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“And when Herod saw that he was ridiculed... by the wise men... he became very angry and sent and destroyed all the babies” (cf. Matt. 2:16). But you, unrighteous Herod, haven’t you heard that a star was the messenger of the born King? Why don’t you judge that since it is from heaven, you cannot resist the cause of heaven? Since Herod deprived the mothers of their most beloved children, then revenge fell on his three sons and his wife, and he himself died a terrible death 48 . Herod did not know how he could investigate the matter, for, blinded by envy, he was unable to think. Just as he asked for one prophecy of Micah the prophet, so he could easily find out the prophecy of Isaiah. For the race, and the Mother, and the city, and the time (appearance) of the Messiah were revealed: His race is from the house of David, as Jacob said (Gen. 49:10), and His Mother - that She is a Virgin, as Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 7:14), and His city - Bethlehem, as Micah predicted (Micah 5:2), and the time (of His birth), as the wise men said. In addition, from the census of the land carried out by the Romans, he knew that Jesus was recorded as the son of Joseph by those who included him in the lists. Although he knew all this, however, intoxicated with envy, he was not able to recognize Him. He was like Saul, who, thirsting for the blood of David, who was in his hands, did not know that he (David) was standing behind himself (1 Samuel 24:4-5). Solomon knew how to judge and recognize the child of a harlot (1 Kings 3:16–28). Delilah also knew how to discover Samson’s secret plan and lure him out of his heart (Judges 16:5–17). But Pharaoh, since the kind and time (of the appearance) of the Liberator, who was to be born among the Jews, were not revealed, he began to destroy many babies, so that He, whose destruction seemed necessary to him, would die with many (Ex. 1:15). However, just as Saul could know from many signs that he was not able to overcome the courage of David, so Herod could know that he was not able to withstand the power of the son of David. But hatred not only does not tolerate reasoning and teaching, but, on the contrary, hastens to sin and destruction. This kind of people are the children of Satan, who thought that he could kill Moses, destroy David and put the son of David on the cross. And Cain, his disciple, even thought that he could deceive God when he said: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen.4:9), and Gehazi (2 Kings 5:25), and Iscariot (Matthew 26:14–16, 25, 49, John 13:25–27, etc.) thought that they could deceive: the first - Elisha, and the second - our Lord. In a double sense, the beaten infants became witnesses to the beaten righteous 49 and accusers of the murderers. For just as Christ, who called Himself God, was unanimously expelled and removed from His native city (Luke 4:28-30), just as because of Him ignorant and innocent infants were beaten before they could become His heralds. “A voice... was heard in Rama... Rachel wept for her children” (cf. Matt. 2:18, Jer. 31:15). Bethlehem belonged to the descendants of Judah, the son of Leah; So, why did Rachel cry for her children, “since she was not,” that is, she was not there to die for Christ? Rachel cried because the Redeemer was not born of her children, although Leah is the image of the ancient people, and Rachel is the image of the Church 50. But “the barren woman,” says (the prophet), “gave birth, and she who was abandoned had more children than she who had a husband” (cf. Is. 54:1). Or (Rachel cried) because the tribes of Benjamin and Judah were adjacent. For it is written: “Rachel died (at a distance of) one stage from the entrance to Ephrath, that is, to Bethlehem” (cf. Gen. 35:19); just as Moses in his blessing says about Benjamin: “between his shoulders... He will dwell” (cf. Deut.33:12), - for the ark of the covenant was laid in Jerusalem, which was the heritage of Benjamin. And when Samuel gave a sign to Saul, after he had anointed him king over Israel, he said to him: “Behold, three men will meet you in Zilzach..., at the tomb of Rachel, in the borders of Benjamin” (cf. 1 Samuel 10:2). “Rachel wept for her children” (cf. Matt. 2:18). Weep, Rachel, but not with the first sob with which you cried when the enemies 51 were preparing to attack your children; cry for those (children) who are abandoned in the streets, having been killed not by foreigners, but by the sons of their father, Jacob 52. However, restrain your voice from crying out, since the reward for your tears is, as it were, secured by a receipt in those who will be born along with the son of David - at the very time when He is born, so that at the time of the appearance they will become preachers and joyful messengers of Him. Look how these children of yours receive first place in heavenly Jerusalem, our homeland, which we magnify, which was revealed to Moses on the mountain (Heb. 8:5–9, 11, 24, Gal. 4:26) - it became their inheritance. But wait and be comforted by your son, the chosen one (of God) - Saul, otherwise Paul (Acts 9:15), who will comfort you and will be a reward for your sorrows and your tears. “When you saw that you were mocked... by the wise men” (cf. Matt. 2:16). Oh, blind Israelites, for you do not understand, deaf, for you do not hear, and even to this day you do not heed the voice of Isaiah, saying: “The Lord will give you a sign” (Is. 7:14). If he had given a sign in anyone else, he would certainly have said, but in no one else, and in Him who was born of the Virgin, a sign was given to you, that is, to all of you, this sign was given, so that he alone and especially (solitude) would be convinced, as it were, through a sacrament, just as the same sign was revealed to Gideon and Ezekiel. But what was given to them in particular, was not the same thing sent to you through the Magi, as a clear deed and as a true revelation of the prototypes of your law? So, why do you not recognize the time of redemption and do not believe in the Virgin Birth? Or perhaps, together with your king, you have fallen into recklessness and are waiting for the Magi to return to you in the same way and finally tell you about Him. Isn’t it enough for you that foreigners came and alarmed you, so that you would understand that Christ has appeared in the world? Or perhaps you even approve of the order of your murderous king, the second pharaoh, Ascalonite, from the seed of Canaan 53? Saul, when he heard that the priests had helped David, whom they did not recognize, sent and ordered them to be brought and killed (cf. 1 Samuel 22:18). So, it justly happened to you that this righteous Blood was imputed to you, just as Saul was guilty of the blood of David, 54 and justly the Son of David, freed from your hands, passed over to the pagans. David suffered persecution from Saul just as his Son did from Herod. The priests were killed for the sake of David, and the babies for the sake of our Lord. Among the priests, Abiathar escaped danger, just as John escaped danger among the infants. In the person of Abiathar the priesthood of the house of Elijah was abolished, and in the person of John the prophecy of the descendants of Jacob was abolished. Since Israel, brought out of Egypt and mysteriously called a son, destroyed his sonship by worshiping Baal and burning incense to idols, therefore John, calling him a brood of vipers, gave him the appropriate name. Since they destroyed the name of their adopted children, which by grace was given to them in the days of Moses, they received from John another name, in accordance with their deeds (Matthew 3:7). After the Lord left for the land of Egypt and returned again (to Judea), the evangelist says: “Then the word spoken by the prophet was fulfilled, who said: Out of Egypt I called My Son” (cf. Matt. 2:15, Hos. 11:1). And he says this: “He will be called a Nazirite” (Judg. 13:5, Matt. 2:23), because the Hebrew “nazor” means “sprout,” and the prophet calls Him “Son of Natzor,” for in fact He is the son of the Branch 55. But the evangelist, since He was raised in Nazareth, finding this word similar to that (natsor), said, “He will be called a Nazarene.” Prophecy is with John, but the sacraments of prophecy are with the Lord John, just as the priesthood is with the son of Zechariah, and the power and priesthood is with the Son of Mary. “The Law was given through Moses,” and the sign of the lamb, and many types of Amalek 56: the water made sweet, and the brass serpent; but “the truth of it, that is, the law, came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). The baptism of John is higher than the law, but lower than the baptism of Christ, since no one was baptized in the name (of the Trinity) until the very time of His (Christ’s) ascension. John retired into the desert not in order to become wild there himself, but in order to tame the wildness of the inhabited land in the desert, for in an inhabited and peaceful land passion, like a fierce beast, leads everything into confusion, but after moving into the desert it becomes calm and quiet. The passion of Herod can convince you of this, who, living in a country inhabited and enjoying the world, was inflamed with such a wild passion of unlawful love for his brother’s wife - that he (even) destroyed the meek and temperate John (Matthew 14, etc.), who lived peacefully in the desert and was not even bound by a marriage permitted by law. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), that is, the Word of God, through the flesh it received, dwelt among us. He did not say: “with us,” but: “with us,” in order to show that he took on our flesh for our sake, as He Himself said: “My flesh is food” (John 6:55). “The Jews sent to John and said to him: Who are you? He declared, saying: I am not the Christ. They said to him: Are you not Elijah? He says: No” (cf. John 1:19-21). But the Lord called him Elijah, as Scripture testifies (Matthew 11:12, 14-17), and when he himself was asked (about that), he said: “I am not Elijah.” Scripture did not say that John came in the body in the image of Elijah, but in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). It was not the Elijah who was lifted up who came to them, just as it was not David himself, but Zerubbabel who became Their king. 57 And the Pharisees did not ask John like this: “Are you not come in the spirit of Elijah,” but like this: “Are you not Elijah yourself?” That’s why he says: “No.” Why was Elijah's face needed if Elijah's deeds were found in John? And so that they would reject John on the grounds that Elijah was carried up on a sacred chariot, and his head (John) was presented on a platter by a shameful virgin, for this purpose Elisha came and stood in the middle between John and Elijah. If the liars wanted to accuse John, then Elisha, who was a faithful guarantor for them, would have opposed himself to refute them, since they believed that he had doubly received the spirit of his teacher (2 Kings 2:9). If this had been so, 58 then Elisha would have ascended into heaven twice and on two chariots, perhaps even into the heaven of heaven. From this it is clear that Elisha would have been given the power of Elijah along with his deeds. But not all of Elijah’s deeds were transferred to him, but (only) a similarity of deeds, for otherwise it would be doubtful whether they were useful. However, if Scripture had not said that Elisha received the spirit of Elijah doubly, it would not have been clear that he received a greater gift. They sent to John the same ones who (later) sent to the Lord and asked: “By what authority are you doing this?” (Matthew 21:23, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2). since he (John) did not come to teach his enemies, he did not reveal to them what they asked about. Since those asking did not want to find out who John really was, but with authority they said to him: who are you that you are doing this? - that is why John answered (them) not as disciples, but as enemies, and to everything that and no matter how they asked him, he said: I am not Christ, not Elijah, and not a prophet, but a voice, - and he did not even call himself either John or a man, although (in fact) he was a prophet, and Elijah, and Christ 59. But (he did this because in the opinion of) those who asked him, John, of course, was none of those now named, just as our Lord, being good, said to some: “I am not good” (cf. Matt. 19:16–17, Mark 10:17–18, Luke 18:18–19). Just as a voice announcing light 60 awakens the ear, 61 and just as the brilliance of a lamp causes the activity of the eye, so Scripture promotes the voice. For the lamp and the rooster are one, like Elijah and John. The rooster with its voice awakens us to listen, and it is the image of the voice of our Resurreator, and the lamp with its brilliance presents to us the image of the light of our Enlightener. Therefore, both of them enclosed darkness on both sides 62 and are the images of the Father and the Son, who destroyed wickedness, and the images of the prophets and apostles, for on both sides they helped the Sun 63. But understand also that John, whom He who created his fiery lips called a lamp, is (at the same time) the image of Elijah, who burned the wicked with his tongue and punished them with drought and thirst with the flame of his lips. In addition, the rooster that crows in the silence of the night is an image of John preaching in the silence of the desert. And if a lamp is brought in the evening, then the rooster, which crows only in the morning, cannot be heard at the same time. But in John the evening lamp was combined with the pre-dawn voice in order to testify to the coming of Elijah 65, who mysteriously appeared in the person of John. So, John is the voice, but the Word that is expressed by the voice is the Lord. The voice of them (the Jews) awakened, their voice called and raised them up, and the Word shared their gifts with them. As is the sin, so is the punishment 66. They strayed a little from the faith and punished them a little. “And he will destroy the branches of the forest with iron,” said Isaiah (cf. Is. 10:34). He said branches, not roots. When the measure of their sins was fulfilled, John came and uprooted the tree. “Behold, the ax has gone even to the roots of the tree” (cf. Matt. 3:10), which Isaiah does not mention. And when did this happen, if not at the appearance of the True One in the law 67, whose name is signified by the branch and the flower, over whom the Spirit, called seven-shaped, rested. “Your Father and I walked with... sorrow and sorrow and sought You” (cf. Luke 2:48). To this he replied: “I must be in My Father’s house” (cf. Luke 2:49). They were looking for Him because they were worried that somehow (the Jews) would not kill Him. But the Jews planned to do this together with their prince Herod when He was two years old. “And John was clothed with camel’s hair” (cf. Matt. 3:4), since our holy Sheep had not yet been shorn. “God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones” (Matthew 3:9, Luke 3:8), that is, from those who worship stones and trees. As he says: “I have made you a father of many nations” (cf. Gen. 17:4). John kept his soul pure from all sin, for he had to baptize Him who was without sin. Do not be surprised 68, John, that you are baptizing Me, since I will receive the baptism of oil from a woman. “For the day,” he says, “of My burial... she will preserve this” (cf. John 12:7), in which words He called His death baptism. Eliazar betrothed Rebekah at the well (Gen. 24:13–15), Jacob betrothed Rachel at the well (Gen. 29:1–11), and Moses also betrothed Zipporah at the well (Ex. 2:16, 21). All of them were prototypes of our Lord, who in the baptism of Jordan made the Church His bride. Just as Eliazar, standing at the source, pointed out to Rebekah his master Isaac, who at that time went out into the field to meet her (Gen. 24:63-65), so John pointed out our Savior at the stream of the Jordan River. “Behold, this is the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world” (cf. John 1:29, 36). On this, see Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews (books 16–18); about the death of Herod, see: book. 17. 6. 5. ed Niese, t. 4, p. 100 sq.. Saint Ephrem claims that Christ was born from Leah, that is, under the Old Testament, about which Rachel cried, not knowing that she was promised more. Since, of course, the Jews were the executors of the brutal order of Herod, who himself was an Edomite, and not a Jew. Those. originating from Ascalon. The meaning is this: Saul, who killed the priests, thereby became guilty of the death of David; so the Jews, together with Herod, who beat infants for Christ, became guilty of the death of Christ (Matthew 23:35). Natsor is probably a corruption in the Armenian text from “netzer” - branch, sprout. See Isa.11:1; That is why the Jewish rabbis called the Messiah a “branch.” That is, the types revealed during the war between Israel and the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8). Interpretations of St. Ephraim the Syrian on the book of Exodus (Opp. Syri t. I, p. 219. Russian translation, 3rd ed. Part VI, p. 493). Also, Saint Ephraim interprets all the decrees of Moses in the sense of prototypes of the New Testament. With these words, Saint Ephraim teaches that the prophecy in which the Savior from his seed was promised to David should also apply to Zerubbabel, who led the people of Israel from the captivity of Babylon. Those. reason as the Jews, the opponents of John, reasoned. Saint Ephrem calls John Christ (that is, God's anointed) in the same sense in which the Holy Old Testament writers applied this name to the kings of the Jews (1 Sam. 24:7, 11, 1 Sam. 26:9–10, 16, etc.) and some other executors of the will of God (Is. 45:1). Of course, the rooster crows, signaling the approaching dawn of the day. Literally: “knocks on the doors of the ears.” We are talking about a lamp that disperses the darkness of the evening, and a rooster that heralds the onset of day. Thus, the darkness of the night is, as it were, on both sides (that is, from the evening and from the morning) compressed or confined between the evening lamp and the morning rooster crowing. That is, just as the evening lamp and the crowing of the rooster, dispersing the darkness of the night, thereby assist the sun, so the prophets and apostles, who fought against the darkness of wickedness before and after the coming of Christ, helped the cause of the Sun of righteousness. Those. in the light or in the evening. Elijah is called the evening lamp because he will appear at the end of the world. These words begin the interpretation of Matthew 3:10. Those. the true God declared in the law. These words begin the interpretation of Matthew 3:14. According to the Synodal translation (Russian): John restrained Him and said: I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me? You might be interested in: