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of his brothers; second, to lay his hands on the back of his enemies; third, to be worshipped by the sons of his father; which also came to pass, when for a time, performing extraordinary powers and monstrous wonders, he was marveled at and praised and worshipped by his own disciples and apostles, whom he did not hesitate to call brothers, saying through the psalm: "I will declare your name to my brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing praise to you," and commanding those with Mary to announce the good news to them as brothers; "for tell," he says, "my brothers," that "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." 8.1.59 Thus indeed "the brothers" at first praised him for his paradoxes only as a wonderful man, having supposed him to be, as was likely, one of the prophets; but when in the meantime ... seeing his wonderful paradoxes and how he cast down the "enemy" and "avenger," that is, death, and the ruler of this age along with the other unseen and hostile powers, then, believing him to be God, they worshipped him. 8.1.60 And the "hands" of our Savior were on the "back of his enemies," when he performed all his deeds, powers, and paradoxes for the overthrow of demons and wicked spirits, but also when he stretched out his hands on the cross, and so his hands, as the enemies fled and turned their backs to him, were on the "back of the enemies," and especially when, having committed his spirit to the Father, disembodied and stripped of the body he had assumed, he went down to the place "of the enemies," being life itself, destroying death and the powers that rose up against him, which at first likely supposed him to be a common man and like the many, and so to surround him and attack him as any random person; but when they recognized a nature superior to man and more divine, they turned and gave their backs to him, against whom he let loose his hands, and drove them as they fled with his divine and sharpened arrows, so that for this reason it was said: "Your hands are on the back of your enemies." 8.1.61 And if even now countless enemies of our Savior attempt from time to time to make war on his church, yet even these he routs with an unseen hand and divine power, so that concerning them too is said, "Your hands are on the back of your enemies." 8.1.62 But since he had now at last received the victory trophies over his enemies, then was also fulfilled, "the sons of your father shall worship you," that is, all the angels in heaven, and the ministering spirits and the divine powers, and on earth the apostles and evangelists, and after these all those from the gentiles who through him have acknowledged the one and only true Father God, who having learned that Christ is God the Word, are acknowledged to worship him as God. 8.1.63 But since it was necessary also to include the mysteries of his birth and death in the prophecy concerning him, fittingly after the aforesaid things Jacob, prophesying, adds: "A lion's whelp, Judah; from a shoot, my son, you have gone up. Reclining, you have slept as a lion and as a whelp; who will rouse him?" He calls him a lion's whelp, then, because he was from a royal tribe; 8.1.64 for he was "of the seed" of "David according to the flesh." "From a shoot," he says, "you have gone up, my son," since he grew up from the seed and root of Jacob who proclaimed these things beforehand, being first God the Word, and becoming second son of man through the economy he undertook for us. 8.1.65 The phrase "reclining, you have slept as a lion and as a whelp" would also be indicative of his death, from the custom of scripture, which by a certain fitting insight calls death a sleep in countless other cases as well. 8.1.66 And "who will rouse him" is said in wonder concerning his resurrection from the dead; that he would be raised

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ἀδελφῶν αὐτοῦ· δεύτερον κατὰ νώτου τῶν ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ τὰς χεῖρας ἐπιβαλεῖν· τρίτον προσκυνηθῆναι ὑπὸ τῶν υἱῶν τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ· ἃ καὶ τέλους ἐτύγχανεν, ὁπηνίκα τέως μὲν τὰς παραδόξους δυνάμεις καὶ τὰ τεράστια θαύματα ἐπιτελῶν ἐθαυμάζετο καὶ ἐπῃνεῖτο καὶ προσεκυνεῖτο πρὸς τῶν ἑαυτοῦ μαθητῶν τε καὶ ἀποστόλων, οὓς καὶ ἀδελφοὺς ἀποκαλεῖν οὐκ ὤκνει, διὰ μὲν τοῦ ψαλμοῦ λέγων· «ἀπαγγελῶ τὸ ὄνομά σου τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς μου, ἐν μέσῳ ἐκκλησίας ὑμνήσω σε», ταῖς δὲ ἀμφὶ τὴν Μαρίαν προστάττων εὐαγγελίζεσθαι αὐτοῖς ὡς ἀδελφοῖς· «ἀπαγγείλατε», γὰρ φησί, «τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς μου», ὅτι «ἀνέρχομαι πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου καὶ πατέρα ὑμῶν καὶ θεόν μου καὶ θεὸν ὑμῶν». 8.1.59 οὕτω δῆτα αὐτὸν «οἱ ἀδελφοὶ» τὰ μὲν πρῶτα ἐπὶ τοῖς παραδόξοις ὡς θαυμάσιον ἄνδρα μόνον ἐπῄνουν, ἕνα τινὰ ὡς εἰκὸς τῶν προφητῶν εἶναι ὑπειληφότες· ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ ... τὰς θαυμασίους παραδοξοποιίας αὐτοῦ ὁρῶντες καὶ ὡς καθεῖλεν «ἐχθρόν» τε καὶ «ἐκδικητὴν», τόν τε θάνατον, τόν τε ἄρχοντα τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου ἅμα ταῖς λοιπαῖς ἀοράτοις καὶ ἐχθραῖς δυνάμεσιν, τὸ τηνικάδε θεὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι πιστεύσαντες προσεκύνησαν. 8.1.60 αἱ δὲ «χεῖρες» τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν κατὰ «νώτου τῶν ἐχθρῶν» αὐτοῦ ἐγίνοντο, ὅτε πάσας τὰς πράξεις αὐτοῦ τάς τε δυνάμεις καὶ παραδοξοποιίας ἐπὶ καθαιρέσει τῶν δαιμόνων καὶ τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων ἐποιεῖτο, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁπηνίκα ἐξεπέτασεν τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ, καὶ οὕτως αἱ χεῖρες αὐτοῦ, φευγόντων τῶν ἐχθρῶν καὶ τὰ νῶτα παραχωρούντων αὐτῷ, «κατὰ νώτου τῶν ἐχθρῶν» ἐγίνοντο, καὶ μᾶλλον ὅτε τὸ πνεῦμα παραδοὺς τῷ πατρί, ἄσαρκος καὶ γυμνὸς οὗ ἀνειλήφει σώματος ἐπὶ τὸ «τῶν ἐχθρῶν» κατῄει χωρίον, αὐτοζωὴ τυγχάνων, θάνατον καταλύσσων καὶ τὰς ἐπανισταμένας αὐτῷ δυνάμεις, ἃς εἰκὸς κατ' ἀρχὰς μὲν κοινὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ τοῖς πολλοῖς ὅμοιον αὐτὸν ὑπειληφέναι οὕτω τε κυκλῶσαι αὐτὸν καὶ ὡς ἂν τῷ τυχόντι ἐφορμῆσαι· ἐπεὶ δὲ ἔγνωσαν κρείττονα ἢ κατὰ ἄνθρωπον καὶ θειοτέραν φύσιν, τραπῆναι καὶ τὰ νῶτα παραχωρῆσαι αὐτῷ, καθ' ὧν τὰς χεῖρας ἀφείς, τοῖς ἐνθέοις αὐτοῦ καὶ ἠκονημένοις βέλεσιν φεύγοντας ἤλαυνεν, ὡς διὰ τοῦτο εἰρῆσθαι· «αἱ χεῖρές σου ἐπὶ νώτου τῶν ἐχθρῶν σου». 8.1.61 εἰ δὲ καὶ εἰσέτι νῦν μυρίοι τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐχθροὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν αὐτοῦ κατὰ καιροὺς πολεμεῖν ἐπιχειροῦσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτους ἀοράτῳ χειρὶ καὶ ἐνθέῳ δυνάμει τροποῦται, ὡς καὶ περὶ αὐτῶν εἰρῆσθαι τὸ «αἱ χεῖρές σου ἐπὶ νώτου τῶν ἐχθρῶν σου». 8.1.62 ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἤδη λοιπὸν τὰ κατὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν νικητήρια ἀπειλήφει, τηνικαῦτα ἐπληροῦτο καὶ τὸ «προσκυνήσουσίν σε οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ πατρός σου», πάντες δηλαδὴ οἱ κατ' οὐρανὸν ἄγγελοι, τά τε πνεύματα τὰ λειτουργικὰ καὶ αἱ θεῖαι δυνάμεις, οἵ τε ἐπὶ γῆς ἀπόστολοι καὶ εὐαγγελισταί, καὶ μετὰ τούτους ἅπαντες οἱ ἐξ ἐθνῶν δι' αὐτοῦ τὸν ἕνα καὶ μόνον ἀληθῆ πατέρα θεὸν ἐπιγραψάμενοι, οἵτινες θεὸν λόγον ὄντα τὸν Χριστὸν μεμαθηκότες, ὡς θεὸν προσκυνεῖν αὐτὸν ὁμολογοῦνται. 8.1.63 Ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ ἐχρῆν καὶ τὰ τῆς γενέσεως αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ τοῦ θανά του μυστήρια τῇ περὶ αὐτοῦ προφητείᾳ συμπεριλαβεῖν, εἰκότως μετὰ τὰ προειρημένα θεσπίζων ὁ Ἰακὼβ ἐπιλέγει· «σκύμνος λέοντος, Ἰούδα· ἐκ βλαστοῦ, υἱέ μου, ἀνέβης· ἀναπεσὼν ἐκοιμήθης ὡς λέων καὶ ὡς σκύμνος· τίς ἐγερεῖ αὐτόν;» σκύμνον μὲν οὖν λέοντος αὐτὸν ὀνομάζει διὰ τὸ ἐκ βασιλικῆς αὐτὸν γεγονέναι φυλῆς· 8.1.64 «ἐκ σπέρματος» γοῦν ἦν τοῦ «∆αβὶδ κατὰ σάρκα». «ἐκ βλαστοῦ» δὲ «ἀνέβης, υἱέ μου», φησίν, ἐπείπερ ἐκ σπέρματος καὶ ῥίζης τοῦ ταῦτα προαναφωνοῦντος Ἰακὼβ ἀνέφυ, πρότερον μὲν θεὸς λόγος ὤν, γενόμενος δὲ δεύτερον υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου δι' ἣν ἀνεδέξατο ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν οἰκονομίαν. 8.1.65 εἴη δ' ἂν καὶ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ δηλωτικὸν τὸ «ἀναπεσὼν ἐκοιμήθης ὡς λέων καὶ ὡς σκύμνος», ἐξ ἔθους τῆς γραφῆς, κατά τι οἰκεῖον θεώρημα τὸν θάνατον καὶ ἐπὶ μυρίων ἄλλων κοίμησιν ἀποκαλούσης. 8.1.66 τὸ δὲ «τίς ἐγερεῖ αὐτόν» περὶ τῆς ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀναστάσεως αὐτοῦ θαυμαστικῶς εἴρηται· ἐγερθησόμενον