν ὁ λόγος ἐπαιδαγώγει. Τό δέ Εὐαγγέλιον εἰκόνα κέκτηται τῶν ἀληθῶν, ὅλους ἔχον τρανῶς ἀπεντεῦθεν ἤδη τούς τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ὁμοιότητα κτησαμένους. Ἑτοίμους ὁ λόγος δι᾿ ἐλπίδος καθίστησι τῇ παραδοχῇ τῆς τῶν ἀληθῶν ἀρχετυπίας ψυχωθῆναι καί γενέσθαι ζώσας εἰκόνας Χριστοῦ, καί ταυτόν αὐτῷ μᾶλλον κατά τήν χάριν ἤ ἀφομοίωμα, τυχόν δέ καί αὐτός ὁ Κύριος, εἰ μή φορτικός ὁ λόγος τισίν εἶναι δοκεῖ. Ὡς Πρόδρομος ἑαυτοῦ πρός τοῦ θεοφόρου διδασκάλου προσηγόρευται νῦν, ὡς ἑαυτόν ἀναλόγως τοῖς ὑποδεχομένοις κατά 1256 τε τήν Παλαιάν κατά τε τήν Νέαν ∆ιαθήκην ἐκφαίνων, δι᾿ αἰνιγμάτων τε καί φωνῶν καί τύπων προτρέχων αὐτός ἑαυτοῦ, καί διά τούτων πρός τήν χωρίς τούτων ἄγων ἀλήθειαν, τοῖς αὐτοῦ Κυρίου λόγοις τοῦτο τεκμαιρομένου, δι᾿ ὧν ἔλεγεν, Ἔτι πολλά ἔχω λέγειν ὑμῖν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ δύνασθε βαστάζειν ἄρτι· σημαίνων τήν ὑψηλοτέραν μέν τῆς προλαβούσης, χθαμαλοτέραν δέ καί αὐτήν τῆς μετ᾿ αὐτήν διά τοῦ (14∆_348> θείου Πνεύματος περί αὐτοῦ μέλλουσαν ἔσεσθαι, πρός αὐτούς διδασκαλίαν.

Ὅθεν εἰκότως ἐπήγαγεν· Ὅταν δέ ἔλθῃ ἐκεῖνος, τό Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὁδηγήσει ὑμᾶς ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ πάσῃ· ἤ καί δι᾿ ὧν ἑτέρωθί φησιν· Ἰδού, ἐγώ μεθ᾿ ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τάς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος· οὐχ ὡς μετά τοῦτο παντελῶς οὐκ ἐσομένου μετ᾿ αὐτῶν, ἀλλ' ὡς ὑψηλοτέρου δηλονότι παρ᾿ ὅν τέως ἠπίσταντο χθαμαλώτερον, ὡς πρός τήν ἑαυτῶν δύναμιν γινώσκεσθαι μέλλοντος. Ὡσαύτως γάρ