John Chrysostom, On Lazarus iii

In Lazarum iii

On Lazarus, dead for four days. 3.

62.777 The light released Lazarus; but being so called, he hastened, as one in grave-clothes, to show himself running, he who on the fourth day had putrefied in the tomb, and had many of his innards ravaged by worms, and had every harmony of his body torn asunder, and possessed the stench of the tomb as a witness of his corruption. But the sweet fragrance of life, having been smelled by the dead man, reforged the dissolution of his innards; the tomb became a womb for the one lying there, and as though sown in a belly, not in a tomb, Lazarus leapt forth, newly formed. O new wonder-working! A tomb brought forth for us a man to life, wrapped in burial cloths, like a baby in swaddling clothes.

For the voice of the Lord, being recognized by the dead man, drew him out of the tomb with his swaddling clothes. Lazarus, he says, come forth; and at the word the dead man quickly came forth, and his limbs ran together with one another in the tomb; the eye returned to its proper place, the nose took its proper position, the cheeks hastened to their former shape, the neck was bound together with the shoulders and head, the pair of hands ready for motion, the harmonies of the joints were joined, the order of the fingers was composed, the connections of the sinews were unbound, the nature of the bones was clothed, arteries were stretched out with veins, marrow was formed again, membranes were woven, hairs blossomed. In my telling, I make the course of the limbs slow. As a horse at a signal, so the dead man, spurred by the voice of the Lord, leapt up. Lazarus, come forth. Before saying, Arise, he orders the exit; 62.778 while he is still lying down, he urges him to run. Raise him up first, and then command him who has risen to run.

Why, Lord, do you proclaim an exit to the one lying down before his resurrection? To him who is lying down, he says, I command the run, so that by not busying the dead man with two things, I did not delay the exit. I do not say to him, Arise, and come forth, so that he might run more quickly, having received one deadline for rising and running. Thence Lazarus leapt out of the tomb as if on wings, sitting by the tomb more like a guard than a dead man. And Hades from below, as it seems, giving back the dead man, cried out: Who is this that with his voice raises the dead from their tombs as if they were sleeping? Who is this that annuls the ancient laws of the dead? Who is this that has put forth to the dead such a great proclamation of a return? Who is this that accustoms the buried to run back to life? Who is this that so easily releases my dead? Who is this that tears away my long-dead by a command? The scepter of my tyranny over men, as I see, is gone; the prison of death has become rotten for me at last. Elijah raised a dead man, showing favor to a woman; Elisha, coming after, was made for me a twofold plunderer of the dead; now this one has campaigned against me, a more bitter helper on behalf of the dead, stealing the putrefied dead, and I am in danger henceforth of not even having power over the rotten dead. For I have been despoiled of a dead man whom I had consumed; a four-day-old body triumphs over me, dancing with the living in its burial cloths, perceptible to the senses; I will henceforth be trodden down with swaddling clothes, by a dead man who has escaped from me.

For who will fear me 62.780 henceforth, me, who has been conquered by a putrefied dead man, and have become like a keeper of certain deposits of the dead? For Lazarus was a certain deposit of the tomb, like some gold, with those things with which it was deposited

In Lazarum iii

Εἰς τὸν τετραήμερον Λάζαρον. γʹ.

62.777 Ἔλυσε τὸν Λάζαρον τὸ φῶς· ἀλλ' οὕτω καλούμενος ἔσπευσεν, ὡς ἐσπαργανωμένος ἐπιδείξασθαι δρόμον, ὁ τετάρτην μὲν ἡμέραν κατασαπεὶς ἐν τῷ μνημείῳ, πολλὰ δὲ τῶν σπλάγχνων ὑπὸ σκωλήκων πεπορθημένος, πᾶσαν δὲ τὴν τοῦ σώματος διασπασθεὶς ἁρμονίαν, καὶ τῆς φθορᾶς μάρτυρα τὸ τοῦ τάφου κεκτημένος δυσῶδες. Ἀλλ' ἡ τῆς ζωῆς ὀσφράνασα τὸν νεκρὸν εὐοσμία, τὴν τῶν σπλάγχνων ἀνεχάλκευσε λύσιν· γέγονε μήτρα τοῦ κειμένου τὸ μνῆμα, καὶ καθάπερ ἐν γαστρὶ σπαρεὶς, οὐκ ἐν μνήματι, νεόπλαστος ἐξήλλετο Λάζαρος. Ὢ καινῆς θαυματοποιίας! ἄνθρωπον ἡμῖν εἰς ζωὴν ἐξεφόρησε τάφος, τοῖς ἐνταφίοις, ὥσπερ τὸ βρέφος, ἐνειλημμένον σπαργάνοις.

Ἡ γὰρ τοῦ ∆εσπότου φωνὴ τῷ νεκρῷ γνωρισθεῖσα, μετὰ τῶν σπαργάνων ἐκ τοῦ μνήματος εἷλκεν αὐτόν. Λάζαρε, φησὶ, δεῦρο ἔξω· καὶ τῷ λόγῳ ταχέως ὁ νεκρὸς συνεξήρχετο, καὶ συνέτρεχεν ἀλλήλοις ἐν τῷ τάφῳ τὰ μέλη· πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν ὀφθαλμὸς ἐπανήρχετο τάξιν, τὴν οἰκείαν ἡ ῥὶς κατελάμβανε χώραν, πρὸς τὸ πρότερον παρειαὶ κατηπείγοντο σχῆμα, τράχηλος ὤμοις καὶ κεφαλῇ συνεσφίγγετο, ἡ τῶν χειρῶν πρὸς κίνησιν εὐτρεπὴς συζυγία, ἄρθρων ἁρμονίαι συνήπτοντο, δακτύλων συνετίθετο τάξις, νεύρων ἀνεδεσμοῦντο συνθῆκαι, ὀστέων ἐνεδύετο φύσις, διετείνοντο σὺν φλεψὶν ἀρτηρίαι, μυελὸς ἀνεπλάττετο, ὑμένες ὑφαίνοντο, ἠνθετίζοντο τρίχες. Βραδὺν τῷ λόγῳ τῶν μελῶν κατασκευάζω τὸν δρόμον. Ὥσπερ ἐκ συνθήματος ἵππος, οὕτως ἐκ τῆς τοῦ ∆εσπότου φωνῆς νυσσόμενος ὁ νεκρὸς ἀνεπήδα. Λάζαρε, δεῦρο ἔξω. Πρὶν εἰπεῖν, ἀνάστηθι, προστάττει τὴν ἔξοδον· 62.778 κείμενον ἔτι κατεπείγει πρὸς δρόμον. Ἀνάστησον πρότερον, εἶθ' οὕτως ἀναστάντι τὸ τρέχειν ἐπίταξον.

Τί πρὸ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἔξοδον, ∆έσποτα, τῷ κειμένῳ κηρύττεις; Κειμένῳ, φησὶν, ἐπιτάττω τὸν δρόμον, ἵνα μὴ πρὸς δύο τὸν νεκρὸν ἀσχολήσας, ἐχρονοτρίβησα τὴν ἔξοδον. Οὐ λέγω πρὸς αὐτὸν, ἔγειρε, καὶ δεῦρο ἔξω, ἵν' ὀξύτερον δράμῃ, ἐγέρσεως καὶ δρόμου μίαν λαβὼν προθεσμίαν. Ἐντεῦθεν ὑπόπτερος Λάζαρος ἐξεπήδα τοῦ μνήματος, ὡς φύλαξ μᾶλλον, ἢ νεκρὸς, τῷ τάφῳ παρακαθήμενος. Ἅδης δὲ κάτωθεν, ὡς ἔοικε, τὸν νεκρὸν ἀποδιδοὺς ἀνεβόα· Τίς οὗτος ὁ φωνῇ τοὺς νεκροὺς ἐκ τῶν τάφων, ὡς ὑπνοῦντας ἐγείρων; τίς οὗτος ὁ νόμους τεθνεώτων παλαιοὺς παραλύων; τίς οὗτος ὁ κατεξανίστασθαι τόσον κήρυγμα προθεὶς τοῖς νεκροῖς ἐπανόδου; τίς οὗτος ὁ πρὸς ζωὴν τοὺς ταφέντας ἀνατρέχειν ἐθίζων; τίς οὗτος ὁ τοὺς ἐμοὺς οὕτως εὐκόλως ἀναλύων νεκρούς; τίς οὗτος ὁ νεκρούς μου παλαιοὺς ἀποσπῶν ἐπιτάγματι; Οἴχεταί μοι τῆς κατὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὡς ὁρῶ, τυραννίδος τὸ σκῆπτρον, σαθρόν μοι λοιπὸν τοῦ θανάτου τὸ δεσμωτήριον ἀπῆλθεν. Ἠλίας νεκρὸν ἀνέστησε πρὸς χάριν γυναικὸς ἀποδείξας· ἐπελθὼν Ἑλισσαῖος ἅρπαξ μοι νεκρῶν κατεσκευάσθη διπλοῦς· νῦν πικρότερος οὗτος ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν μοι βοηθὸς ἐπεστράτευσε, κλέπτων τοὺς σεσηπότας νεκροὺς, καὶ κινδυνεύω λοιπὸν μήτε σαπέντων ἐξουσιάζειν νεκρῶν. Σεσύλημαι γὰρ νεκρὸν ὃν ἀνήλωσα· θριαμβεύει με τετραήμερον σῶμα μετὰ τῆς ἐνταφίου τοῖς ζῶσι συγχορεύων αἰσθητός· πατηθήσομαι λοιπὸν μετὰ σπαργάνων, παρ' ἐμοῦ νεκροῦ δραπετεύσαντος.

Τίς γάρ με τοῦ 62.780 λοιποῦ δειλιάσει, τὸν παρὰ σαπέντος νενικημένου νεκροῦ, καὶ ὡς παρακαταθηκῶν τινων φύλακα τῶν νεκρῶν γεγονότα; παρακαταθήκη γάρ τις τοῦ μνήματος Λάζαρος, ὥσπερ τις χρυσὸς, μεθ' ὧν παρετέθη