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condemnation, a relative alienation from God, because of which, when it runs its course, it cannot say that it is not just, having as an accuser the disposition that brought non-being into existence, which it can never be ignorant of. But we must bring the discourse back to the subject at hand.

For when the Evangelist said: There are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written, he showed us through these words, that what was written by him is a kind of preparation for the more perfect and for the time being incomprehensible word. According to this understanding, therefore, if someone calls the holy evangelist John a forerunner, in the Gospel he composed which prepares the way for the mind to receive the more perfect word, he will not miss the truth. For this reason indeed the teacher calls the things thundered forth in a spiritual manner a great voice of truth. But thunder is only a voice that creates astonishment in those who hear, yet clarifying nothing, such as is the elementary word. For every word written from God for men in this age is a forerunner of the more perfect word that is unwrittenly revealed through it in spirit according to the mind and is to be manifested later, as having truth revealed in itself, but not showing the truth itself naked and easily unveiled. Thus then, I think, the meaning of the whole of divine Scripture, being piously smoothed out, will be shown to have nothing difficult or uneven through the apparent contradictions according to the historical account. For every one of the saints from the beginning (1253) was, according to the true word, a forerunner of the mystery revealed and prefigured through him, proclaiming through what he suffered and did and said the archetypes of these things. This is why they are also blamelessly taken for one another, and all for all, and each for each, and instead of the books written by them, the books are addressed instead of them according to the custom of Scripture. And the Lord clearly shows this both by making and calling John the Baptist "Elijah," whether because of the equal disposition of virtue, as the teachers say, and the purity of mind through all things, and the intensity of his way of life, or because of the identity in both of the power in grace, or for some other hidden reason, He who speaks as God would know, and those who are made wise by him in such mysteries. And again, having called Moses "the law," and the prophets their own prophetic books, in which he introduced the patriarch Abraham as saying to the rich man being tormented in Hades on earth: They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them, putting them forward—I mean Moses and the prophets—instead of the divine books written by them. And it is no wonder. For if it is One who is proclaimed through them, all of them can be understood as the one whom they proclaim, and each for all and all for all can be piously substituted, both those who ministered to the mystery according to the Old Testament and those who were entrusted with the preaching of the grace according to the Gospel. Therefore, just as the great Baptist John can be piously taken as the whole of the New Testament and the worship according to it, so also justly, for the whole New Testament and the worship according to it, being a forerunner of the mystical hiddenness of the ineffable good things in the age to come, John the truly great evangelist can also be taken, as a forerunner, a voice of the more divine word that is to be clearly spoken, and an icon of the truth that is to be shown. For the whole mystery of our salvation was wisely ordered by shadow and icon and truth. For the law had a shadow, as the divine Apostle says, of the good things to come, not the very icon of the things, through which those according to the law, in a manner appropriate to themselves, according to a certain faint semblance of the true things, towards the

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κατάκρισιν τήν πρός τόν Θεόν σχετικήν ἀλλοτρίωσιν, ἐφ᾿ ᾗ τρεχομένη οὐκ ἔχει λέγειν ὡς οὐ δικαίως, τήν ὑποστήσασαν τό μή ὄν διάθεσις κατήγορον ἔχουσα, ἥν ἀγνοῆσαι οὐδέποτε δύναται. Ἄλλ᾿ ἐπί τό προκείμενον ἡμῖν ἐπανακτέον τόν λόγον.

Εἰπών γάρ ὁ εὐαγγελιστής· Ἔστι δέ καί ἄλλα πολλά ὅσα ἐποίησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς, ἅτινα ἐάν γράφηται καθ᾿ ἕν, οὐδέ αὐτόν οἶναι τόν κόσμον χωρῆσαι τά γραφόμενα βιβλία, ἐνέφηνεν ἡμῖν διά τούτων, ὅτι τά φραφέντα πρός αὐτοῦ προομαλισμός τίς ἐστι τοῦ τελεωτέρου καί τέως ἀχωρήτου λόγου. Κατά ταύτην οὖν ἔννοιαν εἰπών τις τόν ἅγιον εὐαγγελιστήν Ἰωάννην πρόδρομον, ἐν ᾧ συνέταξεν Εὐαγγελίῳ προοδοποιοῦντι τήν διάνοιαν πρός παραδοχήν τοῦ τελεωτέρου λόγου, τῆς ἀληθείας οὐχ ἁμαρτήσεται. Ταύτῃ τοι καί μεγάλην τῆς ἀληθείας ἀποκαλεῖ φωνήν ὁ διδάσκαλος τά πνευματικά βροντήσαντα. Βροντή δέ ἐστι φωνή μόνον κατάπληξιν τοῖς ἀκούουσιν ἐμποιοῦσα, μηδέν μέντοι τρανοῦσα, οἷόσπερ ἐστιν ὁ στοιχειώδης λόγος. Πᾶς γάρ λόγος θεόθεν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις κατά τόν αἰῶνα τοῦτον γραφείς πρόδρομός ἐστι τοῦ δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ἀγράφως ἐν πνεύματι κατά νοῦ μηνυομένου καί ἐς ὕστερον φανησομένου τελεωτέρου λόγου, ὡς ἀλήθειαν μέν ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ μηνυομένην, οὐ μήν δέ αὐτήν εὐπερικαλύπτως γυμνήν δεικνύς τήν ἀλήθειαν. Οὕτω μέν οὖν, ὡς οἶμαι, τῆς θείας ὅλης Γραφῆς ὁ νοῦς εὐσεβῶς ὁμαλιζόμενος οὐδέν δυσχερές ἤ ἀνώμαλον διά τῶν καθ᾿ ἱστορίαν δοκουσῶν 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 ἀμέπττως 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 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 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